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Up North Pride honors Trans Day of Remembrance with Nov. 20 Luminary Walk

Up North Pride will host a Transgender Day of Remembrance Luminary Walk on Wednesday, Nov. 20, on the Leelanau TART Trail between Farm Club and the Fouch Road trailhead. The half-mile pathway will be lined with glowing luminary bags featuring the names of those being honored with the memorial event between 5:30 and 7 pm. Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) is an annual observance that started in 1999 as a vigil for remembering and honoring all trans, gender diverse, intersex, and non-binary people who’ve lost their lives during the past year due to anti-transgender violence.

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Navigating the corn maze: Jacob’s Farm champions agritourism

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“Houses are great, but I think this is real pretty,” Jacob’s Farm owner Michael Witkop said as he stood outside the hilltop Orchard View wedding barn and gazed north across their 10-acre corn maze to the red centennial barn, where workers scurried like busy ants to open the restaurant, bar, and outdoor music venue by early June. Beyond the M-72 corridor, which connects his destination to bustling Traverse City, the hills of Leelanau County hovered in the distance like low-hanging clouds. We’re featuring Jacob’s Farm as part of our series on innovative solutions to the farming crisis. On May 7, Witkop addressed 65 attendees of Michigan State University (MSU) Extension’s first-ever Agritourism Summit, which included a tour of local agritourism businesses that have succeeded in bringing customers directly to their farms—thereby forestalling the fate that has forced tens of thousands of small farms across the United States to close in recent decades.

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CNN Travel names Northwest Michigan among 24 places to visit in 2024

This week CNN Travel named our region, including Leelanau County and Traverse City, among the 24 best places to visit in the new year. The story encourages readers and travelers to “look at places that are still largely undiscovered, or alluring in the offseason, or frequently overlooked for their larger first cities or neighbors. Maybe it’s time to head to places that are making it easier for tourists to visit and those that pay close attention to encouraging tourism that’s sustainable.” Sleeping Bear Dunes is no stranger to national and international media exposure. In 2011 the ABC show “Good Morning America” named our region “the most beautiful place in America,” which immediately boosted tourism numbers to the National Lakeshore. The honor was largely the result of northern Michigan’s social media campaign, which we examined in this article.

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Nic Theisen, Loma keep farming, even in winter

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“Growing food in summer and fall is easy,” says Loma Farm owner Nic Theisen. “Growing during winter is a more interesting story.” Spoiler alert: he’s right. Winter is cold and snowy. There’s significantly less light. It costs lots of money to provide electricity if you want heat spaces to promote growing. It’s a huge challenge to try to grow under those conditions. Why even bother? There are a few reasons. One is because Theisen wants to promote better, longer-lasting use of the land. Another is to keep his workers employed year-round. And there are those that depend on the products from the farm, especially Farm Club, the nearby restaurant that Theisen and his wife Sara own along with Gary and Allison Jonas.

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Kissing the artist’s spring ground

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French-American artist Alyssa Smith display’s her work in two iconic Leelanau County locations—Farm Club and The Mill in Glen Arbor. Three ceramic pieces from her work “A Hundred Ways to Kiss the Ground” are currently at Farm Club. Her “found object” piece “Buckets” is on display at The Mill in Glen Arbor. “Alyssa instantly had the concept for “Buckets” on her first walk through The Mill, and I could not love this piece more,” said Kelsey Duda, creative director of Fernhaus Studio and The Mill. “I would never have thought of combining the pieces together the way she did, transforming artifacts into a work of art.”

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