ABOVE: Lori Chirpich mixes the fillings while Kathy Gratz and Nikki Bremer fill the pies, Nancy Ritter rolls the crust and Nancy Stauffer pulls the finished product from the oven Tuesday evening in the St. Paul Lutheran Church and School kitchen. This team is one of several that works each night to produce fresh pies for the Martin County Fair.

FAIRMONT– If you’ve been to the Martin County Fair, chances are you’ve had a slice of pie from the St. Paul Lutheran Church fair stand. For decades members of the Fairmont-based church have volunteered to produce hundreds of homemade pies annually which fair goers have come to know and love.

Nancy and Greg Gellert have served together as chairman of the fair stand operation for about 20 years. The fair stand itself is celebrating 75 years this year and as part of that, it’s gotten a facelift with new paint on the exterior.

“It hadn’t been painted for 43 years,” Nancy Gellert said.

While the building may look new, the stand is offering much of the same variety it has year over year, which many people look forward to– especially the pies.

“I think people love them because they’re homemade,” said Nancy Gellert. “It’s just a staple that we’ve been known for and I’ve heard that people come specifically to the fair for our pie.”

She encourages people to come early because only so many pies are made per day and when they’re gone for the day, they’re gone.

Last year she said they made over 300 pies and at six slices per pie, that’s nearly 2,000 pie pieces sold and nearly every day is a sellout. Churning out that many homemade pies requires many hands.

“We have six shifts that make pies. Someone heads up a shift every night from Monday through Saturday,” Nancy Gellert explained.

This year on Monday it was Gena McKean, on Tuesday it was Nancy Stauffer, on Wednesday it’s Carol Fuhrman, on Thursday DeAnn Eversman, on Friday Deb Bertram and on Saturday Laurie Austin. Each shift lead is then in charge of finding eight to a dozen other volunteers to assist with assembling the pies.

Many of the members have been volunteering for years and while some are reaching the point that they can’t help, some younger members are stepping up to pitch in. All in all about 60 people help assemble the pies from start to finish.

Volunteers will come at different times of the day, some in the morning and some in the evening to do their part. Their duties range from rolling out the dough to filling the pies to watching the oven.

Of course, a lot of prep work goes into the pies, too, as people come in ahead of time to cut the fruit and peel the peaches and apples, which Gellert noted Loretta and Richard Behrens have helped with for several decades.

Nancy Stauffer, a long-time volunteer said that each shift has a speciality pie it works on, which is served the next day. On Tuesday it was strawberry-rhubarb, today, Wednesday, it’s cheesecake, on Thursday it’s lemon meringue, on Friday it’s cream pies: sour cream raisin, peanut butter and French silk. On Friday the featured pie is peach and on Sunday it’s raspberry pie.

“Everyday it’s different,” said Stauffer.

However, a variety can still be expected as there’s the potential to be anywhere from eight to 12 varieties in a day which include apple, peach, blueberry, cherry, pumpkin, coconut cream and more.

“You can get it a la mode or all by itself,” Stauffer said.

While the pie is arguably the star of the show, the other desserts shouldn’t be ignored. They include German chocolate cake, gluten-free carrot cake and there are gluten-free Special K bars.

Aside from the pie and other desserts, the fair stand also sells homemade vegetable soup, turkey commercials and barbecue sandwiches. A whole different team of volunteers work to prep and make those dishes, too.

Those who buy a slice of pie or anything else can do so knowing their money is going to a good cause. Proceeds raised, after bills are paid, go to the school, which includes scholarships and expenses for new teachers and to the church and its different endeavors.

“We’ve given money to Heaven’s Table, too,” Nancy Gellert said.

In order to help cut costs, congregation members were asked to bring rhubarb for use and while the fair stand has taken apples from volunteers in the past, it purchases those now, along with the peaces.

“We work with Kevin Schmitz (of the Ranch Restaurant). He does a lot of our ordering and that helps us get ingredients in bigger quantities,” Nancy Gellert said.

She said they apply for grants through Thrivent Financial which also helps defray the cost of the pie bills.

While making the pies and other desserts and food is a big task, the servers cannot be forgotten.

“There’s a group that takes on the responsibility of carrying the pies out to the fair and then there are volunteers who slice up the pies at the stand,” said Nancy Stauffer.

“It takes a village to get it all done,” Nancy Gellert said.