Asparagus Festival

The weather has been gradually warming up (too gradual for my taste, but I digress...) and it's getting harder to stay indoors. Today Bryan and I ventured out to explore the area around our new home.

It was only about 50 degrees when we left home. Colder than we'd like! It's supposed to warm up a little more this week, though.

Our original goal a couple of weekends ago was to visit the Empire Asparagus Festival. This is a fun little festival that's in its eleventh year. There are various events including a vender tent with live music (for a fee), the "Kick Your Ass-paragus 5K" (I ran this a few years ago and enjoyed it,) a pancake breakfast brought to you by the Lions Club, and a parade. Here are a few photos below of the festival and around town in Empire:

Near the Town Hall.

Entrance to the event tent: Live music, food, and vendors. 

You can see some of the vendors that were in the event tent area. 

They blocked off much of Front Street (the main road) so people could walk around. Sidewalk chalk was piled in front of Town Hall so kids could demonstrate their artistic abilities. 

We were just in time for the parade:

Lead by one of the county sheriffs, EMT's, and fire trucks, the Asparagus Queen began the parade. 

I didn't catch what type of truck this was, but wanted to include it because I enjoy old trucks!

Adding a little excitement!

The Lions Club Kazoo Band.

They grow quite large around here...

After the parade Bryan and I rambled around town:

Daffodils are everywhere right now, domestic and wild. These lined the sidewalks all around town.

A gnome garden!

The white magnolia trees are currently blooming, and the pink ones are getting ready to. This is one of my favorite trees!

This Norway Maple was quite impressive!

I think this building is so neat.

Here's part of what was previously Storm Hill Orchard. It's now being sold off to build homes.

Another neat look at the Storm Hill Orchard building along an old fence and bunch of trees.

I noticed these little plaques on many of the homes in Empire. It's neat that they commemorate these buildings.

Before heading home, Bryan and I decided to take a small detour:

Here's the entrance to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive! You'll find some of the most beautiful views along the route.

The covered bridge is the first landmark you come to. I read that the original bridge had been taken over by porcupines and had to be rebuilt. The bridge now has a higher clearance than it previously did.

My favorite stop off along the Scenic Drive is the Lake Michigan Overlook. The views are absolutely spectacular.

The Dunes are constantly moving...here you can see that they've covered the path...

...and the path needed to be carved out again after a long winter season. (The Drive is closed to motor vehicles in the winter and is groomed for cross country skiing.)

This is a zoomed in shot of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse. Bryan and I can see this light from our home. On a clear day you get a good view of it from the bluffs on the Lake Michigan Lookout.

Bryan here checking out the amazing view.

After the Scenic Drive we took the scenic route home...

Weekend Getaway

Going north over the Mackinac Bridge.

A couple of months ago Bryan and I received an email from his cousin Gary inviting us to his college graduation in May. We're always excited to see Gary so we confirmed the date was free on our calendar and quickly accepted.

Fast forward to May...last weekend's little getaway to Escanaba was exactly what I needed. It was so nice to see Gary and spend time with him. After his graduation we rambled around Escanaba getting ice cream, going out to the park on Little Bay de Noc, and checking out the Escanaba River (which is still flowing rapidly from all of the melting snow.) Gary's friends graciously offered to let us stay at their home, which was set on 40 gorgeous U.P. acres laced with trails. We ended up taking a hike right when we got there--it was definitely great to get outdoors. Gary's friends truly treated us like family. We had a BBQ (first of the season featuring steaks to celebrate Gary's graduation!), first bonfire of the season (complete with s'mores!) and a large Sunday breakfast including with eggs, toast, bacon, and pancakes with local maple syrup. I wasn't hungry from the time I got there until long after I left!

It was the perfect weekend to be in the U.P. with temps reaching into the 70's (unlike this weekend!) Unfortunately, I forgot my good camera so didn't get to many photos of our time in Escanaba; however, I did take some while we were traveling with other electronic devices we had on hand:

Sunset over Lake Michigan while driving west on U.S. 2 in the U.P.

On the way back home Bryan and I stopped at Jack's, a grocery store in Manistique. They have the most amazing pasties (you really can't leave the U.P. without getting a pastie.) You can buy them frozen or fresh. Our favorite type is the chicken pastie...unfortunately that was the flavor of the day, so we could only find one! We bought it and ended up stopping at Straits State Park in St. Ignace. We pulled off in an unoccupied (yes, there were people camping!) site and found a place to sit. Here's the view from our picnic table:

The Mackinac Bridge from the north. Straits State park is right on the water just east of I-75.

We also saw this... (look closely, in the middle!)

We just missed driving over this freighter as we headed south over the bridge. We weren't able to its name, unfortunately. I've always wanted to drive over a freighter when going over the bridge. I think it'd be cool to look down over it.

Our weekend continued to improve as we stopped at a gas station to fuel up and grab a snack:

Better Made makes licorice??!! Mind blown. (Bryan is a huge fan of licorice. He likes Australian licorice and he said that Better Made's is similar to it.)

 Just when I thought the weekend couldn't get any better, I came home to a clear night and this:

It's not a great photo, but if you look closely you'll see the light of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse. Last weekend it was turned on for the summer. According to Wikipedia, the light is lit from May through November.

Here's a photo of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse from Wikipedia.org.

To top it all off we came home with a small gift from Gary's friends:

A plum tree!

Gary's friends are the third generation to own the land they live on. On the property are 100+ year old plum trees that were planted by their predecessors. We dug up and brought home a sapling from those trees, and its leaves are starting to grow! We've yet to get it in the ground because of the cold temps that hit this past week. Tomorrow it's suppose to warm up again, so we might have an opportunity to plant it then.

What a great weekend. We had a great time with Gary and made some new friends in the process. This definitely makes me more anxious for summer!

Old Man Winter is Falling Asleep

It FINALLY seems like winter has left us and spring is on its way, albeit very slowly. There are very few patches of snow left (very few and far between) and there is much more open water than not on the Big Lake. The morning rain cleared out and the sun began to peak through the clouds on Saturday, so Bryan and I decided to head out for the afternoon on our first official hike in the area.

Our destination was the Bufka farm, just south of the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Good Harbor. It's a beautiful piece of property that is now a part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.The Bufka family purchased the farm in 1880, aquiring 200 acres and sold it to the National Park System in 1979 upon the creation of the National Lakeshore. According to Norbert Bufka's website (Norbert is the youngest child of the third and last generation of Bufkas to grow up no the farm), the family lived on the farm under a lease until 2004, although they were not allow to continue farming the land after it was sold to the NPS, according to a rather interesting interview given by Norbert Bufka and published in the Midland Daily News found here.

I normally love taking photos, but I didn't really focus on it yesterday. I was simply glad to get outside. Here are a few that I did get:

Here's a photo from the back of the farm property along the woods.

The trail leading back into the woods from the farm.

Looking up at the iconic barn over the stream that runs through the property. This barn seems to be well known in this area.

The stream that runs through the property.

A wooden boat that was last used in 1968, according to the Michigan DNR sticker that was found on it.

Woodpeckers really went after this cedar tree.

Bryan and I came upon this pile of large, old metal cans.

We found one with a clear label on it, indicating that they were old frozen fruit canisters.

We also noticed that most of the canisters had holes in the sides of them and concluded that these hung off of the maple sap taps. Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear mentions in their description of the Bufka farm that the Bufka family used to have a well known sugarbush.

I didn't noticed too many sugar maples in the area we hiked, however this one stood out with it's large size. I wish this was on my property :).

The farm is absolutely beautiful. I've admired it since I was a kid vacationing with my family in the Grand Traverse area. I plan on going back and taking more photos this summer when it's much greener and a little more photogenic.

After our hike at the farm we decided to go down to Good Harbor Beach. We walked back into the wooded area and found a bald eagle's next I'd hear about, and also saw the pair of bald eagles that occupy it. It was pretty neat. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me so will have to go back at another time.

Another reason we got out yesterday was to see if we could find some morel mushrooms. It IS that time of the year, and although we figured our chances were slim we did keep our eyes open just in case. No luck just yet, however. When reading, it seemed like it's still just a little early for morels up here. I only saw one morel confirmation in Leelanau County, and that was just earlier today--and they did seem small. There are not many confirmations in northern Michigan yet, most of the discoveries being in the south, with a reasonable amount being in the middle of the state. Hopefully these next couple weeks will bring success.

During my researching of the morels I stumbled across another popular spring green: Ramps. I noticed that some had posted about them online, so I researched them further. I came across one photo and did a double take. It reminded me of some greenery that I had recently seen and  thought it to be trillium. I did some further reading about how to identify ramps then headed out on a walk to the area I'd seen said "trillium plant". Sure enough, I cleared out the leaf debris and saw the pink/purple stem that I was told I'd see on the ramp.

In this photo the pink/purple stem at ground level is clearly recognizable.

On Sunday I decided to go out for another hike and discovered this:

Apparently, ramps grow well in this region.

Here is a trillium flower for comparison. The leaves aren't long and slender like the ramp, and the stem is quite noticeable. I found this one when walking back on my own property recently. There are a few here and there that are popping up.

Ramps are known by many names including wild leek, spring onion, and wild garlic. They grow well in areas with much woodland debris. The whole plant can be used in cooking and it can be substituted in for onions or garlic in any recipe. It has a strong garlic/onion flavor (not overpowering like a regular onion), and this is something you can smell when you pick them. To harvest you need to dig them up from the roots being careful not to damage the bulb. Ramps have become quite popular, so much so that the are being over harvested (and therefore I'm being careful not to reveal where I found my patch :).) Here's a New York Times article from 2011 talking about the over-harvesting of ramps. I read online that it's recommended, if you have wild ramps, that you harvest only 15% of the crop to keep a healthy population.They will flower and seed like a regular onion.

Here are a couple that I've picked. The purple stem is very obvious.

I put some in a dish last night for dinner and they're quite good. I've got a few more recipes lined up and am excited to give them a try. Now, if I could only discover some of those morels to combine with the ramps.... :)

This weekend was quite relaxing. It was great to get outdoors and spend time with Bryan, discover a location of one of the first spring greens, and then see the northern lights early Sunday morning (a little faint, but visible none the less.) I feel quite blessed, especially when I was able to end my Saturday watching this from my balcony: