Foraged Dewberry Pie
Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 12:47AM 
This is my favorite part of the summer, when, despite the gruesome heat, the progression of spring and summertime fruit marches mercifully onward, supplying our parched palates with sweet, nourishing elixirs. Yes, all I have to do is walk outside into the sweaty, buggy outdoors and I'm sure to stumble upon the minefield of wild (and cultivated) Alabama fruits. In my own yard a lone strawberry plant sits in a pot on the periphery of my garden and has been supplying me with a few berries here and there since early April. The fig trees that flank our house are bursting with tiny green fruits that are on their way to becoming golden and soft-fleshed in the weeks to come. And what I once thought were prolific weeds growing around the compost pile are actually dewberry vines that blossomed and fruited in mid-May.
What I can't get from my yard I look for elsewhere. Just a short drive from our house is the University Arboretum - a prime fruit foraging spot. We've gone there several times in search of the season's fruit - persimmons and muscadines in the fall, japanese bitter oranges in the winter (and if you're wondering, they really are bitter), and dewberries in the spring/summer. There are also a few other choice spots for fruit foraging around Tuscaloosa - I've heard that there's both a pear tree and a pomegranate tree on campus (I have yet to visit these) and in my own neighborhood there's a peach, pear, and apple tree all less than a block from our house. Last year my neighbors willingly shared their surplus fruit with me when I asked. And I plan to do the same this year. Except this time I'd like to make it a good old-fashioned barter. I'll trade some of my garden booty for a sack of peaches any day.
Apparently, fruit foraging has become a nationwide trend. Neighborhood fruit exchanges are popping up all around the country. People sign up to share their yard's bounty with others. You give me some of what you're growing, and I'll give you some of what I'm growing. Here's a case where apples and oranges really are equal! Check out a few mentioned in the New York Times: Neighborhood Fruit and Veggie Trader. (Neither have Alabama entries, it seems. Get to work, people!)
A couple of weeks ago we headed to the Arboretum in search of the season's last dewberries, and we found them - although not without some difficulty. Dewberries are blackberries kissing cousin, growing on low-lying vines riddled with stickers. In our case, the brambles were often comingling with poison ivy, so picking the berries was even more of a challenge. But oh the pie...
Reader Comments (1)
Although I live in (sigh) Michigan, I had a similar recent experience with the mulberries in my backyard. I had to fight off killer mosquitoes, angry, birds and huge prickery undergrowth, while keeping my husband firmly planted on the ladder, but the pie made it all worth it.