fruit for pies

[jade]

I am looking for a plant for pie production. The mountain apples seem more like a pear than apple so that's out. I am not sure of the cherries here. I have heard the suriam cherry is good but a lot smaller and the seed is a lot bigger than the cold climate cherries. Is it worth the extra work? Mulberry - I have tried a mulberry but I am not sure if it was ripe enough. Had a sour taste. Do they get sweet? Would they make a good pie? I would love to hear some suggestions.

[emorata]

not sure what location you are located at in puna....how about pies made of the following or combination of items, mango, kiwi, cherimoya, atemoyas, lilliquoy, strawberries, guavas, maybe get too saucy unless you make them into tarts or galettes?

[missydog1]

honestly, I can't think of an island fruit that makes a good pie fruit, unless you count bananas for banana cream pie.

The fruits here make excellent flavoring, for cake or cheesecake, or ice cream, sauce, or toppings.

The exception might be the local berries ... I am thinking opelu but I might be spelling it wrong.

Pie suggestion -- go to Don's Grill in Hilo. Don the owner makes lots of pies and all from scratch. Check out the pies he makes.

[Les C]

quote:

---

The exception might be the local berries ... I am thinking opelu but I might be spelling it wrong.

---

Yep, you spelled it wrong. Opelu is a fish. I can't say that it doesn't make a good pie...

The berry that you're thinking of may be 'ohelo. There are several berry-bearing shrubs that carry the name 'ohelo, including three species that are in the heath family, Vaccinium genus. The one growing in the dry, volcanic area, I believe, is 'ohelo 'ai, Vaccinium reticulatum. It's the favorite of Nene, Hawaiian Goose, and in the Park, you are asked to not pick these berries. It's purportedly the sweetest berry. There are two wet forest/bog species, 'ohelo kau la'au, V. calycinum, and 'ohelo, V. dentatum. The berries from these are supposedly not as sweet as 'ohelo 'ai. These are all higher elevation plants.

There is an Hawaiian endemic subspecies of strawberry, 'ohelo papa, Fragraria chiloensis sandwicensis. It grows in disturbed areas (e.g., along a trail) from 3500' to 6000'. Do strawberries make good pies, anyway?

Lastly, there is 'ohelo kai, Lycium sandwicense, which is in the nightshade family. It grows in the dry coastal lowlands. Its fruit is described as "marginally edible" by one source. Doesn't sound like a good pie candidate.

One caution when looking for red berries at higher elevations, be aware of the 'Akia group, Wikstroemia sp., which have attractive berries but are considered poisonous. These are some of the few native Hawaiian plants that have active alkaloids, according to Kerin Lilleeng-Rosenberger's book. One species, W. uva-ursi, is also known as Fish-Poison Plant.

A couple of considerations, although I don't know how viable they are for pies, are jaboticaba and poha. Poha is an introduced species in the nightshade family (like tomatoes), is mildly invasive, and is popular in jam-making. Jaboticaba, or Brazilian Grape Tree, has fruit that grow out of the branches. The Volcano Winery uses the juice from this fruit in most (all?) of their wines. I'm not making any claims about the quality of the wines, mind you. Both of these grow at low elevations.

Edited by - Les C on 08/06/2007 23:06:00

[missydog1]

Thanks Les, I had opelu in my head but knew it was wrong. I hear more talk from fishermen than berry-lovers ... ;-)

A couple of local places make ice cream and shave ice using `ohelo ...

I did not mean to recommend picking wild berries for pies, especially if one is to sell the pies, as the chance of passing on one's own mistaken selection of a poisonous berry would be scary.

Strawberries don't respond well to being baked, but strawberry-rhubarb pie is an old favorite.

I think most of the tropical fruits would be best as ingredients in gelled or cream pies (or chiffon), where cold ingredients can be set into a baked pie shell. They are mostly too soft and heat sensitive to make an apple, peach, cherry type fruit pie. Pineapple and mango are two that stand up decently to heat.

[lquade]

if you like pumpkin pie, try eggfruit... pretty darn good pie! especially with brown sugar... you can order tree through garden exchange, takes a while for them to get one in...dont forget pineapple cream pie too!

[Les C]

quote:

---

if you like pumpkin pie, try eggfruit... pretty darn good pie! especially with brown sugar... you can order tree through garden exchange, takes a while for them to get one in...

---

With egg fruit, it almost seems like you don't need to cook it, just spoon it into a pie crust. Weird stuff. Some of the sapotes are like that, too. I wonder how dragonfruit would do?

[Hotzcatz]

Surinam cherries are extremely tart, triple the amount of sugar in the pie recipe then taste to see if you should add more. I generally make them into jam but they can also be made into pie. They look like really tiny bright red pumpkins and the seed is kinda big. You can squeeze the seed out and then have the rest left to make the pie with. I generally run them through a food mill or ricer to get something the consistency of apple sauce. That makes a good jam, not so good for pie, I'd suspect.

Squash makes a good pumpkin pie and you could also make a sweet potato pie. You could make a purple sweet potato pie and have everyone guessing what sort of fruit is in it. Throw a few blueberries in it and they may think it's a blueberry pie.

Hmm, my grannie used to make "pecan pie" out of navy beans, you could grow those easily. She would simmer dry beans until they had an "al dente" crispness to them similar to pecans and then made pie out of them. A layer of real pecans on the top and you just naturally assumed the whole thing was pecans.

[wyatt]

We've made sweet potato pie. Of coarse it was purple. They grow like a weed.

Aloha
Wyatt



Edited by - wyatt on 08/15/2007 17:05:49

[Kelena]

Since Thanksgiving is next week, I wanted to bring this forward along with a recipe I found for Ohelo Berry pie, featured in Parade Magazine, of all places, last Sunday:

http://www.parade.com/food/WAE_recipes/Ohelo_Berry_Pie