Lisa Helmick is a mother, wife, nurse, cook, and entrepreneur. She moved with her husband and children from Michigan to Daleville in 2006. After the move, the Dublin native didn’t want to go back into nursing full time.
However, with five children, she wanted a way to provide some extra income and be there when the kids came home from school. Lisa’s sister suggested that since Lisa loves to cook, she somehow turn that into a business. After talking with a woman in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina area who makes chicken pie, “I just started experimenting and playing, and came up with something I thought would be good.”
One Sunday after church Lisa served a chicken pie to her family, “and I thought ‘O. K. this is my true test right here…because with five kids I very rarely can have one [food] that all five enjoy the same thing.’” It met with unanimous approval, husband included.
Casting about for some more feedback, Lisa made two batches (each batch makes about 25 pies) and gave them away to friends and family, asking for their input. She also found the pies an inexpensive, yet personal gift for her children’s teachers. She hosted a luncheon for the teachers at Greenfield Elementary School during an in-service day and says the luncheon was “a big hit.”
Her husband suggested “Easy as Pie” for the company name. But her reputation preceded her, as Lisa recalls, “And a good friend of mine said, ‘You know, everyone keeps saying, ‘Oh, you’re that pie lady; let’s just go with that.’”
She started out with two basic types of pies; now she has eight, including “ChiknBroc&Chse” and “Just Chikn,” plus two dessert pies–”ChocPecan” and “MaplePecan.”
The Pie Lady says her pies are a French variation on the chicken pot pie and each contains more than a pound of chicken. The traditional pot pie is broth-based, but according to Lisa, her creations are gravy-based, using all local ingredients. The pies are frozen and can be popped into the oven and baked in about an hour.
Ideas for new flavors come from friends and family. Last year, then nine-year-old daughter, Grace, suggested a cheesy chicken pie. “And my dad, who’s just an hour down the road, he called me one day and he was out on his farm and he said, ‘I would love for you to try to make a chicken fajita pie.’” Lisa’s sister suggested chicken cordon blue. Lisa’s husband’s coworkers at Norfolk Southern were brainstorming one day and came up with chicken and mushroom. All four pies are now on the menu.
She says it truly is a family business. Lisa stamps boxes to hold the pies, and her children fold them. “And we pay them to fold boxes, just like a job.” Usually one of the children will help on Saturdays when Lisa hands out samples and sells her pies at Ikenberry’s Farmer’s Market. She adds, “My husband helps me get supplies and he delivers for me sometimes.” Customers love that the pies make a delicious meal with no extras needed.
The family just finished a downstairs kitchen for the business. The commercial freezer, which her husband found on Ebay, holds 120 pies. She usually bakes late at night or early in the morning when the children are asleep.
Maybe one day she’ll sell her business to a corporation, but for now Lisa is concentrating on the day-to-day operation. There’s even the possibility of “the Pie Lady” store sometime in the future. “I would love to have a place where all Moms can sell their things…we could have a cookie section and have the pies.”
Her advice for someone wanting to start their own business: “Go for it,” she says. “This is totally a God thing because it is a recession and it baffles me that this business is surviving and thriving.”
Call (540) 816-7227 for more information.
By Beverly Amsler [email protected]