That Day In Pictures - Pie Camp!

Last May, I went to the most delightful camp ever with my sister Diedre.  It was held on Whidbey Island, WA for 5 days.  I had read about these pie camps offered by a woman named Kate McDermott, a pie crust master baker, in an article in Country Living magazine and I mentioned to my husband how interesting and fun they sounded since I am crazy about pie making and hold a huge pie social for about 100 people every summer and he replied that I must go, I must!  So I persuaded my sister to join me and we met up last mid May and set forth for our pie making adventure.  Here is what the week looked like in pictures.

Diedre and I on the ferry headed to Whidbey Island WA

Our lodging for the week - look at the beautiful gardens below.  I was amazed at what was blooming in mid May in Washington.  Glorious!!

Our view from the Lodge

We ate Kate's pies and her son's homemade ice cream our first night to get a taste of what we were in for.  After, we all introduced ourselves, where we came from, our relationship with pie, and a story of the aprons we brought from home that we wore our first day.  

First day of class

Our leader Kate - doesn't she look a bit like the "girl with the pearl earring" in this pic with her hair protecting kerchief?

Diedre rolling out her first dough.  The key is keep it light and keep everything super cold.

Our first class concentrated on tiny hand pies.   These were so fun and so delicious!!

and we ate them for dessert that night.  and breakfast the following morning ...

Learning decorative crust techniques

Field trip to town and a farmer's market

Another class; tiny pies.  Bigger than the hand pies but preparation for the full size ones.

Lovely example of decorative topping.

Our little pies ready to show off and then eat for dessert.

This is Diedre making her full size pie that would demonstrate her mastery

My full size pie, ready to bake and ultimately take home.

Diedre's pie.  Hers was strawberry rhubarb and I made apricot pecan.  

Pie making sisters.  More local beauty below

Our finished pies - super flaky, crispy, chewy, crunchy perfect crust.  Diedre made an all butter crust and I elected half lard and half butter.  This lard is not your grocery store manteca but rather rendered leaf lard (kidney) from local farms.

Here we our with our finished and final pies.  We each carefully packed ours in special boxes to take with us on flights to our various homes to share with our families and convince them that our pie was worth the $1200 camp fee.  Totally worth every penny!!  We enjoyed working with each other, all women from every part of the country and all walks of life with a shared passion for pie baking, using top quality ingredients, local fruit and nuts, european butter, farm fresh unprocessed lard, the most amazing and delicious catered meals featuring local veggies, fruits, cheeses, milk, meats, fish, and lodging together in a wonderful and huge house set in gorgeous surroundings.  Along with our final pie to take home, we received a really nice apron, professional rolling pin, and a le crueset pie plate, the green ones you see in the picture above.   In a future post, I will share the "fruits" of my pie camp acquired skills where I made 45 pies, invited around 200 people, and hosted a pie social in my back yard last summer.  Yay for Pie Camp!