Why Is Everyone Looking Up Illinois’ Official State Pie?

Pie, like ice cream, does not have a season.

We're going into fall and it's just now that everyone is about to start baking pies again. Pecan, pumpkin, it's all coming back out for the cold season and Thanksgiving. But pie is a perfect dessert year-round and Illinois seems to agree.

Pie is something that states get official and protective of. New York's state pie is Grape Pie. Florida's is Key Lime. And in Vermont, you legally cannot serve the state's official dessert, Apple Pie, without a glass of milk and a slice of cheese or vanilla ice cream.

Illinois' State Pie

Lately, for whatever reason, people are googling 'what is Illinois' state pie' a lot. Is everyone just so full of Illinois pride that they want to make the pie? Is everyone running out of stuff to Google at 2:00 a.m.?

Illinois definitely has an official state pie and it has a state story to back it up.

In 2015, then-governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill to make pumpkin pie the official state pie of Illinois.

Why This Makes Sense

They didn't choose a pumpkin pie as the official state pie because they're just fall-obsessed. It's because (according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture) 95% of the pumpkin crop in the U.S. that is intended for processing is grown in Illinois.

A company in Morton, which is outside of Peoria, produces 85% of the processed pumpkin in the U.S.

'Tis the season for Illinois' state pie! There's a good chance that the canned pumpkin you're making it with came from Illinois.