Hello, canned pumpkin filling with a premade crust. Meet 100% local!

On Pumpkin

This pie was made with organic butternut squash straight from northern Michigan.

On Leaf Lard

If you’re a traditionalist, you want a crust made with leaf lard. If you’re younger than 100, chances are you experience a thrill of disgust when you hear the word lard. This is the result of 100 years of clever marketing

This odorless

back of a pig, but from around its kidneys. To our great-grandmothers, it was one of the most important fats in the kitchen. It contains less saturated fat than butter, is available locally, and produces a superb and tender crust – fabulous for sweet pies and tender Christmas cookies. For a friend’s wedding reception, I helped make dozens of fruit pies with leaf lard crusts.

One of the best qualities of a pumpkin pie is that its components can be prepared many days in advance of the feast, and assembled and baked the day of or the day before. If you can’t find leaf lard or don’t want to use it, substitute butter. The crust will be less fork-shatteringly tender, but still very good indeed.

Find our full recipe in the Petoskey News-Review, here.