Attending this Saturday's Regional Apple Festival may not put your life in apple-pie order. But it is a fabulous opportunity to sample apples you may never have tasted plus cider from some of the more than 40 orchards that harvest fruit in Western Pennsylvania.

Baked goods will be available once judges select the best pies made by professional pastry chefs and amateurs. A slice of pie can be had for $2. Providing the a la mode will be Oh Yeah! Ice Cream & Coffee Co., a popular East End gathering spot on South Highland Avenue.

Last year, Andrea Schrenk, pastry chef at Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, took the professional pie baking title.

"Her students came as a team. There were six or seven of them. They all marched in in their white coats. It was quite a moment," said Don Gibbon, the Point Breeze man who organized the fourth annual fest.

He is a passionate evangelist for locally grown apples. A geologist who has lived on five continents, he eats apples daily, bakes them in pies, extols their wonders and photographs them. His vivid color images of local apples, cider and pie make up this year's event poster and are also on exhibit in the Mt. Lebanon Public Library.

A note about the map

PG map: See apple orchards in the area in .pdf format

Our calling every orchard on Don Gibbon's list bore sad fruit: At least three orchards have closed, and others are threatened by the usual vagaries of farming -- weather, red tape, development -- and of time. As one codger told me, "The orchard's getting old and so am I."

Mr. Gibbon is not surprised. "We're fighting a holding action here!"

We did dig up some good news, too late for the chart: Producing apples for the first year is Triple B Farms, 823 Berry Lane, Forward, Allegheny County (724-258-3557).

We know we probably didn't list every orchard. If we missed yours, e-mail me, Bob Batz Jr., at bbatz@post-gazette.com.

This year's festival, held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Union Project at Stanton and Negley avenues in Highland Park, features an awesome line-up of apples: Mutsu, Empire, Northern Spy, Opalescent, Monroe, Black Amish, Fuji, Braeburn, Connell Red, Cortland and Stayman. Also available for tasting will be goat cheese from Sam Byler's Riverview Dairy in Emlenton.

Many people grew up eating cheddar cheese with baked apple pie, including Barbara Ferguson, pastry chef at Mio Kitchen & Wine Bar in Aspinwall. In 2007, she won second place at the apple festival for her apple pie with blue cheese streusel.

Ms. Ferguson, who grew up outside of Chicago and is a Pennsylvania Culinary Institute graduate, makes her crust with Plugra, which has 82 percent butterfat.

"I just played with the idea of cheese. I love blue cheese, especially Point Reyes. It's a really nice, creamy blue cheese, sharp and zingy but not too overpowering. A slice of raw apple with blue cheese is absolutely delicious on a cheese plate," she said.

Ms. Ferguson, who sells her Fraiche Confection truffles through Mon Aimee Chocolat in the Strip District, said one branch of her family is French Canadian. When she asked her grandparents why the family ate apple pie with cheddar cheese, they said they'd always eaten it that way.

Ms. Ferguson entered at the last minute after hearing about the event from members of Slow Food Pittsburgh. She has not yet decided if she will compete this year.

If you decide to enter a pie in competition, beware of the bias against imported apples. Do not make your pie with apples from China, Chile or with the well-known Red Delicious.

"We are trying to replace all imported apples from Washington, Chile or China with Pennsylvania apples," Mr. Gibbon said.

The fest began in 2005 when he organized an apple pie baking competition at the East Liberty Farmers Market because he thought it would be fun.

"There were people who were just standing around musing about the value of apple pies in their lives," he recalled.

Now, he's delighted to hear people say they are looking forward to the event.

"It is becoming something of a community tradition," he said, adding that it's his goal to "basically turn it into a county fair built around apples" where community groups can showcase their talents.

This year, the Unitarian Folk Orchestra will perform. While you are waiting for your slice of pie, Brad Yoder, a local songwriter, will sing folk, rock and pop songs. All in J.E.S.T., the mother and son juggling team of Kathy and Stephen Doutt, will demonstrate their Chinese yo-yo skills.

If you want some brain exercise at the fest, enter the pie haiku contest, which requires you to write 17 syllables in three lines. The apple cognoscenti call this pie-ku. Best entries win a slice of pie a la mode.

Event sponsors are Slow Food Pittsburgh, the Sierra Club, the Pennsylvania Agricultural Extension Service and the East End Food Co-op.

But it's Mr. Gibbon's passion that fuels it.

At age 30, he won first place in the men's homemaking contest at the Geauga County Fair in Ohio. He was the only contestant in the jelly-making category.

"That was where I learned about pie judging," he said, adding that a team of older women assessed the baked goods.

"They didn't give a first place in the novice category because none of them were good enough. These women were really hard-nosed. They weren't about to lower their standards."

Mr. Gibbon has strong opinions about apple pie, too. While living in France for two years, he learned about Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin, the French apple tart.

"I took a class at the Cordon Bleu in Paris that included a lesson on the classic French tart," the engineer said.

The apple pie served in American restaurants, he said, is often disappointing because "the crust is no good and the apples are ordinary."

When he moved to Pittsburgh 35 years ago, he discovered Stayman apples, which are a triple threat because the intensely tart fruit is good raw and stands up to being baked in pies or cooked for applesauce.

"I said, in a moment of inspiration years ago, 'If you had no other reason to move to Western Pennsylvania other than Stayman apples, Stayman apples were enough.'"

The 4th annual Regional Apple Festival and Pro-Am Apple Pie Baking Contest runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Union Project, Stanton and Negley avenues, Highland Park. Admission for adults is $5 and $3 for children age 6 and older (ages 5 or younger are admitted free). The fee to submit a pie for the competition is $5.

Apple Pie with Blue Cheese Struesel

This is from Barbara Ferguson, pastry chef at Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar in Aspinwall. She won second place with this recipe in 2007 at the annual Regional Apple Festival. As a friend of mine says, "Eating apple pie without the cheese is like a hug without the squeeze."

-- Marylynne Pitz

• 12 ounces pastry flour (or 8 ounces all-purpose and 4 ounces cake)
• 2 ounces sugar
• Dash sea salt
• 6 ounces 82-percent butterfat butter (Plugra), cold
• 1 ounce egg yolk (1 1/2 yolks or so)
• 3 ounces very cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

Mix flour, sugar and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Cut butter into flour mixture until it is fairly evenly distributed and looks like coarse meal. In a measuring cup mix egg yolks, water and vinegar; pour into flour mixture all at once and mix until dough forms. Immediately turn off mixer and knead dough gently with your hands. Divide dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, as much as overnight.

Roll 1 disc of dough to fit your pie tin, do not stretch dough, gently press and loosely trim to fit, leaving an overhang. Refrigerate again for several minutes. Puncture dough in several places and trim edge to fit. Blind bake pie shell for 10 minutes at 350 degrees until no longer shiny, but not browned.

• 2 pounds Stayman Winesap apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
• 3 ounces butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• Dash sea salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 ounce Calvados (or brandy, apple juice or cider)

Heat butter and brown sugar in a large saute pan. Sprinkle salt and cinnamon over apple pieces and toss gently. When the butter and brown sugar melt together, add some of the apples to cover the bottom of the pan. Do not overload saute pan; do this in batches. Deglaze pan off flame with a small amount of Calvados and pour apple mixture onto a sheet pan while you do the remaining batches.

• 7 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 ounces cornstarch
• 1 1/2 ounces Sugar in the Raw
• Dash sea salt
• Dash ground black pepper
• 9 ounces Plugra butter
• 6 ounces good-quality blue cheese (Point Reyes)

Mix all dry ingredients together in mixing bowl, cut in butter according to pie dough method. Add crumbled blue cheese to loosely blend.

Bake on a papered sheet pan at 325 degrees until slightly dry, but not browned.

Pour filling into pie shell as full as you prefer. Loosely top with streusel topping, pressing lightly to generously cover apples.

Bake at 350 degrees in the lower part of oven until apple juices boil. If streusel browns too quickly, loosely cover with foil.

Let pie cool for several minutes before cutting.

-- Barbara Ferguson

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