SASKATOONS ( Canadian Prairie)

Bethune, Saskatchwan, Prairies, 1920's

"I'll sing you a tune about the Saskatoon. Sweet and purple. Grows wild on the Canadian prairie..."
                             - Tom Wilson (Tim Hus "Talkin' Saskatoon Blues")
Saskatoons are a Superfruit known as Serviceberry,Alderberry,  Juneberry, to name a few of its names. Full of antioxidants. Kind of resemble a blueberry.
                                       
 SASKATOON PIE
     "Derived from the Cree word Mis-ask-quah-toomina. They have very high components of phenolics, flavonols and anthocyanins. Saskatoons are high in natural sugar, rich in Vitamin C, and also contain more than three times as much iron and copper  as raisins.  A staple of Indigenous people and early settlers." (Saskatoon berry Institute) Very interesting reading. At this time of year you can find Saskatoons in  quite a few store, as they are in season right now, and there are growers providing the fruit.The bushes bloom in May, berries all of July.

Grandfather, Mum (Nessie), Stuart, Bill

This recipe was made by my grandmother and my mother. It was a staple of summer. I remember seeing Saskatoon bushes  on the farm when we visited. Down by the old road.We picked in the heat of the day. My mother was so happy. She picked enough to make her brother, Bill, a pie, like in the old days. I think he ate the entire pie, just about. 

My mother told me that some years when  Saskatoons were plentiful her mother would steam  the berries  and mash them into berry bricks that she would dry. Sometimes they wouldn't last the cold months.  So she would can Saskatoons instead, and use the canned berries for pies, or just  to eat from the jar.

Robert Shiels, grandfather, Bethune farm,                                                                                                                      1930's

 I never met my grandmother, but I DID meet her old jars of Saskatoons, cherries, and pickles. In the dismal cold storage of our house in Victoria. Cobweb covered shelves . Stiffly bound jars competing with  spiders. Jars my mother brought from the farm. All very old. All made in the 1940's. And it must have been 1978 at the time.  Real old.

 One day my mother opened a jar of Saskatoons. Just to see. Well, the liquid had turned to a wine-like substance and the berries .......well, they were as if they were preserved in liquor.Pungent. Syrupy. A taste of the prairies long ago. We just had a taste.

My dad, Davey, with my grandmother. cornfield. Bethune,1930's

FOR THE PIE:
 ·        2 flats of pastry

·         5 cups of Saskatoon berries 

·         1/2 cup white sugar

·         3 tablespoons of flour

·         zest of one lemon

·         2 to 3 tablespoons of butter

Bethune, Saskatchewan, 1930

 Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out pastry and place on bottom of pie plate. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar on bottom. 

Combine berries with sugar, flour and lemon zest in bowl. 

Fireplace. Biggar Scotland 1917

 Add small pats of butter on top of the berry mixture in the pie pan. 

 Cover with other  rolled out pastry disc. 

Bill, June 27, 1931

 Rub butter all over your hands ( this is the fun part)

Uncle Bill

 Slather top of pasty with your buttered hands.

Uncle Stuart(left) 1930

 Take a sharp knife and make slits in top of pastry.Sprinkle coarse sugar, or fine sugar over top.

 Bake at 425F for about 16 minutes.

 Lower temp to 350 and bake about an hour more. If edges brown too fast put a sliver or two of tin foil on the pastry. Keep a watch on this.

June 20, 1933 Bennet Buggy

My mother would serve this with cream ( unwhipped) like her mother used to do back in Bethune. It doesn't matter how you serve it. The Saskatoons are unusual and bake so well. Reminds me of those summers we would visit the farm. I can still my mother, Nessie,  eating fresh Saskatoons from the bush, her hands stained with the juice, on a hot summer day.

my mother far right  ground

 Photographs 2019, 1900, 1915, 1930's Bethune, Saskatchewan.