Postville's Pie Lady: Iowa Time Machine September 27, 1985

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On September 27, 1985, Postville celebrated a milestone measured in flour, fruit, patience, and an astonishing number of pie tins. That day, Hattie Rose, the community’s beloved “Pie Lady,” baked her 50,000th pie, a sour cream raisin pie that became the centerpiece of Hattie Rose Day.

After moving from a farm into Postville in the mid-1950s, she began baking for local restaurants when she filled in for another pie maker. The temporary task became a profession. Rose eventually supplied as many as three restaurants a day, while also accepting orders for celebrations, meetings, and travelers passing through town.

She rolled every crust on her own kitchen table, prepared the fillings herself, and baked in a conventional home oven. The 50,000th pie brought that quiet labor into public view. Postville residents marked the occasion with Hattie Rose Pie Day, and police delivered the landmark sour cream raisin pie to a restaurant, where it was sold at auction for $960 to benefit Community Memorial Hospital. Ten apple pies also sold for $60 apiece, extending the fundraiser’s support for local health care.

By the time she died in 1996, Rose had baked nearly 65,000 pies over roughly four decades. Her success also continues in the Hattie Rose Pie Baking Contest, held in conjunction with Taste of Postville, where her name encourages a new generation to treat pie baking as both a skill and a shared tradition. #Iowa #OTD #History #Food #Pie