Lord of the pies
Local bakers keep 47-year holiday tradition going strong

Loretta's Pumpkin Pies cool on a rack at K & B Company Inc. in Gallup, N.M. After cooling, the pies are distributed to area grocery stores for sale during the holiday season. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — For thousands of area residents, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without Loretta.

Or at least one of her pumpkin pies.

Over the past 47 years, Gallupians and visitors from the nearby reservations have gobbled up almost 2 million pies made by Loretta’s — a family-owned business run by three Bischoff brothers — Tom, Ed and David. During that time, Loretta’s has also produced millions of rolls, loafs of French bread, pastries and the perfect lunch box snack — cherry and apple tarts.

But it’s in the fall, from about Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, when the family — who are also the local Rainbo Bread distributors — come into their own when Tom Bischoff, the company’s baker, and 10 other workers work 12-hour days to meet the demand for pumpkin pies. During those three months, according to the company’s financial manager, David, some 30,000 pumpkins pies will be made and delivered to area stores within a hundred-mile radius.

One of these is T&R Market, located on U.S. Highway 491 a few miles north of Gallup.

For Tim Bowling, who helps supervise the grocery part of T&R’s operation, having Loretta’s on hand is a godsend.

“Loretta’s pies are a lot fresher and they taste a lot better than the competition,” he said, upset only that the company has to find another source for its pumpkin pies after Jan. 1 when Loretta’s shuts down its pumpkin pie production until the fall.

It’s a strange thing, said Tom Bischoff, but from Oct. 1 until just after Christmas, people in this area can’t seem to get enough pumpkin pie. After Jan. 1, you just can’t seem to get any Gallup resident to take a piece.

But for those three months, the smell of freshly baked pumpkin flows out of the bakery across from the El Sombrero Restaurant and it seems that all’s right with the world or at least that part of the world that enjoys a large piece of pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream.

It all began for the Bischoffs back in 1942 when the patriarch of the family, Harold Bischoff, arrived in this area to work for the Franciscans at St. Michaels on the Navajo Reservation, doing everything from cleaning to cooking. It was a little later that Harold began noticing the daughter of traders in the Canyon de Chelly area, and it wasn’t long before Alice Garcia became Mrs. Bischoff.

As the war ended, the newlyweds decided to head a little east and took a job with Dude Kirk, who operated a trading post at Fort Wingate. To help make ends meet, Harold started peddling bread and then with Kirk set up their own distribution business — K&B Distributors — which exists to this day.

But distributing bread and rolls was one thing, making a local product was another. In 1960, Harold and Alice decided to branch out and make their own French bread, pastries and doughnuts for this area.

Loretta’s, Tom Bischoff said, is named after one of his sisters and a great-aunt and no, there is no Loretta whose baking prowess would create a dynasty. It was just Harold and Alice and their 10 kids who were expected to help out in the family business when they weren’t in school.

“I’m the only baker in the family,” Tom Bischoff said, who added that there were times in the 1960s when the family struggled to get their business off the ground.

Over the years, there have also been times of experimentation, at least when it came to pumpkin pies.
In he last 10 or 15 years, he said, the company has made some subtle changes in the spices that are put into the mix that make the pie taste as it does today. It’s a family recipe; if you really want to know what’s in the pies, your only option is probably to marry into the family, and there are rumors that even that may not be enough.

Harold Bischoff retired in 1980, allowing his sons to take over the business. Since his death several years ago, the family has continued putting out the pies, pastries, tarts and breads that Gallupians love.

“We’re now in our third generation,” he said, pointing out that two of his nephews — Joe and Brent — are now learning the business.

So Gallupians can depend on the Bischoffs to keep producing those pumpkin pies for decades to come.