U-pick blueberry farms are great, and I picked a ton of them, but wild huckleberries are amazing. This pie had both. It was really good despite the fuzzy dim pictures.
For real though, if you're in the Northwest, go huckleberry picking. Even if you can find them at the farmer's market they cost about $8 for a pint. We picked about 3 gallons in a day. Take that, farmer's market!
There's a magic place with a grove of unsprayed cherry trees near Portland, and if you're in the know you can pick buckets and buckets of rainier and bing cherries for free. It's even legal! If anyone knows where that happens in Minnesota, let me know and I'll meet you there. Usually I thicken fruit pies with arrowroot, just a few tablespoons for a pretty big pie. This was mostly rainier, because we picked more of those than bing. I know sweet cherries aren't traditional for pie, but I just used less sugar and it turned out great.
Look! I figured out how to turn pictures! Just to show I'm not totally inept. I promise once I run out of old pictures this blog will be less about how great Portland is. Minnesota has berries too, and it will have pies of its own.
Yum! I'm envious of your pie-making skill/interest.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the public fruit-tree question, I know of a little grove of apple trees (3 or 4) on public property in Prospect Park, just north of University Ave and east of Malcolm, where 4th Street dead-ends. Cam and I discovered them while doorknocking last fall. The apples are small and tasty, and people don't seem to know they exist - when we were there, rotten and half-rotten fruit littered the ground. I'm not sure if they're good pie-apples or not (what makes a good pie apple?), but they're free to anyone who comes along. I don't believe the trees are sprayed, because it doesn't look like anyone is maintaining or harvesting them at all.
Thanks for starting the blog - I look forward to seeing more.
Did you make the mushroom thing in the picture at the top? Cause that looks delicious. Mushrooms are one of my new favorite foods (along with turnips and chocolate...I finally like chocolate, after 28 years of hating it. How crazy...) Can't wait to read more blogs!
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