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George Costanza: "That's pie country. They do a lot of baking up there."
Jerry Seinfeld: "They sell them by the side of the road. Blueberry blackberry."
George: "Blackberry boysenberry."
Jerry: "Boysenberry huckleberry."
George: "Huckleberry raspberry."
Jerry: "Raspberry strawberry."
George: "Strawberry cranberry."
Jerry: "Peach."
-Seinfeld

If only George and Jerry could stop by the Mission District.

Today's article in the Chronicle about Mission High students learning the craft of pie-making at four-month old Mission Pie, from the "coastal farm to city cafe" is just the latest big piece of Slow Food publicity around the Bay this month. And well, those kids sure like their pies:

This being San Francisco, diners can have an organic latte with their pear-raspberry pie, served by streetwise Mission High kids working after school. It takes awhile, sometimes several visits, for customers to realize that the teens behind the counter are some of the same ones grinning in the farm photos on the wall, and to learn that those unassuming pies drive an ambitious social experiment.

In a cycle of production and consumption that is rarely so neat and direct, Mission Pie's proceeds help support a farm on the San Mateo coast, which in turn supplies ingredients -- eggs, wheat, pumpkins, berries -- for the pies.

The teens, all of them learning disabled, work on the farm one day a month, getting up-close exposure to the environmental issues they've explored in science class. The students who work in the store stay connected to those berries from farm to table and proudly recommend pies that contain fruit they helped to grow.

We're staunch advocates of encouraging kids to maintain jobs ( to be productive and the like) and it's even better if students gain a little perspective on the origins of their food. Throw in a little social responsibilty and community awareness and Mission Pie is one of the best student-activity programs in the City, not just a pie in the sky ... sorry, we had to make at least one dumb "pie" joke.

A piece of the pie [SFGate]
Mission Pie [Official Site]