Upnorthfoodies.com serves small slices of life

By Pat Stinson
Sun contributor
Paula McIntyre of Cedar was tired of hearing bad news about Michigan’s economy. She said most of the stories dominating the news have been reports from the southern regions of the state, where automakers and industry-related manufacturers are struggling or closing their doors. The barrage of gloomy stories especially annoyed her after she read a Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) “blog” by Andy Guy (“Great Lakes Guy”) that cited a University of Michigan study showing that positive things were happening in the state but not being reported.

“The gist was that we are selling stories about ourselves, and we can choose to tell the good stories, too,” said McIntyre, whose background is in journalism and web site design.
Born and raised in Traverse City, McIntyre spent five years in Ann Arbor working for the Great Lakes Commission as project manager of the Great Lakes Information Network (GLIN), an online source for regional environmental and economic information. McIntyre managed GLIN’s web design and worked with others to build partnerships with agencies and organization at all levels of government. One of her GLIN coworkers later became her business partner in Loracs Creations, Inc., a web development and design company.
Today, McIntyre spends a good deal of time at her Solon Township home, either on the computer or caring for her young son. She and her husband enjoy eating good, local food, and they have been members of community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms for several years. Her distaste for unrelenting negative news, her love of the region, her web expertise and her lack of daily connections with people finally found a positive outlet in www.upnorthfoodies.com, a blog for posting and reading comments about all things edible in northern Michigan.
“A whole lot of ideas were percolating … watching what’s going on with Michigan’s economy … needing an excuse to talk to people … places in Ann Arbor like the Earthen Jar, Tios Mexican Cafe with its wall of hot sauce, the chocolate croissants at Zingerman’s … wonderful (food-related) things happening here.”
Some of her inspiration for the upnorthfoodies.com website came from part-time resident and renowned chef Mario Batali’s donation of a cooking lesson for 12 that garnered $25,000 in a Leelanau Conservancy auction in 2006 and $67,000 in 2007, the Children’s House Montessori School commitment to serving fresh and nutritious foods, the MLUI’s program to connect local farms with schools, and the increasing number of area CSAs.
“I wanted to create a community website and thought it would be cool to have a site that brings it all together.”
McIntyre enlisted the help of her sister, Ann Drury, also a Traverse City resident and a regular blogger on the site.
“She’s a wonderful cook,” McIntyre said. “She’s one of those people who would have nothing in her refrigerator and could make an awesome meal.”
Last September, McIntyre attended the second annual Epicurean Classic (co-founded by former Glen Arbor and current Traverse City resident Matt Sutherland), to talk to people about the idea of a website for northern Michigan foodies. She received good feedback.
“I was still stewing on the idea when three times in the same week I was asked if I was Kathy Gibbons (Traverse City Record-Eagle reporter and columnist).”
That clenched it. Upnorthfoodies.com was launched on October 1— a season McIntyre said might have been ill timed as the harvest was winding down.
“It was easier to find things (to write about) in December than I thought it would be,” she said with a laugh while sharing a list of topics for the fall and winter months, including canning, shopping for local holiday gifts, food and wine events and seed ordering.
What McIntyre would really like to see on the site is more posts from people willing to share a “slice of their life” as a cook, canner, baker, owner or employee of a food establishment, grower, farm worker—anyone who spends time planning, growing, harvesting, preparing or eating local food and drink.
“A lot of people sign up as foodies, not as posters,” she explained. “This is available for them to share a slice of life, to write about a day in their life or to do a little promotion to establish their expertise. For instance, Brian Hosmer, the winemaker at Chateau Chantal (I loved his post) wrote about the Ice Wine harvest, what it entails. I had no idea…”
Since all posts are archived and searchable, the site is poised to become a valuable online resource for sharing regional food experiences. McIntyre and Drury have received encouragement and publicity from Andy McFarlane of Absolute Michigan and Leelanau.com, Rick Coates of the Northern Express magazine, and the owners of the coffee company Higher Ground Trading Co. The latter wrote on its website: “Check out the charming aesthetic and useful content of their new blog (and sign up as a contributor). It’s a great way to support our local farmers and food purveyors.”
As content on the upnorthfoodies.com site grows, McIntyre said they will look more seriously for sponsors. For now, she would appreciate input from potential sponsors on how best to present their information on the site. As for her time and expense thus far, McIntyre would only say, “It’s a labor of love.”