you are here! {crafted by the seasons}
Jo:
The American Midwest, conventionally, 12 states; Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas,
Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota; is one of four geographic regions that comprise
the country as defined by the US Census Bureau. Okay, technicalities out of the way, you are basically in the
middle, of everywhere. And although
there is much sameness to be found here, there is rich diversity as well. If traveling from any one border of the
region to another you will encounter mile after mile of endless prairie and
vast farmland both under a sky that seems to consume it all. But you will also pass though lush forests,
rolling hills, and lake after lake after lake.
Eventually you will come to a body of water that you will mistake for an
ocean and you will wonder how it is possible that you have seen so much. Winters are harsh here and summers, although hot and
muggy, are glorious. We live for those
three months in the middle of the year when life proves itself again and we are
renewed. Life here is based on the turn
of the calendar and the manner that the land responds to it.
My here is the tiny county of Boone in
far northern Illinois. We border the
Wisconsin state line on our north, just sneaking into the area know as the
upper Midwest. Boone County was settled
in the 1830s and named for the famed frontiersman Daniel Boone; it remains as
it was then, largely rural and agricultural.
We are in corn and soybean country here, but in between are unique gems
that give this place a special character.
Among them are two museums, an organic herb farm, a winery, a number of organic
CSA (community supported agriculture)and sustainable farms, a seasonal apple orchard that draws
thousands each season, a number of antique shops and a zoo. Boone County is unassuming in its
uniqueness; each of these places nestled into the land waiting to be discovered
again and again. Living in Boone County
has been an invitation to me to stop and stay awhile and it is the place that
taught me that discovery is all around us.
Five and a half hours north
of us, including a ferry ride, is Washington Island. It sits seven miles
from the northeastern tip of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula in Lake Michigan.
This place is here for Mike. This twenty-three
square mile island is the largest in a small chain that marks the entrance into
Green Bay from Lake Michigan. The waters off the island’s shore are
notoriously and historically treacherous, the straight became known to late
eighteenth century explorers as Deaths Door, because of the vast number of
ships that the waters claimed. The legend subsequently gave its name to the
county and Peninsula, Door. Today the passage can be safely made in about forty minutes on the
Washington Island Ferry Line. The Island meets you with a setting that is lush and simple. It has
a decidedly rural feeling, complimented by thick woods and of course stunning
waterfronts. The term 'island time' is not a quip here. This
place truly invites, and in a sense forces, one to slow down. No
reason to drive fast, there is not that far to go. Walking and biking on
the roads is common. It is as if on any given day there is exactly the
right number of things to see, and the perfect amount of time in which to see
them. There is not a feeling that you have to squeeze everything in,
there is just the simple and pleasing experience of discovering what is
around you.
Among the lovely
places to find on Washington Island is the Hotel Washington and Studio. The hotel offers eight guest rooms, a yoga studio and a seasonal farm-to-table restaurant, which during peak season sources much of its fresh fare from its own farm garden. Icelandic immigrant, Ben Johnson and his
wife Effie constructed the historic inn in 1887 and operated it for forty-two
years. Situated under grand oaks on
Detroit harbor there is a simple idealism here that perfectly reflects the
atmosphere of the island on whole.
There is peace here. It is a
place to renew. And for Mike it has been a place to discover.
Just as the
hidden gems of Boone County have offered discovery to me, so has the kitchen at
the Hotel Washington been Mike’s introduction to the ever-rotating variety of
the upper Midwest. And we hope, now that you know where we are, you will stop and stay awhile.
Mike will be back on Thursday with some thoughts on the kitchen.
With gratitude,
Jo
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