Mulberry-Rhubarb Pie

Mulberry trees are common throughout the temperate zones of the world, having spread from south and southeast Asia on the decks of British ships to many places around the world. Their fruit is very delicate, a bucket of mulberries will quickly crush the bottom layer into juice, which has severely limited their commercialization. They do show up in processed form as juice, wine or coloring extracts. However, if you are lucky enough to live near a stand of them, they are effectively free for the taking as long as they are bearing fruit, generally throughout the early summer.

Being very sweet on their own, it's helpful to add something tart to give a pie a more full-bodied flavor. Citrus might work, but that's a winter fruit, and we're all about being seasonally appropriate here. The obvious choice is rhubarb. The combination works remarkably well with the whole wheat crust.

Ingredients:
1 double-crust worth of whole wheat crust
4 cups mulberries
3 cups rhubarb
3/4 cup + 2T sugar
2T cornstarch

Procedure:

Roll out the bottom crust into a 13" circle and place into a 9.5" deep dish pie pan. Preheat the oven to 400F.

Combine the fruit and .75C sugar in a bowl, carefully stir to mix (the mulberries are delicate, so don't push them too hard). Combine the remaining sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl, then mix carefully into the fruit mixture.

Pour carefully into the pie pan, add a lattice top, and bake for about 40min. The pie is done when the juices bubble thickly, I've had to add an aluminium heat shield to the rim at about 30min.

Let cool thoroughly.