Lost, photo by Terrapin Dawg
One of the great things about being on vacation is getting lost. Not the kind of lost where everyone’s hot and cranky, but rather the kind of lost where you see things you never expected and aren’t even sure you could find your way back.
This photo from Cheboygan County, Michigan is part of a great set of photos of Northern Michigan, which Matt says is his favorite place in the world. (slideshow).
This week the Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council hosts the 30th Annual Michigan Wine & Spirits Competition.
I think that it’s a good time for the wine drinkers among us to head out to your neighborhood store or restaurant and pick up a bottle or two of Michigan wine … and if your favorite establishment doesn’t carry any, ask them why.
For more on the competition and Michigan wine in general, check out Absolute Michigan keyword wine!
Jam,wine or Just off the Vine, photo by taterfalls.
According to ancient Greek myth, all raspberries were once white. But one day, when the god Jupiter was in an angry rage, the Nymph Ida picked some wild raspberries to calm him. While she was picking the berries, she pricked her finger on the thorns of a raspberry bush. Legend states that from then on, her blood stained all raspberries a bright red color.
That’s just one of the many “drupelets” of information about raspberries available in Ready to Pick: Raspberries from Taste the Local Difference: everything from tips that raspberries are best picked in the morning and won’t ripen after picking to the fact that raspberries are rich in Vitamin C, antioxidants and ellagic acid (an anti-carcinogenic compound) to an explanation that raspberries are actually a cluster of many small individual fruits, called drupelets, each containing its own seed.
Like all the others in their weekly Ready to Pick series, it also includes links to Northern Michigan farms & farm markets with raspberries, a profile of the famed Tapawingo restaurant in Ellsworth and recipes for Raspberry and Lemon Thyme Ice, Tapawingo’s Raspberry-Chocolate Tart in Almond Pastry and Raspberry Pancakes. (I think I better go get breakfast now).
Tate says that these raspberries were sooo good, so I’m sure you can be forgiven if your raspberries never make it home from picking!
Michigan Orchard in Snow, photo by coonjamm.
Today’s photo of a cherry orchard near near Paw Paw from February will hopefully remind those of us tempted to complain about the heat of other things we could complain about.
I’d also like to call attention to Van Buren County, Michigan our latest Michigan shoreline county article on Absolute Michigan.
Field of Dreams, photo by tenfrozentoes.
One of the first photos with a new lens (Canon 10-20 mm) … not a bad beginning.
I also have to note that Saline seems to be a good place to take photos of trees and fields.
mr. timmers cows, photo by Latitude 45.
Martin’s photo reminded me of two very unrelated things. The first is an excellent program I heard on the radio last night on Interlochen Public Radio’s Points North featuring Ricardo Salvador of the WK Kellogg Foundation talking about “good food”. The Michigan-based WK Kellogg Foundation has an initiative that hopes to change things so that 10% of the nation’s food supply is healthy to eat, improves environmental quality, is fair to the producers and is affordable to purchase.
The 2nd half of the program introduced a new farm land trust program called A Spirit of Place that is getting going on the Leelanau Peninsula. The program would try to keep farm prices low and keep lands in farming.
Since it’s Saturday, I can probably pass the second link along as a Saturday morning cartoon. Cows with Guns is one of the funniest things I’ve seen on these internets. I hope you enjoy it (rated PG for brief, mild language and cartoon violence).
When the wind works against us, photo by chinkon.
To this glorious photo of a Lapeer, Michigan barn, chinkon adds an appropriate poem for our chill spring that begins…
When the wind works against us in the dark,
And pelts with snow
The lower chamber window on the east…
Get over there and read the rest of Storm Fear by Robert Frost.
Quite a view from the top of a Michigan–not California–Vineyard, photo by k2tibaldi.
April is Michigan Wine Month, a great time to Celebrate Michigan wine & wineries.
Wineries like this one on the Old Mission Peninsula* are every bit as lovely as those in other great wine regions and Michigan’s vineyards are producing award-winning wines that are the equal of any in the world.
*I am guessing Old Mission. Looks like Power Island in Grand Traverse Bay.
Another Sunflower, photo by Through Joanne’s eye.
Joanne says this is just another sunflower from her garden last year. It’s part of a set with lots more sunflower photos.
Michigan in Pictures 