August 24th, Sunday, Lavender Light Cruiser (the name of our house) hosted an evening hoedown. Among other things, there was a talent show and a pie baking contest. I was presenting and coordinating the judging of the pie. I had three lovely judges, and we judged the pies based on concept, execution, and taste. I appreciated having a simple scale, one to five. I think it would have helped to coach the judges to be a little bit more contrasting in the judging.

I think that we had a lot of threes, fours, and fives. Maybe they just weren’t used to creating more variance in the scores for more clear math or opinions. I think there’s some kind of standard about that, but overall, there were definitely clear winners. There were, and at a pace where I could keep up with the rest, and I felt good to have a sense of presenting the pies without bias because I didn’t judge the pies, and I thought that was cool.

But yeah, I also really liked the pie processions. Everyone who baked the pie—after they were judged—they all gathered in the living room, and then we came out in a line, and I introduced the pies. I had interviewed each baker and got a little summary of the name, the ingredients, any story involved, their inspiration as a baker—that kind of thing.

Advice or things that I would do for a future pie-baking contest: telling people ahead of time when the judging is going to be happening, and then also maybe getting the bakers to meet the judges and potentially present their pies to the judges. Not sure exactly if that improves it or slows it down. I really did appreciate the quickness because I would interview bakers as they arrived, so there was a more streamlined situation for the judges. The judges had clipboards with paper and pens, and they didn’t associate bakers with the pies, which I think can be kind of nice where the pie speaks for itself.

But yeah, we had one late entrant—well, we had more than one late entrant. I guess a pie that was not entered, but also we had a pie come at the very last minute, right before we were tying up the scores, and that pie ended up being first place. So, I think this is an example of how sometimes the best pies are the later pies. And so, I still appreciate the feeling of having the judging towards the beginning of the event so that attendees could eat with plenty of time instead of maybe at the end, where some people would come and go without having any time.

When I was presenting, I didn’t have a script, and I think it would have been good to introduce the judges, maybe say a little bit about them, and also talk about the prizes in more detail. We had one judge who also contributed prizes, which were original art prints made using stamps and a pie motif that I thought was really clever. But yeah, I did not highlight that artist either, so I have a bit to learn still about presenting events, especially contests where people work really hard, and maybe every entrant gets some kind of participation trophy. I always think that’s a nice touch—feeling like you get a souvenir for trying.

There were a couple of bakers who this was their inaugural pie, or one of their first pies, and I thought that was really special.

Note: next pie contest maybe make a commemorative zine with color photos celebrating the pies entered into the contest.