Flour covers the granite counter at the Congregational Church kitchen, and apple slices, brown sugar, and spices simmer in a large pot on the stove. Lucy Wallace and her team of aproned women are at work assembling pies for the church’s annual Apple Festival on Oct. 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Common. This is the streusel-topping apple pie crew, who meet the Monday before the Saturday festival and will freeze the pies until Thursday when most of them will be farmed out for baking. The next crew will come Thursday to work 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. making traditional apple pies with crust tops. On Friday, bakers will make apple crisp for debut on Saturday, in response to public requests. All the recipes (except the streusel) are Mother Carlson’s, and no one deviates from them. A few people continue to make pies at home, but more and more are now working the assembly line at the church.
Fran Maiore (left) and Lucy Wallace mix ingredients during large-scale pie production in the kitchen of the Congregational Church as they prepare for the church’s annual Apple Festival. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Eleanor (Mother) Carlson and Grace Cummings started the Apple Festival more years ago than anyone can remember. At least 50 is the consensus. Janet Wilhelm, who created the streusel recipe, and Wallace try to recall how many years they have been topping apple pies with it. Their figuring includes trying to remember when they used to do the streusel pies at the home of Frances Reeve. This proves inconclusive and they settle on 25 to 30 years ago. After Frances, the streusel operation moved to Wallace’s house where the crew would assemble the pies, use the freezer, and then disperse the pies to various other houses for freezing and baking. Wallace says with some chagrin that it was only a couple of years ago that “a lightbulb went off” and they realized they could use the church kitchen and two freezers in the basement for the whole operation and everything would be much more efficient. The only one who regrets the move from Wallace’s home is her Lab, Willie, who was happy to devour any scraps that hit the kitchen floor.
Streusael-topped pies
The crew has the streusel-topped pie operation running smoothly, with each woman specializing in a different step of the assemblage. Conversation is dotted with recollections o. people and incidents of the past. Wallace recalls that Grace Cummings used to wash and save the pie tins from sliced pie served at the festival and bring them out the following year. Someone relates that there used to be a couple from Connecticut who would come every year and take home 20 pies to give as gifts at Christmas.
The dough has been made by Wallace, and each measured dough ball wrapped in foil. At the wide counter, Wilhelm, Maria Holland, and Sue Barber roll out the dough and line the foil pie pans. It takes some expertise to get the dough the perfect thickness and to transfer it to the pie tin so it evenly lines the bottom. Then comes the crimping. Barber, who protests she’s not good at crimping, proceeds to make thumb impressions around the top of the dough—a technique she learned from Priscilla Harrod—and admits it looks pretty good.
Across the kitchen, Fran Maiore, who doesn’t roll or crimp, is stirring a large pot of apple slices, brown sugar, and spices. Wallace explains that Carlson Orchards has always donated the apples. In the “old days” the ladies used to have to peel and cut the apples themselves, a process that took hours. Now Franklyn Carlson delivers 40-pound cartons of peeled, sliced apples. At the center island, Wallace scoops apple slices, measures, and puts them into a pot to await the next batch of Maiore’s filling.
At another counter, Kathy Jackson is putting the precise amount of streusel topping onto each apple-filled tin and delivering it to Wallace to be packaged for freezing. Jackson says this is a “promotion” for her as she used to be on packaging, clearly a less exacting job.
Accomodating all needs
Outside the crowded kitchen Joanne Williamson has her own long table where she mixes the streusel following Wilhelm’s recipe to the letter. She makes it in batches for two pies—stick of butter, stick of margarine, cup of brown sugar, bit of flour. “That’s a generous 12-ounce topping per pie,” Williamson said.
“We try to accommodate all needs,” says Wallace. People can buy a pie fresh or frozen, streusel or regular topping, and this year they can try an apple crisp. People can also pre-order pies, fresh or frozen. Instructions for baking a frozen pie are included. Copies of “Favorite Recipes of Mother Carlson,” compiled by Sam Smith in 1997, will be for sale at the festival.
Last Monday, when the requisite number of pie tins had been filled and the last bit of flour wiped up, the crew was rewarded for its hard work. Wallace brought out the cooked pie from last fall that she had kept frozen and the women enjoyed the fruits of their labor.
