CUMBERLAND, Maine — Bill Green has often thought about just picking up apples off the roadside and making a pie. These days, on Maine's back roads, there seem to be rip apples dropped on the ground every hundred feet.
So, Bill did just that, despite the jeers of his peers here at NEWS CENTER Maine.
Brenda Pitcher, who owns Cumberland Baking was not so sure that Bill's dream should become a reality.
"You want a good mix," said Pitcher.
However, she cautioned against a Maine favorite while baking, "McIntosh cook down and make the filling mushy."
Many Mainers like to use some McCouns, which are a very sweet apple.
They mix them with Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, and Golden Delicious.
Bill's pie contained at least a dozen varieties and fit in with his belief in the Old Friend's Theory.
That theory states that, just like breast milk helps a child develop, childhood exposure to particular microorganisms protects against allergic diseases by contributing to their development.
In short, let your kids play in the dirt unless you think there are foreign toxins in the soil.
Pitcher believes in the theory, but not so much in Bill's pie. Her business began when she gave a piece of cake to her son's friend to take home.
The boy's mother called and asked if she could buy one of Brenda's cakes for his birthday party.
She now bakes most in the Cumberland area. Her pastry is available at Louie's Restaurant in Cumberland and she has begun catering events. She also takes orders off her Facebook page. She is so popular in the Cumberland area that she has all the work she wants.
Making a "wild apple pie" has been a dream of mine for a long time," he said. Is that what people did 100 years ago?
The answer is probably not. A century ago people had a greater understanding of what to eat and grow. They would have grown specific varieties of apples to have some available as early as August, for cooking and for eating.