Thanksgiving side dishes for making your dinner simpler, greener and closer to home.

These recipes were featured in the November 2008 issue of Traverse Magazine. Subscribe for more classic Northern Michigan stories.

Miles simply don’t matter when I think about how far I’d travel for a helping of my mother’s Thanksgiving mashed potatoes—a butter-and-chive-topped cloud of creamy Yukon golds. She brings them home every autumn in a crusty bushel basket from the farm down the lane. Truth be told, I travel a fair distance for that dish every year—a sweaty 258 miles in the car, usually with two howling cats—which means those spuds arrive at my family’s Thanksgiving table far fresher than I do.

To eat local is to be green, yes, but my mother is no tree hugger. She isn’t considering the carbon footprint of our holiday feast when she heads down dirt roads to pick up beets and eggs and homemade bread to cube and dry for stuffing. For her, eating locally is not about conserving fossil fuels. It’s about how no store-bought potato can match the delicate flavor of the fingerlings raised just a few miles outside of town. It’s about being on a first-name basis with the farmer, the guy with dirt still under his fingernails, who sells her our Thanksgiving turkey. It’s about knowing exactly where all the ingredients for her recipes come from—a comfort in this era of shelf-stable Stovetop stuffing and Butterball turkeys raised on mega-farms in the middle of who-knows-where.

We have it easy in the North. The wealth of small farms here makes it simple for us to get good food, fresh food, close to home, and to infuse our lives with the richness of the region’s bounty. We understand the concept of agriculture, because it is our collective culture. And because our heritage is based on living close to the land, what better time than Thanksgiving—a holiday all about tradition—to consider the impact of our consumer choices and celebrate what our corner of the Earth has to offer?

Helping myself to my mother’s mashed potatoes—and getting to spend time with my family—is more than worth the drive every Thanksgiving. But miles matter, especially when it comes to the food we put on our tables. Read on, then, for a collection of simple, traditional Thanksgiving side dishes all based heavily on Northern Michigan goods. The preparation starts at your local market or farm, which, with so many farms Up North, requires just a quick trip down the road. That’s something to be thankful for.

5 Thanksgiving Side Dishes with Local Flavor 

Honey Roasted Root Vegetables

This dish is rustic autumn beauty at its best, and it infuses the kitchen with a savory, earthy-sweet scent.

Wild Rice with Cherries and Morels

Wild rice has long been a staple for Native Americans living in the Northern Great Lakes. Dried cherries and morels add an unexpected but delish Michigan twist.

Sweet & Sour Beets

The mellow ruby hue of these marinated beets is lovely at a festive Thanksgiving table. Make this dish a day ahead to let the flavors meld.

places to buy apple cider in northern michigan

Spiced Apple Chutney

Excellent on meat and poultry, this chutney has a pleasant kick. Recipe yields about 16 ounces, though it can be easily doubled for canning.

Buttermilk Biscuits with Pumpkin Butter

Light and moist, these biscuits get their tang from a healthy shot of buttermilk. Best served warm with a daub of local honey or spice-infused pumpkin butter.

Where to Find Local Ingredients

The ultimate resource for finding Northwest Michigan goods is Taste the Local Difference. Search for farms by county; you can also look for U-Picks, CSAs, wineries, farmers markets and retail operations like bakeries and delis. Below are a few of the farms we used in making our recipes, listed by ingredient; we also included our favorite Up North turkey farm, which locals know as the place to get a Thanksgiving gobbler.

Buttermilk
Shetler Family Dairy, 5436 Tyler Rd. SE, Kalkaska, 231-258-8216

Honey
Sleeping Bear Farms, 971 S. Pioneer Rd., Beulah, 888-912-0017

Apples
Friske’s Orchards, 10743 N. U.S. 31, Atwood, 888-968-3554

Turkey
Biehl’s Fresh Dressed Turkeys, 6128 U.S. 131, Mancelona, 231-587-9580


Spend Thanksgiving in Northern Michigan

Photo(s) by Todd Zawistowski