The Berrien County Youth Fair is known for showcasing the region’s agriculture through its animal competitions that hundreds of youth participate in, but this weekend, I got to see — and taste — an entirely new side of the region’s farming industry.

Among the long list of contests outside the traditional animal shows is a popular pie competition, which I had the pleasure of judging Saturday. Unlike the baked goods contest I’ve judged the past two years at the Apple Festival (which is focused entirely on apple-based products), the fair’s pie contest used all types of fruits grown in Berrien County, and all pies were made from scratch.

For almost an hour, I joined two other judges in tasting more pie than I usually eat in a year, comparing crusts, fillings, appearance and overall taste of more than two dozen delicacies made by adult bakers from all over Berrien County.

Let me tell you — we had our work cut out for us.

While there were lots of entries containing the traditional cherry, blueberry and apple fillings, but plenty of competitors got creative with their fruit usage, choosing to showcase multiple Berrien County fruits.

One baker mixed grapes and peaches, another used strawberries and bananas and multiple used a handful of different fruits, offering a sort of fruit cocktail inside a piecrust.

Others made their pies stand out by using different types of crusts. One of my favorites contained a chocolate crust with a cherry filling.

Some bakers focused on making their pies more attractive, creating shapes in the crusts, adding drizzles on top or arranging the fruit to make a picture. A couple of the youth contestants created patriotic pies, using rhubarbs, blueberries, icing and crust cutouts to make flag shapes.

I’ve always been a traditional apple pie lover, and before Saturday I had not gone very far out of my comfort zone, but thanks to the pie contest, I learned just how many ways there are to make a pie.

Before judging the contest Saturday, I had no idea how many different ways there were to make a crust. I didn’t realize, as one of the fellow judges told me, how important it is to “know your pan,” or that forcing competitors to use a foil throwaway pie tin was a curveball most bakers struggled with.

After tasting so many delicious treats and being forced to judge the best crust, filling and appearance, I have a newfound appreciation for bakers who make all sorts of goodies, but especially pies.

It truly was a great way to taste the fruits of labor (no pun intended) of not only the bakers who made the pies, but the Berrien County farmers who grew the fruit to go inside them.

I have a newfound appreciation for our region’s agriculture and the people who prepare it, and I’m so glad to have had the opportunity.

 

Ambrosia Neldon is the managing editor at Leader Publications. She can be reached by phone at (269) 687-7713, or by email at ambrosia.neldon@leaderpub.com.