Foraging Day 2 - Serviceberry and Mulberry Pie - Harris

Day 2 – Serviceberry and Mulberry Pie

Despite the unrepentant love I hold in my heart for a good strawberry and blueberry pie from fruit grown here, there are some more unsung heroes of the Toronto berry world that I wanted to get a closer look at: namely, the serviceberry and mulberry. To find the mulberry, the task was done for me. I need only look to my backyard for this gem of a tree fruit. So, with opened garbage bag in hand, I gently shook the branches of my tree, and gathered the delicious little berries into a bucket. A little wash and they’re ready to go!

For the serviceberries (often termed Saskatoon berries), there was a bit more of a challenge. I had to have a look online for suggestions, and only eventually found a trove of these berries just north of Dupont (I won’t reveal my hiding spot, though, sorry!) where I was able to collect serviceberries in abundance.

After collecting the berries, I returned home, washed them, removed any stems and debris, and proceeded to follow this rough recipe for a pie:

Ingredients

3 cups mulberries and serviceberries.

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix berries with sugar and flour. Place mixture into bottom pie crust. Dot with butter and then cover with top pie crust. Crimp edges, cut slits in upper crust, and brush with milk. Let pie rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Bake pie in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Remove pie from oven and let sit on wire rack until cool.

Harris