Blackberry Lavender Double-Crust Pie (Moon Gardening)

I spent the weekend eating pie. It was a good weekend. In between my pie lust, I planted all of my "above ground" vegetables. That's a moon-planting rule of thumb: plant above ground crops when the moon is waxing, that is--during the phase of the New Moon up to the Full Moon. (Insert song here: Fifth Dimension, Age of Acquarius.)

It's been a busy past two weeks. What with my library presentations, gardening, general lawn maintenance (then periods of "recovery" afterward), a plant sale here, a visit to a lavender farm there, all the other time in between: cooking, playing scrabble, knitting, guitar practicing, cookbook buying. . . time has simply gotten away from me.

A friend and I visisted a lavender farm last week. This lavender place was not exactly what I'd imagined. In fact, it was not at all like the pictures I'd seen on the internet. I took the high road on the matter and bought a lavender cookbook while there. I felt  bad for the poor lavender plants--our climate had not been kind to the plants. While lavender is fairly easy to grow--I have my lavendar plants scattered throughout my garden tucked into different places here and there--it's a hardy perennial in my garden. I have some plants that are six years old. 

I heart lavender--it's my favorite bath soak, favorite fragrance (I heart Meyer's Lavender room spray), favorite tea--you get the picture. It's been known to help with insomnia, mood swings, depression, stress, anxiety and headaches. I suffer from at least one of those ailments at any given moment. I keep a ready supply of lavendar on hand at all times. I've been having a cup of lavendar tea every day for a week now. I've been sleeping like a baby. It may be the lavender or it may be I am just so dog tired.   

One of my lavender plants.

I had a mid-life change of heart recently. It was a re-birth of sorts. The kind of change that I'd felt in my gut was inevitable. I'll keep this short.

A friend of mine from way, way back phoned out of the blue last week. We had not spoken in at least a year or more. No emails. No Christmas cards. Nothing. While we share a legacy of sorts in terms of our history--I'd been having doubts as to whether or not the relationship would endure. I've changed. She's changed. Life happens. Baggage and drama that were once the glue that kept us together began to matter less to me. And apparently to her as well. The call was to announce her arrival in town (after seven years of not seeing her), that "we" would be spending time together--she'd pass through, spending a few nights with me. That the visit coincided with the anniversary of my mother's passing (an incredibly difficult time for me--having the potential to send me into therapy) AND her birthday would not matter.

And how are you doing? I waited for the question. I sat listening to this voice I'd heard a thousand times before and felt like it was a voice of someone I barely knew. Then she said she had to go. And that was that.

I was spent. It took me a day of reflection to make the next call. It was to her father. He and I are very close. I shared this out-of-the-blue call with him, then added I'd not be hosting her for the "visit". I layered in my personal view of things and how much I'd felt her life had become her favorite thing in the world. And unfortunately, no one else seemed to register for her. Sadly, he agreed. It was awful for both of us. But here's the thing: when you get to be Almost Fifty, you begin to realize that the time you have left is less than the time you've already lived. Life is short. People change. Compromising is less appealing. Baggage or not. 

Another life lesson. I've not been haunted with regret. I'm not wringing my hands. I've not lost any sleep (lavender tea). My gut was right. This decision, while very difficult, was also very much the right decision to make. Ah. Friends. 

Fruit pies are mistake-proof. (Sometimes photos are NOT--sorry for this over-exposed shot--still getting used to my new camera. . . grrrr.) You could dress a fruit pie up in any number of ways, tuck it into the flakiest dough and never, ever once worry about failure. Fruit pies don't fail. Since I'd been all-lavendar, all-the-time for a week now, it was only right that lavender make an appearance in this pie. It was a three-nighter dessert. Substitute any berry at the farmer's market right now--you can't go wrong here.

A bit of my moon garden for you first.

Worked till I could work no more. Two whole days! I had to quit working Sunday afternoon. I could barely move. Even going so far as to enlisting help from Dr. Thyme who volunteered going to Home Depot for me in the middle of a Saturday-before-Mother's-Day-afternoon for an "emergency" replenishment of potting soil and mulch. He came home a little worse for the wear--god love him.

I have more mulching to do. But for now--here's what was planted: tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, basil, beans (lima beans, pinto beans, green beans--I love beans). I am growing my cucumbers and beans on the tee-pee tents I made from tomato poles. Under the tee-pees I planted lettuce greens and a bush variety tomato plant. I planted zinnia seeds around the border of the beds--great companion plants for veggies, by the way. At the plant sale, I bought three dwarf-sized fruit trees: two apple and one pear. I'll keep those in containers for a bit. Around the new beds here I also planted a snowball bush, a rose of sharon bush (to attract bees), elephant ears (just because I love them), moon flower and morning glory seeds--to grow up my trellis. I hope the seeds didn't get washed away with the four inches of rain we got Monday and Tuesday. Time will tell.

Saturday we ate all the salad greens I'd grown. They were delish! I love my co-planting here: onion barrel with salad mix on top. I should be able to harvest lettuce from this all summer long.

There is more to be done in the yard. Seems to never end this time of year. My third series of library classes meets in a week. It's about cooking with veggies. Something I think I know a thing or two about, wouldn't you say?

Here's the pie recipe--so easy. So yummy.

Blackberry Lavender Double-Crust Pie

4 cups berries (your choice)
1/3 cup sugar (or more to taste)
zest of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons of dried lavender
juice of half a lemon
1/4 cup corn starch
1 recipe double-crust pie dough (recipe here)
1 tablespoon sugar (to sprinkle over the pie shell before baking)

Preheat oven to 425. Place the pie pan on a baking sheet to keep any berry juice from landing on your oven bottom. Place the berries and all other ingredients in a large bowl and toss gently. Set aside while you prepare the dough. Place the bottom crust of the pie in the pie pan. Fill with the berry mixture. Place second half of pie shell over the top of the berries. Use a cookie cutter of any small shape and cut out bits of the dough and place the bits of the cut-out dough on top of the shell. Bake pie for 40 minutes or until the dough begins to turn golden brown on top. Remove from oven and cool completely before serving. Store covered in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.