The life of pie

Everybody loves pie

By Culinate staff

April 2, 2010

The latest DIY-meets-homespun food craze? Here in Portland, apparently, it’s pie. As in, the roll-your-own-crust, enter-it-in-a-contest, get-together-for-a-social pie. As the Portland Tribune recently noted in its piestravaganza article,

Like farmers markets, homebrews, food carts and independent coffee roasters, the humble pie has emerged as the next DIY phenomenon to become part of the Portland lexicon, as in, “Meet me for pie.” In its obsession with all things homegrown, quirky and community-minded, Portland has embraced pie with a big, warm hug. What other city boasts all of the following: a food cart dedicated to deep-fried pie; an outcropping of specialty pie shops and pie blogs; its own ad-hoc Pie Commission; and not one but two annual pie contests?

As the article also pointed out, however, pie ain’t just a Pac NW thing; it’s caught on in NYC and California, and on Pi Day (March 14, or 3.14) last year, a group now known as the Free Pie Movement gave away, yes, free pie in Belfast, Maine.