Apple Pie Tradition
Each year, the Harvest Festival Apple Pie Tradition at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church brings together more than 30 volunteers to prepare approximately 700 homemade fried apple pies. From peeling fresh apples and making homemade pie dough to assembling, frying, and packaging each pie, this cherished tradition celebrates faith, fellowship, service, and community while supporting the ministries and outreach of our church.
A Tradition of Fellowship, Service, and Homemade Apple Pies
Working Together to Continue a Harvest Festival Tradition
Every November, visitors look forward to one of the most beloved traditions of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church—the Harvest Festival fried apple pies that have become a favorite throughout the community.
What many people never see is that the work begins months earlier. Long before the festival arrives, volunteers gather to peel apples, prepare dough, cook the filling, assemble the pies, and share countless hours of fellowship along the way.
The Apple Pie Tradition is about much more than making pies. It is a story of service, friendship, hospitality, and generations of church members working together to serve their community.
Each year, more than 30 volunteers donate their time and talents to prepare approximately 700 homemade fried apple pies. What began as preparing pies for a church festival has grown into a ministry of fellowship, hospitality, teamwork, and service that has blessed both our church family and the community for decades.
Generations of church members gathered around long tables filled with apples, flour, rolling pins, pie crusts, and laughter. Through the work of many faithful volunteers, hundreds of pies were prepared with care and dedication each year.
The women of Martin Memorial played an important role in continuing this tradition through years of service, organization, preparation, and hard work behind the scenes.
For many volunteers, pie-making days became opportunities to share stories, build friendships, welcome newcomers, and serve together in meaningful ways.
The apple pies became more than dessert. They became a symbol of fellowship, generosity, and the loving spirit of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church.
The Apple Pie Tradition at a Glance
- More than 30 volunteers work together each year.
- Approximately 700 homemade fried apple pies are prepared for the Harvest Festival.
- Preparation begins in July with peeling and preparing apples.
- Several workdays are devoted to making dough, cooking the filling, assembling, frying, and packaging the pies.
- Every pie supports the ministries and outreach of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church.
From July to November
🍎 July
Preparing, peeling, slicing, and freezing apples.
🥧 August–September
Making dough, rolling crusts, and assembling pies.
🍏 Fall
Cooking the homemade apple filling.
🔥 Harvest Festival Week
Frying, cooling, packaging, and selling the pies.
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Continue the Apple Pie Journey
Learn more about each step in the Harvest Festival Apple Pie Tradition by visiting these pages to see the pictures
- Preparing for Pie Days
- Peeling, Slicing, and Preparing Apples
- Making Pie Dough
- Cooking the Apples
- Rolling Dough and Assembling Pies
- Frying and Packaging Homemade Fried Apple Pies
- More Than Baking
- Volunteer Opportunities
Each of these pages contains additional photographs and stories that preserve the history and traditions of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church’s Harvest Festival.
Preparing for Pie Days
Preparing ingredients and supplies for pie-making days
Every pie begins long before the first apple is peeled.
Preparing for pie-making required planning, organization, teamwork, and many helping hands.
Before the first pie could be assembled, volunteers gathered ingredients, prepared work areas, organized pie pans, sorted apples, and arranged supplies for the many steps ahead.
Church kitchens, fellowship halls, and work tables quickly transformed into busy places filled with activity, conversation, and anticipation. Volunteers organized supplies while laughter echoed through the room, knowing another Harvest Festival pie-making season was about to begin.
Peeling, Slicing, and Preparing Apples
Preparing apples for homemade Harvest Festival pies
Volunteers peel, slice, and prepare apples as part of the Harvest Festival Apple Pie Tradition.
The first major workday each year is devoted to preparing hundreds of apples for the months ahead.
One of the most time-consuming parts of the process was preparing the apples.
Volunteers spent hours peeling, slicing, sorting, and preparing apples for the pie filling. Before long, tables were covered with bowls of fresh apples, peeling tools, and volunteers working side by side. The fresh aroma of apples filled the room as conversations, laughter, and stories were shared among friends old and new.
For many, these moments became just as meaningful as the finished pies themselves.
Making the Dough
Making the Dough
Preparing homemade pie crusts
Homemade pie crusts have always been one of the secrets behind our Harvest Festival pies.
Pictures of volunteers measuring ingredients and mixing dough.
One of the most important parts of the Apple Pie Tradition is preparing the homemade pie crusts.
Volunteers worked together measuring ingredients, mixing dough, rolling crusts, and preparing pie shells for hundreds of Harvest Festival pies.
Before long, flour-covered tables, rolling pins, measuring cups, and pie pans stretched across the room as volunteers carefully prepared each batch of dough. The familiar sound of rolling pins moving across the tables mixed with conversation and laughter as everyone worked together.
The process required patience, teamwork, and attention to detail, but it also created opportunities for fellowship, encouragement, and lasting friendships.
For many volunteers, the memories made around flour-covered tables became just as meaningful as the finished pies themselves.
Large pots of cooking apples, stirring filling, and our volunteers working in the kitchen.
Cooking the Apples
Preparing the homemade apple filling
Pictures of large pots of cooking apples and volunteers working in the kitchen.
After the apples were peeled, sliced, and prepared, volunteers began the process of cooking the apple filling.
Large pots filled with apples, cinnamon, sugar, and other ingredients slowly transformed into the homemade filling that has become part of the Harvest Festival tradition for generations.
The warm kitchen filled with the comforting aroma of simmering apples and cinnamon while volunteers stirred the pots, shared stories, and enjoyed working together throughout the day.
Cooking the apples required careful preparation and teamwork, but it also created moments of fellowship and shared memories among generations of volunteers.
Visit our Cooking the Apples page to see pictures of the preparation process, kitchen work, homemade pie filling, and the volunteers who helped continue the Harvest Festival Apple Pie Tradition.
Working together to assemble homemade pies.
Rolling Crusts and Assembling Pies
Working together to assemble homemade pies
Pictures of rolling dough and assembling pies.
As the apples were prepared, pie crusts were rolled, pie shells assembled, and filling carefully added to each pie.
Volunteers often worked together in assembly-line fashion, each person helping with a different step in the process.
Flour-covered tables, stacks of pie pans, rows of pie shells, and volunteers working together became familiar sights during Harvest Festival preparations. Every pie reflected careful hands, teamwork, and a shared commitment to continuing a tradition that has blessed the church and community for generations.
Frying the pies
Cooked Fried Pies
Wrapping the pies after they have cooled
Frying and Packaging
The final step before Harvest Festival
Pictures of frying, cooling, wrapping, and packaging the pies.
After hours of preparation, the pies were fried, cooled, packaged, and prepared for the Harvest Festival.
As the pies were fried, the irresistible aroma of warm apples, cinnamon, and fresh pastry filled the kitchen. Volunteers carefully cooled, wrapped, and packaged each pie, knowing families throughout the community would soon enjoy this beloved Harvest Festival tradition.
Rows of finished pies filled tables, counters, and kitchen spaces as volunteers prepared for the busy festival day ahead.
Some pies were packaged and frozen so visitors could enjoy them later, while others were freshly fried and ready to serve.
More Than Baking
The Apple Pie Tradition is about more than food.
It reflects the spirit of hospitality, generosity, fellowship, and servant ministry that has shaped Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church through the years.
While the delicious aroma of apples and fresh pastry drew people into the kitchen, it was the fellowship that kept them coming back. Conversations, shared meals, laughter, and years of working side by side created memories that became just as treasured as the pies themselves.
Many volunteers remember the friendships, encouragement, and joy that grew from serving together.
These moments strengthened relationships across generations and created traditions that continue to be remembered today.
A Tradition Shared Across Generations
Over the years, new volunteers joined longtime helpers in continuing the tradition.
Families worked together.
Friends invited friends.
Younger generations learned recipes, techniques, and traditions from those who had been preparing pies for many years.
The work became part of the shared story of the church family.
Harvest Festival Favorites
Each year, visitors looked forward to taking home one of the homemade fried apple pies that had become such a treasured part of the Harvest Festival tradition.
For many families in the community, the pies became part of their own holiday traditions and memories as well.
Every pie purchased helps support the ministries and outreach of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church while preserving a tradition that has brought people together for generations.
When you purchase one of our homemade fried apple pies, you are supporting more than the Harvest Festival—you are helping support the mission and ministry of our church throughout the year.
Continuing the Tradition
The Apple Pie Tradition remains one of the many ways Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church brings people together through fellowship, hospitality, and service.
Through shared work, shared meals, and shared memories, generations of volunteers have created something lasting—not simply homemade fried apple pies, but a tradition that reflects God’s love through service, generosity, and community.
Every pie purchased helps support the ministries and outreach of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church while preserving a tradition that has brought people together for generations.
Whether you volunteer, purchase a pie, or simply attend the Harvest Festival, you become part of a story that continues to bless our church family and the surrounding community.
Every fried apple pie tells a story.
It is a story of faithful volunteers, willing hands, shared laughter, and neighbors serving neighbors in the name of Christ.
While visitors may remember the wonderful taste of the pies, those who helped make them often remember something even more valuable—the friendships, the fellowship, and the joy of serving together.
We invite you to learn more about the worship, ministries, outreach opportunities, and traditions that make Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church a place where faith grows and neighbors become friends.
