Pies, pies and more pies
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| Judy Ellis of Wyanet demonstrates her skill at making homemade pie crusts. Ellis was the 2009 winner of the annual Homestead Festival’s Make It With Lard Pie Baking Contest, which is sponsored by the Bureau County Home and Community Education Association. Ellis won this year’s competition with her mixed berry pie. |
WYANET — Author and culinary expert Ina Garten has said food is not about impressing people, but rather about making people feel comfortable.
However, with 38 years of expert pie making to her credit, Judy Ellis of Wyanet has been able to accomplish both goals.
For nearly 25 years, Ellis has entered the annual Bureau County Homestead Festival’s Make It With Lard pie baking contest. For the last 10 or 15 years, her pies have placed at least second or third, but usually first, Ellis said.
Two weeks ago, Ellis entered a peach pie and a mixed berry pie in the 2009 Homestead Festival pie contest, sponsored by the Bureau County Home and Community Education Association. Persons may enter as many pies as they want, but prizes are limited to one prize per person. Ellis won first place with her mixed berry pie.
Ellis said she typically enters both a peach and mixed berry pie in the annual event. Her strawberry/rhubarb pies and raisin pies have also done well through the years. All the contest pies are auctioned off, starting with the winning pies. Some of those pies have gone for $200 to $300 each, Ellis said.
In addition to the annual Homestead Festival pie competition, Ellis has also entered other area pie contests, including those for the Manlius and Annawan community festivals.
The Wyanet woman first started baking pies about 38 years ago as a newlywed. At that time, her mother-in-law, Dorothy Ellis, was known as the family’s top pie maker. Her mother-in-law always used lard for her crusts, so the younger Ellis decided to find her own recipe for making pie crusts with lard, which she did. Many pies and years later, Ellis still makes her pie crusts with lard and now family members ask for “Aunt Judy’s” pie.
When asked the secret for a good pie crust, Ellis said it’s the vinegar, which makes the crust tender. An egg adds the needed elasticity to the crust. Another secret is to be careful not to use too much water. When putting together a two-crusted pie, dampen the rim of the bottom crust so it will seal well with the top crust, she said.
All things considered, there’s not been a pie that she doesn’t like. Her favorite, however, is peach. She uses fresh peaches, which she usually buys when they aren’t quite ripe and lets them ripen up at home. She sometimes freezes extra pies, unthawing them for 60-90 minutes before baking them.
Ellis, who worked for 39 years at the Harper-Wyman plant in Princeton, said she basically makes her pies just for special occasions now. She’s not much of a cake or cookie baker. She and the family don’t need all those sweets, she said.
People don’t seem to make as many pies as they used to, Ellis said. When she first started entering the Homestead Festival pie contests, there would be four tables filled with pies. Nowadays, there may be eight or nine pies total ... and two of those pies are hers.
Maybe people are just busier nowadays, but maybe some more incentives should be given to the competition, Ellis said. Winners of the Homestead Festival pie contest receive gift certificates to the Wyanet Locker. While the certificates are great, they are basically something shared with the winner’s family. Having an additional cash prize might be an incentive to get more participants, she said.
Looking to the future, Ellis said the art of pie baking is a tradition that will continue in her family. Her daughter, Cindy, makes wonderful pies. Her grandsons, Johnny, now 18, and Andrew, now 15, also bake. Both boys have entered pies in the juvenile division of the Homestead pie contest and won.
Though this year’s Homestead Festival pie contest is now finished, Ellis said she’s not finished with her pie-making days for the year. There’s always more family special occasions and then there’s always next year’s contests which to look forward.
“As long as I’m able, I’ll be making pies,” Ellis said. “It’s what I’m best at.”
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