picking fruit & pie baking, oh my!

This post is a long time coming. A few weeks ago, I went fruit picking with OFRE (Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton.) Simple premise: volunteers pick fruit at the homes of folks who have fruit they want picked. Then, the rule of thirds: 1/3 to the home owner, 1/3 to the food bank and 1/3 to the volunteers. The night I went out was gorgeous. Perfect fruit picking weather. Also perfect ice cream eating weather. And maybe water sliding weather. But I digress. First we picked every apple from a tree in Mill Woods. Very odd notion to go into a stranger's backyard when they're not home, and within an hour have their tree picked clean!

Next we moved on to an area I don't really know, Silver Berry, to pick cherries. And I thought Summerside had no trees... wow, this place looked freaky. In fact, we thought we were at the wrong house. How could there be a mature Evans Cherry tree in this neighbourhood, anywhere? Well, we were gladly wrong. This tree was gorgeous, and in about 15 mins I had this amazing load of glorious bright red cherries. I've decided I need one of these trees. Even if I didn't eat a single cherry, the tree itself with all the fruit is beautiful! I did a little reading up on the Evans Cherry tree after another picker told me she used to live next to Dr. Evans, the "inventor." She told me he had a whole orchard of these in his backyard in Mill Woods. Before he moved, he planted them all along the back alley. She said her alley is now full of the trees. I'm thinking this is probably the best looking alley in the city!

So, picked fruit in hand, I enlisted the help of my dear mamma. Crafty in every way, she of course had baked a pie or two in her day. But not in several years, apparently, so we had fun muddling through parts of the project together! As expected, I also had to purchase some cute supplies for this endeavor. Completely un-needed and yet needed in every way. I got two of these. One in this great green, the other a mayflower blue. Come on! Now tell me, how you could resist the possibility of baking a pie in one of these? I rest my case. We peeled and sliced those little bitty apples for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably two hours. I swear I had a peeling injury; I couldn't believe how tedious that work was! The cherry pitting was much more fun and productive. Got a great tip to use a straw to poke them out. Genius! Although this would have been fun too!

I'd never eaten a homemade sour cherry pie before, let alone made one myself. We got three 6" pies out of my cherry haul and, dare I say, the pie was the best I've ever had. I've never experienced the whole process... picking, prepping and eating. I know that is what made it all the sweeter. We also made six small apple pies. Also super delicious, but somehow not as exciting or gorgeous enough to take pictures of! I highly recommend going picking if you've not done it. I will definitely get on it earlier next year and maybe go do some blueberries and saskatoons on a berry farm. How yummy and satisfying that would be!