'Pie Lady' celebrates tradition with students

The home-ec room at Sisters Middle School was redolent of the sounds and smells of a family kitchen recently as clusters of students chopped apples, measured out sugar, flour and spices, then mounded their mixtures into pie crusts they had rolled out by hand the previous day. All the while, they chatted and laughed and helped each other.

"Does anyone remember what the flour does?" asked Rebecca Sokol.

"It makes it thicker," responded a boy.

As a recurring special guest in Kit Stafford's Americana Project class, Rebecca shares her enthusiasm for a national tradition - making pies - and gives the kids a taste of what she thinks of as the good life.

Like quilting, pie-making is a unique part of early American history, she explains.

"Pies really are an American food - like the saying 'as American as apple pie.' Early settlers used bear fat and salt as preservatives. Women gathered to make pies together and shared what they made. You'd go home with all sorts of pies, like our (modern-day) cookie exchange. It was a communal process."

Rebecca, who kids have dubbed "the Pie Lady," makes regular three-day presentations in Stafford's class. In the previous trimester, students learned to make meat pies.

On these visits, students not only get a hands-on opportunity to put what they're learning about their American heritage into context, they also receive a lesson in mealtime etiquette and gratefulness.

"We spend time on the whole process: making the crust, understanding why it works, collaborating, following directions, cleaning up, waiting while everyone is served, showing others consideration," says Sokol.

Students are also charged with two homework assignments: make a pie at home for someone else; give and receive thank-you notes.

Eighth-grader Nina Horner says she plans to bake a pie for her grandmother, "because we normally do things like this together. I want to show her that I can do it myself."

Jonathan Gurney says he'll probably make one for his dad, "because he coaches for me, all sports, so I kind of want to return the favor."

"They're really so proud of themselves," says Sokol.

As a mother, she believes that nightly gatherings around the family dinner table are non-negotiable. Sokol credits time spent "delving into a recipe book together" and lingering over meals with nurturing her own relationships with her children.

"We always had dinner together. We talked about life, and sometimes it would go on for two hours," she says.

Although her youngest child, John Morton, graduated last year and moved on to college, he tells his mom that those are his favorite memories, and he tends to phone home during that hour of the day.

Sokol is concerned when she hears from kids who don't get to enjoy regular dinner times.

"Families have become so disconnected. It's going to be different for the next generation."

She grew up outside Manhattan and spent every summer as a child in Barcelona-where her father still lives. That blend of experiences cultivated her appreciation for good food and cultural traditions.

Sokol moved to Sisters in 1996 with her four children.

Here, she and husband Doug Sokol gave life to The Barn, a house concert venue and a place for Americana Project students to hone their performance skills.

"Doug had a vision for it to be a place to celebrate music," she says.

Together, she and Doug cleaned out and insulated the former dairy barn-located on the Sokols' family hay ranch, and opened it up to the music community.

Since Doug's death three years ago, she continues to manage The Barn along with her sister-in-law, Cris Converse, booking about 10 house concerts each year and hosting a songwriting academy every March.

Sokol also has her hand in a variety of efforts with one common denominator: good, local food. A familiar face at Jen's Garden, she has worked as a server since the acclaimed restaurant first opened.

Her commitment to "putting features in our town" that help bring local (Oregon-farmed) agriculture to market is apparent all across town: as a member of the founding committee for the Farmers' Market; as a key financial backer of Melvin's Fir Street Market; in her work to refurbish and add solar panels to the greenhouse at Sisters Middle School (alongside Kit Stafford); as a proponent of the Sisters Science Club's seed-to-table program.

As might be expected, Sokol also tends her own vegetable garden at home.

"I love living on the ranch," she says. She considers well-spent her energies to cultivate and encourage a lifestyle of simple goodness. In her words, "To eat well and have healthy relationships" is due reward.