OLIVER SPRINGS, Tenn. — She doesn't even like sweets. But a Morgan County woman spends hours on her feet making desserts.
The recipe for her dough is simple.
"Flour, shortening, buttermilk, and a lot of loves with them hands."
Mary Crowe puts a lot of love into the fried apple pies she makes in her kitchen in Oliver Springs.
She makes the filling from apples she dries herself. It takes 20 hours to dehydrate the fruit. Then she blends the apples with sugar and spices and fries her pies until they are golden brown.
"I don't eat them. I'm not a fan of fried apple pies," she said.
Mary Crowe started making fried apple pies as a fundraising project for her daughter's homecoming queen race. That was 40 years ago and she still fries pies for fundraisers, mostly in Morgan County.
"I don't do it for money. I do it to help whatever the cause is. I have raised money for our Medical Center, our library, our senior citizen building, the field house." she said.
The cause she cares about the most right now is Jason Robbins.
"Jason is my great-nephew and he is Stage 5 kidney failure. He's got to have a kidney," she said. "I guess this is the most worthwhile fundraiser I've ever done since I started."
The family also has a GoFundMe page. Taking orders for the fried apple pies on Facebook certainly helps.
Mary Crowe intends to keep helping people.
"The Lord's always blessed me to have the money I need, the supplies, and the help I need," she said.
Her friends from church wrap the pies and sort them for pick-up. Mary Crowe makes about 50 at a time.
"They sell themselves. Once you eat them I guess they are habit forming."
Yes, they are.
You may be able to replicate her recipe, but not the main ingredient in Mary Crowe's fried apple pies: love.
She also makes Tennessee Apple Stack Cakes. Her source for the molasses is the Amish-Mennonite communities in Muddy Pond.