Feeding the Multitude, May Fair Style

When thousands of New Canaanites and visitors descend on St. Mark's Episcopal Church this weekend for the 61st annual May Fair, a great many will doubtless stop for a bowl of that time-honored confection: strawberry shortcake.

Just how many? If recent years are any indication, enough to polish off some 4,000 heaping servings, more than a few split two or three ways. In other words: a lot of mouths to feed without the benefit of a fish-and-loaves miracle.

Susan Boston, a lifelong New Canaan resident and member of St. Mark's, is charged with organizing the group that prepares the springtide desserts. Among their responsibilities: baking 2,000-odd biscuits.

"It's a very secret recipe," Boston said in an interview. "I have to special order the ingredients. I can tell you they don't sell them in New Canaan—I have to go to Norwalk."

Now in her seventh go-around as team leader, Boston has the baking process down pat. After the kitchen is cleaned and prepped, 28 women—most working in pairs—gather on the Friday before the festival to crew the various stops on the assembly line: measuring, mixing, cutting, rolling, monitoring pans in the oven, and taking them out to cool.

"Usually after the first batch, the whole church starts to smell, and everyone else working in the rest of the church knows," Boston said. That's when she takes around a tray of the less-than-perfect specimens as samples for appreciative volunteers.

Working in two shifts—one in the morning, one in the afternoon—the culinary army turns out biscuits at an astonishing rate. The next day, between 50 and 60 people staff the festival's shortcake station, serving up the biscuits with whipped cream and the marquee fruit.

"I pull in anybody I can get," Boston said, describing a mix of newcomers and veterans. "This is not a St. Mark's event: it's a community event. So many of the people that are active in the fair are not St. Mark's people."

For Boston, the experience is a throwback to her own childhood, when she remembers enjoying fresh strawberries in the earlier days of the festival.

"When you hand one of those bowls to a 6 or 8 year-old, their eyes pop," Boston said. "But you don't even want to think about the calories."

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May Fair will run from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, rain or shine, on the Great Lawn of St. Mark's (111 Oenoke Ridge). Apart from strawberry shortcake, the festival is set to include a wide array of food, rides, games, and performances. Shuttle service will be available throughout the day from the New Canaan train station lot. Visit the St. Mark's website (http://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org/mayfair.asp) for more details.