Think of any time of year, and chances are you can think of a pie to go with it.

 Blueberry pie in the summer. Apple and pumpkin pies in the fall. You get the idea.

 Americans, so it seems, love their pie (especially Grandma’s), and for good reason. 

 “Everybody has great memories of pie from their childhood,” says Linda Hoskins, executive director of the Illinois-based American Pie Council . “Even if there was a bad pie, there’s usually a great memory.”

 Hoskins’ APC is the national authority and sanctioning body for all things pie.

 “We’re just a bunch of pie lovers,” she quips.

 But behind that love of pie is some serious responsibility, such as administering the annual APC-Crisco National Pie Championships held each April, where prize money, and more importantly, pride, is on the line.

 Although the National Pie Championships (NPC) have been around since 1995, the size of the competition has roughly doubled in the last three years alone.

 Why the upswing?

 “There’s a resurgence of interest in passing down the art of pie baking,” Hoskins says.

In the 2008, competition, 117 entrants entered 823 pies. There were junior bakers, professionals and commercial entrants.

 But the real glory is in the amateur division, where adult competitors enter pies in one or several of 15 categories, including apple, cherry, custard, and pumpkin.

 Those competitors included Denver’s Christine Fiedorowicz, an attorney who got into pie baking as a way to take her mind off work when she got home. Her pies quickly proved popular with family, friends and neighbors alike. Word spread, and by the end of 2007, Fiedorowicz had logged two appearances on the Food Network, including a challenge in which she won $10,000 for her signature Date Cream Pie—a recipe that was inspired by her Egyptian heritage.

 On the heels of that success, Fiedorowicz went to the 2008 NPC in Florida with a straightforward strategy: “Either do something completely new but simple, or do something classic but with a twist.”

 She found inspiration in the cherry lime soda flavor of the Sonic fast food chain, and entered a key lime pie topped with cherry gelee and cherry whipped cream. The pie placed third in the citrus category, to Fiedorowicz’s delight.

 “With a key lime pie, you have a lot of discerning palates in Florida,” she jokes.

 Later in 2008, Fiedorwicz took her various pies to Pueblo for the Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust Championship at the Colorado State Fair.

 She again took third, that time with a peach pie that had basil as an added twist (another alternative take on an otherwise classic pie).

 For both of Fiedorowicz’s third place finishes in 2008, though, there’s another

 Coloradoan sitting pretty with first place finishes: Jim Woodworth.

 They call him the Pie Man of Pueblo West, and the octogenarian amateur pie baker has proven himself a force to be reckoned with.

 Retired from the telecommunications business, he’s been baking pies and competing since 1994. 

 It all started with a simple aspiration. 

 “I thought that I could do better than what people were making,” he says. Turns out, he was right.

 Since 1994, he’s logged an impressive list of accomplishments at the state fair: King of the Kitchen, eight consecutive first place wins for apple pie (he took second in 2008 in that category), and more first, second and third place pies than he can count (including seven firsts in 2007, and 5 firsts in 2008).

 It wasn’t until 2008, though, that Woodworth ventured into the realm of the NPC, where he was likely the oldest competitor, and one of only 12 men overall in a field of nearly 120. 

 He entered five pies, including his award-winning apple, plus pumpkin, pecan and raisin.

 Not one of them placed.

 But then there was his All-American sour cherry pie .

 Made primarily with frozen cherries he picked himself earlier in the season, and designed with a custom stencil for the crust, Woodworth’s pie took first place in the cherry category. 

 “What a surprise!” he says.  “I was tickled pink.”

 One big question remains: Will Woodworth return to the NPC this month to defend his cherry title?

 He remains uncertain.

 “I may quit while I’m ahead,” he says. “I just love baking pies. I recently baked 17 pies for a church sale. People have suggested I open a pie business, but I don’t want a business. I want to bake pies when I want to. My pies are usually gone within a matter of minutes, and that’s the best compliment—that people love them.”

 It seems that, for Woodworth—and probably for Fiedorowicz and the members of the APC—it’s not about the ribbons or the prize money or the glory.

 Few people get rich baking pies, and the fame is fleeting.

 One thing about pie baking is lasting, though: It really is, as Hoskins said, about a simple and genuine love of pie.

Photos courtesy of  American Pie Council

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