Miscellany

Here are some assorted goodies for your edification:

Comedy

If you've used the Internet enough to be familiar with Web sites such as Pandora and Facebook, and if you know anything about the story and/or music from the American musical West Side Story, then you'll appreciate an online video parody called Web Site Story. It's hilarious! Read about it--and then watch it--here.

Delivery

Last Friday evening we had a quarter of beef delivered to our house by Susan's dad's friend, a rancher from Maxbass, ND. He and his wife were on their way through Dickinson to visit family in this corner of the state, so they delivered the meat--butchered, neatly packaged, and labeled--right to our door! It's a high-quality product at a very affordable price. We organized the many packages of meat in our deep freezer in the basement, but Susan put a package of T-bone steaks in the refrigerator for us to enjoy once we returned from our weekend travels (recall this and this). Last night she broiled the T-bones (it was too cold and rainy out for me to grill them outdoors) and served them with cheesy hashbrowns, cooked peas, and garlic toast. Wonderful!

Mimicry

Just as they did last summer, the girls are participating again in a Missoula Children's Theatre production, made available to area children through Arts on the Prairie (official site = here, whereas functional site = here). They auditioned yesterday, will rehearse every day this week, and will perform (twice) on Saturday. This summer's musical is MCT's version of Cinderella, with Hillary playing Cleo the cat, Abigail playing a town crier, and Suzanna playing a beggar. Come back for photos (and perhaps even video) this weekend!

Bakery

After being denied juneberry pie this weekend (remember?), I've got juneberries on my mind! I can find all sorts of pie recipes on the Interwebs when I search for "juneberry," "serviceberry," and "saskatoon berry" (all synonyms); but I'm not having luck finding someplace from which I can order a juneberry pie for shipment to my front door. Here's what I've found so far:

Canada

• Riverbend Plantation of Saskatoon, SK sells juneberry pie filling (to make your own crust and bake your own pie), but that product is listed as "sold out."
• Three Sisters Pies of Calgary, AB sells juneberry pies for delivery in the Calgary area or for sale at various sites in the Calgary area. The 1,600-mile drive round-trip is a little too inconvenient, though.
• The Berry Barn of Saskatoon, SK seems to be a retreat at which one could eat a piece of juneberry pie or pick one's own juneberries from their berry patch. However, there's no indication that they would mail me a pie and save me the 1,000-mile drive round-trip.

North Dakota

• Amberland Foods of Harvey, ND sells juneberry ice cream topping, juneberry syrup, and juneberry jam, but no juneberry pie.
• Berry Dakota of Jamestown, ND sells juneberry jam, juneberry jelly, juneberry syrup, and juneberry wine jelly, but no juneberry pie.
• Dakota Hills Winery and Vineyard of Knox, ND sells nothing juneberry-related, but with rhubarb wine, crabapple wine, honey blueberry wine, raspberry wine, apricot honey wine, peach wine, and apple wine on their product list, don'tcha think they could concoct a batch of juneberry wine?!
• Karen's Kuchens of Cavalier, ND sells juneberry kuchen (a German coffee cake with a custard-y center); and because kuchen is cut and served in slices like a pie, this may be the closest thing available. Not a bad substitution, either, because kuchen itself is delicious.
• Maple River Winery of Casselton, ND sells wines made from aronia berries, elderberries, plums, pears, sand cherries, apples, dandelions, apricots, crabapples, chokecherries, pumpkins, strawberries, lilacs, rhubarb, cranberries, and honey . . . but no juneberries?!
• Pointe of View Winery of Burlington, ND is similar to Dakota Hills and Maple River in that it sells a variety of wine flavors (including Viking Deed, a blend of honey and apple wines--sounds intriguing) . . . but not juneberry.
• The Juneberry Patch of Velva, ND has no online presence; but I gather, from comments made about it on other sites, that it is a supplier and distributor of juneberry plants--more for those who'd like to plant their own juneberry bushes (or come and pick their own buckets of juneberries) than for those of us who want a ready-made pie to slice and eat.
• Mrs. Wellman's Homemade Juneberry Pies of Cavalier, ND has no online presence, either; but I have eaten Adrienne Wellman's juneberry pies before, and they are delicious! She sells them at local farmer's markets--local to her, that is, not to me. And, unfortunately, a trip to Cavalier, although shorter than one to Saskatoon or Calgary (see above), is still an 800-mile drive round-trip.

Aack! Can you, Faithful Reader, help me?! If so, please e-mail me at juneberry@iMoberg.com.