Sausage fest eagle river wi4/7/2023 The best-known is the British pasty, a filling meal that miners could easily transport to the mines and reheat the all-in-one hand pie is composed of pastry dough filled with meat (generally flank steak or hamburger), potatoes, and rutabaga. These groups left a legacy of no-nonsense dining, but those traditions have trickled down into plenty of fun quintessential dishes. With limited access to trade via ships through the Great Lakes or overland, imported food cultures also depended on ingredients that could be secured locally. In the 19th century, waves of immigrants came to work in iron ore mines or logging, first French Canadians, then miners from Cornwall, England, and finally Italians and Scandinavians (mostly from Finland and Sweden). Originally the UP was home to several Indigenous peoples, including the Ojibwe/Chippewa, Menominee, and Potawatomi, who thrived in the northwoods through a mix of hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging for wild fruits like thimbleberry, maple syrup production, and rice cultivation. Over centuries, residents have constructed a resilient food culture that fits the remote - at times harsh - environment, relying on wild game and hearty workaday provisions. So nab your backwoods cabin soon if you want a bite of a pasty in its prime. Hotels and campgrounds have begun routinely booking up well in advance. The number of visitors to the Upper Peninsula has steadily risen during the pandemic, and more of those visitors are coming from outside the Midwest. Whenever restrictions have ebbed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UP’s simple, salt-of-the-earth cuisine has been one of many draws for visitors, along with wide-open spaces, easy access from urban centers, and outdoor activities. But life in UP can also be pretty delicious, filled with wild berries and chaga mushrooms, freshly tapped maple syrup, steak- and potato-stuffed pasties, and weekly fish fries with Great Lakes perch, whitefish, and walleye. These brave souls - affectionately called Yoopers - know life here can be hard, with snowfalls that can total over 200 inches in the winter and summers muggy with mosquitos, flies, and ticks. Though the peninsula makes up about 30 percent of Michigan’s landmass (including offshore areas like Drummond Island and Isle Royale), only about 300,000 people (or 3 percent of the state population) call the area home year-round. Every summer, droves of weekend warriors head up north from Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago, crossing from Lower Michigan over the 5-mile long Mackinac ( mack-in-awe) Bridge or taking a puddle jumper to a small regional airport on their way to wooded cabins and remote lake houses. The UP (“you-pee,” not “up”) has long attracted outdoorsy types. On a map, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula perches on top of Wisconsin looking a bit like a rabbit, its ears jutting into Lake Superior, back legs kicking into Lake Huron.
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