wonderberry pie

So I finally made a pie of those berries I picked and froze all last season. Wonderberry, aka sunberry, aka garden huckleberry. It's in the nightshade family, so I admit I felt hesitant to actually eat them even though all the info tells me it's fine if they're ripe- and I kept thinking of all those people who were afraid of eating tomatoes for centuries . . . 

I had only two cups, so cut the recipe in half for one small pie.

You cook the berries to soften them (though perhaps since mine were frozen I could skip that?) and they turned kinda green which was a bit unsettling

more so when mashed they looked greyish- ugh-

but I found that's natural it's same as when purple pole beans turn green in cooking- and when I stirred in the lemon juice it reverted to purple.

Ready for the oven

My husband liked it! The taste and texture (not so chewy but definitely full of seeds) reminded him of the mulberry pies I used to make. To me the flavor was a bit more rasin-y. It was pretty tasty with some vanilla ice cream. Not like huckleberries or blueberries at all (which the name and appearance resemble) but all its own thing. 

So this year I'll have to grow at least two bushes, then we can have more pie! and it's pest-attracting properties seem very useful in the garden, that makes two good reasons.