Michigan-Made Food Gifts, From Cherries to Cream-Nut

Koeze, the Grand Rapids nut company, says it still makes its Cream-Nut peanut butter on the same equipment, using the same methods, that it started with in 1925. That is a good test for a Michigan food gift. The best ones were not designed to be gifts at all. They are the things Michigan families have kept in the cupboard for generations, made by companies that are still here.

Here is a list of Michigan-made food gifts, organized roughly the way you would pack a basket: something sweet, something salty, something for breakfast and something from up north.

Cherries first

Michigan grows 70 percent of the country's tart cherries, according to the Michigan Ag Council, and Traverse City, home of the National Cherry Festival, is the Cherry Capital of the World. Fresh sweet cherries only run from late June through August, but the Montmorency tart cherry is sold dried, frozen, canned and as juice all year, which makes it the obvious Michigan gift in December.

Bob Sutherland started Cherry Republic in 1989 by selling T-shirts out of the trunk of his car, according to the company, and opened a storefront in his hometown of Glen Arbor by 1995. It now sells more than 200 cherry products and says it gives 1 percent of all sales to Michigan farmers, renewable energy and land preservation. Closer to Detroit, Germack sells dried Michigan cherries from its shop on Russell Street in Eastern Market, alongside the nuts it roasts in the market district.

American Spoon started making preserves in a storefront kitchen in Petoskey in 1982, and the Rashid family still runs it, with Justin Rashid's son Noah now leading the company, according to its site. It works directly with Michigan farmers and foragers for its fruit. A jar of its sour cherry preserves is the grown-up version of a cherry gift.

Peanut butter, nuts and the snack aisle

Koeze Cream-Nut. Sibbele Koeze, a Dutch immigrant, started a produce business in Grand Rapids in 1910, and the company began making peanut butter in 1925, according to Koeze. Cream-Nut is Virginia peanuts roasted dark, coarse ground and salted, with no added oil or preservatives, according to the company. It is not homogenized, so stir it before you spread it.

Kar's Nuts. Kar's started in 1933 selling roasted nuts outside Detroit's Tiger Stadium, according to the company. It is now part of Second Nature Brands, the same company that owns Sanders, and its Sweet 'N Salty mix is the one in our Michigan Box.

Better Made. The Detroit chip company has been at it since 1930, according to the Detroit Historical Society, and still lists 10148 Gratiot Avenue as its address. If the recipient grew up here, add a bag of the darker Rainbow chips. Better Made says it spent years working with potato breeders and farmers to develop a higher-sugar potato for them.

Great Lakes Potato Chip Co. For a northern Michigan counterpart, Ed Girrbach and his son Chris started this company outside Traverse City in 2009. It makes skin-on kettle chips from Michigan potatoes, according to the company, at 522 W. Commerce Drive.

Pop Daddy. Mark and Erin Sarafa started Pop Daddy in 2013 and added seasoned pretzels in 2018, according to the company, which lists Howell as its home. The dill pickle and garlic parmesan pretzels are the easy crowd-pleasers in a mixed basket.

Sweets that ship

Mackinac Island fudge. Sara Murdick opened Murdick's Candy Kitchen, the island's first candy shop, in 1887, according to Original Murdick's Fudge. The Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau credits the Murdick family with making fudge on marble slabs in view of customers, and says the island now has 13 fudge shops. Tourists have been called fudgies since the 1960s, the bureau says. It also notes that island fudge can be ordered online year-round.

Sanders hot fudge. Fred Sanders opened his first Detroit chocolate shop in 1875, according to the company. A jar of hot fudge with a pint of good vanilla is the closest thing to a Detroit sundae you can put in a box.

Faygo and Vernors. Pop is heavy to ship, but nothing in a Michigan basket gets a faster reaction. Faygo has been made in Detroit since 1907. Vernors, first served to the public in 1866 by Detroit pharmacist James Vernor, is now owned by Keurig Dr Pepper. Fans threw it a 160th birthday party in Eastern Market this June.

Breakfast and the pantry

Jiffy. Chelsea Milling Company, family owned since it opened as a flour mill in 1901, put out the first prepared baking mix sold to the public in 1930. It was Mabel White Holmes's idea, according to the company. Jiffy is still made by the company in Chelsea, in Washtenaw County.

Trenary Toast. Finnish immigrants founded Trenary Home Bakery in the Upper Peninsula in 1928, according to the bakery. Its toast is a hard, cinnamon-sugared bread meant for dunking in coffee, and it comes in cardamom and tart cherry sugar versions too.

Zingerman's. If you want a single Michigan source for bread, cheese and coffee, Zingerman's has shipped from Ann Arbor since 1992, when Mail Order packed its first box at a prep table in the basement of the deli, according to the company. Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig opened the deli itself in 1982.

What doesn't travel

Koegel's hot dogs and Viennas from Flint are the obvious miss. The company, in business since 1916, says it does not sell its meat products online, and that nearly all of it is sold in Michigan. Detroit-style pizza is the exception among the perishables: Buddy's ships frozen pizzas nationwide through Goldbelly. Everything else perishable is better as a story in the card.

Putting a basket together

A good Michigan gift basket needs four or five things, not fifteen. Pick one from each section above: cherries, a nut or chip, something sweet, something for breakfast. Add one bottle of pop if the shipping cost does not scare you.

If you would rather have it packed for you, The Michigan Box ($79) is built on that plan: Germack dried Michigan cherries, Mackinac Island fudge, Koeze Cream-Nut peanut butter, Pop Daddy, Kar's Sweet 'N Salty, Better Made and Faygo Rock & Rye, packed by hand in Detroit with a handwritten card, and it ships to all 50 states and Canada. You can also build your own with four items for $49 or eight for $89.