Today, September 29th, is Michalmas. For those of you not familiar with the holiday, it’s the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel. Michaelmas always comes after the Fall Equinox and the Holyrood Ember Days. This feast day is also, supposedly, the last day we should eat blackberries.
Why is that? Because, according to legend, on this day St, Michael–Heaven’s greatest angel–defeated the angel Lucifer. At the end of a great battle, St. Michael banished Lucifer from Heaven. When Lucifer fell into Hell–now as the devil–he landed, bottom first, onto a thorny blackberry bush. In anger, he spit and stomped on the bush, cursing its fruit. (It’s also possible he did other things to the poor bush, but I don’t want to be too graphic or gross.)
So some believe that it’s not a good idea to eat blackberries after Michaelmas as they’ll be too sour. Of course, blackberries naturally sour in late September due to the changing weather. And I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that today is also National Poisoned Blackberry Day.
When I was growing up, we celebrated this holiday every year. And we always made sure to pick all the blackberries from the bushes in our woods no later than September 28. Then, after church on September 29, we turned the berries into a pie in honor of St. Michael. Since it’s considered a feast day, we always added vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream. Below is the my favorite recipe for Michaelmas Blackberry Pie. I always make my own pie crusts, but you could use store-bought or frozen as well. For those interested in making their own, here is a link to my easy pie crust recipe: Butter Pie Crust.
I hope that you all have a wonderful Michaelmas and enjoy the last of the blackberries.
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