By John Hernandez
Oracle Towne Crier
Sarah Meade Hardin is known as the “Pie Lady of Oracle”. She has been baking as long as she can remember. She said her dad “put her on the assembly line” when she was six or seven with her siblings baking apple pies in Bartlesville, Okla. Her family had apple trees in the backyard and they had to make sure the apples were not wasted once they were ripe. She enjoyed baking and trying new recipes when she was young. She found some recipes she liked and continues to bake her “completely homemade pies”.
Sarah prefers to use locally grown fruit for her pies. She has been able to buy apples from a grower in Catalina. Sarah also uses the freshest and best ingredients she can find. She uses real maple syrup in her pecan pies instead of corn syrup. “My pumpkin pie is different from other pumpkin pies,” she said. Her favorite pie of choice is rhubarb.
Sarah sells her pies at the Highway 77 Farmers Market in Catalina on Fridays. She also has been at the Oracle Sunset Farmers Market on Wednesday evenings. She was selling pies this summer to raise money to attend the Rocky Mountain Fiddler Camp in Colorado, which she attends frequently. She is fiddler, likes bluegrass music and sometimes plays at The Glow. Sarah baked pies that were used at the Fiddler Camp for donations which went to the camp’s scholarship fund. Her pies brought in $400.
Sarah said that Oracle folks can order her pies and get them anytime still warm. To contact the Pie Lady of Oracle call 520-896-2774 or 520-360-2774.