Pie on the Prairie

What is it about homemade pie that says wholesomeness and rural farm life? I do not know, but pie is the signature dish of RAGBRAI. As thousands of bicyclists make their meadering way across the state of Iowa each summer, they consume pie in various towns along the way, and it somehow becomes the stuff of legends. We found our RAGBRAI ecxperience no less than that--there was pie every day and memorable pies at that. We focused largely on the fruit pies--strawberry, raspberry, apple, peach, blueberry, cherry, rhubarb, even gooseberry. We occasionally threw in a pecan, or a coconut pie, and we did not stick to two crusted pie by any means. We were very flexible there--crumbles, open pies, lattice-topped pies, we tried them all. The gooseberry pie was one of the very few that used a sprinkle of sugar on the top crust to finish it (you really never see that in a commercial pie) but they all had at least elements of being made at home.
I have lived in Iowa for over 20 years, and I love the landscape, farm after farm, with a low density of people, but a highly cultivated landscape. Family farms still predominate, and people live in small communities, they know their neighbors, and they are largely good humored and open in their approach to strangers--which is one of the things that makes RAGBRAI so fun--the communities are eager to have 10,000 people roll through town--they sit on their porches to watch the riders pass by. They bake for them. They hold spaghetti dinners in their churches, and they seem genuinely happy to have the size of their town doubled, or quintupled, or whatever it is, for the moment that it happens. And yes, they make money on it--but it isn't outrageous. I paid $2 for my piece of pie--they aren't getting New York City prices for this pie, and it tastes all the better for being eaten near a corn field.