Issue 04: Fruit Ridge
- 164 pages
- 13 stories, 16 recipes
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- Printed in the USA
Between Grand Rapids and Lake Michigan lies a region known as Fruit Ridge—a place where the land itself feels alive with memory. Here, orchard rows rise and fall over hills carved out by glaciers, and the air hums with the scent of fresh-pressed cider and ripening fruit. This ridge has long been shaped by the hands and histories of those who farm it, and in this issue, you’ll meet 10 home cooks whose lives are rooted in heritage. Their recipes carry the imprint of those who came before—begun by grandmothers, guided by memory, and brought to life with care and creativity. Whether sparked by childhood moments in the kitchen or a growing passion for cooking, these stories celebrate the joy of gathering, the art of preservation, and the enduring connection between food, place, and home.
A small taste of what's inside Issue 04
Amber Kober
Amber Kober knows apples and sweet apple treats, but her grandma Doris’ handwritten recipe for apple pan daughty stumped her. Her deep dive into the history of this traditional dish filled in the gaps, including the fact that the dish was traditionally known as apple pan dowdy. Trying to recreate Grandma’s recipe was an adventure in its own right.
Beverly Constantine
Beverly Constantine grew up in a family that loved food and practically lived in the kitchen. Now she’s the one who gathers friends and family around her big table. Her passion isn’t just for food and cooking—it’s also for sharing her love of hospitality. This cooking instructor and busy mom of three wants to convince everyone that gathering together for meals is a great way to foster community and connection.
Ginger Herman
After Ginger Herman shut down her one-woman bakeshop during the COVID-19 pandemic, she took the opportunity to return to her kitchen roots, throwing herself into recreating her grandmother’s rolls and her great-grandmother’s pineapple cake. Through trial and error, she recreated the cake her grandmother remembered and the rolls her cousins craved. She also discovered how her grandmothers’ influence gave her the skills she needed to figure out her culinary inheritance.
Halie Warmbein
Halie Warmbein has always had a passion for baking, but it took a serious bagel craving during her 2020 pregnancy—when the world was shut down and there was no place left to purchase the holey baked goods—for the cottage baker to take matters into her own hands. Now her bagels are baked to order for Chamber of Commerce meetings and family gatherings, and served at home with a creative rotation of mix-ins.
Heather Zinn
Heather Zinn grew up in West Michigan on a steady diet of casseroles, corn-flake-crusted pork chops, and her mom’s fried chicken. She didn’t discover her love of food until she started waitressing in high school, where popovers, crab soup, and chateaubriand opened her eyes to a wider culinary world. Years later, a visit to a local cheese shop called The Cheese Lady sparked a new obsession. Today, she runs the Grand Rapids outpost of The Cheese Lady, and at home, cheese is just as central, where her whitefish parmigiana is her family’s most requested meal.
Keith Hall
Keith Hall loves the process of grilling and smoking—so much so that his years of experimenting, refining his techniques, and pushing flavor boundaries resulted in the opening of The Grilling Company in 2015. Yet sourcing ingredients, blending seasonings, and adjusting flame and heat take a backseat to creating community. The connections he forms over food with customers, family, and friends are what he cherishes the most.
Laura Szczepanek
In Grand Rapids’ Polish community, Laura Szczepanek is known not just for her cabbage rolls and mizeria, but for keeping culinary traditions alive. Through her business, That Polish Girl Catering, she honors the legacy of her Busia, who taught her to cook in the kitchen of a Polish community hall. Laura now feeds thousands at festivals and offers comfort at life’s most sacred moments.
Mark Kingshott
For chef Mark Kingshott, what started as a way to win love blossomed into a nearly 40-year love affair with cooking. Over the years, he’s followed his heart into a thriving business as a private chef, where he can have it all—juggling family life with fulfilling work developing highly personalized meals and cooking classes for a wide range of clients. Armed with creativity, curiosity, and decades of experience, he develops complexly layered dishes that reflect his appreciation for balance.
Shasta Fase
Shasta Fase’s twist on traditional beef stroganoff delivers a lighter yet bolder dish. But it’s more than a recipe revision—it represents the culmination of her life in the kitchen, from a childhood discovery of the freedom one can find in cooking to time now spent in her own kitchen expressing herself in every dish.
Todd Quick
Rising in the wee hours each morning to farm 50-plus acres of fruits and vegetables is all in a day’s work for farmer Todd Quick. While his high school buddies are getting ready for retirement, Todd has no plans to slow down, finding joy, purpose, and connection in stewarding his land to grow food that people drive for many miles to get their hands on.
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