Dutch Apple Pies

On Monday my friend Dana and I headed over to Lafayette Christian Schools to volunteer in their Dutch Apple Pie fundraiser. For 14 years LCS turns their gym into an apple pie factory. There are several tables and stations where volunteers work for hours each day to assemble the various pieces of the pie. I decided to get a group of women my age together from Elmwood to help out. It sounded fun and an interesting, plus I don't think I will be baking an apple pie at home anytime soon. Dana and I started outside mixing the cinnamon sugar that will become the flavoring for the pie. 3 5lb. bags of sugar plus 7 cups and a cup and a half of cinnamon. Put this all in a cement mixer, spin it on a homemade spinning contraption for about 2 minutes and pour into a large garbage can inside for transportation to the pie mixing table!

After an hour and a half of inhaling cinnamon and being eaten alive by mosquitos we headed inside to held in the final stages of the pie making process. We had to remind a few not so pleasant volunteers that we were just volunteers and make the best of it. We proceeded to bag and double bag pies for another hour and half. All in all I think they made about 1100 pies while we were there. They will periodically come in and tell us what the pie count is. I don't remember what it was when we got there but just as we were walking out they yelled that it was 3467 pies in one single day!

In the 2 days of pie production they will make approximately 7,000 pies! They store the pies in large rented freezer trucks in the parking lot and on Wednesday through Friday they open for business. A line of cars down the road will be a fixture during open hours on those days. They will most likely sell out of the $9 pies before Friday comes.

If you live in the Lafayette area this is definitely a must check out. If you don't and your school or church is looking for a neat fundraising idea come down for a few days to observe. It really is incredible. It sure beats door to door candy sales!