Asparagus, a wonder drug and olfactory pleaser

By Waleed Al-Shamma Sun contributor Heart attacks, cancer, strokes, diabetes and … the ability to produce and/or smell rank urine? While asparagus may help fight and prevent most of these hereditary traits, it is responsible for one of them. There is rarely complete harmony in the scientific community. Indeed scientists find it necessary to debate […]

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Hunting for Morel mushrooms in the National Park

By Jane Greiner Sun contributor Locals and visitors alike are discovering that ranger-led walks are a great way to enjoy the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (the local branch of the National Park Service). As part of the program, “Saturdays at the Lakeshore,” a ranger meets with the public at the Philip Hart Visitors Center […]

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Envirothon teams seek sustainable environmental solutions

By Nadine Gilmer Sun contributor Of the many clubs at Glen Lake High School, the Envirothon team receives the least amount of recognition. Glen Lake’s three teams of five players each, advised by biology teacher Karen Richard, are the only Envirothon teams currently competing in our region. They are the kids who meet at lunch […]

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Hummingbird love, and Spring, are in the air

By Jane Greiner Sun contributor What a pleasure it is to have the hummingbirds back. Yesterday I looked up from my book to see a female hummingbird sitting on the feeder. A second one, presumably male, approached the feeder and flew back and forth in front of her in a short horizontal “shuttle pattern.” Back […]

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A world that’s not beneath our notice

By Holly Wren Spaulding Sun contributor Being a writer, I spend a good deal of time in the rooms of my head, the dark corridors of contemplation. The obvious hazard, although there are many others, is that such a lifestyle often takes me away from the vigor of the body and the sense of my […]

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Fighting off the bear with Internet technology

By Carol Purcell Sun contributor One beautiful week last September I headed to the Upper Peninsula for a solitary camping trip. The Hurricane River Campground is a small campground reached by dirt roads, 12 miles west of Grand Marais, right on Lake Superior in the Pictured Rocks. It has 11 sites, one water spigot and […]

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2007 Empire Asparagus Festival Poetry Contest winners

Adult category Tom Ulrich Spare Gus My grandfather grew asparagus. Not in raised beds, or rows, But in a chaos of well-rotted manure And a ragged forest of spears. He called it by name, with affection. When I was younger I thought “Spare Gus” Was the nickname for an old friend of his Who came […]

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Park considers public input on eve of new Management Plan

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (the local branch of the National Park Service) will hold three public meetings this week, May 1-3, to solicit public input about the three “Preferred Alternatives” suggested in a recent newsletter, toward developing a new General Management Plan that would guide the Park for decades to come. The photo […]

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Winterfests warm the blood during the coldest months

Like father, like son: John and Charlie Velis (left) jump into frigid South Bar Lake during Empire’s Winterfest Polar Dip last weekend (photo Ryan Romeike); Skiers from downstate, Dave and Brian Johnson (right) warm up with hearty chili at Glen Arbor’s Winterfest this past weekend (photo Mike Buhler).

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Death of a hero, yet her vision lives on

In recent years the Glen Arbor Sun has written about a humanitarian non-profit organization in Guatemala that has touched the lives of numerous northern Michigan locals and sent them on service-learning trips to Guatemala City to lend a hand in and around the massive garbage dump where Safe Passage is a guiding light for hundreds […]

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