In the spring, a young man’s fancy does indeed turn to baseball. But in winter’s growling, howling days, everyone’s fancy turns to pies. Naturally, National Pie Day, sponsored by the National Pie Council, was set for the middle of the white season, on Jan. 22.

To celebrate this event (and perhaps get a little publicity and a lot of visitors) The Historic Inns of Rockland will conduct a “Pies on Parade” event, to raise funds for a local food kitchen.

For a mere $10 ticket, pie paraders can visit the inns, get a piece of pie and go home with the closely guarded recipes. Last year’s event, held in a blizzard, drew 50 brave souls. This year, 150 tickets have been sold already.

Tickets will be available at the inns at the door on the day of the event.

This won’t be just apple and blueberry pie in the inns’ kitchens. This will be raspberry cheese pie, kiwi berry tart, sun-dried tomato and goat cheese pie. There will be baked Alaska, cranberry-apple-walnut pie, French pear clafoutis – well, the list is too long. You get the idea.

Sure, there will be apple pie. But it will be baked in a bag at the Lakeshore Inn (1767).

Other demonstrations will include breakfast pies and fool-proof lattice crust at the Berry Manor Inn (1898), and crust decorating with pie crusts at the Capt. Lindsey House (1837). Seafood pies will be the specialty of the Waterman House & Gardens, and the LimeRock Inn (1890) will concentrate on savory pies.

The National Pie Council, if you can believe such a thing exists, reports that pie can be traced back to ancient Egypt, then the Romans stole pie recipes from the Greeks. These are not what we would call “pies” however. The crust was woven from reeds (honest to God) intended only to hold the filling in one place and not to be chewed by ancient teeth. Let’s praise the Romans for creating the first totally edible pie, with “rye encrusted goat cheese and honey pie.”

You can have my slice of goat cheese pie.

According to our friends at the Oxford English Dictionary, the Romans spread pie-eating through their conquered countries. There is no word about pizza pies. The word “pye” first appeared in common use in the 14th century. You can look it up.

I find it hard to believe, but the council says Queen Elizabeth I was the first to bake a cherry pie. I question just how much time Bess spent in the hot castle kitchen.

Pies came to America with the first settlers, who clung to the inedible-crust school. Not only that, the concoctions were based in long, narrow pans called “coffyns,” which could account for their initial, limited plurality.

Although we take our fruit dessert pies for granted today, American chefs didn’t concentrate on crusts you could actually eat until the Revolution, according to food historian Sandy Oliver of Islesboro.

(Pie councils? Food historians? What have we come to?)

Pies have evolved over time, Oliver said. When the Pilgrims came to America, the “pies” were actually tarts with no crusts on the top. Then were “baked pudding” in very heavy crusts before they were really pies. In the early American cookbooks, the mixture was always called pudding.

In the early days of the country, pies were much more likely to be filled with meat rather than fruits. When the fashion switched to sweet fruit pies, the dish was served right along with the meat and vegetables. Segregating the sweet course from the rest of dinner didn’t start until the late 1700s, Oliver said.

“Pies on Parade” will celebrate both sweet and savory pies.

At the LimeRock Inn, built in 1890 for Rep. Charles E. Littlefield for a mere $4,500, chef Frank Isganitis, a reformed commercial banker, will fall back on his New Jersey-Italian heritage to create a Pizza Rustica, a pork and cheese pie, for the Jan. 22 visitors.

Isganitis runs the inn with partner P.J Walker, who left a nonprofit management position to become an inn host.

When the Isganitis clan gathered in New Jersey, there were anywhere from 10 to 25 diners. “So I am used to feeding the hordes. I was always comfortable in the kitchen,” Isganitis said.

The previous owner of the LimeRock Inn was a classically trained chef, and she leaned toward the gourmet. “We like to stick to the classics with a dozen or so good recipes. Our folks don’t mind pancakes and French toast once in a while. Making things from scratch is not that difficult. I look at it as chemistry, not cooking,” he said.

The kitchen also turns out fancy breakfasts such as crepes Benedict or scrambled eggs on steamed asparagus drizzled with hollandaise sauce.

“In the old Italian tradition, Good Friday was a time of fasting, and Holy Saturday was a time of feasting. Pizza Rustica was the perfect thing for Holy Saturday. It has everything good Italian in it, with a little pastry. It is very filling,” the chef said.

If anyone has any room after the main course at the LimeRock Inn, University of Maine grad Walker will prepare his specialty, raspberry tarts.

In the old days, Americans didn’t have to worry about those extra calories from pies, food historian Oliver said.

“Americans liked pie a lot, right from the beginning. But they were cutting hay or plowing all day long. They could eat pie and doughnuts all day and it wouldn’t cling to their waists. They worked it right off,” Oliver said.

Not like us.

When we finish the Pies on Parade on Sunday, (I have tickets) we will have to perambulate the Rockland Breakwater, just to walk off all those pies. And if you are guilty about all those sweets, just remember that the event will benefit the Area Interfaith Outreach Food Pantry of Rockland.

Emmet Meara can be reached at emmetmeara@msn.com.

Ellen and Ken Barnes’ Pie Crusts

Pie Crust No. 1

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup water

Combine flour, salt and 1/2 cup shortening. Mix well with pastry knife. Then add remaining 1/4 cup shortening. Blend well again and add 1/4 cup water and mix until it’s pie dough. Yields 2 crusts.

Pie Crust No. 2

2 cups flour

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

Dash of salt

Dash of water

Put flour in a bowl and add the other ingredients all at once. Roll between waxed paper.

Pie Crusts from Berry Manor Inn

Cheryl’s Mom’s Flaky Pie Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup Crisco (8 tablespoons)

5-6 tablespoons cold water

Work flour and Crisco together until pea size balls form. Make a depression in the flour mixture and add water, one tablespoon at a time, until it forms into an adhesive ball. Cover with a damp paper towel and prepare pie filling. Divide into two even-sized balls and roll out on a well-floured board. Add filling and bake. Makes two 9-inch pie crusts.

Mom-in-Law Janet’s Basic Pie Crust:

1 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/4 cup Crisco

4 tablespoons cold butter

7-10 tablespoons from a bowl filled with water and ice cubes

Mix the following dry ingredients together. Mix the “lard” (Crisco and butter) and water together well with the dry ingredients until a ball forms. Divide into two crusts and roll on a well-floured board. Shape into pie tins. Makes two 9-inch pie crusts.

Cranberry Apple Walnut Pie

1 double-crust unbaked pastry crust

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon orange peel

1/2 cup honey

1 tablespoon butter

2 cups fresh cranberries

3 1/2 cups diced apples of your choice

1/2 cup walnuts

Cook sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, orange peel, honey and butter for 2 minutes at medium heat in a heavy saucepan. Add cranberries, diced apples and walnuts and cook for 5 minutes. Pour into unbaked bottom crust, and use top crust to create a lattice design on top. Bake for 35-40 minutes at 425 degrees.

Capt. Lindsey House Peanut Butter Pie

Pie:

1 pastry shell baked and cooled

12 ounces cream cheese

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups peanut butter (natural is best)

2 cups heavy cream

chopped peanuts for garnish

Ganache:

12 ounces chocolate chips

1 cup heavy cream

2 ounces butter

Melt ganache ingredients on top of a double boiler. Pour half into pie shell and cool until firm. Beat together cream cheese, sugar, salt, vanilla and peanut butter. Whip in heavy cream. Pour over cooled ganache in pie shell. Chill. Drizzle on remainder of ganache and nuts for garnish.

Coffee-Rum Pecan Cheese Pie from Lakeshore Inn

Crust:

1 cup toasted pecans, chopped

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoon butter, softened

Filling:

1 envelope unflavored gelatin

3 tablespoon rum

3 tablespoon strong coffee

11 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

Whole pecan halves (for garnish)

Blend chopped pecans, sugar and butter with pastry blender; press into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie pan, greased to make the crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool.

Soften gelatin in the rum and coffee. Place over low heat, stirring until all granules have completely dissolved. Cool.

Cream powdered sugar and cream cheese until smooth; gradually beat in the coffee-gelatin mixture.

In another bowl, beat whipping cream until it holds soft peaks; add vanilla. Fold into cream cheese mixture, using wire whisk just until blended and smooth.

Turn into crust; decorate with pecan halves. Chill at least 4 hours.

Grilled Onion and Sausage Frittata from LimeRock Inn

Makes one pie

11 eggs

1/2 cup Half & Half

1/4 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

1/3 pound ground breakfast sausage

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a skillet over medium heat, add sliced onion. Grill until onion is golden brown; remove from heat and set aside. Return skillet to heat and cook sausage until browned. Set aside and drain excess grease.

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, Half & Half and cheese. In a 10-inch oven-safe skillet, melt remaining butter over low heat. After butter is completely melted, add egg mixture, stirring regularly. Keep on heat until egg mixture begins to firm then combine in skillet with cooked sausage.

Sprinkle grilled onion over the top of the egg mixture, and place skillet in a 375 degree oven. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Using a thick bladed butter knife, cut into six equal slices and serve immediately.

Pies on Parade

When: Sunday, Jan. 22

Time: Noon-3 p.m.

Where: Berry Manor Inn, Capt. Lindsey House, Lakeshore Inn, LimeRock Inn and Waterman House & Gardens in Rockland.

Cost: $10 per person

Contact: 1-877-762-4667, www.HistoricInnsofRockland.com