National Pie Day

Today is National Pie Day. Well, it's probably not an official holiday because I'm pretty sure you have to go through Congress to get that status. But it's an unofficial holiday, all the same. I'm not a huge pie person, but there are a few I love like chocolate cream, banana cream and peanut butter cup pie. However, my all-time favorite pie is boysenberry. There is only one place you can get good boysenberry pie -- Knott's Berry Farm.

For those of you who aren't familiar with that place, it's a theme park in Southern California, fairly close to Disneyland. It started out as a berry farm, selling berries from a roadside stand. Walter Knott learned that Rudolph Boysen had developed a new berry using a combination of blackberries, raspberries and loganberries. However, he had given up on the project and sold his farm. Knott got together with George Darrow and scrounged up some of the dying berry vines from Boysen's old farm. Walter Knott began growing them and called them boysenberries.

Times were hard in the 1930s, so Mrs. Knott started selling chicken dinners to attract more costumes. She served the dinners on her wedding china and for dessert she offered boysenberry pie. It became so popular that the lines for the restaurant were several hours long. To entertain people while they waited, Walter built a ghost town to represent the Old West. He added a train and a panning for gold area. Pretty soon the place grew and became the very first amusement park in America.

To this day, Knott's Berry Farm still has the best boysenberry pie I've ever tasted. It's absolute heaven when you get a fresh warm slice. And they still have lines going out the door for their world famous chicken dinners. I found a recipe online for Knott's Berry Farm's famous boysenberry pie. Click here if you'd like to try it. However, if you're ever in Buena Park, you really should stop and get yourself a slice of pie. You can go to the restaurant without having to enter the park. This pie is so worth it. So whether you like cream pies, fruit pies or meat pies -- today is the day to enjoy them!

Also, for those who are following CPSIA of 2008, there is a new article by the American Library Association. Click here to read it. As it is now, this law still goes into effect February 10th. I urge everyone to write to your representatives to encourage them to rewrite this absurd law. Check out Elysabeth's blog too, as she has some good information as well.