Foods are fresh and buildings green in Western Michigan

By Christine Tibbetts

June 13, 2009 08:37 pm

— If picking backyard blueberries for my cereal qualifies as the farm-to-table movement, then I’m an expert-on-vacation, visiting places touting farm-fresh foods, neighborhood brews, farmer’s markets, picnic spots and restaurants owned by community folks.
Eating matters on vacation.
Western Michigan has towns up and down the big lake’s edge enjoying foodie trends, plus a track record — and plenty of pride —being sustainable and environmentally conscious too.
My house could be greener, even though three recycling bins fill far faster than one little trash basket, so I was in a learning mode all along Lake Michigan in hotels and restaurants sporting LEED certification and winning honors for energy-saving, breath improving paints, furniture and buildings.
That Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design check list is a tough one, certifying materials, energy, atmosphere, water efficiency and sustainability.
City Flats Hotel in Holland, Mich., got the gold and only two other hotels in the world can make the same claim — the Element in Massachusetts and Gaia Hotel and Spa in the Napa Valley.
Seems like reason enough to book a trip: rest well on hypoallergenic bamboo linens, tread lightly on cork floors and breathe better because the paints are all low in volatile organic compounds called VOC.
Why here? Part of a regional trend, it seems. “Ten percent of all America’s LEED certifications are in western Michigan,” says City Flats owner Charles Reid, president of Charter House Innovations.
In fact, nearby Grand Rapids has 32 LEED certified commercial green buildings, Reid notes, with another 50 on the drawing boards.
Reid worked with a 12-member design team so City Flats is handsome as well as healthy and he sees this as a prototype for more. Furnishings and décor in all 56 rooms are from rapidly renewable resources, and more than 30 percent were manufactured locally.
“The cost of doing green sustainable design is not out of reach,” he says. “It’s all attainable.”
Greener America’s farm-to-table movement has plenty of lofty benefits, but simple food fun matters on a holiday. Donning an apron for a cooking lesson with a local chef and eating the results is one of the ways to do that in Lake Michigan beach towns.
My traveling partner and photographer G. W. Tibbetts did so at Artisan Cooking School in Grand Haven.
Roasting spaghetti squash, hand crafting spinach pasta, stirring up a basic red sauce and an Alfredo sauce headed the class menu.
Concocting a citrus buerre blanc with lemon zest, shallots, garlic, canola oil, Pinot Grigio, hot cream and cold butter chunks figured in too for the three-hour class, plus time to eat the meal.
Artisan classes happen every Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. with ever-changing menus. Call ahead to book a class that might be soups, fish, pasta, chicken, grilling, hors d’oeuvres, knife skills or more.
Kids’ cooking classes happen in the morning and Chef Douglas McConnell says their delight in learning good tasting things don’t come out of cans makes his day.
Themed dinners are open to the public in this space which seats 20, another reason to call ahead to see what’s up on a Grand Haven vacation.
Whipping up the perfect cup of coffee is another plunge-in activity, this one in Holland, a squeaky-clean brick downtown with at least a dozen eateries and many al fresco dining opportunities.
Attend this class to improve your espresso, lattes, milk steaming and basic cup of Joe at home; might have to buy new equipment to follow through.
Start with a burr grinder. That’s not what we had at home but Jack Groot who runs the Midwest Barista School says it gives a more even grind, better releasing flavor from the bean.
Even lets you vary the grind by changing the closeness of the burrs.
“Start with good beans, freshly roasted, use a burr grinder, grind for every pot and expect water temperature to be 200 degrees,” Groot says.
I have no idea what temperature my pot reaches but now I’ll have to find out, and maybe shop for a new one. Travel discoveries sometimes call for action.
“Put your coffee in a carafe,” Groot insists. “Don’t leave it on the eye of your machine or you’ll get a burnt taste.”
Pretty good info from a three-hour class; imagine taking the three, four or five day version. Wonder how many coffee shop owners actually do that?
Barista School in Holland started two years ago and Groot has coffee-making students from Canada, California, Texas and Washington, D.C., plus the Midwest.
Drinking of another sort is high on the bucket list of many vacationers. You can make your own beer at Saugatuck Brewing Company in Douglas, a little south of Holland and still hugging the Lake Michigan coastline.
Here’s how it works: If you have your own formula, they’ll furnish you the components.
Or describe the kind of beer you like and they’ll let you know what recipe you need and provide the ingredients. You mix it up and cook it off in copper brewing kettles.
Might need a longer vacation here than you expected since the average brew takes two weeks.
Brewing happens up and down the shoreline, creating a niche destination for beer drinkers. I only made it to Holland Brewing Company for a tasting dinner, but more than 60 brewpubs and microbreweries fill the state beer tour map.
I spotted half a dozen in my wanderings in Muskegon, Douglas, Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and Holland.
Chef Matt Millar prefers chemical-free organic ingredients and artisanal breads and cheeses, made in house from scratch, for Holland Brewing Company meals and teams up with brew master John Haggerty to pair flavors.
They recommended Full Circle Kolsch with my chicken liver pate and Golden Cap Saison with my smoked Michigan whitefish.
How fun is that getting advice from the food and brew artisans? They call what they do here art in fermented form.
A wheatwine named Pilgrim’s Dole was the choice for the cider braised pork belly and an oatmeal stout called The Poet for cake with Michigan cherry sauce.
Ask for advice when you go because they have real reasons for every suggestion, and the words to explain. Nuttiness. Citrus. Fresh. Luxurious. Floral. Silky freeness.
“Just see what emerges when you combine artistry and a mad scientist,” says brewmaster Haggerty.
“America’s the best place to make and drink beer,” Haggerty believes. “Germany and the Czech Republic, noted beer nations, are making the same kinds as ever but we in America are experimenting.”
Farmers, chefs and backyard gardeners are experimenting too, caring passionately about food all over Western Michigan, and that made finding farmer’s markets, orchards and food shops easy
Shaker Messenger in Holland features 72 resources – individual artisans and food entrepreneurs, plus Shaker folk art and home accessories, says owner Diana Van Kolken.
Blueberry Heritage is a third-generation farm with cranberries too and it’s certified USDA organic. The seeds are organic and you won’t find any sprays, pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers here, but you can find tractor-driven tours of the cranberry bog.
Lubbers Family Farm lets people share their Jersey cows, making a one-time investment and paying a weekly boarding charge. Two gallons of fresh milk every week is the pay-back, not convenient for a tourist but classes on efficient food gardening, making butter, cheese and yogurt and making wise food choices could be a fit.
“If you can’t grow your own food, know your farmer,” suggests Karen Lubbers. She delved into food choices in 1993 when her six-year-old daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer and today sees agriculture as a web of interconnecting circles, not a top to bottom chain.
Western Michigan even has its own foodie magazine, “Food for Thought,” published six times a year. How’s that for community supported agriculture?
People here take their food and drink seriously, and artistically.

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