ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610280077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FERRUM
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
MANY PEOPLE SHOW UP at the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival just to get one of the homemade treats.
Hector and Karen Elmore drove nearly 150 miles Saturday to eat Naomi Berger's fried apple pies.
"I was raised on a tobacco farm, and I know about cooking on a wood stove," said Hector, who traveled with his wife to the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival from Gordonsville in Orange County.
"The apple pies are one of the main reasons we come," he said. "They take you back to your roots."
Wanda Perdue came from Rocky Mount and waited in line for 45 minutes to buy three pies. They were worth the wait, she said.
"They're great - fantastic," Perdue said. "I buy some every time I come to the festival."
People stood in line throughout the day to pay $1.50 each for the pies that have become a tradition at this celebration at Ferrum College of Western Virginia's heritage. Some had to wait up to an hour.
Berger and other members of Rock Ridge Baptist Church expected to sell close to 3,500 pies by Saturday night.
The Franklin County church, located near Waidsboro down the road from Ferrum, has been selling the apple treats at the festival for nearly 20 years as a fund-raising project. They have developed hundreds of loyal customers throughout Virginia and beyond who make the journey each October for the pies.
"We come back every year to get some and to see the old cars," said Jim Brumfield of Christiansburg.
The Rock Ridge Baptist men and women have become a marketing success story without a fancy advertising campaign, catchy slogans or flashy signs.
At their booth, an unpretentious sign had the church's name and offered apple pies for sale. A handwritten cardboard sign tacked on one side of the counter listed the price.
But they were selling more than pies. They were selling nostalgia, too.
Like Hector Elmore, people said they keep coming back because the church members prepare and sell an authentic traditional food in an authentic style that takes them back to their childhood.
"We cooked on a wood stove when I was growing up, and that's why I like them," said Minnie Donovant of Martinsville. She bought six pies to take home to her relatives.
"The best I've ever eaten," said Clarence Washburn of Martinsville. "My mother and grandmother used to make them when I was a boy."
The Rock Ridge women, wearing large gloves to protect their hands and arms, fried the pies on three wood stoves throughout the day. There were two large frying pans per stove, and seven or eight pies fit in a pan at a time.
The women began frying at 6 a.m., hours before the first customers arrived. It takes about five minutes to fry a pie, said the Rev. Henry Waid, the church's pastor.
"We cook them the old-fashioned way," Waid said. "The people seem to like that."
About nine or 10 church members worked in the booth at a time. Eight women fried, wrapped and bagged the pies and served customers. One or two men brought the pies to the booth, put wood in the stove and did other chores.
The pies were sold immediately after they came out of the pans. The line moved slowly sometimes when a customer ordered 10 to 12 pies.
There was no cash register or computerized scanner to ring up sales. All sales were cash and the money was put in a shoe box.
Sometimes the women sang gospel songs as they worked. They broke into a chorus of "Have your way, Lord, have your way, have your way" early Saturday afternoon.
Most of the congregation, which numbers about 75, gets involved in the project each year, Waid said. For two or three months leading up to the festival, church members gather one or two nights a week to make pies and put them in a freezer, where they are stored until the morning of the festival. They can make 200 to 250 pies a night.
Berger, a retired Franklin County teacher and guidance counselor, developed the recipe for the filling and cooks it herself for all of the pies.
"I take the dried apples and cook them. I put in sugar and spices and other ingredients," Berger said. "My mom used to help me, but she's 95 now and can't get around, so I do all of the cooking myself."
Over the years, Berger said, she has improved her fillings, but she won't reveal her ingredients.
"Other people might want to go into the apple pie business," she said. "I just can't tell how I do it."
Two other church members, Susan Chism and Frances Davis, make the dough for the pie crust.
"It's a lovely project for the church," Berger said. "Everyone gets involved and it's a way to raise money."
Berger said one of the joys for her is the loyal customers who return each year to buy the pies.
"They come back year after year. We can't let them down," she said.
The church has tried to hold down the price, although some members have suggested they ought to increase it, she said.
"We haven't gone up in the price for several years," Berger said, "We try to give the people something for their money."
Many people would probably pay more than $1.50, Waid said, but he believes that "God has blessed us" and the church might have raised more money by keeping them at the same price.
For people who wanted other foods, there were plenty of choices: barbecued chicken, Brunswick stew, ham biscuits, funnel cakes, chili beans, pinto beans, cornbread and hot dogs.
The other food vendors did a brisk business, too, as thousands came to Ferrum for the festival on a cloudy day to see historic crafts, old-time farm equipment, tractors, quilt exhibits, antique autos and coon dog and horse competitions.
The festival also featured traditional styles of mountain music - country blues, old-time songs and string. In the Vaughn Chapel, band, choirs and quartets played old-time, African-American and a cappella Southern gospel music.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Beatrice Cannaday (left) and Naomiby CNBBerger talk while selling fried apple pies for the Rock Ridge
Baptist Church during the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival in Ferrum on
Saturday. color.