Joyce says, "A great soundtrack for pie baking is Patty Griffin's "Making Pie" from the Ten Thousand Kisses album!"

Quick Link: NEW Pie-Making Instruction Video Link

If you read my piece in the November, 2002 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, then you know the story behind my pie parties. For those of you who haven't, you can read about how the idea got started with the my story My Mother's Pie -- and perhaps one day you'll make it to a pie party of mine, yourself.

I've hosted pie parties in New Hampshire, California, Florida, Colorado and New York... and since I frequently travel with my baking equipment, there's a good chance I may bake in your area, one of these days. You can read more about a couple of pie parties thrown for visitors to this website -- and see some great pictures -- in the Letters from Joyce section: November 1998; January 2000.

For an even better idea of just what one of my pie parties entails, I have a full collection of photographs here, taken at a July 25, 2004 Tarts for John (Kerry) party, held on my deck.

Because, to me, the whole point of making good pie crust has to do with skills that can't be conveyed on paper, in a recipe, I decided to make a video -- with the aid of my good friend, videographer Jay Rigler -- in which I talk about and demonstrate the making of a pie. Since my feelings about making pies are all tied up with my feelings about my mother, and about family, and friendship, and a general belief in the therapeutic nature of cooking and eating home-made food, all of those subjects are part of the pie video too. We've made a sample available here...

Joyce Makes Pie Video

The Joyce Make Pie Video sample is in Quicktime format. Please be patient while it downloads to your computer.

Full-length Joyce Makes Pie video available through our catalogue!

In this video, taped in my kitchen by documentary film maker Jay Rigler, I make a pie, but it's not really just about pie either. Along the way, I talk about mothers, marriage, love, loss, and of course, the never ending controversy: what makes the best shortening? If you're interested in having a copy of the whole thing (as the perfect accompaniment to your own pie party, perhaps -- or as a tutorial to watch in advance of making your next pie), the video is available through the Joyce Maynard Catalogue!

May 2007 — New Pie-making video availabe online!

During a trip to Portland, Maine in the summer of 2006, Joyce shared her apple pie recipe with viewers of WCSH.

The Poet's Occasional Alternative — by Grace Paley

I was going to write a poem
I made a pie instead it took
about the same amount of time
of course the pie was a final
draft a poem would have had some
distance to go days and weeks and
much crumpled paper

the pie already had a talking
tumbling audience among small
trucks and a fire engine on
the kitchen floor

everybody will like this pie
it will have apples and cranberries
dried apricots in it many friends
will say why in the world did you
make only one

this does not happen with poems

because of unreportable
sadness I decided to
settle this morning for a re-
sponsive eatership I do not
want to wait a week a year a
generation for the right
consumer to come along

from Begin Again Collected Poems, 2000

Joyce's Apple Pie

As for getting my recipe for pie crust: I get asked for it a lot. Some of you have heard me say here -- and I'll do it again, "It's not about the recipe!" Still, I'm going to break down and offer this. With the reminder that making pie -- like making love -- is not really something you can learn from reading about it.

Let me know how it goes.

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