A trip to God's country: Long live Michigan's U.P.

Unlike stew, though, there is no gravy inside the pastie. If you're not in a mine, you can put gravy on them or ketchup, which is what heretics like me do. They stay warm for a long time once they leave the oven, for several hours. Most of them have meat, and bits of carrot, potato and rutabaga. The rutabaga mostly adds flavor.

I did a story on a woman who makes those and she said she has a regular client, a POW in World War II, who gets them without rutabaga because he had had to eat them for two years, courtesy of the Germans, and never wanted to touch one ever again.

 

They're good, but if you don't put gravy or some kind of sauce, they are God-awful dry...

 

Gutter: I recall several white-knuckle trips to cover prep sports when I lived in the U.P. There's nothing like going into a gym with the roads dry, then coming out 2-3 hours later and finding snow piled high on your car -- and your route home.

While there's nothing quite like the Keweenaw Peninsula for wind and winter storms, the Munising area comes pretty close. Plus, to get into town (and leave town) there's steep hills from both directions.

And yes, crusoes, if you put ketchup on a pasty, the locals will give you plenty of grief as a side order. Go with the gravy -- nobody said this was health food.

 

Not if they're made properly; the meat should be tender and moist.

LOL, it so happens that my great-great grandfather owned a lumber company that owned about half of the U.P, and was headquartered in Baraga, with huge mills, offices, the whole works, in the late 1800s.

About 10 years or so ago, I drove up there just for fun, and stopped in the library to check out some old historical records. I went up to the desk and said, "I'm looking for some information on my great-great grandfather, maybe you have something."

The clerk said, "OK, what was your great-great grandfather's name?"

"Thomas Nester," I said. Her eyes just about bugged out of her head.

She showed me a bunch of books and displays on the history of the lumber industry in the region (a lot of which I knew already, but some I didn't).

http://books.google.com/books?id=IEk22rbVL9QC&pg=PA587&lpg=PA587&dq=thomas+nester+detroit&source=bl&ots=9Gw2DvsZ8Y&sig=9t-wMPFJBc8kqEcpuRKDu9QXFgI&hl=en&ei=WTxnSqqvN5G3lAfQ1L3dDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1


Hanging on the wall was a huge copy of this somewhat-famous picture -- of the world-record load of U.P. lumber sent by the Nester Lumber Co. to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.



Anyway, for the rest of the afternoon I was treated like semi-royalty. I drove out to the edge of town to see the row of five mansions (well, today they'd be called 'large cottages') Thomas Nester had built for his children (including my great-grandfather) and their families in the 1880s.

My grandmother (who was still alive at the time, at the age of about 98 or so) had often spoken of the "huge house" she had lived in as a child in Baraga (she lived there until she was 8 or 9, when they moved to Detroit, in about 1903). Four of the houses were still standing in fine repair, well-painted and maintained. The one on the end of the road, which from my grandmother's descriptions was the one she had lived in, had been taken over by hippies and converted into some kind of weird commune/flop house.

I took some pictures of the nice-looking houses, and showed them to my grandmother a couple of weeks later. She said, "Yep, that's Uncle Timmy's house, that's Uncle John's." Then she said, "I know the hippies took over our old house; I know it looks like hell. I know that's why you didn't take a picture of it," and then she laughed.

That was Nana, the Baroness of Baraga. Unfortunately, my status as a scion of Baraga's long-lost lumber royalty didn't get me the key to the city, a free beer or a free pasty or anything else. The people at the library thought it was kinda cool, though.

 

I've found that a tall glass of milk goes great with them.

Another local delicacy that I love (had one tonight) is cudighi, a sandwich with spicy Italian sausage, and often cheese and pizza sauce served on a roll. Terrible for you, but tastes so good.

 

I'd much rather have the one-pound cinnamon roll from the Hilltop bakery -- and they deliver
http://www.sweetroll.com/

 

This has been quite the educational thread -- The Toledo War, pasties. I hope History Channel is showing it's Modern Marvels episode on the Mackinac bridge when I get home.

 

I had just thought of those again when I saw this thread bumped up.

Man, you can get two of those and it'll last you a week. So damn good though.

 

Even better with cinnamon butter on them

 

That. looks. amazing. $30 for 4 is a bit steep though.

 

Many UP'ers also have the good taste to be Green Bay Packers' fans.

 

It includes two-day shipping.Have had them shipped here a couple times.
When I went to my parents house in MSP last year, I had some shipped there for everyone.