Small meat pies have become so popular at the Royal Purple’s annual craft sales that people have started putting their orders in well ahead of time.
This year a dozen cooks have worked eight to 10 days to make 920 of the small turkey and beef meat pies to cover orders and walk-in sales at the Royal Purple’s annual fall craft fair coming up this Friday and Saturday.
“We started three years ago,” says Gloria Limb, the Royal Purple’s Honoured Royal Lady. “It’s lots of fun when you get a system rolling.”
One day a team will make and cook the filling and make the pie dough. The next day a team will roll the dough, fill the pie shells and then freeze the pies.
“There’s a lot of rolling and filling and patting going on,” Limb says.
The first year the women made 400 pies, the next year 600, and this year 920.
They sold out so fast in the first two years that they started taking orders at the sales.
If they run out this year, she says they will take more orders and make more pies in January which people will be able to pick up.
The pies come frozen and are heated in an oven for 20 to 30 minutes to cook the pie shell and heat up the filling which has been precooked.
The Royal Purple’s fall craft fair takes place at the Elks Hall this Friday, Nov. 4 from noon to 8 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
There will be lunch available and all sorts of hand-made items and various product lines available for sale.
After expenses funds raised by the Royal Purple through table rentals, luncheon and pie sales help with the upkeep of the Elk’s Hall and go toward educational bursaries and the Elks and Royal Purple Fund for Children, a national registered charity which assists children and supports charitable programs addressing the needs of children with hearing and speech disorders.