Article Published in The Shrewsbury Lantern in 2011

 

SHREWSBURY, MA – When Miriam (“Mim”) Patrick heads out of her apartment with a freshly baked,

homemade apple pie tucked under her arm, neighbors pay attention.

Patrick is not only a familiar face of The Willows at Worcester where she is a beloved resident and pie baker, but a familiar face of Worcester County, as co-owner of Patrick Motors of Auburn and Shrewsbury Massachusetts which opened in 1936. “It makes you feel good, giving things to other people,” smiles Patrick, who is often seen with a pie in hand, ready to share with other residents who have become like family. Patrick turns to her pies as conversation-starters and as a way to break the ice with residents who have just made The Willows their new home.

Says Patrick, “I love people, and talking, and the look on their faces when they try a piece. I try to share with new people each time one of my pies comes warm from the oven.”

It all started when Patrick began baking “little” blueberry pies in individual oval pie plates. She would serve them cold to her son-in-law for breakfast. “That’s the way he preferred them,” she laughs. “He’d always finish them in no time and that made me feel good, knowing he loved my baking that much.

“When my husband passed away, I was living alone on Salisbury Street, just around the corner. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I needed to keep busy and I found that baking not only helped me do that, but made me happy,” said Patrick. Her three children, ten grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren further encouraged her baking by expecting their own little apple or blueberry pies when visiting her at her new home at The Willows.

So she started baking even more! With the help of her mother’s 70-year-old rolling pin, her favorite tool, she creates the best part of her pies, the crust, a simple mixture of flour and butter, but made better with a secret ingredient.

While it’s more popular to use lard, soda water or ice water to give a pie crust that special texture and puffiness, Patrick confides: “I use orange juice and paint the crust on the outside with it using a pastry brush. It’s all about the flavor to me. The orange juice acts as the glue between the two crusts.” With the leftover pie crust that she trims off the edges before baking, bite-size cookies are made by sprinkling the dough with cinnamon and sugar and baking for five minutes. “Friends and neighbors will knock on my door if they smell my pastries,” she said. “I always welcome them inside to share some with me.”