Pie Lover's Guide to Grand Rapids, Michigan

Get in your cars and go to Shipshewana, Indiana. There the Amish work and bake at a restaurant right next to the Antique Auction barn and the flea market. Best pie i have ever had in my life. So good, when i am there, while my wife has lunch, i have three pieces of pie....lol...

Maybe the Amish around here should go down there for baking lessons. The stuff they sell in this area is lousy.

Yeah, years ago i lived in Sturgis and briefly worked with Amish.....we did'nt discover the pie until years later on vacation. Now its a must on the way to my hometown, Grand Haven....

I love pie!

Crane's Apple Orchard outside of Fennville has great pie and apple crisp. We usually buy the apple or cherry crisp outside at the window, after picking apples. Biggest problem is - the crowd. It is so popular now, it is better to go on a bad weather day or else you could be standing in line for a while.

I also love - Big Boy's Mud Pie.

I had some Indiana pie. It cost me 10 years of suffering and half my income.

Go Blue wrote:

Get in your cars and go to Shipshewana, Indiana. There the Amish work and bake at a restaurant right next to the Antique Auction barn and the flea market. Best pie i have ever had in my life. So good, when i am there, while my wife has lunch, i have three pieces of pie....lol...

Have you ever tried the pie at the Bread Box in Shipshewana? I always get one of their small raspberry pies. Of course, their cinnamon rolls are huge and they are the best. We already get them for breakfast, if we are camping down there.

Bubbly4now, i have never been there, but i think its at the only 4way stop in town...lol...I absolutely love raspberry, i love all things pie. I hope Shipshewana never changes.....i used to sit in the livestock auction there and it was like a Norman Rockwell painting, little amish kids mixed in with grampas with their hats and long beards....BTW, amish make noodles there that you can take home cook, guess thats more important to me.....used to be amish around Colon...

Best pies around by far are from Beth I in Montague, I think she has them in some of the Gilmore places.

I hear you can get some pie pretty cheap near the corner of Wealthy and Divison. Might be a little over done and tough though

Go Blue wrote:

Get in your cars and go to Shipshewana, Indiana. There the Amish work and bake at a restaurant right next to the Antique Auction barn and the flea market. Best pie i have ever had in my life. So good, when i am there, while my wife has lunch, i have three pieces of pie....lol...

I agree. I have been there. The Amish bake great pies. The cook other tasty food too.

Allende, this is a little off topic but, when i lived up there i learned that the amish were kinda green thinking by lifestyle and they kept their foods basic and without alot of preservatives. Their farms were always nice, with the sturdy basic buildings and best thing of all...no bank loans...

Go Blue wrote:

Allende, this is a little off topic but, when i lived up there i learned that the amish were kinda green thinking by lifestyle and they kept their foods basic and without alot of preservatives. Their farms were always nice, with the sturdy basic buildings and best thing of all...no bank loans...

amish are very wise in their ways.. i've always respected them

Go Blue wrote:

Allende, this is a little off topic but, when i lived up there i learned that the amish were kinda green thinking by lifestyle and they kept their foods basic and without alot of preservatives. Their farms were always nice, with the sturdy basic buildings and best thing of all...no bank loans...

They live a simple lifestyle which is part of their religion. They do not use a lot of modern technology. They plow with horses. They do not use electricity (although some use gas stoves). They form a community where the members help each other so they normally do not make claims on welfare or social security (although they do pay taxes). The will go to a doctor but also rely on a lot of natural remedies. They are also pacifists so they are concientious objectors when we have had a draft BUT they do alternate service. There are a lot in Southern Pennsylvania too and after the Battle of Gettysburg, they tended the wounded and buried the dead on both sides.

Back to food. The Amish do bake great pies but there are other things. They make great "meat and potatoes" types of dishes (after all, they are hard-working farmers!). They are also great at dumplings and noodles.

In the late 70's, i lived in Sturgis and worked at a mobilehome factory in Shisshewana as a carpenter, alongside about a 45% amish workforce. They had no problem working with the electronics there, always remember them curiously calling their friends at the RV plant at lunchtime. One friday, the guy that worked next to me told me that if we made our quota, there would be shakes for everybody at shift end, what? shakes?....sure enough, later at the timeclock, there they were handing out milkshakes....the amish thought that was almost like christmas....maybe, many of us lost something along the way....

I found that true of the Amish. They will use technology on an outside job and they will ride in cars as long as they don't OWN it. They will also travel on buses and planes. I know that although they are are primarily farmers, they do work outside jobs and often in skilled construction trades. They are great carpenters from what I understand.

When they build a barn, the whole community pitches in. I understand they can get a hundred people together and put up a barn in a day or so.

They have a strong ethic of helping each other out. That is why they never go on welfare. They take care of their elderly by building a house for the grandparents on the land of one of the kids.

Good people.

I always wanted to pour a slab up there, then have the amish build a certain barn design on it. Then, transform it into this bitchin house, somewhere around Galesburg...a little bit country, but between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek....and i would have an amish love slave and pie girl....lol...

With this cooler weather, i figured everyone could use some pie......where's the best and what's your favorite?

abranger wrote:

Maybe the Amish around here should go down there for baking lessons. The stuff they sell in this area is lousy.

You are right about that. I stopped and bought what I thought was peanut butter cookies and they tasted like cardboard.

I like ripe cherry pie.