Yes, pies. I had the pleasure at the beginning of the summer to take a pie class from the glorious  woman, herself: Kate McDermott. She is world renowned for her mastery of the pie craft, and has won countless contests. She also is a very calm and charming woman overflowing with love of the art. She treats pie-making almost as if it were some sort of philosophy in addition to a gastronomical treat. During class, while the pies bake, she takes time to answer questions, feed us snacks, and read us quotes and poems about pie. In the class I attended, she guided the six of us through the entire pie-making process, explaining that the most important thing in pie-baking was an accurate touch, rather than an accurate measure. I would say that probably one of the best ingredients to making good pie is having Kate stand at your side.

I left the class feeling like my life would forever be different now that I know how to make pies. Since then, I have spent quite a bit of my summer (life-changed) engaged in the art. The biggest  change probably was influenced by Kate's insistence that leaf-lard makes the best pie crust. Although I am mostly a vegetarian, I decided that for the sake of pie, I would start consuming lard. I wanted to do it the right way, though, so I contacted a local farm and ordered un-rendered leaf-lard directly from the source. Unfortunately that plan backfired as the process of rendering lard made me realize the extent to which I actually do not enjoy lard. However, I have to say that the resulting pie crust did turn out quite well. Since then, I have been experimenting with butter crust.

The process of making pies this summer has made me more intimate with the local farming  community, as almost all my ingredients have come from the local farmers markets and co-ops. It really has been a treat conversing with my local growers and hearing all they have to say about their products and lives. Something Kate insists on is that high quality ingredients are more important than any baking tricks. I was at first apprehensive about posting any of her recipes on my blog, but I did find a Seattle PI article that writes out her recipe for both crust and the apple pie filling.

Personally, after much trial and MUCH error, I find that I was adding too much water to my crusts which was a big factor in quality. Besides that, the filling has almost always been a success: Strawberry-Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Apple, and Apple again.

As Kate says, make pie, be happy, and visit her website. Now you too can make pie!