• 4 cups dewberries (pick these yourself in May, usually along railroad tracks.  If you can’t find them, buy 1 lb. of frozen blackberries)
• 1-1/4 Cups sugar
• 1 Cup boiling water
• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• Flaky Pastry for a double crust pie (2 whole crusts)

Line a 8 x 8 baking dish with one of the pie crusts.  Combine berries, sugar, boiling water, and cornstarch in a pot and bring to a boil on high heat, stirring constantly.  Cook for 10 minutes, then pour into prepared dish lined with pie crust.

Measure enough of second crust to cover top of baking dish, but don’t cover yet.  Set aside the “top” crust.  Break up the remaining scraps of crust and push them into the hot berry mixture with a spoon  or knife. This gives crust lovers more crust in the middle of the pie.  Cover berry filling with remaining top crust.  Poke air holes in top crust with a fork and sprinkle a pinch of white sugar over the top.  Bake at 375°F until lightly browned (about 15-20 minutes.)

Makes 6 servings, about 1 cup per serving.

Serve warm with Bluebell Homemade Vanilla ice cream or just plain.

Carlyn Foshee Chatfield

Note:

This recipe is adapted from one my grandmother, Gladys Foshee, made all the time when I was growing up.  I can never make it without thinking of my grandpa, James Foshee, an oil field worker who watched the railroad tracks for the first tell-tale signs of berry blossoms.  Early in May, he’d holler “Come on gal,  let’s go berry-picking!”  We would pick berries (while watching for snakes) almost all morning.  I was always proud to hear Grandpa brag when I had picked “clean” and had no leaves, vines, or trash in my bucket.

Dewberries are harder to find these days, even though I live near a railroad track where the trains sing me to sleep with their rumblings and whistles.  The pie can be made with store bought blackberries or even blueberries or raspberries, but the taste can’t compare to the first berry pie of the season in my memory.