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The 28th annual Leland Wine & Food Festival takes place (as always) on the second Saturday in June. That's June 8, 2013.

Come enjoy a day near the Leland Harbor and Leland's historic Fishtown tasting wines from local wineries and tasting the specialties from local restaurants and vendors. There's also live music from Live Wire, with Ron Getz and Elizabeth Sexton Rivers in the park all day and of course plenty of beautiful views of Lake Michigan and the Manitou Islands. The band stage will be on the deck overlooking the festival (on top of the brand new bathrooms). This means great acoustics, and not as loud as in the tent!

Admission is $15 and includes an etched wine glass and two tokens for wine tasting. Additional tokens are available and age 10-21, or non-drinkers are $10, and under 10 is free. Tickets are available at gate, Two Fish Gallery and The Riverside Inn in Leland or online. Food vendors accept cash only and here's a list of this year's participating wineries and food vendors!

Wineries
Bel Lago
Black Star Farms c/o Coryn Briggs
Blustone
Boathouse Vineyards
Bowers Harbor Vineyards
Brys Estate
Chateau Chantal
Chateau Fontaine
Ciccone Vineyard & Winery
Forty-Five North Vineyard & Winery
French Valley
Good Harbor Vineyards
Good Neighbor Organic Vineyard
Peninsula Cellars
Silver Leaf Winery
Verterra Winery/HT Vineyard

Local Beer: Short's Brewing Company

Food Vendors
Bella Fortuna North
The Bluebird
The Cove
Leelanau Cheese Co.
The Leland Lodge
Martha's Leelanau Table
Pleva's Meats
The Red Heads
StoneHouse Bread
Village Cheese Shanty
Vineyard Inn/Corky's

In 2010, friends and admirers of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore helped win the park the title of "Most Beautiful Place in America" on Good Morning America. Now they can help it become the "Eighth Wonder of the World."

The Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau has nominated Sleeping Bear in an international competition organized by VirtualTourist.com. Nearly 300 world destinations are competing, and fans can vote online once per day from now until Sept. 30.

To vote, simple go to Virtual Tourist's 8th Wonder page find the listing for Sleeping Bear Dunes. You can vote once every 24 hours, and the destination with the most votes will be featured in a national television broadcast on “Extra” and receive major publicity!

PS: Just so we're clear, Leelanau.com's philosophy is that the wise enjoyment of Leelanau' natural treasures by visitors is a very good thing for our economy and all of us.

Looking to spruce up your garden or your yard? Two area communities have plant sales this weekend!

Cedar's Perennial Plant Sale is Saturday, May 25 from 9 AM - 3 PM. Hundreds of perennial and wildflower plants are ready for planting in your garden. Beautify your home with plants that attract butterflies and birds. Prices start at $2.00 with over 500 plants and 50 varieties. This is their major fundraiser of the year to support 265 days per year of free, educational, healthy and intergenerational fun.

The Annual Plant Sale on the Village Green in Leland is on tap for Memorial Day Weekend as well! Now is your chance to purchase native ferns, trillium, and more along with a selection of native trees and shrubs provided by locally owned Four Season Nursery, who will be on hand to answer questions about going native.

Sale runs Friday, May 24th and Saturday May 25th; hours 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. All proceeds help maintain the Village Green and assist with other Conservancy projects. The Wildflower Rescue Committee continually seeks new sites on which to dig. If you are building a home, driveway, addition, or know of someone who is, please contact the WRC so they may have a chance to remove these precious wildflowers before the excavators arrive! Contact Patty Shea: 256-9249 or Joanie Woods: 256-7154.

Photo credit: 20090429_0107_copy(Blood Root) by jsorbieus

The 2013 Cedar Polka Fest will be held July 4-7, 2013. Highlights include a parade on Saturday at noon, softball tournament, a polka mass and (of course) polka under the big, big tent with the big names of polka including the Cynor Classic Polka Band, Craig Ebel & Dy Versa, Jimmy J's Polka Band, the Frank Moravcik Band, Ray Watkowski Family Band and Pan Franek & Zosia.

Thursday, July 4, 2013
The annual Cedar Polka Festival begins with the flag raising ceremony at 5:00 p.m. Music and dancing begins immediately after the ceremony. Music TBA.

Friday, July 5, 2013
Sidewalk Chalk Art at 10 am, meet at the Town Hall. Music and dancing beings at 2 pm.

Saturday, July 6, 2013
Polka Fest Parade begins at noon at the Solon Twp. Hall. All participants should be at the Solon Twp. Hall by 11:30 am sharp.

Music and dancing begins at 2 pm and runs until 1 am.

Sunday, July 7, 2013
Polka Mass celebrated with Father Ken Stachnik at 11 am under the tent followed by the traditional Polish Procession of Our Lady of Czestochwa immediately after the mass. Music and dancing resumes at 1 pm.

For Info Phone: (231) 228-3378 or email cedarchamber@gmail.com.

The photo is Polka Dancing in Krakow by beastiekeith. Check out the Library of Congress Local Legacies and the Leelanau.com/map Cedar Polka Fest location

Local restaurateurs and Northern Michigan breweries will show off their best as Glen Arbor kicks off the summer season with the annual Glen Arbor BBQ & Brew Festival on Saturday, June 15th from 2-8 PM.

“Now that the sun is finally shining,” says Chamber of Commerce Event Coordinator, Mason Query, “we are excited to set up the big tent right in the middle of town and have a great party!”

Participating restaurants include Art’s Tavern, Cherry Republic, Blu and Western Avenue Grill. You can wash all that great barbeque down with beer selections from Short’s, Bell’s, Schmohz, North Peak, Jolly Pumpkin, Founders, Cheboygan and Right Brain and more! There will also be non-alcoholic choices from Great Lakes Tea & Spice, Bay Lavender, Cherry Republic and Northwoods Soda.

Live music by Erratixz will get you moving on the dance floor with hits from the ‘70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today. Admission is $15 per person, which includes four tickets to use toward the purchase of any food or beverage.

Order in advance to be entered in a Glen Arbor weekend giveaway sponsored by Leelanau Vacation Rentals!

Michael Huey in the last couple of days of a Kickstarter project to fund Straight as the Pine, Sturdy as the Oak. This new book will tell the history of Camp Leelanau for Boys, the Leelanau Schools, and the Homestead in Glen Arbor from their beginnings around 1920 until 1963. Richly illustrated, the book makes use of the Leelanau School Archive as well as the extensive private archives of the Beals and Huey families to draw back the curtain and tell a behind-the-scenes tale; as such it is a personal journey back through the development of the camp, the school, and the Homestead, told chiefly through vintage photographs, the detailed timeline, and individual short essays. It will be of interest to all who love the Leelanau peninsula and its history and, in particular, to those who have attended – or now attend – Camp Leelanau and/or the Leelanau School, as well as those who summered at or nearby the Homestead or live on the premises now.

Head over to Kickstarter for all the details, and watch the video and read about the project below! (more...)

The wine industry in northern Michigan is bigger than ever, and vineyards are popping up everywhere you look. It's a business that has a multi-million dollar impact on the state, and is expected to continue to grow. Winemakers on the Leelanau Peninsula say the region is great for grapes; the snow insulates the vines, the peninsulas are surrounded by water, and the summer sunshine doesn't hurt either.

9&10's Sara Simnitch and photojournalist Jeremy Erickson go from vine to wine, talking to Mark Carlson of Silver Leaf, Larry Mawby of L Mawby and Andrew McFarlane of Leelanau.com and the Leelanau Wine Trail in this special report:

via Michigan in Pictures...

Cherry Orchard ... spring snow, photo by Ken Scott

The National Weather Service noted that the high temperature yesterday at the Otsego County Airport in Gaylord only reached 35 degrees - a new record for the coldest high temperature for the date that crushed the previous record of 44 degrees from 2003. It was also the coldest high temperature ever recorded in the month of May for Gaylord. They notched a record snowfall of 2 inches as well.

At at balmy 42 degrees, we weren't quite as cold as the center of the state. We did record a low of 27 degrees overnight, just 4 degrees off the 1976 record so stay tuned for a report on the effects. Tart cherries were just getting ready to pop - here's hoping that still happens!

View Ken's photo on black and see more in his massive Leelanau slideshow.

The 10th Annual Empire Asparagus Festival will be held May 17-18, 2013 and features a slew of asparagus-themed events including a Street Dance & Pig Roast from 7-10 PM Friday, a fun run (or walk), Asparagus Eats/Wine and Beer Tasting,  Asparagus recipe contest, the Asparagus Parade, chalk art, music & dance and kids games and a 7 PM Finale Fun Food with Live Music on Saturday night. You can get all the details on the tasty eats and drinks below!

A feature by Susan Bayer Ward titled The Empire Strikes Back... With Asparagus explains:

There's a reason Empire touts itself as the apex of asparagus-a vegetable whose short growing season begins in early May and flows into June. The area's sandy soil, plentitude of water and temperate microclimate-fostered by Lake Michigan, make this the perfect place to nurture wild and farmed asparagus. In fact, Michigan ranks third behind California and Washington as a producer of this commercial crop which garners the state a surprising $29 million annually.

Truth be told, only one local farmer, Harry Norconk, runs a 240-acre asparagus-growing business south of town. But what the heck, this slender green harbinger of spring grows wild all over the place. And while surrounding towns, for years, positioned themselves as prime purveyors of cherries, morel mushrooms and wines, Empire decided to become the Valhalla of that savory veggie-the asparagus.

Also see Stalking Local Asparagus in Empire from MyNorth.com.

(more...)

Open for Business by joeldinda

There have been a flurry of articles and even a new "Leelanau County Commissioners Tinfoil Hat Brigade" Facebook page on the heels of a decision by Leelanau County Commissioners to reject a partnership with Grand Traverse County to promote growth and shutter the county Economic Development Corporation (EDC). It's now reached the Detroit News who report that business leaders are criticizing a decision by the Leelanau County commission to abolish the Leelanau EDC.

Meeting in Suttons Bay on April 8, commissioners said the northwestern Lower Peninsula county is wealthy enough already and that they don't want growth. They said it's up to people to find their own jobs and businesses to make their own plans. (more...)