fruit pies

Fruit pies are a seasonal staple served in many communities on the Alluvial plain to the south of the Sea of Jars. They are eaten in spring and summer, and in most communities regarded as an esteemed and auspicious foodstuff, the preparation of which is a matter of significnce and protocol. Noting their prevalence at spring banquets held in most viliages on the plain, many thaumatologists believe they are secular holdovers from the pre-Wesmodian worship of Dahan.   [artilcletoc]  

Preparation

  Fruit pies are made from stewed fruit, generally raspberries, strawberries, cherries or damsons. These ingredients are sweetened with honey where that is available and baked in crusts of flour shortened with goat-milk butter. Precise recipes run in families and are often closely-guarded domestic secrets, as the ability to contribute a good pie to the community's spring banquet is a matter of some pride, with some communiities going so far as to hold actual competitions over whose is best. In such communities, households will go to considerable lengths to secure the best possible ingredients at the first sign of the spring fruit harest.   Folklorists have observed an unspoken but strong and perasive conviction that the colour of a pie's filling - the more vivid the better - is a crucial component of the overall quality of the dish. In communities where red fruit is rare or expensive, apples, pears or gooseberries may be used instead, though such fillings are almost universally viewed as second best and often seen as a sign of poverty (of either circumstance or spirit) in those who bring it to the banquet. This is thought to be because the less colourful fruits tend to be autumn crops which the community has likely been eating all winter, rather than the novel seasonal bounty of the redder produce, although the inclusion of gooseberries among the less-faoured fillings is peculiar.  

Consumption

  Fruit pies are typically the final, celebratory course in the spring banquets held in almost every community on the Alluvial plain. The pies are typically collected on a dedicated table and kept untill the other courses have been concluded. This means that, in contrast to urban communities where such desserts are preferred warm, rural folk tend to eat their pies cold. After the savoury dishes are eaten, the village may well perform the ritual of The Spring Princess, after which great effort will be undertaken to ensure the eqitable sharing-out of the available desserts. This matter is often the duty of community leaders, who will likely adjudicate any local competition on whose pie is best. In any case the sharing-out and consumption of the pies is a much-anticipated phase of the festiities, particularly among children.   This semi-ritualised pattern of consumption has never penetrated urban communities, where fruit pies are occasionally eaten in season but seldom regarded as anything more than a pleasant way of rounding off a meal. They are also generally a private indulgence, rather than the public business observed in farming communities.  

Thaumatological significance

  The spring banquets of the Alluvial plain have evolved out of the highly ritualised worship of Dahan, the god of water and fertility, in the pre-Wesmodian era. As such any social practice related to them is likely to attract the attetion of thaumatologists with an interest in magic related to the seasons, water and their links to matters of life and death. Thus far little consensus about the precise significance of the pies has yet developed, although the high emotion engendered by the frequent controversies which srround the study of the cult of Dahan is such that researchers often keep such details to themselves.