Archive for the ‘Food/Organic Living’ Category
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
 From staff reports
On May 20 and 21, join the Village of Empire for its eighth annual Asparagus Festival in downtown Empire. Help celebrate the arrival of this welcome spring bounty by penning a tribute and submitting it in the 2011 Empire Asparagus Festival Poetry Contest.
Entries will be judged in two age groups – youth (ages 18 or younger) and adult – with prizes awarded in each group. Submit your verse by Saturday, May 14 to:
Glen Lake Community Library
PO Box 325, Empire, MI 49630
Or email it to info (AT) glenlakelibrary (DOT) net with the subject line Asparagus Poetry.
Tags: Empire Asparagus Festival, Empire Michigan
Posted in Business Feature, Food/Organic Living, Upcoming Event | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
 Diane Conners of the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service wrote an informative story today about how legislation pushed by State Representative Ray Franz (who represents Leelanau, Benzie and Manistee Counties) and 14 other Republicans in Lansing would privatize food service for school cafeterias, which could hurt popular farm to school programs. Conners writes that school cafeterias could be seen as profit centers instead of as “places to invest in fresher, healthier food for kids.” Many school superintendents in this rural, agricultural region oppose House Bill 4306 because it promotes a one-size-fits-all approach to food service.
Superintendent Joan Groening, of Glen Lake Community Schools, in Leelanau County, said the state shouldn’t dictate whether local districts can invest in food service. Ms. Groening and her school board spent $14,000 from the general fund last year for Glen Lake’s $345,000 school lunch and breakfast program, which features almost all scratch cooking and uses local produce in season. The district also spent $17,000 on fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks after a grant ran out, because of positive student response.
When the district switched from “chicken nuggets and sugary desert” menus, student lunch participation doubled.
 Food Service Director and Chef Gene Peyerk serves produce from the school garden, integrates food service with high school culinary curriculum, and prepares healthy food for after-school activities and concessions at sports events, sometimes quadrupling typical concession stand revenue, which goes to the sports teams.
It would be difficult to create a bid for a food service company that includes all of the ways in which Mr. Peyerk affects the school, Ms. Groening said.
“To me this is much more than just putting food on a tray and giving it to a kid to eat at lunch,” she said. “The pride that our students and staff take in our food service program—to throw all that out the window…It is very upsetting to me. These types of carte blanche decisions will be moving some schools backward.”
Read this story the Nov. 17, 2010, edition of the Glen Arbor Sun about Glen Lake School’s effort to serve fresh, local foods.
And read all of Diane Conners’ story here:
State Bill Sparks Worries Over Local Farm to School Programs
Privatizing cafeterias could hamper food buying, preparation, innovation
By Diane Conners
Great Lakes Bulletin News Service
TRAVERSE CITY—The Michigan House will vote soon on a bill that could force many schools to privatize their food service, raising questions about the fate of popular farm to school programs and whether school cafeterias should be seen as profit centers or, instead, as places to invest in fresher, healthier food for kids.
Many school superintendents in this rural, agricultural region of northwest Lower Michigan say House Bill 4306 could do harm by promoting a one-size-fits-all approach to food service while saving little money for the state. And they aren’t happy that their own legislator, state Representative Ray Franz of Onekama, is one of 15 all-Republican sponsors of the bill.
The bill, introduced by Representative Dave Agema, R-Grandville, originally have forced all public schools to privatize food service, busing, and maintenance services. The final version of the bill requires schools to seek food service bids if their program is not making a profit.
Paul Yettaw, food service director at Lakeview Schools, in Battle Creek, and a board member of the School Nutrition Association, said 38 percent of the state’s school food service programs don’t make a profit.
Superintendent Joan Groening, of Glen Lake Community Schools, in Leelanau County, said the state shouldn’t dictate whether local districts can invest in food service. Ms. Groening and her school board spent $14,000 from the general fund last year for Glen Lake’s $345,000 school lunch and breakfast program, which features almost all scratch cooking and uses local produce in season. The district also spent $17,000 on fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks after a grant ran out, because of positive student response.
When the district switched from “chicken nuggets and sugary desert” menus, student lunch participation doubled.
Food Service Director and Chef Gene Peyerk serves produce from the school garden, integrates food service with high school culinary curriculum, and prepares healthy food for after-school activities and concessions at sports events, sometimes quadrupling typical concession stand revenue, which goes to the sports teams.
It would be difficult to create a bid for a food service company that includes all of the ways in which Mr. Peyerk affects the school, Ms. Groening said.
“To me this is much more than just putting food on a tray and giving it to a kid to eat at lunch,” she said. “The pride that our students and staff take in our food service program—to throw all that out the window…It is very upsetting to me. These types of carte blanche decisions will be moving some schools backward.”
Little Savings, Potential Problems
Supporters of HB 4306 say the bill will reduce school costs and protect school boards from backlash over cutting school jobs.
According to the House Fiscal Agency’s legislative analysis, however, “The bill would have no fiscal impact on the State and an indeterminate fiscal impact on school districts.”
The Great Lakes Bulletin News Service was unable to reach Rep. Agema for comment, nor Rep. Franz, who represents Mason, Manistee, Benzie, and Leelanau Counties.
Some school systems, including Mr. Franz’ hometown Onekama Consolidated Schools, have seen their food services go from money-losing to profitable operations after switching from “heat and serve” to scratch cooking with locally grown food. If the bill had been law two years ago, when Onekama wasn’t profitable, the school probably wouldn’t have been able to make such innovative changes, Superintendent Kevin Hughes said.
He believes large food service companies wouldn’t work with as many local, small farmers as his food service staff is doing now. Moreover, he said, he’s already replaced vacant non-instructional positions with employees from management companies—much like “temp” agencies—in order to reduce the district’s employee benefit costs, with poor results.
“I’ve had privatized custodian services before, and it wasn’t good,” he said. “When you lose control, they aren’t your employees any more. You have to go through a whole different management system to get anything done.”
Success Stories
Onekama modeled its program after Frankfort-Elberta Public Schools, in neighboring Benzie County, where food service director Renee DeWindt turned around food service finances, is a major champion of farm to school purchasing, and galvanizes her community in ways that school Superintendent Tom Stobie doubts a private food service company would take the time to do.
An example: Ms. DeWindt recruits volunteers from the local hospital auxiliary to help showcase fresh, local food to students.
After annually “throwing” $70,000 of general fund money into “heat and serve” cafeteria meals before hiring Ms. DeWindt six years ago, Frankfort’s food service now either breaks even or makes or loses a small amount each year, he said.
“I would like to make a profit so I don’t have to dip into my general fund, but I don’t mind subsidizing it as long as the kids are getting a good, healthy meal,” Mr. Stobie said. “I’ve made that commitment. I think we have to try to educate the whole child, and part of that is making sure they are nutritionally cared for.”
Mr. Stobie said the bill could stop innovative farm to school programs before they have a chance to become profitable. In his experience, it takes time to upgrade kitchen equipment, develop cooking skills for fresh food preparation, and forge farmer relationships.
Growing Popularity
The legislation arrives just as interest in farm to schoolprograms is soaring across the country, galvanized by concern over childhood obesity and interest in preserving family farms and local economic investment. Chambers of commerce are recognizing the economic potential: The Northwest Michigan Regional Chamber Alliance last year placed farm to school purchasing on its list of legislative priorities.
And more than 200 organizations, businesses, economic development organizations, schools, farms, health advocates, and others have signedthe Michigan Good Food Charter, whose goals include Michigan farmers profitably supplying 20 percent of all Michigan institutional, retailer, and consumer food by 2020. Its 25 policy recommendations call for an additional 10 cents per meal from the state for schools to purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables, and grants for planning, implementation, and kitchen equipment purchase.
The Michigan Legislature passed a package of three farm to school billsin late 2008 that reduced bureaucratic obstacles to significant public school food purchases, and directed the state Departments of Education and Agriculture to cooperate in promoting farm to school efforts.
During hearings on HB 4306, critics reminded the House Education Committee of the state’s farm to school laws. So the revised bill “encourages” private contractors to use fresh, locally grown foods.
But Leelanau County farmer Jim Bardenhagen, a recently retired MSU Extension director, who sells to area schools, doesn’t think “encouragement” is enough.
“This bill hurts Michigan farm businesses and gives business to privatized companies who will likely not buy from local farms near the schools, and probably will even source food outside of Michigan,” he said. “I hope everyone will write their legislator and tell them to kill this bill. If it passes it could have a major impact on everything we are doing on farm to school. It is such a great movement.”
Farm to School’s Demise?
News of HB 4306 is spreading around the Web; one article, headlined “Meet the Bill that Could Ruin Michigan’s Farm to School Programs,” strongly criticizes corporate food companies.
Other farm to school advocates agree that, generally, schools’ food service departments take the lead in farm to school programs and privatizing does not guarantee savings. But they caution against characterizing all private food service companies as detrimental to farm to school programs.
“We have found that the most effective programs are those where the food service director is interested in sourcing local food regardless of whether the director is an employee of the school district or food service company,” said Jennifer Fike, executive director of Food System Economic Partnership,in southeastern Michigan. “It is the passion and commitment of the food service staff that makes the greatest difference.”
Meanwhile, the Michigan Commission on Agriculture and Rural Development, which oversees the state Department of Agriculture, has asked its staff to monitor the new legislation, but can’t lobby, said Don Coe, its chairman.
The bill, he said, should be understood within a political context: Governor Rick Snyder wants to see more consolidation of school and other government services, something Mr. Coe supports. He does, however, understand the concerns raised by school superintendents and farmers in northwest Michigan, where he lives.
“I understand their concerns, and I share their concerns,” he said.
Mr. Coe said he doesn’t believe HB 4306 necessarily means the demise of farm to school programs, as long as school districts, parents, and others demand farm to school in contracts. He also hopes advocates of farm to school programs speak up and use the bill as an opportunity to raise the profile of the Michigan Good Food Charter with lawmakers as the bill makes its way through the Legislature.
“Ask if this proposed legislation fits in with the Michigan Good Food Charter,” he said. “And if it doesn’t, can it?”
Mr. Stobie, of the Frankfort-Elberta schools, said he will speak up. Mr. Franz did not mention the bill in February when he accepted a special invitation to meet with the joint school boards of Frankfort and Benzie Central Schools, which consolidated their food service administration under Ms. DeWindt. Her staff prepared a special local foods lunch for Mr. Franz to showcase their food service efforts.
“I was upset, when I found out he was one of the sponsors, that he didn’t mention it that day,” Mr. Stobie said. “We talked about a lot of bills that day. My message to him is I am not real happy with him.”
Diane Conners is the Michigan Land Use Institute’s senior policy specialist for its Healthy Food for All program. Reach her at diane@mlui.org.
Tags: Benzie County, farm to school, Gene Peyerk, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Michigan, Glen Lake Community Schools, Great Lakes Bulletin News Service, Joan Groening, Leelanau County, Manistee County, Onekema Michigan, Ray Franz
Posted in Food/Organic Living, Investigative Article | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
By Aubrey Ann Parker
Sun contributor
 Photos by Sarah Louisignau Did you know that of all the 326 million cubic miles of water on earth, only about seven-tenths of one percent is accessible to humans? Whether you are watering your lawn or buying groceries or leaving your lights on, most of the decisions you make every day ultimately relate back to water.
Yesterday, March 22, was the 18th internationally recognized World Water Day, started by the United Nations as a way to educate and engage the masses to water pollution and scarcity problems around the globe.
In honor of this, last weekend the Benzie Community Water Council held its first annual Benzie County Water Festival, a celebration and education event. In August of 2006, the first Michigan Water Festival was hosted in the Straits of Mackinaw City, but the festival has since moved to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Traverse City, and even the far northlands of Marquette.
This past weekend’s events kicked off Friday night with a showing of Waterlife—a beautifully shot documentary that focuses on specific environmental problems facing the Great Lakes—featured at the stunning, newly renovated Garden Theater of Frankfort. There were more than 90 people in attendance, with donations to the Friends of Betsie Bay, a local non-profit that promotes “a community in harmony with nature.”
 Karen Roberts of Elberta sponsored the film, which she first saw at the 2009 Traverse City Film Festival. Roberts attributed one scene in particular—in which a homeowner is mowing the riverbed that has been taken over by the invasive plant Phragmites, or “common reed”—as the major contributing factor for her membership in the FoBB.
The fast-multiplying Phragmites is currently threatening several Lake Michigan waters, including the Betsie Bay. Phragmites can reach up to 10-feet tall and becomes rooted along a water’s edge, blocking light to other plants and creating a monoculture by inhabiting much of the growing area. A variety of methods are used to control Phragmites—including burning, cutting, digging, draining, dredging, mowing, mulching, and pulling—and the removal costs can be colossal. Saginaw Bay recently paid $75,000 to aerially release herbicide over 120 acres, while Beaver Island spent an estimated $17,000 on 27 acres in 2007.
After the film, the party moved to the Cabbage Shed as the sub-Prime Blues Band—one of the festival’s first supporting partners, consisting of an eclectic group of players—took the stage.
Although concert attendees closed down the Elberta bar, many trickled in early Saturday morning, ready for the day’s full lineup of events.
 “Get your refillable water bottles,” crooned Benzie Central freshman Majida Halaweh, pacing the Frankfort-Elberta Elementary School hallways, peddling BPA-free water bottles imprinted with husky paw prints.
Also meandering the halls was Kirby, a local singer and songwriter, touting his guitar and tooting his harmonica. The walls of the school were lined with drawings of baby seals and sailboats—some adorned with blue and red “Best of Show” ribbons—from Connie McLaren’s students at Crystal Lake Elementary.
Halaweh’s cohort, Bailey Barnes, was seated at one of a dozen tables, each housing a display from local, water-related organizations. Barnes’ father, Jim—owner of Traverse City-based Eco-Building Supplies, one of the festival’s sponsors—was across the hall demonstrating a low-flow flush toilet, while Liz Padalino gripped her Higher Grounds Coffee-filled mug and explained the difference between native and invasive Phragmites species to an onlooker of her Cooperative Weed Management display.
Filtering down to the gymnasium, festival attendees were welcomed by BCWC’s co-chair, Josh Stoltz, who introduced the first speaker.
“When I was growing up, Derek Bailey was one of my heroes,” 33-year-old Stoltz said of 38-year-old Bailey, now tribal chairman for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. “I had a photo of him in my notebook, because he was a basketball star from St. Francis.”
Bailey gave the audience of 50 a summary of the tribe’s unique position as a sovereign nation to litigate on behalf of all those who are interested in keeping the Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. As a sovereign nation, the Band signs treaties with the U.S. government directly, and so its rights are placed bureaucratically above those of individual states—and, Bailey said, this could be the key to winning the case to close the Chicago locks.
According to Bailey, the revenue from ships passing through the locks is on the scale of millions of dollars, but the revenue that could be lost if Asian carp infest Lake Michigan would be on the scale of billions of dollars.
Bailey also said that—although he hasn’t yet been invited to play basketball in the White House, despite being appointed to the American Indian Education Advisory Council by the Obama Administration—he thinks he could “post up” the president.
During a lunch break, festival attendees were invited to again check out the displays that lined the hallway, as well as to dine in the school’s cafeteria. BCWC board member Suz McLaughlin and her slew of volunteers were selling homemade cookies and three varieties of locally sourced, heartwarming soups: Mediterranean chicken, potato chowder with bacon, and black bean citrus with sour cream and salsa.
Meanwhile, Marlene Wood-Zylstra of the Benzie County Recyclers—dressed head-to-toe in a “Green Fairy” costume—had multiple interactive games, puzzles, and exhibits for children and adults alike to explore water use, reuse, and pollution. Nearly 25 kids chose to continue the afternoon playing in the multipurpose room with Wood-Zylstra or to participate in a harmonica workshop with Kirby, while the adults filed back into the gymnasium for the next speaker.
Rob Karner, a watershed biologist and biology teacher at The Leelanau School, took the stage to speak on the importance of native plants.
“My title is watershed biologist,” said Karner, who has spent the last 15 years helping residents of the Glen Lake shoreline to reduce the impact of their lawns. “But really I’m more of a waterfront psychologist.”
Karner’s lecture prompted a great Q&A period in which residents of Lake Michigan, Platte Lake, Crystal Lake, and Bear Lake wanted more information on what they could do to create a buffering recharge zone for their lawns.
Some simple solutions:
• Replace patches of your Kentucky Blue Grass with native, long-rooted plants that help to filter runoff—leave only a patch of grass for playing yard games like bocce or croquet.
• Retain as many trees and shrubs as possible. Not only do their long-root systems protect the watershed, but they also serve as animal habitat and natural privacy—enjoy more visits from Bambi and less from Home Improvement’s Wilson.
• Take out your break wall, and cut back on your use of fertilizers—the more natural a landscape is, the better.
Following the theme of reducing a household’s impact on local water, Valerie Strassberg—a water resource engineer and international water-energy educator—made the trek up from Ann Arbor to do a workshop on greywater systems.
Strassberg gave a lively introduction to the relationship between water and energy, in which she invited Kirby to try to lift 10 milk gallons full of water—80 pounds in total.
“Each gallon of water weighs eight pounds,” Strassberg said. “The average American uses 98 gallons of water per day, which equals 784 pounds…can you imagine if we had to carry the water we used each day?”
Instead, water is readily available from our tap, Strassberg went on, pumped there by our public utility or home well. Strassberg informed the audience that they could reduce their households’ water usage—and slash their monthly water bill—by retrofitting a greywater system.
Greywater systems take water that would typically go to the city’s wastewater facility or your home’s septic tank and divert it for irrigating your lawn or garden. Greywater is sanitary for irrigation (not for drinking) because it is sourced from bathroom sinks, showers, bathtubs, and washing machines that have minimal pollutants. (Black water, Strassber noted, is water from dishwashers, kitchen sinks, and toilets that require a sanitation process to kill bacteria.)
Tying in nicely with the topic of home-water conservation, the Benzie Conservation District—one of the Water Festival’s main sponsors—held a rain garden workshop that followed Strassberg’s greywater workshop. The BCD’s Carol Navarro began with a brief introduction to rain gardens, which are a way to remediate the runoff from roofs and parking lots that would typically end up in storm sewers.
A rain garden consists of long-rooted native plants that are grown in the lowest point of a yard, with surface water runoff directed towards that low point.
“Rain gardens slow water down,” said Carolyn Thayer—a landscape designer and owner of Designs in Bloom, and the president of Plant It Wild—who last year designed the rain gardens for the new LEED-certified Gateway Housing Project development on Forest Avenue in Frankfort. Thayer gave an overview of the project, which she designed to capture all of the runoff from the housing development’s roofs.
More than 50 community members were in attendance—many coming straight from Grow Benzie’s hoop house workshop, taking place the same day, just up the road in Benzonia—to learn the basics of rain garden design and implementation.
In the mid-afternoon, the Water Festival switched venues, back to the Garden Theater.
Cyndi Roper—the state director of Clean Water Action—was the first speaker at the Garden, having traveled up from Lansing. Roper has played a leadership role in numerous successful water policy, environmental health, and waste issues in Michigan since 1995, and she has served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council. She came highly recommended to the BCWC by Benzie County’s own water warrior, attorney Jim Olson.
Following Roper, Hans VanSumeren, the director of NMC’s new Water Studies Institute—the first program in the nation to award an Associate’s Degree in water studies—and Tom Kelly, executive director of the Inland Seas Education Association and captain of the Schoolship, spearheaded a discussion on water-related education in the Great Lakes region.
Kelly and the Schoolship have hosted nearly 100,000 elementary, middle school, and high school students in the 20 years since the founding of Inland Seas. Since the WRI program began in September of 2010, VanSumeren has 20 college students—ranging in age from 17 to 54—enrolled in water-related studies.
Both men gave examples of the hands-on learning experiences that each program provides, with coursework that includes studying invasive species, monitoring pollution and climate data, and examining environmental consequences of removing three old dams on the Boardman River.
During both Roper’s lecture and the water education panel, festival goers were invited to step outside for a bite to eat, as the Benzie SEEDS program offered fresh, homemade pizza right outside the Garden’s doors.
A short intermission allowed the crowd to nearly triple, as more than 130 people, including our community’s tiniest tots and most age-wizened elders, piled in to see the night’s closing act.
Northern Michigan’s favorite dynamic duo, Seth Bernard and “Daisy” May Erlewine— the founding father and mother of the folk music explosion that has swept Northern Michigan over the past decade—are local singers, songwriters, and harmonizing musicians with a lot of soul. The pair took the stage with friend and fellow musician, drummer Mike Shimmin.
“From what I understand, they say the Promised Land is on the banks of the River Jordan,” Erlewine sang the opening lyrics to the concert, resonating with Bernard’s guitar.
Passionate about their community and the natural world we’re all connected to, the couple has been an intricate part of each Water Festival that has taken place in Michigan—from the first one at the Straits of Mackinaw City back in 2006 to Benzie County’s own, five years later, this past weekend.
Bernard and Erlewine, whose message of positive change and collaboration was infectious, played two sets, each chock full of the pair’s water-related songs from “Big Momma Brown,” a song about fishing, to “Wash Over Me,” a haunting a capella number, to finish by dancing up the aisles, guitars in hand, singing, “I’m going to join my local watershed council…down by the riverside…and I ain’t gonna study war no more.”
By the end of the day, the Benzie Community Water Council had more than 75 people sign up to become a watershed council member, and a number of people were wearing buttons declaring, “I signed the Water Pledge,” a personal promise to use less water—including the musicians, who encouraged the audience to pass on to others the water facts that M.C. Stoltz had been impressing upon the masses all day.
“It takes 1,500 gallons of water to grow enough cotton for just one pair of jeans,” Stoltz had said. “And a quarter of a gallon of gas to drive just one mile using petroleum-based fuels…more than 450 gallons to drive one mile using soy bean-based biofuel.”
The Cabbage Shed hosted an after-glow party, featuring one of Bernard and Erlewine’s many side projects, Airborne or Aquatic, which incorporated three additional musicians projecting funky blues from their guitars.
Also well-attended were Sunday morning’s water-related church service with Pastor Rick at Frankfort’s Trinity Lutheran Church and Sunday afternoon’s fundraiser for the Friends of the Benzie Bus at the Cabbage Shed, in which Benzie County’s own Song of the Lakes performed a benefit concert.
Song of the Lakes—who have been pleasing crowds with sea-faring tunes, Irish jigs, sultry Brazilian melodies, and bittersweet ballads since the early 1980s—continue to be one of Northern Michigan’s most sought-after musical groups, and the BCWC was honored that they chose to partner with us and close out the first annual Benzie County Water Festival.
Stay tuned for more events, as 100 percent of the proceeds from last weekend’s festival are being invested in future water-related community events. The BCWC hopes to have a lasting and sustainable presence in Northern Michigan. Go to www.water-festival.org for promoted events happening every month in Benzie County.
Aubrey Ann Parker is a northern Michigan native and graduate of both Kalamazoo College and the University of Michigan. She is an editor, reporter, and data analyst for Circle of Blue, a Traverse City-based organization reporting the global freshwater crisis.
Tags: Benzie Community Water Council, Benzie County, Benzie County water festival, Betsie Bay, Crystal Lake, Frankfort Garden Theater, Frankfort Michigan, Friends of Betsie Bay, Michigan Water Festival, Traverse City Film Festival, World Water Day
Posted in Food/Organic Living, Investigative Article | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
 By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
It’s just past noon at Glen Lake Schools, and elementary students are lined up for the day’s lunch: homemade barbequed chicken wings, lettuce salad dressed with homemade cherry vinaigrette, and cups of creamy tomato-basil soup made from scratch.
By 1 p.m. a few miles to the north, the dining hall of The Leelanau School is empty of students, but a bowl of apples, bananas and grapes sits on a table inside the doorway for mid-afternoon snackers. The caramel aroma of fresh-baked squash, already scooped and ready to purée for the next day’s dinner, is spilling out of the kitchen.
On a typical school day during the growing season, food service directors at both institutions are serving up as many locally grown, fresh ingredients as their budgets and time allow. They’re also teaching students to cook and, with the help of faculty, familiarizing them with the sources of their food.
What’s cookin’ at Glen Lake Schools
Gene Peyerk, food service director at Glen Lake, explains that lunches “home” made in the school’s kitchen contain lower amounts of fat, cholesterol and sodium and higher grams of fiber. Even the kitchen’s corn dog, served with sweet potato fries, is healthier — with a turkey dog on the inside and whole grain outside.
 Glen Lake Schools replaced processed heat-and-eat meals, warmed in microwave ovens or dunked in fryers, with lunches made mostly from scratch. According to Peyerk, one factor that made the school’s transition easier: a 1992 kitchen remodeling project that included the purchase of convection ovens, soup kettles and steam tables. Also facilitating the change was a two-year grant to help buy fresh fruit and vegetables. (When the grant period expired, Peyerk said the school board voted to subsidize the cost of buying “fresh.”) Both made it possible for the school to replace frozen soups and “just add water” prepackaged foods with healthier choices that kids enjoy, such as ravioli with homemade sauce and potato-cheese pierogis.
The transition brought with it a bit of a learning curve.
For three months, two serving lines were offered: one for the old food and one for fresher, homemade fare. “When all the old stuff was gone, for the first couple of weeks there was a revolt, (he chuckles at the memory), then it started picking up.”
He says many more students per day are buying lunch than they were before fresh foods were served, and they’re getting a taste for “watermelon, pineapples and all that stuff now. For so long, everything’s been processed.”
Some stealth cooking also is involved. Peyerk admits he “sneaks” 20 pounds of squash into the homemade macaroni-and-cheese sauce, “to yellow it up,” an idea he got while watching the Food Network on TV. (Students eat it and comment that “it’s a little sweet,” he relates with a grin.) The kitchen is serving more root vegetables too, such as beets, and he claims “the kids really like it.”
Peyerk plans the menus when he receives his weekly flyer from Cherry Capital Foods, a distributor of fresh produce grown on northern Michigan farms. The flyer lists items available in the upcoming delivery. This week’s haul includes cabbages, leeks and carrots, and pie pumpkins and 40 pounds of fresh cranberries await another special use. Potatoes and fall apples are delivered by Suttons Bay farmer Jim Bardenhagen, and the Korson farm in Northport keeps Glen Lake’s kitchen stocked with apples through December.
Other measures the school takes to keep things healthier for students include: switching off vending machines with snacks and candy until hot lunch is served; selling wraps, calzones, pizza and sandwiches after 3 p.m. to students involved in extracurricular activities; serving hot, meal-type foods at athletic events in addition to snacks; and offering a morning exercise class to keep students moving, taught by Amy White, a home economics teacher who, Peyerk says, “is taking it to the next level.”
“If you’re not moving, it really doesn’t matter what we eat,” Peyerk explains.
Dishin’ the real deal at The Leelanau School
Jim Bristol, The Leelanau School’s director of food services, says he buys squash and other fresh vegetables and fruits in season from a farm within 60 miles. The farmer offers reasonable prices, dependable delivery and a good selection — thanks to a cooperative arrangement with other growers.
The school also purchases some of its apples from Ryan Noonan, fresh asparagus in season from the Norconk farm south of Empire and eggs from another farmer. For five summers, Bristol has bought pork and lamb from Leelanau 4-H students. Fresh herbs were grown in a garden behind the kitchen and another small garden plot supplied some lettuce and hydroponic tomatoes. (Tomatoes, he says, are the kitchen’s number-one produce, because of their multiple uses. Staff recently juiced four bushels of romas, and set aside the pulp for sauces.)
In all, Bristol says the school has incorporated northwest lower Michigan food products into its menus for at least eight years, due in large part to the enthusiastic support of former Headmaster and President Rich Odell. One of his many school donations included spending his weekends picking strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and peaches at area farms and orchards. He would bring the fruit to the school’s kitchen for Bristol’s wife to can. Bristol says Rob Himburg, the school’s principal, is a foodie and has been involved with the kitchen’s efforts too.
But now it’s November, and this year’s harvest of fresh food is over.
“It’s a sad day,” says Bristol, opening a walk-in cooler and pointing to two bushels of onions, lots of potatoes and some apples and cabbage. “It’s the end of the season — our last delivery.”
Until next spring, he and his assistant, Deborah Rock, will rely on an “All Natural” line of produce offered by Gordon Food Service, which also supplies the school with most of its staples and meat.
“It’s more cost effective than organic,” he says, adding that when a greenhouse is put into service during the winter term by students in science teacher Bruce Hood’s class, the kitchen expects to be able to serve fresh, mixed greens.
Throughout the school year, the kitchen also offers a taco/nacho bar, hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and pizza. “You have to give them things they want,” Bristol explains. “You can’t shove vegetables down them.” Students crave grilled food so much, he continued, they will shovel snow and ice in order to make the outdoor grill accessible to kitchen staff during winter term.
Making food connections
Peyerk is excited about Glen Lake’s commitment to “real” food and is no less enthusiastic when discussing the school’s gardening project.
For three years, a 20-by-30-foot greenhouse and 15-by-100-foot garden have offered students a first-hand look at where food comes from, and hands-on experience in growing and harvesting vegetables.
Glen Lake’s elementary school students start heirloom seeds in the hothouse, (part of the roof was blown off during the recent storm and must be replaced), and teacher Kathi Thoreson brings the 2-to-3-inch seedlings to the garden for planting. Peyerk and his after-school “La Fresca” culinary class of 12 seniors rototill the soil, water and nurture the plants, and harvest the crops. Peyerk says they’ve grown cucumbers, zucchini, crooked-neck squash, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, swiss chard, cabbage, herbs and beets.
Peyerk, himself, has planted dwarf fruit trees — three peach and two cherry — near the garden.
“If we had our own little orchard, then why not have a horticulture or science teacher teach a little of that?” he asks, thinking of other ways to bring students closer to their food.
The small gardens at The Leelanau School are maintained by staff, and the greenhouse isn’t operational yet, but that hasn’t stopped Bristol and Rock from giving students the opportunity to investigate their food sources. The pair planned an outing for a small group at a Gordon Food Service show in Grand Rapids. Students in a cooking class also toured Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay and Higher Grounds Trading Company in Traverse City.
In the past, all of the student body picked apples at a local orchard and made apple cider. Insurance concerns on the part of orchards put a stop to picking visits. Undaunted, Bristol bought “truckloads” of apples this year, and students once again made apple cider with teacher Norm Wheeler. Apples were also used to bake pies, strudel and turnovers — an all-day event. (A considerable number of the baked goods were donated.)
“We cheated,” Bristol says, explaining that they wanted to reduce visits to the school nurse. “We used apple corers and peelers.”
Food Service Assistant Rock said the students had fun figuring out who had carved the longest continuous peel.
“No matter how he-man they act, the boys always like to show us what they’ve done,” Bristol added.
Other food service events which include students are the annual Mother’s Day brunch led by Wheeler, (a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity), and a cooking class “Iron Chef” competition.
Both schools are offering a Thanksgiving luncheon one week before the holiday. The lunch at The Leelanau School on Nov. 18 includes students, and Bristol says they try to invite as many local people as they can. Tables are decorated by the art classes, with gourds carved by the students and Indian corn for ornamentation. Glen Lake Schools offers its Thanksgiving lunch on Nov. 19 to students and those parents who are able to attend. Peyerk’s La Fresca class prepares pies, stuffing, sauce. Peyerk said that students who help serve the meal, which also includes turkey, gravy and rolls, “get a lunch.”
Tags: Amy White, Black Star Farms, Bruce Hood, Cherry Capitol Foods, Deborah Rock, Empire Michigan, farm to school, Food Network, Gene Peyerk, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Michigan, Glen Lake School, Gordon Food Service, Habitat for Humanity, Higher Grounds Trading Company, Jim Bardenhagen, Jim Bristol, Kathi Thoreson, Korson farm, Leelanau County, Leelanau School, local food, Norconck Farm, Norm Wheeler, Northport, Rich O'Dell, Rob Karner, Ryan Noonan, Suttons Bay
Posted in Food/Organic Living | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 16th, 2010
 By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
It’s Devil’s Night, 2010. Great puffs of pink-edged clouds slide south over the backlit dunes across Sleeping Bear Bay, and the sky still shines with the scrubbed look the “storm of the century” gave it a couple of days ago. (There were 75 mile-per-hour wind gusts, and the buoy out between North Manitou and Washington Island registered 21-foot waves!) Mimi and I have come to Blu to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary, and as we tuck into the corner table looking out, we hear Billie Holliday singing about “ … that moment.”
Proprietors Randy and Mari Chamberlain like to emphasize local sources of everything for the quality that brings to the experience of dining, and our waitress Toni establishes the theme right away. She recommends a Woodland Red from Chateau Fontaine on French Road here in The County, and it is a hearty, full wine perfect for the variety of flavors we are about to sample. With the first pour she brings a nibble snack of Halpin Farm goat cheese with Sweeter Song Farm beets on a tiny square of toast, and we gaze out at the spectacular panorama that surrounds us at Blu. We reminisce about our wedding day all those many years ago in Denmark, the little white church on the hill beside the great oak tree, the all-day feast full of toasts and laughter, the evening banquet of venison at the local Inn, and we notice how the music in the cozy room synchronizes with our memories as Chet Baker croons “There Will Never Be Another You.” (You know how sometimes the music matches up perfectly with the flow of conversation and the unfolding of a meal in a trippy synchronicity, as if you’re in a movie in which even the sound track is scripted to amplify the arc of the evening? This is one of those nights!)
 Out comes the bread pulled fresh from the oven daily at 5 a.m., and then Mimi spoons up a taste of the roasted turnip soup with the exclamation “Oh Yummy!” The just-dug local turnips blended with a shellfish stock are garnished with shrimp and smoked pork belly lardon. It is creamy and complex, and we realize that Randy takes no short cuts here — the presentation of each dish, the rich and creative combinations of flavors — everything bespeaks his heightened sensitivity to the artistic crafting of each meal.
Pate’ is my favorite appetizer, so as I turn to Pate’ Maison with mustard and tiny house-pickled carrots, leaks and cornishons, Chet Baker is singing “Time After Time.” This terrine from pork raised in Benzie County is smoky, coarse and earthy, with a brawny rawness to it. As I taste it I hear the blast of a hunting horn from the Song of Roland and smell the loamy floor of the Black Forest as I gallop on a chestnut steed after a wild boar. Such great food is transformative, and we are here to get carried away, aren’t we!
We rest from the appetizers as last light lingers over the bay. The elegant room of white wood and expansive glass, with its geodesic glass roof and corner, is made cozy by the weighty gravitas of the dark oversized leather chairs. Our waitress Toni knows the origins of all the ingredients to the meal from the local farms and vineyards, and she points out nuances of flavors we might miss as she helps with knowledgeable and confident recommendations.
 My salad is a soft, airy mountain of greens, pine nuts, and ribbons of Parmesan cheese with a delicate, light, bubbly dressing. It seems to float up into my mouth. Mimi gets a mound of beets, carrots and apples on a bed of lettuce, the colors of which make it look like a still life from the painting studio of Bill Allen or Charlie Murphy. Again, this is food as art. As our salad plates are taken away the night outside has suddenly become dark, like a switch was flicked, and out there past Sleeping Bear Point a 1000-foot ore carrier slides into view, its lights a string of pearls. It looks so placid and tranquil after the violence of three days ago when Keenan May and Lindsay Simmons were surfing in the enormous waves breaking across that shoal. As Chef Randy stops by on his circuit to greet each table the song is (of course) “Someone To Watch Over Me.” We can’t find enough words to praise his artistry and craftsmanship, but our admiration must be palpable in our enthusiasm for his talent.
Then the entrees come, perfect timing. On my plate whole pecans line a perfectly golden ridge of walleye, with squash, baked cheesy potato, carrots, and red cabbage on the side. A green ribbon seals a lemon in a yellow bag. The lovely fish lies on the shoal of roasted butternut squash with the potato squares just offshore crisscrossed by two green beans and two orange carrots. You don’t want to disturb the colorful and perfectly composed presentation, but the aroma leaves you no choice. It is delectable, the walleye flaky, light, and nutty, the scary good Creole menuire sauce like a spicy curse from a dark Frenchman who knows how to make his shipmates nod and chuckle in agreement. To match our wedding day Mimi is having venison with potatoes dauphiniose. These medallions are served with cooked cherries in a fruity sauce with baked butternut squash on the side. There is a subtle edge of wildness to the venison that is a relief from the ordinary domesticity of beef, and the complementary flavors ripple across your palate as a whitetail makes concentric rings while drinking from a pond. The food is heavenly, and now Dianna Krall is singing with her sexy Canadian consonants “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”
It’s hard to follow food this delicious, but dessert is necessary, isn’t it? There are amazing choices: vanilla ricotta donuts with cinnamon ice cream (that Moomers makes from Randy’s recipe), opera torte, profiteroles, dark chocolate flourless cake, crème brule. We get a turtle sundae, and it’s devilishly good in its elliptical glass bowl with its thin shingle of stripped chocolate bark. But we must taste the sorbet du jour, Toni insists, so here come two funnel-shaped glass globes, each with two shortbreads and two scoops of homemade burgundy plum or vanilla key lime sorbet, the best fruit sorbet we’ve ever had! It has all been perfect!
People, don’t miss the chance to eat at Blu. There are specials for the frugal: a pris fixe three-course meal for the 5 and 5:15 p.m. seatings consists of a salad, entre and dessert — a nice substantial meal for $26. And on Friday nights you can get two dinners with a paired bottle of wine for $55. (There is also a special Thanksgiving Dinner coming up.) Check out www.glenarborblu.com or call for a reservation: (231) 334-2530. You’ll be ecstatic when you do!
Tags: Benzie County, Bill Allen, Billie Holiday, Blu, Charlie Murphy, Chet Baker, Glen Arbor, Glen Arbor Michigan, Leelanau County, Mari Chamberlain, Moomers ice cream, North Manitou Island, Randy Chamberlain, Sleeping Bear Bay, Washington Island
Posted in Business Feature, Food/Organic Living | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 13th, 2010
 By Nadine Gilmer
Sun contributor
On the winding Dunn’s Farm road, east of Big Glen Lake, sits The Foothills Café and Motel — a reassuring “blast from the past” in this ever-changing region. Locals and seasonal residents, alike, have come to depend on The Foothill’s consistency for more than 50 years. Although the business has changed hands several times, neither the café nor the motel has lost any of its charm.
Last July a trio from downstate and Ohio — Paul Staber, Shari Bernstein, and Shirley Cheney — acquired The Foothills from previous owner Don Sielaff after they happened upon the café in whimsical fashion. The three were on vacation in Leelanau County and stopped to enjoy a hearty breakfast. Cheney ordered the pancakes, which, as fate would have it, tasted exactly like the pancakes her father used to make her. Sitting in the baby blue booths, among the Vanagon statues, Manitou Music Festival posters, and retro-red chairs, Cheney looked around, and said, “This feels like home.”
Needless to say, the three were charmed enough to stay. They were already thinking about buying a bed and breakfast, but they had planned to wait until this year so that Bernstein’s son could graduate high school. Instead, when Cheney’s husband passed away, and they saw the Foothills, everything fell into place. She already felt a special connection to the area — not to mention the pancakes. “Don made them like my dad,” she says, then points her thumb at Staber in the kitchen. “Now he does them just like my dad.”
When I arrived at the Foothills one recent afternoon, the lunch crowd was just finishing up. The first thing I noticed was the sign outside the café advertizing Higher Grounds coffee, underneath hanging flowers. I immediately felt relieved to escape the mid-afternoon heat that this summer had dealt us, though I felt a little silly toting my laptop into this old-fashioned, historic setting, which sported a 1968 photograph of the café and motel above my booth.
Bernstein brought me tea and a French dip sandwich to eat while she looked for Staber. Suddenly the wireless Internet signal appeared, and Staber showed up wearing a humble smile and checkered chef’s pants. “Sorry,” he said, “I was just enabling the wireless.”
Soon the lunch rush departed, and I was the only person in the Café. After chatting with the Foothills’ new owners, I focused my attention on the French dip sandwich. I’d eaten breakfast here before, so I was excited about trying lunch. The breakfasts, by the way, are quite good. The Foothills’ most famous items are the Eggs Benedict (from Don Sielaff’s days, in particular), the cherry pancakes, and the new additions to the old menu: chocolate chip pancakes and cinnamon rolls. But back to lunch: I hadn’t eaten a French dip in years. And this was the best one I’ve ever had. Served with potato chips and Au Jus, the Foothills’ roast beef sandwich on a toasted roll is certainly worth a journal entry.
While devouring the sandwich, sipping tea, taking notes and studying the Foothills’ new website, www.foothillsofglenlake.com, I couldn’t help but enjoy the background chatter of Staber and Bernstein. After lunch, Cheney walked over from the motel to join me.
Cheney manages the motel, while Staber is the cook, and Bernstein facilitating the wait staff. A small and energetic woman, Cheney explained that they all help each other with specific tasks. “We come from very different walks of life,” said Cheney. Before this venture, Bernstein was a chemical dependency councilor, and Staber ran a lock-down treatment facility in Toledo, Ohio.
“Yes, and we’re all well educated at some level,” added Bernstein. “But we’re all at the stage of life where we just want to have fun,” laughed Cheney in response. “We’re all a little bit off, but we’re here to enjoy life!”
Cheney and Bernstein teamed up to tell me a bit about the history of the Foothills, dispelling some myths along the way. The place was constructed by one Mr. Foot in the late fifties: first the motel, then the café. A swimming pool was constructed so that Foot’s children could play in the water without him having to take them to the beach. The next owner added the café because she would cook breakfast for the guests in her own kitchen.
At some point a Chicago mobster owned it. It was rumored that there were bodies buried in the concrete where the pool used to be. But when the pool was removed, no bodies were found. Rumor also had it that this mobster would get drunk on occasion and throw all of his bottles against the side of the apartment. The three new owners found broken glass in a pile inches deep.
Aside from scraping that glass away and clearing up some truths, Staber, Bernstein and Cheney have other plans for the Foothills. They hope to integrate more local foods and add an espresso machine, which they hope will create an environment for locals to enjoy during the down season.
“I couldn’t come to a better part of the world to live, and that’s part of the reason we came here,” explains Bernstein, exchanging a happy glance with Staber. “With everything that’s going on with the world we just wanted to create a little bit of peace, good coffee, and a little bit of charm … when I’m not in a bad mood.”
With that she laughs and goes back to organizing and cleaning up for the next lucky customer.
Posted in Business Feature, Food/Organic Living | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
 By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
Bees are humming amongst spotted purple knapweed, grasses and Queen Anne’s lace growing thigh high in a cluster of unsold lots on the south side of the New Neighborhood. Empire resident Robin Johnson, who lives across M-22 from the development — in the former Lillian and Irwin Beck, Jr. farmhouse — points to this sunny spot resembling a meadow more than future home sites.
An architect with an appreciation of life cycles, Johnson convinced her New Neighborhood developer-husband Robert Foulkes to forego mowing the 124-foot-deep patch of wildflowers that some might call weeds. This way, she explains, fauna can continue using the space as habitat, at least until the lots sell.
 “I care a lot about the landscape,” says the assistant professor (Andrews University School of Architecture) back at her home, while sharing some of her architectural drawings. A project she calls “Cycle” was meant to transform a gash in a Dublin, Ireland roundabout into a circle of planted oak trees, their tops tethered inward toward a mound covered with artistically-crafted ceramic, with a ditch to collect acorns. Her idea: as the ceramic crumbled over time, the acorns would touch soil — leading to a new generation of trees. (The project never materialized, but a future Glen Arbor Sun story will highlight the couple’s tree-planting work in Ireland.)
Other drawings show Celtic motifs Johnson suggested as ornamentation for rustic, boathouse-inspired guest quarters on South Bar Lake, and the 1,600-square-foot Long Lake house she designed (in the form of their old boathouse at the water’s edge) for her parents. The home climbs the same hillside owned by her grandfather (a pharmacist at the former state hospital in Traverse City), where she used to “hang out” as a child during summers at the lake. (Johnson’s parents were raised in Traverse City: her brother Greg Johnson, a NASA astronaut and retired Air Force colonel, was featured in our July 15 edition, “Empire community glimpses life in space”.)
“I love working with the topography,” she adds.
 Growing greenery
When plans were underway for the first Empire Asparagus festival, Johnson noted that the only asparagus “visible” in the village was in a culvert at Lake and Niagara streets. She says she thought the long, east-facing wall of the Post Office needed a garden, and she made a proposal to the Village Council, which agreed to contribute $100 toward the purchase of plants if she promised to join the Village Beautification Committee.
“Greystone Gardens (on Manning Road, south of the village) sold to us and donated loads of gorgeous plants, including some spectacular three-foot-high golden yarrow which has found its way into other village planting beds,” she says. “It’s great in the hot August heat. You can see it featured prominently today along the east wall of the pump house at the beach. Residents of the village contributed mature plants at that time as well — daylilies, poppies, shasta daisies … I love it when people pitch in like that.”
Beds were installed at the southeast corner of the town hall, along the east wall of the Post Office (surreptitiously hiding the air-conditioning unit), in front of State Savings Bank and at the Empire beach turnaround.
“One of the plants I am particularly happy with from those Beautification Committee days is a certain poppy in the round planting bed at the beach, by the anchor. It was absolutely stunning the last two years. I think it’s the same one I transplanted from someone’s yard. (It) took awhile to get situated and then, wow, it’s beautiful in late spring — blazing red with western sunlight glowing through it.”
Johnson says that Linda Payment, the chairperson of Parks on the Village Council and a “fabulous gardener,” oversees care of the planting beds today.
Vision for a veggie garden
Thanks to Johnson’s ability to see potential in a fallow field and her belief in community, a portion of a reserve septic drain field planned for future use in phase 5 of the New Neighborhood has become a 50-by-80-foot community garden area. Raised vegetable beds were constructed of slab wood provided by her husband’s timber-framing business, White Oak Timber Frames of Suttons Bay. A nearby neighbor currently supplies water by hose, but the gardeners hope to obtain permission from the village to access a water hook-up on lot 63, also communally held. Each gardener contributes $25 per year for infrastructure.
“There couldn’t be a more ideal spot than an area held for common use,” she says of the garden site, adding that property ownership and use makes it “not that easy to work out the details” of this type of endeavor when the land isn’t held for shared purposes.
One of the 10 community gardeners couldn’t put up a fence at his home, due to lot restrictions placed by developers on his land, so he tends one of the garden’s 10-by-15-foot plots protected from critters by a seven-foot-tall fence and a solar-powered electric fence. The other nine gardeners include several village residents and a handful of New Neighborhood residents, and a majority of them worked together last year to add a trailer load of aged manure to the beds.
“It was a really fun time — followed by hot cider and other goodies people contributed in good communal fashion,” she says. “We retreated to the wood stove in my living room, after all the hard work in the frosty cold, to warm up and have an impromptu potluck.”
Johnson gamely poses for a photograph next to large and healthy-looking pumpkins planted by New Neighborhood resident Cile Plumstead. Afterward, as she threads herself between horizontal fence wires, her smile is still wide as she adds a final thought:
“I really like the idea of doing stuff communally. There’s a helping that happens among friends when the set up is easy, and it’s a great use of the land.”
For information about the community garden or her services as an architect, email Robin Johnson at robinaj9988(AT)yahoo.com.
Posted in Food/Organic Living, Local Personality | No Comments »
Monday, August 16th, 2010
 From staff reports
The Traverse City Wine & Art Festival takes place on Saturday, August 21, 2010 from3-10 PM on the glorious front lawn of Building 50 at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons.
The festival celebrates the world-class wine, art, food and music of Michigan’s Wine Coast and features full pours of wines from over 20 wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula, Old Mission Peninsula and Traverse City.
“Our inaugural year was fantastic, and we’re excited to take this festival that showcases the amazing wines of our region to the next level. The blend of art, food, wine and live music will tantalize your senses and is a perfect celebration of summer and what is making Northwest Michigan a destination for culinary & cultural travelers the world over,” says Leelanau winery owner Kris Sterkenberg.
 Old Mission vintner Spencer Steginga adds, “Our winemakers are producing some spectacular wines, and this festival is a great chance to talk with them and taste some of their best work. Whether it’s Rieslings or Pinot Noirs, we’ll definitely have wines that will surprise and delight you!”
The 2010 Traverse City Wine & Art Festival will feature 22 wineries, over 60 artists, 10 restaurants, and 4 live bands headlined by Larry McCray and May Erlewine & Seth Bernard.
 Wineries: This year the following 22 wineries will be featured from the region: Bel Lago, Bowers Harbor, Black Star Farms, Chateau Fontaine, Chateau Chantal, Chateau de Leelanau, Chateau Grand Traverse, Cherry Republic, Ciccone Vineyards, Circa, Gills Pier, Good Harbor Vineyards, Forty-Five North, Leelanau Cellars, Left Foot Charley, L. Mawby, Peninsula Cellars, Raftshol, Shady Lane, Silver Leaf, 2 Lads Winery and Willow.
 Art: In 2010, three area arts organizations – Art Center Traverse City, Crystal Lake Art Center and the Leelanau Community Cultural Center – have teamed up with the festival to create gallery tents featuring the work of over 60 renowned regional artists for show and sale. “We are thrilled to be a part of this,” says Dawn Thomas, chair of Art Center Traverse City. “The gallery tents are an innovation this year and will give people a chance to view and purchase work from a wide range of the region’s finest artists.”
Music: A centerpiece of the festival is a great slate of live entertainment headlined by Michigan blues legend Larry McCray, reknown folk performers May Erlewine and Seth Bernard, Song of the Lakes Trio featuring Sue Wood and Michigan blues phenom Greg Nagy, a 2010 Blues Music Award nominee in the category of ‘Best New Artist Debut’. The event will also feature original performance dance from several dance companies and more happenings to delight the eye and ear!
Food: Many exceptional food offerings will available for purchase from The Cooks House, Bourbons 72, Red Ginger,Chez Peres, Lil Bo’s, Zakey’s, Maybings, Silver Tree, Phils on Front, and Morsels. The Traverse City region is fast garnering a reputation as a culinary destination, and this year’s festival offers a great selection from some of the best restaurants in the area.
Tickets: Advance tickets are $20 each, four for $60 or $25 on the day of the event. They are available online at www.traversecitywinefestival.com, at area wineries, Turtle Creek Casino in Acme and the Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau in Traverse City. Admission includes two wine tickets; additional wine tickets are available at $4 each. A wide selection of food and art will also be available for purchase.
Posted in Food/Organic Living, Upcoming Event | No Comments »
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
 By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
On a wall clock in the dimly-lit barn, the big and little hands are both on six. A small black-and-white cat named Dora silently launches herself from the rafters and lands on hay bales beneath, then hops to her dish, where she hungrily awaits the day’s first scoops of cat chow. She’s lucky this morning. Cosmo, an orange tabby twice her size, and the gray-haired Gloria are prowling elsewhere.
 Dora’s movement rouses the curiosity of the older alpaca babies (cria), and they leave their mothers and squeeze their soft, woolly bodies through the narrow opening of the baby pen (“creep”), where they greet their purring friend and munch on grain pellets meant only for them. Outside the creep, mothers (“dams”) rise on skinny legs, their unweaned cria beside them, to graze at the hay wagons.
A few hundred feet away, at the top of a steep driveway and inside their cedar-clad home, Chris Stapleton and her husband Jim Bleyaert are awakened by wet border-collie kisses from Rose and Jolene. Twelve-year-old Alyce, a border-collie mix, waits patiently beside the bedroom door.
Chris rises first and shoos the dogs outside, then makes coffee before heading into her home office to check phone and email messages. In this quiet hour, before sunlight hits the henhouse and farm chores beckon, she begins a work routine that allows her to run a successful real estate business and live the farm life that feeds her soul.
Good privacy, pretty and rolling
A little over 10 years ago, the couple lived in a home that Jim, a carpenter, built on wooded acreage in a development next to state land in Solon Township. For Jim, a city boy from Monroe who had only ever owned a dog, this was country living. For Chris, who grew up in Oxford, Mich. — where she traded chores to ride quarter horses, and where she spent four of her teen years working for a veterinarian — the home’s neighborhood setting wasn’t “country” enough.
“He didn’t see any reason to have more land, but he was a trooper,” she says of Jim and their three-year search for a prettier, more private parcel. “We looked at a lot of properties.”
They bought a hilltop house near Aral, with “beautiful” views, a quarter-mile long driveway and 94 acres straddling the Benzie-Leelanau county line. They had no idea what livestock they might raise on their mostly pine plantation. Chris wanted animals that could sustain themselves, monetarily, but her intention was not to make money. Jim wanted livestock that wouldn’t be slaughtered. After spotting Dave and Kathy Easter’s alpacas at the Northwest Michigan Fair a year later, they cleared some land, built shelters, and bought three young females. A few years later, when the neighbor below them decided to sell, they acquired another ranch home, 54 acres, and a driveway measuring three-quarters of a mile. Jim cleared the land and planted seed for new pastures.
From their house on the hill, Chris and Jim now overlook alpaca and sheep pastures, and Jim’s regulation ball field. Views of Norconk’s asparagus farm, and Lake Michigan, where it meets the Platte River, are visible in the distance.
Down to work
A full-time farmer, Jim is responsible for infrastructure (driveway maintenance after a heavy snow or rain takes hours) and repair and maintenance for two homes, two garages, two huge pole barns, a chicken coop, a computerized well pumphouse, a pasture shelter, a 32’ x 48’ wood barn with hayloft he built, and a 20’ x 40’ hoop barn they erected themselves for studs (male alpacas) and Old English Babydoll Southdown sheep. Jim is also the groundskeeper — plowing, seeding, irrigating and mowing lawns, 15 acres of pasture and his ball field. He transports animals (logging countless hours and interstate miles) and works on farm-related projects, in addition to his estimated 15 hours a week of farm chores. Jim is also the household cook and organizer.
Chris spends 45 minutes to an hour each day feeding, watering and scooping poop for 18 alpacas, 19 chickens, 6 sheep, 5 runner ducks, 3 dogs and 3 cats. She spends two more hours, a few days a week, for other farm tasks, such as washing buckets, moving hay and extra cleaning. The alpacas are “first” in her morning chores, though Chris passes the henhouse on her way to the barn. The hens’ extra hour “cooped” is meant, she says with a laugh, to encourage more egg laying. (Once outside, their chickens roam a large pasture and also spend several free-range hours in the woods.)
They bought chickens to ensure a steady supply of fresh eggs.
“When I wanted chickens, he said, ‘Peep, peep, peep, no sheep!’ and I would respond, ‘Baa-a-a-ah’.”
Her new lambs, purchased as pets and for herding practice with Rose, were a gift from Jim, who was against owning any animal that had to be slaughtered. He researched sheep and found the hardy Babydoll, a miniature breed (averaging 18”-22” at the shoulder) with stocky, woolly bodies and sweet personalities.
“They tend to get themselves into trouble,” Chris says of her young lambs. “They knock over anything left in the pen and get into everything. We used to have a hose in there, but one time Jim came back to the barn and found a lamb with a hose wrapped around her.”
Taking a break
Real estate work keeps Chris busy until at least 5 p.m., when she unwinds by taking the dogs for a walk, revisiting the hoop barn to feed the studs and sheep, and practicing her herding with Rose. She spends at least another hour every day (more if the day is stressful) visiting with the animals.
“The farm is my boat,” she says. “Some folks have boats, fast cars or fancy cottages, something they enjoy outside of the working world. When I’m in the barn with the animals, there’s a time warp. It’s similar to the feeling I get when I ice fish, or while I’m perched high in a tree stand, or reading a good book with only the sound of the surf in the background. All of a sudden, hours have passed and not one worry or thought of work has passed through my mind. I think it’s probably like meditation: my mind is quiet and clear. I can once again face things in the real world. “The calm and trusting nature of the animals is therapy. When you can walk into a pen where a mother alpaca and her two-day-old baby are laying, and they watch you change the water and freshen the hay, and they know you will care for them, it’s a feeling of closeness to all that is good.”
Listen to the Aral Peak Alpaca song at: www.aralpeak.com/AlpacaSOng.mp3 and visit Aral Peak Alpacas online at www.alpacanation.com. Disclosure: Pat Stinson is the Aral Peak critter sitter and Stapleton Realty advertising/marketing consultant.
Posted in Food/Organic Living, Local Personality | 2 Comments »
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From staff reports
