PEACHES

"A peach, slightly unbalanced, so that it listed to one side, its hue the colour of an early sunrise..."

                                         -Allegra Goodman

Wouldn't be summer without peaches. Lots of them. Ripening in bowls. Ready to be eaten. Ready to be cut up into pie.

I used to have a cat called Peaches. She looked a lot like Rona. Poofy and the colour of golden peaches. Fluffy thing. She followed me everywhere.

The neighbours liked to go to Las Vegas, for the summer, way back when, and  said we could  pick peaches  from their peach vines growing along the sides of their house. The vines  resembled pythons without heads,  slithering along the siding. 

The peaches hung like  moons. I'd pick them on hot July and August days. Every day I'd pick peaches. My cat, Peaches, would follow me back and forth between houses. She would chase  quail that  toddled up and down the driveway. To no avail. They were faster than she was. The ultimate goal for the peaches was  Peach Pie  with blackberries that my mother would make. She always made it with her  shortcrust pastry.   The blackberries bled and bled into the peaches ....

PEACH BLACKBERRY PIE

SHORTCRUST Pastry: 4 cups flour, pinch of salt, 1 1/4 cups cold butter, 10 large tblsp COLD butter

Cut in butter with flour and salt, till crumbly. Add water a little at a time, till it forms a nice ball of pastry. Work quickly so it does not get tough. Divide in two. Flatten each disc. Wrap in cling film and keep in fridge or freezer till you need it.

I remember my mother doubling this recipe quite often. I also remember Peaches, the cat, taking a liking to  pie pans. She would sit in them. She preferred the glass ones.  So in between making the pastry, we would be washing pie pans. Only to find Peaches sitting in them again. Finally we gave her a pie pan of her own to sit in, on the table. She would sit there, purrfectly centered in her pie pan,  grinning her cat grin. Probably imagining she was a pie......

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line piepan with a disc of pastry Brush with some of  beaten egg

Cut up a ton of peaches  at least 5 cups or more. throw in a cup or two of blackberries

Mix with 2 tblsp lemon juice, 2/4 cup flour,1 cup white sugar, sprinkle cinnamon, sprinkle nutmeg. 

Pile into pastry lined piepan. Dot with dobs of butter.Cover with other pastry disc.

Brush with beaten egg.  Do this twice if making double pies.

Slash to make gashes in pastry. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes.

Lower to 350 for an additional 35 minutes. Or longer. Till juices bubble.

That year we left the two pies  out on the counter to cool. Went about the day. One pie was for us, and the other one for the neighbours who were coming home from Las Vegas the next day. In the kitchen, Peaches had vacated her pie pan. We found  paw prints  in one of the pies,  pastry smooshed and  peaches flicked all over. Blackberries  stuck to the fuzzy paws of one guilty  cat.

So the neighbours got the undamaged pie. We salvaged a couple of pieces out of the other one. A little slice of gold. And Peaches sat in her  own pie pan. Grinning at us.

Photographs 2021