Our Story

Baking has always been one of Ruth Anne Schriefer's foremost passions.

Growing up having free range in the kitchen gave her room to experiment with any new recipe she could find using her four brothers as taste-testers.

But enjoying Ruth Anne's tasty creations usually resulted in one of her family members cleaning up the mess left behind.

Ruth Anne learned traditional German-Mennonite recipes from her grandmother who would use the palm of her hand or a coffee cup to measure ingredients.

Ruth Anne's love and pride for Niagara fruit developed during her teens, as she helped out on her parent's small fruit farm. She still insists there isn't a better breakfast experience than walking out in the cool morning dew to pick a juicy ripe peach from the tree to slice on your Corn Flakes.

Ruth Anne's culinary skills were honed as she often opted to leave the orchard early to prepare supper for her family of seven, which would inevitably include a delicious fruit pie for dessert.

During this time she also worked as a bus girl at a restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

It was there that the idea of making fresh fruit pies first came to her after being instructed to tell tourist customers that the frozen Sara Lee pies she microwaved and served with ice cream were in fact homemade.

Ruth Anne choose not to insult the intelligence of customers and spoke only the truth. The response was emphatic, "But you live in the fruit belt of Canada and we have just driven through the bountiful orchards. Do you know where we can get something baked with the local fruit?"

Six years later, Ruth Anne provided the answer by baking her own pies and selling them door to door. She also persuaded the roadside farm markets to carry fresh fruit tarts for the tour buses. It wasn't long before Ruth Anne had orders coming in from local restaurants as well.

Later that fall, she married and moved to California. Her mother phoned in the spring to tell her about the influx of phone calls from people wanting to order her pies, wondering who had taken over the business.

Three years later, Ruth Anne and her family returned to her hometown of Virgil, having never stopped baking for her family and friends.

When a new family moved in next door, she invited them over for coffee and dessert, which was, of course, apple crumble pie. It turned out that neighbour just so happened to be the new chef at a local winery restaurant. He liked her pies so much he featured it on the dessert menu: "Ruth Anne's Home Made Niagara Fruit Pie." This same chef was a great encouragement in making the decision to pursue the opening of The Pie Plate Bakery & Café.