An Easy Recipe for Old-Fashioned Blackberry Crisp (and Life in a Very Small Town)

This simple crisp is a sweet comfort treat for breakfast, snack time, or dessert.

Because our farm is located several miles past the last mailbox on the local delivery route, the U.S. postal service won't come out this far. Instead, they provide us with a post office box in town at no charge.

'Town' is ten miles away and consists of a church, a tiny post office—where you can only collect the mail in your box when the office is actually open for business—and a general store where the gas is full serve and you pay with cash or put it on a tab.

The small, dark store, which is freezing in winter and a stuffy furnace in summer, has three chairs lined up just inside the heavy white front door (that jingles each time it opens), allowing whoever is sitting around shooting the bull an excellent view of everyone coming and going.

If the owner is in the back slicing up deli meat or making a sandwich or out front pumping gas, the area next to the cash register quickly fills with patiently waiting customers.

More below. . .

Over in the grass by the ancient off-road diesel pump there are stacks of painted metal farm gates and corral panels for sale, and on the other side of the post office there's a narrow, low slung building that used to be a bar (the sign still hangs above the door) that is now filled with rows of 50-pound sacks of feed and salt blocks.

There's also a pool table, a juke box, and an old sofa in there, though I never see anyone using them, probably because the place is always kept locked during the day. Apparently there's a high threat of local feed thieves around here.

In front of the store there's a long table made from pieces of plywood set on 50-gallon metal drums that's laden with an ever changing display of new and used junk. A big spray-painted sign next to it says $1.00. I have no idea where all the stuff comes from, but yesterday I bought three of those indestructible plastic milk crates that say USE BY OTHER THAN REGISTERED OWNER PUNISHABLE BY LAW and make good nesting boxes for hens. (Please don't turn me in.)

The dusty aisles of the store offer everything from mouse traps to movies for rent, and although the official name of the place includes the word 'grocery,' the foodstuffs available mostly comprise a wide variety of junk foods. But there are usually a few cartons of somebody's extra backyard chicken eggs for sale, and once in a while you can find a brown paper bag filled with fat heads of locally grown organic garlic tucked between the candy bars and Little Debbie cakes.

And if you're really lucky, up in the glass front refrigerator case by the door you'll spot a few wooden cartons of wild blackberries stashed among the Mountain Dew and Yoohoo chocolate sodas, picked that morning by one of the local Amish girls and selling for $2.50 apiece.

During three rare trips into town during the same week, I bought 11 quarts.

By the third visit, I hadn't even climbed out of our truck before the grandkids of the owner were running out of the store yelling, "Do you need some blackberries today?"

I can be such an easy sell.

Farmgirl Susan's Old-Fashioned Blackberry Crisp

Makes one 8-inch square crisp

**Click here to print this recipe**

Fruit crisps give you back so much more than you put into them. They require less effort than a pie but are usually met with just as much enthusiasm. We enjoy ours morning, noon, and night, and I don't make them nearly often enough.

This topping is adapted from my Easy Autumn Pear and Apple Crisp recipe. If you prefer, you can make it with just whole wheat flour or just all-purpose flour.

I tossed the blackberries with organic turbinado sugar (also called raw sugar), which I'm finding bakes up just as nicely as regular granulated, like in these Midnight Cry Mocha Brownies. All sorts of organic sugars, including even brown sugar, are thankfully becoming mainstream.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients; they really do make a difference. Local Harvest is a fantastic resource for locating all kinds of healthy food grown close to home.

Ingredients:
Topping:

1/3 cup organic all-purpose flour

1/3 cup organic whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)

2/3 cup light brown sugar, preferably organic

2/3 cup organic old-fashioned oats (not quick cooking oats)

1/2 cup (1 stick/4 ounces) organic butter, cut into small chunks

Filling:

2 pounds blackberries (about 7 cups)

1/2 cup organic turbinado sugar (or granulated sugar)

1 to 2 Tablespoons organic all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

Instructions:
Heat the oven to 375°.

For the topping:

Combine the flours, brown sugar, and oats in a medium bowl. Blend in the butter using a pastry blender, two forks, or your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Some larger chunks of butter are fine.

For the filling:

Place the blackberries in a large bowl and use a large spoon to toss them with the sugar, flour (use 2 Tablespoons if your berries are really juicy), and cinnamon. Sprinkle the almond extract over the berries and toss well.

Pour the fruit into an 8-inch square baking dish and cover evenly with the topping.

Bake for 35 minutes, or until the topping is brown and the fruit is bubbling. Serve warm or at room temperature, with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream if desired.

This crisp will keep for 3 days in a cool pantry or the refrigerator. It also freezes well. I usually freeze one or two servings in containers (I use this Pyrex 14-piece storage set so much I bought a second one), but you could probably freeze the whole crisp; either leave it right in the pan (if it's freezer safe), or line the pan with heavy foil before baking, freeze the crisp in the pan, then lift the whole thing out of the pan in one big piece and transfer it to a container or zipper freezer bag. Set it back in the pan when you defrost it.

Craving more sweet treats? Try these other Farmgirl Fare recipes:

Cookies and Bars

Baby Chocolate Chip and Toffee Shortbread Bites

Chocolate Biscotti For Beginners

Toasted Almond Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Big, Soft, and Chewy Molasses Ginger Spice Cookies with Raisins

Big, Soft, and Chewy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies (and how to hug a sheep)

Yip Yap Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Snaps

Blueberry Breakfast Bars

Just Peachy Blueberry Breakfast Bars

Apple Blueberry Crumble Bars

Quick and Easy Raspberry Almond Bars

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin Cookie Bars

Muffins and Scones

Cranberry Christmas Scones (tasty any time of year)

Spicy Pumpkin Pecan Raisin Muffins

100% Whole Grain Bran Muffins (four different flavors)

100% Whole Grain Ginger Pear Bran Muffins

Cakes, Tarts, and More

Quick Emergency Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Babycakes

Easy Orange Yogurt Loaf Cake

Heavenly Lemon Coconut Quick Bread

Chocolate, Cinnamon & Banana Mexican Monkey Cake

Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Spice Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Really Raspberry Tartlets

Autumn Pear and Apple Crisp

Still hungry? You'll find links to all my sweet and savory Less Fuss, More Flavor recipes in the Farmgirl Fare Recipe Index.

© FarmgirlFare.com, where we're headed to a town meeting tonight to see if we can keep our little post office—which is on the list with over 3,000 others across the country—from being shut down. Our chances don't look good, but we have our hooves, paws, and fingers crossed.