Spring time in East Texas and Dewberries

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
                                                   

I love spring time in East Texas.  The beauty of the azaleas and dogwoods are an awesome sight. It would be great if we could just freeze this time of year and not have to endure the hot humid summer which always follows.  Today, Rick and I went to his Deer Lease which is about 35 miles north of our home. Rick keeps a travel trailer there for his home away from home during hunting season.  The purpose of our trip was to close everything up, clean up and bring items home which he (Rick) will need for an upcoming turkey hunt to West Texas.  After we left the main highway and drove deeper into the Big Ticket we began seeing bushes with little white flowers along the one lane road.  These white blooms are the beginning of what will become dewberries.  It brought back memories of my childhood in Woodville.  Our house was not far from the cemetery where all of the neighbor kids gathered to play.  In May the fence around the cemetery was covered with dewberry brambles.  I can remember how good those berries tasted as we filled our bellies.  Of course when we got home it was no secret what we had been doing because of the color of our mouths and also the bluish-purple smears on our clothing.  When my grandmother was visiting she would send us back with a large plastic mixing bowl to gather what was left.  Then she would make us a Dewberry Clobber.  (The recipe follows.)

 The berry brambles we saw today won’t yield their harvest until mid-May.  Rick said we needed to mark our calendar so we won’t forget to go back and pick enough for a clobber. Maybe you can find some dewberries and make your own clobber. 

Dewberry Cobbler

Crust ingredients:                                                                         

1/2 stick of butter (2 oz.)

1 cup of flour (6 oz.)

1/2 cup sugar (3 oz.)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup of buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon salt

Filling ingredients

4 cups dewberries or blackberries

1/2 cup sugar (3 oz.)

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the rinsed berries in a large cast-iron skillet or nine-inch round cake pan, and toss the berries with the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and lemon juice. Let them sit for 20 minutes.

To make the crust, melt the butter on low in a pan, and then add the other ingredients. Dough will be slightly sticky, moist yet pliable.

Pat out the dough and place it over the berries.

Bake 40 minutes or until light brown and bubbling.

Serves six