Starting with locally grown cherries at Del Haven Orchards, the ladies at Trinity Anglican Church in Blenheim use their years of experience to make the crust and pie filling by hand for more than 2,500 cherry pies for the annual Cherry Fest.
According to Mavis Purdy, a member of the pie committee, the group has been making pies for in excess of 20 years as a fundraiser. Besides the pies for Cherry Fest, the group also makes several varieties throughout the year available to the public – apple, cherry (both available made with Splenda for diabetics), wild blueberry, pumpkin, raisin, peach (available seasonally) and mincemeat pies and tarts for the Christmas season.
“It started at the United Church in Cedar Springs and then moved here,” Purdy explained. “We made the first 100 pies and they went so fast, we started making more.”
To get ready for Cherry Fest, the pie makers start in May making the pie shells and freezing them – 1,500 of them to start – and then in June, start making the filling and assembling the pies, which are unbaked and frozen. During the week of Cherry Fest, Purdy said pies are also available baked fresh or unbaked ready to go in the oven.
“We used to do meat pies with roast beef and cooked our own vegetables to go in it, but there was such a demand, we couldn’t keep up so we stopped making them,” Purdy said. “They were good. People are still asking for them and it’s been almost three years.”
A fun bunch of ladies, there is a lot of laughter and joking while they get down to the business of rolling, placing, cutting and baking. Taking a coffee break to talk about the upcoming Cherry Fest, the ladies explained they have the process of pie making down to a fine art, but it is still a lot of work.
“We could sell more pies, but we just can’t keep up,” said Ron McCracken, organist at the church and volunteer during Cherry Fest.
The pies are popular not only in the Chatham-Kent area, but from as far away as Toronto (where one customer buys 20 pies to take home), Hamilton, London and Windsor. One customer from Florida even made the ladies aprons with cherries on them especially for Cherry Fest, committee member Joyce Gardinar said.
When asked what the secret of the pies, Purdy said they use a family recipe for the pies but had to “doctor it up” to make it in bulk quantities.
“We call it our secret recipe; it’s made with love,” Purdy joked.
During the coffee break, chair of the Cherry Fest committee Anne Russchen brought the group up to date on pie progress. In just three sessions in the last week of June, the bakers made 163 pies.
Russchen joked that she talked to Justin Trudeau about how hard the group was working and that they deserved a raise of 20 per cent. When one of ladies called out, “What’s 20 per cent of nothing?” Russchen laughed and said, “You know what that is.”
The chair praised the group, sincerely thanking them for all the work they do.
“You’re all doing a wonderful job and it shows in your dedication.”
Pies are available for sale now at the church at 59 Ellen St., on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and also the full week of Cherry Fest July 14-16. To find out more, call Mavis at 519-676-2791 or Dorothy at 519-676-8606. People can also call the church office at 519-676-2081 for more info on picking up pies.
For more information about Cherry Fest, go to cherryfest.ca.
I purchase 2 pies during the Cherry fest. One was a cooked one and I gave it to my aunt, so I do not know if she liked it or not. The other was a frozen one which I cooked yesterday. The inside was like a very firm jello which was not at all tasty. The pie was served to 7 people and all of us had at least one pit and someone even had 4. I was very disappointed since I was expecting a beautiful tasty cherry pie. None of us thought it was a good pie. I will not be buying another.