Food, family, and South Bend traditions this Easter weekend

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- It’s a weekend of family tradition and celebration in Michiana, as three major religions celebrate some of their holiest days. This includes Easter for Christians, Passover for Jews and Ramadan for Muslims.  

ABC57 spoke to family-run businesses to learn what is flying off the shelf this year and what is costing more.  

“We’ve been around since 1978, and Easter has always been at least our second busiest day—or weekend—out of the whole year,” said Adriana Macri-Luczkowski, part of the Macri family.

At Macri’s Bakery in downtown South Bend, authentic Italian foods become South Bend staples.

“Our most popular things that are traditions here in south bend are my mom’s Italian Easter bread. It’s a sweet bread. She’s making almost over 800 pounds of it in the course of the week,” Macri- Luczkowski said. “Our Easter lamb cakes are very popular, that’s going to be a yellow pound cake with our homemade buttercream frosting on top.”  

This year, the Easter egg hunt is more expensive than ever, with prices nearly double what they were last year for eggs.  

“You wouldn’t believe it, how many eggs the bakery goes through itself,” she said.  

But while they say there may be some price increases, they try not to put the full burden of inflation on shoppers.

“It’s really special to be able to offer something so unique to the South Bend community,” she said. “These items are only available this week, so that makes it even more special.”

Now that your easter basket is full, what's going on the table for your easter feast?  

“Hams are huge for Easter, leg of lamb, crown roast, just about anything anymore is fair game for easter,” said Robert Colbe.  

At St. Clair’s Butcher Shoppe, Colbe, a part owner, said foot traffic to the store nearly doubles over Easter weekend.

“I think we’re in an area of the country where we’ve seen a very stable market,” Colbe said.  

He says retail prices are roughly the same as last year and maybe slightly lower than pandemic levels.

“We have a large Polish community here in South Bend,” he said.    

So Polish foods fly off the shelves at St. Clair’s, especially the Monday after Easter, or Dyngus Day.  

“Dyngus Day, again, is your keilbasa, your Polish sausage, with or without garlic,” he said. “We will probably go through 3-400 pounds very easily, just for that one day.”