Entries by editor

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Leelanau’s newest cherry farmers laud farm diversification

First generation cherry farmers are an anomaly in Leelanau these days. As far as Sarah and Phil Hallstedt are aware, the Hallstedt Homestead Cherries was the “last in before doors slammed and prices dropped.” They knew most of the challenges involved with cherry farming in the early 2000s, when they began to look for the right piece of property to start their retirement career as farmers, but at the time it did not deter them. They performed a business case with MSU extension, local growers and fruit distributors from around Michigan. As Phil put it, “We felt we had a good business plan, but that was in 2006. We fell in love with the fruit and the community, and we are just stubborn.” Click here to read Abby Chatfield’s story, which appeared in our April 11 print edition.

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Art’s hosts Beach Bards, Jim Crockett for Empire Area Community benefit concert

Art’s Tavern will host the Beach Bards poetry and storytelling troupe together with musicians Jim Crockett, Patrick Niemisto and John Kumjian on Sunday, April 28, from 4-6 pm. All free-will offerings and donations will support the efforts of the Empire Area Community Emergency Fund to assist members of the community who have fallen on hard times. For more information visit EmpireAreaCommunityCenter.org.

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Sleeping Bear Surf holds plastics cleanup at Platte River mouth

Join The Cleanup Club and Sleeping Bear Surf on Saturday, April 27, from 10 am-noon for a cleanup at the Platte River mouth in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, as we work together to protect our Great Lakes from plastic pollution in celebration of Earth Month. Click here to RSVP.

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Leelanau Clean Water holds storytelling event at Little Traverse Inn

Come enjoy “Bubbling Up,” an evening of tales of water told live on-stage at the Little Traverse Inn on Saturday, April 27, at 7 pm. A $10 voluntary donation at the door goes to support the nonprofit Leelanau Clean Water. Emcee Taylor Moore will invite six storytellers to share true personal stories about water.

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“Sugar bear” trapped near Empire, relocated by DNR

The black bear that gained national press last week after it briefly broke into Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire and made off with a 50-pound bag of sugar apparently has a taste for chickens, too. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) caught the bear in a live trap today on Joshua Evan Fast’s property on Stormer Road, about 2.5 miles southeast of downtown Empire. Fast told the Sun that the bear had eaten 16 of his chickens over the past two weeks after breaking the door to their chicken coop.

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Crystal River culvert work along County Road 675 to resume this fall

Grand Traverse Engineering and Construction and the Leelanau County Road Commission have announced that roadwork to improve Crystal River stream crossings along County Road 675, northeast of Glen Arbor, will resume late this summer or early this fall. The culverts where kayakers on the Crystal River gleefully “shoot the tube” are next on the list. Click here to read more and to view a map of the project.

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Leelanau Conservancy holds Earth Week events

As the climate warms and our world responds, Leelanau witnesses the familiar signs of spring’s arrival—a season now marked by changing weather patterns and ecological shifts. In recognition of these changes, the Leelanau Conservancy invites all to partake in Earth Week 2024. Amid concerns of climate disruption, the Conservancy’s annual series of events aims to foster community resilience and environmental stewardship. From April 22-28 the Conservancy will engage in hikes, volunteer opportunities, and community gatherings, all emphasized by a collective commitment to mitigate the impacts of climate change and protect Leelanau for generations to come.

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A double date leads to a Galla-Popa double wedding

Wedding couples of the late 1930s and early 1940s in rural northern Michigan braved hurdles that most modern couples have never faced. These brides and grooms survived the devastating economic and social challenges of The Great Depression only to witness the eve of a second world war. Unimaginable, yet these persevering couples endured and thrived. Rebecca Carlson narrates the Galla-Popa double wedding of July 1941, as part of her ongoing series on Leelanau farming families.

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V Gallery fills Tamarack Gallery void in Omena

Hillary and Matt Voight are proprietors of a new Omena art gallery called V Gallery, which is located in the former Tamarack space and is set to open this May. In 2023, the Leelanau art community entered a void in representation as three prominent art galleries closed their doors. One was Tamarack Gallery, founded by David and Sally Viskochil more than 45 years ago and beloved by art lovers from around the world. “As I walked through the door to meet Matt and Hillary, I knew I was experiencing a unique moment in time, a mere blip between the old guard and the new generation representing art here in Northern Michigan,” writes Abby Chatfield in this story the Sun published in our April 11 print edition.

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Black bear enters Empire chocolate shop, devours bag of sugar

A black bear has visited Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire on five consecutive evenings this week, rummaged through a dumpster and spreading garbage around the village, and pulling open the back door and devouring a 50-pound bag of sugar. On Tuesday night, April 16, around 10:30 pm, the bear entered the beloved chocolate shop for no more than 20 seconds, stole the sugar and returned to the sidewalk to eat it. It touched nothing else in the shop, not even the small, chocolate bears on display by the checkout counter.

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