Murrysville farm family bakes up popular pies
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Although Lois Daugherty does most of her pie baking on a large sun porch, the sun usually isn’t out when she gets started.
“Since we’re going to the farmer’s market today, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and made 30 of them,” said Daugherty, who along with her family owns and operates Daugherty’s Orchards on Saltsburg Road in Murrysville.
“I’ve made 40 of them before to take to the Murrysville Farmer’s Market, and we usually sell out.”
Later the same week, her son John had proof: He brought 30 pies that day to the Murrysville market. After about an hour-and-half, three remained.
“My grandma was the one who first made them, and my mom’s been making them for 40 years now,” John said.
For the past two decades, Daugherty regularly has baked pies to sell at the family’s farm stand, and she also bakes them to order for customers to pick up.
“Someone just called this week and ordered 13 of them for a pastor appreciation day at a church,” she said.
When she initially suggested selling pies, Daugherty said her husband was worried it would be too much work.
“But once we started making them, they kept getting more and more popular,” she said.
Daugherty makes about a dozen varieties of fruit pie. John Daugherty’s favorite is peach, and she prefers sour cherry, although these days she has to travel to Amish country to get them.
“We used to have sour cherry trees here, but they all died,” she said.
John Daugherty said the most popular flavor varies depending on the time of year.
“In late July and August, peach is always really popular,” he said. “Then in September and October, it’s mostly apple and pumpkin.”
And while farmer’s markets nearly every day of the week have meant more pie sales, it also has meant a lack of visitors to the family’s farm stand on Route 286.
“The markets are great for customers because they can shop from a lot of different farms,” Daugherty said. “People don’t come by here or make the drive out here nearly as often. But a lot of people do come here just for the pies.”
Nothing makes her happier, though, than being outdoors and doing the busy work involved in pie baking.
“I’ve always been a farm girl,” she said. “I just love to go out picking. When raspberries are in season, no one will go out with me, but I just love doing it.”
John Daugherty said he’s happy to enjoy the pies, but glad he never got pressed into pre-sunrise service alongside his mother.
“She’s the earliest bird,” he said with a laugh.