What to do with Saskatoons

When we bought and moved into our house in February of this year, the garden was covered with snow.  I was able to identify a few of the trees, and recognized some of the brown twiggy remains of perennials that were visible.  But mostly, I was anticipating the surprises that spring would bring me.  I'd left several carefully planned and lovingly tended perennial beds back at our other house, and though it really stung to leave them I have considered it to be a fair trade for all the lovely mature trees at our new place.  Our hearts had pined (har har) for trees, and now at our new home we really have more than there is room for!  So blessed.
Two of the neglected, overgrown brutes were these 'mystery' bushes along the north side of our house by the back door.  In the spring, to identify them, I looked up the blooms and leaves in a few books about local gardening.  Saskatoons!  Then, just to be sure, since we don't want to end up eating toxic-berry-pie, I took a twig (along with others from other mystery shrubs) to the tree guy at a local garden center.  He told me these were definitely saskatoons, but he said not to get my hopes up.  "The birds always get' em."

Our renewed determination to make ends meet on a single income, to make the best of all our resources, and live more 'eco-nomi-logi-cally' (I love my new word!), meant that I simply could not resign myself to letting the birds have any produce of which we could make use.   I justify my selfishness by generously allowing them the seeds and berries from our spruce and mayday trees (The kids wondered why birds can eat what we can't.  No fair).  I bought 25 feet of bird-netting and with difficulty spread it over our ten-foot shrubs.

Here you see how loaded down the shrubs are with berries!  For the last week or two, I've been getting about 4 cups of berries every other day, sharing bags of them with saskatoon-fans I know, and squirreling them away in my freezer.  But the berries on the shrubs never seem to be any less!

While waiting for the berries to be ready, I did plenty of internet research on saskatoons.  Of course, like most fruit they need full sun to ripen.  This made me wonder why someone long ago would plant them along the north wall of a house!  They are productive only because most of the topmost branches lean way out into the yard to reach the sun.  But for the first decade or so, when they were smaller, they couldn't have given much fruit.  I desperately want to prune them shorter so I can reach all the berries without balancing on a chair, with my hair getting tangled in the bird-netting.  But if I prune them, they won't reach the sun.  Hmmm.

Apparently, one of the reasons saskatoons are not widely grown commercially is that the berries ripen a few at a time.  In my photo you can see how unevenly they ripen, with little immature green berries, partly ripened red berries, and fully ripened blue-black berries on every panicle.  This makes it ineffective to use mechanical harvesting machines.  Most saskatoons available for sale are picked by hand, or are available at u-pick farms.

First Nations people in our region had been eating saskatoons who-knows-how long before European settlers arrived.  They used them in the making of  pemmican.  The very straight, flexible canes of the saskatoon shrub were also favored by local tribes for making arrows.  The word "saskatoon" is an anglicized version of the Cree name for the berry, and coincidentally, the Saskatchewan town is named after the berry, not vice versa.

Other names for saskatoon berries are 'service berry' or 'June berry.'  I was pleased to learn that they are as packed with antioxidants and other nutrients as their sweeter cousin, the blueberry.

Both my grandma and my mom have already baked pies with berries from my garden, but I haven't yet done it.  I'll let you know how mine turn out!

Here's the recipe I'll use (provided by my saskatoon-fanatic momma) for making saskatoon pie... The only thing I'm gonna try different is brushing the bottom crust with egg white before pouring in the berries, to keep the juice from soaking in.

Saskatoon Berry Pie
4 C saskatoon berries
1/4 C water
2 TB lemon juice
3/4 C sugar
3 TB flour
Pastry for double crust pie
Preparation:  In a saucepan, simmer saskatoon berries in water for 10 minutes.  Add lemon juice.  Stir in granulated sugar mixed with flour.  Pour into pastry-lined pie plate.  Dot with butter.  Cover with top crust; seal and flute edges.  Bake in 425F oven for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350F and bake 35-45 minutes longer or until golden brown.

This photo: All that is left of the saskatoon pie made for me by my grandmother.  Mmmm...