We’re celebrating the fruits of Michigan during National Pie Day, next Wednesday, January 23rd! Created by the American Pie Council, ‘Pie Day’ is dedicated to celebrating America’s love of pie. And in Pure Michigan, we know and love pie. In fact, Michigan produces:
- More than 50 percent of the nation’s apple slices and is the largest supplier of apple slices used in commercially prepared apple pies.
- Roughly 75 percent of the country’s tart cherry crop every year. Those are the ones that go into pies, juice and preserves.
- 25 percent of the national highbush blueberry crop (110 – 180 million pounds)
While there are many flavors and variations of this classic American dessert, nothing makes for a better pie than using pure, fresh ingredients and fruits – Michigan’s surrounding Great Lakes and rolling hills create a perfect climate for fruit-growing and is a leading producer of many popular pie fruits that can be found in local bakeries as well as national store-bought brands.
Among these establishments is Grand Traverse Pie Company, who makes more than 95 percent of its purchases locally – fruit, sugar and flour all come from growers and processors within the state. In honor of National Pie Day, each of their locations will be serving up a free slice of Michigan fruit pie with any purchase all day on the 23rd.
To get in on the ‘Pie Day’ fun, we’ve teamed up with Grand Traverse Pie Company to offer fans on Twitter the chance to win an entire pie every hour between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST on the 23rd. To be eligible to win, fans can simply tweet their favorite type of pie to both @PureMichigan and @GTPie. Tweets must include the hashtag #puremichiganpie and entrants must follow both Pure Michigan and Grand Traverse Pie Company on Twitter.*
Pure Michigan will choose one winner at random each hour, contacting winners through Twitter with details for obtaining their prize.
Additionally, we encourage fans nationwide to post photos of pies to the Pure Michigan Facebook wall during the week of January 21st. One fan photo will then be featured at the end of the week. Bakers and fans alike can also add their favorite pie recipes to Pinterest, using the #puremichigan or #puremichiganpie hashtags.
Be sure to follow @PureMichigan and @GTPie for your chance to win a free pie on January 23rd!
*Disclaimer: Users can only enter the Twitter contest once and those who make multiple accounts in order to enter more than once will be ineligible to win. Those who post the same tweet repeatedly or violate any of the other Twitter Rules will also be ineligible.
