Blackberry-Apple Pie With Tapioca

Picking Apples by Frederick Morgan


These are photos I took today, of my process of making this pie.

Even though the ground looks very dry, those bushes on the edge of the farm road are full of fruit.

Eaten right off the bush, they taste just right. There really is no need to make a pie. Just eat them plain, or add cream.

The apples, however, are very sour, so,  mixed with the berries, they make a perfect pie.

Apple-Blackberry Pie With Tapioca

(Tapioca is a natural product made from a fruit called tapioca, from South America, and it serves well to thicken pies which tend to have a lot of juice in them. It can be purchased by the box at the grocery store.)

3 c. fresh or frozen blackberries

3 tbsp. quick cooking tapioca

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. butter

1 c. sliced apples

1 1/4 c. sugar

Combine blackberries and apples and place in a 9-inch pie pan lined with pastry shell. Combine sugar, tapioca, and cinnamon; stir well. Sprinkle sugar mixture over blackberries and apples. Dot with butter.

Cover with top crust. Cut several slits near center and seal edges. Bake at 350 degrees about one hour.

Sugar Substitutes: Use your preference regarding sweeteners: honey, frozen concentrate apple or white grape juice, beet sugar, date sugar, etc. Any fruit or berries that have been heated, will become less sweet and will need to be sweetened.

NOTE: Place foil or cookie sheet under pie while cooking should juices cook out.

This is how I prepare the filling: I first peel and slice the apples thinly and put them in a saucepan with a little water. Then I add sweetener such as honey or date sugar or whatever I have. I cook the apples until they are tender, and then I mix the berries and tapioca (which helps thicken the pie filling) right into that apple mixture and pour the whole thing into the prepared pie crust. I do not cook the berries, but only add them when the apples are tender.  You can get all kinds of pie crust recipes online and pick the one that works best for you.

 I quadrupled the recipe, as you can see, using a huge casserole dish.

Blackberries make a nice tea, too. Just put a few in the tea pot and add boiling water. Mash the berries with a spoon,

and pour through a strainer. Add honey to sweeten.

The apples from the tree taste good with the black berries. Around here, blackberry bushes are a nuisance, as they creep up around the foundations of the house, or come up everywhere that you don't want them. They are so common, and people are always trying to get rid of them, and yet, a small container of fresh blackberries in a store is very, very expensive!

Children Picking Blackberries by Miles Foster

















Picking Blackberries by William McGeorge







Berry Pickers