Wyoming Wild Plum Pie

Wild plum pie is Wyoming's best-kept secret. While the county fair blue ribbons go to apple and cherry, the old-timers know the truth: nothing captures the taste of late summer on the high plains like these small, fiercely flavored fruits gathered from thickets along creek banks and ranch fence lines.

The Prunus americana has fed people on this land for thousands of years. The Arapaho and Shoshone dried them for winter. When homesteaders arrived in the 1870s and 1880s, ranch wives learned quickly that these wild plums, too sour to eat raw, transformed into something extraordinary when baked with sugar between layers of pastry. A good pie became currency. It could thank a neighbor for help with calving, welcome a new family to the valley, or win a man's heart at a church social.

The fruit ripens in late August through September, hanging in dense clusters that glow amber and ruby against dusty green leaves. You'll find them along irrigation ditches, creek bottoms, and the edges of cottonwood groves where cattle gather for shade. Bring buckets. The trees produce abundantly, and once you've tasted this pie, you'll want enough fruit to freeze for winter baking.

The crust matters as much as the filling. Lard was the fat of the frontier—rendered from the hog butchered each fall—and it produces a flakier, more tender pastry than butter alone. I've given you both options. Use what your grandmother would have used, or what you have in your kitchen. Either way, you're making something worth the effort.