Squash Pie

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 cup shelled pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup shelled sunflower seeds
• ½ cup broken puffed wild rice
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 2 tsp. pure maple syrup
• ½ cup water
• extra seeds for pushing into the formed crust

Pie Filling:

• 2 small gete-okosimaan (*Use Butternut Squash as a substitute)
• 2 T oil + 2 tsp.
• 4 tsp. pure maple syrup
• ½ tsp. salt

Fiddlehead Salad:

• About 3 handfuls of fresh sumac berries (*Use fresh cranberries as a substitute)
• 24 dehydrated (or fresh!) wild edible fiddle head ferns. (NOTE: Edible fiddleheads vary with climate and ecosystem. Here in Minnesota, I collect Ostrich Fern fiddleheads. A fiddlehead is a general term for the unfurled leaf, when it’s still all cooled up and resembles the scroll pegheads on some stringed instruments. It is a term that can apply to any species, so check which species are edible in your region. If not availabe, you can use 2 stalks of asparagus, chopped, as a substitute.)
• 8 wild rosehips, slightly dehydrated and seeded
• 1 dozen small crabapples, cored and chopped
• 8 dehydrated wild leek greens, chopped (*Use onion cut into 1/8” half-moon strips as a substitute)
• 4 T real maple syrup
• ½ tsp. sea salt
• 1 T oil

Instructions

1. 1
   Crust: Process seeds in a food processor until the mixture is fine enough that it starts clumping to itself. Add the broken puffed wild rice. (To make puffed wild rice, simply heat a dry pan over medium heat and add wild harvested wild rice to the hot pan about 2 T at a time. It will puff quickly, so shake the pan a lot and have something to pour the rice in quickly nearby. Break the puffed rice in a food processor for about 20-30 seconds.) Add the salt, maple syrup, and water. Blend until the batter is equally moist. Batter will be formable. Push into an ungreased pie pan and bake for 15 minutes at 350F and check for browning. If the bottom isn’t browned at all yet, turn the oven down to 325F and watch the crust for light, even browning. Remove from oven and cover to cool until bottom of pan is cool enough to cool in fridge. Take crust out of fridge at least a half hour before adding pie filling.
2. 2
   Cut the ends off of 2 small gete-okosimaan. Cut squash in half across the round-way. Peel each half then cut squash in half again, this time from top to bottom. Remove the seeds and cut squash into about 1inch cubes. Toss with oil.
3. 3
   Cook at 350F for 15 minutes. Check for browning and softness. Turn pan if needed and cook for another 15 minutes. Squash should be starting to brown and will be soft when poked. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
4. 4
   Blend squash in a food processor along with maple syrup, salt, and oil. Spoon into crust and smooth the top out. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Pie should feel slightly firm to the touch. Crust should be browning and smell delicious! Cool to room temperature before cutting.
5. 5
   *Pack fresh sumac berries in a 16 ounce canning jar, fill with water and soak overnight.*
6. 6
   In the morning, strain out the berry solids through a cotton cloth and to the liquid (should be almost 1.5 cups) add maple syrup, oil, salt, ferns, rosehips, and crabapples. Let sit in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours. Add leeks, stir, and sit for another 10 minutes. Top pie and enjoy!