What does your life taste like, in a pie?

What does it taste like to be unemployed, starting a new job, just married, divorced, a new homeowner or desperately searching for housing? What kind of pie would describe the way you are feeling right now? Could you imagine your thoughts, concerns or joys transformed into the All-American Pie? This is a call to entry that has been put out for the past two years to the city of Portland, my current hometown, to find out what the flavor of peoples lives are through a pie.

To participate, please submit your pie recipe and written explanation, including why you chose the recipe and how the taste of it relates to the current state of your life in under 300 words starting May 21st through the deadline of June 25th 2010. Submissions will not be accepted after the June 25th deadline. The project will culminate with an exhibition of the winners at the Portland Farmer’s Market Buckman between 20th and Salmon on Thursday August 5th, 2010. Each winning pie will receive a limited edition screen print reflecting the ideas in the written statement. Pies will be judged upon the creativity and innovativeness in ideas reflecting the ingredients used in the recipe for the first round of judging by the food-writers panel, and for how well the actual flavor aligns with your story in the second round of juding by the bakers panel.

Get as creative or as traditional as you want with your pies! Savory, sweet, fruit, cream, custard, meat, or vegan, do it up! The winners will bring their pie’s to the Buckman Farmer’s Market (20th and Salmon SE) August 5th, 2010 for some good old fashioned tasting (yes, that’s right, free pie tasting! yum!). Come and and find out what the taste of your community is like! Plus check out the amazing silk-screens that will be specially designed for each winning pie, the 2010 edition pie plates done by an amazing local ceramicist, a raffle, and more!

Pietopia is of the community and for the community. Home-bakers, teachers, waiters, business-men/women, computer fixers, designers, linguists, professional chefs, professors, doctors, writers, CEOs, and everyone is welcome to enter. However, if you win, please be aware and respect that the contest is not a forum for promoting your own business. Thank you.

Pietopia 2010: August 5th at the Buckman Portland Farmer’s Market

We will be accepting entries starting May 21st through the deadline of June 25th. There is a $10 entrance fee. The contest is not limited to Portland residents.


To enter Pietopia, please click on the above link to pay the $10 entry fee, (accepted May 21st through June 25th). Then, email your entry to pietopiacontest@gmail.com. Entries without payment will not be accepted. We are really looking forward to your stories this year! Good luck!

The Judges

Pietopia has two panels of judges: the Food-writer panel and the bakers-panel. Each entry is reviewed first by the food-writers panel to see how well each describes his/her life through the taste of their pie. Then those who make it through that round, will go on to the bakers panel, where a group of professional bakers will test the recipe to see how well the actual flavors correlate to their story.

The Food-Writer Judging Panel

The Baker Judging Panel

The Prizes

The first seventy five entries will receive a free 2010 Pietopia pie crust kit which includes a bag of fresh Stone-Buhr flour, coupons for butter from Organic Valley, a recipe for Grand Central Bakery’s Perfect Pie Crust, all wrapped up in a cute bag!

I am so excited to announce the very talented local artist, Chris Baskin will be making 2010 edition Pietopia plates this year for the winners. We’ll be sure to keep you posted if he plans on making any extras to sell, but in the mean time, make sure to check out his beautiful pottery collection!

The winners will receive a unique screen-printed poster, based upon their winning story. I love seeing the visual reinterpretations artists create of winners’ stories each year. Also, a local ceramicist, Chris Baskin, is making a limited edition of 2010 Pietopia Pie plates–they will be an absolutely stunning addition to your dishes and cookery collection! Plus, winners will receive the 2010 Pietopia Pie Crust kit which includes a fresh bag of Stone-Buhr flour, coupons from Organic Valley for butter, Grand Central’s Perfect Pie Crust recipe, all wrapped up in a great little bag.

Pietopia is growing and changing to mirror the needs of the community it is held in. We expect this year to be better than ever! We’re going to have more pies for more people to taste, more prizes, and a wonderful panel of judges, making this years event unforgettable. Start thinking about how your life tastes as a pie, we can’t wait to hear your story and try your recipe!

What’s it all about? Taste linked with feeling…

The idea of Pietopia manifested from my deep love and interest in community, connection, communication, design, and the senses. Everybody eats, so how can this be translated as our common denominator and a way for people to communicate and connect through? I began searching out new ways to apply design-thinking and problem solving to my life passions and Pietopia became the brainchild.

I chose to use pies because of their timeless appeal to the seasons, cross generations, and the local culture. I am also interested in exploring the ancient correlation between taste and feeling. The goal of Pietopia is to incite communication, connection, and communing as the interweaving entities within the fabric of our daily lives; as well as how the senses of taste and smell and the feelings/memories they can evoke, spearhead this process and open doors for understanding. Pietopia seeks to channel our connection with food as a way to communicate, ultimately discovering what the city’s quality of life truly is.

The winning contestants receive a unique, silk-screened print that an artist/designer has reinterpreted into a visual poster. These are on display along with explanations as to why/how they taste like the winners lives with the free tastings of each of the pies. By involving artists/designers from the community, it is another way to weave together creative forces, design, and different ways to communicate by showcasing/making them accessible to the community at large.

Pie is a neutral ground for people to let down their guard a little, enjoy a treat, and open up or relax.The action of eating gives people something to do, something to segue with into other realms or topics that can seem strange or uncomfortable when confronted face to face like meeting new people or discussion in general.

Pietopia 2010 Sponsors, an amazing line up!

Stone-Buhr Flour
Stone-Buhr Flour brings us certified sustainable flour from family farms right into our homes. Did you know that you can locate exactley which farms your flour came from by looking at a number on your bag, then typing it into FindTheFarmer.com? Find The Farmer is an affiliate program of Stone-Buhr, one of the many amazing aspects of this inspiring company!

Grand Central Bakery
Grand Central Bakery is a fresh, locally grown company dedicated to the craft of artisan baking and scratch cooking. They are led by a unique mixture of family and friends along with some of the region’s most talented bakers and cooks. Their fresh breads, pastries, cookies, and pies are divine…and local!

Organic Valley
Organic Valley’s philosophy and decisions are based on the health and welfare of people, animals and the earth–which is pretty great. “In today’s world, in order to make a difference, companies need to think differently.” The key to Organic Valley’s success is their cooperative business model. The 1652 farm families who produce their quality food products share a voice in the future of our business—because they own it.