When come back bring very expensive pie

September 6, 2023 6:44 AM

This pie sold for $15,000 at an Ontario fair auction. Lonie Kady loved pie. And pie auctions. After his death, his business partner paid tribute by bidding high on pie.
posted by jacquilynne (23 comments total)

Keep your fork, there’s pie.
posted by whatevernot at 7:50 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Yessssss
posted by zenon at 7:56 AM on September 6, 2023

The first time I was at a small town fair I was shocked at how high the bids got at the pie auction. I eventually realized that it was how the high rollers in town showed their influence, and it was a good way to raise funds for various causes in the community.
posted by zsazsa at 8:24 AM on September 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

Key lime pie is best pie
posted by avocet at 9:00 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

The pie auction is an excellent idea. I wonder if it would work in my neighbourhood.
posted by Hogshead at 9:07 AM on September 6, 2023

Love the Weebl and Bob reference!
posted by terrapin at 9:23 AM on September 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

In my town, rather than a pie auction, we had a cake walk. It was basically musical chairs without the fighting over chairs and you had to buy a ticket to participate in each round and the person left at the end got a cake. One year I won 7 cakes before my mom made me stop.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:27 AM on September 6, 2023 [16 favorites]

The first time I was at a small town fair I was shocked at how high the bids got at the pie auction.

Generally, yes it is usually the wealthy of the town in my experience but it always goes to a local charity (sometimes a particularly a person or a specific thing from the town - like a new wheelchair or civic improvements).
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:49 AM on September 6, 2023

The cake walk fundraisers we did when I was in school were that everyone buys a ticket for $1, and there's a track with, say, 20 spaces on it marked on the floor. Participants walk around the track while the music plays, and when it stops, you have stopped on a number. Then a number is drawn and the person on that number wins the cake for that round. Kind of like gambling, really.
posted by hippybear at 10:28 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

The King of Queens episode where Doug and Carrie do a cakewalk for the church charity is hilarious.
posted by Czjewel at 10:53 AM on September 6, 2023

I see your $15,000 pie and raise you a $10,000,000 ham.
posted by slogger at 10:59 AM on September 6, 2023

In rural Ontario it's common for kids, usually 13 and up, to raise an animal or two as an education project in a 4H club. It all builds up to a competition for showing the animals at the local fair, following which the animals are auctioned off (at least the beef and the hogs) for the kid's profit. For many of these kids, these animals, cows or pigs or sheep, are often their first real "jobs" and can be a meaningful way to save to what happens after school, business or more school. There's a local restaurant who always buys the prize-winning cattle (usually three for the age groups). There's often friendly "bidding" on these cows at auction, but the Red Dot owners will always get a fair price for their beef.

So, while $15,000 is a lot for a pie, the idea of doing this is common and a way for local business owners to subsidize local kids and charities.
posted by bonehead at 11:26 AM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

The cake walk fundraisers we did when I was in school were that everyone buys a ticket for $1, and there's a track with, say, 20 spaces on it marked on the floor. Participants walk around the track while the music plays, and when it stops, you have stopped on a number. Then a number is drawn and the person on that number wins the cake for that round. Kind of like gambling, really.

That was the short version of the Cake Walk where I grew up. The long version of the Cake Walk had them draw a number, and then that person was out and that number was removed from the circle and they would do it again. Keep going musical chairs style until only one person was left.

The day started out with long cakewalks and then as they got to the end of the day and there were still a lot of cakes left, they would switch to the short version.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:44 AM on September 6, 2023

"Is that pie I smell?
"No, that's the smell of my daddy dyin'!"*

*what I always think of when I think of pie
posted by Kitteh at 11:54 AM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Don't eat too much pie!
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:21 PM on September 6, 2023

I mean, I like a good key lime pie, but there's not *that* much to it. Custard pies in general just aren't very complicated.

Now, a strawberry rhubarb pie. I could see a really good one of those being worth several grand.
posted by heyitsgogi at 1:02 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

Don’t dilute your rhubarb pie with strawberries. If you don’t like rhubarb you don’t deserve pie.
posted by rikschell at 1:46 PM on September 6, 2023

Um, wordshore?
posted by atomicstone at 1:57 PM on September 6, 2023

The day started out with long cakewalks and then as they got to the end of the day and there were still a lot of cakes left, they would switch to the short version.

That seems wrong. A 'cake walk' is a synonym for an easy task, so losing at one should be very difficult. The real (gramatically correct) version is what everyone else is describing above. Everyone who plays wins.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:15 PM on September 6, 2023

OK, now I would like an interview with the person whose pie was bought for $15,000, because even with the knowledge that it was a charity auction, having someone pay that kind of money for something that came out of your kitchen has to be kind of a wild feeling.
posted by EvaDestruction at 2:30 PM on September 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Not an interview but you can find her taking about it on Facebook here. Nothing terribly exciting but she is excited about her pie selling for that much.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:56 PM on September 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

From actually RTFA, "The pharmacy also bought other pies, spending $37,500 in total" and contributing to the $82k for the whole fundraiser. What a wonderful gesture shared by all.
posted by now i'm piste at 6:01 PM on September 6, 2023

I, too, often buy pie high.
posted by Literaryhero at 8:17 PM on September 6, 2023