My husband has a bit of an obsession with pie. And understandably so: pie-making is a bit of a Greene family tradition.

I discovered this the first time I went to visit the Greene’s in Oregon. One day we strapped empty plastic milk gallons with their tops cut off to our belts and filled several to the brim with blackberries from their backyard. This was followed by mass pie baking. Luke and his father John came up with any and every excuse to eat the pie including served cold for breakfast with cheese.

I grew up with blackberries too. My dad and I watered a few potted vines hidden in the shade of our SoCal backyard. Luke would make fun of my excitement at collecting a hand-full of berries at a time. Once I visited his parent’s house I knew why, the wild black beauties grow like weeds on the roadside!

Luke loves pie more than any other dessert. So much so that in celebration of our engagment we promptly went to As Easy as Pie  in Cambria, CA.

Although I claim to be a baker, I don’t have much experience with pie. Last year I had my first reason to celebrate Valentines Day and got my first chance to make pie. I did my research and came up with a blackberry rhubarb pie (Luke’s second favorite is strawberry-rhubarb). After wringing my hands about how it would turn out I ended up with this:

Not bad for a first time! And let’s just say it was more than well received. After success like that I knew he’d expect it to become a tradition.

Unfortunately hunting down rhubarb was difficult last year and impossible this year. So I substituted raspberries to balance out the sweet blackberries. I also exchanged white sugar for honey (apart of trying to go natural).

As usual with my recipes, I used a combination of organic and whole wheat flour for my dough.

And after some time in the oven . . .

2 hearts for 2 years celebrating Valentines together.

Yup, it’s just as good as last year. I’ll be lucky if there is any left tomorrow.

Do you have any Valentine’s day traditions or favorite February treats?