Pssst. Hey you. You like pie? I know a guy who knows a guy who is married to a woman who makes the best apple pie in the East. You didn’t hear it from me but I’m hearing there’s a black market for these kinds of things, not that I’m involved with it. I just hear things, if you know what I mean.
Why, back in the day, women could sell their pies to anyone who had a taste for it but that was before the great Pie Inspection Massacre at St. Cecilia’s. What? You haven’t heard of it. Well St. Cecilia’s had a pie sale and one Grandma, who was famous for her chocolate pie, made some pies for the Church to sell to keep the school open. And everything was fine, that is, until the government showed up and confiscated all the pies because of some law that states that any pies sold must be made in a state inspected kitchen.
Well Grandma didn’t like that much. And then things got ugly.
There were riots. The National Guard was called in. And ever since then pies…well let’s just say they’re a little harder to come by.
So anyway, are you interested in pie. Yeah? Then meet me tonight behind the Church and we’ll see about hooking you up with some Pumpkin pie. Make sure you’re not followed and if the government comes, you don’t know nothing. You got me?
Think I’m kidding? We’re not that far from this. Big government is now coming after church bake sales.
According to theWall Street Journal
On the first Friday of Lent, an elderly female parishioner of St. Cecilia Catholic Church began unwrapping pies at the church. That’s when the trouble started.
A state inspector, there for an annual checkup on the church’s kitchen, spied the desserts. After it was determined that the pies were home-baked, the inspector decreed they couldn’t be sold.
“Everyone was devastated,” says Josie Reed, a 69-year-old former teacher known for her pumpkin and berry pies.
Sold for $1 a slice, homemade pies have always been part of the Lenten fish-fry dinners at St. Cecilia’s, located in this tiny city near Pittsburgh. Similar dinners are held in church basements and other venues across the country this time of year.
After a state crackdown forbidding the sale of homemade pies, members of St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Rochester, Pa., proceeded with their annual Lenten fish fries anyway. The pie flap helped draw healthy crowds.
The problem is the pies are illegal in Pennsylvania. Under the state’s food-safety code, facilities that provide food at four or more events in a year require at least a temporary eating and drinking license, and food has to be prepared in a state-inspected kitchen. Many churches have six fish fries a year, on Fridays during Lent. St. Cecilia’s has always complied with having its kitchen licensed, so food made there is fine to serve. But homemade goods don’t make the cut.
The disappearance of Mary Pratte’s coconut-cream pie, Louise Humbert’s raisin pie and Marge Murtha’s “farm apple” pie from the fish-fry fund-raisers sparked an uproar that spread far beyond the small parish. The local paper dubbed it “piegate,” and a nearby bakery donated pies to the church to help fill the gap at the dessert table. There are reports of other churches continuing to sell contraband pastries. Legislation to overturn the baked-goods ban is being discussed.
Don’t worry, the state has told the ladies that if they pay a fee, they government will come in to inspect their kitchen to see if their kitchen is up to state standards for a bake sale.
So in a time where Catholic churches and schools are struggling to make ends meet, another fundraising tool is being over regulated and made more difficult.
Big government, just by its nature, will attempt to crowd out religious organizations. It seems to me, Jesus had a run-in with BIG GOVERNMENT that didn’t go all that well. And the story goes on and on and on…
April 11, 2009 at 3:46 pm
This is going on all over. For 5 years, I was employed (on Long Island) by my kids’ school as a chef. You would not believe the intrusive nature of the government inspectors, and yes, they WILL go after bake sales and pot luck dinners, and pasta nights. Oh and those brownies or cupcakes you send in with your kids for their birthdays? Illegal too. You dirty rotten criminals! How dare you send in baked goods for your children?
Personally? I don’t think the state should get involved at all unless there is a complaint and/or an ACTUAL illness that might be traced to a food service place.
In the 5 years I cooked at the school, there was not one single incident of foodborne illness. Not one. But that didn’t stop the local jackboot — I mean restaurant inspector from citing the joint.
Take a guess what for. Go ahead, I dare ya. OK…we got cited for (are you ready) not having the Heimlich Maneuver posters in frames with glass panes. And not just ANY frames, either. The frames had to be 2 inches wide and they had to have a glass pane on them.
Yup…THAT’LL stop salmonella. And the glee! The inspector practically wet herself when she finally found SOMETHING to write.
Don’t even get me going. My heart can’t take it.
Regards,
Jenny
PS: Hope you have a Happy Easter!
April 11, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Welcome to the USSR, America. Geesh! If I want to buy a baked good, it crosses my mind I might eat someone’s hair or something else or they may bake and lick their fingers etc., but I always buy something yummy looking – have yet to find a hair or get sick. LET ME DECIDE if I’m willing to go to the ER over a baked good I buy! I’m not an idiot. I realize there is some risk involved in eating something someone else baked.
April 11, 2009 at 4:54 pm
So I guess those of us that live in military housing should be ok, right? Because our kitchens are inspected regularly by governmental agencies… once when we move in, once when we move out and once during the time we’re there to inspect the quality and functionality of our appliances (that are government owned).
Sheesh…Common sense is going out the window and fast.
April 11, 2009 at 5:26 pm
“We had to destroy the pies in order to save them.” Say hello to America in 2009 everybody: where the government confiscates your property, intrudes on your privacy and restricts your rights — for your own “safety,” of course!
April 11, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Dear Sarah,
Don’t you know you’re not qualified to make those kinds of decisions yourself?
Why, unless you are a government agent, you are not qualified to decide what kind of lightbulbs to buy, whether or not to patronize a smoking-allowed establishment, or (I still can’t believe this one after all these years) even the type of toilet you may install in your own home.
How could you possibly be qualified to decide what sort of cupcake you should be eating? What do you think you are? A free citizen?
Regards,
Jenny
PS: Oh, but you ARE qualified to murder your own child in the womb. In fact, so is your 11-year-old daughter! And she can do it without you knowing a thing about it.
April 11, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Fortunately the government here in Texas hasn’t gotte quite this anal yet. I took some of my homemade cupcakes to our son’s preschool this last week.
So far the Cupcake Cops haven’t shown up at my door. If you don’t hear from me though, you’ll understand why.
April 11, 2009 at 8:07 pm
NJ is cracking down, too, but they haven’t gone after the schools yet. A lot of farm stands that used to sell pies have been forced to stop because the pies were make in the farm kitchen, not a commercial one. sad. Haven’t out elected officials and the people they have appointed got better things to do?
April 12, 2009 at 1:38 am
ah, come on, don’t you get it? Jesus spoke the truth to power, just like Obama is going to do at notre dame in a month!
Awesome blog, by the way
April 13, 2009 at 12:46 am
It is going to get worse if Obama and his pals have anything to say about it. A new bill has come up in the House, it requires inspection, paperwork, and (gasp, what a shock!) fees for anyone to sell produce at a farmer’s market, to a neighbor, and perhaps eat their own produce from their backyard garden.
Just after I bought the big John Deere tractor do they pull this kind of crap, do you think I could get a refund??
April 13, 2009 at 1:30 am
kat -do you have any info on that bill?
April 13, 2009 at 3:25 pm
LarryD,
It’s HR 875 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875)
I think Section 202 is where they start going overboard. But you know what? I think I’m still going to bring my banana bread in to the federal agency I work for.
Breakin’ the law! Breakin’ the law!
April 13, 2009 at 7:48 pm
They should have re-branded it to a pie THROWING contest. Hey… re-branding worked for reproductive technology, assisted suicide, and HOPE.
April 13, 2009 at 11:09 pm
“…and HOPE.”
HA! Best comment I’ve read all day.
April 14, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Thank you Michael.
April 14, 2009 at 2:31 pm
There is also a bill coming down the pike that will make it illegal for me to grow tomatoes on my small farm and trade them to my neighbor for the cucumbers he grew on his.
Since we discovered this, my husband and I have been referring to our 30 acres as “the land.” Or “the family land.” Also, if we get a cow to save money on milk, she will soon have to have a chip so the government can track her movements.
Someone needs to explain to me the difference between this and communist Russia.
April 14, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Oh yeah, and I forgot the part about how the moms can no longer make cupcakes for the school parties.
What will be left when these hideous people are done?