Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie

Another one of my favorite summer recipes is strawberry cream cheese pie. This recipe came from my grandmother and my mom made it all through the summer.


1 baked pie shell
1 package cream cheese
1 quart fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup powdered sugar

Spread cream cheese softened with a little cream (or in the microwave) over the bottom of the crust. Place half of the strawberries over the cream cheese. Mash half of the berries until they are really juicy. Bring to a boil and slowly add sugar and cornstarch stirring constantly. Cook slowly for 10 minutes. Cool and pour into pie shell. Chill. Top with sweetened whipped cream.

Little Green Berries

My berries plants are finished flowering and are now forming berries.

Blueberries:  Elliot

Blackberries: Triple Crown

Red Raspberries: Heritage

Strawberries: Honeoye

Strawberries in Pots

I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I would have liked to this weekend. It was raining so much that I was only able to get my strawberries planted. It was too wet to work on my lawn and weed.

I have a small urban backyard, so I don't have a lot of space. I also have dogs that have free access to the backyard through a doggy door and who also love strawberries. The first year I grew strawberries in pots, they kept disappearing. I thought that the birds were getting the berries until I smelled strawberry on the breath of my dogs. I should have known because the sneaky little snots are also tomato stealers.

Last year, I grew Ozark, an everbearing strawberry, in two strawberry pots but I never got enough at any one time to do anything other than snack.  Only a few of the plants survived the winter, so I have to replace most of the plants.  I left out the pots in a sheltered place on the side of my house over winter.  I should have protected them better. This winter, I will probably overwinter the pots in my garage. Maybe more plants will make it through the winter.

I decided to try a June bearing strawberry so that I can get more strawberries at once. The plants will produce fruit for about two to three weeks in June. I decided to try Honeoye, which is supposed to produce a lot of sweet fruit.  I bought 20 bare roots of Honeoye.

First, I took the roots out of the package and soaked them in water for about an hour.

Then I removed the dead strawberry plants form the pots and replaced them with the Honeoye. When I planted the strawberries, I dug out as much potting mixture from the holes as I could and replaced it with with a mixture of used potting soil and compost.

When I planted the pots last year, I used a blend of compost, coir, and old potting mix from the previous year's containers. I also placed a PVC pipe with holes drilled in it in the center of the pot so that I could get more water to the bottom plants. I was losing too much water through the drainage hole in the pots, so I stuffed a plastic grocery bag in the bottom of the PVC pipe and that slowed down the drainage without blocking it off completely.