WAYNE — If you want to have your choice of pie at Country Farmhouse restaurant, you better get there early in the day.

Jenny Mossbarger learned how to make pies from the best, working under piemaker Robin Davies, who made pies for the former Kaufman’s restaurant in downtown Bowling Green.

Davies passed away suddenly several years ago at age 49, so Country Farmhouse owner Cathy Harrison asked Mossbarger, her daughter, to take over the piemaking.

“We had Robin Davies cooking for me for years. She was here a long time. So, Jenny just learned from watching Robin, so she’s made the pies ever since,” Harrison said.

Mossbarger chose to share the peach pie recipe because it is one of the most popular pies. Harrison said coconut cream is “probably our best seller.”

However, they didn’t want a customer run on coconut cream pies.

“First thing she thought when people saw it is that they all might come in for coconut cream pie,” Harrison said. “We sell a lot of pie. She made 13 pies yesterday (Thursday) so we go through a lot of pie.”

That is 13 different varieties of pie, and those varieties can vary from day to day.

“On Thursday and Friday, she makes a lot more pies for the weekend. I think the crust is what people love and she uses lard in the crust, which makes a big difference,” Harrison said.

Country Farmhouse has been thriving in Wayne for 20 years. Harrison previously managed Smedlap’s Smithy restaurant in Waterville when the opportunity in Wayne came up.

“So, we opened it up and it was not even a year, but the insurance company who owned the building, they moved across the street when I cut that opening there (pointing to side wall), so we added all that seating over there.”

Harrison said Country Farmhouse is the busiest it has been in 20 years, drawing regulars from as far as Michigan. She says some regulars are often caught eating breakfast, lunch and dinner there in the same day.

“When I do my Christmas open house, I advertise and that goes up into Michigan,” Harrison said. “When Halloween fell on Wednesday we started packing up and I put everything away.

“Then, we start on Sunday afternoon when we close to decorate. My daughters help me, and we turn everything into Christmas, and it takes us a week to do it. The open house starts Friday, and we have cookies and homemade drinks.”

The only issue in today’s economy is finding employees, she said. As a result, they had to close for dinner for two months, opening back up on Oct. 17.

“It’s been crazy ever since,” Harrison said.

Business has been so good that Cathy and her husband Gary once looked to expand into a second restaurant at the former Edgewood Inn site on U.S. 6 but ran into infrastructure issues.

Remediating the issue by building a new water system would have cost $200,000, so that plan was scrapped. She added that health issues also played a role.

The biggest reason Country Farmhouse is popular is the food, which includes General Tso’s chicken, chicken Alfredo, burgers, a roast beef platter, steaks and a Rueben sandwich.

There is also an ice cream parlor and gift shop selling country items and farmhouse décor, plus paintings and prints, mostly by the late Billy Jacobs. Harrison says “everything is for sale” at Country Farmhouse. There is also a catalog for items not in stock.

Jacobs, a painter, designer and wood burner from Navarre, Ohio, paints country scenes that include country homes, barns, farm animals and country scenery. He died last year from COVID.

Country Farmhouse is one of the few thriving businesses that keep people coming to Wayne, a town that has lost its hardware and other retail to big box stores, and it’s not hard to see that when you drive through town.

Harrison chose the country theme because getting there, unless you live in Wayne, requires driving through Wood County farmland.

That’s the other attraction — the atmosphere, which includes at this time of year Christmas hymns in the background and a feeling like you are in a country farmhouse, of course.

“I always decorated my house like this,” Harrison said. “It goes in spurts, but you would never know there was a recession because it’s been ridiculous. They spend a lot of money over there (in the gift shop), too.”

Harrison is not typically at the restaurant during the day because she and her husband Gary also own Harrison Truck & Body, which services and supplies the local agricultural community, plus they farm 5,000 acres.

In addition, they started C&G Transportation in 1990, which has over 45 trucks specializing in steel transportation as well as a drop deck and hopper bottom division.

Country Farmhouse Peach Pie

Crust (makes 2)

Ingredients

3 cups flour

2 cups lard

½ to 1 cup water

Directions

Mix flour and lard until crumbles. Add water and mix with hands until slightly sticky. Divide in half. Form in ball. Roll out on floured surface.

Peach filling

Ingredients

5 cups frozen peaches

1 cup sugar

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Mix together, put in pie crust

Topping

Ingredients

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup softened butter

Directions

Mix until crumbles. Add to top of pie.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1½ hours. Should be slightly brown on top and bubbling.

Country Farmhouse Peach Pie

Crust (makes 2)

Ingredients

3 cups flour

2 cups lard

½ to 1 cup water

Directions

Mix flour and lard until crumbles. Add water and mix with hands until slightly sticky. Divide in half. Form in ball. Roll out on floured surface.

Peach filling

Ingredients

5 cups frozen peaches

1 cup sugar

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Mix together, put in pie crust

Topping

Ingredients

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup softened butter

Directions

Mix until crumbles. Add to top of pie.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1½ hours. Should be slightly brown on top and bubbling.