I smell pie!

I smell pie. And I literally did, almost every day in the fall, during my younger years.

 

Pottstown, Pennsylvania, my hometown, is also the home of Mrs. Smith Pies. My dad claims that he actually knew “the” Mrs. Smith and that when he was a boy he bought her pies from her son, who sold them out of his wagon.

 

Mrs. Smith eventually outgrew wagon distribution and built a large pie factory in town. A few of my friends’ parents worked at the pie factory and, every fall when the pumpkin odor wafted through the town, the rumor of a worker’s finger being cut off and ground into a pumpkin pie flew as wildly around town as the hawk that was once trapped in my screen porch.

 

Despite the ground up finger tale, I do love pumpkin pie. I’m also a big fan of apple pie ala mode. But blueberry pie is the new sheriff in town! 

 

My husband and I bought an absolutely delicious blueberry pie in Maine this summer that cost more than the live lobster. Tasted better too! Ever since we tasted a delightful blueberry pie at Badlands National Park in September 2018, we’ve been on a quest to find a pie that matched its flavor. We’re still looking.

 

I told our editor, when we were discussing featuring pies in this edition, “I don’t make them, I just eat them.”

 

But, that was not always the case. As a 22-year-old newlywed, I once baked an apple pie with a homemade crust that melted in our mouths — and it should — I made the crust with a whole pound of butter!

 

I can’t remember the last time I baked a pie from scratch, but a couple of weeks ago I was cleaning out my cookbook shelf and a handwritten index card fell from one of the volumes. On it — my grandmother’s lemon meringue pie recipe! It looks like I’m back in the pie baking business. 

 

My dad always did back flips for her lemon meringue pie and I plan to bake him one this Christmas. It’s been at least 10 years since anyone in the family baked her famous pie. I hope my dad is as pleased with my offering as he was with his mother-in-law’s!

 

One of my writing colleagues once told me that he and his wife had the dream goal of opening a pie cruise business in the Charleston harbor. Maybe Colby at the Daniel Island Ferry can make it happen. I would ride on that boat!

 

At each Daniel Island Park Day, the paper hosted a pie baking contest. It was a very popular affair — we filled four or five tables full of donated pies and a combination of celebrity judges and pastry chefs refereed the contest. One year a riot nearly broke out when the judge disqualified my friend’s cheesecake submission as not being a pie. To this day, she still insists that a cheesecake is a pie and that she was robbed of the best pie title!

 

My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal is, you guessed it, the pie.

 

Pie brings back a bit of that comforting, nostalgic feeling. It’s a connection to the past and an adventure for the future. Each bite brings a moan of satisfaction, a feeling of relief.

 

Maybe you’ll be inspired to make one of the pie recipes featured in this edition of the paper. Perhaps buy one from your favorite bakery or heat a frozen Mrs. Smith’s pumpkin pie in the oven.

 

However it’s prepared this Thanksgiving and holiday season, I encourage you to smell, savor and enjoy the pie.