Liberty – The Casey County Apple Festival
The pie was almost ready to bake when we strolled into downtown Liberty. Lydia Coffey was cutting the last of the lattice to cover the apples, all nicely coated in cinnamon, sugar, and margarine.
She handed the dough to Leslie Sandusky, who handed it to someone else, who laid it on top of the fruit. Not by hand, mind you, but with a six- or seven-foot wooden paddle, the kind you see shoveling wood-fired pizzas in and out of 900-degree oven.
This was no ordinary lattice top because this was no ordinary pie. This, my friends, was a 10-foot diameter apple pie made with 35 bushels of apples. That’s 3,500 apples, in case you are wondering.
Casey County calls it the “World’s Largest Apple Pie.” It certainly fits the title.
The behemoth bake is the star of the Casey County Apple Festival, now in its 48th year. Coffey said the apples for this year’s pie were peeled and sliced by hand. Every single apple. The pie isn’t as thick as it has been in the past but it’s just as big around – baked in the same pan built by local vocational school students for the first Casey County Apple Festival back in 1974.
Once all the lattice is on top, the pie is lifted with a forklift into its very own special oven and cooked. For a long time. Twelve hours, to be exact.
I wasn’t there the next day when apple lovers (or, maybe, just crust lovers) lined up outside the gate beyond the big oven for a heaping helping of this southern Kentucky tradition. Next year I will be.
Somewhere in a bushel yet to be picked, there is an apple destined for next year’s festival pie with my name on it. I just know it.
Sandusky’s Orchard
Casey County and the apple have a long history together. Coffey said there were five orchards in the county when the first Casey County Apple Festival went live in 1974. George Wolford and Marion Murphy – two local orchard owners – helped get the festival off the ground.
The only working apple orchard left in Casey County today is Sandusky’s Orchard in Liberty. My friend and I stumbled upon their sales booth at the festival. A few varieties of apples were bagged up for sale: Winesaps, my grandfather’s favorite, were front and center. There was also a variety called Liberty – a nice red and green-hued apple that looked perfect for say, a pie.
Sandusky’s Orchard told me they started growing the Liberty variety, well, kind of for the name of the apple. What better name for an apple than Liberty, home of the Casey County Apple Festival?
I must agree. Liberty apples also happen to be a nice mix of sweet and tart. I had my first-one-ever at the festival when the nice folks at Sandusky’s gave me sample to try.
It was good. Really good. Almost as good as the Winesap, but let’s not get crazy.
If you want to try Liberty apples, or Winesap, or other Casey County-grown apple varieties then make a trip to the orchard at 488 Sharp Road in Liberty. They also sell Aunt Lou’s Dried Apple Pie Filling (a Sandusky family recipe). Just make sure to call before you go; the phone number is 606-787-8423.
The (Liberty) Liberty Bell
To say that Liberty is a lovely town is an understatement. These are seriously some of the friendliest, most accommodating people I’ve met on my blog travels around Kentucky.
Not only did they give me free fruit, but these good folks let me waltz into Casey County Apple Festival headquarters and take as many programs and pamphlets as I wanted. While they were eating lunch. And didn’t complain. Folks here are just nice.
They are patriotic, too. I was chowing down on my Liberty apple when I noticed a garden spot on the edge of downtown. A bell hung in the center of the greenspace near a local veterans’ memorial.
Walking over, I realized the bell looked like a replica of the Liberty Bell that has been a part of American history since 1751. Turns out that it is. Apparently, the Liberty Bell in Liberty is a copy of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, cast by the same Whitechapel Bell Foundry in England and weighing the same 2,000-2,700 pounds.
The only thing that appears different about the Liberty Bell in Liberty is the absence of a famous crack. But that is a story for another time. I have some apples I need to bake into a pie.
Liberty is located about 1.5 hours southwest of Lexington. The Casey County Apple Festival is held annually on the fourth weekend of September. You can learn more at CaseyCountyAppleFestival.org.
