Les tartes de Simonne

Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean wild blueberry pie (ready to bake)

Born in 1914, the same year that Canada entered the First World War, Simonne grew up at the end of Saguenay−Lac-Saint-Jean’s settlement period. At the age of 14, she started working as a maid for a doctor and got married at 20 to a farmer’s son, who became a merchant in her village. She had her first son in 1935 and was the mother of 9 children. The house was always busy with family, friends, employees, and trappers passing by to stock up at her husband’s store. The dinner tables were always full and when it came time for dessert, Simonne’s pies were always eagerly anticipated. With summer came pies made with seasonal fruits (strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries, etc.) that the children picked, eating almost as many as they put in their baskets! The pies were baked in a wood-fired oven in the summer kitchen attached to the house, which gave them a unique taste. Simonne has been inspiring her family’s dinner tables for generations, and today she is the inspiration behind the pie that you are about to taste. The emblematic blueberry of Lac-Saint-Jean was already well known by the Indigenous People before the Europeans arrived in America. Rich in antioxidants and vitamins, this little blue marble is full of benefits for the body. Blueberries are associated with many advantages, such as preventing cardiovascular disease and various cancers. They improve memory and slow down cognitive disorders caused by ageing. Beneficial for eye health, they protect the retina from the harmful effects of the sun. So it can be said that blueberries are a superfood!