Baking, rocking for a cause

Mahoning Valley Epilepsy

BY WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

Photo by: William D. Lewis

Photo

Alice Lang of Austintown shows off a pie she recently baked, appropriately standing by a rocking chair on her front porch. Last year, LangÕs cherry pie won the pie-making contest at Mahoning Valley EpilepsyÕs annual Rocking for Epilepsy Awareness. She plans to enter a pie in this yearÕs event, which is July 24 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Austintown Cracker Barrel Restaurant..

Alice Lang of Austintown, winner of the 2009 Mahoning Valley Epilepsy’s Rocking for Epilepsy pie-baking contest, urges other area culinary artists to join her for this year’s event.

Rocking for Epilepsy 2010, with the goal of raising epilepsy awareness and money for research, is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 24 at the Austintown Cracker Barrel Restaurant on Interstate Boulevard near the intersection of state Route 46 and Interstate 80.

To register for a sponsored rocking chair or to enter the mixed-fruit pie-baking contest or register babies for this year’s new contest for babies, call Janet Mau, director of Mahoning Valley Epilepsy, at 330-270-8037.

Pies, including the recipe, must be presented in an 8-inch disposable pan by 11 a.m. July 24 for judging. After judging, pies will be sold to the highest bidder.

Mau said the babies age 3 to 9 months will be judged in the Rock-a-Bye Baby contest while being rocked between 4 and 5 p.m. The deadline to register babies is next Wednesday.

The winner will be chosen by a panel of judges combined with the votes of family, friends and neighbors and others watching the event, Mau said.

But as cute as those babies are sure to be, the sweetest event is the pies.

Lang, 65, who last year entered two cherry pies that won blue ribbons, one as grand champion, said she loves to bake pies from scratch (the secret to the crust is Crisco oil) made with fresh fruits or those she has picked and frozen.

She participates in the Epilepsy Awareness event because a niece’s husband has epilepsy.

“I look at it this way: This disorder can be as devastating as other diseases that are better known. I feel bad for him and want to do something to help,” Lang said.

“It’s not about the ribbons,” said Lang, who runs the pie bake at her church, Calvary Baptist. “It’s heartfelt for me to do something like this.”

As a child growing up near Calcutta with her seven brothers and sisters, Lang helped take care of a half-acre garden on her grandfather’s farm. She got into gardening herself in the last couple of years; before that, she primarily raised prize-winning dahlias.

She is a member of the East Liverpool Dahlia Society and several others; volunteers for her church’s West Community Center and the Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley; the Children’s Program at Fellows Riverside Garden at Mill Creek Park, and is also a garden guide at the park. “They really touch my heart,” she said.

Lang, who is a self-described “bit of an artist” who makes interesting, unusual objects out of home-grown gourds and also paints, is an unapologetic stay-at-home mom.

Lang said she and her husband, Terry, who is retired after 42 years with IBM, had an agreement: “I raise the kids.”

And then, after they were older, she said she took care of elderly family members.

She said they put their sons, Douglas of Minneapolis and Ronald of Pueblo, Colo., through college and they are doing well. “We travel to see them and our five grandchildren when we want to,” Lang said.

“I like to cook and clean and wash windows and can vegetables. What better job can you have than to be independent enough to help others?” she asked.