It's a little known fact that Michigan is one of the top agricutural states in the nation. I'm sure we can't compete in quantity with FLA and CA and even WA, but due to the influence of the glaciers on the soil and the weather conditions caused by the Great Lakes, Michigan is loaded with "micro-climates" which accounts for a great diversity of agricutural conditions and hence agricultural products. That's Michigan's claim to fame, and as a result, the plethora of produce avialable. I know about all this because I am a graduate of the "Cow College" (Michigan State University) and agriculture and natural resources is my field. New Jersey is a similar state geoologically and geographically, hence it was once known as "The Garden State" but that moniker is somewhat of a sad irony these days due to rampant urbanization.

I'm a Michigan gal, raised on a farm here in Michigan. I have been eating fresh and local all my life. There are some long season crops that are hard to produce here but not many. I'm not going to knock the southern states though, they help extend the fresh vegetable and fruit availability throughout much of the year.
The soil and climate here in Michigan, help to produce some of the very highest quality fruits and vegetables that are grown anywhere.

To quote an article that sum's it all up:

"Michigan is the national leader in the
production of tart cherries, having grown 208
million pounds or 76.9% of the U.S. total in
2005.
In 2005, 2.25 million acres of Michigan were
used for the production of corn. Soybeans are
the states 2nd leading crop at 2 million acres.
Michigan ranks 3rd in the nation in apple
production with over 780 million bushels
produced in 2005. The estimated farm-level
value was $97.1 million.
Michigan is the top producer of cucumbers
grown for pickles, 2nd for celery, squash and
carrots and 3rd in asparagus production.
Over 887,560 tons of fresh market and
processing vegetables were grown in
Michigan in 2005. The state ranks 8th in fresh
market and 5th in processed vegetable
production nationally."

It seems like almost every town has a farmers market, where the local farmers sell from their trucks, usually one day a week. Then there are the larger, more commercial produce markets in some towns. My favorite thing though, is to drive along the West Michigan shore and stop at the individual farm stands that line the road. I live in NW Lower Michigan and have certain farms that I know grow the best apples, peaches, etc.

There are certain parts of the state that grow the best of the best...Bay city tomatoes, Bay City melons, Howell melons ans SW Michigan blueberries....these are all very special.

Dirtgirl, did I entice you to visit Michigan someday???

Nancy

Nancy, I thought we agreed that we were just going to tell everyone that Michigan was 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad sledding, and that mosquitos got so big they'd carry off small children.

We weren't going to tell them that we grow over 200 products and that our micro climates makes us the 2nd most agriculturally diverse state in the U.S. and that you can get everything from cherries to dried beans to local wine and sit on a Lake Michigan beach and have fresh lake perch and local wine and watch the sun set.

Which reminds me, I've got to call my local farm market and see if they have strawberries and how hard the late freeze hit the cherries.

Annie

Annie, it wasn't me that didn't keep the secret, it's the two guys that Dirtgirl met at work that spilled the beans....

Nancy

I don't know if they play the "Pure Michigan" tourism commercials IN Michigan or not but they sure make Michigan look like heaven on earth. All the yummy produce yall are talking about is just the cherry on top! I may have to come visit.

I have to tell you, as a Michigander, I can't imagine living anywhere else. I now we have economic problems right now, but hopefully that will improve. But, as Annie says, sitting on the beach at Lake Michigan, with white sand that rivals any sand I found in Hawaii, watching the sunset, drinking our own wines, snacking on the best cherries and peaches I have ever tasted while waiting for the perch and whitefish and walleye to sizzle over an open campfire, well, let's just say that I NEVER get tired of Michigan. It has so much bounty and beauty. I think we are a "best-kept secret." (Come on dirtgirl, we'll show you a good time!)

cookebook, we do have those ads here in Michigan too. 25,000 sunrises, make some of 'em Pure Michigan. Come on up, you can stay with me!

I know beantheredunthat once said that if you asked me, White Cloud is just a few miles south of heaven. For me, it is.

I love the fresh produce, of course, but I love the fall colors and the fresh salmon from the autumn runs up the Muskegon River, and walking in the woods in the spring and seeing everything covered with a blanket of white in the winter. I love that I can drive 40 miles and sit on world class beaches and that there's nothing in Lake Michigan that wants to bite me or eat me or sting me, I'm on the top of the food chain there and no salt to sting my eyes. I can drive an hour south and go the the ballet or the symphony, or I can take a 4 hour train ride and end up on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago for shopping or seeing Phantom of the Opera or just hanging with Peppi, then I can go home and saddle my horse and take a ride through the Manistee National Forest and have no one around for miles, stop and pick some wild blackberries and look for bears. Or I can drive to Lansing to the entirely indoor shrimp farm and buy them fresh out of the water to go with my freshly caught walleye, I can tap my maples and make my own syrup or buy it at a zillion roadside stands, or I can just sit on the porch and smell the apple blossoms.

Besides edible agriculture, Michigan leads the nation in producint Potted Easter Lilies, Potted Spring Flowering Bulbs, Potted Geraniums (seed), Potted Petunias, Potted New Guinea Impatiens, New Guinea Impatiens, Hanging Baskets, Geraniums, Impatiens, Begonia and Petunia Hanging Baskets, Impatiens and New Guinea Impatiens (flats)and Potted Geraniums (cuttings), we can definitely stop and smell the flowers.

My call to the local farm market just revealed that I can buy snap peas, strawberries and some fresh lettuces right now, the u-pick strawberries will be ready next week and the sweet cherry crop "looks awesome".

My garden this year contains sweet potatoes, leeks, sweet onions, fingerling potatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, beets, 4 kinds of hot peppers, two types of sweet peppers, red and green brussels sprouts, red and green cabbage, half a dozen varieties of tomatoes, celery, eggplant, fennel, romaine, radishes, pink half runner beans, Royal Burgundy beans, two kinds of sweet corn, butternut squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, turnips, collards, carrots, cucumbers, radicchio, rutabaga, three kinds of basil, dill, oregano, thyme, chives, sage and coriander. I'm sure I forgot something...

Like Sherry, I can't imagine living anywhere else, I love Michigan. I live in the same county I was born in. My Dad was born here too, as were my children and my grandchildren. Our Native American roots run deep here in our Michigan soil. I know we have a lot of economic problems right now and I'm fortunate to have a job close to my home. I only hope my children have the same luxury, because I don't think they'd live anywhere else either.

Annie

Don't believe them folks! It's a carpy, flat, BORING state. Nothing to do all day long but watch the corn grow and the cars rust or the snow pile up and then melt. No, no, pass Michigan by, nothing to see or do there!
:)
The rest is just our little secret.

OK, Laurie, I forgot, we're trying to keep Michigan beaches uncrowded and the farm markets well stocked and be able to find an empty seat at the last minute if we want to see a show. Sorry....

Hey, don't tell, Ben Stiller is producing a new movie "30 Minutes or Less" with Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride, they're shooting in Grand Rapids this summer. I think you could probably get a gig as an extra, if you're still looking for extra work. I think we missed out on the Ed Asner movie they shot on the lakeshore last year. "LOL" with Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore will be shot in Detroit starting in July and I think Val Kilmer was here in December doing "Gun". 50 Cents just finished filming "Things Fall Apart" in Grand Rapids, said he loves Michigan because of it's low key attitude. (grin) Yup, that's us, laid back. He said "I liked that it was very quiet, New York City is so conscious of everything I do."

Mario Batali has a house in Traverse City and Martha Stewart buys apples from a grower up North and we have Motown and Madonna, museums and movies.

Yup, it's flat and boring, just watch the snow melt and swat mosquitos, day in and day out.

Annie

I'm another one that loves the Pure Michigan ads on TV. Whatever agency did those did them up right! Makes me want to let my fingers walk through MapQuest and pack my bags.

Teresa

Oh my goodness, I can tell my cousins didn't do ya'll justice when we visited them in Dearborn. The most we got to see was the museum and Henry Ford's house!! It sounds beautiful and no, we don't get the ads down here.

Aren't John Sandford's "Prey" books based in that area? They're definitely somewhere near the lakes up there.

With all due respect to your cousins, Dearborn is not the jewel of the mitten state. That's the beauty of Michigan, we hang Detroit out in the front yard so people with less courage just pass on by, and we keep all the pretty good stuff to ourselves out back by the Lakes.

Speaking of the mitten state, I think I will be there come June 20. I have tentative plans to travel to see the folks for a week then. I'm starting to feel overwhelmed at all my aging relatives I need to try and visit this summer.

Here's one of the Pure Michigan ads. Appropriate for this thread because it's about the fresh fruit..

I put up with the winters because there is no where else in the world I'd rather be in the summer...

Nancy

Who is narrating that, sounds like Tim Allen! Or some guy with a Michigan accent, lol!

Laurie, that is Tim Allen, he's from Michigan you know. Well, he moved here when he was a kid and grew up here anyway, he was born in Colorado, I think. My favorite voice of all time, James Earl Jones, is from Michigan, he grew up in Dublin, just north of here.

Detroit/Dearborn is NOT Michigan, or even a good representation of all that is Michigan. It's just another city, like many other cities and doesn't even scratch the surface of what is Michigan.

Mario Batali chooses to have a house in Traverse City, the Crown Jewel of Michigan. Ivana Trump anchored her yacht off the beach in Pentwater last summer. Conde Naste Traveller found Oval Beach in Saugatuck to be one of the 25 best beaches in the world a couple of years ago.

But this is Michigan in my pasture:

and this is Michigan:

and this is Michigan right off Nancy's deck!

This is Michigan:

so is this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

this:

even this:

Hemingway wrote in Michigan, and the Joy of Cooking was written in part here in Michigan, in 1931 on Lake Charlevois. We're the home of Jiffy Mix and Vernor's Gingerale and the birthplace of the automobile, even though that IS Detroit.

We have miles of coastline, the longest freshwater shoreline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. In 2005, Michigan ranked third among US states for the number of registered recreational boats, behind California and Florida, and we're sometimes called "The Third Coast". No matter where you stand in the state you are never more than 88 miles from one of the Great Lakes and no more than six miles from a natural water source.

So, Teresa, come on up, you can stay with me too. The cherries will be ripe in just a couple of weeks....

Annie

You guys are making me homesick!

Dirtgirl, having lived half my life in Michigan, and half in California, although CA has a longer growing season, my soil is awful compared to Michigan dirt. And you can't compare the flavors of Michigan peaches, wild strawberries, morels, melons, cherries, sweet corn... I could go on and on...

"Nancy, I thought we agreed that we were just going to tell everyone that Michigan was 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad sledding, and that mosquitos got so big they'd carry off small children." (I must say, however, those Pure Michigan commercials rarely show those constant grey slushy/sleety/icy days of February and March!)

Ann

Ann, that's what Elery says too. I figure those are the days to be spent inside, turning the sweet cherries I picked in June into jam, or using saddle soap on the horse tack. Gotta do it sometime...

Annie

Annie, the Tourism Board should hire you in a Michigan minute! You are a great ambassador for your state! You make a person want to come there to visit.

Now, if I could just persuade you to come down south to NC - in the fall, in the fall - of course! - when it is not HHH weather! You would love our coast and mountains, I just know it. Then you and Elery could swing by TN to visit his relatives? Did I remember correctly?

Teresa

So it was our boy Tim! I used to live up north in Suttons Bay and work with his former in-laws. He and his wife did a lot of charity work around there, but I'm out of the loop so I don't know what he's involved with now, especially since I think he divorced that woman who had family up in Northport. I used to love all the MI references on his old show!

Speaking of fruits, I hope to come back to MI during blueberry season. I've had PA, NJ and MD blueberries and they just cannot compare, they taste watery. PA actually has good wild blueberries. I have a bush in my yard, the berries are miniscule! With the blueberries I think the secret is sandy soil, something PA and MD don't have a whole lot of.

Hey Annie I'm glad you told me about that beach in Saugatuck, I just may have to check it out!

Laurie, the elderly couple who owned the blueberry patch where we picked have both passed away. She died three or four years ago, him last winter. I don't know if the kids will keep the patch open or sell it or what, but I very well may have to find another place to pick. There's a zillion, but I just loved the Kempermans, such lovely people and their u-pick blueberries were a good supplement to their Social Security.

Teresa, I do intend to visit the Carolinas, both North and South at some time. Elery's sister is in Caryville, but with the two weddings, I don't think we'll be going anywhere this year. I'd love to see the Outer Banks, though, and maybe Charleston and, of course, visit you!

Annie

Well Annie, you might as well swing by Knoxvillle and the Great Smoky Mountains if you're that far south. We'd love to have you here! Caryville is not that far....I was born in Campbell County.

jude

Wow, Jude, next time we go to visit Elery's family, I'll have to make a lunch date with you. I know his sister goes to Knoxville regularly for "shopping". I just ask that I never be required to visit Gatlinberg or Pigeon Forge, too darned many people!

Actually, Elery would like to take me "all over the mountains" to see where he grew up.

Annie

Yeah they call my alma matter "Moo U". I don't understand just because it has some stables and pastures. The on campus dairy is THE place to get ice cream. First Sunday in March they host the State rabbit show... just in case any other bunny people reading.

Saginaw Valley which has a school named after it is one of the richest farm lands in the world. Glaciers formed much of Michigan's topography leaving vast tracks of land flat as a board and other areas rolling hills of soil deposited when the glaciers melted. I live on the edge of Tuscola county. Tuscola was a native word for flat land. Some farms have fields that take up a square mile or more. Giant 9000 series John Deere tractors are a common sight.... the fellow in the cab can see in a second story window (I've seen driveways plowed of snow with a Steiger). Worked my first 12 hour day when I was 7 y/o in a bean field just outside of Bently. As a teen detasseling seed corn was job every summer starting when I was about 14.

These days I take it easy and just farm a few trees. Looking into some other micro-farming sources of income.

Already 3 ripe tomatoes and my jalapenos are coming on... started indoors a couple months ago.

: )
lyra

Wow -- having lived in metro Detroit my whole life, Annie's posts make me realize how much of my own state I have not seen! We always went south (FL) for vacation when I was a kid.

Ok -- my biggest shameful secret -- 40 years old and I have never been to Mackinac Island! And neither has my husband! People can't believe it when I tell them that.

We are again heading to FL this summer but maybe some summer we will have a Michigan vacation (all the way to the UP).

Stir fryi, shame on you!!!! I've heard that many times from people. I've had fun talking with people who come to Charlevoix and just never knew it was so nice.

Just take a long weekend, stay on the island or stay in Mackinaw City, depending on the budget...the Grand Hotel is expensive but is the perfect place for a romantic weekend getaway.

Nancy

I was flying to LA a couple of weeks ago. I had a window seat and the weather was crystal clear. It was breathtaking looking down at the State of Michigan. An endless landscape quilt of farmland, occasionally punctuated by peaceful towns embroidered in this magnificent tapestry of brown and green.

Brought back many of my memories. I have been to many cities in Michigan.

I was in Anne Arbor, taking a taxi from the airport to where I was supposed to go.
"Excuse me my friend; this is my first time in Ann Arbor. Would you mind take me through downtown for a little sightseeing?"
"Sir, what do you mean? This IS downtown."

I was visiting Grand Rapids. I stopped by to see a friend in a hospital. It was a giant snow storm that came later on in the day. Nothing was available to get out. The hospital did not have enough staff. I was stuck in the hospital for three days, volunteering in the maternity ward.

I was having regular meetings in Lansing every Wednesday. On one Wednesday, I took my regular flight for the meeting. When I got there, I was very embarrassed.
No one was there.
The secretary was very puzzled," Sir, why are you here? This is deer hunting season opening day!"

dcarch

stirfryi, come on up north and visit. You can stay with me and I'll give you fresh tomatoes from the garden, if you hit the right season! Fall is lovely, if you like to fish the salmon run in the Muskegon River about 10 miles from my house and that's fun. Then you can head a bit further north and see Nancy, I'd run right up along US 31, Saugatuck is lovely and an artist's colony if you're into that, Ludington is one of my favorite places ever and the ice cream is great at House of Flavors, and there are farm markets all along the way.

Truthfully, I think mackinac Island is a tourist trap, but you should see it once. Get some fudge, take a carriage ride, then drive across the Mackinac Bridge, buy a pasty for lunch, maybe go see the Shipwreck Museum and see the information on The "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as sung by Gordon Lightfoot. Or check out the falls, it's all good in the UP!

If you go through Lansing, be sure to stop at Horrock's for wine. It's a farm market with a great wine selection, LOL. Saginaw Highway exit...

The DaVinci Horse is in Grand Rapids at Meijer Gardens. It was made from DaVinci's drawing and is 24 feet tall. There's another in Italy, and a smaller 8 foot replica DaVinci's home village in Italy, as well as a smaller replica in Allentown,Pennsylvania.

dcarch, Ann Arbor is a big town to me, it has a Trader Joe's AND a Whole Foods! I'm about 50 miles north of Grand Rapids. Oh, and the opening day of deer season is a holiday here, they even close the schools.

Annie

Don't tell anyone outside of Michigan but "deer season" is code talk for guys go to the bar and gals go shopping. Local bar features male strippers because the guys all went up north. After we all eat beef jerky and don't ask questions. Next time dcarch head over to Omar's and have a brew... your meeting is probably there.

DaVinci is nice if you like modern art. At the corner of Sanilac, Huron, and Tuscola counties there is a series of petroglyphs from the time before written words. No much said about them because they are not well protected... some still out in the elements. State has a fence around the big one so you can only access when the gate is open these days.

A hundred years ago there was a resort that brought city folks by steam ship. It burned down but the sidewalk and some fancy homes remain... makes for a nice walk along the lake. As a kid I fished from a rowboat about a half mile out from where this picture was taken.
{{gwi:1528447}}

This photo is very typical Michigan... long stretchs of road in the middle of the woods.
{{gwi:325874}}

This is my home with messy garage and Weber grill ready for grillin'. I keep my tractor in the garage because it is newer and more expensive then the old car.
{{gwi:1528448}}

Because it can be cool outside we play lots of video games.
{{gwi:1528449}}

: )
lyra

Lyra, Dad used to tell a joke about a rich city guy with a big Cadillac that went in the ditch. When the farmer came with a tractor to pull the Caddy out, the owner said "you aren't going to put that chain on my $40,000 Cadillac, are you?". The farmer replied "Nope, I'm going to put it right back on my $100,000 tractor and go home." (grin)

As for deer season, you've been hunting the Mahogany Runway again, haven't you? Heck, I just figure I don't need to hunt, I can hit enough of them with the Jeep.

And then there comes another thread on how to cook roadkill...

Annie

Lyra, Annie, is it time to share this?

Jeff Foxworthy Michigan Jokes

(pretty funny and accurate)

1\. If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Michigan. 2\. If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Pellston is the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in Michigan . 3\. If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, you might live in Michigan . 4\. If you instinctively walk like a penguin for five months out of the year, you might live in Michigan . 5\. If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don't work there, you might live in Michigan . 6\. If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, (or at the top of his ankles) you might live in Michigan . 7\. If you have worn shorts and a coat at the same time, you might live in Michigan . 8\. If your town has an equal number of bars and churches,! you might live in Michigan . 9\. If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Michigan . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Part 2 \- You know you're a true MICHIGANDER when . . . 1\. "Vacation" means going up north on I\-75 2\. You measure distance in hours. 3\. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once. 4\. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day. 5\. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching. 6\. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings). 7\. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked. 8\. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them. 9\. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit. 10\. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow. 11\. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction. 12\. You can identify a southern or eastern accent. 13\. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce. 14\. You were unaware that there is a legal drinking age. 15\. Down South to you means Ohio . 16\. A brat is something you eat. 17\. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole barn. 18\. You go out to a fish fry every Friday. 19\. Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost. 20\. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car. 21\. You find 0 degrees! "a little chilly." 22\. You drink pop and bake with soda. 23\. Your doctor tells you to drink Vernors and you know it's not medicine. 24\. You can actually drink Vernors without coughing. 25\. You know what a Yooper is. 26\. You think owning a Honda is Un\-American. 27\. You know that UP is a place, not a direction. 28\. You know it's possible to live in a thumb. 29\. You understand that when visiting Detroit, the best thing to wear is a Kevlar vest. 30\. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Michigan friends.

Yes, Nancy, definitely time. (grin)

Annie

(stir fry - after living in MI 20+ years, DH and I celebrated my 40th by going to Mackinaw Island... b/c I'd never been either... now I live in CT, but I'm talking about heading back to Mackinaw for my 50th....)

wow, Bizz, come on home!! And stop to visit on your way through, or at least let us know so we can waylay you on your trip up north.

Annie

What I find most interesting about Michigan is the existence of ancient copper mines. I've read other stories about ancient civilizations in Michigan and Wisconsin, but I don't remember the details. There was uncertainty about where the people came from, but there were suggestions that some of them came from Europe. I also heard legends about Vikings making it all the way to ancient Michigan.

Lars

Gosh, I'm glad I said something. You guys have really given me an education! Talk about a worthwhile road trip - Michigan would definitely make one.

It's interesting the preconceived notions we get about other states. I never gave it much thought but if I'd been asked I would have figured Michigan as, first - cold! then Detroit - dirty and autos. Never any more. And I'm not trying to be insulting, it's just all we knew.

It's like the blueberries. All we hear about are wild Maine blueberries. Now I know why this guy was disappointed when he moved down here. We really don't have a claim to that many great varieties of vegetable and fruits. Georgia peaches of course, but the grocery stores are trying to sell some of those right now and it's a joke. Hard as a rock and no peach smell to them at all. And we do have pecans.

Thanks for all the great info and pics. Love the snow pics and your farm Annie.

Stir fryi,
About Mackinac Island. I would add to Annie's note. If you do go, stay a night or two, rent a bike to go around the island away from the main streets, hike up to the fort, watch all the tourists leave on the boat while you're sipping a glass of wine from your hotel balcony. You'll see Mackinac Island in a way that most don't. It can be quite special.
Ann

"Nancy, I thought we agreed that we were just going to tell everyone that Michigan was 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad sledding, and that mosquitos got so big they'd carry off small children."

I thought that was Minnesota.....(darfc incase Doucanoe smacks me)