Sarah’s Pies at various farmers markets – 221 sold as of 5/30

[rworange]

The strawberry rhubarb filling is the soul of this dessert, generous and juicy, the ratio of strawberry to rhubarb perfect. It is not too sweet and the rhubarb, properly soft, does its job of adding tart tangiest. It is the perfect marriage of berry to stalk. The berries are full of flavor. It doesn’t get much better than this filling-wise.

Good pies are difficult to come by in the Bay Area and Sarah’s is a good pie. It is especially difficult to find good strawberry rhubarb. Either there is too much or too little rhubarb. The filling is often skimpy. The strawberries lack flavor. The rhubarb is either too hard or dissolves into strings. The filling is sometimes gluey instead of juicy.

Sarah’s strawberry rhubarb filling has none of those problems. Like Goldilocks momma bear, everything is just right … not too much or too little.

That being said, there are good and bad points to the pies

The good:
It is packed with flavor
It is generous … a large pie that doesn’t skimp on the filling.
It is a very homemade pie

The bad
It is a very homemade pie

However, don’t let the slight nits keep you from enjoying the greatness here. One of the faults is it is VERY fresh … just baked … really.

That causes some problems with the crust. I had to wait a day before I could cut a piece that didn’t crumble. Also, the filling leaked juice but had firmed up after sitting overnight in the fridge.

It is a very soft crust that is both shortening and butter-based with some buttermilk. My only thought would be to use a different shortening, only for the sake of the ingredient list. I read the ingredients (on the site) after I bought the pie and was temporarily ticked and almost took it back. I’m glad I didn’t but it was off-putting. I have my suspicions what shortening is being used and it might be that the crust would just not turn out the same way using anything else.

Sarah is selling out but it would be nice in the future if smaller pies or pieces are offered. A whole untried pie is a big commitment to make.

There is also apple pie and mixed berry ((blackberries/Marion, blueberries, raspberries)

Current farmers markets listed on the site: Tuesday Concord, Wednesday Pt. Richmond, Thursday Ross, Saturday Pinole

After a while farmers markets can make one jaded. It is the same vendors pushing the same products that sometimes can be found at many regular markets.

It is refreshing to see someone who hasn’t yet off-loaded the baking to a third party. The website has photos of Sarah working the mixer. It is touching to see a site setting benchmarks of 225 pies and then 500 pies.

The site says the pies are made with love. I believe it. There is a charm to that. Love is never perfect, but there is nothing better or more satisfying than true love.

[Melanie Wong]

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