Posts

A place called home: Leelanau’s need for affordable housing

Affordable housing in Leelanau County is in short supply. That isn’t actually burning news. It wasn’t even news in 1995, when I became an Americorps worker whose mission was to help start a five-county housing nonprofit organization called HomeStretch. What makes it relevant, even urgent, today is that housing in the county—for workers with college degrees, skills and good jobs, families, people with low incomes, seniors, young adults—is evaporating more quickly than the water levels on Lake Michigan. When the basic needs of a community aren’t met—whether through a confluence of circumstances, lack of initiative, an adverse business climate, or refusal by its members to take action—then the whole community suffers.

Read more
/by

Fountain Point Resort features Eric Taylor

The Lake Leelanau Rowing Club is delighted to host a benefit performance by the legendary Texas singer/songwriter, Eric Taylor. The performance will be held Monday, August 4, at 8 p.m. at the Fountain Point Resort in Lake Leelanau.

Read more
/by

Josh White, Jr., plays Fountain Point Resort

Lake Leelanau’s Fountain Point Resort is pleased to announce an upcoming concert featuring the legendary Josh White, Jr. This performance by White is set for Friday evening, June 27, at 8 p.m. on the porch of Fountain Point’s Lodge overlooking Lake Leelanau.

Read more
/by

Letter from Guatemala

By Kathleen Stocking Sun contributor Dear Leelanau, The mournful roosters of Guatemala call out over the waters of Lake Atitlan, “Oh, lost, where are you,” the sound lingering in the foggy dawn. My neighbor’s roosters in Lake Leelanau say, “Cock-a-doodle-doo,” like the roosters in Mother Goose, and the roosters of Thailand scream, “Now, you’ll die, […]

Read more
/by

Fruit everywhere, but who will pick it?

, ,

How our broken immigration system hurts Leelanau County farmers By Jacob Wheeler Sun editor Rosa Valenzuela and her family look forward to their annual trip up north, to see old friends, to prepare picnics in the park and to swim in Lake Michigan when the waters warm by mid-summer. But the Valenzuelas are not your […]

Read more
/by

Cleanest cows in Leelanau County

, ,

It’s just after 7 a.m. and a milk-hauling truck is slowly climbing the gravel drive toward the milking parlor at Garvin Farms, north of Cedar. Two or three times a week, John and Anne Hoyt of Leelanau Cheese make the trek in their truck, aptly named “The Milky Way,” to the Garvins’ immaculately-kept dairy farm along Lakeshore Drive. Here, the Hoyts draw two test samples of the farm’s fresh milk from a stainless tank before loading the truck with what will soon be made into Swiss Raclette and, in summer, Fromage Blanc cheeses.

Read more
/by

Jane Fortune, portrait of a philanthropist

,

Best known locally as the co-owner with Bob Hesse of Leelanau County’s new Bella Fortuna Restaurant in the center of Lake Leelanau, Jane Fortune, a long-time Leland summer resident, has been working quietly for years to rescue the works of female artists languishing in storage in the more than 40 museums in Florence.

Read more
/by

Baabaazuzu reaps benefits of economic investment

,

When Sue Burns’ husband Kevin accidentally shrank her wool sweaters in the wash 20 years ago, she had no idea that their laundry mishap would be the catalyst for growing a creatively satisfying, financially robust business in Leelanau County. Unable to throw away her favorite garments, she cut and resewed the fabrics into colorful hats, jackets and sweaters for her two young daughters. When friends, acquaintances and even strangers asked where she’d gotten them, she realized she had the beginnings of a promising niche in the fiber arts market. Thus Baabaazuzu — the name combines the sound of a sheep with Sue’s nickname “Zuzu” — was born.

Read more
/by

Union Yoga certifies new teachers

Sandra Carden, director of UNION/YOGA LLC of Lake Leelanau, is pleased to announce the UNION/YOGA 200 Teacher Certification Graduating Class of February 2011. UNION/YOGA 200-hour, 28-day Intensive Yoga Teacher Certification is approved by the National Yoga Alliance, and fully licensed as required by the State of Michigan. The following graduates have completed all requirements thus recognized as Certified Yoga Teachers.

Read more
/by