The Historical and Archaeological Society of Fort Riley has recruited hundreds of volunteers to prepare 2,000 apple pies for Saturday’s annual Fall Apple Day’s Festival at Fort Riley.

Pie making began on Monday and crews have been working three shifts a day preparing the pies. As of Wednesday evening they were just over 400 pies short of the 2,000 needed for the festival.

To make that many pies it takes a lot of ingredients. Jenna Bell, Co-Pie Queen explained that this year they purchased 12,000 apples, 960+ pounds of sugar, 750 pounds of flour, 360 pounds of butter (which ended up not being enough).

“It is a lot, but you know some balls get dropped just make sure you drop a rubber one that will bounce back up and not a glass one,” says Bell.

The recipe for the pies date back to the 1800’s and Libby Custer, the wife of General George Custer.

“It’s a very old recipe, it’s a great pie. It’s a little non-traditional, it doesn’t have a lattice crust like a typical apple pie or even a salad pie crust, it has a crumble topping. It’s a fantastic pie with Granny Smith apples.”

If you weren’t able to purchase pies through pre-sale’s, HASFR will have pies for sale on Saturday for $13 for a whole pie or $4 by the slice and $4.50 with ice cream.

The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Artillery Parade Field at Fort Riley. Other events during the festival include a petting zoo, bungee trampoline, military helicopter plus tank display, Calvary horse and military dog demo, ATV rides, laser firing range, and a number of vendors.