Why Maisy’s?

  After deciding to call my pie company, “Maisy’s”  several people asked me if I was Maisy.  No, I’m not.  Two of my friends told me that the name reminded them of a Dr. Suess character, a lazy bird, named Maisy.  I personally had not heard of Maisy Bird. 

   We tossed around alot of ideas.  I suggested, ” The Pastry Brush Pie Company.”  Dwight nixed my idea.  He thought, “Talman Creek Pie Company”  had a nice ring.  I nixed it.  And so it went.  I wanted clever and vintage, he wanted something that people would quickly pick up on.  The day finally came when we needed to make a decision; we needed a name for our banner, to use at the Farmer’s Market.

  Maisy was my grandma.  Actually, her name was Mae.  Her children occasionally called her Maisy.  They thought it was funny, I always thought is was kind of cute.  She was a hard-working lady.  The house was always clean, the laundry was hung on the line in the early morning hours, her pantry was lined with jars of everything my grandpa’s garden yielded, and her seven children were well cared for and lacked for nothing.  And she made pie from scratch. 

 I can still see her pies cooling on the counter, next to the sink, in front of the milk box.   Grandpa used to press the crumbs of his slice onto his finger and pop them into his mouth.  ” Grandma sure knows how to make good pie, Von,”  he’d say to me from across the supper table. She did, and I wanted to make pie just like her.

  I began trying over 30 years ago.  Grandma was my best resource.  I called her often to ask her simple questions like,”What does, Cream the butter and sugar mean, Grandma?”  “What do I do if the pie filling is dripping over into the oven, Grandma?!”  “How do you get the crust from the counter into the pie pan, Grandma?”  She always had the answer.

  Several years ago, married and a mother, but still needing answers, I called her.  I don’t remember the question anymore, but I remember her response.  She was puzzled, confused, unable to tell me what I needed to know.  Dementia was slowly taking away the things that had been second nature to her.  Eventually, she forgot how to keep a home; cook, bake, and clean.  This summer, she passed away, leaving behind a sad empty space, but many happy memories.

Naming my pie company after the lady who first taught me about pie, just seemed like the right thing to do.