Runaway Pond Cake & Pie Contest Info
Runaway Pond Cake and Pie Contest
All bakers are invited to enter the Runaway Pond Bicentennial Cake and Pie Contest. Anyone can enter; young and old, from any town. Why a cake and pie contest? Both cakes and pies play a part in the Runaway Pond story. Cakes The Glover settlers picked June 6, 1810 as the day to tackle the water flow problem because many of them had moved to Glover from Keene, NH, and in NH, June 6 was being celebrated as the annual Election Day. Also known as Training Day, or Muster Day, it was celebrated as a holiday for militia training, picnicking and merriment. For these former New Hampshireites, it seemed a fitting day to lay aside the usual farming work and take on this workbee project of digging a trench to increase the water flow to Aaron Willson’s mill. Though they had been enticed to participate by the promise of pay and whiskey, they must have been happy for the camaraderie and the feeling they were working for a common purpose that would benefit them all by getting the grist and sawmill working up to speed again.
Some 75 years later, in a letter to the editor of the local papers, I. Parker of Coventry, wrote about the old customs of Election Day, ending with “Celebrations were conducted in those times with as much decorum as now, and consisted in having a good social time and furnishing the table with some extra dainties, among which was a most excellent election cake, the art of making which I fear is becoming extinct.” The Election Day cake, also known as a “Great Cake” was a yeast-risen coffee cake with raisins or other dried fruit and sometimes topped with a sweet glaze. These special cakes were made once a year for this special occasion, and were heavy with butter, flour and sugar. Sometimes they were baked in oversized cake pans. The cake bakers who enter the Runaway Pond contest need not make authentic Election Day cakes—any favorite recipe will do!
Pies Pies also figure in the Runaway Pond story. When Spencer Chamberlain (or Solomon Dorr, depending on which account you read) made his wild run to the mill to warn the miller’s wife (or daughter-in-law, depending on the version), he would at times get enough ahead of the waters as they dammed up in narrower passages or slowed as they spread out over wider openings. In some accounts, the runner stops at a home high on the hillside above the escaping waters and asks for a drink of whiskey to revive himself. Another stop was at his own home where he “dashed in…seized a piece of pie, and then out and ran again.” (from the account of Miss Jennie French, as recorded in1910.) The Bread and Puppet Theater performers have worked this pie part of the story into their puppet play each Glover Day in July on the Village Green. One of the puppeteers buys a pie at the baked good sale table and that pie (and its baker’s name) find their way into the play.
Just as with the cakes, there are no restrictions on the type of pie that is entered into the contest. Both cakes and pies will be judged on taste, texture and appearance.
All cakes and pies must be delivered on Saturday, June 5 between 10 AM and 5 PM, or on Sunday, June 6 between 8 and 10 AM to The Runaway Café (formerly known at South Wind North shop) on Rt. 16, just south of the Rt. 122 junction. Special Runaway Pond commemorative participant ribbons will be awarded to all who enter the contest and a special Runaway Pond cutting board will be awarded to each of the overall winners of the pie and cake contest. All the cakes and pies will be served as dessert for all at the picnic lunch from 11 AM- 1PM at the Runaway Pond Park at the Runaway Pond site on Sunday, June 6, 2010. The winners will be announced by Gov. Douglas at the dedication ceremony for the new Runaway Pond Roadside Historic Site Marker, beginning at 1 PM at Runaway Pond Park. If you have any questions about the contest, please call 525-6212 or 525-4051.