Promised Land Pie: A Story and a Recipe

“I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.” Joshua 24:13

We moved into our new home just five days before Christmas in 2024. It was a long, snowy, sparkling winter, and we hardly saw the dirt from December until March. That’s exactly how every winter should be. But when spring came and the ground thawed, we turned our focus from unpacking and organizing our rooms inside to clearing and taming the land outside.

Because this place is wild.

The Never-Ending Vines

We built our house on three acres of forest—dense, viney forest. The trucks had blasted a vacant space for our house by cutting down scores of trees, which broke my Treebeard heart. Within a few days, the trees were reduced to a huge pile of woodchips and a tangled heap of oak trunks like a game of pick-up sticks for giants. But we decided to deal with the landscaping and undergrowth ourselves. Because, you know, we’re ascetic like that.  

Once the snow melted, we trooped out with chainsaws, loppers, and a rented skid steer. Over the course of four months, we’ve slowly been liberating the trees from the death grip of poison ivy, grape vine, Virginia creeper, and (shudder) oriental bittersweet vines. That stuff has a mind of its own. I’m convinced it’ll outlive us all. And as much as I hate to cut down perfectly good honeysuckle bushes and smallish shrubs, we’re finally starting to see light at the end of the tunnel—and at the edge of the forest.

A Blind Spot

Although we moved in just before Christmas, we’d spent the previous months checking in on the construction process all the time. We were very involved in the house building process, making countless decisions and taking on projects where we could. From May through December, we were here all the time. We walked through the freshly-poured basement, had dinner between the studs, listened to our echoes against the drywall, and admired the fixtures and paint as they arrived.

But do you know what we didn’t really notice? The berries!

The Harvest is Plenteous

Even before we began building, we started planting. Our property has been in the family since the 60’s, and my parents had recently cleared a small space at the edge of it and planted a few fruit trees and berry vines. Then my husband and I added twice as many fruit trees and bushes and made it into a beautiful, baby orchard. One day we’ll collect buckets of fruit from our trees, but these days we measure our harvest by the handful.

It wasn’t until I was walking along our path this summer that I noticed all the giant mulberry trees and black raspberry vines. The darkest, sweetest mulberries hung heavily from the branches of eight or ten mature trees, just waiting for us to pick them. And the raspberry vines at the edge of the woods keep offering countless berries without slowing down. While we wait for a  few tiny blueberries from our store-bought bush, we’ve filled bags and Tupperware with the fruit of the land that’s been going strong for ages.

Vineyards that You Did Not Plant

One evening I cut the grass, and it took longer than I’d expected. My stomach was growling when I finally released the bar on the rattling push mower. I was right next to the black raspberry bushes, so naturally I filled my belly with as many berries as I could reach. As I picked and ate, God’s promise to the children of Israel came back to my mind: He would bring them into a land where they would be blessed far beyond what they had earned or deserved.

“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Deuteronomy 6:10-12

While we didn’t exactly walk into a fully-furnished house or stumble upon a pre-dug well (we paid dearly for those benefits), God did lead us to the right contractor for the job, and God provided the wisdom and the money to move forward with the project. And—blessing upon blessing—he provided “vineyards and olive trees that we did not plant.” Isn’t that just like God?

Promised Land Pie

As I stood there all sweaty, eating those juicy black raspberries, I decided to make Promised Land Pie and share it with family. After all, blessings are meant to be shared. The kids and I picked enough mulberries, raspberries, and blueberries to fill a casserole dish, so my pie idea morphed into a delicious crisp. The kids helped me make it, and we shared it with our sweet family who has made life in our new home wonderful in so many ways.

To me, the berries are a reminder of God’s countless, undeserved blessings and his ability to provide what we want even before we want it. While I was learning my ABC’s, He was planting mulberry trees for me. He was faithful to His children in the Old Testament, and He’s faithful to His children today. What a blessing to serve a God who cares for every detail of our lives—right down to the berries.

If your mouth is watering or your yard is full of berries, give this recipe a try! We really loved it!