It’s SPRRIIIIIIIINNNNNGGGG!

And here are some strawberries from our garden to prove it!

While I was making this Strawberry-Raspberry Mint Pie I just couldn’t stop taking pictures of the colorful filling. I love all the different textures; the powdery spices, the bumpy raspberries, the dotted strawberries, the wrinkled leaves. There’s just enough mint in this pie to give it a super-interesting depth of flavor. You don’t really taste mint as a separate flavor; you just notice a coolness in your mouth after each bite.

Here are a few quick facts about strawberries that you may or may not already know.

1. California grows 80% of the strawberries in the United States, and our strawberry season starts early, at about the end of March.

2. Strawberries rot when they touch the ground. That’s why they’re called strawberries, because bedding the area around the plants with straw keeps them from spoiling.

3. Strawberry pies bubble over like crazy. (I talked about this last summer.) It’s not quite as dramatic when the strawberries are mixed with other fruit, which is why you’ll rarely find an all-strawberry pie.

I baked this pie the morning of Easter Eve (?? You know what I mean.) I am going to take this opportunity to squeeze in a small brag and show you that I also made Chango Bars for my second grade class and bread at the same time. Boom.

And then we went to the airport to pick up my Aunt Sarah, Uncle Joe, and cousin Matt from Minnesota! It was Matt’s spring break, and he very wisely had decided California was the destination of the year.

We fed him lots of In-n-Out burgers to ensure that he’ll come back soon.

Here’s the pie, all dressed up for Easter Sunday. The pastry here (Tender Cream Cheese Pastry) is my favorite from Ken Haedrich’s cookbook*, and it just gets even better with a little powdered sugar on top.

A good pie makes for a happy aunt.

*P.S. I know many of you have gotten so tired of looking at my pictures of pie that you have already purchased the Pie cookbook. Good on you. If any of the rest of you are on the verge, let me remind you that it’ll only set you back $21.95 if you purchase it through Ken’s website, The Pie Academy. And it’ll set you way ahead in quality of life.