First Fruits

Gooseberries (oh, please, if you haven't read Chekhov's story by that name, treat yourself!) and strawberries.

I weeded and spot mulched the strawberries again, picked this quart of perfect berries and half again that many imperfect ones. We ate them all last night, fresh, red all the way through, tangy and sweet and juice dripping down our chins, mostly with chocolate ice cream. We're thinking of putting in another bed like this one and rooting runners to populate it with plants that would produce next year. These are day neutral Tribute strawberries and put on a successive crops of strawberries from now until frost kills the blossoms.

The gooseberries will be made into a pie. We have a blue billion of those, but they are hard to pick. I'd have to charge like $10 a quart or something. Ah, but here's a recipe:

Gooseberry Pie

Pick a little more than 1 quart of gooseberries. Discard any soft berries. Remove stems and tails, then wash the berries.

Combine:
3/4 cup sugar
4 1/2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Sprinkle over berries and stir to distribute.

Turn berries into an unbaked 8-inch pie crust and dot the top with 2 tablespoons butter. Put on the upper crust, and fancy it up if you want. Bake in a 450-degree oven for 15 minutes or until crust is delicately browned. Then reduce heat to 325 degrees and continue baking 20 to 30 minutes or until berries are tender.

Which, you know, I really should put in my recipe for whole wheat pie crust to go along with granola cruncher biscuits .