Strite's

Having recently returned to the Northeast after five years in the Napa Valley (and five years in Florida beforehand), I'm taking some time to rediscover family traditions, and  revisit places that have familial significance.  Some of these places are very much the same, and some are like doctored photographs of their prior selves... updated, modernized, or gentrified.

One of the seemingly unchanged places is Strite’s Orchard.  Strite's may be the first farm market I ever visited, because it was a market that my maternal grandparents, Sylvia and Dominic Papsodora, frequented.  When my mother was nine years old, they bought a house nearby, and my grandmother discovered Strite's.  She loved it from her first visit, perhaps because it reminded her of the farm on which she grew up, which was not far away.

I have so many happy memories of my grandparents, many of them revolving around food.  “Nonnie and Nano,” as my brother and I called them, ate what was produced locally and when and in season; the post-war TV-dinner and convenience food craze skipped them entirely.  My grandfather kept a good-sized garden at their home in the Harrisburg suburbs, but when they needed to supplement for the annual tomato canning ritual, or just for variety’s sake, Strite’s was their first stop.  My mother says that every time she pulls up to Strite’s, she can clearly picture Nonnie, getting out of the car to do some shopping.

As you approach Strite’s on a curvy Pennsylvania country road, neat rows of fruit trees and trellised grape vines stretch for acres of hilled countryside.  The market has a bakery, and aromas of fresh pies and dumplings made with fruit from the orchard waft into the gravel parking lot to greet you.

Strite's has a proud history – it is a Pennsylvania Century Farm (to qualify, a farm must have been in the same family for 100 years).  It's mainly an orchard, but they have a large farm market where they sell fresh, seasonal produce grown on their adjacent farm.  The orchards offer up peaches, pears, quinces, and cherries, along with 40 acres worth of apples, including Spartan, Lodi, McIntosh, Macoun, Empire, Jonagold, Jonathan and Smokehouse varieties.

Since this post is about a family tradition, I've asked my mother, Angela Bell, to share her thoughts about Strite's as well. Mom is the queen of apple pie, and has graciously shared her recipe for this all-American fall treat.

Angela:
This is one of the oldest continuously family-owned farm markets in the state. It is very, very special to me because when I first moved to the area at about the age of nine, my mother discovered it and began years of meticulous "putting food by" that combined her Italian cooking heritage with that of the Pennsylvania Germans, and also some aspects of the New England cooking she'd been exposed to in the early years of her marriage to my "Maine-iac" father--in Boston, where I was born.

I can't walk into Strite's without seeing my mother, and now, years later, I glory in the fact that Emily, Chris, and I are just as thrilled at the scent of the freshly picked grapes, and the bushels of apples and potatoes. Yesterday I saw an older lady there, a little shaky on her feet, who was buying dozens of eggplants and a bushel or two of plum tomatoes. That's what Mom used to do... sauce, peaches, pears, pickles, jellies with color that no printer's ink could ever duplicate... all steaming and cooling and bubbling and making a mess in that tiny kitchen on Bonnymead. Of course, my father was an "enabler" (in the best sense of the word) in this process, and in his last years our trips to Strite's were wonderful, but also sad, because I knew he could see her there, too.

Strite's Orchard is located off 322 between Hershey and Harrisburg.  Directions and contact information can be found at www.stritesorchard.com. 

Angela's Apple Pie

Mom’s been making this pie crust for years.  Her friend Virginia White gave her the recipe in 1970, when mom expressed her ambition to make a fruit pie as good as her mother’s. Her first attempts had been dismal failures, famously resulting in crust so stiff she could lift the entire pie out of the pan in one piece. Virginia, or “Grammy White,” as I called her after I came along in ’74, is famous for having said, “A pie that can’t grease itself isn’t worth a farmer’s ass,” after my neophyte mother asked her whether or not it was necessary to prepare the pie pan.  The recipe allegedly has German origins.  I admit to a bit of food snobbery when it comes to Crisco (preferring traditional pâte brisée made with butter), but in the end I never pass up mom’s pie.  It turns out that neither did my grandmother, who eventually asked for the recipe (as seen below).

Mom loves Northern Spy apples for pie, but they are nearly impossible to find south of Pennsylvania’s northern tier.  The balance of tart and sweet is ideal for pie, and they never turn mushy.  In the absence of Northern Spys, a mixture of Winesap and Jonathan will also do.  Many like McIntosh for pie and Granny Smiths are always good, as well as Twenty Ounce, but those are rare and huge, so you won’t need as many.

This is delicious for breakfast.  If you feel guilty having pie for breakfast, make small dumplings instead and call them “apple breakfast pastries.”

Yields two 8” pies,

3 c flour
1 1/2 c Crisco
1 t salt
1 egg
1t cider vinegar
5 T cold water

8-12 apples, depending on their size
1 c sugar
1 T cinnamon
½ t nutmeg
3-4 T unsalted butter

With a pastry blender, cut shortening into flour and salt.  In a small bowl, break the yolk of the egg and add the water and vinegar.  Add the liquid mixture to the flour and shortening. Continue to work the mixture with the pastry blender until it forms a dough.  Divide the dough into 4 portions and flatten into discs. Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

While the dough chills, peel, core, and slice the apples into thin wedges. Coat the apples with the sugar and spices.  

Roll out the dough and place a piece into the bottom of each pie pan.  Pierce the dough with a fork several times and dot the bottom with half the butter.  Add the apples and dot with remaining butter.   Top with the remaining rolled out pieces of crust.  Using a sharp knife, slice through the dough in several places for steam vents. Alternately, use an apple or nut-shaped cookie cutter to cut out a piece of dough at the center of the top crust before placing it on the pie.  Crimp the edges together, cutting off any excess dough. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 40-50 minutes.

© Emily Bell