Musings while baking pie on a beautiful July day

We just finished up a stretch of unusually hot July weather. We shopped at Adams last night and John caught a glimpse of Rhubarb and his request to me was, Strawberry Rhubarb pie? While mixing the dough this morning I wondered what our mothers and grandmothers did about baking during the hot summer days in the 20th century. The only solution I could muster was that they baked very early in the morning, before the heat of the day set in.           

                                                                                                                                                                   My mom, Winnie Davis Fallon, would make an apple pie now and then. Truthfully, she was more of a chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookie kind of baker. I honed my pie making skills at the elbow of my mother-in-law, Annie Bianco Mower. As far as I am concerned, Annie made an apple pie worthy of all the ribbons that could ever be awarded at a state fair. Of course, if you knew her, she was modest as hell and would always try to “improve” her dough recipe or the apple pie, based on what one of her girlfriends did with their dough. Don’t change a thing, was our usual retort when Annie would ponder if perhaps Gertrude Avery had a better way of making apple pie. Annie’s pie baking mentor was her husband’s aunt Hazel Mower Riseley. They were neighbors on Maple Lane back when Annie had her hands full raising a family and keeping up with her husband Al’s different endeavors. 

  Excerpted from American Tapestry, the Mowers of Maple Lane by Janine Fallon Mower pg 94 “On holiday weekends, Uncle Maurice would take his great nephew John on the milk runs with him. Maurice would have to double up on his route on these occasions, so an extra pair of hands and young legs would make a difference as Maurice was in his early 60’s John would stay over in Maurice and Hazel’s little house, once occupied by Noah and Catherine Mower, his great- great grandparents. Sleepy eyed John would come down the stair way in the very early in the morning to a hearty breakfast prepared by Aunt Hazel. “The grandparents we never had” She would kid her great nephew as he always ate about 36 “dollars’ worth” of her tasty silver dollar size pancakes. Once their appetites had been satisfied, the two set out on the home milk delivery route. Maurice’s other helper would be his grandson, Mark Riseley. On many occasions, Mark would ride along with his grandfather as Maurice traveled his route that included homes way out on Route 28. One of Hazel’s other specialties was Rhubarb pie. When in season, you were guaranteed a slice of pie would be waiting for a hungry visitor.

 Aunt Hazel became a mentor for city girl Anne Mower. As the vegetables in the garden began to ripen, the two women would work side by side readying the harvest. Most of the work was done while sitting on a long board placed atop two slabs of bluestone that were resting just outside Hazel’s back door. Any given bright sunny day one might find them sharing time together “doing beans” just freshly picked from the garden. The Mower children were either playing in the yard nearby or attending school. The women would put the beans in a ceramic bowl filled with cold water. Then, the beans would be swished around in the water, gather up by the handful and the excess water would be shaken off. The beans would be left to air dry on a cotton cloth. Once the beans were cleaned, they would be prepared for canning. They both were known to also put-up quarts and quarts of tomatoes and peaches.”

 Available through the author on weekends at Mower’s Saturday flea market 845-679-6744 or at the Historical Society Book shop at 20 Comeau Drive on weekends 1-5 . historicalsocietyofwoodstock.org