For decades, visitors to the Lafayette Apple Festival have lined up for its heralded homemade apple pies. It’s time to investigate how thousands of pies are made for the event.
A good homemade pie starts with fresh apples.
“Our apple pies have been made famous, I think, because of the apple festival. It’s one thing that we’re really proud of,” said Jim Hiza with Saint Joseph’s Church.
“I’ve been doing it since I was in middle school, and now I’m 35, still helping out with the church,” said volunteer Jimbob Waugh.
It takes a lot of ingredients to make the 2,700 pies that Saint Joseph’s Church is aiming to bake this year.
What You Need To Know
- Saint Joseph’s church is Lafayette is aiming to bake 2,700 apple pies for the Lafayette Apple Festival this year
- They’re donating some of their proceeds to Joseph’s House in Syracuse
- After being baked, the pies are frozen, then thawed to be sold at the festival
“A lot of folks take ’em home and freeze ’em anyway and have that for later in the year, so it’s been working out for us for probably close to 30 years now, if not longer,” said Hiza.
Volunteers bring crates of apples inside the church for them to be cored and peeled. Meanwhile, dough is mixed, balled and flattened into pie tins.
Afterwards, spices are added to the apples.
“Well, I’m mixing all the spices together with the apples, making a nice mess and then adding it to the pie,” said volunteer Janine Leblanc.
“This is the fun stuff,” she said. “It’s the kid in me. At home, I have to keep things halfway clean, and I have to clean up if I don’t.”
One of the most important ingredients for the apple pies is the hardworking volunteers. Some roll out dough and add and an artistic touch.
After the spiced apples go into the pie tins, there’s another group waiting to lay out a dough top and crimp the crust with their fingers.
“We really have not seen each other as much as we’d like to, so we’re all catching up on everybody’s family goings-on and what’s new and telling stories and laughing and having fun,” said Carole Scofield.
The pies sold at the Lafayette Apple Festival are the parish’s only fundraiser for the year, but it isn’t keeping all the proceeds.
“We’ve actually selected Joseph’s House in Syracuse, a worthy cause, and we donate some of our profits back to the Joseph’s House to help them out,” said Hiza.
With a milk coating to get the pies brown and crispy, the desserts go into the oven, then come out to cool.
“And then we bag them up, and that’s the finished product,” said Hiza, holding one of the cooled, finished products.
The pies are then frozen, allowed thaw right before the festival, and sold to the community.
