#96: A Day on the Peach Farm
A Day on the Farm, Plus Recipe for Sweet As a Peach Pie
A Day on the Farm
Some years back I traveled to California to teach a one-day Pie Camp at Frog Hollow Farm1 one hour east of San Francisco. The workshop was held in the farm kitchen but first we went out in to the orchard fields and Farmer Al showed us how to tell if a peach is ripe and how to pick it. Then we picked our pies with sweet ripe peaches right from trees. One of the students, Ricardo, helped to carry them into the kitchen, where he watched, learned, and made a beautiful pie with a lattice top. He had a pretty darn big smile on his face when he finished.
Ricardo, who had been gifted a spot in the workshop, told me years later when our paths crossed that he almost didn’t come. A team leader with a demanding and stressful career, he was facing a major presentation the very next day and the time spent learning to make pie felt somewhat frivolous not to mention that he would have to drive three hours to get there and back. But, the day arrived and he and his partner came.
Pie making was so far removed from his milieu of experience, but during that time he was able to push aside the thoughts of the week ahead to focus on something new and different. It cleared his mind and left him feeling renewed and refreshed. When Monday rolled around, he brought a bright can-do feeling to his team…along with his beautiful peach pie. Ricardo said that although he couldn’t afford the time to come, he couldn’t afford not to come either and making pie that day is still one of his best days ever and a peak experience for him.
When I asked him what his favorite pie was, it didn’t surprise me to learn that it was peach. The recipe below is the one that we made that day.
Peach Pie is my all-time favorite pie and making one is a summertime ritual for me. I simply can’t get enough of this pie during the season and that season is starting right about now. When choosing peaches for pie, I want the sweetest and juiciest I can get…you know the kind where you have to bend over because delicious peach juice is dripping down your chin on each bite. You may know a farmer or special tree nearby you that has pie-worthy peaches. When this pie is baked and ready to share, wait for that blissful O.M.G. moment that always seems to accompany that first bite. There’s nothing like it…well, except for the next bite.
RECIPE: SWEET AS A PEACH PIE
For one 9”deep-dish pie plate.
Ingredients
1 recipe for double crust pastry
6 cups sweet ripe peaches, sliced or chunked (I don’t peel but you can if you want.)