some thoughts on olallieberries…

delicious pie is ever more delicious when made with fresh fruit. direct from the farms. yum. so a few weeks ago, a small group of us traveled 1 1/2 hours south to swanton berry farms to pick olallieberries. as i might of mentioned before, olallieberries are the most perfect pie berry – so tart and yet so sweet. i have gone to phipps ranch to pick berries for many years, but they were all cleaned out by the time we wanted to go. the olallieberry season is a short one, which, with fantastical name like olallieberry, doesn’t help demystify this elusive berry.

according to wikipedia, the olallieberry is a cross between the loganberry and the youngberry. to give this some context, the loganberry is a cross between the blackberry and the raspberry, and the youngberry is a cross between the blackberry and the dewberry (whatever that is). all in all, the olallie is pretty similar to the common blackberry you know and love, but a slightly different shape and kinda tart. if you want to take a look, check out the banner on the top of this blog: a handful of deliciousness. and if you want to try some…

…i have officially entered mission pie’s 5th annual pie baking contest and will be making my traditional olallieberry pie!

mission pie says: “feel free to bring friends and cheerleaders. while we are judging the pies, you can hang out and sample the competition.”

so come join us! sunday, august 28th at mission pie (corner of 25th street and mission) from 2:30-4:30. taste 25 pies for free and cheer me on!

and to get your taste buds riled up, here is some photo-documentation of our trip to swanton:

i loooove olallieberries!

me and monica on the farm

i’ll make a pie just like this one…doesn’t it look good?!