Pies de resistance A banquet of baked goods provides the main attraction at Rockland’s Summer Solstice Festival

The power of the pie drew people from all over the land to Rockland last weekend, including a crew from TV’s Food Network.

Mayor Brian Harden proclaimed Saturday Rockland Pie Day as part of the Summer Solstice Festival held over the weekend.

“If you attended the pie festival in January, you might wonder why we’re here again today,” Harden said Saturday afternoon while standing at Main and Elm streets.

“I thought this over while we were drafting this proclamation for today, and we realized: What network in its right mind wants to come here in January?” he said, referring to the current four-day presence in Rockland of a camera crew from the Food Network to film the pie-related events.

“So, we’re having Pie Day in June, but you’ve got to remember to go to that festival next January at the Historic Inns,” he said. “That’s when they raise money for the food pantry, and that’s when they have fun with pie.”

Pie-making is part of the annual Pies on Parade festival each January in which six Rockland inns hold tastings and demonstrations. Apple, cherry, raisin, blueberry and strawberry rhubarb are among the pies offered.

LimeRock Inn owners Frank Isganitis and P.J. Walter prepare Frank’s pizza rustica and P.J.’s raspberry tart.

In his praise of the Historic Inns of Rockland, Harden said the Pies on Parade tour this year donated more than $5,000 to the Area Interfaith Outreach Food Pantry of Rockland. The Good Shepherd Food Bank matched the donations to help feed more than 100 needy local families, he added.

Photographers from the Food Network were in Rockland over the weekend, filming scenes for a one-hour show called “Pie a la Road” to be aired in September, according to Kate Gibson of the production company. Rockland’s pie tradition will be one part of the show, which also will feature other small communities from around the nation.

The film crew followed Saturday’s Main Street parade all the way from Park Street to the ferry terminal, and covered a pie-eating contest at noon Sunday at the LimeRock Inn and a pie picnic Monday at the Berry Manor Inn, home of the famous “Pie Moms.” Ken Barnes, co-owner with his wife, Ellen, of the historic Capt. Lindsey House, brought their pies to the pie-eating contest Sunday.

The Rockland Downtown Alliance, a business group that organized the Summer Solstice activities, worked with the city to close Main Street to traffic from 5 to 9 p.m. between Park Street and Talbot Avenue to create a promenade for festival-goers.

Sellers created a carnival atmosphere by setting up on the sidewalks of Main Street and its many side streets. Vendors’ cuisine included seafood, pizza, hot dogs, sausage and peppers, wraps, pies and ice cream.

The parade, or “Pie-Rade,” featured many pie-related displays, including a float with a lobster sculpture holding a pie and bearing the slogan to promote Rockland as the “Pie Crust-aceans Capital of the World.”

Joe and Kerry Catalano joined the fun as they donned costumes portraying two swashbuckling “pie-rates” who marched along, followed by a band of Scottish “bag-pie-pers.”

Women dressed as old-fashioned cooks, wearing aprons and white caps, carried rolling pins and signs boasting their “flour power” as they sang, “We are moms, tried and true. We will bake a pie for you.”

Downtown events included a children’s watercolor painting contest at the Farnsworth Museum, a hula hoop contest at Planet Toys, a children’s coloring contest and a whoopie pie-eating contest.

Entertainers inside the Rock City Books & Coffee provided traditional Celtic music with store co-owner Suzanne Ward playing the Irish bagpipes, Sarah Jessop singing Irish songs and Hugh McGinnis playing the 10-string cittern.

Out on the street, Dory in the Desert performed popular rock songs; Rattleboxx blues band of Camden played rhythm and blues; Freakwitch, a Portland band, provided songs and stories; and cloggers led a folk dance.

Other activities included Zabby’s Traveling Zoo, a demonstration by Rockland Fire-EMS, an astrologer, watercolor painting, face-painting and knot-tying.

Festival participants brought donations of cash, canned food and other nonperishable goods at the request of the Alliance. In summer, when children are out of school, no lunch programs are available, and the Alliance wanted to make sure no child would go hungry this summer, said Isganitis, a member of the Alliance steering committee.

The Historic Inns, meanwhile, worked on the pie-related activities. Berry Manor Inn co-owner Cheryl Michaelsen’s mother and mother-in-law are competing pie makers with different ways of making a crust. The two “moms” baked 24 pies for the weekend.

“My pies are very light,” says Ally Taylor, Cheryl’s mother. “The crusts are very light and flaky. I can make it in 15 minutes.” She uses 1 1/2 cups flour, a half-cup Crisco, a dash of salt and 5 to 6 tablespoons cold water.

Janet LaPosta, Cheryl’s mother-in-law, uses 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups Crisco, 3 tablespoons butter, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and a quarter-cup of ice water.

To avoid family disputes over which mom makes the better pie crust, Anne Mannheim, an old friend of Taylor’s who helps with food preparation, calls herself a “Spare Mom” and “appreciator” of the pies.

“Janet is the mass producer. She can make more pies because she makes them faster. Ally makes pies as gifts. She makes a good apple pie and a good strawberry rhubarb pie,” Mannheim said.