Page 55 - United States of Pie

We finish our visit in her lovingly kept and tidy kitchen, where
everything has its place. Neatly organized jars of sugar, flour, and
coffee line the counters and decorative wooden cutouts hang square

and true on the walls. It’s clear that this room has been well used
and loved, churning out pie after pie, year after year. Though I’ve
never been here before this day, I feel at home in this kitchen.
Women like Cindy Trezciak and Jeni Makepeace carry on Irene’s
legacy. Cindy is a Naples native, born and raised. Grapes are in her
blood. Her home bakeshop, Cindy’s Pies, sells 1,500 pies just over
the course of the Naples Grape Festival alone. The recipe for her
delicious pie has changed little in the thirty years that she’s been

baking it. She uses lard in her dough, just as her mother did, and
tapioca to thicken the filling, just as she learned from her high school
home economics teacher.
Despite the fact that she’s been running the business for three
decades now, she still seems surprised by her success. “I just

thought we would do it for fun, and a little extra money for Christmas
gifts,” Cindy tells me. “You have to remember, we’re just a bunch of
hicks!” she says with a laugh. But I have to disagree. Cindy is kind,
quick with both a compliment and a laugh, and though she may not
think so, she is a shrewd businesswoman. When her husband was
laid off and forced into early retirement, it was Cindy’s Pies that kept
the Trezciak family afloat—and does to this day. That seems like a

viable business to me. Clearly, hundreds of people throughout the
Finger Lakes region and beyond agree. They keep coming back year
after year for a slice of Cindy’s grape pie.