David and Theresa Gersenson, who launched the Leelanau Curling Club and opened Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse in Maple City in 2019, are betting big on curling and growing the sport into new markets. They have launched Curl Austin and opened a curling facility in Austin, Texas. Meanwhile, the Gersensons, who at one point owned eight different local businesses, have taken several steps back, prompted in part by the struggle to find managers and employees. They have sold the Sylvan Inn and M22 Inn Glen Arbor to employees and sold M22 Inn Suttons Bay. In addition, they will close Cedar City Market.

Ninety degrees on April 1. Frost in May. Drought in June, and torrential rain storms of up to 4.75 inches within five hours in July. It has not been a typical year for northern Michigan cherry growers. But then, typical years are either a thing of the past, or the rarest of occurrences. Some local cherry farmers wonder how much longer this region will be viable for cherry farming. Where once the peninsula was identified as ideal cherry growing land, the years and seasons have become more variable; years of poor crops and even crop failures more frequent.