Bakery: Niles Pie Company
City: Union City, CA

Happy π day! I grabbed a pie on my way to work this morning.

pear cranberry pie - 1 pear cranberry pie - 2

A mix of Oregon Comice pears, house-made candied ginger, and cranberry jam. Pure Madagascar vanilla pulls it all together. Butter crumble topping.

Pear cranberry pie is ubiquitous in the United States, but here’s what I found out about cranberries, from Everything Pies:

Cranberries are a native fruit to North America. They were used as a staple as early as 1550. Cranberries are eaten fresh, ground, or mashed with cornmeal and baked into bread.

Maple sugar or honey was used to sweeten the berry’s tangy sour flavor.

In 1620 the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to use cranberries. The German and Dutch settlers named the berry “crane-berry” because it appeared to be the favorite food of cranes and the blossom resembled the neck color of an English cranes.

Later on craneberry was shortened to cranberry.