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Picking fresh strawberries

Exceptional Fruit

We buy our favorite varieties of locally-grown fruits and vegetables from farmers and foragers we know and trust, so every taste tells a story.

We’ve worked for decades to build relationships with farmers who grow the varieties of fruits we love, like the Early Glow Strawberry, Red Haven Peach, and Rubel Blueberry, bred over generations for their unparalleled taste and unique character. These longstanding partnerships with farmers ensure the longevity of these varieties and the livelihoods of the folks who grow them. At American Spoon, we preserve singular classics and forgotten flavors you won’t find anywhere else.

A steaming copper kettle in the American Spoon kitchens

Time-honored technique

Our skilled kitchen crew prepares fruits by hand and cooks them with care in small-batches, using the same techniques home canners have relied on for generations.

Our preserving kitchen lies just outside of Downtown Petoskey, below an ancient hillside apple orchard in the Bear River Valley. Once fruit reaches our kitchen, it takes the skills of a dozen people to produce each jar, and we do highly impractical things to capture flavors and textures at their peak. It’s a point of pride that we still cook in the same copper kettles we’ve used for decades, and that we always rely on the refined sense of cooks with years of experience to determine when each batch is just right.

Bill McMaster of Bill's Farm Market holding stalks of rhubarb
Three slices of homemade Sour Cherry pie
A red barn with a painted American Flag in the summer
American Spon staff processing ripe peaches
The shores of Lake Michigan
A stack of pancakes topped with Fruit Perfect Sour Cherries and Blueberries
Piles of fresh strawberries
Slices of pound cake topped with Fruit Perfect and whipped cream
Fields of wildflowers

Grown and made in Northern Michigan

We believe in real food with deep, authentic flavor, and everything we make celebrates the enduring connection between food and place.

Here along Lake Michigan’s northern coast, independent family farmers tend to some of America’s most prolific fruit orchards and berry farms. Michigan is renowned for its lake effect, and this is what makes fruit grown here so special. The lake's moderating effect delivers soft summer rain and cool night air after long summer days, which gives our fruit extra time to develop a depth of flavor, complexity, and character that's unique to Michigan-grown fruit.

American Spoon cooks making preserves in the 1980s

Founded in 1982

Like most good things, American Spoon began with dreams. For Founder Justin Rashid, it was the dream of a livelihood harvesting the bounty of the farms and woodlands of Northern Michigan. For Founder Chef Larry Forgione, it was the dream of gathering the harvests and traditions of America's diverse regions into a distinctively American cuisine.

Their dreams converged in 1979 when Justin began picking Michigan’s wild morel mushrooms and shipping them to New York for Larry’s menu. Soon, with Larry’s encouragement, Justin was gathering wild mushrooms, wild nuts, berries, wild greens and purveying farm-raised vegetables and game for Larry’s and other restaurants around the country.

In 1981 Larry and Justin shared a new dream: to produce the finest fruit preserves in the world from Michigan fruit. Larry developed an original recipe that would capture the essences of the fruit, Justin selected superb varieties of Northern fruits worthy of the effort, a kitchen was furnished with large copper kettles and wooden paddles, and American Spoon was born.

Justin Rashid, Noah Marshall-Rashid and Kate Marshall

Family-Owned and Operated.

Four decades ago, Justin set out to connect people to real food grown and made by hand in a place he loved. Today Justin’s son Noah leads the company guided by those founding ideals of flavor, authenticity, and place.

American Spoon is owned and operated by Justin, his wife Kate Marshall, and their son Noah. We’re proud to be a small, hands-on family business, and everyone who works here believes in the company’s founding principles and has a stake in its success.

This pride of ownership extends throughout the company and contributes not just to our culture, but ultimately to our success and longevity.

Justin Rashid and Noah Marshall-Rashid in the 1980s foraging
American Spoon staff in front of the original store in Petoskey, Michigan
The Marshall-Rashid Family in the 1980s picking mushrooms
A roadside sign noting The Whole Food Store and Fresh Fruit
Justin Rashid sorting through bushels of apricots
American Spoon staff processing fruit in the 1980s
Original photos of American Spoon cooks with fresh blueberries
Justin Rashid cooking in the original copper kettles
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