Door County aficionados don’t have to wait until summer to sample and savor the Wisconsin peninsula’s bounty, thanks to Joel Nelson, owner of Kramer Foods, 16 Grant Square (Chicago Avenue and Grant Street), in Hinsdale (708-323-0135).
Nelson, who has a vacation home there, brings in a variety of treats, among them crisp pickles ($3.69 for a 16-ounce jar), pickled baby corn ($3.99, 16-ounce jar) and zesty three-bean salad ($3.69, 16-ounce jar) put up by Bea’s Ho-Made Products near Gills Rock; prize-winning maple syrup ($2.99 for 8 ounces; $4.99 for 16 ounces) from Jorns Sugar Bush in Egg Harbor; cardamom coffeecakes ($4.99) and cherry pies ($8.99) from Grandma’s Swedish Bakery in Rowleys Bay, and dried cherries from Cherry De-Lite in Forestville.
“We’re always looking for special, customer-pleasing items and these seem to appeal to people from all over Chicagoland, some of whom have never even been to Door County,” said Nelson, who joined Kramer Foods in 1953 and bought the store 15 years ago.
He makes the 10- to 12-hour round-trip run once a month in winter and at least twice a month in warmer weather, packing the food in his Dodge passenger van.
“Customers often ask me to pick up things they’re especially fond of,” he said, mentioning a woman who once ordered 12 frozen cherry pies.
His own favorite? Quite possibly crisp Cortland apples. He brings 300 bushels of them back every fall at the rate of 60 bushels a trip.
“I think it’s the combination of soil and temperature that makes them so good,” he said.
“Door County was settled by Scandinavians,” said Nelson, whose own heritage is Swedish/Norwegian. “They sure know how to fix food.”
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