Ah, here's the link and the story as sent to me by faithful reader and enthusiast Kat.  Many thanks! 

 

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130307/iditablog-plucky-takotna-solves-its-missing-pie-filling-crisis

Update 10:30 a.m., Thursday, March 7

TAKOTNA -- Two boxes of pie filling didn't make it here for various reasons before the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, the first time in memory that has happened. No matter. The community of 50 residents cleaned out cupboards to make sure mushers would be treated to around-the-clock pies, one of the 1,000-mile race’s most-anticipated rituals.

One of the boxes from Anchorage got lost in the shuffle, with bad flying weather and once-a-week mail service mucking things up further, according to Iditarod checker Nell Huffman, who's lived in Takotna 27 years. She quickly dispatched someone to buy all the pie filling in McGrath -- some $250 worth. That didn't make it here, either.

 

So instead, the community of Takotna cleared out their cupboards, taking whatever canned fruit and leftover pie filling they could find to make the 100 or so pies that are a constant presence and a hallmark of the checkpoint.

There're still apple, pear, peanut butter and cherry pies in rotation. With at least three pies on the table at all times, you'd never know there had been pie-fillings crisis.

Huffman said for some Takotna children, seeing families make pie out of actual fruit -- and not just from canned pie pilling -- has been an eye opener.

"The young kids are like, 'You can make pies out of fruit?'" she said.

Latest word from the Iditarod communications operator Troy Zachary is that the missing pie filling might be headed to Iditarod by mistake -- though it’s not going to do much good in the ghost town. And, really, who knows?

"They could be from one end (of the trail) to the other," he said. "But they're definitely not here."

No matter for Huffman and the rest of Takotna, The fillings will make it when they make it, and there’s no question Takotna will be ready next year.

"They will end up in the right place eventually," Huffman said. "It's pure sugar. It'll keep."