Pie Day + Me = Love

We heard that Braham, MN has an annual Pie Day.  In fact, they claim to be the Pie Capital of Minnesota.  Pie Day is held on the first Friday of August each year, which, as it happens was just this past Friday.  So we put in for some time off, packed up the baby, and drove an hour north for Pie Day.

We were afraid that we wouldn't be able to find Freedom Park, where the festival is held.  It wasn't a preloaded location in the GPS, but I'd looked it up on the map and had a general idea where it was located.  As it turns out, the road leading into Braham also takes you right past Freedom Park.

Freedom Park is nestled between the railroad tracks and Route 107/Main St...so you can't miss it.  We quickly found parking and made our way through the various craft vendors to the main event.

But before we came across any actual pie, we were greeted by the vocal stylings of the Pie-Alluia chorus.  We missed their opening numbers, but happened upon them just in time for the finale:  Pie-elujah (which is how I think they should spell their name).  Pretty adorable.

I was all ready for pie, but it was 12:30 and my husband forced me to eat an actual lunch.  Seriously.  He's such a stinker and will never let me have pie for every single meal.  What is wrong with him?  Why was he raised with such backward ideas of meals??  Does he not realize pie can be eaten for breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-day snack, dinner, dessert and pre-bedtime snack?  Blah.  

So we had some oregano chicken in a pita from the Gyro Vendor.  Delicious, but very messy, so no photographic evidence exists of this meal.  

And then we went to look at the old cars...

I lie.

We had pie!

Look at all that pie!  Gorgeous fruit pies!  No meringues or cream pies...I don't know why.  I was hoping for some graham cracker crusts, but they were all just pastry crusts.  That's okay...still good!

First round:

Raspberry Pear Pie, left, and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, right.  I had the raspberry one and I got a bite of the strawberry...both were so good!

Then we made our way back through the craft vendors and found a lovely secluded park, where I sat and nursed the baby.  And you know, that's really hard work, so we went back to the pie tent and got another slice each.  This time, I was served by a Pie Princess:

(I'm convinced that all these little town festivals have royalty...)

Round Two:

Pear Ginger Pie, left, and Apple Pie, right.  I can't even begin to tell you how good that Pear Ginger pie was.  It had crystallized ginger bits throughout!  Tastebud tingle time!  Oh, and I also tried the apple.  I am not a big fan of apple pie.  What?  I know, it's true, and so un-American of me. 

So that was pretty much it for Pie Day.  We didn't see the pie craft show, but we did buy a jar of strawberry-rhubarb jam on our return trip through the craft vendors.  The pie tent was out of take-home pies when we went up for Round Two, so that was a bummer, but the Girl Scouts were selling cookies!  Hello!  Samoas!  And cheap...$3.00.  Is that the normal price?  I feel like GS cookies are up to $7.50 a box these days, plus tax.  I swear.

Anyway, we have declared Pie Day to be an annual tradition.  Braham, we'll be back next year!

Czech It

Last weekend we picked up a local paper that featured a list of all of the summer festivals in our area, so we decided to head down to the probably self-proclaimed Kolacky Capital of the World, Montgomery, MN, for their annual Kolacky Days.  

I guess a Kolacky is some sort of doughy treat with a filling, such as raspberry, apricot or poppy seed from the Czech Republic.  They were out of the raspberry, so we got a package of the poppy seed, which I was informed by the vendor, is the traditional filling.

 That's a package of kolackies.  They look like dinner rolls.  How many were in the package?  Six?  I don't know and I'm too lazy to go look at the bag.  Anyway, my reaction to these kolacky treats?  Meh.  

Maybe the raspberry is better.  Maybe that's why it was sold out.

Before we ate kolacky, we wanted some awesome festival food.  Maybe some good Czech food?  We should have known, however, that Czech food would be pork-based sausages.  Anyway, since we don't eat piggies (they are smart, like dogs), our choices were pretty limited.  We ordered potato dumplings and gravy and you could have that with or without sauerkraut.  We were served by a girl wearing a crown.

We missed the dance routine by the girls in traditional costumes.  Bummer.

I love the ribbon on the waistband.

We then moseyed over to the craft vendors, the majority of which were grandma crafts.  You know what I mean...old lady crafts with bears and kittens and flowers, like these:

 And these tissue box covers...though I'm semi-drawn to that red and pink one in the lower right quadrant:

And so we made our way back to the car.  I'm not sure we were even at the festival for more than an hour (did I mention it took an hour to get there?).  Plus that town had some sort of funky smell.  I've googled to see if there is a landfill or something in the area, but nothing has come up.  It really did stink.  Sorry, Montgomery.  

On our way back to the car, we stopped at a sweet shop/antique store, LaNette's Antiques and Lace.   It was kind of neat that you could sit at tables among all the antiques and enjoy your rootbeer floats...and sorry for the blurry picture -- I was holding the baby and she was squirming.

That's some local soda (or pop, as they call it here) called Spring Grove.  I've also seen it come in Cream Soda flavor.  Yummy!  

We were sitting next to these patchwork curtains that were on display and I kept admiring all the different fabric squares.

 Check out those red and white whales, above, and, below, I love that honeybee fabric.

I think I've caught the quilting bug and I really want to make "I Spy" quilts for all the kids I know.

So there you have it:  Kolacky, old lady crafts, local root beer, and fading patchwork.