PEMBERVILLE – There are several steps to Sheila Rahe’s peach pie that are imperative to its success.

Perhaps the most important is to freeze it.

“The secret that I found is don’t wait to freeze that pie after it is done,” Rahe said.

When she needs a pie, she takes it out of the freezer, removes the large Ziploc bag it’s been in, and bakes it right away.

That is the second secret: Baking the pie from frozen.

“It makes your crust flaky and not soggy,” Rahe said.

Anything you thaw brings out the moisture; thawing the pie first brings that moisture into the crust, she said.

Rahe said she has spent years perfecting this pie, proudly adding it is her own concoction.

“It took me quite a while,” she said. “It’s taken years.”

Rahe said she made peach pies for her husband for more than 30 years, as they were his favorite.

Jim died 27 years ago.

She said for a long time after his death, she didn’t make the pie. It wasn’t until her daughters requested it that she started baking the pie again.

Another tip is to sift the flour for the crust, to make it flaky.

At first, Rahe made the crust with just lard, but health issues got her to use half lard, half shortening.

She doesn’t cut the lard and shortening into the flour mix. She uses a gloved hand.

“I can feel if I’ve got it crumbly enough.”

Rahe adds white vinegar to make the crust flaky and keeps a glass of ice water at hand to add until the dough reaches the desired consistency.

The attention she pays to the crust is evident. The top had a crackle to it from the sugar sprinkled on top, the bottom wasn’t soggy, and it was in perfect proportion to the filling.

Rahe said she sat for more than an hour, trying to get the recipe down on paper as she has it memorized.

She pulled her last peach pie out of the freezer for this story; it had been in there for a year.

Rahe said she waits for the peach truck to come through the area to restock. It should be back this month.

She peels as she goes.

“Everything is fresh.”

She uses six to eight peaches per 9-inch pie and will fix as many pies as she can using a bushel of peaches from the peach truck.

“I make these pies for just my family and friends.”

Rahe also bakes a one-crust peach pie, but not often because her family doesn’t like it. She adds tapioca, an egg, margarine and almond extract to it.

“It’s an old, old recipe of my mother’s and I just love to make it.”

She said she didn’t know how to cook when she got married; they ate a lot of sandwiches and soup at the beginning. Rahe said Jim’s favorite meal was pork chops on the grill and home fries.

The fried potatoes took her a while to master, she said, because he liked them crisp without being burnt.

She retired from the bursar’s office at Bowling Green State University in 2009, after working there for 33 years.

Rahe prefers baking over cooking, although as a diabetic, she has to watch her sugar intake.

She has two daughters and five grandchildren. She makes a rhubarb pie for one daughter when that vegetable is in season. A son-in-law loves blueberry pie, so she’ll make one once in a while for him.

A grandson in the Air Force asked for a peach pie while stationed in Afghanistan. She sent him cookies instead.

While she will bake lots of cookies for her grandchildren, Rahe said she prefers to make pie.

She is a member of Pemberville’s American Legion Auxiliary, and bakes pies for the quarter frenzies hosted at the hall. Rahe also makes pies for auxiliary’s pie tent at the Pemberville Free Fair.

Last year, they cut 342 pies; people get in line specifically for a slice of her peach pie.

“I had one lady from Bowling Green say, ‘I won’t buy any other unless I know it’s yours and I know it’s peach,’” Rahe said.

She has added peanut butter pie to her repertoire at the fair, and that has been well received.

Rahe also makes pies for gatherings of the Quilting Eagles.

“I can say I’m proud to be a member of those two organizations,” she said about the legion auxiliary and the quilters.

While not an Eastwood Local Schools retired teacher – like many of the Quilting Eagles members are – she had two children graduate as Eagles. Members saw her at a quilt shop, and they reeled her in, she said.

Since its inception, the Quilting Eagles have made and given away more than 200 Quilts of Valor. They also make and donate wool gloves to a local food bank, and in the last two weeks, the group has made 57 youth quilts.

“It’s giving. You learn to give rather than take, and that’s what I like.”