Michigan

Lots of Summer Ramblings: Strawberry Moon to Strawberry Festivals

Several years ago the bulb in our yard light burned out. It was one of those dawn-to-dusk lights set high on a line pole and even though my husband’s job is to regularly climb such poles, he just never got around to climbing ours.

At first, when I’d go out at night it seemed unnervingly dark. We don’t have immediate neighbors so nothing but the celestial sky lit our yard. Oh, but let me tell you, there’s no going back. The event of that burned-out bulb has totally heightened my appreciation of the night sky and I’m now a moon-gazing habitué.

Given that, here’s to a happy Strawberry Moon (Tuesday night) and upcoming Summer Solstice (Friday night). I love them both. With the full days of summer ahead, it’s a wonderful time of festivity and adventure.

Speaking of Strawberries…

They’re finally here! We live on a windy hill and it seems my patch is always a bit behind. But they’re here now and as delicious as ever. Just look at how red and juicy they are, unlike those so-called “strawberries” you find in the grocery store.

Hey folks, shop your local farmers! Eat real food!

Strawberry Festivals and More

One of my tastiest childhood memories is of a strawberry festival we attended while camping in northern Michigan. If I recall, it was a community church serving shortcake piled mile-high with strawberries and cream. Oh, so good!

Quite often such festivals are benefits for a specific cause (like these upcoming festivals here and here). Joining the celebration not only creates fun memories but also supports grassroots working together at its finest.

Food festivals have become one of the fastest growing forms of tourism and there’s a good reason why. They offer a sensory overload of the landscape, ethnicities, history, and food cultures of their given community.

Food lovers love food festivals; ask me how I know!

Which Leads Me To…

When it comes to festivals, I’m proud to help promote two Wisconsin biggies: The Soil Sisters in August and Fermentation Fest in October. These are annual celebrations that each draw thousands of people and have great social and economic impacts on their rural communities. Needless to say, a lot of organizing and marketing goes into these events.

Do you know of a festival looking to grow in its success? I’d love to help. Let’s talk about what makes a good festival and how to get the word out to all those fun-loving, destination travelers!

Packing Our Bags for Octoberfest 2016!

Octoberfest Brewery Tour 2016, promotional posterThe days have been on fast-forward lately and I’m working feverishly to wrap up several projects. On top of that, I’ve been doing some creative work for myself. As you can see, our annual Octoberfest Brewery Tour is just around the corner!

I’ve Perfected My Google Map (layer upon layer)

Octoberfest Brewery Tour 2016

This year our roads will follow the downpours of beer taps and waterfalls. It didn’t take much research on my part to find there are plenty of both along the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior. The falls have been long been nature’s gift. The breweries? Well, it’s über exciting to know the handcrafted beer industry has spread to even the remotest peninsulas of U.P. Michigan. Prost! To those crafters who go forth with entrepreneurial (and tasty!) gusto, you have our love!

And to the Lake Express ferry: We’ll see you bright and early for a 6 a.m. sail. Heading into an eastern sunrise will be a glorious start to this year’s tour!

Stay tuned and catch my pictures on Instagram.

Celebrating My Grandmother for Women’s History Month

coca-cola-girls

Back in the 1930s, when the Great Depression made life rather difficult, my grandmother Gladys was a Coca-Cola girl. That’s her, sitting on the left. She’s holding a bottle opener and it was her job to install these in people’s homes.

Of course, this vintage advertising is fascinating. Isn’t it amazing how the Coca-Cola logo is still iconic today? And do you think these women could ever have imagined how collectable their work items would become—the bottle openers, the cases of soda, or, best of all, their dresses?

From a marketing perspective, this news clipping is cool and all, but what’s really special is how it represents my grandmother.

As we all know, jobs were hard to come by in the 1930s. My grandmother lived in Lansing, Michigan, a city forged in the automobile industry. When the economy crashed, this town of blue-collar, everyday people was hit particularly hard. On top of that, Gladys had three young boys and an irresponsible husband. So when she could get a job like installing bottle openers, you can bet she darn well took it.

I’ve been thinking of my grandmother this month because it’s Women’s History Month. Every day the media showcases famous women like Eva Peron, Argentina’s advocating former First Lady; or Sally Ride, the first American woman in space; or Marissa Mayer, whose controversial leadership is dominating the news. But women like my grandmother—both my grandmothers, actually—are as laudable as any of them. My grandmothers steadfastly stood their ground and did whatever needed to be done to care for their family. They volunteered and contributed to society. They made the world a better place.

It’s so exciting to be a woman today. Our opportunities are monumental, thanks to those women before us. I’m not just talking about careers, although this bar certainly is higher. I’m talking about life as a whole. All of us, no matter what God-given role we embrace, are important in the overall scheme, and society today enables us to do our thing so much easier.

What’s your role right now? How is it different, compared to the same position held by women years ago? How do women today positively impact the future of others?

Does the Experience Make the Product?

sailing on Lake Michigan ferry

My husband and I regularly travel to Michigan, which means we somehow have to get around Lake Michigan. Sometimes we drive down through Chicago and around. Other times we drive up through the U.P. and around. Last weekend we ferried our way across on the S.S. Badger and it was loads of fun.

Big ship, more fun!

The S.S. Badger’s been in the news lately and sailing on this old boat brings marketing waves rolling through my head. And because the Specialty Coffee Association of America just put out this cool sales trend poster, which, in my opinion erred by not including atmosphere as something consumers value in a coffeehouse, I’m wondering just how important the experience of using a product is in comparison to the actual quality of a product?

But back to the Badger—big ship, more fun!

The S.S. Badger began sailing in 1952 and has been ferrying people and wheeled-vehicles across the lake for more than 50 years. Compared to her sexier competition, the Lake Express, the Badger is bigger, slower and much, much older. She’s also the last of the coal-fired steamships, which doesn’t sit well with environmental agencies.

But the Badger’s not sinking to the role of a dowdy, outdated spinster. Instead she embraces her historical image and uses it to market herself with great sales promotions, an interesting online presence and a very fun sailing experience. Hey, my husband and I even played bingo, which I normally hate.

Big ship, more fun! That’s what the bingo caller had us all repeating after him. With enthusiasm, no less.

This brings me back to my question. Is the experience as important as the product? Is a winery’s setting as much an attraction as its wine? Does a coffee shop’s friendliness keep its regulars returning as much as the brew?

And what is this experience we speak of?

Wikipedia defines customer experience (CX) as the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services. It’s the physical and emotional response a customer feels when patronizing a business.

Let’s use my husband and me as typical examples. After we disembarked from the Badger (when sailing, you don’t just get off the boat, you disembark…we have to get the language right, right?)—anyway, we then hit the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail.

Both of us enjoy wine but we’re certainly not connoisseurs. Just as important to us is the experience of visiting the winery—viewing its vineyards, walking though an intriguing building (you know me, the old ones are my favorite) and talking with the host. I love seeing a winery embrace it’s character, whether that of its surroundings, its history or its owners.

What about you?

Do you think the experience is as important as the product? Does the experience then make the product? And how do you convey this in the product’s brand?

 

Wednesday Webs: Urban Farming

Eagle Heights Community Gardens, Madison, WI

It’s easy for me to garden. I live on a rural farmstead and have lots of room to grow my own food—fresh, tasty delicacies that save me money and maintain my good health.

But what about city folks?

No problem. They can and they do!

Urban Agriculture

I grew up a Michigander girl. It’s hard for me to imagine Detroit as the center of an agricultural movement. Oh, but it is. Out of poverty and need has arisen innovation and sustainable food. Detroit is a great example for everyone.

Or what about this Kickstarter movie: Growing Cities: A film about Urban Farming in America. It documents two friends traveling across the country to meet urban farmers—people who are changing the way they eat “one vacant city lot, rooftop garden, and backyard chicken coop at a time.”

School Gardens

School gardens are outdoor classrooms. Teachers use them as instructional aids for any of their subjects, and students benefit from a therapeutic bonding with the earth. The Southern Door Schoolyard Garden in Door County, WI, is not only successful, it’s expanding.

Here’s an interesting resource for starting a garden at your school.

Eagle Heights Community Garden, Madison, WICommunity Gardens

Madison, WI, is an sustainable town. If you can’t be a farmer in your own backyard, you can rent space in one of more than 50 community gardens for a mere $10-65 annual fee. My kids previously tilled soil in Eagle Heights Community Garden, where horticulture practices vary as much as the ethnic gardeners speaking approximately 60 different languages.

Click here to find a community garden in your town. Or start one of your own!

Container Gardening

Thinking about growing your own food? What better inspiration than a Pinterest gallery of container gardens.

 

 

Mackinac Pro: Bridging Sentiment and Design

P22 Mackinac Pro

Designers love typefaces. Writers love words. And Michiganders love their Bridge. Even though it’s been decades since I’ve lived in the Great Lakes State, when P22 Type Foundry announced its Mackinac Pro, I swooned with the nostalgic excitement of an 8-year-old girl in a Mackinac Island fudge shop.

What’s so special about this typeface? (Or font, as graphic designers acquiesce to saying these days.)

Well, to start, it’s got a mighty name—aptly so, since the type’s designer, Mike Beens, is from Michigan. And its advertising copy is worthy of an award: “P22 Mackinac Pro (pronounced Mackinaw) spans four centuries of type design, bridging the Old World with the New.” Gotta love it—making sure you pronounce the name correctly, as only a Michigander would!

But it’s the letterforms themselves that structurally are as beautiful as the bridge. Mackinac Pro is described as having “smooth shapes, sweet curves and seamless transitions evocative of wind & water.” Yet, it’s an OpenType workhorse that’s as utilitarian for advertising, publishing and signage as the bridge is for motorcycles, cars and semis.

I like the double-story, lower case “a” and “g” (my favorite for serif type). I also like the positive, upward arch of the lower case “a” and the italic “e” (too bad the regular version isn’t arched as well).

Most of all, I love, love, love the ampersand—it’s a Great Lakes wave all in itself!

Wednesday Web 7-13-11

Abandoned House, Jefferson Co, Wisconsin

I recently joined the LinkedIn group Urban Photography. There’s some great photography going on there and I’m hoping to pick up lots of good pointers.

On another note, I shot this abandoned house a couple years ago for a photography class. No, it’s not an urban shot. And, yes, snow on the ground creates a bit of an oxymoronic message here in July. But, like all architecture, this house has an interesting story.

Better yet, here’s a link to 100 Abandoned Houses, by Urban Photographer member Kevin Bauman, of Detroit, MI. Beautiful houses. Beautiful photography. Beautiful, but sad and haunting.

I wonder what’s the story for each them?

The Elusive Dankers Dairy Bottle

Lehman's Dairy, Jefferson, WI

June is Dairy Month so I’m dedicating this week’s Wednesday Webs to the dairy industry and the delicious joy it brings to our lives.

Here in Wisconsin we celebrate June Dairy Month in a big way. We have Dairy Breakfasts on the Farm with polka bands, baby animals and tractors. We have the Hoard Historical Museum’s National Dairy Shrine, where we celebrate the past, present and future of dairy farming. And, of course, we have cheese—lots and lots of cheese. Here’s a map of cheesemakers throughout the state. Many of them are small, privately owned dairies and visiting them is as fun as visiting a winery or brewery.

So here’s to June Dairy Month and all the tasty treats that go with it!

Here’s also to Jan, whose birthday it is today. Jan is my father’s wonderful wife and she is of dairy farm heritage. Dankers Dairy, that is, a farm in Saginaw County, MI, that years ago bottled its own milk.

In bygone days, dairies bottled their milk in reusable bottles embossed or painted with their name and location. Nowadays, these are hot items for collectors (hey, there’s even a National Association of Milk Bottle Collectors). I have one lone bottle from Lehman’s Dairy in Jefferson, WI.

Jan, on the other hand, has quite a few. But there’s one bottle she doesn’t have—one she’d love to have more than any other.

She doesn’t have a Dankers Dairy bottle.

Anyone know of one? Give me a holler and I’ll pass it along.