UNIONVILLE: Pie goes to Harrisburg

Leona Provinski of Unionville, whose fabulous apple and pear crumb pie took the blue ribbon at the Unionville Community Fair back in October, was kind enough to share a full account of her trip to the extremely competitive baking championship at the Pennsylvania State Fair.
She said there were five long tables full of pies, a total of 73. In the first round of judging, her pie ended up as one of the top 5 on her table of 15 pies. In the second round (25 pies), only the top five got ribbons, and unfortunately hers did not: "I like to say I placed either 6th or somewhere in between up to 25th place. They do not tell us where we placed in the top 25 pies."
Leona said the pies varied greatly in appearance. "One delicious pie contained blueberries and a red fruit, maybe cranberries or cherries. One very tall 2-inch pie looked like it was made in a spring form pan. One had icing or white glaze on the crust. Several had dough dyed yellow, red and/or green, but all that unusual color did not do well."
Leona also got a chance to check out the decorated chocolate cake contest. "Oh, those cakes are VERY exotic in their decorations! One had chocolate trees around the side plus sugar dipped Bing cherries on the top! Lots of drizzle over the edge, plus one cake top had 3-inch-tall standing upright chocolate 'lines,' as we see on the British Baking TV show. . . . The exotic gingerbread houses were 2 feet tall by 3 feet long!"