Service berry season & pie recipe

The service berries are ready!  Service berries (aka. June berries, or Saskatoon berries) are small trees or large shrubs, with delicious edible sweet berries that almost have a taste similar to wild blueberries.  It's looking like an amazing year for these berries so far, as all the trees that line boulevards in our neighbourhood are loaded with berries.  We have been so pleased for discover the service berry over the past years, as we wild forage around the city.  It seems to be a common tree to be planted by the city as part of their landscaping design, and we counted 30 service berry trees lining the sidewalk of one street not far from our house.  These trees eventually get too big to fully harvest without using ladders, and the birds do love the berries too (so they take the higher ones which works out just fine).  However, on our daily walks around town (now always with extra bags and containers along, just in case we need to harvest something) my daughter and I have been able to gather small handfuls from various trees we pass - enough to make a batch of mini pies, a few dozen muffins, and put away some berries in the freezer for winter.

Service Berry Pie with Butter Crust

Best Butter Crust
1 1/2 cups spelt or kamut flour (or wheat, or combination)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup chilled organic butter (or coconut oil)
3-4 Tbsp ice water

Mix flour, salt and butter with hands to form small pea-sized bits.
Add water one Tbsp at a time, mixing just until dough comes together.  Do not overmix.
Chill for at least 30 min, then roll out dough using extra flour on table top.
Makes 1 large pie.

Service Berry Filling
4-6 cups service berries (or mix of berries)
2 Tbsp arrowroot
a few Tbsp water
cinnamon
maple syrup

Mix filling, add to unbaked pie shell.  Bake at 350F oven for about 30 min.

Let's make pie!

Who doesn't love pie?  Sweet, savory, vegan, gluten-free, or just old fashioned with real butter...there is a way to make pie work for almost any palate.  We held our first pie making workshop here this morning.  What a delicious way to start the day!  We used a vegan recipe with organic coconut oil, organic spelt flour, sea salt and water - which makes for a healthful flaky pie crust that rolls out easily and tastes great for either a sweet or savoury pie.  The two hour workshop also covered tips about pie making tools (e.g. pastry rollers and pie weights), differences to watch for based on what type of pie pan you are using (e.g. glass, ceramic, tin or aluminum), ways to creatively top and edge a pie crust, and what each ingredient does in the recipe.  For example, the fat creates a flaky pastry but this only happens if it is chilled before rolling and baking.  The water activates the gluten, but too much water can create a tough dough that is not flaky...etc.  We tried to cover all the best tips for creating perfect pie, and in the end there was a table filled with beautiful pies made from scratch and satisfied participant who went home feeling confident to keep on making pies.

Wild apple bounty

The past few days have seen baskets and bins of apples piling up on our counters.  The wild apple harvest is on, and this year is proving to be an bountiful one.  We've taken to carrying extra bags with us everywhere we go, just in case we need to do some spontaneous foraging.  We, as a family, have gathered fruit from at least 10 different types of apple trees in various locations around town, all which are walkable or bikeable from our place.  There is such abundance hidden in the city, and I love sharing this experience with our daughter.  We often meet others who are also wild foraging, including a group yesterday who was picking wild apples for their annual cider-making event. 

I just love the different colours, textures and tastes - the red and white striped markings on the apples held in the hand below is especially pretty.  Our own big old apple tree is in it's fullest year yet.  Most of these apples we use for sauce, since they do have blemishes and are not long-keeping varieties - and occasionally there is a pie.  Mmmmmm, pie.   That makes today an exceptional day.

Local pear & pumpkin pie production

Full blown baking day today! 8 hours later...there were 14 pies (pumpkin and dutch pear) for our freezer, and 8 loaves of wholegrain sourdough for the neighbourhood bread delivery...whew!

Needless to say, our 100-mile dessert today was fresh pie!