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Summer has been slow arriving this year but there are some advantages – the Saskatoon berry season is extending well into August. Cinda Chavich, our food and cooking columnist, recently spent some time picking her favourite prairie fruit.

FIRST, FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW, WHAT ARE SASKATOONS?

Saskatoons are the quintessential prairie berry – a fruit that grows wild on tall, leggy bushes that you’ll find in the coulees and river valleys across western Canada.

They’re sweet little dark blue berries – but what saskatoons are not, is blueberries.

People who grow up with saskatoons usually prefer them to blueberries – whereas those who grew up eating blueberries, usually say saskatoons are inferior.

I don’t know if it’s an acquired taste, but I love the sweet wild flavour of saskatoons.

Saskatoons are definitely seedier than blueberries –  they’re actually related to roses and rose hips – but there’s no doubt saskatoons are sweeter than blueberries, at least the giant blue fruits grown commercially and sold at the supermarket that I’ve been buying this summer.

The saskatoons I picked were about half as big as the oversized blueberries from B.C., and more of a reddish purple in color, but the flavour is incredibly sweet, a little like honey with a lovely aftertaste of sweet almond paste. I brought you some blueberries and saskatoons so that you can taste the difference.

Growers says there’s sort of a cult around the Saskatoon berry among prairie people – so if you grew up here like I did, there’s really nothing like the flavour of saskatoons, fresh or baked up in pies.

MMMM….I DO TASTE THAT NICE NUTTY ALMOND FLAVOUR IN THE SASKATOONS, THEY ARE REALLY SWEET…SO SASKATOONS ARE STILL IN SEASON?

Yes, it’s quite amazing – saskatoons are usually finished in July but the weather has been so cold, and recently so wet, that the Saskatoon season has been quite slow to ripen here in Alberta this year. It really depends which part of the province you’re in – but in central Alberta and around Calgary, there are still lots of berries on the bushes and if the weather stays warm, there should be a week or so left for picking.

I was out at Pearson’s Berry Farm near Innisfail over the weekend, and I picked my fill of ripe berries one sunny afternoon.

HOW WAS THE PICKING?

It was really a lot of fun. I could have bought a four-litre pail of berries, already picked for $18, but I decided to go out into the field and pick my own instead. I saved $6 by picking the pail myself – and it really took me back to childhood summers, when I’d be picking berries with my dad and my cousins out in the country, while my grandmother and my mom and aunts made pies.

The picking was pretty slow – it took me an hour and a half to pick my four-litre pail – so you might not consider that particularly cost effective, but it was an enjoyable afternoon.

Because the berries have been ripening slowly and unevenly, you can only pick a few berries at a time, which makes it slow. But I was careful only to pick the nicest and ripest berries, so I brought home some really nice fruit.

PICKING YOURSELF DOES SAVE MONEY, BUT THERE ARE OTHER REWARDS

It made me think of those really special wines, made with grapes that are hand picked and selected – there is a lot of value in something that you actually grow or go out to pick yourself.

If you bring your kids along they’ll learn more about where their food comes from, and how much work it takes to grow and harvest it.

Plus, there’s a great back story – the whole family will remember the day you went for a drive out into the country to pick Saskatoons, and the tasty Saskatoon pie and ice cream you had at the farm after you finished picking. I think there’s value in that.

Most U-pick operations offer pre-picked fruit at a premium, usually about $18 for a 4-litre pail versus $12 or $13 if you pick yourself. And if you buy berries at the market they can be a lot more - last week, I paid $6 for about 2 cups of berries at the Crossroads Market, so that’s a pretty steep markup.

ARE THE U-PICK BERRIES YOU FIND ON THE FARM SIMILAR TO WILD SASKATOON BERRIES?

They’re special cultivars – Smoky and Northland saskatoons - that were developed at the University of Saskatchewan for orchard production, and they’re more consistent and usually a little bigger than wild saskatoons, but the flavour is the same.

I have some wild bushes that are really tall – it’s pretty hard to pick the berries that are on the highest branches. But most of the bushes at Pearson’s are only 6-7 feet high so you can reach up and bend the top branches down to pick.

And it’s a lot easier to pick berries from bushes that are neatly planted in row – getting to the wild berries in steep hillsides or out in the bush can be a lot trickier.

ARE SASKATOON BERRIES GOOD FOR YOU?

Yes, they’re similar to blueberries, a fruit that’s now been dubbed a “super food” for it’s antioxidant properties.

Like blueberries, saskatoons are small fruits with lots of deep purple coloring – and we know that a lot of the healthy properties in fruits and vegetables are found in their deep colours. Saskatoons are especially high in fibre, B Vitamins, iron and antioxidants.

Saskatoons actually also contain higher levels of protein, fibre and fat than other fruit, and are a wild source of Vitamin C.

We know that saskatoons were the berries that kept prairie First Nations people healthy – dried saskatoons, pounded with dried buffalo meat, made pemmican, a combination of protein, fat and important vitamins in a single food that was a staple in their winter diet.

YOU SAID YOU CAN BUY BERRIES – OTHER SASKATOON PRODUCTS THAT ARE AVAILABLE?

Yes, the people at Pearson’s Berry Farm make a variety of jams and syrups with saskatoons, as well as pies, tarts and pie filling. They even make a Saskatoon berry flavoured lemonade and a concentrate for hot Saskatoon berry cider.

Many of the U-pick Saskatoon farms offer fresh saskatoon products, like pies and muffins. I especially like the butter tarts made with saskatoon berries instead of raisins from Pearson’s Berry Farm.

You can even buy Saskatoon berry wine here in Alberta – Field Stone Fruit Winery near Strathmore makes a dry Saskatoon berry wine and a Saskatoon berry dessert wine that you can buy direct from the winery, or at the Calgary Farmer’s Market.

AND WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR SASKATOON BERRIES?

Most of them are already in the freezer. I just washed them well and dumped them into zippered freezer bags. They freeze well and you can use them later in pies, muffins, smoothies or other desserts.

I made a nice Saskatoon berry and apple crisp – the saskatoons really add a lovely flavour and colour. I used the thin-skinned new crop Transparent Apples, which are really tart and delicious, and added a couple of cups of saskatoons – with an oatmeal, butter and brown sugar topping it’s a really easy and delicious dessert. We even ate the leftovers for breakfast.

But Saskatoon pie is really the classic dessert for prairie people. Just make a double pie crust – I just use the easy recipe on the box of lard – and fill the pie with 4 cups of Saskatoon berries tossed with about ½ cup of sugar, seal with a top crust and bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

Or you can use saskatoons anywhere you might use blueberries, in muffins, in fruit sauces to serve over cheesecake, or in jams and jellies.

I even use saskatoons in savoury dishes – in Saskatoon berry and mustard sauce to serve over roasted pork tenderloin, or in a juniper berry and port sauce to serve with beef or venison. I even make my own “pemmican” patties or meatballs, made with ground bison or ground beef, and Saskatoon berries, to serve with pancakes for breakfast, or glazed with wild berry jelly for appetizers.

SO DID YOU BRING US A RECIPE?

Yes, we’ll post a couple of easy recipes on the website from my book High Plains – one for my Apple Berry Crisp that combines apples and saskatoons for a simple but delicious dessert, and the other for the pemmican patties, something really local to serve at your next party or Sunday brunch.

click here for Cinda’s Saskatoon berry recipes...