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In 2010, while in the depths of despair over my husband’s death, my friend and TV producer, Janice Molinari, suggested we go on a road trip in my RV, find stories about pie and the people making them, and make a TV show about it. We traveled around California, eating massive amounts of pie, and shot the sizzle reel for “This American Pie” (see video below). It was the pursuit of additional stories for this show that led me back to Iowa, to the Iowa State Fair to be a pie judge. This led to visiting my birthplace of Ottumwa afterward, which led to discovering the American Gothic House and learning it was for rent. The rest, as they say, is history.

My TV pursuits got put on hold as I turned my attention to writing books and running my Pitchfork Pie Stand. Ironically I appeared on TV a lot during those four years and beyond, including CBS This Morning, Anderson Cooper 360, and — wait for it — Larry the Cable Guy’s “Only in America,” which unfortunately is still airing in reruns.