If sun is the warmth of summer, berries are the joy.  When else can you REALLY eat decent berries?  This week the kids and I went blackberry picking.  I’m surprised that my 16, 14, and 11 year old kids will still put on long sleeves and pants on a warm summer day to pick berries. They complain when they have to walk outside their air-conditioned, computer-filled rooms to take out the trash or pull a few weeds.  But tell them it is berry picking day and they jump at the opportunity to sweat, hike and get pricked and scratched.  When the reward is blackberries; who’s counting the pain.  And not only were there berries, but by the end of the day, there was also a pie.

I like to follow Michael Pollan’s advice in his book, Food Rules.  If you’re going to eat junk, make it yourself.  A good homemade berry pie wins over a chemical-laden Hostess Fruit Pie any day of the year.  When we make our own desserts, Pollan argues, we eat less and it is higher quality.  I am not a huge fan of sweets. Sugar offers you body nothing; the damage-your-cells-and-weaken-your-immune-system kind of nothing.   I’ve gotten away from sweets and I don’t crave sugar.  But kids, well they’re different.  The sugar hucksters appear around every bend and kids think they’ve been denied a basic human freedom if they don’t get plastic-wrapped, sugar-filled snacks.  Trust me; I’ve had this argument 327 different ways. 

But a homemade pie.  Yum.  Even I can embrace that treat.  So indulge this summer.  Eat and cook with the fruit that is abundant.  And if you make a pie, go the extra step to make the pastry.  The stuff from the refrigerated section in the grocery store is filled with chemicals and hydrogenated fat.  If pie crust intimidates you, make a crisp.  (Check my website next week for the best peach crisp recipe.) Learning that dessert doesn’t have to come from a box is one more stop on your family’s journey to a healthier lifestyle.

This is also posted at: Food Renegade Fight Back Friday and Vegetarian Foodie Fridays and Wholesome Whole Foods