Marionberry Pie
What’s Thanksgiving without pie? Though apple and pumpkin typically reign supreme during this holiday, try adding a twist to your dinner spread by letting the Pacific Northwest marionberry shine instead.
The marionberry looks just like the blackberry, but while the common blackberry has existed for a long time (Indigenous communities used them as food, medicine and dye for crafts), the marionberry was created in the 1940s at Oregon State University. Yes, created — it’s a hybrid of the Chehalem blackberry and the olallieberry and originated in Marion County, Oregon (hence its name).
Marionberries are grown exclusively in Oregon and known as a summer fruit, harvested in mid-July. In 2017, Oregon made marionberry pie the state’s official pie.
The marionberry is known for its balance of sweet and sour, with an earthy sweetness. While its flavor shines, it’s quite fragile and does not travel well, which is why it’s not widely known outside of the Pacific Northwest. They still work great as a pie filling; they just need to be treated with extra care, notes the owner of Rumbly in my Tumbly Pie Company, Shannon McDowell. Her Lynnwood shop won Best Dessert in KING 5’s 2023 Best of Western Washington competition, voted by viewers.
For McDowell, who started her pre-order pie shop officially in 2021, the marionberry shines on its own.
“Marionberries are one of the very few berries where you just don’t have to add anything,” McDowell said. “So many berries you have to add a little bit of lemon zest or cinnamon or something to it to make it stand out, but I don’t add anything to marionberry because the flavor’s just so good.”
To make marionberry pie, you need frozen marionberries, but McDowell warns that they can’t be found in normal grocery stores. She recommends going to a CHEF’STORE or sourcing them from a local farm, such as Remlinger Farms in Carnation. After getting the frozen berries, McDowell defrosts them in the fridge overnight and then drains the excess juice.
The key to any pie, according to McDowell, is a good handmade crust.
“It’s something that anybody can do if they just follow directions and practice a little bit. It’s a fairly simple thing to do,” McDowell said. “It has to be made by hand. If you buy the Pillsbury stuff or the stuff that’s store-bought, it’s never as good. So to me, that’s the key to good pies. The whole thing is the crust … nobody just wants to eat pie filling.”
Here is McDowell’s recipe for a flaky marionberry pie.