Summer is a very special season out in farm country. At least it used to be, when I was a kid.

Going back home, every year I notice something different, something that has changed and become more modern. Different than the way it was “back in my day”.

I remember the way things went, before everyone and their brother had air conditioning. To be honest, my family didn’t even get one of those pop in the window air conditioners until I was like, 15 years old. By then I’d already learned what a swamp cooler was, and was already pretty set in my own personal ways of keeping cool.

Sure, having an air conditioner made me a little more lazy, but not by much.

Our first air conditioner really only cooled off about a 6 foot radius from the window where it sat. My dad put it in a window that sat above our small couch in the living room. I would fight my sister for this spot, but my dad had this rule about sitting too close to the air conditioner, and how if we would just let the air conditioner run, it neverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.comwould cool off the whole house by the time it got cool enough outside to open the doors and let the breeze in.

It never worked. No matter how far away we sat from the air conditioner, it was still ALWAYS colder right next to it than it was anywhere else. It was that  6ft area, the prime realty in our living room. That was where you wanted to be during the day.

Of course, there were other ways of keeping cool.

The sprinkler method was my favourite, after my parents got rid of our swimming pool.

Until I was 12 years old, I spent morning noon and night in that swimming pool, from spring through fall. My mom would joke about me being part frog, my dad would complain because I’d tromp through the house leaving a trail of water behind me. I have tons of memories of that pool.

We actually put the pool in after we lived in my great grandpa’s house for about a year. It took the place of a giant maple tree that we had removed (it was dead, and it was leaning towards the house, so.. it was either us or the tree) Originally my mom wanted to put a garden there. My sister and I lobbied for a swimming pool. I don’t know how we won, but we did, and I loved it.

I would go out there in the morning, and swim until dinner time, only getting out to use the bathroom or do some random chore my mom asked me to do. It got so that my dad actually built a separate room onto the back porch, and called it ” the pool room”. It had a bathtub in it, which was kinda weird, but it basically was just a room I could go into, shut the door and change in. It was really cool.

One of my favourite things to do in the pool, aside from swimming, was have my friends over, and have singing competitions. DO NOT ASK ME WHY. I have no idea what lead us to make the connection between singing and swimming pools, but we all went for it. So much so, that during one particularly emotional performance of “somewhere over the rainbow” (what can I say, I like the classics) I turned my upper torso to the right side a little too quickly and lost my footing and threw myself, open mouth first, into the side of the pool. I had a dental appliance on at that point, so landing mouth first meant that I shoved a sharp metal bar into the roof of my mouth.

An emergency oral surgery and 3 days later, I was back at it, sans sharp metal bar (they took the whole thing out to let my mouth heal.) and better than ever.

One thing that I had managed to forget about was brought up by my older sister at my bachelorette party.

We were playing that drinking game- “I never” where you have to say “I never” and then say something you’ve never done, but you try to aim it at certain people in the room, and if you’ve done what that person has “never” done, then you lose a point, and after you lose 5 points you have to take a shot.

So my sister says, “I never went skinny dipping with my mom, sister and grandma at the same time!”

Which.. was slightly embarassing for both of us, because she actually HAD done that, because she was there too.

I would catch frogs that got stuck in the pool cover during the late fall, and set them under the wooden pallet we used as a landing platform for the ladder. Underneath the pallet it was dark and swampy, so I knew it would be perfect for a little froggie. I named him fred, and he stayed there for a few years, I think. (Or at least, I like to pretend.)

I would wake up early, and I’d swim all morning long while my mom baked and cooked. She’d always make as much as she had to during the early morning hours, with all the windows and doors open so the heat would go out and the cool morning air would fill the house. That way she didn’t have to have the oven on during the hot parts of the day.

We had a little pie shelf just outside one of the windows off the kitchen. It just so happened I could see it from the swimming pool, and anytime she baked a pie… any kind.. I could smell it, and I’d find myself being lured back into the house for a quick snack before returning to my watery playground.

Pie season went from the beginning of June until the middle of September, in my house. I know many other people who grew up in similar circumstances know what I’m talking about.
Pie season is a country thing. Pies were quick, easy and they fed a whole family. They don’t have to be eaten hot, so they are perfect for baking in the morning and refrigerating until dinner. They are also a great way to use up all that fruit that is attracting all those fruit flies, just before it goes off.

June was all about the strawberries, July was all about the cherries, August we had peaches and pears to deal with, and September was all about Apples.  Sure, there were other fruits- Things we’d go and “U-pick” from neighbouring farms, or my mom would get from the grocery store, or a neighbour would bring over after they had ran out of ideas of what to do with their personal crops. One year we ended up with a bag of lemons. Another year we had three grocery sacks full of bing cherries left on our doorstep by a relative that had gone and picked them, but didn’t know what to do with them.

The solution, most times, was pie. There was also freezing, juicing, canning and just plain snacking on the fresh fruit…

But the best smell of all, and the most welcome sign of summer starting, for me, is A piping hot strawberry pie, fresh from the oven.

So I made one.

I sliced up a ton of fresh strawberries added a few things and then prepared the crust..

Remember that 5 gallon drum of coconut?

Yep, I used some of that in the crust. Its perfect!

Served with sweet cream cheese (not to be mistaken with cream cheese icing)

Just look at that buttery crust…

And finally, the bite. mmm…mm…

Not that I needed to be reminded that summer is fast approaching, its only like- 90 degrees here.

But that pie was somethin else. You gotta love a nice fresh summer pie.
Almost as good as an otterpop.

..almost.

This recipe came about as part childhood memory and part necessity. The filling comes completely from my childhood. Its not hard to make a fruit filling for pie. The crust however, comes out of necessity. You’ll probably be seeing a lot of coconut added into recipes here and there in the near future.

My mom gave me a 5 gallon drum of dessicated coconut. So, I used that in addition to some sugar, flour and butter to make a delicious pie crust.

So without too much babbling, here is the recipe-

To make two pies-
Strawberry pie filling

6 cups sliced or chopped ripe strawberries
1 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cornstarch

In a medium sized bowl, mix the cornstarch and vanilla extract until the cornstarch is fully dissolved. To this mixture, add the six cups sliced or chopped strawberries and cup of brown sugar. Toss the mixture around a bit and allow to sit for about 10 minutes to fully macerate.

While you’re waiting for your strawberries to macerate…

Recipe for coconut pie crust-

2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dessicated coconut
3/4 cup butter, margarine or shortening (cold, so make sure its refrigerated)
3-5 tablespoons COLD water, as needed.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and coconut until evenly distributed. To this, rub or cut in your cold butter, margarine or shortening until the mixture resembles rough corn meal. Stir the mixture lightly, not to combine, but to make sure there is no loose coconut, flour or sugar at the bottom of the bowl under the mixture.

To this, add the cold water a tablespoon at a time, gathering the mixture up until it forms a ball of dough that is not sticky or tacky.

Cut the ball of dough in half, and roll it out on a floured board until its just a little bit more than a quarter of an inch thick. place dough in greased pie tin and trim edges. Pour in half of the strawberry mixture and fold down the edges of the pie crust to cover the strawberry mixture loosely.

Repeat for the second pie.

bake pies on the middle rack at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the crust on the edges starts turning a dark golden brown. Remove from the oven, cover the entire top of the pie with tin foil, cutting a slit in the center to allow steam to exit through the top. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Remove from the oven, remove the foil and allow to cool at room temperature for about half an hour before serving if you wish to serve it warm, otherwise, cool at room temperature for half an hour and place it in the fridge until you wish to serve it. Its delicious either way!

For a little extra something, I made a sweetend cream cheese.

Sweetened cream cheese is different than frosting, because its made with granulated white sugar and once its mixed, its still thick and resembles cream cheese before being altered. Its not fluffy at all, but very flavourful.

For one pie-

5 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract.

in a small bowl, use a spatula to press the cream cheese into the white sugar. Do not whisk or fluff. Its best to do this by hand. Once the sugar has been fully pressed into the cream cheese, add the vanilla and stir. The mixture should be thick, not watery or clumpy.

use either a prepared piping bag or a ziploc bag with a small hole cut in one corner to pipe a design on the plate, if you’re serving the pie, or ontop of the cooled strawberry filling, if you’re bringing it to a gathering or you’re gifting it.

Its REALLY good. Kind of like a strawberry shortcake, but a little sweeter.

So there you go, my strawberry pie!

-A.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under May 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.