Farm market season ends with a bang - and lots of pies

NORTH CANAAN — If your Thanksgiving meal includes a handmade pie from Freund’s Farm Market, consider yourself lucky, and know you are far from alone.

The Journal asked master piemaker Theresa Freund how many pies she makes in the days leading up to the holiday.

“I used to count,� Freund said. “But it just got to be too much work.�

Late last week found her with a plate that was even more full than usual, as she busily prepared the meal for the Nov. 19 FFA banquet (for 300 people) at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

Preparations for that included making 30 pies and an assortment of cakes.

There were also a yet-to-be-determined number of pies needed for a North Canaan Elementary School fundraiser. Freund agreed to make those pies, thinking they would be needed at Christmas time, as they were last year.

Oh well. It will all get done.Along with the preparation of the 200-or-so pies on order, and maybe another 75 that will be sold at the farm market.

“We finally got smart and we line all the pie orders up in the greenhouse with the customers’ names on them,� Freund said. “It saves us a lot of time when they can come in and find their own pies.�

All those pies, lined up and waiting to be taken home, are an impressive sight. And as anyone knows who has ever baked a pie, just making one is a lot of work. But Freund confides that the pie baking has become the easy part. She and her staff have it down to a science.

“It’s all the other stuff people want now. I can’t tell you without checking how many orders we have for mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables, sweet corn casserole, cranberry sauce and rolls. We’re doing, so far, seven complete Thanksgiving dinners. And you get a reputation for certain things, like pumpkin cookies and whoopie pies, that take extra time, but you do them because there are people who come in just for those things.�

And word spreads in a variety of ways about the side dishes and Freund’s skill at making them.

Last year, she donated a complete dinner to a local fundraising event. It sold at auction for $500. The winner donated it to a family in need.

After divulging all this information, and being thanked for taking time out of her busy schedule, Freund confessed that she had actually filled a slew of pie shells while chatting.

It has been a great year at the farm market, which now stays open until Christmas, she added. October sales were 15 percent higher than last year’s for the same month. Freund attributes it to the economy keeping people closer to home.

“Instead of going out for dinner, they are treating themselves to some of the higher quality foods, like Nodine’s bacon, for instance, that we sell.�

While some other area farm markets are opting to stay open through this winter, Freund said it is just not worth the overhead for her market to stay open between Christmas and April 1. But lest anyone think she and her family and helpers are relaxing by the fire, she said, “My kitchen never shuts down. We’re cooking and catering all winter.�

By March 1, the greenhouse is up and running and people are stopping in to order bakery items — even though the market is not officially up and running at that time of year.

“We’re not open, but if I’m there, we pretty much are.�

That said, don’t look for the Freunds in January. They are heading to Germany, to market their composted manure-based Cow Pots. The plant-starting pots are made from manure from their own cows.

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