From December 29, 2022
During the holidays, people share food with loved ones and friends all around.
Jenna Jones celebrating Christmas with family. (Selfie by Jenna Jones)
It is an intimate connection to sit around a table and converse while eating Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham.
At the end, though, there is room for pie.
Rio Rancho High School teacher and Rio Rancho resident Jenna Jones specializes in homemade holiday pies to help families, friends and co-workers connect.
Jones started baking pies at a young age and always used pre-made crust.
About 25 years ago, someone told her in passing that she should try to make the crust from scratch.
Jones also makes pie pops, which she says make great gifts for individual pie lovers. (Courtesy Jenna Jones)
She took a page out of Martha Stewart’s recipes for pie crusts and decided to use a butter-only recipe.
“I will not make them any other way, and it is so easy, especially since I got the food processor,” she said.
Since then, she hasn’t stopped making them. She got really good feedback from her family and decided to make a side business out of it.
This past Thanksgiving and Christmas, Jones baked about 75 pies for friends and family.
“I have only had two dissatisfied customers in the past three years, and I was able to turn that around with replacement pies,” she said.
Jones doesn’t bake for the money. She said her passion for it is more of a hobby and she just likes to see people happy.
“Pie brings people together. I had a friend who bought pies for her employees as a gift,” Jones said.
She hopes to make pie-baking a business venture after she retires from teaching.
“I would love to open a local shop just for pies later in life,” she said.
For now, she plans to stick to her family and friends’ business.
“I couldn’t bake anything but pie, though, because it is my artistic expression. It is who I am,” she said.
Original source can be found here.
