The Saskatoon berry is an Ark of Taste food with Slow Food International
…as urbanization has endangered this wild native prairie berry.
A warm fragrant slice of flavourful Saskatoon berry pie with creamy homemade vanilla ice cream is a prairie ritual. Though one that is rare, and revered due to a variety of factors, but mainly the difficulty of locating wild berries to forage fruit from and the lost art of pie making. Just look at that incredible lush piece of love and history on a plate! Oooo! The flavour of these berries is like no other. Never pass up an opportunity to taste a Saskatoon berry!
As the nodding onion is protected by Slow Food International’s Ark of Taste, so is the wild Saskatoon berry. I do grow my own, but I was delighted when at a meeting at Fort Edmonton Park a few weeks ago, to come across an entire hedge of these wild bushes exactly like we used to find as children in the countryside with our parents. I couldn’t resist. I had harvested quite a few from my own garden, but this was an intrinsically special opportunity that was so compelling I pulled over, found a Holt’s Shopping bag in the trunk, and started picking. I could not stop until every berry on every bush was gone. Seriously. Wasting a wild Saskatoon would be unthinkable!
“[These] berries are under serious threat in Western Canada due to loss of habitat caused by housing and industrial development. As the plants are lost, so is the historical knowledge and practice of gathering the berries carried out for generations by First Nations people. Protecting the wild Saskatoon berry is important not only for the continued existence of the plant itself but also, perhaps more importantly, for the continued existence of the historical knowledge and practices associated with the gathering of this wild food.” Slow Food International
The name itself is derived from the Cree word “Mis-sask-quah-too-mina”, sounding very similar to “Saskatoon”. The city of Saskatoon was actually named after the berry. The berries were a staple for both Aboriginal people and early settlers. They were enjoyed fresh, or steamed and mashed and then left to dry into a brick-like consistency to enjoy over the long winter. Pieces of these berry-bricks were then chipped off as needed and added to soups, stews, mixed with fat or simply boiled to reconstitute them. An excellent read about the history and the health benefits of the berry is here.
The bushes blossom in May and some berries are ready to pick by the end of June and most near the end of July. By the end of the first week of August, most of these berries are finished. Native birds love them and growers do have difficulty keeping the birds away.
My mother would not teach me how to make pies as a young girl. She didn’t want to “waste” any precious ingredients. 🙂 But, I convinced her to teach me later in life, and have practiced and learned how to make a pie just as good as hers, and her mothers…. a darn good traditional prairie pie and an important family legacy. I actually have a slide show to the right of her teaching me how to make her pastry and there is a link to more detailed instructions on the recipe below.
Saskatoon berries are a Superfruit which is a fruit that contains high sources of antioxidants. Antioxidant rich fruits have anti-cancer, anti-aging, and anti-heart problem effects on human body. The benefits of antioxidant have contributed against cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and act as a protective guard to our immune systems. The aboriginal people used the roots, stems and berries for medicinal purposes, too.
Saskatoon Berry Historical Facts
(from www.prairieberries.com)
- Klamath Indian legends relate that the first people were created from Saskatoon bushes
- Okanagan Indians distinguished eight different kinds of Saskatoons, varying in their suitability for eating fresh or drying.
- Pemmican was a mixture of dried lean meat (bison, moose or deer) which was ground, mixed with melted fat, Saskatoons and molded into cakes
- Young shredded shoots mashed dried fruit, and dry leaves were used to make a tea
- The Thompson and Interior Salish tribes used the fruit to make a dye
I make large batches of pastry, and freeze them, so I took out two discs, each portioned to be enough for one generous crust.
I find frozen berries make a gorgeous pie. Honestly, unless I do a side by side tasting with a fresh berry pie and a frozen berry pie, I believe there is no difference. I freeze my berries on a parchment layered cookie sheet, single layer, overnight and then store them in labelled zip-lock bags ready for pies and jams! I added 1/2 cup of sugar and a couple of tablespoons of flour to the bowl with the berries and then zested one lemon to brighten the flavour.
Daubs of butter are a must to created a lustrous flavourful sauce.
Cover, crimp, and it is just that easy!
I did brush the top with egg and sprinkle with Demerara sugar for a crunchy top crust. YUM! And then cut some air vents.
Ooooh, baby! I was really happy with this beauty! What was the occasion? A gal from Bologna, Italy had written to info@Slowfoodedmonton.com and asked to meet with one of us while she was in town in August. I met with her, and invited her to a potluck dinner at my house to introduce her to a little prairie hospitality! Several foodie friends accepted the invitation and we cooked up a taste of the Alberta prairies for her.
I made this pie, the apple pie, and a rhubarb tart, too! The tart and the potluck dinner for Martina will be posted soon! It was an incredible evening, and another serendipitous happening in my life as Vanja and I are going to Italy this fall. Bologna was on our agenda, and she has insisted we stay with her. I am still working on Vanja to accept her generous invitation. How lovely!
Canadian Prairie Saskatoon Berry Pie Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 discs of frozen homemade pie pastry
- 5 cups of Saskatoon berries (I used frozen wild ones I foraged)
- 1/2 cup white sugar, plus 1 tbsp
- 3 tablespoons of flour
- zest of one lemon
- 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter
- one egg
- Demerara sugar for crust
Instructions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 425°F
- Roll out the bottom pastry and place in pie plate
- Sprinkle bottom pastry with a tablespoon of sugar (I do this for a crunchier bottom crust)
- Place berries, sugar, flour and lemon zest in a bowl; toss gently to combine and fill the pie plate with the berries
- Daub with butter
- Roll our the top crust, cover, crimp and brush with egg; sprinkle sugar on top, and vent
- Bake for 15 minutes at 425°F, then for one hour at 350°F
- Cool on wire rack
Note: If the crust is browning too quickly in your oven (an you must keep your eye on this) lay a piece of foil gently over the top of the pie when desired browness is achieved, and continue baking
That’s quite an amazing berry. Your pie looks absolutely perfect!
Everytime I read your posts I want Saskatoon berries!
Beautiful and decorative cakes.
I have a friend who has bushes all over her complex but we missed the harvest this year.
Thanks for sharing all that information about Saskatoons, I honestly didn’t know anything about them. I grew up in the Okanagan, and I had never heard of them until I moved here. I made a Saskatoon pie last weekend and it was delicious 🙂
Courtenay!
Good for you! Where did you get your berries?
🙂
Valerie
I live in the okanagan and there are saskatoons all over! My fiancée proposed under a Saskatoon berry bush on Knox mountain, so I am making this pie for our wedding from those berries.
Danielle~
How truly sweeeeet! I cannot wait to hear how it turned out. It is definitely a family favourite here… and our season is so odd this summer. They are usually ready to pick at the end of July, and they are bursting off the branches right now.
🙂
Valerie
My own little saskatoon bush bloomed prolifically, and despite all the competition from squirrels, raccoons and various bird species, I have an overflowing pint/half-litre of them, earmarked for tarts the first day it’s not so deathly hot here that turning on the oven is out of the question.
As for growing/bearing “seasons,” I remember hs graduation dances in the gym, decorated with screens of crepe paper streamers and hanging arrangements of saskatoon blossoms and/or false solomon’s seal (http://www.solomonsseal.net/picturegallery.html), the latter being the sweetest smelling woodland plant I’ve ever encountered.
Beautiful I am so glad you could find a plant for your garden. I feel like that with wild strawberries so used to them in Poland but so hard to find in US. Glad your fate was different.
Living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan… we love a good Saskatoon Pie recipe. I live in Stonebridge, a new sub-division in Saskatoon and the city planners were nice enough to plant Saskatoon bushes amongst the greenery around some of our parks. I just got in from picking a few and did a quick google to find a recipe for pie! Thanks, yours looks yummy and I can hardly wait to gobble them up. It is so hard to get the berries into the bowl, they are so good fresh off the tree.
Coria
How lovely to find your message just now. Incredibly smart of the city to plant edible berries – particularly the mighty Saskatoon around the city. This is our family’s all time favourite pie… it ties with the Apple… but Apples are more plentiful, so the specialness of these berries is not lost on any of us. This is a great, and simple recipe. Hope you enjoy!
🙂
Valerie
I have tons of berries … both wild plants and domestic plants. Not disappearing at all!!
Not to mention the wild raspberries … but the crows & magpies ate all my strawberries!
So, now what do I make for breakfast. I have a Saskatoon pie in the freezer and am tired of berry buckles. What next?
Kari
What is a berry buckle? This is a serious question! Where are you from? Love to have your berry buckle recipe.
🙂
V
I believe americans call saskatoons service berries.
HI, Sarah,
Service berries can be a variety of berries. One is a Saskatoon berry, but there are many other varieties of Service Berries.
🙂
V
Congratlations, Valerie! You are the very first person I have seen, other than my sisters, who knows how to properly crimp a pie to keep the juices in!
My mother would be delighted!
Really? Where does your mother hail from… mine comes from Central Alberta… and before that, well – let’s hear where yours comes from.
🙂
V
Not so far from you: Peace River Country. She always froze pies ready for the oven, or already baked … and my little saskatoon bush out front might yield this year enough for a pie, a small one, but not all at once. So I was looking for info on freezing them. After your site, I came across another one, again with the properly crimped crust: her grandmother was Ukrainian, as was mine.
Interesting! My mom – and her fraternal side – came from Prussia in 1729 to Plymouth Rock… the maternal side was in the US before that. My mother’s maternal side was in Alberta for a couple hundred years – so not sure where they hailed from. But, there you go. That central Alberta pie crimping way. Every gal in our neighbourhood crimped this way when I was a child… and almost everyone who made pies for the church bake sales… but I haven’t seen crimping like this in my adult life, though I do it all of the time! Happy to hear there are others!
🙂
Valerie
I’m going to try out your pie recipe – down here in Northern Illinois. Many years ago, we were converting a small cattle pasture into a wooded wildlife area, and among the trees and shrubs we planted here were two types of serviceberry ( A. Canadensis and A. Alnifolia ). I was left with about 50 A. Canadensis seedlings that I couldn’t plant that years due to time constraints, so I planted them in one corner of our vegetable garden, temporarily, of course. Needless to say, they are still there. Now that I have more time on my hands, I can be around during the last weeks of June, when they start ripening here. This year, I picked about 5 gallons (US) of nice, ripe Juneberries, as we call them, over a two week period. We processed them immediately into pie filling in 5 cup parcels and froze the filling in overstuffed quart bags. Now it’s time to enjoy some good, sweet, Illinois grown Juneberry pie.
Wonderful! I need to do a little research as I thought Juneberries were a similar, but different berry. I know that Service Berries and Saskatoon Berries are the same. I love your story. That is a truckload of pie filling. We simple clean them well, place them single layer on a parchment covered cookie sheet and fast freeze them, then pack them in zip lock bags. These frozen berries make pie as delicious as the fresh berries. Seriously. No need to make pie filling at all. And they can be used for jam, too, any time.
Thanks so much for taking the time to telly your story. I can picture your little berry forest now, in the “corner” of your garden.
🙂
Valerie
I do believe that Juneberry, Serviceberry, Saskatoon, Shadberry, etc., are all names for the fruit of the Amelanchier genus – there are many types of Amelanchier. Apparently, some are more suitable for use than others, but the A. Canadensis is considered one of the best. If you look up Euell Gibbon’s Stalking the Wild Asparagus, it is mentioned in there, as well as a host of other foraging and natural food guides. Thanks again for your wonderful recipe – I always remind my family when we have Juneberry pie or pancakes that we are very likely the only people in all of Illinois eating it right now.
Great information – thank you so much!
🙂
V
Visiting from Guatemala and just took my granddaughters to the Saskatoon farm, between Okotoks and Calgary
Retuned with 5 frozen pounds and finished a pie with my 5 year old
Wishing I could smuggle some home with me!!
Delicious recipe. Thanks
Fantastic Sharan!
I would love to visit Guatemala one day – what is the “special berry” there?
Thrilled to hear from you that this recipe was a success with your family!
🙂
Valerie
HI everyone. i am a born and raised praire girl. we picked every season .and now i live in kelowna bc. i have a little acerage and the saskatoon bushes everywhere. i froze all of them. looked up a recipe for them and this is where i ended up. 🙂 now im going to make two pies .this recipe of course …
Sharry
Wonderful to hear from another soul sister! You must let me know how your pie turns out!
🙂
Valerie
About ?3? seasons ago, I got a dormant stick of a saskatoon plant at the year-end clearance sale of my local garden centre a few years back. I worried it might not have enough sun, but remembered the sidehill at home covered in them and gave it a sandy base (rather than clay-ey: those are my yard’s options!), provided some amendment for the developing roots and good drainage … and this year that little bush will be ready to split into 3 or 4!
So anyone contemplating starting a little patch, *go* for it!!!
People here in Toronto plant them as decorative shrubs, having no idea they’re not only edible but totally delicious. And I’ll bet they’re loaded with all kinds of vitamins and desirable phyto-nutrients as well.
Love this recipe. I used my grandma’s pie crust, ok well tenderflake,lol. Made this for Easter as a change from our normal apple and lemon meringue. Made another one four days later as three people polished of the big pie. I also made hand pies. My family from ontario can’t wait to come in this summer to try it. You have to try heating it up and putting vanilla ice cream on it! Or a lemon whip cream. This is now the pie I love until I can perfect my grandmas apple pie, been trying for five years but it just doesn’t taste the same yet. I wonder what rhubarb would taste like with added to this.
Thank you so much for chiming in, Amana! It thrills me when I hear that a favourite family recipe has found a place in another home.
Hugs!
Valerie
I have a service berry tree in my garden. Usually the birds get the berries but this year I heard some crows and went up close and saw that the tree was completely laden. No excuse this time I had to pick them but I didn’t know how liquid etc they would be when cooking so here I am on your website.
This pie is for my daughter’s father in law who is 92, in good health has a wicked sweet tooth and is from Saskatewan. He is an absolutely lovely man as is his wife and I know he will be off in search of plates and a forks as soon as I walk in.
Thanks for the recipe.
Jane!
What a lovely labour of love! How did the cake turn out? What did he say? I want to hear everything!
🙂
Valerie
The pie was a big hit. My daughter went to the cottage of her sister-in-law the next morning and word of the pie had already travelled across the province!
Thrilled to hear this, Jane! Where’s the photo?
🙂
Valerie
PS I crimp pies. So does my daughter and we are from Ontario. My Mom and Nana did also.
Very cool.
It used to be such a common site at church dinners and luncheons and bake sales in the “olden days”, but I have not come across anyone who does it this way for years and years.
🙂
Valerie
You should come to our annual pie bake at my Presbyterian church. We do pies every fall for our annual bazaar and people line up for them. Everyone seals up the juices.
OK, Jane
Refresh me. You live in Ontario right? I would love to come, but that’s a bit more than a bit far for me. I am salivating already, though!
XOXO
Valerie
This year there actually *will* be enough berries on my bush for something-baked!! Turns out saskatoons also do well in a fairly polluted environment.
Probably a pan of tarts, so they can be spread over a few tea occasions. But I do intend to crimp the crusts, even if I leave the tops open!
BTW, my daughter looked online for the “two-pinch” crimping/fluting technique, and eventually came to momma for the info. Turns out Martha Stewart refers to a similar technique she callings “fluting” (what we used to do with maid-of-honor tarts) and the old American Woman’s Cookbook (1950) refers to “ruffling” but uses a technique like Martha’s fluting … (I chose that cookbook from my mother’s collection because as a child I used to lust after the fairy-tale-like display of petits fours in the cover-pieces) … I left her 1930s/40s 5-Roses for one of my sisters, but got one of similar vintage for my own: it refers to the “pinching” technique, but doesn’t illustrate it.
SO … maybe, if in fact (as it looks to me) you use the two-hand, two-pinch method, in the interests of, you know, the Greater Canadian Cultural Good, maybe noe ay when you photo a pie preparation, you might also illustrate your technique?
(Pretty please? For posterity?)
Looks like a great recipe I will try. Can you please explain your method of how you properly crimp your pie edge. Thx.
Irene, I will have to do a photo essay for that. I can explain it, but photos are what I need and I will do that when I make my next pie. I left the bottom crust overlay the pie pan. I fill it, place on the top crust and let it overlay the pie pan. Then, I try to get the edge to an even thickness all round by either cutting off the excess around the edge, or folding it back up onto the rim. The point it, you need a nice thick layer around the rim to work with, then I cut off the rest. Sometimes, I will add a strip I cut off to a “skinny part” around the rim. At this point, I use both hand “pinchers”: pointing finger with middle finger and thumb. I pinch the pastry on the rim of the pan with both hands, from both sides, vertically, to get a ridge in the middle. I then continue around the rim, sometimes going around a second time, to get the flutes even. See, I need a picture. Hope this helps, though.
🙂
Valerie
Hanh! That’s the *right* way (as opopsed to the way Martha Stewart does it!) …
Do you tip the right-hand pinchers slightly forward (toward the centre of the pie) and the left-hand one slightly back toward yourself, (toward the outside of the pie)?
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do!!! Thanks for that clarity! Great addition to the written description!
Hugs,
valerie
Valerie
Thanks so much.
Went berry picking with my son and wife.
We found lots in the river hills near Langham SK.
Now to make some pies for thus weekend at the cabin. Your ingredients and method are clear and I hope mine look like yours.
Thanks again.
Kathleen
There is nothing like the wild berry! How gratifying to have found a patch with lots to glean! Cannot wait to hear how the pie tastes! There should be a little almond note with a great wild berry.
🙂
Valerie
That saskatoon pie looks lovely. We found a great patch here in southern alberta along the belly river, and I am so pleased as I have missed picking wild saskatoons and blueberries since we moved down south. Made a batch of Saskatoon rhubarb jam already and my teenage daughter is going to Grandma’s tomorrow for some pastry making instruction, so she can whip us up a pie or two. It is a wonderful way to connect the generations and keep some family and baking traditions alive.
Ah, a woman after my own heart! Love that, Roxane.
Interestingly, my youngest daughter – I thought – was well on that path of keeping the family traditions alive as she would constantly nag me for recipes when in University and working… but, now that she is married, and a young mom, I am so surprised at how much she is just not interested in cooking. She eats very healthy, but just not interested. Maybe that will change, but it does make me sad.
🙂
Valerie
I was extremely discouraged with this recipe as the amount of juice in this wrecked the pie! Especially with the price of the berries this was a very expensive baking day. You would think that that flour would help to thicken but it doesnt quite do the job.
Dear Rebecca,
I am really surprised to hear this and sorry that this happened to you. Did you use wild berries? I think the problem may be that you purchased frozen berries that were not wild? Wild berries are much smaller and not nearly as juicy as the cultivated Saskatoon berries. This is so delicious and such a family favourite that I am so sad you did not experience success.
Sincerely,
Valerie
Like blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, the wild saskatoons, in my opinion, also have superior flavor.
There’s also a range of juiciness between varieties, locations and growing conditions. My parents had bushes in our yard, transplanted from a high sandy hill; the berries were larger, but I don’t recall them being juicier to eat raw; these were plants that grew about waist-high. My grandmother, OTOH, had tall, tall plants, that needed a “bush bender” (someone to bend it down to allow harvesting the topmost berries, which were huge, twice the diameter of ours. But not juicier to eat raw. Unfortunately, neither my mother nor my grandmother, nor any of her daughters, are any longer available to ask about the relative amounts of flour required.
And that, too, is a matter of preference: my mother, with a half dozen small kids, preferred both jam and pie to be firm enough that nothing escaped the fork onto our shirts, always meticulously rubbed, scrubbed and boiled, till every last iota of stain was gone.
But frozen berries are always “juicier” than the same ones fresh …
When trying in a “big batch” something predominantly of frozen fruit (pie, tarts, jam) I do up a tiny batch on the stovetop, to guesstimate the “runiness” of jams, fillings, etc. And being limited to gluten-free flours, generally also test small batches of muffins, pancakes, coffeecakes, etc. Usually alongside roasting a squashor whatever, because I can’t bring myself to run the oven at our horrendous energy prices, just for a couple of muffins!
Also, some flours are “juicier” when hot, and cool or chill to a thicker consistency. With lots of kids in the house, and stains dealt with by washing board. And I’ve been known to stir in a pinch of agar-agar, to get a firmer and less starchy finished cooled product.
I just made my first Saskatoon berry pie with my three year old son. This recipe was delicous and very easy to follow. (half the pie is gone).
Thrilled to hear this, Joanna!
There is nothing more gratifying that preparing food in the kitchen with children! My husband just brought in 2 huge buckets of berries he just picked this morning! I think Saskatoon berry pie is on our menu this week, too!
🙂
Valerie
Can you use thawed Saskatoons the same way or do you need to precook?
Just use them frozen! They will bake in your pie! You will need to be sure to bake it a good hour and 15 minutes, minimum, and if the crust is too brown, just cover it with foil. It is frozen I use most of the time, Janet.
🙂
Valerie
I live on 2 acres just west of Calgary. We have been here for 27 years. During our first summer, we planted 35 Saskatoon berry bushes. I have just started picking the berries today and will do so daily for the next 3 weeks. I am making my first fresh Saskatoon berry pie, but the berries are just as good frozen, and I will use your recipe. These berries really let us know that summer has arrived.
Phenomenal, Sue!!!
When did you get your very first harvest? How many years did it take to get your first berries, and then how many for a decent amount. I planted a few here and I think only 3-4 years before I was getting a good picking.
I freeze almost all of them, but do love my fresh Saskatoon berry French Tart recipe! YUM!. Otherwise, jams and pies.
You must get SO MANY berries!
🙂
Valerie
I have fresh picked saskatoons, not frozen, ready for a pie. Should they be cooked first, as many recipes require, or just baked?
Use them fresh, Eleanor! Mine are almost always frozen when I make the pie – I have a FRESH SASKATOON BERRY FRENCH TART that you should make with your fresh berries. It is TO DIE FOR… but, so is this recipe. Definitely no need to make the filling first.
Let me know how it goes!
I am doing jelly today, I hope!
🙂
Valerie
Made 2 today. Grew up on these pies, along with Flapper pie.Another prairie favourite.
Wonderful! Great Cindy!
Aren’t they yummy!
Great recipe, eh?
🙂
V
I don’t like saskatoons myself, but my mother and boyfriend both love them so I decided to try your recipe but we didn’t have enough saskatoons so I tried with some apples in there as well. Looking wonderful so far. Such a delightfully simple and perfect recipe.
Thrilled to hear it worked for you, Bree!
Hugs,
Valerie
Hi Valerie!
I’m A first-time user for these berries. Never heard of them until about a month ago when my friend asked me if I ever heard of them. She did some research on them and found out how good and healthy they are for you. She went to order some because we live in Ohio and they don’t have them here. She looked at the frozen 5 pounds and they were $68 and something I think it was, not including shipping. So she settled for five cans for $46 or something like that with shipping. Wow is all I can say, expensive! Anyway I’m making us both a pie since said she says she can’t make pies. Is there anything I need to add to the canned berries to make the pie? Thank you for your time. Peggy
Peggy,
I really have no idea. I would likely make a pie filling with the canned berries and then make a pie – that is, thicken the canned berries. I have never used them. They will already be cooked and processed, and likely sweetened a bit? Tough call. I am amazed at the trouble you have gone to, but I do such things, too – to taste a new food. Haha! They are lovely and very coveted here – but also very available here. However, you must have a local berry that provides similar nutrients. Most purple berries have similar health benefits.
Please let me know how it goes for you.
Warmly,
Valerie
Peggy, I ordered bushes from Burnt Ridge Nurseries in Washington state, because my Saskatchewan-raised husband missed them so much. They have grown so well in our Idaho backyard with regular watering! This year my husband built a sceeen cage around them to protect the berries from the birds. We have frozen 27 quarts so far. If you go to look for them in the States, ask for Serviceberries.
Thanks, Ruth!
They will soon be FAR too big for a screen… but what lovely fun in your yard. Mine are ready for picking just now.
🙂
There seem to be enough for the birds and us as they grow – but you have to get out and pick them when they are ready. I don’t can mine. I put them in water – bad ones rise to the surface. Skim them off. Then pat dry, lay on a parchment covered cookie sheet and flash freeze. Bag then up the following day into freezer bags and then double bag those, labelled and dated. I bag some for jam and the larger bags for pies. I pre-measure so a bag out of the freezer is ready for the recipe!
🙂
Hugs,
Valerie
IMG_2714.JPG
HI Min!
Were you trying to show me a photo of your Saskatoon Berry Pie? I would love to see it. For some reason, it cannot be saved in comments, so please send it to me at valerie AT acanadianfoodie DOT com
Looking forward to it!
🙂
Valerie
P.s. I use frozen Saskatoons year-round as a blueberry substitute in muffins!
Frozen are so great for pies and anything. I only like them fresh after picking with heavy cream and a sprinkle of sugar – super indulgent but, oh, such memories and a must. Then the Fresh French Saskatoon Berry Tart on my site is another “new” must in our family food culture. Love it, too!
When making this pie with your pastry crust recipe is it alright to bake the pie with a fresh (not frozen) crust? Or should the baking time be adjusted?
Dear Kara,
I did reply to the email you provided immediately when received to help you out – but it bounced back – you may have typed it incorrectly? I copied it. I bake with fresh pastry using frozen berries. If I freeze the pies, surprisingly, the time is almost the same. Hope that helps. 🙂
Valerie
Do you have instructions or a video demo of how you crimped?? Beautiful!!!
If you do a search for Pie Pastry, you will find instructions there, Liza!
🙂
Valerie
Oh my, I made this pie today! It is delicious. I am now feeling very sad that I’ve left all those saskatoons on the trees for so many years. We live on an acreage in Northern BC and have a LOT of saskatoon bushes. We’ve always just eaten what we wanted and let others pick if they wanted. Now I will be one of the pickers!
I am not a pie baker by any stretch of the imagination – I even used purchased pie crusts (but plan on trying your recipe for my next one(s), lol). I really liked the lemon flavour with the saskatoons. I’m off to pick the cherries on the small tree we have and see if there are enough to make your Evans Cherry pie.
Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe. <3
Great to hear from you, Linda!
Thank you for chiming in!
I hope you will find pie pastry as easy as I do – certainly make a bigger batch – at least with one pound of lard so you have frozen discs. It’s easy after that!
Let me know how it goes!
🙂
Valeire
I grew up in Manitoba and saskatoons were a treat every summer. When I moved to Waterloo, Ontario I discovered that the city had planted serviceberry bushes all over the place. No one out here knows that they are edible so I have a clear field. This year was amazing and I picked enough to freeze and also made 16 saskatoon/ rhubarb pies. I find that going 50/50 or 60/40 saskatoon to rhubarb makes an unbelievable pie. You should try it.
Your pie looks just as tasty as my mom makes to this day.
Cheers
Great idea, Rob! Lucky you to have access to so much deliciousness – and these berries are so good for us! So surprised they are not valued there!
Pie recipe sounds divine.
Hugs,
Valerie
I tried this recipe but added a cup and a half of blueberries with the saskatoons in the recipe. I made mine as a deep dish pie. It was wonderful. Everybody raved about the flavour and taste. Big hit. Will definitely use this again.
Great to know, Pat.
🙂
Why the blueberries? Just curious.
Valerie
My husband’s grandma taught me to add a sprinkle of raspberries on top of the saskatoons before you put the cover on. Sure helps sweeten the saskatoons! And round out the flavor a bit.
My saskatoon pie is perfect as it is. I would never add raspberries to it, grandma and dad would think I had lost my mind – hahaha – … but completely understand and appreciate this tip. I DO have a raspberry and saskatoon berry galette that I LOVE but don’t combine the flavours to sweeten the Saskatoons but they DO complement each other! I am sure your pie is DELICIOUS!
Here is mine:
Big hug
Valerie
Can I use fresh berries without changing anything in the recipe?
You sure can, Josee!
🙂
Valerie
Picked Saskatoon’s last year(2022) and frozen freezer bags full. It is now April 2023 and my husband requested a pie. It’s baking now and so excited to taste our childhood berry memories. We both come from families who picked their own berries either in the bush or at a Saskatoon berry farm….either way so good.
Hope you love it as much as we do!
It was baking when you wrote – hope you were happy with it!
I think it’s a no fail recipe. 🙂
Hugs
Valerie