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Spring Fever!!!!!!
Spring is busting out all over --- Primroses,
daffodils, crocuses, dogwood, and crabapple everywhere. Now that all
outdoors beckons, toss your hat into the ring of life for a Spring
Fling!!! Our villages let you wander at any pace you wish, and you’ll
never be bored! Not for a moment. So much to do, so little time! Come
for a fling at Wickwood!
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Walk Oval, Douglas or The Dune’s beach at sunrise and sunset
Kayak the Kalamazoo
Sip at McIntosh Winery, Fenn Valley Vineyard, and The Saugatuck Brewery
Meander our Art Galleries and have James Brandess paint your portrait
Watch a Vintage Baseball game
Visit the S/D Historical Museum
March in a Parade
Go on Home & Garden Tour
Antique at Amsterdam, The Old School House, and The Blue Star Pavilion
Catch a performance at The Saugatuck Center for the Arts, The Red Barn
Playhouse, The Women’s Club or Mason Street Warehouse
Get out on the water on The Keewatin, The Harbor Duck, The Star of
Saugatuck, The Chain Ferry, or on a fishing or with a sail boat Captain
Savor Friday Open houses at the Ox-Bow Studios
Tour local Farmer’s Markets and farm stands |
Walk our towns with a cup of coffee or an ice cream cone
Swoon over the music at the SCA, Rye, Everyday People’s, The What Not,
The Gables, The Butler, Boathouse or in Wick’s Park. Dance in the aisles
Enjoy Everyday People’s Café, The Journeyman and Rye, Phils, The
Mermaid, The Blue Moon, or Kalico
Grab a hat and go strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cherries, apple or
peach, pears picking!!
Bike ride our country roads or walk between Saugatuck, Douglas and all
of our white Beaches
Pump iron at The Pump House, a massage at Bella Vita, or yoga at Satya
Yoga
Find a sunny or a shady spot and immerse yourself in a book long on your
list
Shop Possessions, The Tuscan Pot, Good Goods, Cheryl’s, Saugatuck Spice,
Thomas Green, The Butler Pantry, Kilwins, Olive Mill Shop, Bright World
Candles, Brigadoon, American Spoon, and on and on till you just drop!!!! |
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"Smells are surer than sounds or sights to make your
heart-strings crack."
Rudyard Kipling
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The Tastes of Spring!
Wild garlic, asparagus, ramps, morels,
strawberries, radishes, dandelions, sorrel, dill, chervil, micro-greens,
baby vegetables. Every week the gardens come alive --- as does our
kitchen!!
Recipes ---
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"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there
is no path and leave a trail."
Muriel Stode
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Award Winning McIntosh Winery
With an apple orchard, a cider mill, a winery and
the name McIntosh, did Bruce McIntosh have any choice but to start
making sparkling hard cider. He does it beautifully and is quickly
winning awards . He makes his Sparkling Cider from semi-sweet to
Brut as well as Semi-Dry Fruit Wines from blueberry to apple, peach,
pear, plum with a distillery on the way. It’s a pleasant way to
while away the afternoon, sitting on his gracious porch sipping
cider as you watch the birds fly into the interesting birdhouses all
around. The Blue Star Highway.
Live Like a Local
Farmer’s Markets and Bookstores are our haunts
when we travel to someplace new. They let us get the feel of a place
right away.
Some of our favorites:
Paris: Librairie Gourmande, rue Mortmartre
Portland: Rabelais, Old Port District
L.A.: The Cook’s Library
Philadelphia: The Book Stall, Reading Terminal Market
London: Books for Cooks, Notting Hill
Zurich: Bibliotheca Gastronomica, Hans Weiss, by appointment
New York: Kitchen Arts and Letters.
Our home away from home.
Some of these shops have been in business
forever, and all have passionate staffs with a wealth of
information.
Making Mozzarella!!
We recently went to the Artisanal Premium Cheese
Center to learn to make mozzarella. After two hours of tasting, much
discussion about the best Buffalo milk curds resource, and heating
and massaging our ball of mozzarella into a round that we could play
tennis with ---, we’re leaving it up to the pros. Paula Lambert’s
Mozzarella Company in Dallas makes a superb array of cheese, her
latest being a 50% goat, 50% cow’s mild mozzarella called Capriella
that is heaven. Try her Bocconcini and Burrata as well. www.
Mozzarellacompany.com And Gioia Cheese’s from South El Monte brought
their recipe for their cream filled Burrata Boccocini straight from
Italy. It is the best thing we’ve ever popped into our mouths.
www.gioiacheese.com Take a cheese class at: www.artisanalcheese.com www.murrayscheese.com
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Bernier at The Met
Matisse, Miro, Picasso, Leger, Ernst, Riveria,
Bourgeois—Rosamund Bernier knew them all. Editor of Vogue and L’Oeil,
the French arts magazine, while she lived in Paris from the 40’s to
the 80’s collecting her memories for over 215 lectures . Always sold
out, some of the lectures are available at Netflix by searching her
name. They are to be treasured as the Grande Dame, makes, at 91, her
grand finale this month on “The Paris Couture”.
Farmers Are The New Stars!!!
And sometimes, they dress similarly. Fine with
us. They’re doing a great job of growing / raising food with flavors
we haven’t tasted in years. Our search is constant for
supplementing the best fresh, local seasonal ingredients at our
table. Just think, in the 1890’s there were 6800 different kinds of apples,
today there are less than 300 being grown. Everyday one seed
disappears from the world’s assortment of foodstuffs.
In that effort, we’ve stumbled across our friend George Faison
partner at the 100 year old DeBragga & Spitler, sellers of
restaurant quality beef, lamb and pork. It’s Heritage bred, grass
fed, and dry aged, resulting in great tasting meat of fowl.
Check out www.debragga.com.
You get the farmer or fisherman’s name
and the breed (a pedigree if you will) and fabulous flavor when
you order wagyu, tuna, ham, goat, turkey, anything from:
www.heritagefoodsusa.com
It’s the season to either be planting your own seeds from
www.seedsavers.com or aligning yourself with a local farmer/
community group farm share.
Contact: www.local harvest.com www.seacoasteatlocal.org
www.animalvegetablemiracle.com www.slowfoodusa.org
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10th Waterfront
Film Festival
June 12 - 15
“One of the Top 5 Film Festivals ... right up there with Cannes
and Sundance”
—The Screen Actor’s Guild
Outdoor screenings, movie premiers galore, The New Media
Television Festival, workshops, screenplay competitions,
workshops, parties and movers and shakers everywhere!!! You don’t
want to miss this annual rite of Spring in Saugatuck.
It’s terrific!
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Saugatuck Brewery Opens
“Oval Beach Blonde Ale”,
“Hilltop Helles”, “Butler Street Brown”, “British Best Bitter”,
twelve unique beers on tap everyday all year long at the new home
of Barry Johnson’s Saugatuck Brewery on Blue Star Highway. There
will be food, fun and flowing brews from noon till midnight
beginning May 1st. 269.857.7222
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"When shall we live, if not now?"
Seneca
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The Red Book
For those who have, as did Anthony Minghella, “an expensive
taste in literature.” Some of our latest choices:
David Goder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn, The Courilof Affair
by Irene Nemirovsky. Her earlier books, just as gratifying as
ever.
The Naked Tourist by Lawrence Osborne. Searching for
adventure and beauty today.
In Search of Perfection, Heston Blumenthal’s quest for the
best of twelve traditional favorites.
Shark’s Fin and Sechuan Pepper by Fuschia Dunlop. Chinese
food comes alive.
Wild Garlic, Gooseberries --- and Me by Denis Couter. Great
food reading.
Delizia: The History of the Italians and their Food by John
Dickie. Truly as addictive as pasta.
American Artisanal by Rebecca Gray. From cheese to chocolate
the search for America’s best.
Made in Italy: Food and Stories by Giorgio Locatelli. The
real thing
A Wine Atlas of The Langhe, by The Slow Food Press. Based in
Bra, you can’t get much better.
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April 1 APRIL FOOL'S
DAY
April 1 Dr. Strangelove, Film Study at Red Barn
April 1 - 28 Signs of The Times, Saugatuck/Douglas Historical
Society at SCA
April 1 - May 4 Art of Africa, Meijer Gardens
April 1 - July George Rickey’s Kinetic Sculptures, 20 Outdoor moving
sculptures, Meijer Gardens
April 2 Puppetry Guild, Red Barn Playhouse
April 4 Bill & Jessie Freshwater, The Rye - A Public House,
Fennville
April 5 Harry Lucas & The Lowdown Blues Band at The What Not
April 6 Jack Tabler at The What Not Inn
April 8 Squeezebox, Red Barn Playhouse
April 10 - 12, 17 - 20, 24 - 26 You Can’t Get There from Here,
Holland Civic Theater
April 11 FORE! The Golf Courses are Open!!!
April 11 Luke
Winslow-King, The Rye - A Public House, Fennville
April 12 Town Crier 5K, 10K Run & Walk, (269) 857-1116
April 12 Christy G at The What Not Inn
April 12 Girl’s Afternoon Out at Fenn Valley Vineyard, 11-2
April 12 New McIntosh Winery Opens for Season
April 13 Cabaret Show, Red Barn Playhouse
April 15 Winemakers Dinner, Everyday People’s Café
April 15 The Loved One, Red Barn Film Studies
April 17 A Passion for Furniture Design, Lecture at SCA, 7pm
April 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 All In The Timing, Red Barn Playhouse
More Calendar
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"Feel yourself being quietly drawn by what you
truly love."
Rumi
Rye - A Public House
House made sausages, Cornish pasty, Whitefish Brandade, a
Ploughman’s Plate, Grilled Skirt Steak with Warm Potato Salad
Chocolate Stout Cake, and Rosemary Pudding Chomeur, this is great
eating. The Journeyman’s latest venture is food at it’s best. And,
extraordinary music makers singing blues, jazz, folk visit Rye
every Friday all Spring. Rye and The Journeyman Fennville.
269.561.2269
Learning To Listen
An essay, written by a Minneapolis newspaper reporter has long
touched our hearts. We read it repeatedly and it seems
particularly apt today. We thought it time we
shared it with you.
Listening ---
Chocolate Fever
Where chocolate is concerned, it’ a continual quest for the best
so in May we’re off to Paris on a Chocolate Tour of the best kept
secret chocolate kitchens!! What could be better? We’ll report asap, but meanwhile:
We’ve long been fans of E. Guittard single origin chocolates from
San Francisco chocolate makers for four generations who make bars
up to 91% cacao. That’s Dark Chocolate!! And, La Maison du
Chocolate, New York and Paris, with their chocolate espresso beans that are addictive.
But, we must share our newest discovery, Valerie Confections from
LA. All hand made, they make you taste chocolate for the first
time. Their Dark Chocolate Toffees are simply wonderful.
www.valerieconfections.com or 888.706.1408
WOWOWOW!!!
Some of the best and the brightest women including Candice Bergen,
Sheila Nevins (HBO Director), Joan Ganz Cooney (Sesame Street
President), Lily Tomlin, Whoopi, Marlo Thomas and Mary Wells
(advertising guru) have joined our pal, Joni Evans, to create
www.wowowow.com or The Women of the Web.
It’s a great site for issues, chatter, and just fun. And well
worth a gander. Take a look at Mary Wells’ “Moscow on the
Mediterranean” about how the whole French Riveria is being sold to
the Russians and it will expand your world in wonderful ways, long
before you read about it elsewhere. And, best of all, you can
chat back!
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Das
Barbecu
6/20 - 7/6 |
As Bees in Honey Drown
7/11
- 7/27 |
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Evita
8/1 - 8/17 |
Ain’t
Misbehavin’
8/22 - 9/7 |
The Italian Wine Merchants
For a wine buying experience, like no other,
visit this Batali and Bastianich owned shop in NYC.
They select the best, from The Big Tuscans, Brunellos,
Barabarescos, Barolos, Proseccos and Pinots too.They can guide you
no matter your taste and your pocketbook. Sergio Esposito is the
guiding partner, soon to publish his memories in “Passion on The
Vine” and be sure and sign up for their newsletter Italian Wine
Merchants 108 East 16th Street 212.473.2323 www.italianwinemerchant.com |
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Midwest Living, June 2008
Julee and
Bill
