Easy as Pie
BY MICHELLE BLANCHARD ARDILLO
etween Halloween and late
December, internet food sites
buzz with searches for two of
the biggest food days of the year:
Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s not
all about turkey and sides, however.

According to the American Pie Council,
approximately $700 million in pies, or
about 186 million units, are sold in gro-
cery stores every year. This does not
include pies sold in restaurants, bakeries
and membership stores, such as Costco.

In fact, the pie council reports, if we
lined up the number of pies sold at U.S.

grocery stores in one year, they would
wrap around the globe and keep going.

That’s a lot of pie.

What makes pie one of America’s favor-
ite desserts, especially during the holiday
season? We asked four local pie producers.

Slice of Life
As soon as Maryland native and former
stay-at-home-dad Nic Romano dropped
his youngest child off at school for the fi rst
time this year, he headed out to a commer-
cial kitchen, where he rents the facility to
bake pies, bread and cookies, which he sells
wholesale and via the New Market Farmers’
Market twice a month. Baking seasonally,
he started with peach and apple three-inch
mini-pies, which were very successful. In
October, he switched to pumpkin, which he
makes using locally grown pumpkins.

“It is defi nitely worth the time and
eff ort to break down the fruit and prepare
it for baking,” he says.

He tries diff erent varieties that he fi nds
at local produce stands, but one favorite
is the Long Island Cheese, which is wider
and fl atter than the jack-o-lantern pump-
kins found everywhere in the fall. Its
lightly ribbed and pale-colored rind gives
it the appearance of a wheel of cheese,
thus the name.

Romano began his baking in the Navy.

At ports of call in Ireland, the Middle
East and the Mediterranean, he was able
to sample baked goods and specialties
of other cultures. After his service, he
worked in a college cafeteria and later at
Panera, baking bread through the night.

His Panera experience and a gift from a
friend of a sour dough starter helped him
create his own loaves, which he now sells
from his business, DaddyBoy Bake Shop.

PIE: PIE SISTERS; ROLLING PIN: GETTY IMAGES
18 Washington FAMILY
NOVEMBER 2019