Some 20 years ago or so I visited my favorite garden center, San Gabriel Nursery, in San Gabriel, Ca. This nursery was near Mia's grandma's house and whenever we visited Grandma we would stop here for a visit. One year I purchased an Anna Apple Espalier and planted it along our west fence in the back yard. Through the years it has been lovely and provided a perfect backdrop for that area of the garden. Each year it would produce three or four clusters of apples which were picture perfect, and not enought to use in a recipe, so I would always just leave them on the tree. 

Sadly, two years ago one half of the tree died and I had to cut it away. I shaped up the remaining half a tree which still looked lovely against the fence. While I was at it I severely pruned our standard apple tree. I decided as we did not like the apple trees as they were and if we did not like the results we could have them removed next year and start fresh.

Our Anna Apple sat heavily and early though we will not have apples on our standard until next year. I culled each of the clusters on the Anna so that only one or two apples remained where 3 to 5 had been. As the weeks went by the apples grew lovely and fragrant and were finally ready to pick last week. I had planned to make some apple butter and chutney as I had just enough apples to make a small batch of each. This would be the first year we would use the fruit from this espalier.

Changing My Plan

Today was a perfect Summer Day and we enjoyed last week's labor, my Apricot Syrup over some hotcakes I made on the patio griddle. The morning was calm and warm and a wonderful morning prelude to an afternoon movie.

After the movie, I thought it would be nice to put my apples to good use and make Sterling's favorite pie. It was a perfect, small, afternoon project that I enjoyed completing with Mia and Sterling. Mia made our favorite pie crust, a recipe we have used for 25 years that my Grandma gave to me. Sterling peeled and cored the fruit and I rolled out the crust and seasoned the fillings. It was such fun and no sacrifice at all to skip the apple butter.

This really was a perfect day. I spent the day with my family, completing a small project and enjoying their company. I thought about Mia's grandma who shared so much of her gardening expertise with me over the years. I thought about my grandma who shared each of her recipe's when I was a young cook and I thought of her mother, my beloved Great-Grandma who loved apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese and onion. As I reached for my grandma's paring knife, to dot my pies with butter, I thought of the legacy left to me by wonderful cooks and gardeners who shared their love of home and family with me through the years.

For me, the company I keep is always more important than the food I make and pie is not one of my favorite foods. Maybe it was just the atmosphere of the day but this was a Perfect Apple Pie and I enjoyed every bite. Light, flaky crust perfectly browned and encasing plumb, juicy, tart apples seasoned with butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and sweetened with just the right amount of sugar. For me, as much as I miss my Great-Grandma I'll skip the onions.