The Bake Sale Trio

The preschool that is in our church building had an Easter egg hunt and a bake sale. The hunt was just for fun and a few of our teens and even fewer of our adults filled plastic eggs with toys and candy. I do not know how many eggs were there, but it was a LOT! We came in Saturday about noon and hid them for the hunt which started at one o’clock. For the little ones it is more scattering than hiding, but they have a good time and so did we.

In connection with the hunt they wanted to have a bake sale to help toward the purchase of a copier. I contacted the gal in charge and asked how I could help. She said she wanted to have small $1 packages for people to purchase and a few larger items for a few dollars more. I told her I could bake two or three pies for her and she appreciated that and could I put a price on them. Gee, how do you put a price on a pie? I had no idea how to price them. Oh, well. Worry about that later like Scarlet O’Hara.

I took The Book with me and went to the grocery store. They have not had peaches since I started this adventure up until this week and they came out great in the Fruit Crostata so I thought I would make peach. I selected my fruit with great care. I am sure the produce guy thinks I am very picky, the Wife ‘O My Life would say anal-retentive, but I think that goes too far. After I had taken all of five minutes to pick the six best peaches in the lot I remembered that I had told my sweet little girl, Rachel that when I make the Peach Pie it would be for her and it did not seem right to make her buy it from the bake sale. I put the peaches back and picked out three perfect pears for the Pear Streusel Tart. I choose lemons for the Ohio Lemon Pie and then decided to make one of the Canned Fruit Pies. I got pears for that pie.

I had never made or even heard of Ohio Lemon Pie. You take three lemons and zest them and then with the while part of the peel still on you slice them “paper thin” and mix them with their zest, two cups of sugar and a bit of salt. As they soak, or as Irma puts it they macerate everything becomes soft and very sticky. I was instructed to macerate them for a minimum of two hours and up to twenty-four. The longer you macerate them the better. I went for fourteen hours and took it to the sale still warm. I do not know what it tasted like as it was sold in the bake sale. The lemon pie and the tart were purchased by the same gal and I know people who know her so perhaps I can get a message to her through them and she would comment on here as to how she liked or did not like the baked goods. The Wife ‘O My Life told me if I wrapped the tart in colored plastic wrap and gathered it up top and put a ribbon on it I could sell it for fifteen or twenty dollars. I did not have colored plastic wrap or ribbon…they went for ten dollars each.