Saskatoons.

I love saskatoons; they are, without a doubt, my favorite berry. I have fond memories of going on berry picking expeditions at the cabin when I was a child... Several of us would get buckets and head down the path to the semi-wild patch located at the end of our subdivision, braving hoards of mosquitos to get enough of the delicious berries so that one of the neighbors could make several pies.

Now, I tend to go to u-picks, for several reasons. First, the bushes at u-picks tend to be better maintained (really, maintained at all) than the wild ones, making it easier to reach all the berries. This also leads to fewer bugs (biting me and in the berry buckets). As well, when bushes are pruned and well maintained, the saskatoons can grow to the size of blueberries, which are much easier to cook with than the shrivelled, tiny things we used to pick off the local bushes. Lastly (and maybe most importantly), bear scat has been found in our neighborhood. Personally, I would prefer to pay a few dollars for a bucket and leave the wild ones to the bear than to run into a snacking bear while I pick.



Saskatoons are very tasty on their own, but I prefer to make mine into pies. They can be made into a mixed berry pie (blackberries make for a divine combination, and blueberries are nice), combined with rhubarb (handy since it grows like a weed around here) or left as the only berry in the pie. My favorite is saskatoon-rhubarb, so I will share the recipe!

The amounts of ingredients are very inexact... how many berries you need depends on the size of pie plate you want to use, how many tarts you want to make, etc.

Saskatoon Rhubarb Pie Filling

5 C saskatoons (fresh or frozen*)

2 C chopped rhubarb

1 C sugar

1-2 tsp cornstarch (you will need more if you use frozen berries/rhubarb due to the extra moisture!)

Place the berries and rhubarb in a large, thickbottomed pot on the stove on medium heat. When the juice starts coming out, add the sugar, and cook until soupy (or berries melt), stirring occaisonally. Add cornstarch, and stir until a thicker consistency is reached. Allow to cool, and spoon into a prepared pie shell, leaving some of the syrup behind**. Bake until the crust is golden and cooked. Enjoy!***

* They freeze great for pies all year long!

** There is too much liquid for one pie (unless you like soggy crust!). It goes great on pancakes, waffles, extra pie crust... etc.

*** Allow to cool before cutting, so the syrup has a chance to firm up or it will ooze everywhere!

Tarts are a good option as well!

In my search to find out the latin name for the saskatoon bush (Amelanchier alnifolia, incidentally. They belong to the same Family as rosebushes and apples. Who knew?), I stumbled upon this article. Apparently, a few years ago, the UK had a policy that any "new" foods be tested for two years before it was legal to import them, to determine if they were "safe for human consumption". The author of the article, (at the time a British MP, now the mayor of London) uses the saskatoon as an example of how this policy was a silly waste of taxpayers money; Germany had apparently already found the saskatoon safe for humans to eat (huh), which classifys it as safe in all EU member nations, Britain included (phew!),

The thing I love about this article, is Boris Johnson's description of the saskatoon as"king of the bush". While saskatoons do possess wonderful health benefits, it makes me giggle inside to think that "the volcanic energy of this century's great Canadians, from Mark Steyn to Conrad Black to Margaret Trudeau [can only be ascribed] to the saskatoon-based national diet." Saskatoon-based! Apparently, we eat them with everything. (I must have missed the part in social studies where we learned that "it is standard practice, at all Canadian state banquets, to sprinkle every course with saskatoons.")

While it is true that most of us Albertans enjoy a saskatoon pie every now and then, the berries aren't nearly as common as Boris seems to think they are. Saskatoon u-picks are not as widely distributed as I would like, the berries are more expensive at farmer's markets, and way over priced at organic food stores. However, for the sake of nostalgia and the desire to live up to some outrageous Canadian stereotypes, I plan on picking as many of these berries as I can (from my secret u-pick location!) and eating them as many times as I can in order to tap into that "volcanic energy" like those great Canadian icons.

Long live the"king of the bush"!