“The drier the weather, the sweeter the peach.”
— Dori Sanders
Recipe Adapted from Dori Sanders’ Country Cooking
Pie or cobbler?
The answer, for author Dori Sanders, is both. Born during the Great Depression, she grew up among her family’s peach orchards in Filbert, South Carolina, and is long past due the same recognition that has come to Edna Lewis for documenting the rhythm of life as a Black farmer in the rural South. Her stories about silver teas and box suppers in Dori Sanders’ Country Cooking (1995) offset the disappointment of failed crops and lean harvests, when even a pinch of nutmeg or dash of wine might be a lavish flourish for a meal meant to feed a family of 12. From “seed-ordering day” in early spring to the annual fall hog killing, Sanders has a recipe for the occasion.
And part of that seasonal rhythm is the family farm stand. What is summer in the South without the moment you spot one up ahead, or maybe have to brake suddenly, and make a U-turn, to go back and linger in the shade of a simple roadside structure, choosing something for dinner picked fresh out of the field, and slipping dollar bills in a tin can or honor box next to the handwritten “help yourself” sign. Dori Sanders’ narrative really shines during fruit season, when the family’s peach shed opens at the end of the road. Her chapter “The Farm Stand Recipe Swap” commemorates those annual exchanges while deliberating over a peck of okra, a ripe watermelon, or a bushel of corn.
This year, the Sanders farm stand did not open. The pandemic has left the family shorthanded, and Miss Dori, who is 87 years old, wasn’t at home for a visit while I was reporting “The Queen of Delicacies.” But it’s still possible to share a taste of her kitchen, and her love of peaches. (Sunhigh is her favorite.)
Here is an adapted recipe for her foolproof cobbler. I recommend pulling over at a farm stand before the season ends and getting some tree-ripe peaches for this one. “As this cobbler bakes,” wrote Sanders in her cookbook, “the batter bubbles up through the peaches to form a crusty topping. For that reason, some cooks call it ‘miracle pie.’”
