Let’s Go Eat … Where??

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By Norm Wheeler Sun editor You are on vacation, so don’t cook! There are plenty of choices for dining out right here in this corner of Leelanau County, from breakfast to late-night munchies, from take out to slow food, from American to French to Italian, from quick and easy to refined and elegant. Most of […]

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For Cedar-swamped residents, it’s 60-minute veggie beds

Pat Stinson Sun contributor Two years ago, our household of two joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and loved the variety of produce we pulled from our bag each week: vegetables, fruit, berries, eggs and the occasional hunk of local cheese, bottle of wine or salad dressing. Our full share was a glorious riot of […]

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2009 Empire Asparagus Festival recipe winners

Courtesy of organizer Dianne Navarro First place: Asparagus Breakfast Pizza By Traci Apsey 16 oz. bag tater tots 1 bunch asparagus 6 to 8 eggs Bacon cooked 1 C Parmesan cheese fresh Cook tater tots in a large pan on stove press to form a crust. Add eggs, bacon and asparagus. Cover and cook on […]

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How I became a hickory nut

By Pat Stinson Sun contributor The delicious taste of shagbark hickory nuts — sometimes described as a cross between a black walnut or brazil nut and a pecan — was introduced to me by a friend who moved to Maple City from Springport, Mich., near Jackson. He said he had never tasted another nut that […]

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Malteds are Ripe in the Land of the Sleeping Bear

By Norm Wheeler Sun editor “Full calories are the delicious moments of your autobiography.” From The Taste of Life, by Jerome Stern. OK, so they’re not good for you. As we the people of the most obese nation in the history of the world try to grow fat conscious, shrink our mudslides, and lose our […]

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Leelanau Wine Report

By Andy McFarlane Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association Welcome to Michigan’s wine country. June was cooler than in 2005 or 2007, meaning we’ll have a later vintage this year. Bruce Simpson of Good Harbor Vineyards says that while he’d like Mother Nature to bring the heat, some of his longer-lived vintages have come from years with […]

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Changing the world one gift at a time

By Jody Arendale Sun contributor Pssst…how’d you like to pick up a perfectly good, slightly used 40-gallon water heater, on the cheap? Or maybe a gas furnace for your drafty old pole barn? Ever dream of having a vintage cast iron claw foot bathtub but couldn’t afford to buy one? What about old windows for […]

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Asparagus Festival Recipe Contest Winners

Despite the threat of torrents from above, Empire pulled off its annual Asparagus Festival in mid-May without a hitch. Here are this year’s winners in the Asparagus Festival recipe contest. Photo by Joanne Rettke Judges: Ann Derrick of the Good Harbor Grill in Glen Arbor; last year’s recipe winner, Empire’s Bonnie Nescot, and Patti Cantrell […]

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Get Wild In Your Garden

By Cre Woodard Sun contributor My first landscaping job in northern Michigan involved working on a pond for a friend, a man of grand creative vision and gardening courage. We went all out! At night, I would dream about the rare and exotic plant materials we would buy for the pond. It turned out beautifully. […]

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Eating hearty to stay warm

By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Just because the fudgies have taken the tourism season south for the winter — or maybe because of it — doesn’t mean those of you sticking around for gritty January-April can’t enjoy good food at the area’s local dining establishments. Tim Barr reports that you’ll wait no more than 15-20 […]

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