My Love Affair with Detroit

Can you be in love with a city, especially one you don't know that well? I may be the oddball, but I have feelings for Detroit. I've always lived in Michigan, but never in its biggest, the Motor City. But it's always been like an older brother to us in the mitten state. Then our son moved there and I started writing about Detroit. And it was brought home to me in 3D Blue-Ray clarity, that what happens to Detroit affects us all.   My Love Affair with Detroit 

Lake Effect Snow and Michigan Winter Musings

 I live in Michigan. If you are kvetching about winter and that dirty four letter word that starts with an s, we are the kind people you have to thank. Our lovely Great Lakes and dunes are what creates "lake effect" snow. No, that's not just a really good stout from Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewing. Would that it were.

Between them, lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior work together to channel that lovely accumulation down on to many of you in in the south, west and east. Accumulation, btw, is another good IPA beer by New Belgium. I WILL Not Complain About Winter (Lather, Rinse, Repeat)

Where to find free Thanksgiving meals in Metro Detroit

Organizations and churches in Metro Detroit are gearing up to provide Thanksgiving dinner for those in need this year. Here are groups that host a community meal or provide free groceries to cook a Thanksgiving meal at home. Are you unemployed, disabled, shut-in, elderly, homeless, or otherwise in need? Contact one of these organizations to get food assistance. Some offer support specifically for veterans, also. Be sure to check Eastern Market for great prices, too. This article was written for Thanksgiving 2011. But places are offering free meals in 2013, too.Where to find free 2013 Thanksgiving meals in Metro Detroit

Michigan Welcomes Bumper Apple Crop After 2012 Fail

 I have lived in Michigan all of my life. And I have never seen such devastation to our fruit crop as we had in 2012. A trifecta of early high temps, premature budding and a heavy snow wiped out apples, peaches, cherries and some other fruits. You wondered why there were virtually none available? Because we had none to send. But this year? Oh baby, hold out those bags and baskets. Have we got fruit for you! 2013 is rocking the apples and are they welcome! Read on Record Michigan Apple Crop Welcome After 2012 Fail

Kwame Kilpatrick Gets 28 Years on Corruption, Racketeering in Detroit

The train wreck that Kwame Kilpatrick has become has finally been sidetracked. A federal judge sent the former Detroit mayor to prison for 28 years on 20+ charges of corruption, racketeering, probation violation. Defense is hoping he'll get off with 15.

I've been following this for awhile and I've got mixed feelings about the decision. Prison is probably the only solution. But I feel for the kids. The father of someone very dear to me has been in prison for 25 years. Dad was incarcerated when the person was a child. His time will be up soon and everyone is at a loss to know just what it will be like when he's released.  Kwame Kilpatrick Gets 28 Years for Detroit Corruption

Panhandling Should Not Be Allowed, There Are Alternatives

I'm noticing something that bothers me. Panhandlers stationed at street corners. In my small, affluent town, that's new. If I lived in an urban center, I wouldn't be surprised. Detroit, Grand Rapids--they actually approach you for money. Though ironically, begging is less common in poor Detroit than wealthy Grand Rapids.

Daily, I see people holding signs "No money. Need gas." or "Need Money for Diapers." (Diapers? My mom used rags when we were poor. But I digress...) At least Walmart panhandlers' signs said "will work for [insert request]"--now it's just "need money."
Panhandling Should Not Be Allowed, There Are Alternatives

The Smell of Rhubarb on a Lake Michigan Night

On July 4th, we heard a native American folk anti-establishment band play. The singer talked of growing up in Marquette on Lake Superior and the smell of homemade jam that his mom and the women of the clan would make. Here's a really neat song from that band called "Immigrant Son" from Drew Nelson Tilt a Whirl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_RVCqhKZhQ

He said there is nothing like the smell of Michigan fruit to bring people together, and if you've ever had a Hart cherry, a Casnovia peach, a Fruit Ridge apple, a Grand Haven blueberry, Berrien Springs grape, you know of what he speaks. Problems of the world he avowed (and I agreed) could be solved if we all sat down over a pot of new-made jam and a loaf of fresh-baked bread.

I love all Michigan produce. I'm big on local grown so long as the pickers and harvesters are fairly paid and treated. I'm not naive enough to think that's always the case. Our itinerant labor camps are in sad shape for the most part. I can't eat our fruit and vegetables without thinking of the transient laborers.

So sad when I try to juxtapose the happy afternoons the kids and I spent in the strawberry field, among the blueberry bushes and in the orchard. So I say a prayer for the migrant pickers.

But there is one smell, that for me, transcends all. It's not a Michigan cash crop, nor very popular, so I can enjoy it without feeling too guilty. That's rhubarb. Rhubarb isn't a fruit. It a homely stalky thing, like celery and is related to buckwheat.

People around here tear out their rhubarb, thinking it's a garbage plant. How wrong they are. I have always had a heart for the underdog. I love the soul food spirit--take what others consider refuse and make haute cuisine. My grandmother used to make rhubarb sauce. It's easy. Just cube stalks and stew with a little sugar (I prefer brown sugar). My mother makes strawberry-rhubarb freezer jam with Jello and rhubarb. Rhubarb pie is easy too. Just add that sauce to a pie crust, dot with butter and bake.  And when you can smell Lake Michigan through your back screen door and rhubarb sauce bubbling on the stove, you'll have found paradise.

For more on the spirit of  The Smell of Rhubarb on a Lake Michigan Night read on.