Pie? Oh My!

Recently I was lucky enough to appear in this Etsy treasury that is so dear to my heart I wanted to share it.

I began collecting tin and aluminum pie pans in 1985 after seeing a photo in a Martha Stewart cookbook.

Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts, 1985, page 22.

Now Martha is controversial, a kind of love her or hate her kind of gal. But this book came out at a time when my mother, sister, and I were heading to outdoor flea markets nearly every weekend. I was getting a bit bored (hard to believe, isn't it? My, how I've changed!).

In Burlington, Kentucky

At the time, I was working in a pastry shop, as a baker and decorator, an avocation that became my vocation. Pies were not particularly my specialty. Be that as it may, the picture resonated with me and I thought how fun it would be to collect pie pans! So I did. 

 

By the way, these are pans with the name of either the bakery or the restaurant embossed into the bottom. When a pie was purchased, a small deposit (between 5 and 10 cents) was left and was given back when the pan was returned.

Little did I know how many are out there.  Along the collection trail, I started to hang them up on my kitchen walls; eventually they were on all four and heading into the pantry. True dust-catchers, I must say!

After many more years, I finally realized I had enough and resisted the temptation whenever I saw one I didn't have.

I got married and when I moved in with my hubby, the pans went into three large boxes, ...

...now down to two because I have sold about 18 of them in my shop.

 I sell them with a bit of reluctance but also with joy 
because I know those who are buying them may have 
the same passion for them as I do --three people 
bought two each and two bought three each!

    “Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness” ~Jane Austen