Utica, NYPie Shops

North Star Orchards has been a Mohawk Valley farm market since 1986, and Mohawk Valley Living says its in house bakery makes pies from scratch every day of the week rather than for the holidays alone. Ten flavors are in rotation, among them apple crumb, mince, peach and cherry, and the pies come in six inch and nine inch sizes. Order the apple crumb in a nine inch for a table, and take a six inch home for the week.

Juliano Farms is a Route 5 farm market east of Utica that fills with mums, gourds and pumpkins through the fall, and Mohawk Valley Living says the bakery counter is worth the stop on its own once you are there for the decor. The pie list stays with the classics: apple, Dutch apple and pumpkin. Order the Dutch apple for a holiday table, and pick up the rest of the fall haul on the way out.

Gingerbread Bake Shop is a small New Hartford bakery with a loyal following, and Mohawk Valley Living puts it on the Mohawk Valley pie trail for its seasonal pies rather than for scale. The rest of that trail runs to farm markets, orchard bakeries and country diners, and the pie list moves with the season instead of sitting in a case year round. Order whichever seasonal pie is out that week.

Holland Farms has baked in Yorkville since 1955, and Mohawk Valley Living puts it on the pie trail alongside the half moon cookies and the Utica tomato pie it is better known for. The pie selection there runs to cream pies and double crust fruit pies, sold by the slice or whole, so a holiday order can be one of each. Order a slice of whatever double crust fruit pie is in the case, then take home a tomato pie and a box of half moons.