wild blueberry pie

I've had the luck to find wild blueberries twice this summer, once at the farmer's market a few weeks ago, where Jon grudgingly allowed me to fork over a small fortune for a pint, and last Thursday in my CSA share. Our CSA, the Farm Direct Coop, is amazing. Last year was our first experience with a CSA share, and we were somewhat disappointed. The weekly pick up yielded far too much lettuce and greens, which never looked very fresh/appetizing, and hardly any fruit. The lack of fruit was somewhat excusable, as I didn't really notice that this particular CSA was a vegetable share when we signed up, so I supposed I should have been happily surprised when we got any. The CSA was in it's first year, so I am sure it will get better. However, when when the FDC was able to open up more shares this year, we moved up off the waiting list and signed up. They have separate fruit and vegetable shares, and even offer a local cheese share. Everything has been absolutely top notch thus far, and a few things were really amazing, including the pea tendrils, strawberries, peaches and the wild blueberries. The first pint of blueberries I bought I mixed with normal, highbush variety to make a pie (not being quite extravagant enough to buy several pints). Somehow, the crust I made did not turn well. Recently I decided to switch from an all-butter pastry dough to a part shortening variety. I think I was overtly conscious of the humidity that day, and simply did not add enough water to the dough, and it would not stick together when I rolled it out. Subsequently, the crust was flavorful, but not at all flaky, and the top was sort of pieced together in spots. I decided to give it another go this weekend, and it turned out much better. I do think the pie would be over-the-top if made entirely with the wild berries - too bad I don't have any birthdays in July.

Wild Blueberry Pie

Pastry Crust (doubled-crusted pie)
2 1/2C. all-purpose flour
1/2t. salt
12T. unsalted butter, cold
1/4C. shortening, cold
4-6T. ice water

Place flour and salt in a large food processor; pulse until mixed. Cut butter into ~1/2inch chunks and add to processor. Add shortening in ~4 spoonfuls over flour mixture. Pulse just until pea-sized chunks of butter and shortening are still visible. Sprinkle 4T. ice water over mixture. Pulse until mixture just starts to come together. Squeeze a handful of dough to see if it sticks together; if it still appears crumbly/your hand appears dusty, repeat, adding ice water 1T. at a time. When mixture holds together, pour onto counter top and smear with the palm of your hand until entire mixture is smeared. Scrape into 2 balls of dough, one slightly larger (this will be the bottom crust), and form ~1inch disks. Refrigerate at least 1h, up to 24h.

Filling
30oz. blueberries (I used 12oz. wild berries, and the remainder highbush berries; ~6C. total)
1T. lemon juice (~1/2 lemon)
1C. sugar
2T. all-purpose flour
2T. cornstarch

Place a large jelly roll pan/cookie sheet in oven and preheat to 425 (preheating the cookie sheet will enable the bottom crust to crisp better). Mix berries in a large bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix remaining ingredients in a separate bowl, then toss with berries. Roll out large piece of dough. Place in a 9inch pie dish, then place in fridge while rolling out the top crust. Roll out top crust, and cut decorative holes if desired. Remove bottom crust from fridge, then add berries. Place crust on top, and crimp edges. If you want a glossy, browned crust, whisk an egg with 1T. water, and brush lightly over top. Bake for 45-60 minutes, or until berries are bubbling in center of pie. Check periodically to make sure crust is not browning too much, and cover with foil if necessary. Cool at least 1h on rack before serving (this will help set the filling).

pick-your own fruit

I spend half the summer trying to figure out when and where to pick fruit that I can stock-pile in the basement freezer for the winter, to make jams, and to generally eat copious amounts of fruit without feeling guilty over the amount of money I've just consumed in a very short timespan. I am fully aware that between the 2 of us, no matter how much fruit we purchase, we seem to eat all of it within 2-3 days of purchase (this is a generous estimate). This doesn't so much apply to apples and oranges in the winter, but all forms of berries and stone fruit during the short growing season. In Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire there are many, many fruit and vegetable farms. This is a wonderful thing. However, I have several qualifications for a topnotch, visit-every-year (or multiple times per year) farm. It seems simple, but I want to pick great fruit at reasonable prices at a farm that is focused on growing produce, not on 'agritainment'. A nice produce stand is a plus, but not necessary. Many places I have found are more of a novelty, where people drop by on there way home from the beach to pick a pint of raspberries. Many of these places also are more focused on entertaining families, with petting zoos, ice cream stands and hayrides. I can understand the rationale; these farms are trying to make money, and set themselves apart from the other farms. However, I want to pick lots of fruit, and therefore don't want to pay grocery store (or more) prices, since I am picking it myself. I know I am getting better fruit, but there should be some discount for labor. I love to see families picking fruit together; it's a great learning experience as well as a productive activity. But, if the fruit picking part is more of a sideshow to the ice cream stand, I would rather not deal with these people. Anyhow, as I visit more of these places, these are my favorites:

Verrill Farm, Concord MA
We went strawberry picking here; the strawberries were amazing and well priced. And this was in a year where we had a solid month of rain and no sun. I would imagine other years are even better. The farm stand also had great vegetables; we purchased chiogga beets, bunches of radishes and some great greens. Concord is a beautiful area, and a nice place to have lunch/shop on your way home. Also near De Cordova Sculpture Park and Museum.
Brooksby Farm, Peabody MA
We picked apples and strawberries here. Great location, well-priced fruit.

TBD
Smolak Farms, North Andover MA
This farm lists daily picking conditions on their website. We are planning to pick peaches here in a few weeks. The are planning to have sour cherries in 2010! This would be a miracle.

Farm stands:
Green Meadow Farms, South Hamilton MA
Everything at this farmstand is wonderful. They have a CSA, and carry loads of veggies.

porch tomatoes

Tomato blight? Not my tomatoes. My six heirloom plants, purchased as seedlings from the Seed Savers Exchange, are doing amazingly well. It seems that the combination of big pots, miracle grow soil, watering daily, and the porch roof locating works. I did have a minor catastrophe when I had to retroactively put the cages on (note to self: next year do this early, when the plants are small). Several of the vines split, and I had to mend them with tape. It sounds ridiculous, but they really do heal themselves and all of my taped vines survived. It does make me wonder how it is that a plant can produce a fruit that it can't seem to bear the weight of without human intervention....... Some plants seem to be more prolific producers than others, but I am keeping a tab on the tomato yield per plant:

Amish Paste: 6
Brandywine Sudduth: 1
Trophy : 5
Green Zebra: 5
Hungarian Heart: 3
Unknown (lost label): 2

As of now, there are 50+ green tomatoes out there, and ~10 turning pink or orange. I love climbing out onto the roof and monitoring the tomatoes every day. Jon makes fun of me, but I really love those tomatoes.

raspberry curd

We tried to go cherry picking several weeks ago. Well, technically we did go picking, but we did not come home with any cherries. I have determined that cherry orchards don't exist in New England. The thing is, we searched high and low, and found a website that indicated they had sour cherries. We called, and they said the sour cherries were available for picking. They seemed somewhat pricey, but food prices have gone up, and the orchard was a little further than we would have like to drive, but we love cherries, so we went. There were no sour cherries. They had bing cherries, which looked more like dried cherries, all cracked and shriveled on the trees, and the woman indicated a row in which there were 'red cherries' (i.e. not as ripe) that were similar to sour cherries. Let me tell you, these were not cherries worth eating, much less worth picking. But, we had driven all that way, so we had to return home with something. The raspberries were delicious (but pricey). I made both a raspberry tart, and raspberry curd. I don't know why, but it never occurred to me that you could make curd with something other than citrus. We mostly at the curd mixed with yogurt, but it would be excellent drizzled over pound cake, mixed into oatmeal, or even in a smoothie if you wanted a dash of sweetness.

Raspberry curd (adapted from Thane Price)
2 1/4 lb raspberries
1lb sugar
4T butter
4 large eggs

Place berries and 2T water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, 5 minutes, or until fruit is very soft. Press mixtures through a fine mesh sieve into the top half of a metal bowl, or double boiler. Add sugar, butter and eggs. Place over a bowl of gently simmering water, and gently whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has melted. Continue to simmer, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. If mixtures isn't as thick as you would like, you can return to the stove and cook for longer. It will thicken as it cools.

Ladeled into hot, sterilized jars this will keep for 3 months in the fridge.