A half-century later, Mom's cherry pie endures
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By COLLEEN KENNEY / Lincoln Journal Star
Marilyn Lawson won a blue ribbon for her mother's recipe for cherry pie at the Lancaster County Fair in 1952. But how would it fare this year?
Her mom watches over her shoulder.
Remember, Marilyn. Add lots of sugar. The cherries need lots of sugar.
The girl rolls out the dough on a board on the kitchen table of the farmhouse, two miles west of Raymond. The house has no running water, just a bucket in the sink and a pump outside.
And don't use too much flour on the board.
Marilyn Lawson wants to win the Lancaster County 4-H cherry-pie contest. She's been making her mom's cherry pie over and over in the warm kitchen, which smells so sweet this February week of 1952.
Ten pies.
She typed her mom's recipe on a white index card.
Temperature: 400 degrees
Time: 45 minutes
Fill unbaked pie shell with cherries…
The summer before, she picked the cherries from the two trees out back and hauled them into the kitchen in 5-gallon tin buckets.
She and her mom and sisters canned them, storing them and other jars of fruit and corn and most everything else in the pantry.
One time when they were canning, the pressure cooker blew up, covering the kitchen with hot peaches.
The white frame house with black trim is surrounded in the summer by her mom's zinnias and lilies, her father's corn and milo and wheat. Two silver maples stand in the front. Two cherry trees in the back.
Put a piece of foil around the edge so the crust doesn't get too dark.
On the morning of the contest, Marilyn is in her bedroom putting on her best plaid dress, bobby socks, loafers, lipstick. She's an 18-year-old who's going to bake a cherry pie from scratch in front of the 4-H judges and all of the parents and find out if her cherry pie is the best in the county.
She goes over her mom's instructions.
Remember, Marilyn. Winning isn't everything. Just give it your very best and have fun.
v v v
The judging is done.
She walks toward the table. People stop her.
Congratulations, they say.
For what?
They smile and say nothing.
Marilyn Peterson is a 71-year-old retired elementary principal and wife of 50 years and grandmother of five. A survivor of breast cancer, heart surgeries. A golfer. A singer in a barbershop group. A farm girl who'll never forget that big white house, destroyed by fire long ago.
She sees her mom's pie on the table, three ribbons beside it.
A blue one for first in cherry pie.
A green one for Best in Lot.
A big purple ribbon for Grand Champion.
It's got to be that cherry pie, the judge had said, picking it over all the breads and cakes and cookies last weekend at the 2005 Lancaster County Fair.
And she has the best pie in the county.
Just as she did that day in 1952.
Brush a little bit of egg yoke on top of the crust to give it a golden tone.
She uses cans of cherries from Oregon now. Crisco instead of lard.
She rolls the dough out on the kitchen counter of her home in Meadowlane, not on a board.
The index card is yellowed now.
But the recipe is the same.
So is the voice she hears over her shoulder.
Remember, Marilyn …
Reach Colleen Kenney at 473-2655 or ckenney@journalstar.com.
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