Perfecting Fried Pies

Diane Flippen, 74, feeds a ball of dough into a press in the kitchen at Flippens Fruit Farm & Hillbilly Barn near Troy, Tenn. (pop. 1,273). Leading a team of busy cooks, Flippen, known as “Mama Dan,” then begins shaping the flattened dough into pie shells, before loading each with fruit filling and putting the pies into the deep fryer.

After the pies are fried and cooled, they’re stored in large freezers, awaiting shipment to small grocery stores, convenience stores and individual customers across the nation. It’s a process that produces 3,500 pies a day and more than 1 million pastries a year that bear the name Flippens Fried Pies.

Most of the fruit for the filling is grown on the 150-acre family farm, where three generations of Flippens have planted and tended an orchard of apple, peach, nectarine and pear trees.

While the Flippen family is famous for its delicious desserts, they never intended to venture into the pie-making business. Family patriarch Jack Flippen, 77, who began farming the land in 1951, says the pies were the delicious result of a natural disaster.

“A hailstorm in 1984 knocked off the ripe peaches,” says Jack, who was unable to sell the bruised peaches on the fresh market. “I thought we were going under.” But his wife, Mama Dan, had another idea. Jack recalls her promising to “pick up those peaches, cook them and make fruit pies.”

So Mama Dan did just that, spending an entire winter trying recipe after recipe with the help of Jack, who served as her taste-tester. “I gained 20 pounds that season,” Jack says, laughing. “Everyone that came by, she fed pies.”

Eventually she perfected the right combination of flaky crust and sweet fruit filling. “It’s tree-ripened peaches boiled down to taste, then fried in peanut oil,” says daughter Suzie Flippen Hoover, 50, of the family’s fried peach pies.

At first, the Flippens sold the pies to friends and neighbors. Then, in 1988, they set up a booth at the Reelfoot Arts & Crafts Festival at Reelfoot Lake, a state park close to their farm, and sold about 150 pies. Excited by their customers’ response, they bought a concession wagon and traveled the country selling pies at community festivals.

To help spread the word, Jack and Diane’s son, Hayes, 49, started a convenience and grocery store route between Memphis, Tenn., and eastern Arkansas. “I just told store managers how good my mama’s pies tasted,” Hayes says, “and the rest is history.”

Word spread about the desserts, and today Flippens Fried Pies, which include flavors such as apple, peach, blackberry, cherry and chocolate, are the mainstay of the family business. While visitors to the farm can buy the pies fresh from the fryer, thousands of customers across the nation order the $2.50 pies and have them delivered by overnight carrier to their home. “I’ll even sell one-half pie if that’s all you want,” Jack says.

In addition to the fried pies, the Flippens also sell items such as jams, jellies and cookies from Mama Dan’s kitchen.

“All the Flippen children work in the business,” Suzie says. “I pick, I plant and I hoe. I live in the orchard.”

The family, which includes Jack and Diane’s three children and their three grandchildren, is an important part of the business, Jack says. “Some farmers make the mistake of just paying family members a salary,” he says. “Everything here is divided equally.”

The result has been a family that’s dedicated to making a great product.

Joanne Chambers, one of Flippens Fruit Farms’ 25 employees, has seen that dedication firsthand.

“We can’t sell a bad pie,” Chambers says. “Customers know what to expect. It’s a small town, mom-and-pop business that Jack and Diane started themselves. They put blood, sweat and tears into making it a success.”

Brenda Williams, of Jackson, Tenn. (pop. 59,643), has been eating Flippens Fried Pies for years.

“I understand why they’re called ‘The World’s Best Fried Pies,’” Williams says. “Other pies can’t compare with the flaky crust and just-right filling.”

Story by Carolyn Ross Tomlin of Jackson, Tenn.

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