Page 56 - United States of Pie

Like Cindy Trezciak, Jeni Makepeace is a Naples lifer who started

pie making as a way to augment her family’s income. “I used to
pinch for two pie bakers,” says Jeni. “Then I thought, why just pinch?
I should be making pies!” Ten years and three World’s Greatest
Grape Pie titles later, Jeni is one of the stars of the new generation
of Naples home bakers. Although her business is seasonal, baking
mostly during the festival weekend, she does some home baking for

local inns and restaurants.
Jeni operates her home bakery out of an old farmhouse that she
and her husband have been renovating for the past few years.
“We’re the one covered in Tyvek,” she tells me over the phone, and
I’m immediately charmed. When I pull up in front of the farmhouse, I
don’t see Jeni. A cluster of chickens root for nits and bugs in the
damp soil of the front yard. A shaggy, red-haired mutt ambles out

from around back, not to bark, but to nudge me with her muzzle. In a
matter of moments, Jeni speeds up the driveway in an old VW van.
She hops out from behind the wheel, bandana tied around her head,
wearing a nubby woolen sweater that looks as if it has seen a pie or
two be baked. Jeni immediately apologizes, smiling sheepishly, for
her tardiness. I explain that I have been poking around, watching the

Makepeace menagerie in her absence.
Jeni seems both pleased and relieved, shoos the mutt from the
center walkway, and guides me through the dim farmhouse and into
the modern kitchen. This was clearly the first room to be completed
during the renovation. Mismatched kitchen chairs circle a worn
wooden table. Next to the battered table stands a metal restaurant-