SUMMER ABUNDANCE

By Sarah

On Sunday afternoon I experienced the joy of an unexpected orgasm.

(Does that help our rating, Margie?)

I drove into our local farm stand (my BMW M3 convertible dripping gas the entire way, but that's another story) and hit the motherload: tidy green boxes of fresh Vermont blueberries, big red raspberries and, though early, blackberries. Even a few Amish peaches.

This is what I love about summer. Raspberries.

We have several bushes at home, though the cultivated ones, I'm sad to report, have not been adequately maintained by me. Maybe I can't bear to chop them down to nothing every year. (That's not true. I LOVE doing that to the rogosas.) But nature, being nature, doesn't give up. Somehow the raspberries found their way under our porch which means that every July morning I can come out to the deck, lean over and pick a few. Heaven.

As for blueberries, well, that's a bit more controversial. My mother had a bee in her bonnet about how people defined blueberries. Having grown up in New England, her definition was limited to the very small, intensely dark blue wild berries that prefer Maine bogs. We could find them in the Poconos. Low bush, of course, so you really had to work for them. With old coffee cans in hand (before the widespread use of Tupperware), we'd be sent out to battle the mosquitos in our mission to collect "real" blueberries.

My sister in law had them growing in patches where she lived in Southern Vermont. (Also a boggy area.) And I've found some near the reservoir where I pick them surreptitiously, lest other swimmers cotton on. Blueberry pie. Blueberry pancakes. Or wild blueberry sauce made by stirring just a quarter cup of water and a smidgen of cornstarch into a pan of simmering blueberries is divine. Especially over homemade vanilla ice cream.

Ohmygod. I think I'm gonna plotz.

Those big blue cultivated things? Huckleberries. Not nearly as flavorful. But, hey, who cares? They're still good.

As for raspberries and blackberries, I prefer them raw over a little oatmeal. Or topped by real whipped cream sweetened with a little sugar and some almond flavoring. Also, a few shavings of high-quality dark chocolate.

But here's my standby, no-cook, all-berry pie recipe that is a hit wherever I go:

INGREDIENTS

1 9 " prepared graham cracker crust

1 8 oz softened cream cheese

1/2 cup whipping cream

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 pint of fresh berries (any kind) or strawberries sliced in half

1/4 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup raspberry jam, no seeds.

TO PREPARE

Whip cream cheese, cream, sugar, lemon juice and almond extract in bowl until fluffy. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust. Arrange berries artfully on top. Heat raspberry jam in microwave until almost liquid. Brush over berries with pastry brush. Sprinkle almonds on top. Refrigerate for two hours.

My daughter also insists on adding the shaved dark chocolate. How can I disagree?

Okay, what's your favorite berry recipe? A drink maybe? Raspberry chicken. (I have a recipe for that,  too.)

Bon appetit!

Sarah

(SPOILER ALERT: ON FRIDAY WE'LL BE DISCUSSING HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE BOOK, SKIP THE BLOG BECAUSE, YES, WE WILL BE DISHING OVER THE ENDING. IF YOU HAVE FINISHED THE BOOK, PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR FRIDAY.)

Comments

[Nancy Martin]

I am such a berry person! I miss not having bushes now that we live in the city. I make cobblers. (A pie crust is just too much effort.) Slightly squish and boil the berries down a bit with half a cup of sugar, a squirt of lemon juice and a little cornstarch. Pour into the bottom of a baking dish. Spoon bits of the cobbler batter (to follow) on the top, then sprinkle with sugar. Bake 20 minutes at 400. Heaven. Serve with a little vanilla ice cream.

I think I know the Amish pretty well. And I'll bet those peaches were bought at the local supermarket.

Cobbler batter:

3 T. soft butter
half cup of sugar
1 egg
dash of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
5 T. milk
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder

Don't overmix the batter.

[Harley]

Oh, Sarah. You're taking me back to childhood summers spent in Minnesota. Yum.

[Laura (in PA)]

Nancy - is that a pint of berries for the cobbler?

I LOVE Jersey blueberries, which I guess according to Sarah's mother aren't really blueberries, but huckleberries (I always wondered what huckleberries were). They are very large and sweet and I look forward to them every year. A co-worker of mine lives near one of the farms in New Jersey, and last week, for the second year in a row, he brought me a 10-pound box of them. I made two pies (one for us, one for him), kept some for eating and cereal, and froze the rest of them. I'll have them all year for muffins, pancakes, coffee cakes, etc. Heaven in the winter.

I have an orchard nearby with peaches, pears and apples. The peaches are out now, I have to get some. I love peach cobbler and pie. In the fall, homemade applesauce and apple crisp - heavenly.

Sarah and Nancy, I wrote down those recipes. That pie sounds like heaven. I just love the fresh local fruit in the summer! OK, and vegetables too.

Now I'm hungry.

Laura

[Pam aka SisterZip]

My father, brother & Dear Hubby have a cabin (really a shack) that they use to take a weekend away and deer, turkey, rabbit, squirrel hunt...whenever. There are a couple of wild blackberry patches and my dad comes home with boxes & boxes of them. He will freeze some to have during the winter but more often he makes a cobbler. Just throws enough berries into a 6x9 Pyrex dish, couple of teaspoons (tablespoons, I don't know...I don't think he does either), some sugar (same thing) and mixes it up. He takes a frozen pie crust and rolls it thinner than what it is fresh out of the package, then puts it on top. Bakes at 350 until it is bubbly and golden brown. We try to get him to measure, time things, but he could care less. We tell him that we want to be able to make it when he is gone, he doesn't care. Can't argue with a man who is 82, congestive heart failure, double knee replacements, and ministrokes. He's gonna do what he is gonna do!

Can't wait for Friday...

[Maryann]

We have blackberries, cultivated but still sooo good eaten right off the vine. We had to restrain ourselves from popping every other one into our mouths and still had a colander full. They don't need sugar, and now I wish I'd brought some for lunch! We're also getting tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini (not fruit but still summery)...yum.
I don't have a great recipe for berry anything. If we're lucky I make shortcake from the Bisquick recipe, drop whole or halved berries(slightly sugared to bring out some juice) on the bottom half and put real whipped cream on top. :o)
I love Farmers' Markets.We have several...homemade honey (or is that home-hived),Amish baked breads and rolls, Illinois sweet corn, and peaches later on, plus the usual. Cath and Kip go every week to the one on the PSU campus in Portland...everything from free-range chicken to marionberries. And the vendors are local. Geez...now I'm getting really hungry.
Great recipes Sarah and Nancy...duly printed off to try. I'll miss you guys on Friday :o(

[hollygee]

No, no, no, no, no. Huckleberries are smaller than wild blueberries. They resemble bird shot. Unless, as so often happens, this Westerner is talking about another berry than you Easterners.
http://www.imbris.net/~bitterroot/ovatum.html

My favorite is to quickly simmer my blueberries in maple syrup.

[Cinema Dave]

This news might cause your second unexpected orgasm Sarah.

One of my colleagues was walking around Fort Lauderdale with the audio version of "Bubbles Unbound" case. She informed me that she has read all of your books, but is enjoying listening to them again this summer.

[Laura (in PA)]

I found this distinction between blueberries and huckleberries: "blueberries have a large
number of tiny soft seeds, whereas the huckleberries have 10 rather
large, bony seeds"

[William Simon]

Okay, Sarah, that's it.... after reading this, I'm yours....:)

[Margie]

It's Me, Margie.

Good thinking, Sarah - but that lame-o rating thing doesn't update every day. I'll have to keep checking. And they don't include the comments, either, so Rita, baby, you and I are SOL.

OK - fruit. I like white peaches - best in Jersey, and cherries. And that whole thing with the cherry stems? Amateur hour.

But I do NOT like cake and fruit. Fruit is fruit. Cake is cake. Some things do not belong together. That fruit thing Sarah makes with the cream cheese? That's cool. Cobbler is okay too, because it's like pie.

But cake? No. Black forest? Yuck. Rasberries in the Burnt Almond Torte? Blech. Just Sayin'.

[SarahS]

Cinema Dave - You made my day! The woman who reads those books is great. So weird that I've never met her. So weird to hear "my words" come out of someone else's mouth...

William. Thank God - at last!

Margie - You're f*$ked up. You know that?
(Does THAT help our rating? Or do I need to include all the letters.)

BTW - I have to skip out around noon to go get our son from camp. Won't be back until tomorrow so you guys are on your own!

[Nancy Martin]

Laura---I dunno if it's a pint or not. Probably more. I don't really measure, and I sugar to taste. I like *a lot* of fruit in a pie or cobbler. Nearly a quart, I'd guess.

My mother makes pies without corn starch in the filling, by the way. She says it's cheating. Instead, she sprinkles a little tapioca amongst the berries (or the cut up rhubarb or whatever) along with a little sugar, but not much. She is the Queen of Pie Baking. An artist. Nobody can make a crust like she can, so that's why I've switched to cobblers. Much easier and non-competitive.

[Rita Scott]

I developed a dislike for blackberries at an early age. When we'd go to Grandma's farm in the summer, as soon as we got there, all the kids were handed buckets and told to pick blackberries along the fence that ran along the dirt road to the house. But, there was a ditch between the road and the fence, so that's where you had to walk.
Instructions were always the same, watch out for snakes! Don't put your hand in a birdnest, snakes like to hide there etc,etc. Sure made me want to go!
But the worst was the chiggers! I don't know if you have them up north but they are little no-see-um bugs that like to get where your clothing is tight (waistbands, groin area) and burrow into your skin, itch like a motha! There was no bug repellent back then, but Mom tried down home remedies after the fact, clorox, turpentine, clear nail polish (all of which wasn't meant for the groin area!)
I was a magnet for the invisible monsters! So finally I was assigned to stay in the road with empty buckets for the boys.
That worked for me! (of course I'd keep reminding them to watch for snakes! LOL)
There were tons of bushes where hubby and I lived outside of town, but I've become a 'naturalist' and let the birds have them!

[ArkansasCyndi]

YUMMY. Now I'm having intense cravings for blueberry cobbler. Around here (Arkansas), you can find lots of these growing wild. I can remember my grandmother picking these off wild bushes. For me, such nice memories.

[peach]

We have seven blueberry bushes in our garden and 7 different varieties of blueberries. The bushes produce fruit early mid and late season. I've found that the early season bushes are small and incredibly flavorful and sweet. Mid season berry bushes are large plump and not so sweet. Late season berries are slightly smaller.

Here is a recipe I found somewhere on the internet a couple of years ago and adapted. I have made it both with blueberries and fresh peach slices. It is incredibly good. Not too sweet. It allows the flavor of the fruit to shine.
SOUR CREAM FRUIT TART
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
4 c. fresh fruit
2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine baking powder salf and flour. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating until just combined. Pat dough into bottom of a 10 inch springform pan using plastic wrap or wax paper to ease in spreading the dough, Place fruit on top of dough. Suggested fruits: sliced peaches, blueberries, red or black raspberries, blackberries. Mix together with wisk, sour cream, 1/2 cup sugar, egg yolks and vanilla until blended. Pour over fruit and spread evenly. Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool to room temperature. Best served at room temp. but if need be refrigerate. Serve with dollop of whipped cream.

At this moment we are recovering from an overnight commando raid on our early corn patch overnight Saturday to Sunday. We had been anticipating our first corn all week. Sunday was to be our first harvest. This is the first time in 48 years of gardening for my father and now myself that we have been raided by raccoons. The devastation is complete. We have more corn coming on in about 10 days, but now we must figure out to protect it.

Oh, by the way my favorite fruit, peaches!

[SarahS]

Hollygee, I stand corrected! Just looked at some images on the Internet and you're right. What I've been calling wild blueberries are probably wild huckleberries. I dunno. Might be a west vs. east thing. But definitely they look like the kind we pick by the bog.

They are soooo good. And fantatstic for you, I think.

Okay. So my mother was wrong. Again.

Sigh.

[Rita Scott]

Margie - it's up to you when you blog! I could have commented about all the kinky things you could do with berries (but you'd need a plastic dropcloth to keep from staining everything, and people might think you'd been beaten from the purple stains on your skin)
How about a fairy tale blog of HP sexual fantasies with berries or other food groups?
We're counting on you Margie!

[Kerry, the Martial Tart]

I love summer fruits of all varieties, but especially berries. I was discussing diet with my personal trainer, and she blasphemed by telling me I should limit my fruit to one serving a day! I'm afraid I just laughed. I'll grudgingly give up the cakes, pies, cobblers, and other delightful baked goods, but damned if I'm giving up my summer fruit (and corn on the cob, for that matter). It's the only thing that makes the dog days of summer worth enduring!

Plus, as Sarah noted, the berries especially are really healthy, so I get to feel at least a little virtuous amidst the indulgence . . .

[Rita Scott]

Peach- mix a bottle of hotsauce with equal amount of water in a spray bottle or use a sponge brush to apply to the husk and silk of the corn. Coons don't like cayenne!
This will also keep deer from eating daylilies and anything else you spray it on!
You have to reapply after rain.

[SarahS]

Cayenne - put it down to discourage snakes, too....Might just get those blackberries after all....

[Debby]

Ohhhh, does this bring back memories of going to the local farm to go berry picking!!! Strawberries, peaches, apples, you name it and I swear that they probably had it. Aaah, Highland Orchards. We were allowed to snack all we wanted, too!

That is until we moved to 2+ acres in the country, where my mom discovered we had wild red and black raspberries. So she planted strawberries and rhubarb nearby that quickly grew and grew.

Strawberry rhubarb jam and pie and sauces
Raspberry jams and jellies and sauces
Canned straight up
Frozen fresh
Yummy

A new favorite recipe for me, involving rhubarb, is one that my mom made for my birthday the other week...simply called...

Rhubarb Dessert

4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 cup sugar
1 pkg (3 oz) strawberry jello
1 1/2 cups water
1 pkg white or yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter (melted)

Place rhubarb in 13 x 9 x 2 pan. Sprinkle sugar and gelatin over top. Add water and sprinkle cake mix over top. Top with melted butter. Bake 45 min in 350 degree oven.
You can do half recipe by using the small box of cake mix and 3 Tbsp jello and use an 8 in square pan.

[janetlynn13]

Nancy - I think your Mom has it right! My Mom makes THE best apple pie, and I think it's because of the tapioca! Other peoples' apple pie syrup/glue/sauce has a funny texture that I just don't like. It's got to be from growing up with my Mom's tapioca mixture.

[Mary Alice and Mystery Lovers]

I've been eating berries and yogurt every morning...........nothing like a little virtue in the AM. Today's lunch was tomato, fresh mozarella and basil with heavenly extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. Tonight's dinner is a salad with the beets I roasted yesterday in a foil pack with fresh thyme, the fabulous olive oil and much salt and pepper. They top a salad of fresh greens, shredded radicchio, chopped celery, matchstick carrots, sliced red onion and fennel,shredded chicken, sliced pear-----all tossed with a warm garlic vinegrette and topped with Gorgonzola cumbles and toasted walnuts...and the beets.
Yes, yesterday was our Farmer's Market day!

Some Harry Potter Party pix at www.mysterylovers.com

[michele martinez]

Thank you for this blog, Sarah, and thank you for that cobbler recipe Nancy. Just so happens that I bought blueberries and raspberries at the farm stand this morning, and now I know what to do with 'em.

Sad to say, little progress on Deathly Hallows. I'm only on page 183. Will I make it by Friday?

[ramona]

Michele, why in blazes are you out lollygagging at fruit stands? We had to have the World War Z discussion without you. You've got to be there for the DH dissection. It won't be complete without you.

Read, girl, read! That's an order.