When my parents first moved to Northern California, there was tons of blackberry bushes growing on the hillside right near their neighborhood. We'd pick bushels of them every summer, and I would plan to make jam and pie, etc. but I never made jam and had mixed success with pie.
I think I redeemed myself this summer. I baked a delicious pie. It wasn't the most beautiful looking pie in the world, but it was wonderful tasting, especially considering that we picked the blackberries about an hour before I used them in the pie, and we topped it off with
Humboldt Creamery Vanilla Ice Cream.
The blackberry patches in my parents' neighborhood have pretty much disappeared since the neighborhood has expanded quite a bit in twenty years, but we found a great patch about ten minutes away, along our running path down by the Eel River.
Why am I posting this? I'm finished with my
Pettine shawlette, but I haven't blocked it, and I'm not completely happy with it, anyway. Plus, it's been over 100 degrees for the last couple of days, with no relief in sight. I have no interest in even cooking on the stove top, much less baking anything; and I can barely stand to run three miles at five in the morning because it's already hot. So, I thought I'd have a nice, little memory about a fun week in cool Northern California, and I'll try to remember that they'll have weeks of being stuck inside because of rain this winter, and I'll be out enjoying balmy weather in November.
10 comments:
Mmmm--I 'heart' fresh blackberry pie! That's one thing I miss about living in Oregon-the blackberries. But I don't miss the rainy winters.
Obviously, I was late to the party on the 10 cent download. :(
Yummmmmm!
Thank you for making me not miss home for a change. I really don't miss the Californian weather. And I'd just like to say that most who are stuck inside during a winter have only themselves to blame. Unless you live somewhere where it gets really cold (below 0°F), you just need to dress properly and you can spend all the time outside that you want :0) That's why we knit after all!
Mmmm, looks like a very good pie. We don't have blackberries here. Do they taste like raspberries?
Oh, my, how I love pie!
Sorry its been so warm, it was that way here last week, but we are finally getting temps in the high 80's to low 90's.
I will try to shoo the cooler temps your way,friend!
Taste is all that matters in pie! At least that's what I like to tell myself. I've learned to make a good-tasting pie, but making a good-looking one is much harder!
So sorry about the heat. I hope you get an autumn cooling soon!
Yum -- it looks delicious! Fall is just around the corner -- it's September already!!!
Only one thing to say about that...YUM!
The pie looks wonderful!! You can make jam very quickly in the microwave - you need equal amounts of fruit and sugar (can you buy specialist jam sugar with extra pectin?) Put the fruit in a large glass bowl and zap for a few minutes, then stir in the sugar and zap again until setting point is reached ..... so much easier (and cooler) than doing it on the stovetop!!
Herein lies a response to your post in which I make five obvious statements:
(1) Pie does not have to look good to taste good
(2) Your pie looks yummy
(3) I bet your shawl looks great
(4) You need to show us how it looks
(5) I bet you haven't even blocked it because you're extremely busy with school
Love berries! The pie seems yummy.
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