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July 07, 2007

Sweet - and SOUR - berry time

After dinner - and the thunderstorms - we went strawberry picking at Dole's Orchard in Limington.

We spent less than 40 minutes picking and managed to net a little over 20 pounds of strawberries. They were ripe and plentiful last night!

We were told that there were also some ripe cherry trees at the orchard and we couldn't resist picking some of those as well. We had never picked cherries before.

After eating one right off the tree and feeling like the enamel on my teeth was going to come off, I let the kids know the cherries were REALLY sour. And although my kids love sour stuff - including sucking on lemons and limes - I wasn't sure even they would like them.

But they had to try them and both agreed that they were in fact pucker-face sour.

It took L. nearly a minute to recover from the sourness of the bite she took.

We only picked two pounds of cherries and that was just enough for a cobbler. I had never made a fresh cherry cobbler before and decided to add some sweet wild blueberries to offset the tartness of the cherries (and to avoid having to add so much sugar - the recipe called for a cup and a half but with the blueberries a single cup was more than enough).

The kids and Fino gave the dish a big thumbs up and suggested we go pick more cherries today.

I guess we've got another favorite fruit season in our house now. I just wish it wasn't so time consuming to pit the cherries ...

CHERRY BERRY COBBLER Recipe

Add all above ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it bubbles and thickens then transfer to baking dish.

In a separate bowl, add the following ingredients and mix just until combined.

Drop spoonfuls of dough onto the warm cherries and then bake at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes.

Do you have a favorite berry recipe? Post it below!

Posted by Wendy Almeida at 08:50 AM

Comments

very berry cake

grease and flour 6x10 ("brownie") pan

2 1/2 cups mixed berries, frozen and/or fresh (I used blueberries, strawberries and blackberries)
1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
Topping
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Mix the berries and toss with the flour, set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat the butter and the sugar for approx 5 minutes, until light coloured and creamy.
4. Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at the time, until well combined.Sift flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl, add to the butter mixture in 2 additions, alternating with milk.
5. Stir the berries into the batter and spoon into a greased pan. Batter will be thick.
6. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpickinserted in the center comes out clean.
7. When cool cut into squares.

Posted by Starwalker
July 8, 2007 01:41 PM

Sounds yummy Starwalker. Thanks for sharing the recipe!!

Posted by Wendy Almeida
July 9, 2007 07:16 AM