Local couple to give baking tips at Lisle's Depot Days

When the first visitors step into the old Netzley/Yender farmhouse during Lisle's Depot Days on Saturday, Fred and Nadine Filipiak already will have taken the first, fresh-baked apple pie out of the oven and have it ready for sampling.

They'll be stirring up cornbread, too.

"If you have never had apple pie or cornbread from a brick oven, it's a unique taste," Nadine said. "You have got to come and try it. It's special."

The couple, who joined the Lisle Heritage Society after moving to town 15 years ago, have been a fixture in the kitchen on Saturdays during Depot Days and Once Upon a Christmas events for years. Nadine learned pie baking from another couple who have since moved away, and Fred joined her in the kitchen about four years ago.

Pie would have been the dessert during the 1850s period the farmhouse represents, Nadine said. The Netzley family, who originally owned the home, had a small apple orchard so the fruit was readily available.

Cakes, on the other hand, would have been impractical to make given the cost of sugar and the limitations of ovens at the time, she said. The brick oven has no door so regulating heat is tricky.

A fire is built in the center of the oven's circular floor about three or four hours before the baking begins. The fire then is pushed to the back of the oven so the pies and cornbread can be put in front.

Knowing when the oven is hot enough takes practice, the Filipiaks said. The temperature has to be 400 degrees to bake a pie.

Fred said the easiest way to judge the temperature is simply to stick an arm in the oven and start counting by thousands.

"One thousand, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000," he said. "If you get between four and five (thousand) and have to pull your arm out, then you're ready to go."

Another way to test the temperature is to sprinkle flour on the bricks, Nadine said. If the flour turns golden brown, the temperature is right for baking pie, but if it turns black, the heat is too high.

"We've had our share of cremating things," Fred said.

Once the pies are in the oven, they have to be watched carefully because the side closest to fire bakes faster.

"You have to actually turn the pie so all sides get cooked," Nadine said.

The pies take 40 minutes to bake and each is divided into about 20 samples to pass out free to visitors. In the course of a Saturday, the Filipiaks may bake about 15 pies, plus cornbread.

That's a lot of time by a brick oven, but Fred said they avoid standing directly in front of its heat.

"It isn't as bad as you think. The building is air-conditioned," he said.

The Filipiaks often have Girl Scouts who volunteer to be Heritage Helpers to aid in the baking. The girls rotate stations: peeling and quartering the apples; mixing the fruit with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; and making the pie dough.

The Filipiaks use a mix to turn out the crust faster, but the girls still have stir in the water, divide the dough into two balls for the upper and lower crusts, and learn the d delicate art of rolling it out to just the right thickness using a bit of flour so the dough doesn't stick.

"To them, it's just amazing to do something from scratch," Fred said. "It's not like you opened up a frozen pie and put it in the oven."

The Heritage Helpers also can try their hand at making butter for the cornbread by shaking whipping cream in a jar. The homemade butter doesn't have to be refrigerated because it will stand up in room temperature, Fred said.

"There's no sugar or salt. It tastes like real stiff whipping cream," he said.

Now in its 24th year, Depot Days offers a host of activities, but the brick oven baking remains a perennial favorite, said Elaine Keating, who is co-chairman of this year's event, along with Heidi Otto.

"The pie baking and blacksmithing are really popular," Keating said.

Visitors touring the other buildings at the Museums of Lisle Station Park will see more signs of the Filipiaks' involvement. Fred, a woodworker and carpenter, helped build furniture in the Beaubien Tavern and the blacksmith shop. He served on a strategic planning committee for the museum park, which also includes the Depot Museum and a restored caboose that can be toured.

A professional musician for 25 years who had played in backup bands for the likes of Johnny Mathis and Liza Minelli, Fred took up carpentry as full-time occupation after losing his singing voice. Although he won't be making music during Depot Days, he still plays with a group called the Nuclear Jazz Quarket, which gives an annual concert at the Lisle Library.

Nadine, who became a journalist and earned a bachelor's degree while raising three children, serves on the Lisle Heritage Society board and is its new newsletter editor. After working for a variety of hospitals and medical organizations, she earned a master's degree in integrated marketing communications this past May and is now a self-employed freelancer.

The couple's interest in history extends to automobiles. They are members of the Great Lakes Region of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America and Nadine edits the group's newsletter. Fred proudly shows off their 1941 and 1950 Chevys.

Local history helps people to connect with the community they live in, Fred said.

"Preserving the history of whatever community you live in, it gives the citizens of that community a sense of pride and of being part of the big picture," he said.

Depot Days is a good place to start. New events this year include a performance of the DuPage Chorus, a strolling fiddler, a seed-spitting contest, water and spoon races, and a natural dye craft for kids. On Saturday, there'll be talks on the museum park's heritage gardens and the colorfully painted Rain Barrels of Lisle will be auctioned with the proceeds going to charities supported by the Lisle Area Chamber of Commerce.

Other events include model railroading, corn grinding, telegraph demonstrations, rug hooking, a book sale, beekeeping demonstrations (without bees) and wood turning.

"It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun," said Rose Mary Hosé, museum curator who helped plan the event.