Anytime Is the Right Time for Pie.

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.

To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.

To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.

To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.

To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.

And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody
who eats pie for breakfast. — E.B. White

Vermonters have a reputation (undeserved, we assure you) for being dry, dour, even puritan. The idea of these sober folks self-indulgently treating themselves to dessert for breakfast may be jarring.

But if you’ve been milking cows or fixing fences since 5:00 a.m. on a cold day, there’s nothing that hits the spot better than a slice of warm pie and a cup of coffee.

Vermont Yankee Home

Vermonters have a reputation (undeserved, we assure you) for being dry, dour, even puritan. The idea of these sober folks self-indulgently treating themselves to dessert for breakfast may be jarring. But if you’ve been milking cows or fixing fences since 5:00 a.m. on a cold day, there’s nothing that hits the spot better than a slice of warm pie and a cup of coffee.

But which pie? For some Yankees, pumpkin is the only proper breakfast pie. A good pumpkin pie—creamy and custardy but thick with pumpkin—feels healthy, like you are eating your vegetables. But it demands fresh whipped cream; nothing from a spray can!

For others, it’s got to be a berry pie. The advantage of a berry pie is that it’s hard to get wrong. Any combination of blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries will do. The result is bound to be pleasingly sweet and juicy.

During a few weeks in the spring, all other pies take a back seat to strawberry-rhubarb pie. When made with fresh, local, just-tart-enough rhubarb, there is no pie better. It’s quite invigorating to eat a slice.

But most of the time, the king of pies is the versatile apple pie, served à la mode Vermont-style—not with a scoop of ice cream, but served warm with a thick slice of cheddar cheese. Go past any diner on a cold dark morning and you will see, through the steamy windows, a crowd of early risers at the counter, and you can bet most of them will be ordering the apple pie.

Gardner, Cabot, Eliot, and Lyman Orton

Proprietors of The Vermont Country Store