Pie throwdown 2014

Nancy Burnham is once again the Berry Pie Throwdown organizer. She's gotten three fine local women to participate as judges this year:

• Becky Anderson, an artist who works in fused glass, has extra crowns for herself and the other judges, and is making a prize for the event. And she has a new kitten.
• Marlies Guest, who is new to Ester and wants to get involved in the community. Ester's all about the can-do, volunteer spirit, so she'll fit right in, we can tell already!
• PJ Strawther, who loves pugs! She's a fan of the Dog Park, and, obviously, loves pie too.

There will be room for a fourth judge, but you've got to get to the LiBerry Music Festival no later than 2 pm, because we'll be auctioning that seat off to the highest bidder!

Bring your homemade pies to the Golden Eagle between 12:30 and 2, and stick around for the awards at 3:30 (and the subsequent auction of the top winners!).The rest of the pies will be available for people to eat at requested $5 per slice donation.

Now, suppose you were here last year, or three years ago, and you recall a delicious pie that you'd like to make at home, but you're not sure how it was made? With so many original and unusual recipes, the LiBerry pies might be hard to replicate—that is, unless you had the Throwdown Cookbook!

For only $25, you too can make pies like these:

• Porknberry Pie (winner 2012, Best Savory Pie)
• Lenin Meringue Pie (winner 2011, Best Sweet Pie)
• Miniature Tomato Jam Pies (winner 2009, "Most Sophisticated" Award)
• Blueberry Chocolate Pie (winner 2009, "Most Surprising Ingredients" Award)
• Parsnip Custard Pie (winner 2010, "Most Unusual Pie" Award)
• Zucchini-Lavender Pie (winner 2010, "Most Savory Pie" Award)

and many others, including: Blu-Barb Crisp, Blueberry Rhubarb Pie, Cheesecake Pie with Blueberry Reduction, Chocolate Lingonberry Pie, Dark Chocolate Cloud Pie with Blueberry Topping, Easy Tomato Pie, Fauxberry Pie, Flower Power Pie, Fruit Pizza Pie, The Green Monster, Mixed Berry Pie, Raspberry Poppers, Spicy Blueberry Pie, and more!

Every year, you can add to your collection with individual recipe pages, available for a nominal price. Buy them all in a handy binder, or pick and choose from previous years and buy only the ones you want to create a cookbook to match your tastebuds. Available at the music festival!

Contact Nancy at 479-2507 for more information on the pie contest or to volunteer.

Happenings at the Clausen Cabin this month

Things have been amazingly busy at Ida and Ansgar's old cabin this month! We are converting it from a house to an actual library for children. Before we started work, we asked Ansgar's nephew, Edmund, what he thought about it, and here's what he wrote:

I’m sure that both Ansgar and Ida would be happy about the transition; Ida would be proud and Ansgar would be bemused to think that the site of so much good living and good drinking was now a children’s library. My, how times do change.…

I like the idea of opening up the inside space. Take out the walls and the bedroom closet and there should be plenty of space for tables and shelves. An office back where the heater is would indeed be small but it could work. Just remember to leave space on the windowsill to start your tomatoes in the spring.

 Many folks have been pitching in to help: Hans Mölders especially, but also Eric Glos, Shayne and Chantz Turner, and Deirdre Helfferich. Please thank them when you see them!

We could use some more carpentry and electrical help now, particularly some advice on how to deal with the log beams and distributing the weight. Call Hans at 687-6666 for more information.

On Saturday, April 26, two new volunteers showed up to the Spring Seed Library Cleaning. Callen Christiansen and Sol Traverso are interested in vertical gardening, and are going to set up a vertical bed on the back porch of the cabin, where it gets intense sunshine, and adopt a bed in the regular garden and help clean it up (plus, they'll get to grow vegetables there!). With Carla and Deirdre Helfferich, the seed library got moved off the sink and the seeds organized, and everybody had blueberry pie. Nancy Burnham, former board member, stopped in to pick up a few squash seeds, too.

Remember: if you are a library member, you can check seeds out from the seed library (just save some from your harvest at the end of the season and bring them back to us) or pick up trade seeds. We also have seed catalogs you can peruse, including local seed grower Zone 1 Grown/Pingo Farm.

Yummy berry list for pie making

So what constitutes a berry? Botanically speaking, it's a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary containing one or more seeds. Examples include:

• avocadoes
• bananas & plantains
• citrus fruits: lemons, oranges, limes, kumquats, Buddha's hands, grapefruit, etrogs, clementines, pomelos, red finger limes, papedas, mandarins, kinnows, etc.
• bearberries, bilberries, blueberries, cranberries, crowberries, honeyberries, huckleberries, lingonberries
• coffee (roasted coffee berries!)
• cucumbers (that means pickles!)
• currants, gooseberries
• elderberries
• grapes
• kiwis
• melons: canteloupes, honeydews, muskmelons, watermelons
• persimmons
• squash, winter & summer: pumpkins, zucchinis, gourds, luffas, etc.
• Solanaceae family fruit: Cape gooseberries, chiles, eggplants, groundcherries, peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes, etc.

Then there are fruit commonly referred to as berries that are not true berries, such as aggregate or accessory fruits. These can include:

• blackberries, cloudberries, raspberries, salmonberries, etc.
• highbush cranberries
• mulberries
• rose hips
• strawberries

More types of berries will be added here as we find out different varieties!