Poems welcome at 10th annual Empire Asparagus Festival

,

The Glen Lake Community Library will host a poetry contest as part of the 10th annual Empire Asparagus Festival. Aspiring poets are invited to submit their asparagus-inspired verse to the library by Monday, May 13. Entries will be judged in youth (ages 18 and younger) and adult categories, with prizes awarded in both groups. Poems may be emailed to info@glenlakelibrary.net; or mailed to Glen Lake Community Library, P.O. Box 33, Empire, Mich. 49630; or can be dropped off at the library itself. On Saturday, May 18, at 2 p.m., all verses submitted in the contest will be shared in a poetry reading at the Empire Township Hall. Contestants are encouraged to attend this fun gathering to present their own “Ode to Asparagus”!

Read more
/by

Enjoy art from Michigan’s wine country

,

You are invited to a special winter benefit for the Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) and the kickoff event for the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association’s “Taste the Passion Weekend”. Art From Michigan’s Wine Country takes place on Friday, Feb. 1 from 6-8 p.m. at The Homestead Resort’s Mountain Flowers Lodge and features an invitational art exhibit, wine from the LPVA, and delectable small plates by The Homestead’s chef Jon Piombo.

Read more
/by

Taste the Passion along Michigan’s wine coast

, ,

The wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail invite you to share the love of wine and the beauty of Michigan’s wine coast in wintertime at their annual Taste the Passion wine tour the weekend of Feb. 2-3. Your ticket allows you to chart your own course, enjoying food and wine pairings at 20 wineries. Each winery offer savory or sweet food & wine pairing. Many feature the ever-popular pairing of wine and chocolate, and some wineries even open up their vineyards for cross-country skiing or snowshoeing.

Read more
/by

Detroit Public Television’s “Under the Radar” features Glen Arbor icons

, ,

Check out this great video from Detroit Public Television’s traveling “Under the Radar” series. You can stream the owners of Cherry Republic and Art’s Tavern, the Deputy Superintendent of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and Glen Arbor artists Becky Thatcher and Beth Bricker into your homes, thus satisfying your wanderlust.

Read more
/by

Toast the season with Leelanau wines

,

The Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail carries on a great holiday tradition in Northern Michigan with the 2013 Toast the Season wine tour either of the first two weekends of November. Choose your weekend to tour the wineries of Leelanau — either Nov. 3-4 or 10-11. The tour is self guided and participants may visit member wineries each day in any order desired, between the hours of 11am to 5pm Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Read more
/by

Tucking in the comfort at the Cedar Rustic Inn

,

When you walk through the dining room at the Cedar Rustic Inn (by the blinker just north of Cedar) on a warm evening, you pass through the back door into a cozy and charming courtyard that is shaded with umbrellas amid young maples and birch trees surrounded by tomato and lima bean plants, peonies, hydrangeas, and flower baskets mounted on the wood walls. If it’s a Wednesday night you’ll probably see Bob Smith of Glen Arbor sucking on his fingers as he polishes off the full rack of ribs. (He claims that some of his charter-fishing customers from Florida recently brought some of those leftover ribs out on the Mariah for their lunch. When they threw the bones over the side it must have attracted the salmon, because the next several fish they caught had rib bones in their mouths! But that’s a fish story.)

Read more
/by

Harvest Stompede Vineyard Run & Walk celebrates flavor of Leelanau Peninsula

,

The 11th annual Harvest Stompede Vineyard Run & Walk and Wine Tour is a great way to experience the beauty of the Leelanau Wine Trail at harvest time, with local food pairings and wine from the exceptional 2011 vintage. The event takes place the weekend of Sept. 8-9 and is considered one of the most scenic running & wine touring events in the Midwest.

Read more
/by

Buckets of Rain and the greening of Detroit

,

You can help Buckets of Rain continue to feed the poor in Detroit, in Latin America and in Africa. There is a fundraiser at Boonedocks in Glen Arbor on Sunday, Sept. 9 from 3-6 p.m. that will include extreme gardening demonstrations, music and lots of photos.

Read more
/by

Country bird nests in the city

,

Guillaume and Brook Hazael-Massieux are spreading their wings. The owners of the legendary La Becasse (“the woodcock”) French country restaurant in Burdickville are humming this week into their second nest at 118 Cass Street in downtown Traverse City named Bistro Foufou (“hummingbird”). Their new eatery is the fruit of a three-year process that finally ripened last winter when they negotiated the purchase of Hanna Bistro, a prime location just a block off Front St. in the busy center of Traverse City.

Read more
/by

Local farmers’ markets spring to life

,

Glen Arbor and Empire farmers’ markets offer much more than you might imagine. For starters, each sells the best berry ever to top a shortcake. And that’s just on opening day. Glowing beneath market canopies during my visit in mid-June are plump, sweet strawberries. Quarts and quarts of them in their cute, cardboard suits.

Read more
/by