FALLING IN LOVE WITH MAINE . . . AND A WILD BLUEBERRY PIE RECIPE

Earlier this summer my husband and I, and my younger brother and his family, took a road trip to Maine.  None of us had visited there before.  Well, we all fell in love

with the glorious Maine coastline,

with Maine's picturesque lighthouses,

with those delicious Maine lobsters,

with Maine's love of dogs,

Oops! This photo was snapped in RI.  How about New Englanders'  love of dogs?

and, especially with the tiny wild Maine blueberries.

Wild Maine blueberries aren't anything like the fat, tame, less flavorful blueberries I buy in the produce section of my grocery store here in Virginia.  Since returning home I noticed that a few local stores here carry Wyman's frozen wild Maine blueberries.  You can also purchase their canned berries on Amazon.  I decided to try the canned ones using my usual pie recipe to see how it turned out.  If you have a yen for wild Maine blueberries and don't live in Maine, it's nice to have those cans handy in your pantry.  Here's the result.

Hot pie cooling by window with those wild blueberries peeking out!

Use your favorite pie crust recipe, or buy a ready-made one.

Here’s mine:
Pie Crust

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1/3 cup (or a little more) water

Cut the shortening into the flour/salt mixture with a knife and then toss with your fingers until mixture looks crumbly.  Mix in water with tip of knife until lightly blended, and then gather dough lightly into a ball.  Cut the dough ball in half.  Roll out on floured pastry cloth with covered rolling pin. Place bottom crust in pie plate. (I use a nine-inch glass Pyrex pan.) Pour in pie filling.  Dot with   butter.  Cover with top pie crust that has been rolled out.  Cut off excess crust.  Crimp edges.  Prick vent holes in crust with fork.  Bake 400 degrees 15 minutes, then 350 for another 45 minutes, or until crust is golden.  Sprinkle sugar on top of hot pie.

Filling (mix all ingredients together)

3 cans of Wymans drained wild blueberries or 4 cups frozen wild blueberries  

Scant 1 cup of sugar

1/3 cup tapioca

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1-2 tablespoons butter

It was delicious.  Since the berries were smaller, the filling was dense, but very flavorful.

Nice to know this Virginia gal can make wild blueberry pie whenever I want a little taste of Maine.

The tapioca nicely set the filling

Some fun sites about the wondrous state of Maine and their blueberries.

Maine’s Fast Facts and Trivia 

Cooperative Extension tells all about those wild blueberries