# 251: Peaches and Patience
Lessons in patience come in many ways. For National Peach Day enjoy a peach pie and news about our next paid subscribers Zoom Bake Session on September 13!
Saturday last, August 24, was National Peach Pie Day and today, August 27, is National Peach Day. As I was looking through photos from over the years, I saw that most often I am teaching pie making workshops during this time and, true to form, that is just what I was doing on Saturday, too. For someone who has had no real plan in her life, I find it rather amusing that I am much more predictable than I think…at least when it comes to peaches and pie.
I try to eat seasonally whenever I can. When Duncan was but a wee one and spied out-of-season fruit like grapes, berries, figs, and yes, peaches in the produce aisle, and asked so sweetly if we could please get some, I respond with something like, “Let’s wait until our local ones are ripe at our Farmers Market. They’ll be even sweeter!” But there were times I bent the rules because…well, just because. 😉
We’ve gotten so used to instant gratification and there is so much of it present today in our first-world lives. It almost seems a distant memory now, but not too long ago wanted catalogs showed up in my mailbox which I would pour over for weeks and sometimes months, dog-ear pages with my favorite oh-I-would-LOVE-to-have-this item. I winnowed these down to maybe one but most often it was none because as I thought carefully about if this was a want or a need, it usually turned out to be a want and I simply couldn’t justify the expense when my budget was needed every bit for necessities.
If I did order a needed item, there was the filling out of the order form, writing a check, placing both in an envelope—which sometimes meant a trip to the post office to get stamps because I had used my last one up when I paid bills via mail—walking down to the mailbox, placing it inside and raising the flag to signal to our rural mail-person that there was something to pick up. Then I would pretty much forget about it until the day the delivery truck came rattling up our drive and I felt excited once again. I still think of it as the Wells Fargo Wagon.
Now we can get whatever we want, whenever we want more or less, which is one thing I feel probably contributes generally to lack of patience in our culture. I’m an Aires…a double Aires, in fact, and contrary to what you may believe about me, this sign of the Zodiac may contribute to me not being the most patient person. I have to work at it. Sometimes I feel that this time around I am here to learn patience and believe me I do keep practicing and trying. I have to remember that my speed and rhythm is different than another’s and that is ok. We’re all trying to get to there, wherever that is, and how we do and the speed at which we travel are part of our individual life journeys, so who am I to say that my way is the only way!
Now that I’ve got that little piece off my chest, what I really wanted to share today is that the wait to eat food seasonally makes me long for and appreciate food in season all the more. I truly dream of the perfectly ripe peach picked at just the right time and I look forward to that first bite all year long.
But even then…even then…unless the peach is drop dead ripe, I place it on my counter and wait a few days longer until the fruit softens up a bit. It’s another opportunity for me to practice patience. When I do take that first bite, that bite I’ve been waiting so long, I close my eyes and slurp back the juice that is now dripping down my chin. ALL my senses seem to come alive and for a brief moment I feel transported to the orchard and the tree on which it was grown, feeling the warmth of the sun shining on me and this glorious, sweet orb and I shiver with delight. Oh, it is so worth the wait.
How to Make a Peach Pie
(All photos by me.)
Measure peaches so they fill the pie plate to approximately 1” below the rim so as to avoid making a Clean the Oven Pie.
Place the dough in a pie plate of your choice and fill with your favorite recipe for peach filling. (Mine is below.)
Cover with top crust, trim & crimp edges and cut a few vents.
Bake, let cool and share.
Zoom Session for Paid Subscribers: Make a Crostata with Extra Dough
Save your dough trimmings and make a fruit filled crostata which will be our next one-hour Zoom session just for paid subscribers. This session will take place live on Friday September 13 at 8AM Pacific/11AM Eastern. I’ll roll a dough and show you how to create a filling with on hand ingredients. Then it will go into the oven to bake while I’ll answer questions or we can just chat!
And if you can’t make the session, no worries because All paid subscribers will receive a video recording of the session.
Sound like fun? I sure think so!
See you soon!
P.S. My fav peaches are from Frog Hollow Farms.
RECIPES
Moving to the Country Gonna Eat a Lot of Peaches
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Worth the wait, Kate! 🍑 That photograph of the 3 peaches has my mouth watering and then there’s the pie and crostata! So good! 🧡 🍑
Kate, I don't have many local peach growers near me---upstate NY--- and I seem to always pick the peaches that never ripen from the grocery store. They stay hard then turn to mush.... so any peach buying tips would be appreciated.