Once a year at the Marin Country Mart, the call of fall beckons for one thing: pie. Through the throng of farmers market shoppers, a gleaming white tent wafts the scents of apples, cinnamon and chocolate-crusted pastries. A sign posted out front proclaims: “13th Annual Pie Baking Contest, Saturday, Oct. 11. First prize, $200!”

The annual installment of the event, like the ones prior, is open to the entire community, drawing bakers with decades of experience and pint-sized dough balls alike. Pies are judged on “taste, presentation and flakiness of the crust,” according to the Marin Country Mart website, with “extra points for beautiful and creative submissions.”

Diana Rogers, the director of events at the farmers market for Marin Country Mart, has been with the contest since its inception.

“Michaela—who was the market manager when we first started—and I, the farmers market consultant, came up with a pie contest. However, Jim Rosenfield, one of the owners of the Country Mart, had always wanted to have a pie contest, so it was a group decision born out of a shared affinity for pie,” Rogers said.

Since then, it has been embraced by the community, with bakers young and old able to express their creativity.

“Right now, my favorite [pie] is a youth entry called ‘Chocolate Pie in Disguise,’ which has a leopard print on it and is very creative,” Guzman said.

Although scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., the unexpected second tasting prolonged the suspense as contestants waited with bated breath for the final judgment.

Jordyn Grene, a worker at Dôen, a store in the Marin Country Mart, found herself ushered to the tent in the middle of her lunch break after being told she had unexpectedly won.

“It was so funny,” Grene said. “My coworker had just gone on her break after I brought her some pie. She was just getting back when she said, ‘You just won! Let’s switch breaks.’ So I came out, received my prize — it’s very exciting!”

Her salted caramel apple hand pies were born through a combination of happy accidents and various recipes.

“I had a craving for apple pie a few days ago, so I made one — and since I really love salty things, I added salted caramel,” Grene said. “I pulled pieces from different recipes, just based on what I like. I love to bake, so I’m always baking something random. I work at Dôen, and when I saw the contest sign, I thought, ‘Wait, I should enter — those pies turned out really good’. So I just whipped them up again yesterday.”

Spontaneous or not, the pies and the contest are rooted in good fun.

“It’s so fun to see what people come up with. I love that we can continue [the contest] as something that our whole community can participate in,” Rogers said.