As If We Were Prey is a series of short stories set mostly in small-town northern Michigan. Delp follows boys and full-grown men who know how to fight, fish, and hunt, but struggle to use those skills to overcome the emptiness and dysfunction of their day-to-day lives. The book is one of Wayne State University's Made in Michigan Writers Series and was a 2010 ForeWord Book of the Year Award medal-winner in the category of Fiction-Short Stories.

Michael is also including his book The Coast of Nowhere: Meditations on Rivers, Lakes, and Streams. It's a collection of short prose meditations and poetry that embrace the motion and rhythm of moving water.

Click here to sign up

Share this:

Wheresoever you go,
go with all your heart. - Confucius
by Church of One

Next Tuesday, February 14th is Valentine's Day - a day for lovers, sweethearts, paramours ... and chocoholics. Like it, love it or hate it, Valentine's Day is an annual tradition that will see over one billion valentines will be given out worldwide, 85% of those by women. However you choose to celebrate the holiday, consider making it a little more special with something from Michigan.

There's plenty of delicious Valentine's Day recipes from Pure Michigan at Michigan.org. The Food Network also offers up some culinary advice for Valentine's Day complete with a full Valentine's menu. Lansing's WLNS CBS channel 6 website has a complete Valentine Day section on their website where you can learn all kinds of useful information including (who knew?) that chocolate is an aphrodisiac. The folks at the Grand Rapids Press and mlive.com have some tips for Valentine's Day cooking with kids.

We have to remind you that February is National Cherry Month and cherries make a great and healthy way to bring the distinctive Valentine red into your celebrations. An affordable and tasty non-alcoholic beverage are cherry sparklers made with Michigan cherry juice and sparkling water.

On the adult beverage front, a whopping 95% of wine drinkers agree that wine makes a perfect gift, and you can't go wrong with a  Michigan wine or  Michigan beer! The folks at MyNorth offer a listing of Northern Michigan sparkling wines to set the tone for your celebration. While bubbles are big, beers can also be appreciated. Dianna at Promote Michigan has let us in on her Love Affair with Michigan Beer, which features all kinds of special and regular brews from Michigan's brewmasters. You can stay awake Ann Arbor Brewing's Espresso Love featuring coffee, cozy up to the Decadent Dark Chocolate Ale from Atwater Brewing or go a little lighter with Dragonmead's Redwing Raspberry Wheat. This is a great feature so definitely check it out!

Ginny, You Are My Shining Star by docksidepress

If you're left scratching your head over what to buy him or her, check out the 'Valentine's Day Gift Giving Guide' from WLNS.com.  Don't forget the furry friends in your life either! You can be a homeless pets Valentine when WXYZ-TV 7 in Detroit hosts their Annual Valentine's Day Telethon to support the Michigan Humane Society. Tune in or donate online with the Michigan Humane Society!

If that's not enough and you really want to get your Valentine on, check out Absolute Michigan keyword Valentine for food & gift ideas.

For a little eye candy, you should check out the Valentine slideshow from the Absolute Michigan flickr pool!

We also have a large number of Michigan web sites to check out (though if we're missing one, be sure to add a link to it).

Flowers & Florists - say it with flowers

Chocolate - there's also candy companies

Candles - lighting the way for romance for thousands of years

Jewelry -silver & gold, platinum and bronze, pick your favorite.

Wow, you actually made it to the end of this post - don't forget to buy yourself a little something for Valentines Day!

Share this:

Today on The Daily Michigan we're giving away a private tea cupping for up to 6 people, to include matcha ceremonial green tea at Light of Day Organics.

Founder Angela Macke has a background in Holistic health, as an RN, educator and horticulturalist and based on her own positive experiences in utilizing gentle, natural rhythms to restore balance. Angela believes that a holistic approach is the most effective way to restore optimal health and a sense of well being, and crafts her teas accordingly.

Light of Day teas are grown organically and biodynamically under the guidelines of the National Organic Program and Demeter Biodynamic, then hand-harvested, dried in a licensed commercial farm kitchen, and packaged with great care with teas blended small batches to promote consistency, to maximize freshness and for optimal nutritive benefit. Sign up below and check out the video from Angela below where she shows you how to brew an ideal cup of tea!

Click here to sign up

Share this:

This year Mimi and her staff are introducing five brand new fruits in their Tropical Love Valentine's Day Box. The flavors are Mango, Guava, Passion Fruit, Coconut and Blood Orange, and each vegan bonbon is made with a natural fruit puree, is deliciously enhanced by a dark chocolate shell and in a traditional red box! ...and if the "vegan" scares you, it shouldn't - that just means it has no animal products, which in chocolate is normally milk. You may be happy to learn that dark chocolate is particularly good for your heart ... and for Valentine's Day joy!

This item was won by Martha Maloney who writes: I am a native Michigander who hasn't had a trip "home" in 3 years. Looking forward to a visit in August, 2012, to Petoskey, Cross Village and Mackinac Island. Absolute Michigan helps me dream and plan! These will be lovely to share with my husband and 3 boys, my favorite four Valentines, who all love their time in Michigan too!

Grocer's Daughter is offering one of these, shipped to your door to one lucky person. If you're not already registered, just let us know using the link below!

Click here to sign up

And if you don't win, there will be another chance Monday ... and Tuesday ... and Wednesday ... and you get the idea.

Share this:

Here's the first of our new The Daily Michigan features, and one of our readers will win 5 pounds of tart cherries! All you need to do to be eligible is to let us know you want to win. We hope you'll sign up to receive our daily email (Monday - Friday) but if that's too much for you, you can choose our just give us your email address on our "We won't email you but you can still win prizes" list! Click to sign up!

February is National Cherry Month, and what better way to celebrate than 5 pounds of plump & tasty dried cherries for all your snacking and baking needs? Cherry Republic is a Glen Arbor, Michigan-based company that sells almost 200 cherry products and employs over 200 people.

Their unique process preserves the natural sugars and flavor of tart dried cherries, and the  versatility of the dried cherries makes them great to buy in bulk. You can substitute them for raisins in any recipe, and they're a healthy alternative to candy in kids lunch boxes, a great addition to stuffings for roasts, easily reconstituted and substituted for fresh cherries!

Share this:

Michigan Cherries by jdurchen

Did you know that Michigan is the largest producer of Montmorency tart cherries, growing 70-75% of the crop? February is National Cherry Month, and the Cherry Marketing Institute (link below) has bushels of info about the history and present state of the cherry industry including growing research showing that antioxidants in tart cherries may relieve the pain of arthritis and gout & help fight cancer and heart disease.

Cherry Facts

• Tart cherries are loaded with antioxidants that are believed to relieve the pain of arthritis and gout and help fight cancer and heart disease. They're also especially high in the antioxidant melatonin, which may help prevent or reduce brain deterioration associated with aging. And to top it off, they're high in vitamin A and beta-carotene.
• Cherries were brought to America by early settlers in the 1600s. Cherry trees, in fact, were part of the gardens of French settlers when they established Detroit.
• Peter Dougherty, a Presbyterian missionary on Old Mission Peninsula north of Traverse City, started modern-day cherry production in Michigan in 1852. Now, Michigan grows about 75 percent of the nation's tart cherries and Traverse City calls itself the cherry capital of the world.
• It takes about 250 cherries to make a cherry pie; enough cherries grow on the average cherry tree to make 28 pies, industry officials say.
• Tart cherries ripen two or three weeks after sweet cherries. Look for them in mid to late July.
• Cherries are a truly ancient delicacy - explorers have found cherry pits from the Stone Age in European caves.
• Tart cherries have fewer calories and more beta-carotene than sweet cherries.
• Michigan grows 75 percent of the nation's tart cherries.

For more tasty cherry info, be sure to check these out!

Cherry Marketing Institute is the best place to go for information about this delicious and healthy fruit!

Absolute Michigan's Cherry Links has all kinds of info about the cherry!

Michigan Cherries from Taste the Local Difference is PACKED with all kinds of information and delicious cherry recipes.

Michigan Cherries from the Department of Agriculture

MSU's Michigan Cherry Information features more cherry information than you can shake a whole tree at!

For all things edible, drinkable and wearable, check out Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor. They are one of the featured supporters of The Daily Michigan and are giving away 5# of cherries today!

The National Cherry Festival in Traverse City is a celebration of cherries and the cherry industry held every year at the beginning of July.

Video & Photos

Definitely check out the Cherry slideshow from the Absolute Michigan photo group on Flickr. On the video front, we hope you will enjoy 'Cherry Cherry' (circa 1967) by Neil Diamond and also this video of the harvest at an organic cherry farm in Northern Michigan!

Share this:

Smile by pairadocs

The Michigan International Auto Show returns to DeVos Place January 26-29, 2012 with manufacturers from around the world setting up their finest traveling displays. The show is West Michigan’s largest consumer show and offers you a chance to view your next new car with some 300 new vehicles on display. From sedans to vans, SUVs & trucks to hybrids and sports cars. If it rolls on 4 wheels, chances are you'll see it at the factory representatives from nearly 40 different manufacturers.

“This year, visitors will find vehicles displaying increases in innovations and design, as well as energy efficiency models as the auto industry rises to the challenges placed before it,” says Terry Burns, Executive Director of the Grand Rapids New Car Dealers Association. “New models, new designs and new technologies are helping our industry bring itself back up along a path of recovery as we move into 2012 and beyond.”

A highlight of the show is the Million Dollar Motorway, which is expected to be bigger and better than ever before featuring a variety of high end cars including Bentley, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Maserati and Lamborghini, each valued at more than $100,000. There are also exhibits from the Gilmore Car Museum that offer you a chance to take a trip back in automobile history.

Here's a video from last year's show to give you an idea of what to expect.

Absolute Michigan is committed to helping our readers get more out of Michigan. To that end, we are adding an exciting new program featuring giveaways of products and services from all kinds of Michigan businesses. It's free, fun and all you have to do to be eligible is to be on our email list - sign up using the form below. We guarantee that we will not share your email address with anyone!

If your business is interested in participating, you can get all the information right here.

Share this:

Michigan’s wine industry is booming, and the impressive skills of Michigan’s winemakers are proven repeatedly at national and international wine competitions. Wines throughout Michigan are earning medals and stomping the competition. Under icy, windy, cloudy, steamy hot, and, rarely perfect conditions, Michigan winemakers harvest and then craft delicious wines reflective of our unique region.

As we are celebrating Michigan's 175th birthday all week, the state of Michigan will celebrate nearly 90 wineries in 2012! One of the best ways to discover Michigan wines is to attend a wine tasting tour. Lucky for you, two regional events are just around the corner AND Absolute Michigan has a pair of tickets to give away for each!

February 4-5 / Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association’s Taste the Passion

2010 Taste the Passion by KatSwinehart

Warm up with a two-mile snowshoe or cross-country trek in Silver Leaf’s vineyard, orchard and woodsy trail. Afterward, dive into Silver Leaf’s featured chocolate almond and cherry clusters paired with gold medal Chafia Cherry. With 14 wineries participating, there is a lot of territory to explore. We suggest touring the northern peninsula wineries on one day and the southern peninsula wineries on another day. Get all the details on the Taste the Passion page at lpwines.com. A few more delicious wine and food pairings follow to whet your appetite:

• Chateau Fontaine of Lake Leelanau: Greek-inspired chocolate chili dogs, topped with cheddar cheese paired with Big Paw Red.
• Gills Pier, just north of Leland: Mini chocolate/honey mousse cups with sea salt and cocoa nibs paired with Whitewater, a semi-sweet white wine made with Vignoles grapes.
• Verterra Winery of Leland: The Bluebird’s Vol au Vent baked French brie with Verterra jam (preserves made from wine grapes), plus Granny Smith matchstick apples paired with Verterra’s Pinot Gris.

February 18 / Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula’s Romancing the Riesling

Enjoy a showcased Riesling and food pairing at each winery. Enjoy ten percent off all Riesling purchases during the event. Order tickets by calling (231) 223-7355. More details at wineriesofoldmission.com. A delicious sampling to tempt you from Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery is a peach tart in a mini phyllo shell topped with whipped cream paired with 2010 Riesling!

Two Great Michigan Wine Books!

Food and wine events are a wonderful way to explore Michigan’s food-friendly wines, but another great way is through yet another offering in our Birthday Bash - a pair of books about the history of the wine industry in Michigan by Lorri & Sharon. Both books are available through their Delicious Michigan website.

• The History of Michigan Wines documents Michigan's dynamic 150-year wine history! Meet passionate winemakers starting with Joseph M. Sterling who ignites the state's first viable wine industry in the 1800s along Lake Erie and follow the growth and challenges of the wine industry up to the present day!
• From the Vine: Exploring Michigan Wineries is a 192 page, hard-cover book that celebrates Michigan wine country, wines and winemakers with intriguing behind-the-scene stories, beautiful photographs and interesting side features.

You still have time to wine through our Birthday Bash by joining our email list below (which also enters you for our regular giveaways of Michigan products, services and event tickets!

Absolute Michigan is committed to helping our readers get more out of Michigan. Sign up for regular giveaways. It's free, fun and all you have to do to be eligible is to be on our email list - sign up using the form below. We guarantee that we will not share your email address with anyone!

If your business is interested in participating, you can get all the information right here.

Share this:

Yooper Steez isn’t a skateboard company, but has always drawn inspiration from the skateboarding and snowboarding culture. This is just one product (of many more to come) that offers a way for Yoopers to show their love for the Upper Peninsula. Lumberjack Jack wears wool plaid shirts, spends lots of time in the woods, has one mean looking beard, loves the UP and represents the Yooper in all of us!

All decks are seven-ply quality maple, and you can choose from either Lumberjack Jack or the Steez deck (trucks and hardware sold separately).

Share this:

Photo by Aunt Owwee

On January 26, 1837 President Andrew Jackson signed a bill declaring Michigan the 26th state of the union.  That means the Great Lakes State turns 175 next Thursday. That seemed like a pretty big milestone to us, and to celebrate, we're throwing Michigan's 175th Birthday Bash and giving out a week's worth of prizes!!

The rules are simple: if your email address is on our email list (sign up below), you are entered to win. We'll draw a name at random every day and let the winner pick want they want from our "grab bag." Here's what we have:

• Two tickets to the Michigan International Auto Show in Grand Rapids (January 26-29) (click to read more)
• Two tickets to see legendary Detroit alternative rockers Sponge and their "Rotting Pinata" Rewind Show at the Emerald Theatre in Mt. Clemens on January 28 (click for the details!)
• The History of Michigan Wines: 150 Years of Winemaking along the Great Lakes and From the Vine: Exploring Michigan Wineries, two books exploring the history and present day of the Michigan wine industry by Lorri Hathaway and Sharon Kegerreis of Delicious Michigan.  (read more) These have been selected by Lissa Richardson
• Two tickets to the Taste the Passion wine tour celebrating wine, chocolate and love on the Leelanau Peninsula (February 4 & 5) - these have been won by Dawn Dodge! (read more)
• Two tickets to the Traverse City Winter Microbrew & Music Festival with 40+ breweries, cideries, meaderies and wineries and great live music (February 11) - these have been chosen by Tracy Miller, Executive Director of the Japan America Society of West Michigan!
• Two tickets to the Romancing the Riesling wine tour on the Old Mission Peninsula featuring some of the top-notch Rieslings of Northern Michigan with wine & food pairings and deals on wine purchases (February 18)  (read more) These have been picked by Jessica Kelley of hippsylake.com
• A skateboard deck from Yooper Steez (click to read more!)
• ...and just in from The Henry Fordin Dearborn, 2 tickets to the museum to see Driving America, the brand-new 80,000 sq ft automotive experience with 130 vehicles, interactive displays and more than 60 cases of artifacts! These have been selected by Sue Trussell

We're not the only ones celebrating this momentous occasion. The Michigan Historical Center in Lansing will celebrate the 175th anniversary of Michigan Statehood on Saturday, January 28th. The celebration starts at 11 AM with birthday cake for the first 100 people through the door, Michigan's first constitution on display along with a digital copy that visitors can page through on an iPad. and a concert by singer/songwriter Joel Mabus which will include some Michigan songs, and Michigan inventions and re-inventions from birch bark canoes to Vernors soda will be highlighted.

The folks over at Buy Michigan Now have called for everyone to make social media shout-outs about great things about Michigan the week of January 22-28 (and especially on Jan 26th). Be sure to include the word MICHIGAN somewhere in your message and on Twitter use the hashtag #Mich175.

Absolute Michigan features regular giveaways of products and services from all kinds of Michigan businesses. It's free, fun and all you have to do to be eligible is to be on our email list - sign up using the form below. We guarantee that we will not share your email address with anyone!

If your business is interested in participating, you can get all the information right here.

Share this:

2013 Dodge Dart by ChriKett Photography

The first Detroit Area Dealer Association (DADA)-managed Detroit Auto Show was held in December 1907 at Riverview Park. In 1987, the show was re-focused as an international event, and 2012 is their 24th annual under the new format. The center of the event are concept cars and exhibitions by car companies from Acura to Volvo and of course Detroit standards like Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, GMC and Lincoln.

Blogs & Social Media from the Detroit Auto Show

Our favorite for coverage this year is mLive's Detroit Auto Show coverage. They have a look at Energy Secretary Steven Chu's visit to the show, some concept car highlights from the 2012 floor and the back and forth between Governor Snyder and a Wayne State student. After Snyder issued a call for grads to stay in Michigan, biomed engineering student Ramkumar Annamalai  asked him why if eduction was so important has Michigan seen cuts that remove a lot of what attracts top students.  It's an interesting exchange that highlights one of the real challenges manufacturing and research in Michigan are facing. You can also get comprehensive reporting from the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News.

As usual, you can find unabashed car love with a healthy dose of humor from the  2012 Detroit Auto Show on Jalopnik.  Over at Autoblog they feature podcasts and articles including their Editor's top 5 picks from the show (spoiler: #1 is the 2013 Ford Fusion which also captured Autoweek Magazine's coveted Best of Show award). Another source that's getting more and more relevant is  Autoblog Green who has features on the frighteningly cute Tata, a sub-$19k Prius and the Smart-for-Us urban concept mini-truck pictured right. Pretty much everyone with a blog is covering it of course, from Motor Trend to Popular Mechanics.

The North American International Auto Show has gotten into the social media swing in 2012 with a Facebook page their NAIAS official Twitter. You can also of course dive right in to #NAIAS on Twitter.

Attending the North American International Auto Show

The NAIAS web site has everything you need to know about attending the public show and tomorrow night's black tie charity preview. If you do attend and take pictures or video, we'd love it if you'd share them with us in the Absolute Michigan Flickr group or shoot us the link to YouTube vids!

Detroit Auto Show Photos

The NAIAS has a nifty virtual show floor.  Christian Kettenbell took the photo at the top and he has a really nice slideshow from 2012. You can see a whole lot more by checking Detroit Auto Show and/or NAIAS on Flickr. The blogs & papers above are another great source of photos of production cars and concepts as well.    If you'd like to step back in time, check out this Detroit News Rearview Mirror feature The Detroit Auto Show: from beer gardens to tabernacles to Cobo Center.

Anything else to add or ask? Post it in the comments!

Detroit Auto Show Videos

You can watch the snarky, kind of slow and frankly down on the auto show 2012 North American International Auto Show Preview from Drive and the un-snarky and faster paced preview from Autoweek TV. Our favorite, however, is this selection of highlights from the Media Preview on the 2012 show floor by Global News ENG Cameraman Ben Jonah. Got other ones you like? Add them in the comments below!

Share this:

Eddie Rickenbacker, circa 1919. Photo from the National Archives and Records Administration holdings (ARC identifier 533720). Digital copy found on wikimediacommons.org

Ace of Aces

After shooting down twenty-two enemy aircraft and four barrage balloons in less than a year, Captain Edward “Eddie” Rickenbacker became the most celebrated Allied airman of World War I, earning him the title “Ace of Aces.” He received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the French Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Service Cross and seven other medals.

At the close of the war, Rickenbacker returned home to a hero’s welcome of ticker-tape parades and other events in his honor. He retreated to the seclusion of the New Mexican desert to contemplate his future. He had been a race car driver before the war, and automobiles again filled his mind. He decided to build a car bearing his name.

Building a Car

Rickenbacker teamed up with some of the best and brightest automobile entrepreneurs of the time. Harry Cunningham was a former race driver turned engineer, and Walter Flanders and Barney Everitt were two-thirds of the EMF Company of Detroit. Rickenbacker contributed engineering ideas learned from his pre-war days building, selling and driving race cars.

Rickenbacker set out to design and build a mid-priced car with many advanced features. The stylish six-cylinder model he dreamed of would have a low center of gravity, a vibration-free tandem flywheel, cabin heater, air cleaner and a locking steering wheel. A 94th Squadron “Hat in the Ring” insignia graced the radiator housing. When it came to decide where such a car would be built, there was only one choice: Detroit, the Automobile Capital of the World.

The Rickenbacker Motor Company

Rickenbacker built factory prototypes in 1920 and logged eighty thousand miles test driving the cars himself. In 1922, the Rickenbacker Motor Company (RMC) went into full production, with Rickenbacker as vice-president in charge of sales. He barnstormed across the country flying in his airplane, selling cars and dealer franchises. Eventually, the company boasted a network of twelve hundred dealers in the U.S and three hundred worldwide. Between 1922 and 1924, RMC sold fifty thousand cars with price tags ranging from $1,485.00 for the touring model to $1,995.00 for a sedan.

Sales were brisk and in 1924, the company introduced the Vertical 8 Super Fine model. A promotional brochure bragged that “almost without exception, Rickenbacker factory officials and their wives drive this coupe model…it is a type much coveted and appreciated by young ladies and dowagers. It is quite as suitable for a man as a woman driver.” Other ads claimed that the motor “improves with use. Take a look at the frame. Comparatively, the Brooklyn Bridge does not provide such a factor of rigidity and strength.”

A family with a Rickenbacker car (Click on the image to view it in a larger size)

Four Wheel Brakes

Advertising rhetoric aside, the company seemed to be doing everything right and they announced a new automotive innovation. Four-wheel brakes have been standard equipment since Rickenbacker introduced them more than eighty years ago. The announcement that the braking system would be standard on their 1924 models caused a commotion in the automobile business. Several auto companies—notably Studebaker—mounted a slander campaign, claiming that four-wheel brakes were dangerous and unpredictable.

Believing in himself and his product, Eddie Rickenbacker dismissed the adverse publicity. Rather than play down the accusations, he touted the merits of the braking system by stenciling “4-WHEEL BRAKES” on the spare tire covers. Detractors claimed that this was necessary to avoid rear-end collisions caused by Rickenbacker cars stopping too fast.

End of a Dream

Despite the company’s efforts, sales began to lag. In 1926, Rickenbacker resigned from his position, and the company struggled on until 1927, when it declared bankruptcy and halted production. Ironically, the German company Audi bought the design, tooling and spare parts and installed Rickenbacker engines in some models.

At the age of thirty-five and $250,000 in debt, Rickenbacker had to abandon his dream of building a “Car Worthy of its Name.” He vowed to pay off his creditors and changed his career course. He bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and later became Chairman of the Board of Eastern Airlines. A survivor in life as well as business, Eddie Rickenbacker survived two airplane crashes before passing away in 1973 at the age of eighty-two.

Share this:

The Lake in Winter
by Jerry Dennis

(January, Cathead Point, near the tip of Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula)

It changes every day, every hour. It is a thousand lakes, changing faces with every shift in wind and light - flurried by offshore wind, whitecapped in squalls, colored flannel gray or pearl-white or stormy black beneath the winter clouds, a dozen blues when the sky is blue.

There’s a contemporary Japanese poet who writes a diary on a slab of stone instead of paper, with water instead of ink. He writes a word, and a moment later it evaporates. This, he suggests, is the true record of a life.

We go to the shore in search of elemental things. Probably it is just coincidence that the elemental things we find there - sand, sun, wind, and waves - correspond exactly to the four elements of the ancient Greeks and Hindus: earth, fire, air, and water. More to the point is that we need elemental things to help us restore our primitive senses to working condition. We need periodically to look, listen, scent, taste, and feel our way through the world, if only for the relief of not having to think our way through. Everyone understands that eliminating superfluities can help us discover what is important in our lives.

That’s not an easy task. Time coats us in natural increase, accruing layers as if we were snowballs rolling down a hill. Jobs, families, friends, houses, cars, dogs, our health – just maintaining it all is full-time work. Add the bulging files of information, the gunnysacks of mistakes and the duffels of misjudgments and the barrow-loads of memories, habits, regrets, opinions, prejudices, principles, laws, and codes collected in a lifetime and you can see the problem. We carry as much as we can, and the rest we stack around us until all our routes to the outside are blocked. Even when we find our way out we’re wearing too many layers of tuxedoes and zoot suits and cardigans, Icelandic woolens, parkas, longjohns, thermal socks, etc. We’re strong but we grow weary of lugging that Collyer-brothers’ accumulation everywhere we go. We bend beneath the load, our backs about to break, groaning as we push our heaped-up grocery carts through the streets.

It’s too much. Now and then we need to strip down to the naked flame at our core. Most of what we carry is baggage anyway - just adornment and vanity, ballast and deadweight. It’s the crap the pioneers threw out along the Oregon Trail.

After lunch I walked to the crest of the dune and looked out at the lake. Even from that small elevation, maybe fifty feet, the water’s clarity was startling. From a boat, on a day like this, with the sun overhead, you can lean over the side and see boulders on the bottom thirty feet down. The pale shallows stepped into blue depths. The offshore sandbars were there, a hundred yards apart, each deeper than the one before, with bands of increasingly darker blue between them. Beyond the last bar a steep drop-off into very deep water turned the lake midnight blue.

Lake Michigan. My lake, I often think, because I grew up near it and because many in my family settled along its shores. So much water, in a body so large they say that the Netherlands could fit inside, with enough room left over for several New England states. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes in volume, and third, after Superior and Huron, in surface area. It is the only one of the five to be contained entirely within the United States.

Most of the 1,640 miles of shore is sandy. Some of that shore, especially around the southern end, through Indiana and Illinois, is lined with industry. Around the top of the lake in Wisconsin and Michigan are scattered limestone bluffs and rocky strands. But most of the rest is blond sand beaches that are among the loveliest in North America. Wind, waves, and ice have shoved that sand into the most extensive network of freshwater dunes on the planet. They reach their apogee about thirty miles south of Cathead Point at Sleeping Bear Dunes, the crowning feature of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but they extend nearly unbroken for 300 miles along the eastern and southern shores of the lake, from northern Michigan nearly to Chicago. A few scattered dunes are found also along the Wisconsin shore and at the top of the lake, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but they lack the dimensions of those that face the prevailing winds.

A friend who lives part of every year in the West once told me that Lake Michigan plays the same role in the Midwest that the mountains do in Montana. That’s true for all five lakes. Like the Rockies, you can see them from miles away, forming a backdrop that is also a felt presence, always there, looming in our lives. They are depositories of geological and historical power that shape the land and the culture to themselves. We orient to them and are drawn to them and take for granted that their presence and the weather they create will affect our travels and alter our daily plans.

The lakes have always been the most prominent shaper of the character or “spirit” of the Great Lakes region. The stronger the spirit of a place, the farther it resonates beyond its borders. Alaska, Texas, Vermont, and Maine all have it in abundance. So do large geographical regions such as Appalachia, the Canadian Maritimes, and the Cajun country of Louisiana. A mythological portrait of a place needs to be only approximately accurate to give outsiders an idea of what it is like, or enough of an idea, at least, to inspire them to take some interest in it. That might explain in part why people who have never visited the Everglades or the Arctic Wildlife Refuge are willing to write letters to congressmen and donate money to protect them.

The Great Lakes have not had that advantage. Their mythology is not clearly defined. It was once very clear, a living mythology, inhabited by people, wolf, moose, and bear, but the stories that passed around campfires for thousands of years were drowned out by European invaders wielding their own stories of Jesuit martyrs, French voyageurs, Paul Bunyans of the logging camps, mariners of the inland seas, and up-by-the-bootstraps giants of industry. Most of those stories have now, in turn, lost their power and have not been replaced. Enduring mythologies tend to accrue to dominate features of a landscape. Louisiana has swamps; New England, hardscrabble hills; Montana, big sky. But the Great Lakes are too varied. No representative image fits. The water and dunes and rocks and cities on the shore are lost in a haze of homogeneity. Surely that is why those who have never stood beside the big lakes find it so difficult to imagine them.

Excerpted from The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes, by Jerry Dennis. Used with permission of the author and The University of Michigan Press. Visit Jerry’s website at www.jerrydennis.net. Here's a cool trailer for the book that Jerry's son videographer Aaron Dennis made that you will enjoy as well!

Share this:

25 Christmas Lane on a winter's eve, circa 2010 (Photo courtesy of Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland)

My favorite holiday movie is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989). Clark Griswold, (Chevy Chase), our hero, has a plan for the traditional Griswold family Christmas that includes fifty thousand twinkling outdoor lights on the roof. When Clark drags his entire family out to see his masterpiece, the lights don’t work. The frustrating, yet entertaining, effort to fix the problem resonates with me (This includes Clark on the roof checking each individual bulb.). My favorite part comes when Clark prevails, the family is impressed, and he thanks his father for teaching him about exterior illumination.

Beginnings

Wallace Bronner (1927-2008) knew that exterior illumination is essential for the holidays. We are all familiar with his enormous enterprise: Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland, located on 25 Christmas Lane in Frankenmuth. Initially, this behemoth of holiday cheer started as a signage business. During the early forties, Wally worked as a sign painter and a clerk at the Hubinger Grocery Store, which was owned by his maternal relatives. Part of his job included designing window displays. In 1945, as Frankenmuth celebrated its centennial year, Bronner Display and Sign Advertising was in demand for painting signs and decorating store windows and parade floats. That year Wallace Bronner met Irene Ruth Pretzer, the woman he would marry on June 23, 1951 at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Hemlock, Michigan.

Signs designed by Wally Bronner for the city of Clare, 1951 (Photo courtesy of Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland.).

Irene was instrumental in helping Wally land a monthly window display contract with the Jennison Hardware Company of Bay City (c. 1947) (Irene had attended Bay City Junior College and boarded at the home of G.W. Cooke, president of the hardware company.). Bronner’s work for the hardware company resulted in a referral to the town of Clare, Michigan (1951). This first municipal holiday commission was to design decorative lamppost panels. After that job, Wally hired his friend Fred Bernthal to look for new clients in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Ontario.

Bronner also entered into contracts with General Plastics Corporation (Marion, Indiana) and Mold-Craft Corporation (Port Washington, Wisconsin). These companies provided street trims and ornaments, latex Santas, reindeers and nativity scenes. In 1952, Bronner staged two shows exhibiting outdoor Christmas decorations, one in the Frankenmuth Township Hall, the other at the St. Lorenz School gymnasium. Both were successful. However, both venues were temporary. Bronner decided to rent a more permanent building, a vacated one-room schoolhouse (formerly Frankenmuth School District Number 1). Thus, year round exhibit of Christmas decorations became possible! “At first the people of the community thought the idea to be rather unusual, but accepted it fully when Frankenmuth became known as the Christmas Town.” (Bronner’s 2005 Corporate History, page 35.)

“Thinking Big”

Wally Bronner with employees. (Photo taken in the 1960s. Photo is courtesy Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland)

Herman Bronner (Wally’s father) was a building contractor and stone mason. He convinced his son to “think big” by changing the plans for the first Bronner-owned building from two, L-shaped, rectangular buildings to one large, square building. The Bronner’s store at 121 East Tuscola (a lot adjoining Aunt Hattie’s grocery store) opened in 1954. It was divided into two sections, one space for the sign painting business, the other for Christmas decorations.

Wally was grateful for his dad’s vision and business acumen. The municipal clientele grew to include shopping centers and commercial interiors. As buyers selected decorations for their stores and churches, their wives requested home decorations. From 1954 to 1963, Bronner exhibited at the Saginaw County Fair, which, at the time, boasted numbers of three hundred thousand people. By 1960, the company was officially incorporated, and home decorations were added to the product line. In 1964, the first billboard advertising Bronners appeared on I-75, ten miles south of Exit 136 (Frankenmuth). Many travelling up North are familiar with that sign. Subsequent ones (more than sixty located in seven states) continue to extol the importance of holiday cheer and illumination.

Source material

Picturesque Story of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, as related by Wally Bronner. Published by Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, 2005.

The History of Bronner’s Christmas Decorations by Doris A Paul. Published by the Frankenmuth Historical Museum, 1981.

Brad Redford, a native of Frankenmuth visited Bronner's last year and has a pretty funny video in his show Redford's Rundown. However, we're going to have to go with this awesome music video of Wally Bronner (Christmas Always) by Michigan rockers The Hard Lessons. A little tip: click that link and subscribe to their email list to download their entire new album Arms Forest AND stay tuned at the end of the video for the B-side of this song, O Holy Night!

Share this:

“King of the Toy Train World”

For more than one hundred years, Lionel trains have been a favorite toy. Originally founded in New York City in 1900 by inventor Joshua Lionel Cowen, the company now resides in Michigan.

This photo dates from about the early 1930s. The train is identified as a Lionel - based on comparisons of the switches, signal, trucks, track gauges, etc. with contemporary Lionel catalogs.

Cowen designed his first train, the Electric Express, not as a toy but as a display for selling toys. Demand soon turned the train into a toy.

It was at this time that Cowen’s superior marketing abilities made their impact. Cowen is responsible for linking toy trains to the Christmas season. It was Cowen’s idea to include toy trains as part of crèche displays. Later, incredible showroom and department store displays would leave every young boy wanting toy trains for Christmas, and toy trains remain popular Christmas gifts today. Colorful annual catalogs also enticed buyers.

By the 1920s, Lionel was the king of the toy train world. It was during this period that Lionel produced some of their most beautiful trains. The locomotives and rolling stock were highly detailed.

Lionel ceased toy production during World War II and manufactured items for national defense.

“A Real Estate Developer Who Loved Toy Trains”

In 1971, Lionel moved to Mt. Clemens, Michigan, but the company experienced hard times. In 1986, Richard P. Kughn, a real estate developer in Detroit who loved toy trains from the time he was seven years old, bought Lionel Trains. The sales and quality of the trains improved dramatically.

Kughn once talked about his passion for toy trains. “I was walking home from school on trash day. There was a trash barrel out in front of a house with a train sticking out on top. I didn’t know much about trains or toy trains at the time, but it intrigued me so I pulled all the pieces out, including the tracks and the transformer. I took it home, and my dad helped me clean it up. We worked on it and put it on the ping-pong table in the basement, and it ran.”

Kughn said “If you’re happy in what you’re doing, in creating, putting things together, watching things happen in front of your eyes because of your efforts, it makes you smile. . .and time goes by rapidly when you play with toy trains—that’s happiness.”

In 1995, Kughn sold the company. Today, it is located in Chesterfield, Michigan.

Seeking Michigan would like to thank the following for consultation on the photo above:

Peter Magoun, Trains and Things Hobbies, Traverse City, Michigan
Mark Cowles, Lansing Area N-Trak Model Railroad Club
Various members of the National Model Railroad Association

You can click to visit Lionel Trains, and here's a blast from the past - The Wonderful World of Trains from Lionel Trains.

Share this:

Higher Grounds Trading Co., was voted one of the top Michigan businesses to watch in 2010 and has been a big part of  getting the nonprofit On the Ground off the ground. On the Ground is involved in a variety of projects including the Chiapas Water Project, which brings clean drinking water to coffee growing regions in Mexico; the Run Across Ethiopia, which raises funds for Ethiopian education projects including the construction of schools in Ethiopian coffee-growing communities; and their latest endeavor - the Run Across Palestine. The Run is scheduled for February 2012 and will take place in olive growing centers of Palestine. Funds raised will support the purchasing and planting of thousands of olive trees and provide scholarships for the children of Palestinian olive farmers. Learn all about them and donate at the link above.

The projects of On the Ground share a common theme: supporting the farmers who supply fair-trade, gourmet goods by building infrastructure and capacity in their communities, and Higher Grounds is offering up some great gifts to celebrate the On the Ground\'s projects:

• Coffees for Change support the Chiapas Water Project, which was founded in 2005 after a group of local (Northern Michigan) residents visited Chiapas Mexico and witnessed the illness and poverty perpetuated by lack of access to potable water.
• Seth & May's "New Flower" CD was inspired and written as part of the The Run Across Ethiopia.  Seth and May  played in the schools, learned songs and dance moves from the children, learned Ethiopian scales and melodies from incredible ethio-jazz masters,  shared our music along the journey, sang for the runners, played for the people and ultimately wrote an entire album inspired by the experience.
• Fair Trade Olive Oil benefits Palestinian olive farmers and celebrates the Run Across Palestine.
• Finally, their Coffee Cards are made by the Michigan nonprofit Paperworks Studio which are produced by artists who have special needs and disadvantages.

All you need to do to enter is to be on our email list - sign up in the blue box above! Here's a cool behind the scenes video of the recording of New Flower that you might enjoy!

Share this:

Cadeau Creations was born and bred in the wild Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In addition to complete catering services, they have created specially-designed baskets of gourmet goodness from the people, places and soil of the U.P. using the freshest local ingredients and select organic and Fair Trade ingredients. They make a great gift for homesick Yoopers and also your friends, family, employees, co-workers and relatives. Connect with them on Facebook or Twitter!

This week's winner will receive their locally grown & crafted Northern Winter Wonders Basket. It features chocolates, caramels, game meat sausage, smoked Lake Superior fish, Keweenaw jam, and local crafts - all fashioned with Yooper flair. It's a $100 value and all you need to do to be eligible to win is to have your address on our email list - sign up in the blue box above!

Share this:

Yooper Steez was founded in 2008 by Justin Sailor and is dedicated to providing original Upper Peninsula products and fresh stories of the UP through their engaging blog to people who appreciate what the Upper Peninsula has to offer. They connect Yoopers across the world and give them a way to express and share their love for the Upper Peninsula.

Justin explains:

I had recently finished a 50-state tour across the country where I collected a t-shirt from nearly every state. As I collected one and later wore it in another state I realized how many conversations were generated. People would approach me and ask me if I was from said place, had been there, or simply say it was one of their favorite places. If I had been wearing a generic shirt those conversations would have never happened.

After returning to my hometown of Baraga, I thought the Upper Peninsula needed an iconic but simple shirt that would allow people to present their love for the Upper Peninsula. The simplest way to do that was to show the silhouette of the Upper Peninsula. People who love the Upper Peninsula recognize it immediately and those who don't often ask what the shape is.

To help you get in shape, Yooper Steez is offering a UP Hoodie, a T-shirt and a few stickers! All you need to do to have a shot to win is to be on our email list - use the blue box above.

...and FYI, Absolute Michigan had a little feature about Justin's journey in 2006 that links to a podcast you can check out!

Share this:

Born December 7, 1919, Fred worked in the store from the start, helping his father build the tiny grocery into a chain of supermarkets. In 1962, under Fred’s leadership, the chain opened its first “Thrifty Acres” store in Grand Rapids, a huge one-stop shopping discount emporium. As the company grew he was always an advocate of promoting people from within, an outspoken champion of civil rights, and a zealot for low prices. Fred – and he was, to his employees, simply “Fred” – was known for his competitive spirit and a keen sense of his own humble origins. In industry affairs, he was one of the longest serving directors of the Food Marketing Institute (formerly the Super Market Institute), and winner of its Sidney Raab award for outstanding service.

In his adopted hometown of Grand Rapids he played a vital role in the early years of the local Urban League and Goodwill Industries, and helped lead downtown urban renewal efforts. In 1984 he worked with a group of civic leaders and friends of President Ford to build the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum on the west bank of the Grand River. In those years he also served on the Cleveland District Board of the Federal Reserve. More recently, he was an active member of the Improvement Association.

In the video below, a rough cut of interviews and photos, Meijer tells a wonderful story about as customer coming in to the family store to return an off brand of cereal for Kellogg's. Fred was about to tell the customer it had been purchased  at a competitor's store when his father said "Shut up Fred, we can eat the cereal." The message he learned: Don't send a customer to a competitor for a dime.

Share this:

Traverse Gourmet was started by Cile & Norm Plumstead who believe that northern Michigan has it all - seasons, people, and food that all work together to make the area a great place to visit, to live and (above all) to eat. Their goal is to present a variety of their favorite artisan foods from northern Michigan. As a 1% for the Planet member, Traverse Gourmet donates at least one percent of our sales to local environmental organizations.

Norm explains: "We’ve chosen our food artisans selectively - each one placing an emphasis on naturally produced, organic and fair trade products. In addition, all our gourmet food gifts come packaged in a reusable, recycled cotton tote, and, where possible, our partners use earth-friendly packaging."

Their roster is impressive - locally grown ingredients melded with handmade, fair trade chocolates from Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, coffee from Higher Grounds Trading Company (Michigan’s only organic and fair trade coffee roaster), jams & jellies from Food For Thought (the first and only fair trade preserve maker in the nation), organic nut butters from Naturally Nutty and many more.

The North Bar Beach Gift includes Food For Thought Organic Salsa Virtuoso™, Great Lakes Tortilla Chips, Grocer's Daughter Pecan Thyme bar, Great Lakes Tea & Spice Basalmic Fish Rub, Naturally Nutty Organic Peanut Butter, Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery Golden Wheat Bread ... all in a Traverse Gourmet recycled cotton tote!

All you have to do to be eligible is have your email on our mailing list - sign up in the blue box at the top and stay tuned!!

Share this:

Cranberries by argusmaniac

Red Beauties in Lake Magazine's 2006 Holiday Issue is an engaging look at cranberry farming in Michigan. Although Michigan only has a small number of cranberry farms in the northeast, Upper Peninsula, and the southwestern corner of the state along Lake Michigan totaling about 250 acres - compared to more than 18,000 acres in nation-leading Wisconsin - the state does have all the requirements to grow a cranberry industry. The feature also provides a look at what's involved in cranberry farming, and I have to say I learned a thing or two!

For more about the official fruit of Thanksgiving, you can go to the Cranberry Institute, which features tons of information about the purported health benefits of cranberries. Although it's probably not what you'll put on your table next Thursday, Locavorious has a tasty Michigan Cranberries in Cranberry Apple Pork Loin Roast along with some information about Michigan cranberry farms. You can get a nice recipe for cranberry pie from Michigan-based Kitchen Chick. Michigan's leading producer is  Centennial Cranberry Farm way up on Whitefish Point (near Paradise, MI), and their site is loaded with cranberry information & recipes. In closing, here's a simple recipe that you can make with 100% Michigan ingredients. We'll  try out in the Absolute Michigan kitchen next week and report back!

Baked Cranberry Acorn Squash

4 small acorn squash
1 cup chopped apple
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
1/4 cup Michigan maple syrup
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Cut squash in half lengthwise; remove seeds. Place cut side down in a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. Turn cut side up. Combine remaining ingredients; fill squash with fruit mixture. Continue baking for 25 minutes or till squash is tender. Makes 8 servings.

Share this:

Buck on the run by oakwood

Opening day of deer season probably ranks pretty high in the list of Michigan holidays. I know a lot of businesses that will be closed for the next few days in recognition that their employees would just be out sick anyway with buck fever. And just as I know that the sunny skies forecast for today are making a lot of people dressed in orange unhappy, I know those same folks are happy that snow is on the way tonight!

The Michigan DNR has all the details on deer hunting in Michigan, including a reminder that much public land is open to hunting - be aware! While Michigan saw 750,000 hunters just a few years ago, less than 650,000 will purchase licenses for the November 15-30 firearm deer season. In 2011, some of these will be 10 and 11 year-olds due to Michigan's new Hunter Heritage Act. Speaking of the DNR, check out their MI-Hunt program, which allows you to locate public lands open to hunting. You can get a forecast for the 2011 Michigan Deer season from Game & Fish Magazine, and a lot more info from the White-tail Deer Portal from the DNR and MSU.

The Livingston Daily news reports that the overall deer population in Michigan has quadrupled since 1970, with southern Michigan's deer herd increasing 10 times! An excellent, in-depth report from Bridge Magazine titled Deer have Michigan on the run says:

The number of hunters in Michigan has been shrinking since the 1960s, according to state data. Hunting license sales have decreased 15 percent over the past 15 years, from 934,430 in 1995 to 786,880 last year.

The ranks of hunters are shrinking nationwide. But the effects of that trend are especially prevalent in Michigan, where deer dominate vast areas of the landscape, hunters are the primary method for keeping the herd in check and revenue from the sale of hunting licenses funds many of the state’s wildlife management programs.

Fewer hunters mean: Less money for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to manage wildlife; less money to maintain forests, marshes and other areas where birds and mammals reside; less money for conservation officers who keep poachers in check; and less money for small businesses that count hunters among their best customers.

It also means more deer - read on to learn about the impacts of our 1.7 million deer.

AnnArbor.com notes that Opening Day is Michigan's other Black Friday, as deer hunters spend an average of $800 each, making deer hunting a half a billion dollar industry in Michigan. If you are headed out, be sure to look in on our Sporting Goods section.

Happy hunting!

Share this:

Our latest giveaway is from Northern Pier, a brand-new T-shirt company who is celebrating their Grand Opening this week!

Owner Chris Mock explains "Northern Pier has an immense appreciation for the Great Lake State. In fact, it's the inspiration for all of our products. We sell premium vintage style t-shirts inspired by Northern Michigan and made in America. Each of our shirts features a Michigan town, lake or destination point."

"Our goal at Northern Pier is to make our customers favorite places into their favorite shirts. When you visit our online shop, we've tried to build a rustic feel coupled with nostalgic imagery that illustrates why we love the state of Michigan. We really want the purchase to be something of an experience for the customer."

Right now they have 4 designs, and for the giveaway you can select three. Sign up for our email list if you're not already on it in the blue box above!

They add that you can let them know about your favorite town/lake/resort/area as a possible future shirt.

Share this:

The 2011 Grand Rapids Wine, Beer & Food Festival takes place Thursday, November 17th through Saturday, November 19th at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. It draws over 10,000 over three days, making it the largest food and wine festival in Michigan and one of the premier events of its kind in the Midwest. Classes, tastings from restaurants & food vendors and pairings are all structured to take the expert or novice deeper into the world of wine, food and other culinary delights.

The festival presents over 1000 beers, wines, ciders and spirits for tasting, and many are crafted in Michigan. While the festival started with a focus on wine, beer gets its due as well, with the Michigan Brewers Guild-sponsored Craft Brew Hall offering a chance to sample dozens of these full flavored brews and to meet the brewmasters.

Show Manager  Cathleen McDonald  explains that this massive variety of food & drink has been a huge asset, saying "The show has grown because the public loves the opportunity to sample wines, beer & spirits without having to purchase the entire bottle.  They can find that great everyday wine that they can purchase at the grocery store or try the products that they would only have dreamed about."

One of the many innovative & engaging features at the festival are the champagne, wine & beer pairings developed by Grand Rapids restaurants - multi-course meals presented by the chef. A number of restaurants are also providing "small plate" samples of their prize cuisine. There's more than just wine to be sampled at the Festival! An American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional. There's also seminars from presenters including winemaker John Concannon, wine educator and sommelier Michael Schafer, New Holland Brewing Company Beervangelist and Michigan Brewers Guild Past-President Fred Bueltman, author and Food Network  host Ellie Krieger and "The Fresh Chef" Amanda Leatherman.

Absolute Michigan is excited to offer FOUR free tickets to the Grand Rapids Wine, Beer & Food Festival to one of our readers - just use the email blank at the top to get your name on our list and have a shot at winning. We'll notify the winner next Wednesday!

Share this:

"Part of the appeal of the tattoo business to me is seeing how people are transformed after getting their first tattoos. There is the fear building up to it, a bit of anxiety, but then I have seen it transform people. It is empowering for people, it makes them more confident and if they are getting art that is meaningful to them it really boosts their self esteem."
~Dana Forrester

Lucky Monkey Tattoo Parlour in downtown Ann Arbor is owned and operated by award-winning rocker and PR doll, Dana Forrester, who says that she's continually inspired by the creative spirit and talent emerging from our great state. While Michigan has long been known for Detroit's Motown music legacy, the Mitten is also a hot bed for some of the nation's most skilled visual artists - including tattooists!

Since opening in 2002, the Lucky Monkey has inked clients from Egypt, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Australia, including numerous high profile clients including Eddie Spaghetti (The Supersuckers), Darren McCarty (Detroit Red Wings), Jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington (Herbie Hancock/Arsenio Hall Show), Vinnie Dombroski (Sponge/Crud/The Orbitsuns), Spike from channel 955's Mojo In The Morning show, Wrestler Eddie Venom, and thousands of other satisfied customers.

Talented tattoo artists Brian Massey, Steve Flores, and Finn, and "the coolest shop guys ever" - Sam Felix and Casey Jones, are dedicated to performing the highest level of customer service and artistry. Lucky Monkey Tattoo is an officially licensed body art studio, and all Lucky Monkey Tattoo artists and staff are certified in Bloodborne Pathogens (Disease and Infection Control).

For their giveaway which will be awarded next Wednesday, November 2, they will give our winner a Lucky YOUR Monkey prize pack which includes a $50 Lucky Monkey monkey gift certificate (good towards the cost of a tattoo), a Lucky Monkey Tattoo Tshirt and full color sticker! To sign up, just make sure your email is on our list - form in the blue box at the top of the article!

Share this:

Hard apple cider. Apple wine. Apple mead. Apple brandy. Apple vodka. Who knew apples could be so fun? Fifth-generation farmer Mike Beck of Uncle John’s Fruit House Winery makes good use of his apples.

Beyond your typical apple pie, apple cider and apple donuts, Mike also produces apple wine, apple brandy, hard apple cider, barrel bourbon cider and cyser. Mike’s barrel bourbon cider is a dry-style cider that ages in a bourbon barrel. His cyser is a blend of apple wine and Michigan honey. He’s also the first in the state to produce apple vodka, which is not just flavored vodka, but actually handcrafted from the apples.

“You’ll taste nice, subtle fruit notes,” says Mike in regard to his vodka.

Black Star Farms of Suttons Bay and Old Mission Peninsula makes apple brandy called, Spirit of the Apple. Handcrafted just as it was in the Colonial tradition of the Revolution, the brandy is a blend of the apple varieties Jonagold, Jonathon, Winesap, Rhode Island Greening, Spy and McIntosh. The delicious blend is distilled and then barrel-aged for three to five years, resulting in an artisan brandy that is fruit-forward to express the region’s apple bounty.

In Jackson, Sandhill Crane Vineyards crafts an Heirloom Apple wine and apple mead, both of which owner Heather Price recommends for mulling. Mulled wine is warmed and complemented with spices, such as cinnamon, light cloves and orange zest. It’s a great beverage for the holiday season.

Warm, chilled or room temperature, these apple products represent the essence of Michigan’s vibrant autumn flavors.

More about Michigan apples from Absolute Michigan!

Share this:

"We were born and raised here in this great state and love everything about it, so we decided to make a way to wear our love on our sleeve."
Byron Pettigrew, High Five Threads

High Five Threads is a Michigan graphic apparel company representing everything awesome about the only state you can high five. The High Five Threads' mission is simple: Create quality products that promote buying and supporting local small businesses and entrepreneurs.

The HFT store is located in Traverse City inside the beautiful Old State Hospital, now known as The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. See the photos from Lance Hill below for a look at their store & products! Apparel can also be purchased online at www.highfivethreads.com.

The giveaway includes a H5T T-shirt, tote bag, ice cube tray, and window decal and will be announced next Thursday (October 27th).

Stay tuned because we'll be back next week with another giveaway.

Share this:

Kathy Siler of the Michigan Ag Council has a great article entitled In Search of the Great Michigan Pumpkin that notes that US Department of Agriculture’s statistics for 2010 ranked Michigan second in the nation with 7,400 acres of pumpkins planted. She also tells the centuries old legend of Stingy Jack, the Irish cheapskate who gave the name to the Jack-o-lantern and shares a lot information, including a recipe for Pilgrim Pumpkin Pie. While we are a big producer, the Kalamazoo News says that the 2011 pumpkin crop is a little smaller than usual, so today might be a good day to head to your local pumpkin patch!

The best listing we found is at Pumpkin Patches and more. Taste the Local Difference has a nice list of northern Michigan pumpkin farms and notes that in early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling. We'll explore that in the Absolute Michigan kitchens and report! Their Pumpkin page has more facts including:

• Pumpkins are a nutritious, low-fat, low-calorie food.
• They are high in potassium and Vitamin A and are also a good source of beta-carotene.
• Pumpkin seeds are rich in magnesium, copper and cholesterol-lowering phytosterols.
• There are many varieties of pumpkins besides the standard Jack-O-Lantern and pie pumpkins. Some especially fun ones are Jack B. Little miniatures, white pumpkins, Australian Blues, and Atlantic Giants.
• Pumpkins were once believed to eliminate freckles and were used as a remedy for snakebites.

Click through for more and a slew of great pumpkin recipes including Pumpkin Butter, Pumpkin Nachos (seriously), Pumpkin Thyme Rigatoni, and Potage au Potiron, a delicious soup made in the pumpkin! Pumpkins aren't just for eating - some of Michigan's brewmasters have brewed up some pumpkin ales. Click that link for a list and don't forget about Jolly Pumpkin and their La Parcela Pumpkin Ale!

Of course the main use of pumpkins at this time of year is carving, and Michigan has some incredible artisans including "Pumpkin Ed" Moody, a specialist in giant pumpkin carving. Click the photo to see some of his work and also to learn about his new project, Karving for Kids that will allow Ed to carve for kids at Children's Hospitals around the country. You can see another astonishing pumpkin carver in action in the video below!

Much more pumpkiny goodness at Absolute Michigan keyword pumpkin!

As promised, here's a CBS News video of Michigan master carver Ray Villafane - this guy's work is jaw-dropping!

Share this:

Brother Nature Produce Urban Farm
by Michigan Municipal League (MML)

A couple of weeks ago NPR Weekend Edition had an interesting feature on urban farming in Detroit:

Detroit is a surprisingly green landscape during the spring and summer months. The site of many houses that are crumbling, boarded up or missing altogether is tempered by community gardens and even some urban farms.

There are some serious urban gardeners in this country, but few can match the agricultural output of Paul Weertz.

"I farm about 10 acres in the city, and alfalfa's my thing. I bale about a thousand bales a year," he says.

...Weertz has been buying abandoned homes and vacant parcels in his neighborhood, where lots go for as little as $300. He's been encouraging young people who want to farm to move into the neighborhood. Weertz's neighbor, Carolyn Leadley, runs Rising Pheasant Farms when she's not caring for her 10-month-old son.

"We're definitely micro-farming, but we're making a living off a sixth of an acre," Leadley says. "I've been very pleased — pleasantly surprised at how much I've been able to pay myself per hour. We took on an employee. I'm like, 'OK, We're a real business now. We have to pay taxes and do things right.' "

Click through to listen to the feature and see some photos, and speaking of photos, the MML has several more photos from the Brother Nature Farm in Detroit which is mentioned story. Speaking of Brother Nature, check out this awesome video about Brother Nature Farm!

Share this:

According to the Michigan Cider Guild...

Yates Cider Mill by luna.nik

In America cider is more than 300 year old. It was brought to America by its early settlers and grew from those days to the popular drink it is today. In some respects it has changed little aside from its early days as a sweet substitute for water, cleansing agent preservative (vinegar) and of course for its fermentation qualities. Also see Cider on Wikipedia.

Why should I drink Cider?

For starters, it's really really good. This article suggests that scientists Brewing Research International have confirmed high levels of health enhancing antioxidants in cider, on par with red wine. A half pint of cider delivers the same amount of antioxidants as a glass of red wine.

What's with the Chickens?

A "guild" in permaculture landscape design is a strategically selected assembly of plant or animal species that boost the productivity of a central plant or animal element. If the central element is a apple tree for example, guild "members" would be selected that can improve the trees yield or reduce the work needed to manage it. In this case, the chickens are members of that guild and are used to control insect pests and also to help process the apple waste.

How do I get my Cider?

If you're interested in getting in on the cider game on the ground floor, check out How to Build a Cider Press from the Mother Earth News - it's a great feature that takes you step-by-step through the process of building a cider press for less than $50. There's a really simple recipe for cider on the appropriately named howtomakecider.com.

If you'd rather let someone else do the hard work, check out "Cider" on on Absolute Michigan, the listing of cider mills from the Michigan Farm Marketing & Agri-tourism web site, and "cider" at Real Time Farms (mostly Michigan links and photos). You'll also enjoy the feature on cider mills on Pure Michigan. They note that there are 37,000 acres of apples on 950 farms. Over 20 million bushels of apples are harvested every year, and apples are Michigan’s largest and most valuable fruit crop with an economic impact of $700 million every year! Learn more at michiganapples.com and the Michigan Cider Guild.

What can you tell me about Hard Cider?

John Adams claimed that his health and longevity was attributed to drinking a tankard of hard cider each morning before breakfast. While we're not going to go that far, we will say that Michigan cideries are doing a fantastic job of  producing tasty hard ciders. The blog Serious Eats lists 3 Michigan cideries that you should know about. We'll add a few more, two organic Michigan cideries, JK's Scrumpy Organic Farmhouse Cider and Good Neighbor Organic Cider and one that's just a few feet away from the world headquarters of Absolute Michigan, Left Foot Charley.

Something to add? Post it in the comments!

Share this: