The Leelanau News Blog
leelanau county news • traverse city news • michigan news

Traverse City hosts a Downtown Art Walk tomorrow night (Friday, May 2) from 5-9 PM.

You're invited to enjoy a self guided tour of galleries and exhibits in Downtown Traverse City featuring local art and wine. Visit each participating location, receive a stamp and enter to win a $500 Downtown Shopping Spree. Walking guides will be available at each participating location and the Downtown Office.

Visit the Downtown Traverse City web site for more information!

Leelanau's Black Star Farms is enjoying an amazing run of good news.

After being named one of bedandbreakfast.com's Top Ten Eco-Friendly Inns, they were invited to provide a prize for Wheel of Fortune's Green Week. The show will reportedly air tonight (Apr 11) at 7 PM on WPBN TV 7&4, and a contestant did win the prize. More from the Traverse City Business News.

On the heels of that comes news that Wine Enthusiast magazine has selected Black Star Farms, Suttons Bay as one of America's Top 25 tasting rooms in its May issue.

It seems almost an anti-climax to report that this week they added online wine ordering to their web site.

Image courtesy Wheel of Fortune / Sony Pictures.

The Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association's annual Spring Sip & Savor trail event takes place May 3 & 4, 2008 and offers you an opportunity to taste a wine and food pairing selected especially by the each of the LPVA winemakers. The winemakers will be present in the tasting rooms all weekend to talk with you about their wines and to sign the 2008 Leelanau Winemaker poster, featuring a photograph of all 15 winemakers of the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail by noted area photographer and TC Film Festival co-founder John Robert Williams. These posters will be available the Sip & Savor weekend and provided free to everyone who attends!

Attendees will also have a chance to enter to win a dinner for 2 with the winemaker of their choice at Samuel's Restaurant in Suttons Bay. Check the link above for tickets and more information about this event.

Photo:  Willow Vineyard by Andy McFarlane

The Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association invites you to celebrate Valentine's Day (and wine and chocolate) at their annual "Taste the Passion" wine tour held February 9-10.

The weekend features special pours and tasty chocolate treats and many of the wineries along the wine trail are hosting special events including snowshoeing, cross country skiing, evening parties, a snowman building contest and the first annual Vineyard Snow Angel Contest.

As a bonus, all participants will be entered in a drawing to win one of three great door prizes - romantic weekend escapes featuring lodging and dining at either The Homestead Resort with dinner at Funistrada; Holiday Inn West Bay with dinner at Hanna; Whaleback Inn with dinner at Samuel's.

Details and tickets at: www.lpwines.com/taste.

Here's a video from the 2007-2008 ice wine harvest put together by Leelanau.com and Black Star Farms.

You can read more about their harvest and see some photos in The Ice Wine Cometh.

The Enterprise reports that the 2007 Farm Bill, which appears headed for passage by the Federal Government in January, streamlines the cumbersome process for farmers to receive federal money for selling development rights on their property to local governments and non-governmental organizations and has additional provisions for specialty crops like cherries, wine grapes, asparagus and organic products.

The new law would raise the deduction a landowner can take for donating a conservation easement from 30 percent of their income in any year to 50 percent.

For those actively engaged in farming, the deal is even better. Qualifying farmers may be able to deduct up to 100 percent of their income from land they have voluntarily donated for a conservation easement. In addition, the new law would extend the carry-forward period for a donor to take tax deductions from five to 16 years.

Read Preservation efforts boosted in Farm Bill in the Leelanau Enterprise.

Photo: Apples & Old Sheds by Andy McFarlane

The Enterprise reports that the Bingham Township Planning Commission held a public forum to discuss ideas that may enhance agricultural tourism in the township, including model zoning ordinance language from the State of Michigan. They quote planner Rochelle Rollenhagen on what is being considered:

"The ideas we're exploring involve expanding the types of activities that might be allowed on agricultural land," Rollenhagen explained. "Agritourism involves some land uses that can be pretty commercial in nature; and a broader range of uses could become allowable in the township’s agriculture district if we follow through with some of these ideas," she said.

The point behind expanding opportunities for agritourism in the township would be to allow farmers and the owners of agricultural properties to stay in business and on their farms, Rollenhagen said. Such opportunities might help prevent residential sprawl.

Read Bingham gathers input for boosting 'agritourism' in the Leelanau Enterprise.

Photo: Harvest II by Andy McFarlane (available in wallpaper size)

Yesterday's Traverse City Record-Eagle reported that Leelanau Wine Cellars of Omena was the Michigan winery #1 for in-state sales in 2006, selling almost 686,000 liters (up 45% from 2005). The previous #1, St. Julian of Paw Paw is likely still the top producer in Michigan due to extensive out-of-state sales.

"We've really been going through a lot of dramatic growth over the past five years," said Bob Jacobsen, owner of Leelanau Wine Cellars, where officials are getting ready to open a new processing facility in an old cherry plant north of Omena. "We're really at the volume we're at much faster than I anticipated."

Other Leelanau wineries in the top 10 of Michigan sales were Black Star Farms, Good Harbor Vineyards and L. Mawby Vineyards. Chateau Grand Traverse and Chateau Chantal on Old Mission also made the top 10.

Read Region boasts six of state's top 10 wineries in the Record-Eagle.

Photo: Wine Harvest II by Andy McFarlane.

The annual Leelanau Peninsula Vintners Association Toast the Season wine trail tour is held 2 weekends in November. The first weekend has sold out, but some tickets remain for November 17 & 18 - get them while they last!

It's a great chance to experience the wineries of the Leelanau Peninsula. The weekend event features holiday gift basket with each ticket and and ornament, special wine pour and holiday themed gourmet food at each of the 13 Leelanau Peninsula member wineries.

The untitled photo is by metrolens and he has several more cool shots from a recent visit to Leelanau that you should check out!

Oswegatchi by John Clement Howe

John adds some nice detail about Oswegatchi:

Oswegatchi, also known as the D.H. Day Farm, has long been a prominent landmark of what is now the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Oswegatchi? To read about D.H.Day and why he gave the farm this name visit these links from the National Park service: www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/dhdayfarm.htm
www.nps.gov/slbe/historyculture/dkhday.htm

News from the Week

Stories from the week included a look at a neat new blog called Northern Michigan Foodies that seeks to highlight our great local food & drink, a feature on the role of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation in Leelanau County and the latest national mention of Leelanau, this one from MSNBC.com's fall color guide.

The Week's Weather

Last weekend and the early part of this week was simply amazing - sunny & temperatures in the 80s. Then things went south ... or north I guess into the 40s. Somewhere in there we missed that beautiful 60s to low 70s thing.

October 4, 2007: Sunny & upper 70s (78Ëš/46Ëš)
October 5, 2007: Sunny & 80s (84Ëš/57Ëš) Tied record high!
October 6, 2007: Partly sunny, some rain & upper 80s (87Ëš/66Ëš) Record high!
October 7, 2007: Mostly sunny & upper 80s (88Ëš/66Ëš) Another record high!!
October 8, 2007: Mostly sunny & upper 80s (88Ëš/64Ëš) Yet another record high!!!
October 9, 2007: Mostly cloudy, rain & 60s (71Ëš/46Ëš)
October 10, 2007: Wind, rain & upper 40s (53Ëš/44Ëš)

Click for the Leelanau news archive from October 2006!