Celebrate National Pie Year with Us...

Yesterday, January 23rd, was National Pie Day.  Since we weren't open yesterday, we are going to celebrate today.  Due to our pies' mouth-watering flavors, we celebrate pie every day at The Stockholm Pie Company.


We find that few foods bring forth nostalgia like pie.  Customers have shared with us that our sour cream raisin pie reminds them of the sweet deliciousness of their grandmothers' pies.   Other pies bring back memories of a grandmother peeling apples, pitting cherries, and baking pumpkins.  Customers recollect the sound of the rolling pin on the counter as grandmother rolled out her delicate pie crust.

We often think of apple pie as an American original.  Even though we like the thought, "American as apple pie," we do not get the credit.  In its original form, sweet pie was brought from England where it was claimed as an English specialty unrivaled in Europe.  The crust of wheat flour and lard was English and used to enhance the food pantries of the British affluent.    The apples, butter, and thickeners were English.  The British Empire provided sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  A cookbook published in London in 1747 contained forty-three recipes for both sweet and savory pies.  That was a great deal of variety back then!

For centuries before English sweet pies, throughout Europe pies were made with crusts several inches thick.  These served as the pan and were tough and inedible.  Called "coffins," the pie shell was more of a container used just to hold the filling, which was often made of meat.  The lords and ladies ate the meat but not the shell.   In Pie: A Global History, Janet Clarkson says:

"It is surely not likely that such a hard-won resource was simply discarded after the contents were eaten even in the great houses.  The crust may not have been intended for lords and ladies, but the well-to-do were obliged to feed their servants and were also expected to feed the local poor.  Would not this largesse of sauce-soaked crust be distributed to the scullery boys and the hungry clamoring at the gate?"

We can be grateful that pie has evolved to what we know today.   At The Stockholm Pie Company, we mix our crusts one at a time and roll out each one by hand.  Apples are peeled and sliced by hand.  We make our own puddings for cream pies.  Fruit fillings don't come from a can; we mix our own.

We have taken the art of pie, started centuries earlier, and perfected it for you.  Come to The Stockholm Pie Company and experience the evolution of pie.  Celebrate National Pie Year with us.

We'd love to see you again,
Janet Garretson
The Stockholm Pie Company

A surprising find…

You may be surprised to find out that in the past area residents around Stockholm had “clam” bakes.  Years ago, they walked through the shallow water near shore and felt for clams in the sand with their toes, a practice they dubbed “toe clamming.”  Although clam bakes today are rare, Lake Pepin once was home to millions of clams.  They laid on the muddy bottom with their faces turned upstream and their mouths open to allow the Mississippi’s current to bring food right into their mouths. 

Commercial clammers caught the clams using a crow foot, an iron bar ten to fifteen feet long with twenty strings attached.  At the end of each string was a sturdy three-pronged hook.  When the clammers pitched the crow foot into the water, clams closed their shells around each hook because it seemed a tasty morsel.  The clams were brought to shore and boiled in kettles, which opened their shells.  The shells were examined for fresh water pearls, a true treasure.  The meat was extracted and sold to farmers to feed their hogs.  The empty shells were sold to button factories in fifty pound bags.  Until plastic buttons came on the scene in the 1930’s, “Mother of Pearl” buttons made from shells were a major industry in the upper Mississippi that employed thousands of people.  At one time about fifty percent of the buttons in the world came from the Upper Mississippi River.

These were technically not clams but fresh water mussels.  Their future in the Mississippi River is uncertain.  Overfishing during the button industry, taking mussels in search of pearls, building locks and dams, dredging the river bottom, changing the river with pollution and siltation, and invading zebra mussels have all affected the population.  If you have an opportunity to dig up a clam or mussel, you will have discovered a rarity. 

We find this piece of Stockholm history interesting and hope that you do, too.

We’d love to see you again,
Stockholm Merchants   

Stockholm was founded on Erik’s dream…

Erik Peterson fell in love with the area that today we know as Stockholm.  In the heavily-wooded bluffs, he saw beauty reminiscent of his Swedish homeland and opportunity in lumber and cattle.  An immigrant working on the Mississippi as a lumberjack and rafter, he understood the need for wood to feed the fires that created the steam to move the riverboats.  Erik had a dream to establish a settlement along the river.  At the Stockholm site he discovered the perfect place to do so.

In 1852, Erik registered a claim to two parcels of land and then returned to Sweden along with his two brothers.  During the next two years, he married and convinced two hundred more Swedes to join him in “paradise” along the shores of Lake Pepin.  His brother Jacob arrived with the first group in the spring of 1854 and built a log house where everyone resided until each family could construct a home.  Eric returned with his wife in the fall just in time for her to give birth to their first child, Matilde, on the day of their arrival.

The next spring the settlers planted corn, potatoes, and other crops.  In 1856 the residents decided to establish a village and selected a name from their homeland, Stockholm.  The settlement prospered to such as degree that the nation’s economic downturn in 1857 did not affect them.  Erik was the community’s leader during these years and often referred to as “King Erik” or “The King of Stockholm.” 

In the March, 1857, issue of Hemlander, the author of an article echoed Erik’s sentiments regarding Stockholm. “The situation in Stockholm is not only romantic but also advantageous.  Being situated on the shores of Lake Pepin, the settlement has a good steamer connection with the cities up and down the river, and the sale of one’s products is thus very much facilitated.  The Swedes annually sell considerable quantities of wood to the steamers…  The lake yields fish in inexhaustible abundance.  For cattle-breeding this place is quite excellent as well as for agriculture.” 

The next time you come to Stockholm, remember that you are visiting the legacy of Erik’s dream.

We’d love to see you again,
Stockholm Merchants 

Take a rare opportunity this Saturday.

This Saturday at Abode Gallery take a rare opportunity to hear directly from Maria Kowalski, an incredible artist.  Her oil paintings and watercolors are exquisite.  For one hour starting at 2:30 p.m., she will be giving her artist talk, sharing her craft with you, and answering your questions.   

Find out how Maria has developed her own artistic techniques.  Inquire as to why she uses those techniques.  Ask her what inspires her. 

Your admission is free, and we’ll have complimentary hot beverages to warm you up.  Watch for upcoming artist talks, which we are featuring on a regular basis.   

We’d love to see you again,
Alan Nugent
Abode Gallery