Yum Saskatoons!

My man and I had a wonderful afternoon today at the Kingsland Farmer's Market. We picked up quite a nice haul including a fantastic saskatoon honey mead made by Fallentimber Meadery, located just outside of Calgary. It has the light sweetness from the honey but the saskatoons give it a very nice fruity body. Very delicious! It was so good in fact that both Trev and myself each had to purchase a bottle. 

Also in stock were some nice fresh saskatoon berries! I haven't had many of these at all since we moved away from Saskatchewan as children so I was very excited to see that they had a few litres left in stock! 

When we were little we would go to the fields and come back with a few bowls filled with berries with which my mother would make some delicious saskatoon tarts for us. For those of you who have never had a saskatoon berry, (I think they are mostly native to Canada and northern USA) these berries look like smaller blueberries but have a sharper, stronger and richer taste. Very nice. 

We had a bush in our backyard in Calgary but I never seemed to be able to get the berries in time. Whenever i would take my bowl out, the birds had eaten them all. In fact one year I was waiting patiently for the day they turned ripe. Every day i would go out and check to see if they were purple yet. The day they turned, I rushed out with my bowl in hand and those little piglets had somehow eaten every single berry off the bush! 

Anyway, following tradition, I have whipped up a batch of tarts. I got the recipe from the Saskatoon Harvesters website.  http://www.saskatoonharvesters.com/Recipes.page I didn't have sour cream so I have substituted heavy plain yogurt instead. We will see how the recipe goes. Here it is for you:

Saskatoon Tarts

1 c. sugar

1 c. sour cream (I used yogurt)

3 tbsp flour

1 tbsp lemon juice

Heat ingredients until sugar dissolves. Make sure you don't burn it. Add 2 cups of berries. Pour into tart shells. Bake 30 min at 350 deg. F. Yield 24 tarts. Eat and enjoy!

My haul from the market

The mead and the berries can be seen in the back. My lovely yellow tomatoes and orange beets in front. Yum!

Add the sugar and four to the pan.

Add the lemon juice

Add yogurt or sour cream

Stir until sugar dissolves

Add berries and take off burner

Put into tart shells and cook

Yum saskatoon berry tarts!