We spent a few hours outside today, picking blackberries for a pie. Donning my sunglasses so no one would stare at my freakish eyes, the kids and I walked up to the cul-de-sac, picking what we could over the bushes that had been hacked back a few weeks ago (idiots!). Then we strolled down the hill to the park where we had good luck finding lots of berries. By the tennis court we even found a blackberry bush that had grown into the trees. It was loaded with ripe berries, but most were out of my reach. After we got home, we went into our backyard and picked the ripe berries from back there. I really wish there was a way for me to trellis them or stake them out in a way that would make it easy to pick, without them taking over my yard. I'll have to ponder some solutions.

In any case, after many eaten berries (Gwen) and stuck fingers (Ethan and I) and fights over berries being eaten (Ethan and Gwen) we ended up with just over the 6 cups we needed for our pie.



I whipped up a crust out of the boring old Betty Crocker cookbook (I wasn't interested in the rigmarole that most cookbooks put you through for a crust). This is what it looked like right before the top crust went on. The filling was simple. Sugar, cinnamon, flour, berries, with some butter dotted on top. Note the little hands lingering around the edges.


Prepped for the oven. I brushed the top with cream and sprinkled with sugar.



You'll have to wait and see the finished product as its still in the oven!

Ok, here it is... all finished. It smells divine.