columns & stuff

Mega Fun in Mancelona for Memorial Day Weekend

Don’t ever doubt the can-do attitude of Mancelona. Or the multitude of ways it finds to celebrate its annual Bass Festival, its 65th this year. Like a mini Cherry Festival (only 35 miles northwest of Traverse City and dedicated to fish rather than fruit) this five-day party features a Mancelona kid and pet parade, a Grand Parade, a classic car and bike show, a daily crafters market and cornhole tourney, a beverage tent (sponsored by Budweiser and Cox Distributors) that opens at noon daily, and a carnival midway complete with Ferris wheel, bumper cars, games, and all the salty, sugary, fatty treats you can make in a booth. Live music starts in the beverage tent every night at 7pm, and oh, there’s a Mancelona Rotary BBQ Chicken Dinner and even a free pancake breakfast (plus sausage and eggs) for the entire community of Mancelona. The fun begins when the midway opens at 5pm, Thursday, May 27, and doesn’t quit until 4pm Monday afternoon. See the daily schedule and all details at www.mancelonabassfest.com.

Classic Memorial Day Parade Returns to Harbor Springs

After the year we (and, OK, the whole world) has had, the opportunity to honor the American spirit and those who sacrificed their lives to defend it seems especially important. That’s why we’re so glad, after so many Main Streets across America remained quiet and empty last Memorial Day, that one of the North’s will be enlivened with a parade honoring our fallen members of the military. The Harbor Springs Memorial Day Parade will begin its march up the city’s Main Street at 10am, Monday, May 31, and end at the waterfront at 11am with a ceremony organized by the Smith-Hoover American Legion Post 281. As it has for many years, the parade will include the Legion’s Drum & Bugle Corps and will be preceeded by another sweet tradition, the Legion’s annual Memorial Day Breakfast (7am–9am at the Legion building at the corner of State and Third Streets), featuring scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, coffee, orange juice, and a big ol’ helping of American pride.

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America’s Joan of Arc

Bestselling author Mary Doria Russell joins NWS on Wednesday, May 26, to talk about her inspiring novel The Women of the Copper Country. Set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, it is a riveting account of the 1913 copper strikes and has been chosen as the 2021-2022 Great Michigan Read! In 1913, 25-year-old Annie Clements, a lifelong resident of the mining town of Calumet, decides to stand up for herself and the entire town. She launches a labor strike against the world’s largest copper mining company, touching off a violent, turbulent reaction that feels startlingly relevant to today.

Stuff we love Buying Local with the Least Effort Possible

It’s farmers market season across the North. And we love that. But we’ll be honest: Sometimes the early morning market hours of local farmers and slow-to-rise-on-Saturday folks like us do not jive. Weekend nooners, however, have a secret weapon in Suttons Bay: MI Market, a small shop packed with heaps of the goodies you’d find at your local farmers market — 60 percent of them grown or produced in Grand Traverse and Leelanau regions, and 100 percent of them made in Michigan — and some, like Michigan beer and wine, you won’t. It’s open Monday through Saturday at hours even the laziest among us can handle, 9:30am–6pm. We recommend shopping on Saturdays for the $5 quarts of homemade soup, but you don’t even have to have to bother with any effort up and down the aisles; MI Market has its own $32+ CSA of all-local staples (bread, cheese, greens, milk, and butter or jam) and online shopping. However you get your goodies there, consider making your life even easier this summer by tossing in a bag of Mama Suds Automatic Dishwashing Powder. We tried it because our dishwasher is lazier than us and found it worked better than the big plastic, environmentally unfriendly stuff we’ve been using for years. Made with safe ingredients, vegan, and 100 percent biodegradable, it’s rated A by the Environmental Working Group, gentle on septic systems, and, of course, made in Michigan. $11.50 gets you 60–90 loads. Find MI Market at 321 N. St. Joseph St., www.mimarketsuttonsbay.com.

tastemaker Common Good Bakery’s Muffuletta

Meet the muffuletta, a sandwich that might just become your new favorite. An iconic New Orleans specialty, it predates even the city’s famous Po’Boy. By most accounts, the muffuletta was created in 1906 by one Salvatore Lupo, owner of the legendary Central Grocery (still in existence) in the middle of NOLA’s French Quarter, as a more practical way for his fellow Sicilian immigrants who worked the nearby wharves and produce stands to enjoy their traditional lunch from the old country — sliced ham and salami, cheeses, olive salad and traditional Sicilian bread. Lupo, who featured all of those products in his grocery, came up with the idea of combining them into one handy, portable package – in the form of a sandwich — and a New Orleans classic was born. Common Good’s version of the muffuletta, according to executive chef Matt Durren, pairs one of his favorite ingredients, local Rice Farms ham, with Gruyere de Comte cheese, Olli sopressata, provolone and “a flavor-packed olive relish,” all tucked inside the bakery’s hand-shaped ciabatta. “We strive to provide our community with world-class menu items, using the best ingredients we can find,” says Durren. “The muffuletta is a unique sandwich that’s hard to find in Northern Michigan, and we knew we could create one that people would love!” Common Good Bakery, 537 W. 14th Street, Traverse City, (231) 933-8002. Complete menu and online ordering at commongoodbakery.com. Northern Express Weekly • may 24, 2021 • 5