Our garden is growing nicely, praise the Lord! 
We have already enjoyed several rounds of green onions, and a couple of salads. Oh, and I will be sharing an amaaaazing Mexican Salad with you next week.
Anyhow, we do everything we can to keep our garden’s pestiside free. Unfortunately, this means we have bugs that think our garden is an all you can eat buffet.
This was taken a couple weeks ago, but see poor, poor little Stubby down there, to the left. That tiny weed looking one in the row of ever growing lettuce…….
I’ve pointed it out for you with a white sign to help you determine just who Stubby is.
Stubby is not returning to his former glory as his brothers and sisters have done
after gracing us with a lovely meal. This is because Rolly-polly’s thought he was their lunch.
Meet my Secret Weapon:
Cayenne Pepper, that I buy in bulk.
This protects poor lil’ Stubby and his garden friends, like Mr. Tomato Head, from big bad bugs. Plus, it keeps our veggies pesticide free. Score!
Remember my new favorite Push Crust recipe?
Well, it has opened up a whole new world of pie baking for me and this Black Berry Cream Cheese Pie is a winner! We won’t be ready to pick fresh blackberries from our patch until late in the summer, but my freezer ones from last year worked just fine!
This Blackberry pie isn’t overly sweet as some can be. The small amount of sugar still allows the berries natural flavor to come through, and the cream cheese layer? Well that’s just bonus! 🙂
- 1 whole Baked Pie Crust
- 5 cups Blackberries, Fresh Or Frozen Ones That Have Been Thawed, Divided Use
- ½ cups Water (or You Can Use Berry Juice If You Thawed Frozen Berries)
- 3 Tablespoons Cornstarch
- ⅔ cups Granulated Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 6 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
- 1 Tablespoon Milk
- 1 teaspoon Grated Lemon Zest
- Optional Garnishes: Whipped Cream, Additional Berries
Preparation Instructions
Prepare and bake your pie crust according to your recipe or package instructions. Once baked, allow it to cool before filling it.
In a medium-sized saucepan, combine 3 cups of berries with water or berry juice. Bring to a boil. Once you’ve reached a boil, remove from heat and let cool. Once cooled, strain and push the mixture through a sieve, just to remove seeds. Return the syrup to the saucepan. Stir in the cornstarch, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, stirring and boiling for 2 minutes. Then remove from heat and cool.
Blend the cream cheese, milk and lemon zest until smooth using a mixer if you have one. Spread the mixture evenly into the cooled pie shell. Top with the remaining 2 cups of uncooked berries. Pour the cooled, thickened syrup over the berries, evenly. Refrigerate for 1 hour before topping with whipped cream and additional fresh berries for garnish.
Dig in! This is a fantastic, fresh-flavored pie! YUM!
This makes me really really anxious for Blackberry picking time! And then, I remember the climbing the fence with barbed wire part, and worst of all, the thorn part. Horrible, awful, make your skin hurt for weeks from the poison, thorns. This makes me really really anxious for DALE to pick some Blackberries for us soon! 🙂
{Love you, honey! You good little berry picker you……}
I am hoping we have enough Berries to sell this year! (fingers crossed)
Happy Organic Gardening & Baking!
~T
This post linked to Smockity Frocks.
And EVERYDAY SISTERS.
4 little Fergusons 