Sweet Potato Pie

Elizabeth City, NC

NoLL

One of the best memories of the past week was when Libby and I got to share a sweet potato pie.

Sweet potato pie??? Never heard of it. Well, last week I was riding a borrowed bike up the road in Deltaville, VA. There was a farm stand there by the road. This was a real farm stand. It was on the property of the farm and they sold the products of their own creation, including sweet potatoes. The proprietress was an old lady. She called all of her customers darling. I called her sweetheart back.

I picked out some fresh tomatoes to bring back to the boat. Sweetheart said, "Can I interest you in a pie?" "Did you make it yourself?" I asked. She said, "Yes." She had apple, and berry and sweet potato and Japanese sweet potato pies to sell. I chose the sweet potato. I had to precariously balance it on the handlebars of the bike to get it back to the boat. Luckily, I didn't drop it on the ground.

To make a long story short, that was one of the best pies Libby or I can remember.

There's much to be said for local color. Much indeed. We should see more of it, and to do that we need to make an effort to get off the boat more and to explore more widely the shore bound treasures of the places we visit.