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MOREL MADNESS

by THE MYNORTH TEAM

Take part in perhaps the most-loved spring tradition Up North.

It’s may, and that means we’re hunting for morels in Northern Michigan. Here we share 13 of the best tips we’ve gathered over the years from foragers and chefs.

WHEN TO LOOK

• Morel season lasts for five to six weeks. You start with the black morels (look near poplars and aspen) then you have a crossover period with blacks and whites, and at the end of the season, it’s only whites (common near ash trees). During the crossover, that’s when you go to an apple orchard … if you can find one that’s from an old abandoned farm, maybe 100 years old, it’s perfect. • Morels grow best in spring, mid-April to late May, when daytime temps reach around 60–65 degrees and evening temps stay above 50 degrees. This helps to warm the soil to 50+ degrees, which is important for morel mushrooms and many other fungi to grow. • It’s all about the rain. The mushrooms don’t look at the calendar and say, “Hey, it’s April 25th, we need to get out there! ” They look at the weather. When we get the rain, we get the morels. But even in a light rain, or if there's moisture left over from winter, they will grow.

HOW TO FIND

• Morels are notorious for being difficult to track down but if you look for tree groves mixed with living, dead and dying ash, elm, oak and aspen trees your chances of success will increase. Morels are also found under pine trees, in apple orchards and even in backyards around woodchip piles. • If you’re a beginner mushroom hunter, print a color picture of your prey (the morel). This will aid in training your eyes to spot these camouflaged delicacies. You’ll also have a useful reference when you think you have located a

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morel. There are a few other mushrooms that look similar (some are poisonous) and you don’t want to make that mistake. • Know that where there’s one morel, there are probably more. If you spot one, stop, crouch down near ground level and scan the horizon 20 feet out in all directions. Getting down near the ground helps you spot them against the backdrop of a lighter colored sky. • Some people go out for 45 minutes and say they can’t find anything. You’ve got to make it an all-day activity. You go out all morning. You take your lunch and eat it in the woods. And you keep going. If you’re really hunting for mushrooms, you put your time in and cover a lot of ground.

HOW TO STORE

• To avoid storing wet mushrooms, which can go bad quickly, don’t rinse or wash morels until you’re ready to use them. Keep them fresh in a brown bag or a bowl with a damp paper towel over them in the fridge. • Resist the urge to hoard your morels; they’re best eaten within four days of picking them.

HOW TO CLEAN

• To clean fresh morels, fill a large bowl with cool water—enough so the morels float. Pour a good amount of salt in the bowl and swish the mushrooms around gently to draw out any bugs. Rinse with fresh water to remove excess salt.

HOW TO COOK

• Keep it classic: When you’re ready to cook them, cut lengthwise and place in a pan with butter. Add salt and pepper to taste (optional). Morels don’t have to cook long; 5–10 minutes should do it. • Spice it up: For seasonings, try garlic, lemon, nutmeg, tarragon, thyme or a splash of Marsala, sherry or port. Keep it fairly simple though—you don’t want to disturb the morels’ own complex flavor. • Dried morels work the same as fresh in most recipes. Rehydrate in very hot water, broth or wine. You can strain this liquid with a very fine sieve and use it as a base in your sauce. The morels’ flavor will infuse the broth and wine and add depth to your dish.

A rendering of Grand Hotel's renovated Esther Williams swimming pool area.

ISLAND TIME

by CARLY SIMPSON

New this season at Mackinac Island hotels, resorts and inns.

Grand Hotel

Over the winter, the property’s Esther Williams swimming pool underwent extensive renovations. When Grand Hotel reopens for the season on May 7, guests will find expanded outdoor spaces for leisure and mingling; 15 reserveable poolside cabanas; a family-friendly area complete with a zero-depth beach entry, water-jet play area and water slide; family-friendly events like dive-in movie nights; a heated whirlpool and a private, adults-only pool area featuring an infinity edge with incredible views of the island. Along with the pool renovation, the pool house is being reconstructed and expanded to contain a fitness center and bathhouse, complete with changing rooms, lockers and showers. Additionally, The Grand will debut a pool bar and kitchen with elevated cocktails and bites. Groups can take advantage of a dedicated area for private events and the addition of a meeting and event space on the second floor of the pool house that includes covered outdoor seating with unobstructed views of the Straits of Mackinac.

Mission Point

In 2020, Mission Point completed the Promenade Deck Pavilion, an outdoor event space. “We have a lot of hope for this upcoming year as people begin to get together again to reconnect over all the moments that were missed in 2020,” says PR & Marketing Manager Sarah Ombry. “Imagine Christmas in July, Friendsgiving parties, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, company retreats and so many more celebrations.” The resort has also rebranded its restaurants. Chianti, Bistro on the Greens and Round Island Kitchen (formerly Round Island Bar & Grill) all have a fresh look. A bonus—all of the restaurants also have outdoor seating options with views of Lake Huron. Lastly, the resort is improving its Mission Point Picnic Society (a chance to get outdoors and enjoy a meal on the front lawn) with expanded offerings from the on-site Boxwood Coffeeshop & Café.

Inn at Stonecliffe

The Lawn at Stonecliffe is a new restaurant concept focused on casual, outdoor dining with fantastic views of the Mackinac Bridge. While the menu was still being finalized at press time, Director of Sales & Marketing Becky Miller tells us The Lawn will be open for lunch and dinner and anyone is welcome to dine, including non-guests. “We are going to have music throughout the season, as well as our lawn games that are always available,” Becky says. “We are excited to offer guests a space to sprawl out on the expansive lawns, enjoy the views and have great food and drinks. The outdoor seating is pet friendly and the restaurant is very family friendly.”

Find out what’s new at Hotel Iroquois, Island House, Chippewa Hotel Waterfront and Lilac Tree Suites & Spa at MyNorth.com/MackinacIslandHotels.

SPRING READS

“The Clover Girls” by Viola Shipman

Being published May 18, “The Clover Girls” is about four very different girls who become best friends at a Michigan summer camp in the 1980s. Now approaching middle age, the women are facing challenges they never imagined as teens: struggles with their marriages, children and careers. “My novels are meant to be shared amongst friends and family and generations, like the books that were shared with me growing up,” says internationally bestselling author Wade Rouse, who chose his grandmother's name, Viola Shipman, as his pen name. “I want to remind readers to slow down and remember what matters most in life.”

“Early Morning Riser” by Katherine Heiny

Published April 13, the novel is a love letter to the Boyne City area, taking readers to the Boyne River Inn, Avalanche Mountain, Kilwins and more. Author Katherine Heiny grew up in Michigan, and she and her husband owned a home in Boyne City for almost 20 years. They sold the house last year, and as movers were packing up, Katherine wrote the last pages. “It will forever be one of my favorite places,” she says. “And I like to think that Jane is still there.” Jane, the main character, moves to Boyne City to teach second grade and soon falls for Duncan, who has seemingly slept with every woman in town, though somehow, has remained friendly with them all—helping with housework, fixing furniture, mowing lawns. As Jane begins to wonder if this is the life she wants, an accident leaves her inextricably tied to Duncan, and she learns unconventional families are sometimes the best of all.

“Cady and the Bear Necklace” by Ann Dallman

After teaching high school English for 15 years at Hannahville Indian School/Nah Tah Wahsh School located on a Potawatomi reservation in the Upper Peninsula, Ann Dallman was inspired to write her first middlegrade novel, "Cady and the Bear Necklace," published in May 2019. In it, Cady, a 13-year-old girl of Native American heritage, has experienced big changes in her life: her father's marriage to a much younger woman, a new baby brother and a move from Minnesota to Michigan, where she's attending a reservation school for the first time in her life. One day, Cady discovers an antique Native American beaded necklace hidden in the floor of her closet. As she works to solve the mystery of the necklace, she's drawn closer to the teachings and traditions of her culture.

MAY IS BIKE MONTH

Norte, a Traverse City-based, youth-focused nonprofit dedicated to building stronger, better connected and more walk/bike friendly communities, has lots of ways to celebrate. Let’s ride! elgruponorte.org

ALL MONTH Get Your Bike Rolling at the Community

Bike Shop: Norte shares tools, work-bench space, bikes and knowledge. The Clubhouse’s Community Bike Shop is free to all Monday–Friday, 10–6, and Saturday, 10–2.

MAY 1

Bicicleta Launch at Silver Spruce: Silver Spruce Brewing Company is re-launching their “Bicicleta” brew May 1 and offering it for one month only. $1 from each pint will benefit Norte.

MAY 2 Previously Loved Bicycle Yard Sale:

Norte’s annual yard sale is open to the public. You’re invited to sell an old bike or pick up a previously loved set of wheels. Proceeds support Norte’s Kids Bike Library.

MAY 3 Norte Youth Mountain Bike Team

Practice: The Grand Traverse Region Mountain Bike Team hits the trails of Northern Michigan with sensational elementary, middle and high school students. The season runs through June 4.

MAY 5

Northern Michigan Bikes to School Day: A region-wide, multi-school celebration of National Bike to School Day. It could quite possibly be the most fantastic day of kids on bikes in Northern Michigan history.

MAY 9

Norte Family Trail Rides: This is a weekly family-friendly mountain bike ride in the woods. It’s family speed, but getting dirty and meeting new friends is encouraged. May 9 marks the kickoff with the 5th Annual Take a Mom Mountain Biking Day. This ride happens every Sunday at noon.

Find the full list of events at MyNorth.com/BikeMonth.

Fabulous BIRCHWOOD FARMS

If you’re looking for golf, community, activities and beauty, Birchwood Farms Golf and Country Club in Harbor Springs is the answer.

BY KIM SCHNEIDER

Spring among birchwood farms golf and Country Club’s 1,600 acres of rolling hills brings verdant forests blooming with trillium and dotted with morels. Come October, forests of fall color frame Lake Michigan views; in winter, trails amid silent pines are groomed for outings on skis or snowshoes. Birchwood Farms has long offered access to this landscape packed with solace and fun to Birchwood residents; now, for the first time, anyone can enjoy the scenery as well as the thriving community of friends.

Head to the clubhouse, comment on a euchre game that’s underway amid a lot of laughter, and you’ll likely be invited to pull up a chair. Then round the corner and find yourself asked to join a group for drinks at the social hour following an impromptu women’s golf scramble on one of the three courses. “From the time we moved up, there were game nights, potluck dinners, wine tastings,” says Neil Loney, a board member who, this day, is lounging in the sunshine with his wife, Pat, on a patio overlooking the scenic golf course.

Whether it’s the beer and bocce league or “dink and a drink” night (themed around a pickleball move involving a tap over the net), existing activities almost always come with a clever twist. But there’s serious play, too, on the championship golf courses, clay tennis courts and four designated pickleball courts.

Birchwood’s new general membership option offers all club amenities including golf. This club membership allows for unlimited play on three courses designed by Jerry Matthews, notable for their design and dramatic elevation changes. There’s also a social membership option that leaves out golf but includes the private dining program, clay tennis courts, pickleball, fitness club, championship pool, cooking classes and more.

> Dine the Birchwood Way

A certified sommelier with a background in food, beverage and experience at the Detroit Athletic Club among other places, General Manager Paul Marazzo focused some early energy on elevating the club’s dining program. He selected Culinary Institute of America-trained chef Michael Starkey from a national field of 400 applicants. Chef Starkey’s known for his kindness, warmth and motto, “failure is not an option,” Marazzo says. “I’ve never seen him say ‘No,’ he couldn’t do something for a member.”

That the membership “thinks he walks on water” is evident as you stroll with him to the dining room and see how he’s greeted like a rock star. His reverence for food is just as evident if you ask for a “sampler” and watch the beautifully plated courses appear, starting with a poke bowl featuring salmon he sourced from Maui—fish straight from the Molokai channel to Birchwood.

Members and their guests can opt for items from the regular menu or the week’s culinary features; this particular week’s options include Wyoming elk, a wild mushroom leek strudel and a fall farmer’s salad of vegetables locally sourced down to the apple cider cream dressing. Special requests are Starkey’s specialty; if a member can’t decide between two styles of fresh, black grouper or Chilean sea bass, he’s known to offer them a side-by-side tasting. Era potato chip company and also a place for employee recreation. The course of Birchwood took a dramatic new direction when the farm was purchased in 1971 by Bill E. Cottrill, a land developer from the Flint/ Grand Blanc area, who transformed the property into one of the most desirable residential/resort communities in the Midwest.

Pamphlets at the time billed Birchwood as a place where “the most desirable modern aspects of

> A Club with a Tasteful Past

The land upon which Birchwood now sits was homesteaded in the mid-1800s and sold in 1913 to Chicago banker Joseph E. Otis who named the estate Birchwood Farm and set out to create a model dairy farm. By all accounts, he succeeded. His chickens produced the largest eggs in Emmet County, his strawberries were perhaps the largest and the cream from the cows extra heavy, the milk extra rich. His purebred Jersey cows took first place every year at the local fair until he sold the farm for the production of beef cattle.

In 1959, the farm took on new life as a potato seed farm for the New luxurious leisure living are added to the most sought-after heritages of a peaceful American past.” It was a place, then and perhaps now, where “interesting and appealing individuals can share common sports and social interests; where there is peace of mind and security in feeling confident that almost certainly will nothing more tempting appear on the horizon; where it is genuinely possible to enjoy a second life of leisure away from the crowds and tensions of workaday metropolitan areas without sacrificing one whit of the comforts, convenience and luxuries we all have come to take for granted.”

Kim Schneider is a long-time travel writer specializing in Michigan adventures, food and wine. The Midwest Travel Journalist Association has named her Mark Twain Travel Writer of the Year, and she’s the author of “100 Things to Do in Traverse City Before You Die.”