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The competition was “sweet” Saturday at the Oak Park farmers market as neighbors battled neighbors for best pie in town bragging rights.
The event was the fifth annual pie contest, a celebration of summer and farmers market finds — at least one key ingredient had to b e from the market. While the contest named only three winners, people hovered around the tasting table eager to snag any pieces of pies leftover by the judges.
To the crowd, there were no losers Saturday.
Sara Semelka, the Oak Park public health education director, organized the event, as she has in recent years. She said it reflects local tastes and visions.
“People can be so creative,” Semelka said.
It’s also an event with a fair bit of personal history, Semelka pointed out.
“It’s one of my favorite events because everyone has their own story on why they chose the pie to make,” she said. “Maybe it’s a family recipe, or maybe they just like making that type of pie.”
In all, 10 people competed, with the bakers picked at random from a list of would-be contestants. From there, three judges, including last year’s winner, took time and notes, munched slices and tallied scores for the better part of an hour.
“It’s a friendly competition, though people do like bragging rights,” said Semelka.
This year’s competing entries included apple and peach pies, a sweet potato and pecan one, a blueberry and peach pie, as well as an “autumn classic.”
Stacy Boykin entered with her granddaughter. The two made competing pies and Boykin’s recipe was an old family recipe. Boykin said her mother grew up in Louisiana and then Mississippi — before moving to Chicago — and her pie, the sweet potato and pecan pie, represented its southern roots.
“I used to always help my mother cook,” Boykin recalled.
She said a homemade meal is like nothing else in the world, and it’s her dream to open up a brick and mortar building to make home cooked meals for the homeless.
Boykin’s granddaughter, McKinlee, made an apple pie and while she, too, likes cooking, she’s not so much into pies.
“I don’t really make pies. I make chocolate chip cookies,” she explained.
Boykin snagged the third-place prize with her sweet potato and pecan pie, while the second prize went to the autumn classic by Jessy Sanders and first place went to one of the apple pies, a creation named “The Goat Ate my Pie” by baker Jim Schwartz.
Schwartz is another in a long line of family chefs.
“I grew up baking with my mom,” he explained.
He’s now teaching his daughter, Mika who, funny enough Schwartz said, doesn’t usually even like pie.
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“Mika said she doesn’t like pie but, ‘I like this pie,'” he said with a laugh.
While the pies are long gone, some of the ingredients to make them are still available at the farmers available. The village’s farmers market offers dairy, flour, berries and more, and will remain open every Saturday morning through Oct. 28 at the Pilgrim Church parking lot.
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.