Janet Marcotte teaches Osoyoos Home Hardware customers how to bake pies on Aug. 1. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)

By Vanessa Broadbent

Osoyoos Times

There’s no doubt that Janet Marcotte bakes the best pies in Osoyoos. But does she keep her recipes or techniques secret?

“Heavens no.”

Marcotte spent Aug. 1 doing a pie baking demo at Osoyoos Home Hardware, where customers could not only taste her award-winning pies but watch her make them as well.

“The idea is if you’ve got a gift, share it,” Marcotte said.

She shared about 24 pies throughout the day, including peach, cherry, apple and blueberry.

Marcotte has hosted the demos at Osoyoos Home for 15 years. The store held annual pie baking contests before that, and Marcotte won every year.

“It was anonymous, there were no names, and it wasn’t staff that judged, but she won every year,” store owner Frances Sologuk said. “On the final year of our pie baking, only one person entered – her. So finally we went, okay, forget it.”

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What makes the pies such a hit is a few things: they’re not too sweet, and the crust is perfectly flaky. “She has the touch,” Sologuk said.

But it’s learned technique along with talent that makes each one perfect, Marcotte said. “The touch is to not touch. The idea is to touch your pastry as little as possible.”

Marcotte never had plans for her pies to become a local legend. She baked her first one because her husband-to-be told his parents she would bake a pie with local, fresh cherries for them.

“I thought ‘well, I can read a recipe,’” she said. “It turned out really well and everybody raved about it, so I thought I guess I should start making pies.”

Marcotte’s baking demos have become an annual anticipated event.

“People wait for it now. We get phone calls from tourists saying ‘when are you going to have your pie baking?’” Sologuk said.

Marcotte has no plans to end her local pie baking career anytime soon.

“I love living here and I love the fruit.”

Janet Marcotte teaches Osoyoos Home Hardware customers how to bake pies on Aug. 1. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)