The Edit with Kate McDermott

on Pie Camp, Freedom to Write, Being an Early Adopter, and Growing with Substack

Aug 05, 2026

with Kate McDermott

Hi, I’m Kate McDermott and am delighted to be asked to share some of my Substack journey and experiences here on IACP Culinary.

A Bit About Me And Why I’m Here

I’ve written three best-selling books all after the age of 60: Art of the Pie, Home Cooking with Kate McDermott, and Pie Camp. I am a James Beard award nominee and received multiple IACP nominations, too. For nearly 20 years, I’ve taught over 8,000 people to make pie in my virtual and in-person Art of the Pie Camps and Workshops.

Prior to launching Kate McDermott’s Newsletter in 2021, I wrote the Art of the Pie blog for twelve years on Wordpress, but futzing with keywords, length of post titles, word counts and backend analytics for search engines had became wearisome and didn’t feel creative anymore. I asked my friend Pat Willard, who was already publishing on Substack, if she would chat with me about her experiences on the platform. By the end of our conversation I decided to take the flying leap here and it is a move I have not regretted. I was happy to let go of the expense of an email marketing platform as Substack has that feature, too. In June of 2026, my newsletter celebrated its 5th anniversary.

Growth and Community

Over the years I’ve experienced the growth of the platform from being just a place for only writing, to one that now includes Notes, Chat, Live, Video, Voice, and tools like the new Recording option. I turned on the paid option after my first six months here and I hope that with a regular publishing calendar, patience, and steady growth, someday it will bring in enough to support me. Currently it does bring in enough to make it worth my while and as I had never monetized my old blog, it’s exciting to be surrounded by a wonderful community of subscribers, both free and paid, who believe in me and support my work!

Community building has always been a big part of of the Substack platform and I love being in the company of many I know from old-school print media and Wordpress days who have found their way here, too. I am honored to have been featured by many of them.

Dianne Jacob’s Newsletter: Kate McDermott is About More Than Pie
Bee Wilson: A Big Spinach Pie to Make Everything Better
Life’s a Feast by Jamie Schler: A Kitchen Chat with Kate McDermott & Jamie Schler
XOXO, Dorie: Off the Shelf: Cookbooks M-Z
The David Blahg: No. 89: Pot Pies with Kate McDermott

New Friends and Stacks I Love

Over the years here, I’ve made wonderful new friends, too.

Anne Byrn’s Between the Layers: whose newsletter is always inspiring, like this post of hers.
Marissa Rothkopf-Bakes: The Secret Life of Cookies: I’ve joined her for some really fun broadcasts live from our kitchens like this Live Recipe Swap with Kate McDermott.
Jolene Handy’s Time Travel Kitchen: The Piechiatrist Makes a House Call. Jolene has become my Substack soul-sister.
Fog Chaser: Fog Chaser wrote an original musical composition that he says was inspired by the vibe of my newsletter!

Coming Up

I’m excited about joining twelve presenters in the premier year of Cookstack Collective, a series of once a month live classes on Zoom, as a perk for paid subscribers.

Kate McDermott's Newsletter

ANNOUNCING THE COOKSTACK COLLECTIVE!

2 months ago · 53 likes · 49 comments · Kate McDermott

My Online Home

Substack is now my online home and Kate McDermott’s Newsletter is the place where I can promote my online classes and other things I’m dreaming up, share recipes, write of walks, rides on my e-bike Arrow, gardening, books I’m reading, music I’m listening to, my beloved dogs, and thoughts about aging gracefully. After all those years of writing for analytics, I can be myself here, write about anything I want, all while building community. Here’s your invitation to come on over, take a look around and become a subscriber because there’s always room for more at my Pie Cottage table.

A Few of My Favorites from Pie Cottage & My Substack

Before you leave, here are a few favorite posts from my Stack, too.

A is for Aprons and the many memories they hold for me.
Twenty-Four Hours in DC when I traveled from my Pie Cottage home in Port Angeles, WA to hear my dear friend and Grammy Award Winner Richard O’Neill play a 1690 Stradivari viola in concert at The Library of Congress.
Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly where you can see a bit of my garden and e-bike in the lavender fields near me.
And, of course, P is for Pie.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you soon!

Kate