Welcome to Pie Town

The name is no joke. Food Network Magazine discovered that only one thing matters here, and it's pie.

From: Food Network Magazine

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Photo By: Devon Jarvis/Studio D ©Hearst Communications Inc.

Pie Town, New Mexico

Along Route 60 in western New Mexico, there's a tiny slice of land called Pie Town, and the place has more pies than it has people to eat them: three pie shops for a population of just 186. The town got its name in the 1920s when a local bakery started peddling pies to cowboys passing through. Today road-trippers and hikers from the Continental Divide still stop by for a slice. Pie Town probably isn't on your route to Thanksgiving dinner, but we asked each of the shop owners to share their most popular holiday recipe so you could try one at home.

Photography by Devon Jarvis

Pie-O-Neer

You can thank Kathy Knapp for bringing pie back to Pie Town. She and her mother found the nearly deserted town during a road trip in 1995. A "for sale" sign on an old trading post read, "There used to be pie. Ain't no more." They bought the place and opened Pie-O-Neer. Mile Marker 56, Hwy. 60; pie-o-neer.com

Pear-Ginger Pie

"My mother knew that if you baked a decent pie in a town called Pie Town, it would work," Knapp says. A handful of the recipes are from friends, a few are her mother's and some are her own, inspired by vintage cookbooks. Her top-seller: this pear-ginger pie based on a recipe from the 1940s.

Get the Recipe: Pear-Ginger Pie

The Pie Source Bakery

Cyndi Fowler ended up in Pie Town the way most people do: by accident. After her husband's retirement, the pair stumbled upon the town and decided to stay. Fowler settled on a ranch 14 miles from the center of town where she now runs The Pie Source Bakery. facebook.com/ThePieSource

Pecan Pie

Fowler makes only fruit and nut pies, including this popular pecan one spiked with spiced rum. She sells her pies at Top of the World, the town's general store, but she also takes a concession trailer to nearby cities, like Grants, NM. "People want a pie from Pie Town," she says.

Get the Recipe: Pecan Pie

Good Pie Cafe

Ask Pie Town locals what you should order at Michael Rawl's Good Pie Cafe and they'll suggest New Mexican apple pie. It's basically New Mexico in a pie dish: green chiles, piñon nuts, and on top, the state flag rendered in dough. Rawl, a Baltimore native, developed this recipe shortly after opening Good Pie Cafe in 2001. It has been the best-seller ever since. "I get calls from people driving in, asking me to set it aside for them," he says. Mile Marker 56, Hwy. 60; goodpie.com

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