Over the years, I've spoken at events across the state and the meal provided at each event usually includes a piece of meat, some form of potato, possibly corn (which is technically a grain and not a vegetable) or green beans (which are technically pulses), plus a roll, perhaps Jello (which is… something…) and pie for dessert. That means only true fruit or vegetable in the meal is the fruit in the fruit pie. I've sometimes wondered if the fruit pie has single-handedly kept Kansans from contracting scurvy given the number of locals I’ve met who flat out don’t like vegetables.
Some of this is actually cultural, a holdover from the European origins of many Kansans. In Europe, fruit is perhaps a condiment to rolls. Fruit salad is a dessert and woe to any unsuspecting American who reaches for it during the meal. Moreover, vegetables out of season tend to be easily stored root crops or items prone to pickling like cabbage or, these days, bought in cans from the store. Some of it is due to popular culture: a lot of our foodways are products of the very meat-and-potatoes 1950s. The meal I described is pretty much a direct holdover from 1957.
And the pie, or at least dessert, is more than just a fall tradition. It seems to play a particularly strong role in Kansas cuisine. So, our foodways can actually teach us something about our society and how it developed. That is something worth thinking about over the next slide of pie.