if you visit the upper peninsula, you have to leave with a bag or two of trenary toast which is sort-of like a cross between cinnamon toast and a crisp bread like biscotti. in keeping with areas Finnish heritage, the bread is inspired by the finnish crisp korppu breads.
they’ve been making the bread at the bakery since the 1930s so they pretty much got it perfected by now and they don’t seem like the types to tinker with a good thing. when asked by a detroit free press reporter, what’s with the boring bag?”, the owner replied, “it’s always been that way.”
you could always make your own, but it probably wouldn’t be the same.
while i am making light of the irony of him doing work on labor day, we did visit the flint sit-down strike memorial earlier in the summer and never got around to posting it. i think he might have had some distant relatives who were involved in the seminal event in labor history.
odin’s great-grandmother, ida salmi lived in rock michigan ( population: herb’s bar through the late 60s and 1970’s. she’s since passed but her house and sauna are just around the corner and down the street. we’re lucky to have a sauna mirror that her son, odin’s grandfather, made hanging in our own sauna.
while i’ve never had a drink there, the inside of herb’s has the vibe of a a great upper peninsuladive bar in the very best sense of the phrase.
we were in rock on this particular day to watch them celebrate their 150th anniversary labor day parade.
after a recent 1,600 mile/26 hour drive ( each way ) road trip to maine, odin says the 327 mile/6 hour drive to the upper peninsula is so short it’s almost like not even leaving at all.
and with the low diesel prices and getting 52 mpg with the jetta sportwagen tdi it’s almost like not even spending any money to get there in no time at all.
the price list at an amish produce stand on a quiet backroad in the country. no cashier stands waiting to collect your money. no video surveillance to try to keep you honest. just grab your produce and put the money in the can. use the money that’s there to make change if need be.
i’m sure there are stands like this all around amish country across the u.s., i wonder if they have their own national honesty index.
