Blueberries abound
|
Blueberry Pie a la Serres and Friends
Ingredients:
Preparation:
•Roll out remaining dough to 1/8-inch thick and cut our leaf shapes using a sharp small knife. Move this dough to a parchment-line or water-sprayed baking sheet, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.
•Put the blueberries in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with flour, 1 cup sugar, dot with butter. Toss gently to complete coat the blueberries.
•Beat egg with 1 cup heavy cream. Brush entire pastry crust, including bottom and edges, with the egg glaze. Pour the blueberries into the pastry shell. Arrange the leaves decoratively on top of the fruit, almost covering it. Brush the leaves with egg glaze and sprinkle with 1 Tbs. sugar.
•Bake pie for 50 minutes, or until blueberry juices bubble and thicken.
•Remove and let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.
•Makes one deep 11-inch pie.
- (Note: The Serres’ friend put the pie in the car when she left Sonoma, and the weather was so hot the pie was still warm when she arrived in Laytonville two and a half hours later!) |
|||
Spending time with Judy Serres is like going to a jazzy personal comedy hour for free. When I asked her if she cooks, her response was, “Well….I have!” When she told her husband that I wanted to talk to her about food and cooking, she said he said, “Excuse me?!” But her story has a lot to do with food and wine. While Judy’s official line is that “I stay home with the kids,” we all know there’s a lot more to the story. People who know her will recognize that I have omitted certain of her words! John’s father, Frank, had Serres Ranch, which includes the old Hooker Ranch where the family still lives, off of Highway 12 beyond Agua Caliente Road. John has had several businesses including Serres Construction and Serres Corporation, which have done everything from sand and gravel, as did his dad, grading and paving, cattle raising, vineyards, winemaking, and now blueberry farming. Judy boasts with a deep laugh that “I went into the office to help ten years ago, and the businesses went to h…!” While being one of the quickest humorists around, Judy is also quick to show her pride in her husband’s community contributions, and for good reason. John currently serves as President of the Sonoma County Fair Board and President of Valley of the Moon Little League. He donated Katie’s Field at Maxwell Park in honor of his mother, Katherine, who was “a baseball fanatic who would give $20 to any kid who hit a home run over the cyclone fencing.” John also donated $55,000 labor for the Field of Dreams between the Vallejo Home state park and the Depot Hotel, and he installed “Schantz Track” at Sonoma Valley High School. Judy deserves her own praise as well. With sons John and Buck off to great colleges, an accomplishment Judy stopped her truck to tell me with an enormous smile as she was leaving the Farmers’ Market, she focuses her attention on 15-year-old Taylor, local fundraising, and blueberry raising. Judy has raised major funds for Sonoma Charter School, all kinds of youth sports, education, and other youth projects, Cardinal Newman High School, and Future Farmers of America. Judy has her own little posse of friends, including thirty-something guys, whom she can call to show up and cook for just about any cause she attacks. At a recent fundraiser at Cline Cellars, her team raised $17,000 for FFA with a dinner of barbecue and oysters from Hog Island. The Serres bought a 5,000 acre ranch near Laytonville with former Sonoma builder Ed Mitchell, and the partnership decided to split off an 850-acre parcel “at the bottom of the ranch.” According to Judy, she and John “started walking the 850 acres and were stunned with what a nice piece of land it is. We ended up buying it ourselves” from their partnership with Mitchell. “John put in a dam to catch rainwater, built a dock, planted the pond with trout, developed roads, cleaned it all off, and planted, of all things, blueberries.” The blueberry thing developed after John scientifically tested soil samples, measured how many cool hours and how many hot hours, and narrowed potential crops down to blueberries or hazelnuts. Judy decided “blueberries,” partly because they appealed to her more, and partly because of increasing awareness of how good they are for people’s health. The Serres visited nurseries in Oregon to learn how to grow blueberries, what it takes, where to buy them. Well known Oregon blueberry grower David Brazleton told them that his daughter sells blueberries at their roadside farmstand “five pounds for $20.” On-the-ball Judy thought, whoa! Well, that’s not really what she said. “That’s $4 a pound, or $8,000 a ton. In 2,000, wine grapes were bringing $2-3,000 per ton, and you get eight to twelve tons of blueberries per acre, compared to four to six tons of grapes per acre. The first year Judy and John reaped a whopping 150 pounds of berries, the second year 1,000 pounds, the third year 13,000, and this year 35,000, with a forecast of 100,000 pounds next year. Judy is the spirited salesperson de resistance. No one could turn her down! Sonoma Market and Glen Ellen Village Market have been selling 1,000 pounds a day from its huge bulk bins that shoppers seem to love feeling as if they are diving in blueberries. Judy gives Dave Clark of Sonoma Market full credit for breaking with tradition and selling bulk blueberries that people could scoop out, practically with their own hands. Other top grocery stores carrying Serres Ranch blueberries include Oliver’s in Cotati and Santa Rosa, the Boardwalk in Tiburon, Mill Valley Market, Dean & DeLuca, and G&G, and next year Judy already has a commitment from United Markets and Greenleaf distributors who cater to better restaurants. Rivka Berg made blueberry jam for Serres, “but it turned out a little runny so we called it ‘sauce.’” Judy just delivered 4,800 pounds of blueberries to Koslowski Farms, and they will make Serres Ranch blueberry jam that will be ready in a couple of weeks.
|
