Leelanau.com Blog
leelanau county news • traverse city news • michigan news

This week a couple Leelanau businesses were featured in regional publications. The Whaleback Inn was featured in the Chicago Tribune and Sue Ann Round's Michigan Artists Gallery was featured in the Grand Traverse Insider. We also ran a story featuring local photographers, who gave back to their community with free Holiday portraits. This Friday is Higher Grounds Third Annual Holiday Trunk Show, Silent Auction and Benefit Concert. And our Photo Friday feature was M-22…aka Main Sreet. by John Levanen

The Week's Weather

Dec 16: Snow & 21 (21/7)
Dec 15: Snow & 30 (30/16)
Dec 14: Snow & 33 (33/26)
Dec 13: Snow & 34 (34/26)
Dec 12: Partly sunny 34 (34.0)
Dec 11: Snow 16 (16/5)
Dec 10: Snow & 20 (22/12)

Post your comments about the week's news, observations of the weather or the natural world or events below!

You'll also want to check out the Leelanau Calendar and the latest news and features from Leelanau, Traverse City and the surrounding area in our blog! Here's the December 2009 archive, and Leelanau Almanac Week of Dec 3 – 9.

Photo: Winterberry by Pentax K1000 Gal

Friday, Dec. 18th Higher Grounds Trading Co. will host their third annual Holiday Trunk Show & Artists Market, plus a live concert and benefit auction. From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., more than a dozen local artisans will sell their wares in our roastery, allowing you the perfect opportunity to holiday shop for locally made, sustainable, one-of-a-kind items, like clothing, jewelry, and more. Throughout the day, from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., they will host a silent auction featuring items from local businesses and artists, capped off with an evening of live music by our friends May Erlewine & Seth Bernard with the Abominable Snowmen—featuring Joshua Davis and Dominic Davis (from beloved Michigan roots band, Steppin' In It) & Michael Shimmin. Proceeds from the $12 ticket to the show and silent auction will support the construction of a secondary school in the coffee-growing regions of Yrgacheffe, Ethiopia—one of the communities from which Higher Grounds purchases coffee.

In modern-day Ethiopia, despite the country’s coffee exports accounting for nearly 60 percent of the national GDP, many coffee farmers and their families live on the edge of survival. Education, health care, and access to water are all in very limited supply. In the Yrgacheffe region, where some of the world’s most unique and sought-after coffees originate, little more than half the region’s children complete primary school. The adult literacy rate is 36 percent. Life expectancy is 53 years.

But at the Ethiopian fair trade coffee cooperative of Negele Gorbitu, in the town of Afursa Waro, coffee farmers are taking their future into their own hands. They’ve used the premiums from the sale of their fair trade and organic coffee beans to build a health clinic and primary school. These were big steps, but they’re still not enough: the closest secondary school is a five-mile walk away, and the primary school is already overfilled with students with far too few school supplies.

The farmers of Negele Gorbitu have asked Higher Grounds for help, prompting the fair trade and organic coffee company to begin an intensive fundraising mission to raise $50,000 to build a secondary school and furnish both schools with proper school supplies. Join us in our campaign to bring the gift of education to the children of the Negele Gorbitu coffee co-op.

You can also send a donation for the school to:

Higher Grounds Trading Co.
(Make checks out to "On the Ground"
806 Red Drive
Suite 150
Traverse City, Michigan, 49684
For more information contact: Chris Treter 231.922.9009

Good Morning World by photoshoparama,

Kevin Pang of the Chicago Tribune writes:

We pulled into the gravel driveway of the Whaleback Inn, rang a bell and walked into a gorgeous lakeside cabin that encapsulates, in so many words, Northern Michigan: woodsy, serene, friendly. We were greeted by Scott Koehler, ever warm and helpful, who runs the inn with wife Tammie. We asked what there was to do around town, and he enthusiastically handed over enough maps, brochures and pamphlets for a startup tourism board.

Read more of Kevin's article at the Chicago Tribune. Also visit the Whaleback Inn's website for reservations and more information.

Want a reason to visit the Whaleback this winter? The Whaleback Inn is offering a special package for the Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association event, Taste the Passion. Visit the LPVA website for more information.

Photo: Kevin Pang, Chicago Tribune

On Saturday, Dec 12, local photographers participated in a worldwide event, where they donated their time, equipment, and expertise to give back to those less fortunate this holiday season. Celebrity photographer, Jeremey Cowart, started the movement, when he founded Help-Portrait. Local photograhpers, Alan Newton, John Robert Williams, Dan Stewart and Marc Courville, were at Suttons Bay High School on Saturday helping students from Suttons Bay and Lake Leelanau St. Mary take the portraits.

Local organizer, Scott Tompkins, told the Record Eagle:

"We want to find people in our local community who are in need, photograph them, and give them a picture and a CD of their images," said Scott Tompkins.

For more information about the project, visit www.help-portrait.com.

Photo: Little Smirk by 'Playingwithbrushes'

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas on M-22...aka Main Sreet by John Levanen. Obviously the snow is a little deeper in Leland today! Be sure to check out more of John's winter scenes on this flickr photostream.

Kristine Morris from the Grand Traverse Insider tell us about Sue Ann Round and why her gallery, Michigan Artists Gallery gets "essential art" kudos from writer, John Villani:

She has brought all of her creativity and passion into what writer John Villani called, “One of three essential art venues in the Traverse City area,” long known for its vibrant community of artists and galleries.

Villani saw the gallery, included it in his book, “100 Best Art Towns in America” (Countryman Press, 2005), and declared that the Michigan Artists Gallery was “not to be missed.” It was not until a year after his visit that Round found out it had been included in Villani’s book.

“I was at a party, and a friend said that he’d been at Horizon Bookstore and had read that we were mentioned. That was a thrill.”.

Be sure visit Sue Ann at Michigan Artists Gallery give the gift of local art this holiday season.

Photo: Sue Ann Round, Michigan Artists Gallery by Kristine Morris of the Grand Traverse Insider

Shop locally this Holiday, check out the Leelanau.com 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. Tim Young, of Food for Thought, has some great suggestions in Think Globally, Gift Locally: the 100-mile Cultural Diet. If you are looking for something unique to do this winter, try the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Keeper Program. We featured a news story from the Leelanau Enterprise about the Sugar Load environmental assessment. Our Photo Friday featured reminded us of how beautiful snow can be: IMG_0354 by leelanau2010

Post your comments about the week's news, observations of the weather or the natural world or events below!

You'll also want to check out the Leelanau Calendar and the latest news and features from Leelanau, Traverse City and the surrounding area in our blog! Here's the December 2008 archive, and Leelanau Almanac for Week of Nov 26 - Dec 2.

DSC_8143_edited-1 by jsorbieus

Stuck at home on this snowy day? Use your time wisely by finishing your Holiday shopping! Our Leelanau Holiday Gift Guide is updated for 2009 and features all kinds of great gifts made and sold right here in Leelanau County!

Check it out and please do what you can to shop locally this holiday season!

Photo: Cherry Republic Gift Basket by photoshoparama

The Leelanau Enterprise reports:

A “Phase II” environmental assessment of Sugar Loaf Resort completed last month found no more in the way of contamination at the long-shuttered ski resort than a “Phase I” assessment conducted in October.

At their regular monthly meeting last week, members of the Leelanau County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (LCBRA) heard from representatives of AKT Peerless Environmental Services which is conducting the assessments using part of the $100,000 in grant funding the county acquired through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

County Planning and Community Development department head Trudy Galla, who also serves as director of the LCBRA, said that during the “Phase II” assessment, engineers were able to locate one of the underground storage tanks on the resort property which not even its current owner, Kate Wickstrom, was aware of.

“There are a number of underground storage tanks on the property,” Galla explained, “and the assessment showed that none of them are leaking.”

Read more of the Leelanau Enterprise article.

Photo: Down by farlane

In the 100-Mile Cultural Diet, Timothy Young of Food for Thought writes:

Local food is hot. As we continue discovering evidence of all the social, environmental and economic benefits of eating local, the phenomenon becomes less of a debate and more of a movement. For instance, it seems that almost every day I hear of more and more people who are adopting the 100-mile diet approach to life. The goal of the diet is to eat foods produced within 100 miles of your home.

I think this is a valiant task and I applaud anyone who makes this type of commitment. But to be honest, I'm a lapsed follower of such a diet because there are certain out-of-season and bio-regional foods (bananas, chocolate, winter lettuce, etc.) that simply bring so much pleasure and health to life! However, we all don't have to strictly practice the 100-mile diet to make a big difference in our collective quality of life. I recently read a statistic whereby if every Michigan resident increased their weekly purchase of local food by $10.00, it would keep $37 million circulating in the Michigan economy each week! Such statistics always cause me to wonder, "If it works for food, why not culture?" Such statistics also remind me to recommit to buying local beyond food.

For example, I've committed to making local music a purchasing priority. To initiate this, I'll be purchasing CD's from local bands and musicians and giving them out this holiday season. Call it my 100-mile cultural diet. Sure I may download the occasional chocolate, banana or winter lettuce in the form of Iggy Pop, Brain Eno or Jack Johnson, but for the most part, I'm going to make an effort to purchase my culture within my region, be it music, art or literature.

The Leelanau.com Holiday Gift Guide is a great place to find many ideas for local gifts, including local musicians and local food products.

Also check out, absolutemichigan.com/Music for more great Michigan musicians!

Photo credit: Seth Bernard and May Erlewine (aka Daisy May) played at The Water Festival in Traverse City by farlane