Summer’s not complete for me unless it includes berry picking – that’s how much of a summer ritual it’s become. I was overjoyed when my friends, Paul and Marie, agreed to accompany me to the coast south of San Francisco for some olallieberry picking at Phipps Farm and Country Store.

I got enough berries for two pies, I think, and I’ll probably return later this summer for boysenberries.

The overcast light made for some wonderful photographic opportunities.

In addition to the country store, there are also birds, including a peacock and some ugly looking turkeys. I can’t really describe it. You’ll just have to drive down there and see for yourself.

My old friends from San Jose, Pat and Peter, met us at Phipps. It was great to see them. After berry picking, we drove a couple of miles north to San Gregorio for coffee.

The San Gregorio General Store had live music – on a Saturday afternoon no less. How wonderful! It’s a terific venue and they have a great selection of hats too.

All in all, it was another spectacular day on the California coast.

Sunday it was cool, cloudy and sort of rainy and my plans to the beach were thwarted (but not by the weather). Bradley came to the rescue and helped me make the best of my circumstances. If you’re going to be stuck at home, it helps to have a five year old to pal around with. The day turned into a celebration of the end of peach season. Not the end of summer for that will continue here for the months to come.

I unearthed an old picture book that I used to read to the children entitled Peach & Blue and read it to Bradley. I love the ending of this book which is an unlikely sort of love story between a blue bellied toad and a peach.

Sniff. That ending always makes me a little teary eyed.

It so happened that I had six peaches in the truck of my car and I figured it was enough to make a pie and that’s what I did. With my assistant “Blue” (aka Bradley) I commenced to throw one together. You should now by now that nothing makes me happier than baking a pie. It always lifts me out of a slump.

Bradley enjoyed it too.

And we all enjoyed it for dessert.

I love you Blue. I love you Peach. Sniff.

blueberry pie, originally uploaded by alicethelma.

It’s the of winter but as chance would have it, I had a couple of bags of frozen blueberries in the freezer from last summer’s harvest. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve made three pies and I’ve been experimenting with just the right ratio of tapioca to sugar and the optimum oven temps to produce the perfect pie. Here is my results:

Perfect Blueberry Pie

Filling:
4 cups frozen blueberries
¼ cup tapioca
¼ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons butter

Pie Crust for 9 ½ inch pie

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees (Fahrenheit).

Mix together the blueberries, tapioca, sugar and lemon juice and let stand for about 15 minutes. Assemble pie, dotting the filling with pats of butter sealing the pie with the top curst and place in oven on bottom rack. Bake for one hour.

Yep, that’s all there is to it. The secret was baking the pie on the bottom rack. That technique produced a lovely brown, crispy bottom crust and perfectly formed pie wedges. Wish I could show you, but we ate it!