If you don’t live in the area or aren’t randomly driving through Vestaburg, there aren’t a ton of reasons to come across Legacy Hearth Artisan Market. Found on M-46 in the middle of the Lower Peninsula, there’s not much going on. There’s a lot of fields and a lot of small towns with the closest nearby cities being Alma and Ithaca.

While their website only talks about pasties, the market has a little bit of everything, at least in terms of good-smelling objects you’d have around your house. You’ll get a whiff of pasties upon entering, but if you stay for a few minutes, lavender will eventually catch your nose.

It’s a nice, local market with a lot of different homely things to buy in addition to their pasties.

Most notable to me is that they claim to be “Lower Michigan’s Pasty Destination” on their website. I don’t know why people have to tout their pasties as being the best. Isn’t it fine to just say we have pasties and no one else within 100 miles has them? Probably. Anytime I see a statement like that, it usually increases my expectations.

These pasties are huge, but because of how they’re made, they aren’t overly filling. If you want a little more flavor in your pasty, I suggest getting the gravy that they offer.

In addition to being huge, I couldn’t eat the pasty with my hands because the crust was so thin. I assume it was made of shortening, but it didn’t taste like much, so I couldn’t really pin it down.

If you like eating beef, potato, rutabaga, carrots and onion together without much else, this is the perfect dish. I can’t really complain about how this pasty tastes because it tastes exactly like the ingredients. If there was salt used, I’m not sure how much there was.

The crust didn’t provide much of anything and the insides tasted normal. But it’s clear they serve gravy for a reason, as that probably provides most of the seasoning for the pasties.

I don’t want to rate these poorly because they’re probably really good with gravy, but I gotta stick to my rules. By themselves, these pasties are fine, nothing more, nothing less. For the most part, I liked mine, but the lack of seasoning and salt definitely made these unremarkable without gravy.

Taste: 3 (out of 5)
Crust: 1.5 (out of 5)
Pasty Presentation: 3.5 (out of 5)
The Shop: 3 (out of 3)
Would I come back for Pasties?: 1 (out of 2)

Total Pasty Rating: 12 (of 20 points)

(Reviewed Fall 2021)