Mother’s Day Bumbleberry Pie

My Mom had us all over for a Mother’s Day lunch yesterday.  Yes, I know, we should have taken her out to lunch, not had her serve a lunch…but, that’s what she wanted to do.  She wanted to have all the family over…soooo…one thing I’ve learned is once Mom has made up her mind on something like that it doesn’t do much good to try to talk  her out of it.  One of her favorite desserts to prepare out of the Amish Cook archives (a requirement for anyone in my family) is “bumbleberry pie.”  No such thing as a bumbleberry, so please don’t go to your local grocer asking for them. Rather the term is basically a Canadian catch-all for a fruit free for all. Traditionally the pie – which originates in Canada – was packed with various berries, but true to Amish tradition, once they got ahold of the recipe they started adding rhubarb.  Mom’s not a big rhubarb fan so she jettisoned that for blackberries. You could also use other fruits like peaches….I overheard Mom musing about whether pineapple could be used…not sure once you get into those acidic citruses how it would fare.  Pineapple doesn’t bake very well.  But, sure, experiment!  This is a wonderfully refreshing summer pie so be “berry” creative and have at it!:)  Top picture is Mom’s beautiful pie and here is my slice of delicious pie!  look how it is just bursting with berries and fruit. Yum! The recipe is below.

BUMBLEBERRY PIE

Makes one 9-inch pie
This is a delicious pie during the summer months. There’s no such thing as a bumbleberry, it’s just the name people give to this pie because it has all sorts of fruits in it. You can use whatever fruits are available or in season. Substitute seasonal fruits using the same amounts.
2 pie crusts (homemade or prepared crusts)3
1 cup blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1 cup strawberries
1 cup chopped rhubarb
1 cup chopped, peeled McIntosh apples
1 cup sugar, plus additional for topping
1 /3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Preheat the oven to 425.

If you using homemade pie dough,rRoll both disks of pie dough out to a 1/ 8-inch thickness on a floured surface. Fit one of the dough disks into a 9 inch pie pan. Trim the overhang to even with the top of pie pan. Set the other rolled out crust aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients until well blended. Spoon the fruit filling into the pie crusts.Cover the pie with the top crust. Use some water to wet the rim of the bottom crust, that will help both crusts adhere together.Crimp the crusts together all the way around. Make three slits in crust. Sprinkle the top with a little sugar. Bake for 15 minutes and then decrease the heat to 325° F and bake for another 30 minutes until the crust is golden and the fruit filling begins to bubble out through the slits.

 

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Special Treatment For The Amish?

An article in the Lebanon, Pennsylvania newspaper details how a local Amish church wants to build a parochial school (a pretty routine request)  But a local non-Amish man is claiming the township is treating the Amish with “kid gloves.”  Laughable.  In general, I find that many municipalities – if anything –  are tougher on the Amish than they would be on other groups.

The comment in the article that really got me, though, was:

“They update to skid loaders, cellphones and tractors. But we can’t ask them to hook up to the sewer? ”

It annoys me because it is THEIR religion. The Amish are “allowed” to do whatever they see fit to do within the framework of their faith.  If they deem it okay to use skid loaders, cellphones, etc, that is their business.   Some things that the Amish do that don’t make sense to outsiders do make sense perfectly to them and that’s okay.  Click here to read the article.

It sounds like the Amish have a pretty solid (no pun intended) sewage plan in place in this case.  I don’t defend the Amish at every turn.  When a group of Swartzentruber Amish in Pennsylvania were disposing of their school’s raw sewage by dumping it on surrounding farm field’s, I took issue.  But this sounds like someone just complaining for the sake of complaining.

Posted in Amish In the News | 3 Comments

Fencing in Colorado…

Colorado has really drawn the interest of the Old Order Amish over the past couple of years, attracting more and more Plain People to the state’s fertile valleys.  There was an article in a local Colorado paper about some Amish who came out for a work-related project and really seemed smitten with the state.   So maybe more are on the way!:)  The story, though, really is a wonderful example of how Amish entrepreneurs increasingly operate in “two worlds.”  Their work world has to be pretty modern to stay competitive, while they go home at night to a more traditional Amish setting.  Whether these two worlds can co-exist side by side for the long haul remains to be seen.  My suspicion is that such a compromise may not be sustainable long-term, but I may be wrong (I hope I’m wrong).  Anyway, this is a neat article, click here to enjoy!

CAPTION: Johnathan Esh builds a fence in Colorado (Photo: Parker Chronicle newspaper)

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