Strawberry Picking

It is a yearly tradition.  My mom and I go to Ontelaunee Orchards after school is over to pick strawberries.  Sometimes we bring John with us or anyone else who may be interested.  A pie is always the result of our fruit-picking labors and, if we are feeling ambitious, jelly as well.  Somehow, the berry picking day always manages to be unbelievably sunny and hot, and this year didn't disappoint.

Unfortunately, we didn't get out to the fields until the beginning of July, well beyond peak strawberry picking season.  However, we saw the sign "now picking strawberries" and decided to trust them.  While there were definitely some strawberries left to pick, it was like a treasure hunt of well-hidden berries.  Even when you did happen to find a few berries, they were very tiny.  So, while it was not the best strawberry picking experience ever, we did keep our yearly tradition going.

As always, I made Strawberry Glacé pie from our picking spoils.  However, this year, I had to actually purchase two containers of strawberries to supplement our meager pickings.  This is a pie that my grandma made each year.  I actually have her handwritten recipe on my grandpa's letter head framed and hanging on my kitchen walls.  For optimum tastiness, it truly does need to be made with fresh strawberries and it needs to be eaten the same day that it is made.  The recipe is as follows:
INGREDIENTS
9 inch baked pie shell
6 cups fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
3 T cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

DIRECTIONS
Bake pie shell.
Mash enough berries to measure 1 cup.
Stir sugar and cornstarch together.  Gradually stir in water and crushed strawberries.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.
Boil and stir for 1 minute.  Cool.
Beat cream cheese until smooth and spread on pie shell.
Fill shell with remaining berries.
Pour cooked berry mixture over top.
Chill for at least 3 hours or until set.