Pie-in-a-Jar

“His mama raised everything. If it moved or if it didn’t move, she canned it. Jimmy can can anything.” Lisa Sparks, who was named “Independent Baker of the Year” by the American Pie Council in 2006, is the owner of Lisa’s Pie Shop- located in Atlanta, Indiana. Her husband, Jimmy, makes the dough for her famous pies, and has helped Sparks perfect Pie-in-a-Jar.

Pie-in-a-Jar consists of fruit pies made from award winning recipes, sealed in a jar. Ranging from peach and apple to strawberry rhubarb and blueberry, each Pie-in-a-Jar looks like a fruit filling, mixed with chunks of flaky pie crust-similar to a cobbler.

According to Sparks, some customers heat the contents of the jar in their crock pots, serving it as a cobbler. Others remove the lid and zap it in the microwave. “One guy says he puts it on top of his pancakes,” says Sparks. “Others,” she adds, “spread it on toast.”

Pie lovers throughout the world order Pie-in-a-Jar, using Sparks’s website, www.lisaspies.com. For pick-up or delivery, it comes in four different sizes- 4 ounces, 8 ounces, 16 ounces, and 32 ounces. From smallest to largest, the jars are priced at: Half a piece of pie for $3, one piece for $5, half a pie for $8, and one 9 inch pie for $16. It stays good for 6 months.

How exactly does Sparks make this jar of goodness? “Everything we’ve learned,” she says, “has been from trial and error.” Sparks uses fresh fruit, delivered by a fruit supplier in Oregon, and mixes it with fine sugar and tapioca. Next, she pours the concoction into a large baking pan. Covering it with a rectangular blanket of homemade dough and some margarine, she bakes the pie for around two hours and fifteen minutes.

“I start making a pan at 7am, and it’s not ready to put in jars until three in the afternoon,” says Sparks. “Pans sit for a while before you can can them. I can’t tell you why, or I’d have to shoot you.”

When the pie is ready to be canned, Sparks scoops it into jars, puts their lids on, and places the jars into Bad Boy’s boiling water-her water bath canner. Bad Boy cans 36 pints of Pie-in-a-Jar in thirty minutes-hence the name.

Sparks, who has been in business for over 22 years, is mum on the number of Pie-in-a-Jar’s she makes each day. “I could make pies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and it wouldn’t be enough.” Police officers direct traffic into her parking lot around Thanksgiving and Christmas-customers line up for miles along the highway.

A cancer survivor and a woman of strong faith, she thanks God for “getting to go to work.” As Sparks removes some black raspberry pies from her oven, she turns around and says, “Some people tell me that Pie-in-a-Jar is better than my regular pies.” Sparks will have to take their word for it. She has never tried Pie-in-a-Jar. She doesn’t like pie.