This morning at the local farmer's market we were starting to see more and more produce as the local fruits and vegetables start to ripen in the grower's gardens and orchards and upon returning home Carl went and picked a large bowl of fresh blackberries.
Then a couple of hours later DHL delivered a box of the most wonderful bing cherries from our son Don's monthly Gift Fruit business and they came not only in a perfect container, perfectly packaged, they were the biggest and most beautiful bing cherries we have every had... plus both Carl and I agreed that they were the best we had ever eaten.
We were so glad to see them because cherries in the market place last month and they were between $5.98 and $8.98 a pound and I said to Carl, "I guess those are now out of our diets at these prices!"
We had just finished up the wonderful apples which I neglected to read what type they were, but they were firm, crisp, incredibly juicy and again the greatest treat. Nice and large and I know that a box of Georgia peaches are on their way. It's that wonderful time of year and any gardener with berries, groves, orchards or gardens are starting to be rewarded with the fruits of their efforts. No garden? Get out to your local farmer's market and support your local gardeners!
However, in the meantime, our land is loaded with blackberries and I want to share one of my tried and true, extra special, extra easy blackberry pie recipes.
Making pie crust alone is a work of art. My late sister-in-law, Helen Wright, was the master of pie crusts and my oldest friend Berry McAllister still is. Me, I am just a so-so pie crust maker compared to them. With that in mind, I now use the best prepared pie crust I can buy at my local supermarket. I prefer Pillsbury and I use this. I take them out of the package and let both of them set for about 5 or 10 minutes depending on how hot my kitchen is. I open them up, unroll one of them for the bottom pie crust and gently lay it in my favorite pie pan.
I then pre-heat my oven to 400°F.
Next I take 6 cups of freshly picked, gently washed blackberries and put them in a bowl. I then add 1/3 cup of sugar and ¼ cup of arrowroot powder or flour and gentle fold it all together being careful not to bruise the berries.
Now I pour all that into my crust lined pie pan and top with the second crust, folding the top crust under the bottom crust's edges and crimp the edge. I gently slice some air vents into the crust. I gently brush on about 1 tablespoon of milk and sprinkle on about one tablespoon of sugar and place in the oven to bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the blackberry mix is bubbling through the slits.
I then remove the pie from the oven, turn off the oven, set the pie on a cooling rack and let it sit for 20 to 25 minutes before serving. This is a great pie to top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Please note that in our old age I substitute Splenda© in the appropriate ratio for the sugar. It does not affect the taste of the pie and now we old diabetics can still enjoy a Berry Special Blackberry pie!
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love,
Author's note: This article was originally written for GreenThumbArticles.com
