ELDON —
When literature teachers asked author Beth Howard to speak to a class via conference call, the author said she had a better idea.
“She told us she’d come in and teach the kids how to bake pies,” said Patti Durflinger, a literature enhancement teacher at Cardinal High School.
On Thursday, 26 students, two teachers and an aide were trying to keep up with the former Los Angeles resident in a kitchen classroom at Cardinal High School.
“Be generous, don’t be stingy,” the author called out as she moved from table to table, helping students layer in their apples.
The teachers said the baker had a tremendous amount of energy, and was tough to keep up with. She rarely stopped moving. Or talking.
“The [general rule] is three-quarters of a cup of sugar per pie,” Howard called out. “Some people use more, some people use less. I use a little less. That way, you can actually taste the apples.”
The students started adding sugar, cinnamon, a little more flour and a pat of butter to their apples.
“She has a blog on the Internet,” said literature teacher Jacque Hunter. “Our students have been reading ‘The World Needs More Pie,’ [which is] all about how pie heals people, lifts people’s spirits. The kids said they wanted to meet her.”
It’s not unusual for a publisher to arrange such a “meeting” via speakerphone or over the Internet. Howard, who is currently living in the American Gothic House while working on her next book, told Durflinger she’d come talk to students in person.
Most of the talking Thursday morning was about a process some students had never participated in.
“Put a pat of butter on top,” she called out to the class.
“How much is a pat?” asked one boy.
She explained the concept to the whole class, then began moving table to table again.
“That looks great,” she said, glancing down without stopping as she passed by Josh Miller’s pie.
He told the Courier this was the first apple pie he’d ever made. When asked how it was turning out so well, he answered, “Beth taught me.”
The theme for the literature class is healing, the teachers said.
“Making pie is very meditative once you know how to do it,” Hunter said.
Learning looked hectic, though.
“You’ll end up with a big runny mess if you don’t [seal] the top and bottom crusts together,” Howard said. “I’m going to give you a quick lesson in what’s called ‘fluting.’ First, dip your fingers in the flour.”
Durflinger said the blogger and cookbook author was known more for donating pies than selling them. Not only did Howard refuse her typical speaking fee, she didn’t even want the class to sell the pies.
“That’s not what this is about,” Howard told the Courier as she paused to let students put the pies into pre-heated ovens.
It is instead about happiness and fulfillment. She wants the students to share their pies with others.
“When I’m writing, I always [say] what I learned from an experience, how it helped me get better as a person,” she said.
The baking may be a good experience for literature students, and help them understand the author’s life a little better. But hadn’t the original invitation been to lecture an English class about how she became a writer?
“There’ll be plenty of time to talk about my life story while the pies are in the oven,” Howard said.
Local News
Related Photos
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Lindsay Moore, a student at Cardinal High School, gets pointers from former Los Angeles “pie baker to the stars” Beth Howard during a class Thursday. Students had been reading the cookbook author's blog, theworldneedsmorepie.com. Mark Newman/The Courier
‘The world needs more pie’
Author shows class how pie heals people and lifts their spirits
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