The first cooking contest Tony Fields won was in her senior year of high school, for a cherry pie. It was 1945.
The second was at the Belmar farmers market two years ago, for her cherry pie.
Since then, Fields, 81, has won every pie contest at the Belmar farmers market — except one. She was out of town last August, so her daughter, Cindy King, entered with her apple pie recipe.
Guess who won?
Fields thanks two people for her pie prowess: her mother and a college neighbor named Nellie Ward. Fields grew up on a farm in Lawrence County, Ind., and moved to West Lafayette after she got married. Her husband attended Purdue University and they lived in the converted-barracks dorms, where they met a neighbor who made a good pie. “Nellie Ward gave me her recipe and I’ve never used any other ever since,” says the grandmother of five.
She comes to our meeting wearing a zebra-print shirt, black velvet hoodie, dangly earrings, a pink rubber bracelet and a curled-up straw hat like you might see on the Country Music Awards.
“I gotta tell you about my straw hat,” she says, pushing back her long white-blond hair. “I was at a school rummage sale and it started to rain, so I bought this hat for 5 cents.” Hats are a good luck charm now, as she wears one for every contest. She alternates between floppy straw and a ball cap that says “Save the Tatas,” a gift from her brother after breast cancer surgery.
Although she’s won prizes for rhubarb and cherry, asking her to pick a favorite pie is like asking a mother to pick a favorite child. She ticks off her repertoire on fuchsia-tipped fingers: “pumpkin, banana, coconut, apple, chocolate. But I think my cherry is my favorite.”
Before he left for a firefighter job in Alaska, her grandson, Kevin, asked her to teach him to make her cherry pie. Her family counts on her to bring the dessert, and she doesn’t mind.
“I’ve always baked pies when I have guests in the house and they seemed to disappear,” she says, presumably referring to the pie, not the guests. “It’s the quickest dessert I can make. It only takes me a half-hour.”
Her dough recipe is the simplest possible — flour, salt, shortening and water. So the secret’s gotta be in the preparation. What does she do in that half-hour?
Uses a pastry blender. This is a half-moon-shaped tool that cuts the shortening into little pieces that mix with the flour.
Keeps it cool. She puts ice in the water so it’s very cold when she adds it to the flour-shortening mixture. This keeps the fat from melting until the pie goes into the oven, making a flaky crust.
Uses a light touch. Don’t overmix the dough, she says, because that will make it tough and not flaky.
“We talk about opening a little pastry shop,” says her daughter, but for now, they will concentrate on winning more contests and paying off medical bills from two breast cancer surgeries and 35 radiation treatments.
“My granddaughter wanted an apron, so I made her one. She took it to work and everybody started wanting me to make an apron for them, so I started selling them for $25,” Fields says.
Selling the aprons helps cover the medical bills and she’s hoping to sell them at the farmers market this summer and online at .
She’s already won Belmar’s first contest this year — they are the first Sunday of every month — and plans to take July off to “let somebody else have a chance.”
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com
What’s baking at Belmar
The Market at Belmar is open every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, baked goods, handmade soaps and French tablecloths. See chef demonstrations, hear urban gardening talks and play open bocce.
The market hosts a themed pie contest the first Sunday of every month at noon. Belmar is located at West Alameda Avenue and South Wadsworth Boulevard, and the market is on West Alaska Drive. Information: or 303-742-1520.
UPCOMING CONTESTS
July 6: Cherry pie
Aug. 3: Peach cobbler (also watch for the “Cutie Pie” contest for kids in August)
Sept. 7: Apple pie or cobbler
