Glacier Park Photo by Dianna Troyer
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Governor’s Conference on Aging: Inspired Aging – Inovations in Health & Wellness
– pages 6-9 & 38-41
Recovering the lost art of pie making – two Montana bakers are keeping the tradition alive By Kim Thielman-Ibes There’s something about the aroma of a freshly baked, homemade pie that stirs the senses and awakens the soul. The art of making pies may become another relic, a piece of Americana relinquished to technological and less-heavenly advances like freezerready imposters and boxed-up commercial kitchen assembly lines. Luckily a pioneering spirit and pie making tradition lives on in Big Sky country. Two Montana pie makers from the Gallatin River and the base of the Rockies carry on, mastering the secrets of a truly flaky crust, whipping to perfection a stand up meringue, creating mouthwatering combinations with the illusive Montana huckleberry and elevating the common green apple to tasty new heights. For these two bakers, pie simply makes life more delectable. Eating a hard-to-come-by perfect piece of pie is akin to consuming an all-purpose elixir. With each bite, the clock ticks a little slower, problems become a little smaller, and smiles become a little wider. Though Marci Gehring has been baking pies for over eight-years along the Gallatin Valley at the Coffeepot Bakery and Café, she’s been creating them for over thirty-five. “I never get tired of making pies,” says Marci. “There’s just something so comforting about putting them together.” For Marci, they’re an expression of love and that, in a nutshell, is the only special ingredient necessary to make a killer pie. Marci bakes over a hundred pies and countless turnovers each week. Her turnovers use the same crust and filling and are essentially a piece of pie to go. Between the two, Marci insures over nine varieties are available on any given day – fruit flavors run the gamut from strawberry-huckleberry with a streusel crumb top, blackberry-pear, cherry-rhubarb and just plain old raspberry. And then consider a collection of cream pies including sour cream raisin, butterscotch cream, and chocolate cream. Finally, blend in a medley
(Continued on page 44) Gather the Hidden Eggs Just for fun, we have hidden 25 Easter eggs throughout this issue of the Montana Senior News. Can you find them and let us know the page numbers on which you found them? We will award a $25 prize to the person who finds all of the eggs. If there are multiple correct entries, the winner will be determined by a drawing. None of the hidden eggs is located within an advertisement. Have fun!