Florida Amish Country: Yoder’s Makes 6,000 Pies For Turkey Day
Here’s a fun little pre-Thanksgiving story that I just now came across, from Florida’s “Amish Country”, also known as the Sarasota-area Pinecraft community.
If you’ve been to that community, you probably are aware of the Amish-style eateries in the area. One of the best-known is Yoder’s, who get a lot of praise for their delicious pies (here’s a slice of peanut butter chocolate pie from one of my own visits):
To cover demand for Thanksgiving, they regularly crank out thousands of pies. And this year that number was right around 6,000, reports local station WFLA.
In the video report (embedded at bottom), the reporter shows viewers what a well-oiled operation they run to get those pies out to their expectant buyers, most of whom have put an order in, in advance.
And I didn’t realize it (though it’s on the sign in my photo at top) but this is Yoder’s 50th anniversary year:
Yoder’s Amish Village restaurant is a Sarasota staple, established in 1975. Everything is fresh made from scratch including their desserts. Serving a Yoder’s thanksgiving pie is a tradition for many.
Third generation owner Brian Emrich says the way Yoder’s bakes their pies has remained consistent for nearly 50 years.
“It’s just simple ingredients. It’s, the pies only can be in the refrigerator three days. It’s homemade stuff. It’s something your mom and grandma makes,” said Yoder’s owner Brian Emrich.
If you’re wondering about the name of this place, the original owners did have the name Yoder. From the Yoder’s restaurant website:
In the 1970’s Levi and Amanda Yoder sold their farm in Nappanee, Indiana and moved to Sarasota, Florida. Due to the recession, they found themselves investing their life savings into a small restaurant on Main Street in 1975.
Levi had a heart for people that created lasting connections and Amanda’s second nature was good home cooking. The combination of the two had an instant way of making customers feel as if they were back in the comforts of “Mom’s dinner table”.
A second location was purchased on Bahia Vista Street in 1984. Both locations were open for several years but in 1986, they decided their efforts would be best focused on the one location.
Yoder’s sells over 20 pie varieties, but one stands out. And according to owner Emrich, that is pumpkin. But I’m not sure if he means that is their top-selling pie, or if it is his personal favorite. You can be the judge in the video below.
The 6,000-pie output is actually lower than it was in the recent past – for example, one story from 2017 touted an output of 8,000 pies by Yoder’s. And in the video, Emrich explains that two years ago, they hit 10,000 pies – but found that number overwhelming.
So now they cap it at 6,000 pies. That makes a Yoder’s pie somewhat more scarce come Thanksgiving – all the more reason to get an order in early. As to the current price, you can get a Yoder’s pie for around $30.
Reply
Brian Emrich 1:21 in the video why does he have an Amish beard? He isn’t Amish, but he pulls the look off he just needs to let the hair on his head grow and then cut the bangs straight across!
Pies and cooking!
hello Eric!
I used to live in Sarasota and loved to go to Yoders downtown and since then driving back to
sarasota to eat and the Big Yoders. They can’t be beat. TY for thos great artical. <3
Regards Marty R.
Glad you liked it Marty, it’s been a few years since I’ve been down to Pinecraft but I like to share something on the Florida Amish when I can 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Yoder’s 6,000 pies
Just a quick question: if the pies have to be refrigerated, where exactly does the restaurant PUT these pies until patrons come to pick them up?? If ever I get to Sarasota, that’s the first place I’ll visit. Reading the article has made me hungry. Thanks, Erik!!
That’s a great question, I imagine they have either some large on-site refrigeration and/or bring in some sort of refrigerated truck for this “high pie season”.
Yoder’s
Too bad they can’t ship their pies nationwide. Now THAT would be something!!
Do the math.
It’s almost unbelievable to think they try to sell 6,000 pies in one day at $30 a pie. If you do the math that’s $180,000 in one day! Now let’s think about the profit.
If they hire 100 people to make the pies working 10 hours for a long day of baking pies that would be a total of $1,000 hours labor and if he pays them $30 an hour which would be a pretty decent wage that would be $30,000 for Yoder’s total labor costs to make the pies. Yes no doubt there are some ingredients that cost some money probably $10, 000 or even $20,000 so maybe he has $50,000 in cost to make these pies and he’s collecting $180,000 which means there’s probably $130,000 or even if there’s only $100,000 left over it’s very very good money isn’t it? Sure beats milking cows for one day!
What do you think is a decent profit margin for people who make pies for a living? The grocery store is selling full size pies for as little as $3.95 at Winn-Dixie and Publix for 6 or $7 a pie and Yoder’s charges $30!!!
Definitely not the cheapest pie, but they seem to be pretty large size (from what I remember, and from what we see in the video). And as far as quality & taste, I think comparing them to the grocery store version that probably has a much longer shelf life than 3 days is apples-to-oranges, or at best apples-to-pears 🙂 He’s got a winning product and good for him (and his customers) I say.
Turkeys too
We buy a farm fresh turkey for Thanksgiving and the farm says they sell thousands of Turkeys and they earn 90% of their year’s income in just the one week prior to Turkey Day.
Turkey's to pies?
It’s not a valid comparison to compare turkeys which may get sold in a few days to pies getting sold in a day or two. This is because the pies admittedly can only be kept for about 3 days so they are made and sold in a very short period of time. Compare this to turkeys or other livestock which may take 6 months or so to raise and therefore the farmer is working for months and months before they get a profit. Simply because they get sold in a day or two does not compare to doing something like making pies, that only takes a few days to yield a large amount of profit. Yes Yoder’s pies are special and very good but not that much bigger than a store bought pie, and the stores are making money on pies that sell for $5-$10.
We were there last year, 2024 July, and it was great! Highly recommended
Pies
Ok, so you can buy cheaper pies, do you really know what you are eating, gmo and the like, by someone from where and probably getting paid low wages