In Goffstown, a crusty grudge match
Goffstown’s annual Once Upon a Pie baking competition and social event is not just a tasty fundraiser for the Goffstown Public Library but also the setting for a showdown between town government departments. According to Evelyn Redmond, one of the event’s organizers, for the past several years there has been an ongoing rivalry between the Town’s Parks and Recreation Department, and the Police.
“We take pies submitted by anybody who wants to participate,” she said, “and categorize them as far as ingredients. We have, I think, 13 different categories, plus we have an inter-department contest. So anyone who works for the town at one of the town departments can submit pies in that category. But this past year we’ve had Public Works in the mix, so this is going to be an interesting competition.”
The Once Upon a Pie competition is held every year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Redmond said, and is a major fundraiser for the Goffstown Public Library Foundation, which helps fund library programs outside its official budget, such as supplying museum passes for patrons. “We have probably 200 people that attend the event,” she said, referring to Once Upon a Pie. “And it is our second major fundraiser of the year. The first one that we do is we participate in New Hampshire Gives in June. But we’re acquiring more supporters every year, just trying to keep the library capital needs taken care of. That’s our mission.”
The pie event raises money in three ways. Bakers pay to submit pies for a judged competition, pie-lovers from the community pay to eat pie, and prize-winning pies are auctioned off.
Every year, there are dark-horse competitors who surprise everyone, Redmond said.
“We have a kids’ category, which is [open to] anyone up to the age of 18. Actually, two years ago the top winning pies were made by the teenagers. It was a Key lime pie, and they actually had just gotten together because they wanted to bake, and they did a beautiful job. It was very nice-looking and the judges gave it fabulous marks for tasting wonderful.”
On the day of the competition, pies need to be submitted by 11:30 a.m., Redmond said, so the judges have time to taste all of them. Having to taste many, many pies sounds like a good problem to have, but she said that it can actually be pretty gruelling.
“Last year we received 88 separate pies to be judged, and it was a burden on our three teams of judges, so they each had to taste almost 30 different pies. So this year we’ve added an additional team of judges. So hopefully we can get that number down and go a little bit easier on their stomachs. But yeah, because even if it’s only a tablespoon, 30 tablespoons is a lot of pie.”
Between the pie judging and the public part of the event, Once Upon a Pie Day is a long one. “we start at nine o’ clock in the morning,” Redmond said, “and we usually don’t leave the building until nine o’ clock at night. Last year a lot of people came in at the very last minute with a lot of pies. So that pushed our whole schedule back and some of us never even got a break during that 12-hour period last year. So this year we’ve built in a break time.”
For Redmond, the biggest surprise of last year’s event was the winning pie.
“The biggest surprise was the top-winning pie was just a regular pumpkin pie,” she said. The event’s website (gplnhfoundation.org/once-upon-a-pie) has photos of last year’s winning pies and a description of the overall winner that says, “What a pumpkin pie should be.”
Redmond said Once Upon a Pie is a tradition that has become part of Goffstown’s culture. People from all walks of life, political persuasions and social circles all come together, bound by their love of pie.
“It’s almost like this is a metaphor,” she said. “The pie competition is all about the community, in the same way that the Library provides value to the community.”
Once Upon a Pie
Where: Goffstown High School, 27 Wallace Road, Goffstown, 497-4841.
When: Saturday, Nov. 22. Pie drop-off for entrants is from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Ticket sales for the public pie appreciation event that is open to the public begin at 6:15 p.m. Slices of pie are $3 each, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Pie registration forms are available on the event’s website at gplnhfoundation.org/once-upon-a-pie.
Featured photo: Courtesy photo.
