North Carolina ought to have a ‘state muffin’

What North Carolina needs is a “state muffin.” Several states have selected their own “official muffin,” so there is a precedent. 

There are two obvious options: a strawberry muffin or a blueberry muffin. Consider this: In 2001, the strawberry became North Carolina’s official “red berry” and blueberry was voted in as the state “blue berry.” 

The “enacting legislation” was a classic case of “pure politics” within the North Carolina General Assembly, according to Jeremy Markovich of Our State magazine. 

The original bill, which was introduced in February 2001 and sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Russell, R-Goldsboro, proposed that the strawberry become the official state fruit, period. The “authors of the bill” were fourth graders in Mrs. Manning Musgrave’s class at Tommy’s Road Elementary School in Goldsboro. (“Go Tigers!”) 

Rep. Russell’s “strawberry bill” passed the House of Representatives, but it stalled in the Senate.

Meanwhile, elementary school students from Dare County stepped up to recommend that the scuppernong grape be the state fruit, not the strawberry. They “bent the ear” of Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Manteo, president pro tempore of the Senate. 

Scuppernongs are big, juicy grapes that are green-gold in color and members of the muscadine family. They took their name from the Scuppernong River, which flows through Columbia in Tyrrell County to enter Bull Bay and the Albemarle Sound. Sen. Basnight represented Tyrrell County as well. 

The “fruit bill” was re-cobbled in the bowels of the Senate, with input from heavy hitters such as T. LaFontine “Fountain” Odom Sr., D-Charlotte, and Sen. John Hosea Kerr III, D-Goldsboro. 

“As if by magic,” Markovich wrote, the Senate comes out with a new version of the bill…and the scuppernong is the state fruit. Not the strawberry. And that’s not all.” 

The blueberry was added to the language in the bill as the official North Carolina “blue berry.” The strawberry was degraded in status to be the state’s official “red berry.” 

Democrats ruled the roost in 2001, so a conference committee approved a “scuppernong/strawberry/blueberry combo” bill. 

The Goldsboro students objected and voted by an overwhelming margin to write to Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, asking him to veto their own bill. He disregarded their plea and signed the bill into law on Dec. 16, 2001. 

When Markovich asked Carolyn Russell, who is now living in Morehead City, about the outcome some years later, she told him: “That’s the way sausage is made, dear.” 

“If you think about it that way,” Markovich said, “that class project was a huge success. The students got involved. They helped introduce a bill to make the strawberry into an official state symbol, and that is exactly what happened. And along the way, they learned some things.” 

Today, some North Carolina wineries are making wine with scuppernong grapes. “In the kitchen,” says Caroline Rogers of Southern Living magazine, “scuppernongs can be used to make jams, jellies and preserves.” 

Muffin recipes with scuppernongs are rare. On the other hand, strawberries and blueberries are popular choices used by muffin makers. 

Elizabeth Waterson of Orange County, Calif., who maintains the blog “Confessions of a Baking Queen,” suggests that strawberry blueberry muffins “are the perfect breakfast treat. Adding strawberries to a classic blueberry muffin mix makes your morning treat a little sweeter!” 

Waterson holds dual citizenship in the United States and in the United Kingdom, where the muffin was first created on Drury Lane of London, England. Heed her advice.

 No other state has crowned the strawberry blueberry muffin as its state muffin. North Carolina should seize the day.

Beaufort’s claim: ‘Blackbeard slept here’…and then some

Beaufort, N.C., is tagged with the reputation of being a “pirate town,” which adds to the charm and intrigue of this historic seaside village. 

The most notorious pillager and plunderer of all time – Blackbeard the Pirate – was a regular visitor. 

Journalists from the British Isles note with pride that Bristol, a port community in southwestern England, is the hometown of Edward Teach Jr., born about 1680, the son of Capt. Edward Teach Sr. and his first wife, Elizabeth. 

Edward Jr. became Blackbeard, who “still captures our imaginations to this day,” wrote journalist Maddy Searle of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was bad to the bone and “one of the most infamous pirates in history.” 

Blackbeard sailed the seas around the West Indies and Britain’s American colonies, making a fearsome reputation for himself,” she said. 

Searle cited research by the late Robert Earl Lee of Kinston, N.C., who authored several Blackbeard books. Lee wrote that “Teach was born into an intelligent, respectable, well-to-do family…and was undoubtedly swayed by Bristol’s maritime heritage and traditions…and privateering.” 

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR) believes: Teach “served in Queen Anne’s War between England and Spain, which lasted from 1702-13…sailing out of Kingston, Jamaica, to prey on French ships for Britain.” 

“After the war, Blackbeard reportedly sailed in consort with the pirate crew of Capt. Benjamin Hornigold,” based in the Bahamas, according to DNCR. Blackbeard captured the French slave ship, La Concorde, in 1717 off Saint Vincent Island in the Caribbean and transformed the vessel into his flagship, which he renamed as Queen Anne’s Revenge.” 

Lee wrote: “Teach grew a coarse, coal-black beard that covered the whole of his face. He allowed his monstrous mane to grow to an extravagant length, and he was accustomed to braiding it into little pigtails, tied with ribbons of various colors.”

 “As a finishing touch before a battle, he tucked under the brim of his hat fuses (made of hemp) that would burn at the rate of a foot an hour, the eerie coils of smoke from which added to the frightfulness of his appearance. Across his shoulders he wore a sling with two or three pistols hanging in holsters, like a bandolier. In the broad belt strapped around his waist was an assortment of pistols and daggers and an oversized cutlass,” Lee wrote. 

“Teach’s deliberately awesome appearance in battle” was totally intimidating, causing crews of many merchant ships to surrender “without any pretense of a fight,” Lee noted. 

Blackbeard was a major player during the final chapters of the “Golden Age of Piracy,” which is generally defined as the period between the 1650s and the 1730s. 

His story is best told by the staff at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, which has on display an impressive array of artifacts salvaged from the wreck of the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The ship ran aground and sank in 1718 while approaching Beaufort Inlet. The wreck was discovered in 1996.

Blackbeard was a frequent guest at a small inn located on Hammock Lane overlooking Taylors Creek in Beaufort, one of the oldest structures in town. 

The building is now a private residence, but locals believe it is among Beaufort’s most haunted houses. 

Jane Welborn Hudson, a journalist from Greenville, N.C., wrote that Blackbeard “reportedly had two dozen ‘wives’ in various ports.” 

Hudson wrote that Blackbeard brought his 18-year-old bride from France to the “Hammock House” in Beaufort. 

“Blackbeard’s bride,” Hudson said, “is one of the people who, according to folklore, came to Hammock House and never left.”

Happy Thanksgiving: Enjoy your sweet potatoes!

Freelance food writer Lesley Porcelli of Syracuse, N.Y., said that during colonial times, Southerners learned how to prepare sweet potatoes by watching “native people bury them in the embers of fires and then peel away the skin to eat the smoky flesh.”

Throughout the colonial era, sweet potatoes were a staple in the South.” 

“I learned from several old recipes the trick of boiling them in their skins, after which the flesh slides easily from the peels. Still, boiling the potatoes whole means the narrower ends and the centers cook unevenly,” Porcelli said. 

“Roasting the sweet potatoes in their skins eliminates that problem and has the added benefit of intensifying their sweetness.” 

“Many Southern recipes recommend rubbing the skins first with butter or bacon fat, which certainly adds richness and flavor. But simply scrubbing the skins clean and pricking them all over produces excellent results.” 

“Ninety minutes (in the oven) at 425 degrees yields tender, sweet flesh that slips right out of the skin (though you might find that very large potatoes need a little bit more time),” Porcelli said. 

If you are determined to make a sweet potato casserole, Porcelli strongly suggests ditching the marshmallows and adding eggs and topping with brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, oats, pecans, maple syrup and chunks of salty bacon.

Sweet potatoes fresh off the grill

Sweet potato pie is a Carteret County delicacy

Sweet potato pie “is the fuel that has fired North Carolina’s tremendous fishing industry all these years, suggests Liz Biro, a contributor to the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s online newsletter. 

It’s how Carteret County’s commercial fishermen began their day, “oftentimes before sunrise,” Biro said, eating their “humble sweet potato pie” for breakfast. 

“A slice was not nearly enough sustenance for the tough labors of setting nets, raking clams or hauling fish by the hundreds of pounds to market. These men drank what amounted to soup bowls full of hot coffee with not two or even three slices of sweet potato pie,” she said. 

“They folded entire pies in half and ate them like breakfast sandwiches.” 

Biro commented: “Sweet potatoes thrived in gardens in coastal North Carolina and on its barrier islands where fishermen lived. Sweet potatoes flourished in the coast’s hot, moist climate and sandy soils. Growers appreciated the plant’s lack of natural enemies.” 

Clearly a Southern favorite food, sweet potato pies are “simple affairs of mashed sweet potatoes, milk, eggs and spices, providing plenty of protein from the milk and eggs and big doses of vitamin A and beta-carotene from the sweet potatoes.” 

Some bakers prefer to use canned evaporated milk or “sweet milk” (canned sweetened condensed milk), Biro said, “as that is the milk their ancestors relied upon in the days when fresh milk and cream were not readily available.” 

“No matter the recipe, cooks agree that perfect sweet potato pie is a balance of creaminess, sweetness and spices against a sturdy, savory crust,” she said. “The filling is so smooth no whipped cream garnish is required.”

Sweet potato cheesecake

Sweet potato muffins

Sweet potato pound cake

Sweet potatoes weren’t invited to 1st Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving of the Pilgrims featured plenty of pumpkins, but nary a sweet potato. 

Sweet potatoes typically don’t grow in the Massachusetts environment. The weather’s too cold and brutal. 

Sweet potatoes prefer a warm and humid southern climate, like North Carolina. 

Sweet potatoes have a “sweet southern personality,” too.

When it comes to holiday dining, sweet potatoes and creamy, white mashed potatoes deserve equal billing on the menu. Found in tandem on many American dining room tables, you just have to have scoops of both.

Marshmallows are a ‘Northern experience’

To at least one English food writer – Rosie Spinks of London – America’s “weirdest dish” is a sweet potato casserole with its well-browned, gooey mini-marshmallows packed so tightly together they can’t breathe. 

To Rosie…and this writer…marshmallows are disgusting, whether raw, baked, roasted or camp-fired. 

Rosie Spinks asked: “Is there any dish more reviled…than the sweet potato marshmallow casserole?” 

Hooray for the “Ghostbusters,” who in the 1984 movie took down “Mr. Stay Puft,” the giant, fictional humanoid – made of a ka-zillion marshmallows. 

Stay Puft’s sailor attire is too familiar. With his white sailor cap, traditional blue sailor’s collar and a red neckerchief, he resembled Cracker Jack’s iconic “Sailor Jack” mascot. He was a 5-year-old boy, dressed in a blue sailor suit. 

As background, America’s first marshmallow company of note was Angelus Marshmallows in Chicago, a unit of Rueckheim Brothers & Eckstein, the company that had invented the Cracker Jack treat in 1896. 

The Rueckheim brothers – Frederick and Louis –were German immigrants who had opened a confectionary in 1872 in Chicago. 

They introduced Angelus Marshmallows in 1907; it became the company’s second-most popular product after Cracker Jack. 

The real marsh mallow is a perennial plant that grows best in the damp marshes of the eastern Mediterranean region. Ancient Egyptians discovered that the whole plant could be used medicinally – to cure or relieve sore throats, coughs, toothaches, arthritis and joint pain, insect bites, indigestion, diarrhea, dysentery, stomach pain and assorted skin irritations. 

French candy makers were the first to add sugar, water and gelatin, whipping the marsh mallow mixture into a foamy confection that became known as marshmallow treats. 

Today’s “marshmallows are a processed food that provides little to no health benefits,” wrote Malia Frey, a health coach and weight management specialist. 

“Eating a marshmallow is a quick and easy way to satisfy your sweet tooth that won’t do too much damage to your waistline.” But can you eat just one? 

The Rueckheims promoted their Angelus Marshmallows as being “fluffy, light and pure,” to be used as an alternative for homemade meringue and whipped cream by American homemakers. 

In 1917, the brothers hired Janet McKenzie Hill, founder of the Boston Cooking School Magazine, to develop recipes to encourage home cooks to embrace marshmallows as an everyday ingredient. 

Her favorite was “mashed sweet potatoes baked with a marshmallow topping.” 

Right away, reported Madeline Bilis of Boston magazine, Southerners objected to sweet potatoes with “candy on top, recognizing the sweet-on-sweet combo was too, too much.

Northerners, by contrast, embraced marshmallows as “the latest innovation.” Yuck-o.

Sweet potatoes...cranberries...pecans Yum!

Sweet Potato reigns in North Carolina

North Carolinians are loyal to their “official state vegetable,” often incorporating servings of sweet potatoes into family meals and holiday feasts.

The North Carolina General Assembly approved legislation in 1995 making the sweet potato the Tar Heel State’s “top vegetable.”

The bill was “recommended” by students at the former Elvie Street School in Wilson who were in the 1993-94 fourth grade class taught by the late Celia Batchelor.

The kids were mostly 10-year-olds at the time, and nicknamed themselves the “Tater Tots,” in order to help get attention from the news media as well as the legislators.

North Carolina produces more sweet potatoes than any other state, growing nearly half the country’s supply. And Wilson County sits right in the center of sweet potato farmland.

 The Wilson kids had their facts in a row – pointing out that Native Americans harvested sweet potatoes and introduced them to explorer Christopher Columbus. “Dinosaurs may even have munched on sweet taters,” reported Josh Shaffer for Our State magazine.

The sweet potato bill took more than a year to get through the House of Representatives, and once it arrived in the Senate, “every vegetable with a constituency reared its head demanding fair consideration,” according to Shaffer.

“Many of us think that the official state vegetable ought to be the rutabaga,” said one Fayetteville legislator.

Lawmakers threw out tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, collards and other vegetables in protest.

The sweet potato survived the verbal food fight on the Senate floor…and prevailed.

 

Growing conditions are right in Coastal Carolina

Sweet potatoes thrive in North Carolina’s coastal plain because of its sandy soil and temperate climate.

Surprisingly, the sweet potato is not at all related to the white (Irish) potato. The sweet potato belongs to the root family, while the other potato is a tuber.

Sweet potatoes and yams are not the same. They are two distinctly different vegetables. While sweet potatoes are indigenous to North America, the yam comes from West Africa and Asia. 

There are hundreds of different varieties of sweet potato. They are usually orange and have an oblong body with tapered ends.

 Sweet potatoes are high in vitamins A and C and low in fat. They have a low glycemic index, which makes them a good source of nutrients for diabetics. They are also very high in potassium, magnesium and phosphorus.

Jennifer Harbster of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is a sweet potato historian. She said that English botanist John Gerard wrote about the sweet potato in 1597, noting that it was best eaten when “roasted and infused with wine, boiled with prunes or roasted with oil, vinegar and salt.”

Gerard also suggested that the sweet potato “comforts, strengthens and nourishes the body” and has aphrodisiac qualities. English King Henry VIII consumed massive amounts of sweet potatoes, especially spiced sweet potato pie,” Harbster said. 

A leading character in William Shakespeare’s comedy “Merry of Wives of Windsor (1602) bellows: “Let the sky rain potatoes.” 

Harbster said: “By 1880, Americans were enjoying some sort of variation of candied sweet potatoes. American cookbooks, such as the widely published 1893 Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer featured a recipe for glazed sweet potatoes.”

 Around the same time, George Washington Carver, an agricultural scientist and inventor, compiled more than a hundred recipes for the sweet potato, she added.

Right whales are on the brink of extinction

Marine scientists are worried that North Atlantic right whales, now an endangered species, could become extinct – due to human activities that interfere with the whales’ natural habitat. 

Much has been written about the effects that seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast has on marine life. The testing is associated with the exploration process of determining if there are sufficient offshore reservoirs of oil and gas to justify drilling into the ocean floor. 

This isn’t a new or easy issue. It’s been an ongoing tug of war. On one end of the rope are scientists who are aligned with environmental groups; at the other end are energy industry lobbyists who represent investors who envision dollar signs bobbing on the ocean surface.

 

Let’s just suppose, however, that a coalition of 28 marine scientists is correct in its assessment that underwater seismic blasting is gravely harmful to the health of right whales…perhaps even lethal.

These researchers sounded the alarm in 2016 that loud noises cause stress to right whales. They said: “The additional stress of widespread seismic surveys may well represent a tipping point for the survival of this endangered whale, contributing significantly to a decline toward extinction.” 

(North Carolina is well-represented among the group of 28 scientists. Five professors affiliated with universities in the state are included. Three are associated with the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, and two are from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.) 

Researchers at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a unit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (also known as NOAA Fisheries) estimate the entire North Atlantic right whale population is about 400. 

The situation is dire, however, because adult right whales are dying at a greater rate than females are birthing calves, according to a NOAA Fisheries spokesperson. 

“Right whales communicate using low-frequency moans, groans and pulses. Scientists suspect that these calls are used to maintain contact between individuals, communicate threats, signal aggression” or make social conversation, said a NOAA Fisheries spokesperson.

“Underwater noise pollution interrupts the normal behavior of right whales and interferes with their communication,” the spokesperson stated. 

Todd Miller, executive director at North Carolina Coastal Federation, has said: “Seismic testing and offshore drilling are incompatible with our coast in North Carolina. There’s never a window that would be a good time for seismic testing to happen.” 

NOAA Fisheries says: “In the spring, summer and into early fall, right whales can be found in waters off New England and Canada, where they feed and mate.” 

“Each fall, the whales travel from these northern feeding grounds to the shallow, coastal waters of the southeastern United States…the only known calving area for the species.” 

NOAA Fisheries researchers recently released these findings: 

The normal lifespan of right whales used to be 70 years. Now, females are only living about 45 years while males live to about age 65.

Female right whales become sexually mature at about age 10. They give birth to a single calf after a year-long pregnancy. Three to four years was considered a normal or healthy interval between calving events. But now, on average, females are having calves every 6 to 10 years.

In the last three calving seasons (2017-19), there were only 22 births, about one-third of the average annual birth rate.

Clearly, something has gone wrong with our right whales. Do the people and the government have a responsibility to protect endangered species?

 The National Wildlife Federation, America’s largest conservation organization, which has been around since 1936, says: “Yes.”

What’s in a nickname? Dogs dominate in Albany, N.Y.

Officially, Albany, N.Y., is nicknamed the “Cradle of the Union,” referring to the Albany Congress that occurred in 1754. 

Seven of the northern colonies participated, and representatives adopted the Albany Plan of Union. It was the first important proposal to view the colonies “as a collective whole united under one government.” 

Benjamin Franklin opined in his Pennsylvania Gazette that the colonies either “Join or Die.” His colonial colleagues balked, delaying any official declaration of independence for another decade. 

Citizens of Albany – fondly known as Albanians or Albanyites – do appreciate being known as the “Cradle of the Union.” 

Yet, younger generations suggest “Nippertown” as a more upbeat nickname for Albany. (Does that make them Nippertonians?) 

Nipper is the name of a real dog – a mixed breed terrier – that became the famous Radio Corporation of America (RCA) trademark. Nipper became associated with the Victor Talking Machine Company and began appearing in the company’s print advertisements in1909. 

When RCA acquired Victor in 1929, Nipper was retained and became the face and the voice of the RCA Victor brand. 

Nipper was “reintroduced” in 1990 as a “live-action dog.” He acquired a new sidekick – a puppy named “Chipper” – for a series of television commercials to advertise RCA home theater systems with surround sound.

 Today, Albany’s “Downtown is Pawsome,” as several litters of Nipper statues have emerged. Each has been painted by an eccentric local artist. The Nippers are displayed all around the central city area.

Each stands 3 feet tall. Visitors are encouraged to find them all. (The statues are moved to “indoor homes” during the winter months.)

 

Another famous canine looms as the BDOC (big dog on campus) at the University at Albany, State University of New York (UAlbany). He is the college’s Great Dane mascot named “Damien.” (He resembles the cartoon character “Scooby-Doo.”)

Brandon Mendelson, a freelance writer based in New York City, confirms that “no other college in America has the Great Dane for a mascot.”

 UAlbany’s athletic teams became the Great Danes in 1965. Students held a contest, and the Great Danes won out as the nickname, replacing the “Pedagogues,” which had been carried over from the days when the school was known as the New York State College for Teachers.

Back then, the mascot was “Pedguin, a professorial penguin caricature.

 

The student who suggested Great Danes was Kathy Earle (Class of 1967). She told the student newspaper at the time: The Great Dane “has an imposing stature. It is clean, graceful, proud, quick and alert.” Besides, Kathy said, the name would be easier for sports writers to spell than Pedagogues.

Great Danes are considered gentle giants. They are moderately playful, affectionate and good with children, yet they will faithfully and loyally guard their home. (In athletics, it’s vital to defend one’s home field or court.) 

The Great Dane, known as the “Apollo of dogs,” is considered to be “the most handsome” of all breeds. Apollo was a Roman god who influenced the music, poetry and the civilized arts. 

The mythology link is ironic. Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, has been an enduring symbol at UAlbany since 1913. Her image appears on the university’s official seal. 

She was regarded as the wisest of all the Roman gods and goddesses. Minerva spurned advances of mortals and gods alike in order to retain her virginal purity. She never married and was childless.

Albany celebrates ‘dog days’ all year-round

Who’s the “top dog” in Albany, N.Y.? There’s more than one right answer. 

“Owney the Postal Dog,” who was homeless, arrived on the scene at the Albany Post Office in 1888. He advanced to become the mascot of the U.S. Postal Service in the 1890s. 

Owney, who was an Irish-Scottish border terrier mix, rode the U.S. railway mail trains from coast to coast.

Don Rittner, a columnist with the (Albany) Times Union, says: “Albany has another canine mascot that towers over Owney – at least in size.” His name is “Nipper,” and a 28-foot sculpture of the dog sits atop a downtown Albany warehouse. 

“Nipper is world famous as the ‘RCA Dog,’ but he started out as a mutt in Bristol, England,” Ritter wrote.

Nipper, part bull terrier and part fox terrier, was rescued in 1884 by Mark Barraud, a scenery designer at Prince’s Theatre in Bristol. (The dog was named for his attraction to playfully “nip” at people’s ankles).

After Mark Barraud’s unexpected death in 1887, Nipper was taken in by brother Francis Barraud, who was an aspiring artist in Liverpool. Francis Barraud often noticed that when he was listening to his Edison Bell cylinder phonograph, Nipper would almost stick his head into the bell of the horn. Nipper’s head was cocked as if he were trying to figure out where the voice was coming from.

Francis Barraud painted the scene of the dog and the phonograph in 1898, three year’s after Nipper’s death. Nipper appears to be “absolutely confounded, wondering how sounds could be coming out of the unusual object.” 

The artist offered his painting to the Edison Bell Company, derived from the surnames of inventors Thomas Alva Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, pioneers of “the talking machine.”

 

The company declined, curtly stating: “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.”

Undaunted, Francis Barraud persevered. He met Barry Owen of The Gramophone Company of London in 1889. Owen said that his company would buy the painting, if it were altered to show an Emile Berliner disc gramophone. (Berliner was a German scientist who invented the “modern” record player.)

The artist obliged and modified his original painting accordingly and named it “His Master’s Voice.” Rights were later obtained by Eldridge Johnson of Camden, N.J., who created the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901.

 Nipper began appearing as the official Victor trademark in 1909.

The Radio Corporation of America was formed in 1919, with General Electric’s acquisition of the assets of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America (commonly called “American Marconi”). This was an important development in the interest of U.S. national defense and the security of transatlantic radio and telegraph transmissions. 

In 1929, RCA purchased Victor, forming the RCA Victor Company, under the leadership of David Sarnoff, who became known as the “father of broadcasting.” Sarnoff incorporated Nipper into the RCA Victor brand, and credited the famous pooch with helping to sell the American public on the value of the newly invented “radio music box.”

Albany’s “Nipper Building” was erected in 1900 by the American Gas Meter Co. It was a vacant building when ownership transferred in 1958 to RTA, an appliance distributor specializing in products by RCA. The new owner brought in the late Harry Sanders, a noted Albany architect.

Sanders once told Joseph Dalton of the Times Union: “The client wanted something put on top that would tell people he’s in electronics. I came up with the idea of a giant Nipper. That’s my claim to fame.” 

Surprise loved ones with ‘Stormy Kromers’ under the tree

Christmas shoppers may want to consider stepping outside the box of high-fashion this year by gifting cozy and retro-style “Stormy Kromer” caps. 

We’re all being advised to spend more time outdoors this winter, breathing in the fresh air. Stormy Kromers are “you-betcha guaranteed” to keep one’s ears warm and toasty when the temperature dips. 

Stormy Kromer may be the new “comfort zone,” ehh? 

Manufactured in Ironwood, Mich., in the state’s Upper Peninsula, Stormy Kromers are the “official headwear of the USA Ice Team.” The squad travels worldwide to compete in international ice fishing derbies. 

Ice fishermen drill holes in frozen bodies of water to drop their lines. In Michigan’s UP, as it’s called, “ice fishing is a big part of our area’s culture – our ice fishing season is almost longer than our open water season,” said Gina Jacquart Thorsen, president of Stormy Kromer Mercantile.

 The original Stormy Kromer cap was invented in 1903 by George and Ida Kromer of Kaukauna, Wis. He was nicknamed “Stormy” because of his infamous temper, according to journalist Amy Miles. Stormy worked as an engineer with the Chicago and North West Railroad.

The problem was the baseball-style cap worn by engineers at that time provided no ear protection from the cold and would often “disappear with the wind,” Miles wrote.

The solution was Ida’s creation of a wool-blend ball cap with a 100% cotton flannel lining. “The ingenious pull-down ear-band provides comfort and flexibility,” Miles said. The cap has ties at the front, “anchoring the headpiece and keeping its wearer cozy at the same time.”

 

Stormy’s colleagues soon lined up to have their own caps made, too, Miles said. “Before long, engineers from all over the region were donning the cap, and it grew to be not only a useful item for the outdoors but a symbol of culture and community” throughout the northern states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and upper Michigan. 

The Kromers built their business and in 1919 moved production to Milwaukee, Wis. Ida Kromer died in 1960, at age 82. Stormy Kromer sold the company in 1965 to Richard “Duke” Grossman. (Stormy passed away in 1970 at age 94.) 

Under Grossman’s ownership, the business survived another 40 years, but in 2001, sales of Stormy Kromer caps “had dropped to such a level that he saw no solution other than to shut up shop,” Miles wrote.

   

When Bob Jacquart of Ironwood got wind of the pending demise of Stormy Kromer, he immediately got on the telephone and bought the rights to manufacture Stormy Kromers. (Several generations of Jacquarts had been born and raised in Ironwood and all grew up wearing the traditional Stormy Kromer caps.) 

Production was consolidated at the Jacquart Fabric Products (JFP) plant in Ironwood. Today, the JFP operation employs about 180 people. 

You know you’ve found the main factory on Wall Street in Ironwood when you spy the jumbo, 10-foot high replica of the iconic Stormy Kromer cap on the front lawn of company headquarters.

 Stormy Kromer caps come with a lifetime guarantee. “Our goal is to design and create clothing and winter weather gear that are long-lasting and timeless,” said company president Gina Thorsen, the elder daughter of Bob and Denise Jacquart. 

Gina’s younger sister, Kari “KJ” Jacquart, serves as the plant’s production manager. 

The sisters were instrumental in adding women’s caps to the Stormy Kromer line in 2005. The first one was named the “Ida Kromer.” Next came the “Millie Kromer,” named after a favorite niece of Stormy and Ida. This cap has an opening at the back to give a pony tail room to swish and sway while still providing pull-down ear-bands. 

Caps for “Kromer Kids” are catching on, too. Dog owners are raving about the “Kromer Critter Caps.”  

Yoopers have special kinship with Michigan and Wisconsin

Yoopers are fiercely proud, tough and independent. By and large, they are mostly rural folks who scratch out a living in the wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, known simply as the UP. 

It’s easy to figure, UPers become Yoopers. 

What do they call their fellow Michiganders who live in the Lower Peninsula? Everyone knows that people who live “below the bridge” are “trolls.” 

(Yoopers think that’s pretty funny, although the term Loopers or Lowpers would be hilarious.) 

The bridge reference here, of course, is the magnificent and mighty Mackinac Bridge, which is almost 5 miles long and opened in 1957. 

The bridge provided a connectivity between Michigan’s “uppers and lowers” and has been beneficial in creating unity within the state. 

Most of Michigan’s UP was carved out of the new Wisconsin Territory in 1836 – about 9,000 square miles – and gifted to Michigan. It was part of a deal that enabled Michigan to become a state in 1837. 

In exchange for statehood, Michigan had to cede its rights to land along the Maumee River at the mouth of Lake Erie and let Ohio have Toledo. 

Initially, Michigan thought it got the short end of the stick, said Robert Myers of the Historical Society of Michigan. The prevailing opinion at the time was: “The Upper Peninsula doesn’t have anything but ice and rock and trees.” 

Time would tell. The UP had some of the most valuable timber, iron and copper country in America, proving to be a bonanza for Michigan. 

“We gained immense mineral wealth as well as fortune from logging and vast natural beauty and rustic land,” Myers said. 

The largest market in the UP is Marquette on Lake Superior, with a population of about 22,000. It is the home of Northern Michigan University (with an enrollment of about 8,000). Nearby are the cities of Ishpeming and Negaunee. 

The Michigan-Wisconsin boundary line runs in a southeastern direction from Oronto Bay in Lake Superior following the Montreal River and then connecting to the Brule and Menominee rivers that flow into Green Bay and Lake Michigan, between Menominee, Mich., and Marinette, Wis. 

The City of Green Bay, Wis., with about 105,000 people, is only about 55 miles south of Menominee. 

When it comes to professional football and shopping, Green Bay is the “capital of Yoop-sconsin.” 

Green Bay is closer to just about anywhere in the UP than Detroit is. And the Green Bay Packers always beat the Detroit Lions, or so it seems. 

The Yooper year has four seasons, but winter is the longest – about six months. 

That’s why just about everyone has a Stormy Kromer domer, a stylish wool-blend cap with a pull-down ear-band. The cap was invented in 1903 by Ida Kromer for her husband George “Stormy” Kromer, a railroad engineer. They started the Stormy Kromer Mercantile. 

Bob Jacquart revived the company in 2001, absorbing production into Jacquart Fabric Products Inc., in Ironwood, Mich., located on the Montreal River and bordering Hurley, Wis. 

If you’re going to Ironwood, visit Joe’s Pasty Shop. The pasty (rhymes with “nasty”) is a traditional workingman’s meal that has been perfected in the UP. 

Joe’s Pasty Shop has been serving up pasties since 1946, with the main menu offering being: “Tender beef, diced fresh potatoes and onions, wrapped in a delicate crust, then baked till golden brown. Top with a little ketchup, salsa or butter. Delicious! (Almost 3/4 of a lb.)” 

The favorite Yooper seven-course meal is: One pasty and a six-pack of brewskis. Imagine that, ehh?