As the weather in Northern Michigan turns gloomy, what could be better than learning how to make beer on a farm? This year, my housemates, who are experts in homebrewing, showed me how to concoct two styles of brew. With some experimental extra ingredients and a lot of love, we succeeded in our mission and had a ton of fun while doing it. My Lesson in Sanitization Beer is more like making tea, or so…
The Anishinaabek people spoke of a legend in which three bears, one mother and two cubs, swam across the big lake to flee a calamity in Wisconsin. The mother bear reached the land first, only to witness her two cubs drown right before her eyes. The mother slept on the shoreline, waiting for her cubs to return. In their place, the great spirit amassed sand, forming two islands and a large sand dune covering the…
For three days in September, during a blustery summer-fall seasonal transition, I drove south to the town of Manistee to spend precious time with my father. I brought my boards to capitalize on the forecasted North swell and perfect wind, hoping to score some surf in West Michigan’s less wave-ridden coast. Manistee is a small, blue-collar fishing town; one of the many rural American towns with a decreasing population and a pride for holding on…
Michigan is not just about heavy water and shipwrecks. Much of the state’s aquatic charm comes from its inland lakes that are teeming with fish, wildlife, and forageable morsels close to shore. For a hungry sportsman with a kayak, a day circling the lake to fish and forage is all that is needed to take in the true spirit of the region. This August I took a kayak out to explore Duck Lake in Grand…