Tasting Tent II by farlane

The 2009 Epicurean Classic takes place St. Joseph August 28 - 30, 2009. It's one of the premier annual celebrations of culinary artisanship, drawing big name chefs from around the nation and world who lead classes & cooking presentations and mingle in a relaxed and unimaginably tasty setting. Add in wines and wineries from all over the world and food & kitchen supply vendors sampling their wares and you will see why many people count this as one of Michigan's signature events.

Enjoy a taste of the Epicurean Classic in this video from Scott Allman Productions and be sure to attend - you will not be sorry!

After tallying the votes from an enormous number of submissions we have identified our winner. Drum roll please......

"I moved from Michigan to Florida this January for work. People said "Florida in the winter....wow, you're lucky" and "you got a job in this economy, man, you're lucky". Well let me tell you something my Michigan friends....you can take a man out of Flint, but you'll never take the Flintstone out of the Man. Give me one excuse to leave this this oceanside resort for a reunion with the best people in the world, my Michigander soul people, and I won't be taking Interstate 75 south again. This Michigan Man is ready to find a way to join all the spirited people celebrating our nations birth with some Great Times in the Great Lakes.....and I thank you absolutemichigan.com for bringing me home!!! Say Yeah to Rothbury, the best music line up of the year....Say Yes to Me in M!ch!gan!!!"

Stace S

Rothbury Snoop Dogg Crowd by Dave Vann

We are pleased to announce that just as we did last year we are having another Rothbury Ticket Giveaway thanks to the very generous festival organizers. This year we will be giving away a pair of 4 day GA Tickets camping included!

Tickets can still be purchased and just like last year's Rothbury Festival they are offering a variety of packages to suit all lifestyles. Unique to this year's festival are the 2 day Saturday & Sunday tickets.

About the Rothbury Music Festival

This year the Rothbury Music Festival takes place July 2-5, 2009 in Rothbury, Michigan (near Muskegon). Four days of music on six stages feature some of the biggest musical acts around including THE DEAD • BOB DYLAN AND HIS BAND • THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT • WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY • THE BLACK CROWES • DAMIAN 'JR. GONG' MARLEY & NAS • STS9 • G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE • GOV'T MULE • UMPHREY'S MCGEE • BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE • YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND • and about a jillion others!

The festival also will be showcasing "Circus & Theater", a feature that demonstrates the festival's commitment to the performing arts and theatrical culture.

All kinds of interesting Environments & Experiences where you can wander through the Sherwood Forest and stumble upon its many mysteries. Put your hands on some great new gadgets and games at the Festival’s Epicenter or wake up and get loose in a unique yoga journey.

The Rothbury Think Tank will be focused on finding energy independence and feature the innovators, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, celebs, and rabble rousers who – in this time of economic, energy and climate crisis – are offering a green path to a brighter future.

Rothbury in Video and Pictures

Checkout more Rothbury videos on their YouTube channel!

There is also this awesome slideshow from Rothbury 2008 via Flickr...

morel spring 2008 by baldo1man

When an avid morel mushroom hunter stands before 250 people recounting a time when he walked out of the woods wearing only his underwear, socks and shoes, giggles burst but people listen. Finding the elusive morel is no laughing matter, but to the attendees of the morel hunting lecture at the 49th National Annual Morel Mushroom Festival in Boyne City, the entertainment was as delicious as the soup - seasoned with laughter and emboldened with rich enthusiasm.

After watching culinary guru John Sheets prepare a mouth-watering array of wild edibles, the crowd listened as native Anthony Williams recounted tales of his morel hunting lineage, sharing tricks and tips passed down through generations. Afterward, he shared a morel song accompanied by his wife, Robin Lee Berry. No one would walk away from Friday's festivities empty-handed.

Boyne City Sunset by rickrjw

What Boyne City offers this weekend is more than just words. Yesterday organizers and volunteers from the community accompanied four bus loads of hungry hunters, through private land, to search and pick as they will again today. Experts offered suggestions and visitors shared in the excitement of discovering their first morel. Not everyone walked away with something in their sack, but each person had the opportunity to inspect this elusive mushroom--some place other than their dinner plate or produce aisle. Immediately following, attendees were invited to celebrate at the Morelfest Wine and Dine, which featured an elegant five course morel-themed dinner with wine pairings. The evening ended with live music from blues artist Larry McCray on Lake Charlevoix.

Weekend events remain and there is still time to join in the fun! Saturday (May 16) offers another full day of activities, beginning with a morel breakfast, followed by a hunting competition; there will be a cooking demonstration by an award-winning chef; a craft-fair, where you can purchase morel inspired walking sticks, wood carvings, mesh morel-picking bags, jams, jellies and many other treats; a carnival to entertain the children or satisfy the inner-child, and another chance to experience great music with Twisted Finster. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of Boyne City, grab your family and friends and join in the fun!

...and just why was a morel hunter walking out of the woods in his underwear?

Apparently Tony had discovered "the mother lode" and, rather than leave them, utilized the remainder of his clothing to carry home the all the morels. Although he made no promises, with generous spirit and good humor he offered some of his secrets and instilled hope in a new generation of mushroom hunters.

Click for the all the details of the Boyne City Morel Festival or grab your Michigan map and head to Boyne City.

Morels ! by cedarkayak

The latest issue of Midwest Living feature on the Best Midwest Food Towns served up a platefull of restaurants in our region that might entice the culinary tourist. Their editors selected Traverse City as the #2 town and Ann Arbor #3. Also featured were a collection of recipes from Traverse City including Morel Mushroom Cream Sauce With Pasta and a Creme Fraiche from Shetler's Dairy.

The Detroit City Council's proposal to demolish Michigan Central Station as a means to bring in Federal stimulus dollars seemed to many to have all the brilliance of a plan to get rich quick by selling both your kidneys. Now the Detroit News reports that developer Manuel (Matty) Moroun is proposing to lease Michigan Central Station to the United States government for redevelopment. The Department of Homeland Security offices for Customs and Border Protection are seeking to lease almost 50,000 square feet of space in the Detroit area to house personnel.

Of surprise to nobody - outside of State government at least - the Detroit News is reporting that Michigan's agricultural industry is bucking the trend of decline:

The state's overall agricultural industry -- which includes not only farming but also food processing and biofuels, wineries and beer-making -- grew 12 percent to $71.3 billion in revenue in 2007, following several years of single-digit growth; 2008 figures are not yet available.

...Some 100 agri-food businesses have started in Michigan during the past five years, according to the MDA.

Imagine what we could do if we really invested in building and promoted our agricultural bounty.

Edward Vielmetti has a tasty post that includes Michigan's morel festivals and the book How to Find Morels by Milan Pelouch. Even more about morels at Absolute Michigan keyword morel!

morel mushroom by Latitude 45

The Boyne City National Morel Mushroom Festival takes place May 14-17, 2009. This year is the 49th annual*, and the 4 day celebration of the morel mushroom includes a morel seminar and guided mushroom hunt on Friday and of course the Boyne Valley Lions National Mushroom Hunt on on Saturday (be sure to display your finds on the Mushroom Pole too!). In addition to the Taste of Morel event where you get to try all manner of morel dishes, there is a seminar on foraging & cooking with wild food guru John Sheets and another on hunting with local expert Tony Williams, concerts with Michigan Blues legend Larry McCray and others, there's a carnival, euchre & poker tournaments, zany car race and plenty of fun for kids.

One of the highlights of the weekend is the "Morel Taste of Boyne" featuring a Chef's Challenge along with the area's finest restaurants in the big tent on Saturday afternoon serving different morel dishes and also presenting morel cooking demonstrations. This is the largest morel cooking (and eating) event in the world!

You can grab your sweetie and get warmed up with The Mushroomers Waltz and if you're hungry,Lake Magazine has a recipe for morel & hazelnut soup that looks very simple but very tasty! Chef Eric Villegas of the TV show Fork in the Road offers a recipe for midwestern risotto of carnaroli and minnesota wild rice, morel mushrooms and white truffle oil that looks more complex but every bit as tasty.

MichiganMorels.com reminds you that you can eat any mushroom ... once. They offer tips to help keep you safe, but the biggest tip is to hunt with someone who knows what they're doing! Speaking of hunting, here's a video interview of morel expert Tom Nauman that gives you a couple useful tips for morel hunting.

If you can't attend the Mushroom Festival and can't get to any morel-filled woods, you can still get morels (and leeks and other tasty treasures) courtesy of Michigan-based Earthy Delights.

Visitors will want to visit the Boyne City Chamber of Commerce and/or try Absolute Michigan keyword "Boyne" for lodging and other information. I thought it was pretty funny that the best article online about the Boyne City Mushroom Festival is from a Pittsburgh, PA newspaper. It's from May of 2003 but has great background on the festival with a focus on the National Mushroom Hunting Championship. Check out Boyne City mushroom championship has no lack of morels.

* Next year the 50th annual takes place May 13 - 16, 2010 - they are seeking recipes for a commemorative cookbook, so send them if you have them!

The finest Chef teams from Northern & Southern Michigan will again compete in the 2nd Annual event at Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire on April 24-26. The event celebrates Springtime Splendor Week in Michigan, and highlights Michigan’s great Agricultural diversity and growing wine & micro-brew industries.

The North vs. South competition on Saturday will again feature fantastic entrée samplings by twelve Chef teams, complimented by fine Michigan wine and micro-brew tastings. North & South winning teams will be chosen by the public and several professional culinary judges, and face off in an “Iron Chef” competition dinner that evening. Chef Eric Villegas of “Fork in the Road” TV fame, and Chef Michelle Bommarito, frequent participant on Food Channel competitions, are among the judges at the Iron Chef show-down.

hazelnut-chocolate pastries by Ledio

Proceeds from the Chef's Challenge benefit Challenge Mountain, an organization dedicated to providing adaptive outdoor recreational equipment to persons with developmental challenges.

Complete details are available at www.chefs-challenge.com or call (231) 535-2227.

You might also want to check out the Chef Challenge promo featuring event organizer and local food promoter Joe Breidenstein.

The Long Crossing

A combination of Wikipedia's Traverse City, Michigan entry and the Traverse City CVB the Grand Traverse Bay got their name from 18th century French voyagers who made la grande traverse or "the long crossing" across the mouth of the bay Grand Traverse Bay. In 1853 the only post office in the region was located at Old Mission, then known as "Grand Traverse." While in Washington, D.C. in 1852, Tracy Lay convinced the U.S. Post Office to authorize a new post office at his newer settlement across the bay. The village was known as "Grand Traverse City," but at the suggestion of a postal clerk the "Grand" was dropped to limit confusion.

Culinary Delights

The Grand Traverse region earns the nickname of "Cherry Capital of the World," producing an estimated 360,000,000 pounds of cherries annually. It's not just cherries though - the wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula and Old Mission Peninsula have risen quickly to the top due to a conducive micro-climate for growing grapes. You can enjoy the region's agricultural bounty through a wide array of farm markets and food producers like Shetler Family Dairy, Moomers Homemade Ice Cream (named America's Best Scoop in 2008) and Carlson's of Fishtown. There are also at a number of great restaurants in the city and scattered throughout the area. Just a few of these to not miss are Fusion, amical, Trattoria Funistrada, The Old Mission Tavern and (of course) the Cheese Shanty.

Traverse City, in pictures

The photo above is titled Sunrise, East Arm, Traverse Bay and it was taken by Joel Dinda, who has several more from Traverse City and this set of Leelanau County photos (slideshow). As you can see from Joel's photos, the countryside and shoreline surrounding Traverse City is some of the most beautiful in Michigan. In addition to Traverse City, some things you might want to look at include Old Mission, Sleeping Bear Dunes and of course photos of Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee & Wexford.

TJ's Pub by the pentax hammer

But what is there to DO in Traverse City?

If you enjoy the outdoors, Northwest Michigan is the place to go. The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is among the most beautiful natural areas in the nation, offering miles of untrammeled Lake Michigan coastline, hiking, camping and cultural opportunities and the world's largest shifting sand dunes. There are many more beaches offering swimming and fishing on the area's many inland lakes like North and South Lake Leelanau and Torch Lake. You can also hike the trails of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, bike on the many backroads and trails including the TART Trails and the Betsie Valley Trail and enjoy golf at a dizzying number of golf courses.

If the outdoors isn't your thing you can experience shopping in downtown Traverse City and at villages across the region. The State Theatre - home of the Traverse City Film Festival - has been beautifully restored and shows a variety of independent and classic movies every day. The region also boasts some excellent museums including the Dennos Museum, Music House (private museum), and Great Lakes Children's Museum in Traverse City, the Manistee County Historical Museum, the Empire Area Historical Museum, Grand Traverse Lighthouse, Guntzviller's Spirit of the Woods Museum (private) and the Carl T. Johnson Hunting & Fishing Center in Cadillac.

Where do I go for more?

You can dig deeper through Absolute Michigan by checking out Absolute Michigan county pages for Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau, Manistee & Wexford and also try the pages for Traverse City, Manistee, Cadillac and many other towns that you can see on the Absolute Michigan Map of Michigan. Of course there are tons of other web sites with useful information. Some of our favorites are the Traverse City Visitors Convention & Visitor's Bureau, MyNorth, Kalkaska County Michigan Online, the Benzie County Visitors Bureau, and our own Leelanau.com and betsiebay.net.

Ethiopian food is naturally low fat due to preservation issues and their menu includes poultry, lamb, beef and a wide range of vegetarian dishes. They also feature a full bar, the spicy teas of the country and (of course) Ethiopian Coffee!

Note that Quality is guaranteed by Seifu Lessanwork, personal butler to His Majesty, the Emperor of Ethiopia!

Fleetwood Mohawk by aTanguay

Food at the Fleetwood Diner is, as one might expect, no-frills, hot as blazes and delicately flavored with whatever else has been on the grill all day. This is a good thing. Come here for all manner of eggs, bacon, sausage, etc., burgers the way you want them, greasy fries, BLTs, tuna sandwiches and more. Don't miss the Fleet's most famous meal, Hippie Hash, a dizzying fry-up of shredded potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and broccoli all bound together with feta cheese and some kind of meat if you want it.

The Fleetwood has no official web site, but satisfied customer Jim Rees maintains a great Fleetwood Diner site with history, photos, links and updates like No news is good news. The Fleetwood has not been torn down for a parking garage. The Fleetwood has not gone out of business. It's still there, serving up food and coffee 24 hours a day.

Check out the original Fleetwood in Ann Arbor, the Fleetwood in Lansing and the latest Fleetwood in Kentwood (Grand Rapids) on our Absolute Michigan Map of Michigan.

Crab Rangoon by Shawn Botruff

For the month of February, we'll be focusing on dining in Michigan. Starting Monday, we'll be offering daily profiles of restaurants. We'll begin with diners and dives, check out some casual and family restaurants, dress up for fine dining and sample some of the great ethnic fare Michigan serves up.

We'll also try and take you a little closer to some of our state's noted chefs, wander through as many cookbooks as we can, take a look at the many culinary festivals out there, pull up a chair at some of Michigan's culinary blogs and in general try to eat our way through February and cabin fever!!

As always, we're looking for your input in the comments or by email. Michigan's a big place and we know that there's a lot out there that we haven't tasted!

Explore Michigan Restaurants

• Michigan Diners & Hometown Favorites
• Michigan Casual & Family Restaurants
• Michigan Fine Dining Restaurants
• Michigan Ethnic Restaurants

(see the ones we featured and add your own favorites!)

Frank's Restaurant by meanmustard1982

In February we'll be focusing on Michigan dining and cooking all month.

Every day, we'll profile a Michigan restaurant and we're hoping that you'll recommend some of your favorites in the comments below or by email.

From diner to four star restaurant and Detroit to Menominee, we want to offer up a palate-pleasing buffet of all the great eats in Michigan!

I took this photo of Perry Harmon (who now makes a very tasty and tender biscotti for a living) at the Traverse Epicurean Classic last year (slideshow). The Epicurean Classic is an amazing annual celebration of food, wine, brewing and cooking that gets better every year. It was founded to benefit the Great Lakes Culinary Institute through student scholarships and a chance to interact with the world's finest chefs and wine industry professionals and provides dinners, receptions, tasting pavilions and a host of classes from some of the top names in food & wine.

It takes place Thursday, September 13 - Saturday, September 15, 2007 at the Hagerty Center in Traverse City. This year's chefs, wine & food experts and distinguished guests include David Pasternack, Marcel Biro, Isabella Nicoletti, Michael Tucker, Isabel Cruz, the Lee Brothers, Craig Common and Seth Allen.

I can't recommend this highly enough.

This photo of the Noguchi Fountain by Dave Hogg is one of a set of photos from the 2006 Detroit Jazzfest (slideshow).

The Detroit International Jazz Festival is held every year on Labor Day weekend. With 6 stages, 100+ acts, it's one of the premier free jazz festivals in the nation.

They have a spectacular lineup including Herbie Hancock, Detroit-born and raised violinist Regina Carter, Dave Brubeck, Marcus Belgrave & the Detroit Experience, Larry McCray and The Miracles to name just a very few.

Greeny Goodness by Sarah Steffens

Sunday's Saginaw News had a brief feature on culinary tourism that says a recent survey from the Travel Industry Association found Michigan ranked in the top 15 states for food and in the top 12 for wine-related travel. The survey found that 27 million travelers (17%) include culinary adventures in their trips and defined the culinary segment as those who make leisure travel decisions based on wine and food activities, planning around restaurants, wineries, cooking classes, farmers markets and food or wine festivals.

The article quotes David Lorenz of Travel Michigan as saying:

"Culinary travel is a natural for Michigan. Our agricultural base is very diverse, we have a well-regarded and growing wine industry, we are surrounded by Great Lakes and enjoy fresh and smoked fish - we have all the ingredients for wonderful food and wine experiences."

Recent figures show that 800,000 visitors spent $8.6 million at the 50 wineries across the state, and I learned this weekend that Michigan is the second most agriculturally diverse state in the US.

You can visit the Travel Industry Association (have to pay for the report), learn more about Michigan's wine industry from the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council.

Kitchen Chick

Author Lisa Leutheuser is an avid cook and eater who will try anything and has 200 cookbooks at her house. She was even quoted in Who's Afraid of Souffles? on CBSnews.com.

Hungry? How about some Creamy Maple Polenta at the Desserts page or Lidia's Italy & Sausages with Fennel and Olives. (pictured right)

"And then we have wine. And we dine. And we groan. And then we eat dessert and groan some more. And then we talk until we can contemplate moving again."
-on Thanksgiving

The current version of Introduce Your Michigan Business or Organization is right there.