For those of you who don’t know what saskatoons are, they are kind of like blueberries, but not so sweet. They are native to the Canadian prairies. Here we can only buy them at Farmer’s Markets, or pick your own at U-Picks or in the wild.
People protect their own private picking patch with great secrecy. You know you’re one of the family when you are invited to pick saskatoons with them in their private patch!
Here is the Saskatoon Pie recipe that works best for me…
Saskatoon Pie
pastry for a double crust pie
4 – 5 c. saskatoons
¾ c. sugar
3 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. butter
¼ c. water
Cook water and saskatoons in saucepan on stove for 10 minutes. Add lemon juice and stir. Stir flour and sugar together. Add to saskatoons. Stir well. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Dot with butter. Cover with pastry, poking holes to let steam escape. Bake in oven at 400 F for 15 minutes, and then 350 F for 30 minutes, or till golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.
We are spoiled as we live across from a wildlife corridor full of Saskatoon bushes. Our source is 50 ft from our door. You reminded me I have a huge bag of them in my freezer. Time for Saskatoon pancakes!
Ooooh! Saskatoon pancakes sound good too! 🙂
We were going to try smoothies in the summer but the kids ate all the berries before we got around to it.
lol! It’s a temptation, that’s for sure! Ours usually end up in pies, pancakes, or a sauce for ice-cream/pancakes. I wonder how they’d work in a cake with caramel sauce? Blueberries taste great that way. Hmm…might be time to do some experimenting. Wonder if I have enough left in the freezer.
oh, yummm!! I have lots of saskatoons in the freezer and dried. I’ll try your recipe for sure. We have some good patches within a 5 minute walk of our place, and the city has planted bushes all over town along pathways and in riparian zones by creeks. It never fails to amaze me that most people don’t bother with them as they are fairly big and definitely juicy, sweet, and have small seeds 🙂 I like them mixed with other fruit/berries (like cherries, rhubard, or even cranberries) in fruit cobblers. I guess our Okanagan folks are so used to having easy access to Okanagan orchard fruits and Fraser Valley berries that they ignore the wonderful free wild berries, crab-apples, and “wild-growing” tree fruits that grow around here. Although I notice that entrepreneurial sorts of people are starting to pick them and sell them for exhorbitant prices at the summer farmers markets, lol! A neighbor introduced me this past summer to his favorite secret walnut and crab-apple trees in wild green zones 5 to 10 minutes walk from here. Nice!
Ohh! They grow in the Okanagan too? Wow! These little suckers are further spread than I thought! Yes, they are expensive. Here a gallon is $25-30 CAD.