It was overcast with sunny breaks in between rain showers on Sunday (this is Alberta after all!) so I decided to take Braden Saskatoon berry picking. These Saskatoons literally have 0 food miles as they’re a just a short walk across our acreage to go pick them. They grow along the fence line that you can see in the middle of the above picture.
The way we discovered we had these awesome Saskatoons on our land was last year when we were taking the dog for a walk. She stopped, went up to these bushes and started eating. Low and behold—Saskatoons! Apparently huskies love Saskatoons. For those of you actually reading, Saskatoons are also called juneberries or serviceberries in other regions.
I wish I could have gotten a detailed picture of how she delicately removes the berries from their branches…but it was just all happening so fast! As it were, on an evening walk last week I had it in my head that I was going to check the bushes on our way back, and apparently the husky had the same thoughts because she beat me to it!
Aren’t they so pretty? Shades of purple and pink. These berries are native to the Canadian prairie provinces and grow wild and are free for the picking! Here is a little more info on Saskatoons if you’ve never heard of them, and I actually just learned doing some reading through that link myself that they have more fibre, calcium, potassium, iron and protein than blueberries! For my friends south of the border, I guess you call these juneberries!
Anywho, let’s learn how to make a Saskatoon berry pie! You will need:
- 4 cups Saskatoon berries
- ¼ cup flour
- 1¼ cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- Pie crust recipe (or frozen pie shells)
I figure it’s only fair to send the husband and children to do berry picking since I’m going to be doing the pie-making…but I actually enjoy berry picking so I “Little Red Henned” and did it all myself with very little interest and help from Braden!
Place berries in medium sauce pan over medium heat until berries lose juice; stir and keep an eye on them, it should take a few minutes. You can do this step in the microwave as well. Next, pour the remaining ingredients into the sauce pan and continue cooking over low heat until thickened. I like to keep it on heat to cook out the flour and corn starch taste too; keep in mind it will thicken up as it cooks in the oven too. Stir frequently.
You can make your pie dough and place in pie plate and then fill it with the yummy, hot berry mixture!
Sure you could do a lattice top and get all fancy on me…but I love this crust so much I cover the entire pie! BUT, before you do—don’t forget to put a dallop of butter or margarine in the middle of the pie. I don’t know why we do this, we just do and 50% of the time I forget to do it anyway! You can pinch the top and bottom together like this or press it down with a fork…whatever you want and be sure to cut some slits on the top so the steam can escape. Feel free to sprinkle some sugar on top while you’re at it.
Bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes and then decrease heat to 375ºF until it looks cooked: light brown around the edges, about a half hour but it varies so much depending on the oven and the size of your pie plate, just keep an eye on it! If the pie is really full, place a pan or tinfoil underneath pie plate to catch the filling that may boil over.
- 4 cups Saskatoon berries
- ¼ cup flour
- 1¼ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- Preheat oven to 450ºF.
- Place berries in medium sauce pan over medium heat until berries lose their juice; stir and keep an eye on them, it should take a few minutes. (You can do this step in the microwave as well.)
- Next, pour the remaining ingredients into the sauce pan and continue cooking over low heat until thickened. I like to keep it over heat to cook out the flour and corn starch taste too; keep in mind it will thicken up as it cooks in the oven as well. Stir frequently.
- You can make your pie dough and place in pie plate and then fill it with the yummy, hot berry mixture! Place a dallop of butter or margarine in center of pie filling, cover with more crust and make sure to cut some slits in top for steam to escape. Pinch the edges of the crust or press them down with a fork, whatever you please.
- Bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes and then decrease heat to 375ºF until it looks cooked: light brown around the edges, about a half hour but it varies so much depending on the oven and the size of your pie plate, just keep an eye on it! If the pie is really full, place a pan or tinfoil underneath pie plate to catch the filling that may boil over.
If you are using a large glass or decorative pie plate, you will need 1.5x this recipe.
I hope you find some Saskatoon berries to try if you’ve never before. Thanks to my mother-in-law for letting me use this recipe, it’s from a farm cook book she got when she got married!
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Yum! This looks delicious. Thanks for the recipe! I picked a whole ice cream pail full of Saskatoons today, so this would be a tasty way to eat them. 🙂
My recent post Motivational Monday #10: Craft, DIY & Home Decor Link Party
I need to get out and pick more! Don't need ANY MORE PIE right now (just made cherry pie from fresh BC cherries and need to make peach praline pie from BC peaches!) but I would love to freeze some pie filling for using later!