Pie makers show their skills at Buchanan County Fair
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 07/29/2010 9:45 AM
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INDEPENDENCE, Iowa —Diane Wenger, Irene Peyton and Helen Short were drafted to work with the Buchanan County 4-H Pie Contest when their children were in 4-H. and they continue to run the event even though their children are grown.
"We got to be good friends when our kids were in 4-H, and we look forward to getting together each year," Peyton said. She and Wenger are from Fairbank. Short lives at Masonville. "This is when we see each other."
Wenger checks everyone in by recording names and what kind of pies they're baking. She writes a number with an indelible marker on the bottom of each pie tin. When a pie is finished, a flag with the number is inserted into it.
Short bakes the pies, which is no small feat considering that there are 45. The pie pans sit on rings that protect ovens from spillovers. Peyton is in charge of clean up. She wipes the tables after each group finishes, and scrubs all the oven protector rings. It's not easy scrubbing off baked-on blueberry.
"I leave with dish-pan hands," she said. "At the end of the day, we're all tired."
Kathleen Stroule brought a group of Jesup Clover Kids. They took turns mixing and rolling dough, preparing fruit and sealing the edges of the crust.
Christine Dale, who is gluten intolerant, devised a gluten-free pie crust for her apple and strawberry pies.
"I'm pretending to be cool, but I'm not," Dale said. "You have no idea how many times I've practiced on my family."
Mary Davis of Hazelton has baked pies for years for the auction and helped run it until she started judging for 4-H. She made pies with her children and nieces and nephews, and now bakes with grandchildren.
"You want to keep the crust pliable," Davis said. "Don't fill your pie too full."
4-H member Lydia Oline made a blueberry/raspberry pie. It's her fifth year.
"I go by what my mom taught me," she said.
The behmoth hog pan pie is a legend at the auction. Made by pork producer families, the pie fills a hog feed pan. It takes four times the ingredients of a regular-sized pie.
The pie can't officially be in the contest because it isn't baked in a regulation pie tin, but the families make it for the auction for fun. This year's hog pan pie was crafted by Craig Sperflage and Kendra Kehrli.
With the heat from all the ovens, Short said she's thankful for air conditioning in the 4-H building.
Shirley Bond of Arlington brought look-alike aprons for herself, her granddaughter Amanda Crow and Amanda's friend, Jenny Adams, both from Lamont. They made a raspberry/strawberry/blueberry pie.
Bond has been baking pies since she was nine. She just turned 76. Bond brought a Mountain Dew bottle filled with ice water to use in her crust.
"Don't handle the crust any more than you have to," she said.
Nicole Clark of Independence was junior reserve champion last year with a strawberry-rhubarb pie. It was her first year.
"This year I'm going out on a limb with a rhubarb-cherry pie," she said. "The crust is the big thing. You need a flaky crust."
Independence 4-H'ers Garrett, Jeannette and Jannell Clampitt made apple, peach and red raspberry pies. The three learned to bake pies from their grandmother, Doris Murfin, who lives in Illinois.
Garrett was junior champion pie baker the past three years and reserve champion this year.
"I don't really try to win," Garrett said as he sliced apples and tossed together ingredients. "It just happens."
Kaye Manson made pies all the years her son and daughter were in 4-H. Her son graduated from high school in 1993 and her daughter in 2008, but Manson still bakes pies. This year she teamed up with Carson Frye, the son of her son's friend, and they made a peach pie .
"We don't want to work the crust too much," Manson said. "For the best flavor, use good fresh fruit."