The One Pie Company
The history of the One Pie Company in Waldoboro Maine is a long and varied story. Many folks, albeit older ones, still walking around in Waldoboro worked there at one time or another in the canning factory.
The supply chain in Maine was strong indeed, because vegetable canning companies like One Pie and the fields the vegetables were grown in were steps apart! Waldoboro was, in fact, the supplier of most canned pumpkin and squash in America. Now the squash that’s used across the country at Thanksgiving is likely grown in Illinois . But am I still proud of One Pie’s Maine heritage? You bet I am! Every time I see those cans on a supermarket shelf and read “W. Paris, Maine”, I realize that those Maine roots run deep.
There was a time, between the Civil War and the 1920’s when Maine was an industrial canning powerhouse. Maine supplied all the tinned fish, sardines’s to be precise, in the country and most of the sweet, canned corn. Blueberries, peas, squash and pumpkin were also very much in demand!
It seems that the affiliation with Maine for One Pie is just window dressing now, probably good for business, since Maine is suddenly trendy. But they were forerunners in recognizing the beauty of regional food.
For that, and for living in Maine, I give thanks!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!
