That old (American) chestnut

Posted on by farlane
Beautiful Chestnuts by Julie Weatherbee

Beautiful Chestnuts by Julie Weatherbee

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Dusting off this feature from 13 years ago (wow!) to help set the table for tomorrow.

Wikipedia’s entry for the American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) explains that this large, deciduous tree of the beech family was once one of the eastern United States dominant hardwoods before it was nearly wiped out by chestnut blight. Curiously enough, one of the few pockets to survive were some 600 to 800 large trees in northern lower Michigan. Chestnut Growers, Inc. is a 37 member cooperative based in Michigan explain the difference between edible sweet chestnuts & non-edible horse chestnuts (the spiky ones with the burrs) & offer preparation tips & cooking instructions:

In Europe, chestnuts are consumed in a wide variety of dishes, from soups, stews, and stuffing to fancy deserts. Matter of fact, chestnut flour is the secret to many of the fancy French pastries. In other parts of the world, such as China, the chestnut is a staple food in the peoples’ diet. Chestnuts have about half the calories of other nuts and have the lowest fat content of all the main edible nuts. Chestnuts have only four to five percent fat as compared to sixty-two percent for the hazelnut and seventy-one percent for the pecan. In composition and food value, the chestnut, with its high carbohydrate content of about seventy-eight percent, is more akin to cereal grains, such as wheat, than to nuts with a low carbohydrate content. Since chestnuts are starchy rather than oily, they are readily digestible when roasted or boiled.

Read on for more and suggestions on cooking. They take orders for fresh chestnuts and ship beginning in October, and are at farm markets through the fall. 

Julie bought these Michigan-grown beauties at Zingerman’s deli in Ann Arbor. Check them out background bigalicious and see more in Julie’s Food gallery on Flickr where she shares some preparation photos & the finished product!

Peeled Chestnut by Julie Weatherbee

Peeled Chestnut by Julie Weatherbee

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Bedrock & GM announce Renaissance Center Redesign

Posted on by farlane

GlooM Headquarters by Camera Jesus

Yesterday Bedrock and General Motors announced a conceptual plan to redevelop the Renaissance Center (RenCen) and 27 acres along the Detroit riverfront. They say that the plan “preserves the essence of Detroit’s skyline, ‘right sizes’ the RenCen’s footprint, and connects the site to the heart of downtown. The surrounding entertainment district would become a vibrant waterfront destination, drawing international visitors and featuring restaurants, hospitality, residential and market space—complementing Detroit’s award-winning Riverwalk, which draws more than 3.5 million annual visitors to the city.”

Check out the renderings & Detroit News excerpt below for an idea of what’s in store & please share your thoughts. Personally, I’m glad that they’re preserving some of this truly iconic structure but honestly worried that it could end up being a terrifying albatross in the event of an economic downturn. Much more about the Renaissance Center on Michigan in Pictures.

It’s been a minute since I’ve featured a photo by the amazing Joe Gall aka Camera Jesus. He shared this back in January of 2023. Follow him on Facebook & Instagram for the latest and for sure head over to CameraJesus.com to view & purchase his photos including this beauty of a supermoon rising over the Ren Cen!!

Renaissance Center Conceptual Renderings by Bedrock

The Detroit News shares (in part):

The Renaissance Center would shrink to three towers with residential, office and hotel tenancy to create space for a six-acre riverfront park in a more than $1.6 billion redevelopment plan dependent on $250 million in state support that would make billionaire mortgage mogul Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm shared owner of the complex with current owner General Motors … Gilbert is contributing $1 billion in equity and debt, and GM is providing $250 million after having invested $1.5 billion into the building during its ownership. A new entity owning the site will reflect each party’s contribution toward the redevelopment, said Dave Massaron, GM’s vice president of infrastructure and corporate citizenship.

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The Highbush Cranberry is not a Cranberry

Posted on by farlane
Highbush Cranberry by Diane Charvat

Highbush Cranberry by Diane Charvat

Michigan is one of the best states in the Union for setting the Thanksgiving table. From gameday starters like Koeze nuts, McClure’s Pickles, Koegel Meats, Faygo pop, and Better Made Chips to sides like American chestnuts, Michigan potatoes & squash (and pumpkin pie) and of course Michigan-raised turkeys!

Another Thanksgiving staple that Michigan produces are cranberries, which are one of just a few fruits native to North America. While we do have about 300 acres of cranberries, there is another “cranberry” that the cranberry people want to make perfectly clear is not an actual cranberry. Green Deane’s Eat the Weeds blog has a great article on the High Bush Cranberry that says (in part):

The High Bush Cranberry is actually a Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) and a cousin of the elderberry. Both are in the greater Honeysuckle Family and have a characteristic musky odor. That family by the way straddles the edibility line, with some members edible and others not, some tasty and some not. As one might suspect by the name, the High Bush Cranberry has tart fruit. Bradford Angier, a well-known Canada-based forager along side Euell Gibbons, wrote they require a “conditioned palate” to appreciate.

In North America the High Bush Cranberry is found in Canada and the northern half of the United States plus, oddly, New Mexico. It is not as that friendly to wildlife as one might suspect. The fruit persists into the winter because they are not on the top of birds’ preferred food. Birds like the berries after they soften and ferment. White-Tailed deer also browse on the twigs and leaves. For humans the berries are high in Vitamin C, about 30 milligrams per 100 grams. Viburnum trilobum has several disputed botanical names and several mistaken common names including Pimbina, Mooseberry, Cranberry Tree, Cranberry Bush, American Cranberry, and Squashberry.

Read on for lots more including identification tips. They do say that Highbush cranberries taste better when harvested after the first frost so please let me know if you try them! You can also buy Highbush cranberry bushes from your local Conservation District like Van Buren County. There’s much more Michigan Thanksgiving to feast on at Michigan in Pictures too!

Dian took the top photo in Greenville (just northeast of Grand Rapids) and the one below on the Betsie Valley Trail in Benzie County. See her latest pics on her Flickr!

Betsie Valley Highbush Cranberry by Diane Charvat

Betsie Valley Highbush Cranberry by Diane Charvat

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Adorned in Yellow

Posted on by farlane

Adorned in Yellow by Timothy Linn

Timothy took this photo in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore last month & shares:

The color yellow holds a special place in my heart. While my son was in Pre-K, he took a test that involved identifying colors. I happened to be there for it. He identified every color correctly…except yellow. He repeatedly got it wrong. I could see his teacher becoming increasingly confused as she graded his test. Before she could say anything, Lewis asked her, “Why didn’t I choose ‘yellow’?”

“Why?,” she responded. I had no idea what he was going to say, but I expected it to be good.

Lewis proceeded to inform her in the most matter-of-factly way possible, “It’s the only color God doesn’t like.”

I was pretty sure his position wasn’t scripturally defensible, but I couldn’t stop laughing. (His teacher was not amused by either of us.) So, Lewis, if you’re reading along, enjoy this forest scene full of blue leaves.

I hope you were as amused as I was by this delightful story! See more in Timothy’s MI: Michigan gallery on Flickr.

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Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal wins AL Cy Young

Posted on by farlane
Detroit Tigers Cy Young Winner Tarik Skubal

Detroit Tigers Cy Young Winner Tarik Skubal

Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal received all 30 first-place votes to become the unanimous winner of the 2024 American League Cy Young Award last night, and as a bonus it was his 37th birthday!

Skubal is the fifth Tiger to win the award, joining Max Scherzer (2013), Justin Verlander (2011), Willie Hernández (1984) and Denny McLain (1968 and ’69). The dominant southpaw capped his pitching Triple Crown season on Wednesday by winning the AL Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America

His 18 wins were the most by a Tiger since Scherzer had as many in 2014. His 2.39 ERA was the lowest by a qualified Detroit starter since Mark Fidrych’s incredible rookie season of 1976. His 5.9 fWAR trailed only Verlander’s 2009 and ’10 seasons as the most by a Tigers pitcher in his age-27 season or younger since 1971. His 6.3 bWAR not only led MLB pitchers, it ranked seventh among all AL players. Skubal became the 22nd player in Major League history to win a pitching Triple Crown. (and first since Verlander in 2011!)

Head over to the Detroit Tigers website for much more!

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Mr Coyote

Posted on by farlane

Mr Coyote by Mark Smith

Coyotes are found in every county in Michigan, something I learned on a Christmas Day 2019 bike ride in Detroit when a coyote & I surprised each other on the eastside! The Michigan DNR shares a little bit about living with coyotes in Michigan, including the fact that it is critical for their well being as well as the safety of our pets & farm animals that they retain their natural fear of people. To do this:

Eliminate outside food sources like garbage or pet food

Clear out brush piles that provide hiding places for small mammals and birds

And for sure keep small pets indoors or accompany them outside!

If you do see an unwanted coyote in your area, you can try to scare it off by yelling, clapping or making other loud noises.

Most coyotes are afraid of people and will leave if you frighten them, but if they don’t leave, remember that they are wild animals and also be aware that there are coyote/wolf crossbreeds in Michigan known as “coywolf” and they are a whole different beast!

Mark shared this photo back in 2016, saying that Mr. Coyote paid a visit to their house looking for Mr. Pussycat, who was smartly hiding under the coffee table! Follow @downstreamer7 on Instagram for Mark’s latest!

PS: Here’s a shot of a coyote pup I took years ago.

Coyote Pup by Andrew McFarlane

Coyote Pup by Andrew McFarlane

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Hungry for Power

Posted on by farlane
power | time traveler series | by brian day

power | time traveler series | by brian day

You may have heard that the owners of Pallisades Nuclear Plant plan to restart 70s-era facility in 2025, but did you hear that they also plan to fire up two smaller reactors on the site?

Holtec International, the company that owns and wants to restart the closed Palisades nuclear plant, is already working on preliminary site plans for a pair of 300-megawatt SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) previously announced for the industrial site along Lake Michigan in Covert Township.

…Advanced nuclear technology expert Staffan Qvist, Swedish engineer and scientist, said SMRs come with “inherent safety” measures using the basic physics of the plant’s design and engineering. He said SMRs will generate smaller loads of electricity than classic nuclear plants but will cost much less to build. Qvist said the Holtec SMR-300 is a primarily water-cooled design, and he likened it to a shrunken down version of a conventional pressurized water reactor (but)… Nuclear critic Kevin Kamps, of watchdog group Beyond Nuclear, said trying to restart the old nuclear plant and co-locate new modular units was setting up the site for “Fukushima-like domino-effect meltdowns.”

You can read more in mLive, but I think the thing that may be of most interest is WHY these plants are being restarted in the first place. Scientific American has a great look at how Artificial Intelligence (AI) uses a ridiculous amount of power & is on track to use a whole lot more.

I featured this photo of the Fermi plant in southeast Michigan from Brian’s amazing series called The Time Traveller way back in 2011. Check out his latest work on Instagram & for sure dig into some of his other photo series on his website.

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NOAA’s Michigan 2024-2025 Winter Outlook

Posted on by farlane
Chill Out by PeeblesPair

Chill Out by PeeblesPair

I’ve been hanging onto this post so long I was worried we’d have snow before I shared it!! The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released their seasonal outlook for Winter 2024-2025 which says (in part):

This winter, NOAA predicts wetter-than-average conditions for the entire northern tier of the continental U.S., particularly in the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes region, along with northern and western Alaska.

“This winter, an emerging La Nina is anticipated to influence the upcoming winter patterns, especially our precipitation predictions,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch of the Climate Prediction Center. La Nina conditions are expected to develop later this fall and typically lead to a more northerly storm track during the winter months, leaving the southern tier of the country warmer and drier.

Rae took this photo at Point Betsie Lighthouse on January 1st of this year. Follow her on Flickr & on Instagram for more!

The 2024-2025 U.S. Winter Outlook map for temperature shows the greatest chances for cooler-than-average conditions in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. (Image credit: NOAA)

The 2024-2025 U.S. Winter Outlook map for precipitation shows wetter-than-average conditions are most likely across the Great Lakes region of the U.S.. Drier-than-average conditions are forecast for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. (Image credit: NOAA)

The 2024-2025 U.S. Winter Outlook map for precipitation shows wetter-than-average conditions are most likely across the Great Lakes region of the U.S.. Drier-than-average conditions are forecast for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. (Image credit: NOAA)

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Look out, it’s Deer Season in Michigan!

Posted on by farlane
Wheat Bucks by Andrew I

Wheat Bucks by Andrew I

Michigan Firearm Deer Season started today and runs through November 30th. It’s definitely a time for bright orange outdoors & to know whether or not the place you’re walking is open to hunting.

Back in 2008, Andrew caught this relatable picture of two young bucks in summer velvet watching a doe & this one of a velvetless buck in fall. See more in Andrew’s Whitetailed Deer gallery on Flickr.

The “velvet” on antlers is a fine layer of hairs that help the buck sense branches & other things that might bruise the antler while it is growing. Here’s another pic from Andrew of a velvetless stag in the fall!

No Velvet by Andrew I

No Velvet by Andrew I

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Under the Sign of the Lion

Posted on by farlane

Aurora Fireball by Ross Ellet

I featured this photo 8 years again, but with the incredible run of northern lights we’ve been having and the massive spike in interest in getting out under the night sky coupled with the rise of the Detroit Lions as an NFL superpower, it’s a great time to bring back this feature from Space.com on How to Watch the Leonids Meteor Shower:

The Leonid meteor shower will be active from Nov. 3 to Dec. 2 this year and will peak overnight from Nov. 17 to 18. The Leonids are produced when Earth passes through the debris left behind by comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle during its highly elliptical orbit around the sun every 33 years. The Leonids are considered some of the fastest meteors, zipping through the sky at 44 miles (71 kilometers) per second, according to NASA. They can also result in impressive fireballs producing long, bright and colorful meteor streaks.

The Leonids’ radiant is located in the sickle-shaped head of the constellation Leo, the lion. Leonid meteor hunting can be incredible, or a total bust. It all depends on where its parent body, Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, will be in its orbit and the kind of debris clumps that will be around when our planet passes through this comet’s orbit. The Leonids put on big shows in 1966, 1999 and 2001, according to AMS, when the comet was making its closest approach to the sun. It will be several years until observers get a big show from the Leonids.

Ross took this photo ten years ago in late September of 2014 and shared:

The sky was cloudy most of the night, but at 3:30am there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We made our way to the lakeshore and sure enough the northern lights were dim on the northern horizon. At one point you could hear the howl of a distant wolf pack while the northern lights were out. Then moments later a slow move fireball flashed across the sky. It lasted a couple seconds and the brightness pulsed as it moved through the atmosphere. After that the aurora faded, but several more meteors (some very bright) streaked above us.

Ssee more in his Porcupine Mtns gallery on Flickr, and definitely check out Ross Ellet’s Picturesque Adventures for much more!!

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