By Gwen Schoen
Sacramento Bee
The first sign that spring has arrived in Auburn, Calif., is when the big blimp-shaped balloon with "Cherries" printed on its side appears over the pie stand at Machado Orchards.
The locals have come to recognize the balloon as a signal that the aroma of fruit pies will soon fill the air.
For five years, Greg Garretson lived across the street and downwind of the pie stand.
"It was torture," says Garretson, who now lives in Colfax, Calif. "The smells that would come out of this place and drift across the road were wonderful."
His favorites? Raspberry and boysenberry. "They are heaven," he says. "They didn't often have boysenberry, but when they did, I was over here a lot."
In the spring it's cherry pie, followed by apricot, peach, apple, pumpkin and berry of all kinds.
"You can tell the change of seasons by the way the pie stand smells," says Garretson.
The man filling the air with these wonderful aromas is 52-year-old Gary Machado, the grandson of Joe and Constance Machado, who bought the orchard in 1926. Although it's been a struggle, the family has managed to farm this same 17-acre orchard by sheer love and determination. Gary and his sister, Susie Krezman, are the third generation of Machados in charge. Their four children, who help with making caramel apples and selling fruit, are next in line.
"Grandma and Grandpa were from the Azores, off Portugal," says Gary Machado. "They farmed this land until Grandpa died in the early '60s. Then Mom and Dad (Gil and Bobbi Machado) took over. In the beginning, all the fruit was sold through a broker in Sacramento. Then Mom and Dad opened the fruit stand around 1979."
Times were hard in the '60s. "A pear disease wiped out most of the pear trees in the county," says Bobbi. "It was really tough to get going again, so Gil and I worked away from the farm. Gil worked in construction and I worked at a bank. We spent every weekend and evening in the orchard, replanting and taking care of the trees. It was very hard. It was also a wonderful life for our kids to grow up on a farm. Eventually we were able to quit our outside jobs and spend all of our time working in the orchard." Gil, now 80, and Bobbi, 73, leave the business up to Gary, although both spend a lot of time at the fruit stand visiting with neighbors and friends who stop by daily.
A few years after the stand opened, Gary decided to expand into the pie business. There was just one problem: He had never baked a pie. So he turned to an expert — his mom — for lessons.
"The first day, I made 17 pies," Gary says. "I was exhausted, and I didn't think we'd ever make enough money to keep it up. It was a lot more work than I ever anticipated. The next day, I made 30 pies. Then I started looking for ways to streamline the operation."
He bought an antique apple peeler and restored it to use in the bakery. Then he made a mechanical cherry pitter that pits 212 cherries per minute. Next he built a dough mixer that would cut the shortening into the flour. Finally, he created a machine that would stamp perfect bottom crusts into disposable pie tins.
"I still haven't figured out how to make a top crust without having to roll it out by hand," he laments.
Now, with all of Gary's inventions and the help of three cheerful bakers in the kitchen, an average day's work results in almost 200 pies. Last year on the day before Thanksgiving, the operation sold 2,300 pies, all made with fresh fruit and pumpkins in the tiny commercial kitchen.
"Their pies are wonderful," says Dulcie Robinson of Auburn. "It's great fun to visit the shop because you can watch what's going on in the kitchen through big windows. And on nice days, you can carry a piece of pie into the orchard and sit at picnic tables under the trees. You have to bring your own coffee, but there's no way you can beat the pie."
What makes Machado pies special? Bobbi says they are just old-fashioned pies, something that's kind of rare these days.
"My pies are very basic," says Bobbi. "I don't like them all gussied up, and Gary learned from me, so his pies are basic, too."
Bobbi is one of those cooks who rarely use a recipe, instead relying on smell, taste and feel, adding a little more flour if the fruit is too juicy or a little lemon if the fruit is too sweet.
"For me, a pie has to have a really good crust," says Bobbi. "I started out using the pie-crust recipe on the back of the Crisco can, and it was pretty good. Over the years, I stopped following the recipe and just started adding a little of this and a little of that."
The key to good crust, she says, is not to overwork the dough.
"You have to know when to stop mixing it, and that comes with practice. I put the flour and a little salt into the bowl and cut in some fat, usually shortening, with a pastry cutter," she says. "You keep cutting the fat and flour until it is like very small peas. Then add cold water and mix it up until the dough just sticks together. That's enough mixing. If you mix it too long, the crust will be tough. You want little pockets of fat in the dough so that when it bakes, the fat melts and leaves little air pockets. That's what makes it flaky.
"Next, you have to have really good fruit. Nice and fresh, firm and not too liquid. If it's juicy, I add flour. I can't tell you how much, just till it looks right. Some people like cornstarch or tapioca, but I don't like the texture. Sometimes I add a little sugar, depending on the fruit, and sometimes I add a little spice or lemon juice. After the fruit and flour is mixed up, I pour the filling into the pie shell and add a few dots of butter. And if it's apple or peach, I'll sprinkle in some cinnamon and nutmeg.
"When I bake the pies, I place the pan directly on the oven rack. Some people put them on a cookie sheet to catch the drips, but I think you get a better bottom crust when they have heat circulating around the bottom of the pan.
"That's about it," she says. "It's just a basic pie, but I think that's what people like about them."
Bobbi's favorite pies are plum and strawberry-rhubarb. "Plum is really my favorite," she says. "I make them with Empress or President plums, which are prune plums, and they are really sweet. I don't peel them, just take out the stones and cut them up. Add a little flour and lemon and a little sugar. They're wonderful."
Now that cherry season is winding down, the balloon over Machado Orchards will come down. But the peach flag is flying, and there are lots of berries in season.
According to former neighbor Greg Garretson, the smells coming from the pie shop will bring traffic to a stop all summer.
"Even though I moved from across the street a few years ago, just the thought of those pies keeps bringing me back," he says.
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