Empire celebrates the harvest, and a youth movement

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
Under-30 local leader Ashlea Walter is the key organizer behind the Empire Asparagus Festival, which drew a large and enthusiastic crowd to Empire the weekend before Memorial Day for the town’s third annual asparagus bash. But you might not have realized that had you seen her donning a giant asparagus stalk for a hat as she nonchalantly served up asparagus ice cream during the parade on Saturday afternoon in front of her Pinkie Finger Press shop across the street from the Town Hall.

Ashlea wasn’t directing traffic or coordinating the festival with a clipboard in hand. That’s not her style, and certainly not the Empire style. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” she told me last fall. “And yet there’s a spirit of adventure here in Empire that allows things like this to happen.”
The general consensus around town is that the Empire Asparagus Festival shouldn’t grow too big. Holding it on a quiet, and still somewhat chilly, weekend in mid-May before the onslaught of tourists on Memorial Day weekend is just fine — and it makes the Asparagus Festival remain a community event. “If it grows too big, the festival will have nothing to do with asparagus,” Ashlea pointed out. “For instance, the Cherry Festival is too big. We don’t want hotdog vendors coming from outside the community. And we want to keep the asparagus festival quirky.
“We need this after being cooped up all winter long.”
Despite its small-town charm, the 2006 Asparagus Festival played host to one of the hottest musical acts in northern Michigan at the Town Hall on Saturday night, when the sweet bluegrass couple Daisy May and Seth Bernard gave a free concert and brought the crowd into it with a rendition of Johnny Cash and June Carter’s “Burning Ring of Fire.” Local guitarist and singer Chris Skellenger kept the crowd roaring the next day when his new band Three Hour Tour jammed at the Empire Village Inn.
If the music was any indication, the spirit of the Asparagus Festival could grow younger while also maintaining respect for Empire’s elderly population. “I hope a network of young people can make Empire the place where they want to live,” Ashlea said. “This place doesn’t have everything we want, but we can create things here that compliment the area. I love the people and the environment that’s created by living near the water and having access to the land. In this village we are able to walk everywhere. We have a bank, a grocery store, a library and a wonderful public beach. And we have good characters, young and old, kids, retirees and everything in between.”
These are all ingredients that allowed Ashlea to propose and start Empire’s own crop harvest festival two years ago, even though she’s only lived here for three years after teaching at The Leelanau School in Glen Arbor. “I talked to friends in the village (who initially laughed at the idea) and suggested bringing people here in the spring to celebrate the town and the local produce.” Her inspiration came from living in Germany after graduating from Kalamazoo College and learning about the celebrations the Germans throw for every local crop. Spargelzeit is the word auf Deutsch for the asparagus harvest, and Ashlea brought the idea back across the Atlantic Ocean and planted it here in Empire.
A wine tasting and a dinner were proposed, and soon a full-blown local festival sprouted out of the ground. Paul Skinner, who runs the Miser’s Hoard in Empire, approached local businesses for money, and once the word got out people stepped forward to volunteer, distribute posters and help in any way they could. The Empire Asparagus Festival is now three years old and boasts a parade, a poetry competition and reading, a recipe contest, live music, art openings, a “Kick Ass-paragus five-kilometer fun run, a nature walk, a garden tour, a Lion’s Club dinner, wine tasting, and don’t forget those incredible asparagus bratwursts and asparagus soup made by Deering’s Market.
The harvest tastes great!