BILLINGS — The date, March 14, is recognized as Pi Day because when abbreviated as 3.14, it represents the ratio of a circle's circumference — the number Pi.
While that has nothing to do with food, many take the day to celebrate by eating pies.
Pie day for Michele Rafter and Lura Hale happens once a week, as they make hundreds of pies for their business Montana Pie Company.
“We make the dough from scratch,” said Hale on Thursday. “We make 150 to 200 crusts. Then we make pies”
March 14 is just another day for the duo and they aren't busier than any other day.
“It's just kind of busy all the time,” Rafter said.
While there's not a lot of math to their story, their long-time business partnership is made up of one simple equation, one woman who loved making pies. Plus another woman who didn’t have as much experience.
“As a child, I always wanted to bake... In the fall my mother would always make pies and then freeze them. So, that’s kind of where the idea originated from,” Hale said.
“Michele said she had never made a pie and so I said, 'Well, I can teach you.'”
They first started off making pies in their kitchens and selling them at small farmers' markets. Now, 20 years later, the duo is going strong selling their frozen, bake-at-home pies that can be found in stores in Billings, Columbus, Big Timber and Red Lodge. Find a full list of stores and restaurants they are sold in here.
“Our first store that picked up our pies was Poly Food Basket,” Rafter said. “We love having a local, Montana made-from-scratch product out there and we just appreciate everybody that supports us.”
