Blueberry: Pie of the Month

June's Pie of the Month

Starting this month, I will be trying something new: featuring a pie of the month (What are the criteria for determining the pie of the month? Whatever sounds good at the time, although I do try to keep in mind what is in season). This time around, the pie of the month is blueberry pie.

Blueberries are a super food, full of antioxidants, fiber, and other healthy benefits: good for the heart and the brain (if someone looks at you quizzically while you are enjoying the blueberry pie, you can always say, "Don't worry: I'm getting my antioxidants") . Plus, they are delicious.

Recipe for Blueberry Pie

Pie Dough

You can either make your own or buy the commercially-made crust that rolls out

Pie Filling

4 cups blueberries, frozen or fresh
3/4 to 1 cup sugar, to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer the mixture until thickened. Let cool and then scrape the mixture into a bottom crust that has been perforated with a fork. Roll out the top crust and place it on top of the pie; flute the edges to seal. Slash the top crust at several points so that pressure does not build up in the pie while baking. Brush the top crust with an egg wash (1 egg, thinned with a splash or so of water and then beaten) to encourage a shiny crust; sprinkle the top with sugar if desired.

Bake in a 400 degree oven (Fahrenheit) for 35-45 minutes, or until the top crust is golden brown. Let cool for awhile (anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours: in my household, there is no way that pie is cooling for a full two hours, uncut). Enjoy with a dollop or so of vanilla ice cream. Bon appetit!

Homemade Blueberry Pie

To-Do List to Prepare the Garden for Spring

Preparing the Garden for Spring--in Winter

Even though we are in the throes of winter, a gardener's fancy turns to the possibilities that the warmer months offer. The ground may be covered in ice and snow (or, in my area, cold soggy mud), but we as gardeners can set the stage for a welcome splash of color come springtime. Hence, here is my top ten list for preparing the spring garden during these colder months:

1. Clean up the asparagus bed. Weed, mulch, and fertilize asparagus plants.

2. Perform a soil test.

3. Add organic amendments to the soil and allow them to break down during the next six to eight weeks or so. I will be working in blood meal, bone meal, wood ashes, and rabbit pellets made of alfalfa (the pellets will be moistened so that they break down without attracting rabbits) into the soil.

4. Peruse the gardening catalogs with delight.

5. Create a new garden plan for the existing main garden.

6. Create new garden space and start building up the fertility.

7. Have a new planter box created; this one will be for strawberries. Planter boxes have become a welcome birthday tradition during the past several years.

8. Weed, feed, prune, and mulch the blueberry plants; they inhabit one of the planter boxes mentioned above.

9. Look over the existing herbs and decide which new herbs to buy. Mint and bay are but two herbs on my list.

10. Plant daylilies around the bases of several trees in the yard.

11. Okay, I could not resist one more item: dream fondly about this year's upcoming garden and its bounty.

By Patrick CharpiatPatrick.charpiat at fr.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-2.0-fr (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr/deed.en) or CC-BY-SA-2.0-fr (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr/deed.en)], from Wikimedia Commons