For many of us who spent the summer in rural areas, we remember with great fondness the joy of picking fresh, wild berries in the woods.
My maternal grandmother, Grama Fritsch, was a German immigrant who insisted upon hunting down those sweet treasures in the heavily wooded fields near our summer cottage in northern Wisconsin.
Dressed in her house dress, with heavy nylon stockings rolled down to her ankles, she traipsed through the brambles, fighting off the mosquitoes, until she had picked close to a full pail for her raspberry jam.
The raspberries were ever sweeter due to the difficulty in picking! Once indoors, she washed and cleaned the fruit immediately, but sometimes there was just not enough fruit for her jam recipe.
THE FARM STAND
When the picking was sparse, we would drive down the country road to Mrs. Watry’s farm stand to find more raspberries. Her constantly changing inventory was determined by what was in season that day, but she always had fresh berries and sweet corn. We picked up another pint of raspberries and a dozen ears of corn. As we headed home we looked forward to tasting the first corn of the season.
The water would be boiling the moment we walked in the house.
An entire stick of butter was delegated just to the corn. As my dad bit into the corn with his overbite, the kernels would pop all over the previously well-set table.
“This is the only way to eat corn, fresh out of the field.”
As a result, I was never really able to eat corn from a grocery store again!
SUMMER PIE
Dad also loved homemade pie. My paternal grandmother, Grama VanDenBerg, would always bring a peach pie when she came to visit. However, my attempts at creating my own pie crust have not been terribly successful, so I bow to the makers of frozen pie crust when I attempt peach pie.
I have recently been enlightened to the ease of creating the dessert called French galette, which is a free-form pie, from my friend and fellow gardener, Renata Reid.
Renata and I were talking about cooking with summer fruit, and she shared the inspiration for Blackberry Galette with me.
“I have just finished picking pails of blackberries which are climbing up our avocado trees in Valley Center. It reminded me of the times I went berry picking in Kirkland, Washington with my mother and grandmother.
“I was so inspired that I found a recipe for Blackberry Galette and went straight to the kitchen to cook one up! The Galette is easier than a traditional pie since the crust is free form.”
BLACKBERRY GALETTE (from Valerie Bertinelli, Food Network)
Ingredients
3 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon orange zest plus 1 tablespoon orange juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 large egg
1 refrigerated pie crust
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
Vanilla ice cream, for serving, optional
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the blackberries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, orange zest and juice, cinnamon, salt and cardamom. Stir to combine, evenly coating the berries in the mixture, then set aside. Add the egg and a splash of water to a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Unroll the pie dough and place on the prepared baking sheet. Pile the berry mixture in the center of the pie dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Bring one edge of the pie dough partially over the filling, pleating the dough in loose folds. Brush the exposed dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with a few teaspoons of the turbinado sugar.
- Transfer the galette to the oven and bake until the crust is golden brown and the juice from the berries is bubbling, 25 to 30 minutes. (The juice may ooze from the edges of the pie crust, this is totally normal.) Let cool for 5 minutes before serving with ice cream, if desired.
MORE SUMMER RECIPES
Send us your favorite summer recipes and we might just feature them in another article! Contact me at [email protected]
Jano Nightingale is a Master Gardener and horticulturist who teaches vegetable gardening at the Carlsbad Senior Center. Contact her for upcoming classes.
