A Pie for Every Sabbat

Last year I made apple pie for my partner’s birthday, which we happened to celebrate around Mabon (his actual birthday is a bit earlier in September but we were busy). Since I was already thinking of apple pie as Mabon pie, it occurred to me that there’s probably a perfect pie for every sabbat: one that aligns well with what’s in season where I live, what we’re celebrating, and what flavors our secular culture associates with that time of year. Without further ado, here’s the Wheel of the Year expressed in pie.

Imbolc: This is a holiday we traditionally celebrate with dairy foods to acknowledge the first milk as animals become pregnant and give birth to their young. A simple, dairy-based pie is appropriate, so custard is a solid choice. Banana cream and coconut cream pie work well too, since tropical fruits are in season even when my corner of the northern hemisphere is in the grip of winter.

Ostara: Where I live, Ostara can be a pretty snowy holiday. There isn’t really any local fruit available with which to make fruit pie. However, the earliest rhubarb is available in April. If rhubarb pie is an option, I recommend that. If not, the pastel yellow-green and sweet-tart flavor of key lime pie work well to evoke early spring.

Beltane: Again, where I live, there isn’t much ripe by Beltane. But that doesn’t matter: I figure there should be at least one chocolate dessert on this list, and Beltane is the perfect time to make chocolate cream pie because chocolate is supposedly an aphrodisiac. Whether that’s true or not, eating chocolate can be a decadent and sensual experience, which seems very Beltane.

Midsummer: Midsummer is when fruit finally starts ripening around here. The first thing that comes to mind when I think spring fruits is strawberry, so strawberry pie would work well. Peaches and cherries are also ripe in early summer. Lots of options! If you can’t choose, combining fruits is always a possibility.

Lughnasadh: August is the time of the berry harvest, so blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry pie are all good options. These fruits can be combined, too: a mixed berry pie is called “bumbleberry” in Canada.

Mabon: Apple pie! Apples are the quintessential autumn fruit. The flavor of apples is strongly associated with this time of year: apple cider, apple donuts, candied apples, plain old apples, and of course, apple pie. I’d be remiss not to suggest peanut butter pie as well, though: peanut butter is one of the most delicious dessert flavors and the peanut harvest begins in September in the southeastern United States.

Samhain: My favorite choice for Samhain is pumpkin pie because it’s so widely associated with later autumn. Also, it’s delicious. Cranberry pie is another option because cranberries are harvested in autumn; if you’ve never had cranberry pie, you’re seriously missing out (it’s overall quite different from other kinds of pie). My mom often makes cranberry pie for Christmas, though, so I associate it more with December. Grape, another late harvest, would work as well. I’ve never had grape pie but there’s a place in the Finger Lakes where I grew up that’s apparently famous for it.

Yule: This is when I might choose to make cranberry pie. Since nuts keep through the winter, pecan pie is also an appropriate choice for Yule. My grandma often made pecan pie for her New Year’s Eve parties, so it feels right to me to serve it at a winter holiday celebration. You could do the tropical fruit thing for Yule, too: lemon merengue pie or the tropical pies I suggested for Imbolc and Ostara.

I thought I might have trouble coming up with a pie for each sabbat; as it turns out, it was hard to narrow the options down to just one pie for each. I suppose that’s just as well, since not everyone will like or be able to eat everything I’ve suggested. I hope you’re feeling as inspired as I am to do some baking now. Which pies would you incorporate into your sabbat celebrations? What are your favorite pie recipes? Feel free to share (or ask for mine)!