I've just finished assembling 36 pies which will be the alternative to a cake for the wedding of some very dear friends. I wasn't alone--we had a crew of 5 and a very efficient bride who organized a delivery schedule to 10 different ovens for tomorrow's big bake-off. Still, it was a lot of work and I'm tired, the happy kind of tired when you've given your all to something you really want to support, like an offering in a ceremony or something you thought was a sacrifice but turns out to be as much a gift received as one given.
Plus, it was a lot of fun.
This has got me thinking about food as an offering, which is a deeper and wider act than just giving a gift or bringing your share of potato salad to the neighborhood potluck. In a very real and tangible way, a food offering is responding to a request to keep someone or something alive, to enter into a relationship by giving something precious to sustain something precious.
In many Asian countries where Buddhism is still practiced, the monks are not allowed to purchase anything, even food, and they are not allowed to store or hoard food either. Often they can only eat once a day and that meal is before noon. So they are deeply dependent on the lay community to feed them. For the lay community, it is a meritorious act to bring food to the monks and place it in their large brass begging bowls. This giving and receiving of food is an offering, a ceremony, where all participants are nourished.
When you work hard in service of a person or an organization or even an idea, you are giving your energy, your lifeforce, an actual bit of yourself in support of that something or someone. You are saying "This is important. This is worth sustaining."
In the case of our 36 pie offering, our two friends going to do something not only for themselves but also for their community of friends and family. They are going to say 'I do" to a set brave and bold and noble vows. And in doing so they will bring us all together, in a conspiracy of sorts, to support them in this lifetime commitment, this celebration of complete trust, this leap of faith called marriage.
So when two dear, dear people are about to take one of the biggest leaps of their lives and they want pie, then by jove, we're giving them pie!
(Images: Dana Velden)
How can you show us all those beautiful pies and not reveal what's inside them!? Cruel!
;)
view IzzyIzzy's profile
Dana, You have a beautiful way with words and getting to the essence of a noble act. Thank you for sharing these inspirations.
Okay, I give. How did you make such lovely pie crust? I'd love to know your recipe.
view lona's profile
The Filling's Story: The groom is from Iowa, so he wanted Pie Plant (aka rhubarb) as the filling and since we were doing 36 pies, we thought we would mix the rhubarb with berries to cut down on the fruit-prep labor. But on the day of the assembly, there was a mix-up with the fruit and while we had 45# of rhubarb, there were no berries. We stopped at the local market and bought them out of strawberries, 12# in all. So the filling was rhubarb/strawberry with an emphasis on rhubarb.
I had a piece last night at the wedding and it was really, really good.
view Dana V's profile
What a great story!
Personally I will take pie over cake any day, with southern-style blackberry cobbler winning the first prize over all (hot with vanilla ice cream).
Hats off also to the groom for sticking with his fave even though there are a lot of foolish people out there who don't like rhubarb!
view Charlotte's profile
Those are some lucky wedding guests! I love it when people go beyond the usual wedding cake!
view ladygoat's profile
This is really a lovely story, except I'm baffled by your use of the word 'conspiracy.' A hush in the presence of something bigger than normal isn't equivalent to a conspiracy.
view krister's profile
Good point on the word 'conspiracy', Krister. My use was in reference to the latin origins of the word: con='together with' and spirare='breathe' which touches on the intimate/working together feeling I experienced. The usual usage of the word also implies that there are harmful, or at least mischievous, intentions involved and for that reason it's understandable that you would be baffled.
view Dana V's profile
That sounds fabulous! As another Midwesterner, I'm a big rhubarb lover. What lucky wedding guests!
view IzzyIzzy's profile
As one of the pie eaters, I can vouch for their deliciousness! Janeen and Paul definitely inspire such community, both in their SF friends and those of us living elsewhere.
view norarachel's profile
And there was a hush over the city. Pies on parade. Coming from all directions. Ta-da...Ta-da. Celebrating love, friendship and the joy of giving. San Francisco ovens, opening, opening Ta-da...Ta...da. And the hushle and bushle of pies offering themselves to the guests and the joy of sweetness...covers the land. Ta-da...Ta..da.....
view truedharma's profile
this is going to be me in a couple days! I'm making 150 (mini) pies for my friends wedding. He is a southern boy, and wants a good old fashioned apple pie. We got Peach as well to mix it up a bit. We actually went out to an orchard near by and picked all the fruit ourselves last weekend. Any tips for mass assembling??
view lanaheartbear's profile