SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — For 20 years Chris Stevens worked in construction while his wife, Sharon, worked as a dental assistant and later, a stay-at-home mom. As the travel of Chris’ construction projects took a toll on family life, they searched for ways to earn a living at home.

A blue ribbon Sharon won at a local county fair led them to a venture that would forever change their lives.

“We wanted to do something from home,” Sharon said. “Chris traveled a lot and we didn’t like that, so we decided to do something from home. Things kind of landed in our laps. I entered a pie in our county fair, won a blue ribbon and that’s where the idea for baking and selling pies came from.”

It was a pecan pie and won the raves of not only the judges but family and friends who also encouraged her to strike out on her own. The blue ribbon she won at the Champaign County Fair in 1998 sparked that desire to start a pie baking business.

Along with Chris, Sharon is the owner of Stevens Bakery and Orchard, located on 7344 Thackery Road in Springfield. The bakery has grown from a small operation in their kitchen to a business that can now produce as many as 800 pies in a week.

“Business grew so fast I had to quit my day job after just one year,” Sharon said. “I would return home from work to find orders for 50 pies on the answering machine.”

Orders came not just from family and friends. Many businesses came calling, as did local farmers’ markets. “Everything is fresh in our pies, with no preservatives,” Sharon said. “I can’t put an old brown or not-ripe peach in our pies or the customers won’t want to buy another.”

Chris’ construction experience and inventive mind have been key in saving costs and increasing efficiency. He renovated their home’s kitchen to start up the pie business, then later built on a bakery addition as it expanded. A key invention of his is a “round man” pie crimper to simplify tasks. With the round man, pies are placed on a lazy Susan and rotated through a top crust press that crimps the edges and reduces the job from three days to one.

When the couple went looking for ingredients one day, they stumbled upon the idea to plant an orchard.

“We thought, this is silly. We sit on 22 acres of wooded property,” Sharon recalled.” There was no way. When we looked to use fruit, we thought, ‘heck, we’re sitting on ground that’s covered by trees. We may as well tear some of them out and plant apple trees.’”

So in 1999, they planted 200 apple and 25 peach trees. Over the next several years, they planted 1,000 more trees in two additional orchards. 

Their plan was to grow a variety of apples to harvest in succession; however, they soon realized the orchard couldn’t consistently produce enough fruit to support the pie business and pie customers preferred the consistent taste of a single apple variety – the Jonathan.

“We originally planted seven varieties of apples, thinking when one was done with we’d have a second variety for the pies, but we soon found out that people preferred a certain variety of apple,” Susan said. “They like the sweet apples over the tart ones.

“Having the seven varieties didn’t pan out as we thought it would. We went to the U-pick and allowed for visitors to buy fresh apples, and that worked out better.”

Their orchard now includes about 800 apple and peach trees, allowing customers to pick their own fruit when it’s in season. The apples are available from the middle of August to the end of October.

During the winter Sharon bakes and sells 100 pies per week. In the summer and fall months that number increases to 600-800 per week.

“This time of the year things are quiet and slow, but we still bake in the winter months, only not as much as the other months. From June to the end of the year we find ourselves working 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week. We’re both working harder than we ever did before, but it’s gratifying that we’re creating our own future here,” she said.

Once baked, the pies are delivered to nearby restaurants and independent grocery stores. Stores in Columbus sell 100 each week. Some make their way to farmers’ markets in Springfield and Columbus.

The Stevens’ customer base is constantly expanding, from a hamburger shop in Urbana to farmers’ markets in Springfield and Worthington. They even penetrated the Columbus area, serving farmers’ markets in Clintonville and Short North. According to Sharon, the pie business continues to grow, selling roughly 25,000 pies per year and contributing 90 percent of the two businesses’ revenue. Thanksgiving is the biggest sales week, with 2,500 pies.

They started offering U-pick sales on designated weekends and opened a market stand to sell apples, pies and eventually other products such as maple syrup, beeswax candles and honey.

Of trials and tribulations, the couple have had many. One time their source for pastry flour had an explosion at its mill and shut down production. Another time they couldn’t find quality local peaches because of widespread weather damage. They also talk of other challenges, such as maintaining reliable sources for quality local ingredients and watching their costs.

Fortunately, they’re not without help. Their two children, a niece and their five grandchildren pitch in with delegated duties such as weighing dough, to cleaning up after orchard prunings. “Without their help we couldn’t do it,” Sharon said.

The Stevenses are committed to purchasing local materials. Their new pie boxes are produced by Lewisburg Container in western Ohio and printed with a Bible scripture: “With God, all things are possible.”

Stevens Bakery and Orchard is located at 7344 Thackery Rd., Springfield, OH 45502. To contact them, call 937-788-2873.