NW Summer = Berry Time

For Anita's birthday on Sunday I picked an assortment of berries and made a cobbler. It was so good! We are really lucky to have so many berries available, I picked all these just walking around the yard. 10 different berries were included: blackberries, tayberries, raspberries, marionberries, wild (cascade) blackberries, blueberries, salmonberries, thimbleberries, gooseberries and strawberries. The strawberries, salmonberries & gooseberries are almost over, and the others are just now coming on. This brief seasonal overlap when all of them are available is a magical, tasty time.

Here's another berry treat, this is the Father's day pie I made (back on father's day, naturally). It's my grandma Mary's fresh strawberry pie recipe - which is simply THE BEST berry pie recipe - but instead of strawberries I made it with salmonberries. Wild and yummy!

For anyone who wants to give it a try, here's the recipe:

• 1 baked pie crust, cooled
• aprox 4 cups any kind of berries (enough to fill the pie crust) washed, de-stemmed, strawberries sliced if needed for uniform sizing

For the lining:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

For the Glaze:

• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 c. water
• optional: a few drops of food coloring or berry juice to color the glaze

Blend the cream cheese, sugar, and vanila until smooth. Spread a uniform layer over the bottom and up the sides of the crust. Essentially you are waterproofing the crust, keeping it from getting soggy from the berries. Distribute the berries over the creamcheese layer in the crust. You can get creative aranging them in pretty spirals or rows, or you can just dump them in and shake the pan to level them out. Combine the glaze ingredients (remember - add water to cornstarch, not cornstarch to water) in a saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat. Stir gently and constantly, otherwise it will get wierdly lumpy. Cook the glaze for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool for 5 more until it starts to thicken. Pour over the berries. Chill the pie for 2-3 hours before serving.