In Honor of July Being National Ice Cream Month

Here are some fun items I am sharing in honor of July being National Ice Cream Month. Top Ten Favorite Ice Cream Flavors:

1. Vanilla (how plain)
2. Chocolate
3. Butter Pecan
4. Strawberry
5. Neopolitan
6. Chocolate Chip
7. French Vanilla (another vanilla?)
8. Cookies and Cream (now we're talking)
9. Vanilla Fudge Ripple (yum!)

I have never come across a flavor of ice cream that I did not like. I understand why vanilla would be in the top ten. You can add it to pie, it goes great with cake, and there are a plethora of toppings you can add to it to make a myriad of flavors.

Here is my personal top 5 -

1. Cookies and Cream
2. Cookie Dough (yes, I love cookies)
3. Mackinac Island Fudge
4. Mint Chocolate Chip
5. Moose Tracks

My personal top five Michigan ice cream parlors -

1. House of Flavors - Ludington
2. The Dairy Store on the Campus of MSU
3. The Parlor in Jackson
4. The Hayloft in Decatur
5. The Big Dipper in Schoolcraft

You will notice that I did not pick any national or chain ice cream parlors. Michigan is one of the top five ice cream producing states and has many more great ice cream eateries than I have room to list or time to visit. Why clutter up this space with ice cream shops that you can find in any major town across the country?

Feel free to add to this list of flavors and Michigan ice cream shops. I know there are many more and I am doing my best to visit and taste test as many as I can in one lifetime :).

Michigan Sweet Corn Tips and Facts

From the Michigan Dept. of Agriculture website.

Selection and Care:

"When buying corn, choose ears with medium-sized kernels. Very small kernels are immature, and large kernels have a starchy taste, rather than a sweet one. The husk of the corn should be moist and green. Leaving husks on when storing corn preserves the flavor.

At room temperature the glucose in corn will convert to starch in as little as 24 hours. Therefore, refrigeration of this vegetable is critical for maintaining freshness."

Michigan Sweet Corn Facts:

• Michigan produced over 10,000 acres of sweet-corn in the year 2000 for fresh consumption alone
• One ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows. A pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels
• An acre of corn yielding 100 bushels has about 7,280,000 kernels
• Sweet corn is rich in vitamin C, iron, thiamine and riboflavin, not to mention fiber

Michigan Sweet Corn is Here!

Thanks to my father-in-law, we had the opportunity on feasting on some fresh Michigan sweet corn the other night. I was surprised that there was Michigan sweet corn ready so soon. The best part? The sweet corn did not disappoint - it was delicious. We only lamented the fact that we didn't have any homemade pickles, fresh tomato slices, and fried potatoes to go with the sweet corn. That is one of my favorite summer feasts.

Our tomatoes are not quite ready yet, but I do have some homemade pickles brewing in the fridge. I can also dig up some of our Red Norland potatoes for our next meal of Michigan sweet corn. We planted them on April 17 and already have harvested a large quantity. I have never tried to grow potatoes before, but it has been a lot of fun.

I felt like I was on a treasure hunt as I dug up shovel-fulls of black earth and sifted through to find the ruby-red potatoes. Just when I thought I had dug up all of the potatoes that one hill had to offer I would dig just a bit further and find some more.

This week we will be ready for any Michigan sweet corn that might come our way. Of course, our tomatoes are still a couple weeks away from being ripe, but we will have plenty of homemade pickles and potatoes.

Don't you just love the many flavors of a Michigan summer?

To find Michigan sweet corn in your area go to the Michigan U-Pick and Farm Market database.

Quick Tip to Better Tasting Coffee

I finally found a couple of minutes to read one of my favorite newsletters. It is a monthly newsletter from the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company and it usually includes their monthly specials on coffee or information on current events in Glen Arbor where they call home. This month's newsletter featured a quick and easy tip to better tasting coffee and a cleaner coffeepot. Simply run 10 cups of vinegar (yep, do not dilute it with water) through your coffee maker followed by at least two pots of water to get rid of any lingering vinegar. Also, do not forget to clean the lid to your coffeepot as well as the spigot where the coffee comes out of the coffee maker.

One tip I would like to add is that you might also want to have a paper filter (if your coffee maker uses those) in place to catch any hard water deposits that the vinegar cleans out. A pleasant scented candle might be in order as well as your kitchen will quickly smell like a pickle factory.

P.S. If you love coffee you really should stop by the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company when you are in Glen Arbor (in the Sleeping Bear Dunes area) or you can place an order at their store online at www.coffeeguys.com. I have a lot of favorites among their different coffees, but one of my top favorites would have to be the Manitou Blueberry. You can really taste the blueberry flavor, but it does not take away from the smoothness of the coffee.

Audio Slideshow of Workers Picking Strawberries

The Lansing State Journal has an audio slideshow of workers picking strawberries at Felzke's Strawberry Farm. You can watch the slideshow here. If you want to know how your strawberries get from the field to your local produce stand or farmers' market you should check this out. It is just under a minute long and does not take long for the page to load. I found it interesting to learn that the workers get paid $2.75 for every eight-quart flat of strawberries they pick. Once the berries are cleaned and sorted they are then sold at the strawberry farm and area farmers' markets for $2.75 per quart.

I have picked strawberries and it is an excellent recipe for aching knees and a sore back. I don't remember how long it took my wife and I to pick eight quarts, but I am sure it was at least half an hour. At that pace (with both of us picking) we would have each earned $2.75 an hour. Obviously these workers work much faster than we did because they have to in order to make a living.

All-in-all, it is a very nice tribute to the hard work that brings Michigan produce to our tables. It reminds me of the saying that goes something like this, "you can't talk bad about a farmer with a mouth full of food."

Chocolate Treats at Traverse City's Chocolate Den

Got a chocolate craving that just won't go away? Hustle on down to the Chocolate Den in downtown Traverse City. A Traverse City staple for seven years, the Chocolate Den is sure to please any chocoholic. If you can't make it up to Traverse City you can always place an order over the phone. I imagine that during the summer months they will have to enclose the chocolates in an insulated container with a cold pack to keep your precious chocolates from melting. You can always stop in and dip some fresh strawberries in their chocolate fountain. Oh yeah! :)

Get directions to the Chocolate Den using Google Maps.

Via Traverse City Record Eagle.