Saskatoon Berry Pie

My Gurl and I went Berry Picking yesterday and came home with good hall about 8 Liters of berry's.

Our first attempt was at a place north of the city and it was an adventure. What we learned by visiting the Prairie fruit growers web site is that we should call ahead before visiting, so we did. The Srawberry patch said that they were open and the cost was $2.50 per L, Cool, we got in the car and we were off.. The drive was about an hour from us... when we arrived at the place the man said 'we're closed'
I said 'we called someone said you were open'
he said 'well go and pick... it is muddy and I doubt that you will get much'
I said,, "we aren't afraid of a little mud" this guy is trying to hoard all the berries for himself!
We drive into the field and ya it is a bit muddy but we made it now where at the bushes.. for the life of us we could not find them .. after an hour of looking for the saskatoon bushes we say to heck with it and leave! Now we get stuck... so stuck the the crabby man has to get out of bed and pull us out with his tractor! at the end I was so covered in mud I looked like swamp thing.

Not to be discouraged we go to choice 2 about an hour on the other side of town. We arrived at a picturesque orchard with a beautiful house in the middle of it. The trees were in perfect straight rows and were bursting with berries... Ah now I know what I want to do when I retire ... become a saskatoon farmer of course,,

We got lots of berries and it yielded 7 pies an 3 batches of cookies,,,

Saskatoon Pie Filling

4C Saskatoons

3tbsp Water

2tbsp Lemon Juice

2/3C Sugar

2tbsp Minit Tapioca

1tsp Margarine

The Application

Cook Saskatoons with water and lemon juice in a saucepan over low heat for about 10 min, stir in sugar and tapioca. Cook until tapioca is clear and berries are tender. Melt in Margerine and stir. Cool and put in a raw pie shell. Bake at 450 for 5 min then turn heat down to 350 for 30 min yield 1 pie.

"Cha chaa chhaa ch cha cha ch cha ch chaa cha chaaaa" - Peculiar Purple Pie Man of Porcupine Peak