Lane County artisan pie makers struggle to compete with cheaper chain-produced pies.

Here in the land of berry and orchard, at least one entrepreneur in every generation tries to make a living out of baking the natural plenitude into pies. They soon find out that the work is harder than they thought, especially at this time of the year when the demand requires 14-hour days and swift production of thousands of delicate, hand-crafted pies.

While pie makers struggle to bring in a dollar, few businesses inspire as much affection from customers as pie baking does. The pie, warmed and topped with vanilla soft serve and accompanied with a cup of coffee, is an easy sell to people who are old enough to remember diners where good pie was the standard, [Mom's Pies owner Lou] Sangermano said.

“For the younger kids, pie isn’t as common as in the generations before us,” Sangermano said, adding that teen-agers don’t figure much in his mall-customer base. “They’ll eventually try it. If they give it a chance, they’ll probably like it.”

Read more at The Register-Guard.

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