Midwest Guest

Midwest Market Basket: Crystal Lake Alpaca Boutique

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

I would imagine that a veterinarian in Northern Michigan would see a lot of common household pets and common farm animals, but David Nelson's animal patients at Platte Lake Veterinary Clinic also include a good number of alpacas.

That's because David and Chris Nelson also own a thriving alpaca farm!

David opened his vet clinic in 1991 in Honor, Michigan. David and his wife, Chris Nelson, love animals. The couple raised a number of animals on their farm in nearby Benzonia over the past two-dozen years, but things changed when they visited the farm of one of David's clients who had a few alpacas.

The couple fell in love with the alpacas, purchasing a few of the animals to raise them more than a dozen years ago.

The farm sits across the road from Gwen Frostic Prints, a favorite stop for me when we visit the area. I've visited Gwen's for many years, and I'd idly wondered about the alpacas I'd noticed at the farm across the road, but I never visited the farm until I noticed that a new store selling alpaca fiber, clothing and other alpaca-fiber items opened at the farm a few years ago.

The 145-acre farm is on River Road between Benzonia and Frankfort, near Lake Michigan and offering nice views of Crystal Lake.

The boutique took shape in 2012 when friends and family helped the Nelsons build the boutique by redoing an old red barn on the farm properly and using wood harvested on the property to create shelving and rustic Northwoods-style decor and display space inside of the building.

We visited the boutique on a crisp autumn day last year to check out the sweaters, toys, mittens, scarves, socks and other alpaca products.

The store sells yarn and fiber harvested from the farm's alpacas.

The typical yield from a single sheared alpaca is about 5 to 10 pounds of fiber, which might be enough to create a half dozen sweaters.

The farm's alpaca herd isn't large enough to support large-scale production, and since most alpacas (like nearly 99 percent of the animals) live in South American, Chris Nelson supplements the boutique's yarn and fiber with goods mostly purchased from Fair Trade sources in Peru, Chile or Bolivia.    

People love alpaca fleece because it is warmer than wool, doesn't itch like wool and, because alpaca fibers do not contain lanolin, alpaca fleece doesn't cause allergic reactions like wool can.

The alpaca fibers have hollow pockets of air inside of them, making them lightweight while still allowing them to breathe and provide warmth. Garments made with alpaca fibers also rarely need washing because the air circulating through the fibers essentially make it so the garments clean themselves. Alpaca fleece is also extremely durable, fire retardant and water repellant.

I was sold, and ended up purchasing a pair of mittens!  Good thing that I did because they kept my hands extraordinarily warm and dry when I wore them during a snowy winter week when we visited the area last winter.

Money made at the boutique helps the Nelsons buy feed for the farm's alpaca herd and make repairs at the farm.

The farm sells and breeds alpacas, and there are about 45 alpacas living at the farm this year.

Alpacas weigh about 150 pounds and have a average lifespan of 20 years. Llamas, which some folks may confuse with alpacas, are heavier (weighing closer to 400 pounds), have courser fleece than the alpacas and are more commonly known as pack animals that sometimes will spit at those who displease them.

White is the most common color of the soft alpaca fleece. There are 22 colors in all that also include brown, fawn, rose-grey, red, apricot and the rarer black or grey.

The alpacas draw a lot of interest from visitors around Michigan and neighboring states or from places Germany, Japan and Thailand. It's not unusual to see 200 visitors at the farm in the course of a single summer day, including a day last year when 700 folks arrived to check it all out!

The Nelsons like to give their alpacas some privacy by not allowing visitors to troop through the barns or pasture, but they welcome visitors to sit on a bench near the boutique and relax while watching the alpacas at the farm across the parking lot.

The boutique opens for summer and fall hours, six days a week, from sometime in May until mid-October. The boutique opens Wednesday through Saturday during November and December. Check the Web site for the exact schedule or to find out how you can shop for alpaca wear online!

Alpaca ornament for my Christmas tree!

You can also connect with Crystal Lake Alpaca Boutique on Facebook, Twitter, Instgram or Pinterest.

Check out Gwen Frostic Prints reopens for retail business in its long-time northern Michigan home for more information about the alpaca farm's popular neighbor across the road, and check out the Frostic Web site to learn about continuing efforts to save that business' unique building.

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

The Hearthstone Oven Bakery and Cafe in Ithaca, Michigan

In our never-ending quest to avoid traffic and construction that always seems present for travelers heading north on I-75, we discovered this homey bakery and eatery owned by a Mennonite family in downtown Ithaca, about 40 miles north of Lansing and pretty much in the center of the state's Lower Peninsula.

We found ourselves increasingly hungry as we headed out on the open road north of Michigan's Capital City, so we exited I-127 as I consulted Yelp on my smart phone to find a place to eat a late lunch.

I've had surprisingly good luck with finding locally-owned and unique places to eat on Yelp, and this day I quickly found a listing for The Hearthstone Oven in the heart of downtown Ithaca.

Nearly a dozen Yelpers already had the place on their radar, giving it good ratings and noting that its Mennonite owners specialized in tasty "comfort food". 

We knew nothing about Ithaca beyond its central location and the fact that we found the Gratiot County Courthouse, a particularly beautiful building in a Neoclassical Revival style, here during a drive-through trip several years ago.

Keith and Jeanette Litwiller opened Hearthstone, along with Keith's sister Kara and parents Jon and Deb Litwiller, in 2007. The siblings grew up as part of a family of ten on a dairy farm a few miles out of town, and the family wanted to share the love of good food enjoyed with family and friends that is so important in Mennonite culture with their guests at the restaurant and bakery.

The family business plan centered on serving breakfast and lunch at the restaurant with menus featuring "made from scratch" family favorites like comfort food casseroles, baked breads, cookies and pies.

The Hearthstone serves breakfast from 6:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. and lunch from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The restaurant is open 6:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturdays and closes on Sundays.

We found the restaurant buzzing with activity with what looked to be a lot of locals and large family groups when we arrived around 2 p.m. on a weekday

Yelp reviewers warned that latecomers might find the daily "hot plate" specials sell out early, but we were able to get a the pulled pork sandwich special on a bakery-fresh butter horn (crescent) roll with a side of macaroni salad. The sandwich was hearty with a nicely spiced sauce, and I particularly liked the macaroni salad as it was a classic macaroni salad not totally smothered in mayo.

Daily hot plate specials run about $6 and include a hot butter horn roll.

Lunch ran us less than $20 for two.

We picked up a loaf of bread after lunch to take with us for the friends we visited Up North that weekend as we checked out the restaurant's other offerings when we paid our lunch bill. We found that the restaurant had a case of frozen entrees they suggested as perfect for taking home or taking with visitors heading towards a northern cottage vacation.

The hot plate specials sounded good and included choices like meatloaf (which Tim enjoyed for lunch on the way home), Chicken Penne, Chicken Pot Pie, Alfredo Vegetable Lasagna, and more. Most of them are available in a frozen version and we knew we would be heading back to hot and humid weather on our return home, so we stopped by the restaurant on the way home to buy a couple of frozen entrees so we could avoid cooking for a day or two after we returned home. Our picks to take home? Cheesy Beef Enchiladas and Lasagna!

Frozen casserole dishes are $7.49 (serves 1-2), $11.99 (serves 2-4) and $22.99 (served 8-10).

We also picked up a Strawberry Rhubarb pie to cook later, although other choices include banana cream, peanut butter cream, lemon Meringue and Raspberry Cream.

The folks at the Hearthstone also cheerfully send you home with simple directions for preparing your frozen fare.

We enjoyed our Cheesy Beef Enchiladas for dinner one night last week and I'm looking forward to trying out the pie later this week!

Today, Litwiller cousins Merlin Gable and his wife Lorelei continue to operate The Hearthstone, remaining true to the original idea of providing home-made meals and bakery items.

For a taste of classic Mennonite cooking, check out the Mennonite Community Cookbook: 65th Anniversary Edition by Mary Emma Showalter.

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Cops and Doughnuts, an arresting attraction in Clare, Michigan

I suppose most folks know about the stereotypes regarding cops and their supposed love for doughnuts, but cops in Clare, Michigan have taken the stereotypes to a whole new level by embracing them, saving a faltering century-old business and enlivening this mid-Michigan town  with a population of just over 3,000 in the process.

The Clare City Bakery opened in 1896, but the rough economy most of us experienced around 2009 took its toll on the business and aging owners looking forward to retirement.

 Clare cops, like many cops, enjoyed stopping by the local bakery as the town's doughnut shop was among the few places open during the early morning hours when officers like to take a break for coffee or a bit of conversation.

One of Clare's officers heard a rumor that the bakery owners planned on closing the business after failing to sell it.

The officer alerted the other members of Clare's nine-man police department, and the group sprang into action with a plan to purchase the business in the heart of downtown and save it.

Within just a few weeks of hearing the rumor of the bakery's closure, Clare's team all banded together to pool their savings to purchase the place and quickly scribbled a business plan on the back of a pizza box while the group met to chart a way forward for the business.

The bakery opened for business in July of 2009 with one full-time employee and a crew of cops and their families who employed a healthy sense of humor to market their new business endeavor.

The officers were unsure of what would happen as they each put $1,500 of their savings into a lease deal with an option to purchase or back out if things weren't working after 60-days.  

But the town had nothing to lose and other businesses along the town's main drag of McEwan Street already feared they may face closure if something didn't happen to draw more customers into town.

The cops promised folks in Clare that the bakery would remain a made-from-scratch bakery and continue to use many of the recipes from the original bakery, making the tweak of renaming the business Cops and Doughnuts Clare City Bakery.

The officers hoped to revive the business and make a positive impact on the local community, but it's not likely that anyone expected what would happen next.

The local media turned out to cover the bakery's re-opening with new ownership on the first day, then word about the cop-owned business spread...and spread and spread and spread.

The story quickly captured the attention of national media outlets and curious travelers began to stop by on their way North.

Reporters from the Associated Press, Food Network television, the "Fox and Friends" show and many other media outlets arrived to do stories about the cops and the self-deprecating humor that they heavily employed to sell the product.

Tour groups arrived regularly to stop and mark their home locations on a wall map at the bakery, and Cops and Doughnuts captured a $10,000 prize with a win on a Cooking Channel Donut Showdown show.

Cops and Doughnuts billboards appearing along Michigan highways and highways as far away as Arizona and Florida further drew attention to the bustling bakery.

The business expanded slowly over the next few years to include offering Cops and Doughnuts brand coffee and pastries at many grocery and convenience stores in northern Michigan. We stopped by Jay's Sporting Goods a couple of weeks ago in Gaylord as Cops and Doughnuts prepared to open a new "precinct" near the store (the Cops and Doughnuts Facebook page reported that the satellite bakery finally opened on September 9).

Today, Cops and Doughnuts employs 50 folks and welcomes 500,000 visitors to the business each year and Clare's now-flourishing downtown. The bakery makes about 300 dozen doughnuts on an average day and reported making 841 dozen doughnuts during Labor Day in 2014.

Cops and Doughnuts is more than a local bakery...it is an event and must-see attraction for many travelers. People come for the coffee, doughnuts and other pastries (we stopped and purchased some cookies on the way home from Up North and highly recommend the molasses cookies!), but the bakery in Clare now occupies three adjoining storefronts and expanded to include a diner, displays of cop memorabilia like police patches from all over the country, historic photos of northern Michigan and a full line of fun T-shirts and other clothing emblazoned with the trademark cop quips dreamed up by the officers and their families.

The locals love the bakery, but customers and online orders, come from around the world.

Pure Michigan's tourism Web site lists Cops and Doughnuts as one of the top ten Michigan restaurant attractions worth taking a detour to visit.

A few of the original nine cops retired from the force in recent years, which only means that they have more time to spend promoting the business and their hometown of Clare. Connect with Cops and Doughnuts on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ where they share news about the bakery, promote other Clare area businesses and post traffic and gas price reports for travelers.

Want to learn more about Clare and its history? Check out Clare (Images of America) by Robert Knapp.

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Midwest Market Basket: Dietsch Brothers, Findlay, Ohio

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

It struck me as somewhat ironic that the first four letters of the Dietsch family's last name spelled out the word "diet", but that didn't much bother us as we sampled some of the long-time Findlay, Ohio company's house-made ice cream and selected some fine chocolates to take home with us for later snacking!

Dietsch Brothers was the one place everyone told us to visit when they learned we planned to stay a day in Findlay, and we figured something so highly recommended was a must-visit for us!

The company originally started during the late 1920s when Edward Dietsch bought a local Findlay candy company, opening it as an ice cream parlor and fine chocolate store with the help of his two younger brothers, Chris and Don.

The Dietsch family used their own family recipes and things went well until Edward's death in 1934.

Edward's wife Doris continued with the business, but the family found they had to close it when she died in 1937.

By the end of 1937, Chris and Don were ready to go into business again, purchasing a local bakery and reopening it on December 7 of that year.

They began producing the fine chocolates and ice cream using the same family recipes their older brother Edward used in the earlier store, as their youngest brother Roy began helping out at the business.

By 1938, Roy graduated from high school and the three brothers closed the bakery portion of the business to concentrate on chocolates and ice cream.

The Dietsch brothers all saw military service during World War II as their other siblings and extended family members kept the business going at home...even in the face of wartime sugar shortages and wartime rationing.

The family moved the original store across the street from its original downtown location in 1955, which was the store we visited during our recent trip to Findlay.

The family opened a second store on the east side of Findlay in 1974.

Death and retirements mean the original Dietsch brothers no longer run the store day-to-day, but a third generation of Dietsch family members continue to operate the business, offering the chocolates and ice cream enjoyed by several generations of Findlay residents and visitors.

We visited during what you might think would be a quiet weekday in downtown Findlay, but the store's spacious ice cream parlor was pretty busy as we took a seat and enjoyed some black cherry ice cream.

Tim says "To heck with the photos, I'm eating my ice cream NOW!"

The chocolate side of the business also had plenty of customers as we selected a small box of chocolate-covered mint meltaways and ordered a quarter-pound bag of coconut haystack candies to take home with us.

A sweet ending to a nice day in Findlay!

Can't eat sugar? The store also has a nice selection of sugar-free sweet treats!

You can connect with Dietsch Brothers on their Web site, Facebook page or Twitter. Want a little virtual taste of the chocolates? Check out Dietsch Brothers' Pinterest or Instagram pages.

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Midwest Market Basket: The Market Basket in Beulah, Michigan

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

Today's featured shopping spot is, appropriately enough, The Market Basket in Beulah, Michigan

We always make time to stop here before we head home from visiting the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore and Traverse City so we can take a little taste of northwestern Michigan home with us.

Better yet, what used to be a seasonal market years ago is now a great place to shop year round!

Tim and I stopped by the store a couple of weeks ago to stock up on things like my favorite little house-made carrot cake breads, cherry bread, big buttermilk biscuits and cranberry granola as we chatted with owner Cindy Frieswyk about the history of the store and what's new at The Market Basket these days.

We always love shopping for produce at the store during summers and fall harvest seasons. Our Market Basket haul from last September included the biscuits and carrot cakes, as well as fresh Zestar apples, dried green apple bits and a jar of locally-made asparagus salsa.

But we've also found plenty of locally produced food products, house made baked goods and homemade soup during the year's coldest months (they had a pot of chicken tortilla soup going at the store on the day we visited), making it a great stop for us any time of the year.

Check out the market's selection of locally grown and produced items like Higher Grounds coffee, Cherry Republic jams and jellies, house-brand relishes and pickles (next trip, I'm going to have to try the market's Million Dollar Pickles!) and an amazing array of dried fruit and vegetable pieces that I like using in cooking (apple bits in oatmeal!) or as snacks.

Many long-time residents and visitors may remember the store as a produce market named LaGuire's before it became The Market Basket several decades ago.

The Frieswyks, Cindy and her husband David, purchased the business 7 or 8 years ago. The couple continues to carry many customer favorites while continually expanding their local product lines and offerings to include things like the wintertime soups, flowers and locally grown and grass-fed meats.

Can't visit The Market Basket in person?

Don't worry...Cindy told us they hope to complete the process of launching a Web site soon where customers can shop and order many of the store's bulk food, baked goods and other local products online.

Meanwhile, you can check out The Market Basket Facebook page or call the store to have some of your favorite items shipped to you!

© Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved

Midwest Market Basket: DeBrand Chocolates in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

DeBrand Chocolates represents a sweet childhood dream that came true for Cathy Brand-Beere right in her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

 

Cathy's high-quality chocolates are not only sweet treats, but each beautiful piece of candy and its beautiful packaging is a work of art in its own right.

Cathy grew up working in a wedding cake and supply business run by her mother and began working with chocolate by the time she was 8 years old. She loved the creative challenge of making chocolates that not only tasted good, but that looked good as well, and she dreamed of opening a "real chocolate shop" as an adult.

Cathy made and sold custom-designed wedding cakes as a summer job as she attended school, making her dream come true in 1987 when she opened her first chocolate shop in a 100-plus-year-old house on Wells Street in Fort Wayne. That first shop is no longer standing, but her chocolate business is still going strong, drawing customers from around the country...and around the world.

Celebrity sightings at DeBrand's include Marilu Henner, Patricia Heaton, Clinton Kelley, Jessica Simpson, George Lopez and Stedman Graham (which might help explain DeBrand's multiple appearances on Oprah's television shows, magazines and annual "favorite things" lists).

 

 

It was easy to see why we heard so many good things about Cathy's candy when we visited the DeBrand Chocolate store and cafe at Jefferson Point Shopping Center earlier this summer.

It was difficult to know where to start among the candies nicely displayed in the store's showcases, but we managed!

 

 

We each sampled a chocolate and then settled on a 14-piece box of assorted classic flavors to take home with us.

Tim is more of a fan of dark chocolate, while I tend to like milk chocolate and nuts in my candies. The woman behind the counter suggested the collection with its mix of dark and milk chocolates as a good starting point for us to sample the company's chocolate.

It was a good choice.

Flavors in the collection included things like Orange Cream and Mocha Cream that Tim really liked, while I particularly liked flavors like Strawberry Rhubarb and Maple Nut Cream.

DeBrand Chocolates are so rich that you only have to eat one at a time to satisfy your chocolate fix, so the box lasted the two of us more than a week!

I also like seeing that DeBrand makes an effort to use local products in creating many of their fillings, like a set of premium chocolate bars flavored with oils and vinegars from Fort Wayne's Olive Twist, a store I profiled in this feature earlier this year.

The store also includes a small cafe where visitors can enjoy some coffee, chocolate or an ice cream treat featuring DeBrand's chocolates and sauces...so we decided we should have a sundae (for research purposes of course!).

Our candy counter consultant advised us that the sundaes were large enough for sharing, and we found that to truly to be the case. Our sundae featured raspberry and caramel sauces over ice cream on a bed of fresh pecans, topped with a dark chocolate wafer. It was so beautiful that we sort of hated to eat it...but we managed that, too.

 

 

DeBrand has store locations in Fort Wayne at the Jefferson Pointe Shopping Center and Glenbook Shopping Center on Coldwater Road, as their corporate store on Auburn Road and a mall location in Kuwait.

We didn't get a chance to go over to the Auburn Road during our last visit to Fort Wayne, but we're hoping to get there in the future to take one of the company tours offered by DeBrand at that location. Tours are $5 and include a $5 rebate on purchases of $10 or more. The tours last about 30-45 minutes and typically occur on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can also schedule a group tour for 12 or more people on other days of the week.

Check out DeBrand's online catalog for year-round ordering information.

You can connect with DeBrand on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram.

Thanks to Visit Fort Wayne for sponsoring my recent visit to Fort Wayne, Indiana, providing lodging, meals and help arranging interviews and tours of area attractions for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about this stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Midwest Market Basket: A Drop of Honey in Grand Rapids, Ohio

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

A Drop of Honey in Grand Rapids, Ohio represents yet another sweet success for one northern Ohio family, and the store is a sweet stop in this historic canal town just southwest of Toledo.

Ray and Helen Householder began their career as beekeepers and honey suppliers in 1976.

Ray started out as a part-time county bee inspector to supplement his primary income and soon the Householders took up bee keeping.

The beekeeping started out more as a hobby, but it quickly turned into a thriving family business for Ray and Helen, along with their seven children.

One of their sons, Ron, really took to life as a beekeeper, running his first bee yard at the age of 8 and becoming a professional beekeeper as an adult.

Householder Honey was only available to wholesalers until October of 2012, when Ron's wife Emily opened a honey boutique called A Drop of Honey in downtown Grand Rapids, Ohio.

The store carries local honey, handmade beeswax candles, some beekeeping books and equipment and honey-based products that include body lotions, soap and a dozen or so different flavors of honey that customers can taste at the in-store sample bar.

Emily, a former costume designer and makeup artist who grew up in suburban Toledo, didn't know anything about beekeeping or beekeepers until she married Ron. She was fascinated with his unusual job and thought others might share her interest in beekeeping and the sweet result of the beekeepers' efforts.

Emily began researching uses for honey, which include culinary uses and cosmetic uses as well as traditional medicinal uses that capitalize on honey's antibacterial, antifungal and antiseptic qualities.

As Emily tends the store, Ron tends to about 900 hives that supply much of the honey used in products in the store as well as supplying honey to wholesalers throughout Ohio.

Ron's parents are retired from the honey business, but they still help the younger Householders with the farms and wax each year.

We ended up buying some raspberry-flavored honey and a sweetly spicy Ginger-infused honey that I can't wait to try with yogurt and fruit or to flavor hot tea during the winter or when I have an upset stomach.

The store is open noon until 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday during most of the year. They shift to a noon until 5 p.m. Thursday through Friday and 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. schedule during the winter months.

You can also connect with A Drop of Honey on Facebook or order some of their most popular products online at their Web site.

A Drop of Honey, 24195 Front Street, Grand Rapids, Ohio

http://www.adropofhoney.net/home

Midwest Market Basket: The Olive Twist in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

Do you love the idea of experimenting with different tastes and ingredients that can help elevate an everyday meal into something special?

We love visiting cool little culinary boutiques as we travel and usually find several things that end up in our market basket to take home for later mealtime fun, flavor and experimentation.

It also should be no secret that bloggers like to check out other bloggers within their own niches. There is a relatively close-knit group of Midwest travel bloggers who like to share tips and compare notes with each other as they plan to visit various destinations within the region.

I read Connie's article about vinegar and oil tasting bars on her Midwest Wanderer blog just before heading out to Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is how I came to add The Olive Twist to our trip itinerary as I planned our trip to that city.

Tim and I were already familiar with the concept of gourmet oil and vinegar tasting bars as we first visited Fustini's in Traverse City, Michigan (also mentioned in Connie's article) shortly after it first opened six years ago.

These premium olive oil and vinegar bars operate a bit like a wine tasting bar where customers can sample several flavors before deciding what appeals to their personal palate and what they might like to purchase.

At first it may seem strange to belly up to the balsamic and vinegar bars and drink a shot of vinegar or oil straight up, but sampling the products by themselves is the best way to appreciate the individual flavor infusions and the smooth character of the products.

The Olive Twist has at least several dozen different barrel-aged Italian balsamic vinegars and another couple of dozen infused olive oils to sample in a wide range of flavors encompassing sweet, savory and spicy choices.

We especially liked the fruity balsamic vinegars, finally settling on a bottle of Black Cherry Balsamic Vinegar and a bottle of Honey Ginger White Balsamic Vinegar to take home with us. The sweet, thick and rich flavor of the vinegars especially impressed us.

On the spicy side, we opted for the Harissa Infused Olive Oil to add to our market basket. Harissa is a chili and pepper spice mix most popular in North African and Middle Eastern cuisine, and we're always on the lookout for Harissa-based condiments or spice mixes.    

Lori Berndt first encountered the olive oil and vinegar tasting bar concept while on vacation with some family members on the East Coast several years ago.

Lori loved entertaining, gardening, cooking and developing her own recipes, so she originally played with the idea of opening her own bed-and-breakfast inn, but the idea of opening an oil and vinegar tasting bar really fascinated her. This was an idea new to northern Indiana and the business seemed to be a perfect match for her interests and talents.

She returned home from her trip and found that her husband Terry quickly became enthused about the idea as well.

The couple, both northeastern Indiana natives, opened the Covington Plaza Store in the fall of 2010. They opened a second store in downtown Auburn, Indiana, a year later.

We visited The Olive Twist store at the Covington Plaza in Fort Wayne. The store sits in a strip mall, but don't let the suburban setting fool you. This is a unique and locally owned business that collaborates and supports other local products and businesses.

One of the more recent collaborations between The Olive Twist and Fort Wayne's DeBrand Fine Chocolates resulted in a line of premium chocolate bars flavored with oils and vinegars from the Olive Twist. The DeBrand/Olive Twist chocolate bar flavors include: Raspberry basil (dark chocolate with raspberry balsamic vinegar and basil olive oil); Strawberry Almond (white chocolate with strawberry balsamic vinegar and almond olive oil); and Orange Chocolate (milk chocolate with cara-cara orange and vanilla balsamic vinegar and blood orange olive oil).

Visit The Olive Twist Web site or Facebook page for more information about suggested oil and vinegar pairings, recipes, in-store classes and other hints about using the products. The store's monthly email newsletter also offers more recipes and advice on vinegar and oil pairings (Honey Ginger balsamic and Persian Lime Olive Oil anyone? I can already tell my next purchase may have to be that Persian Lime oil!).

The Olive Twist, Covington Plaza, 6410 W. Jefferson Blvd., Ste 7A, Fort Wayne, Indiana or 115 N. Main St., Auburn, Indiana

http://www.theolivetwist.com/

Thanks to Visit Fort Wayne for sponsoring my recent visit to Fort Wayne, Indiana, providing lodging, meals and help arranging interviews and tours of area attractions for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about this stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Midwest Market Basket: Grand Rapids Popcorn

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

This is another fun place in Grand Rapids, Michigan that we checked out at the suggestion of Jessie Voigts at Wandering Educators.

We found Grand Rapids Popcorn, most appropriately, in suburban Comstock Park near the baseball stadium that is home to the West Michigan Whitecaps, a minor league baseball team and Detroit Tigers' affiliate.

This family-owned and -operated business opened in 1944, so Grand Rapids Popcorn celebrates its 70th anniversary this year.

The gourmet popcorn company offers over 30 different flavors of popcorn in a variety of sweet and savory flavors.

Want something new or a little unusual? Be sure to check out the store's Flavors of the Month, which included Banana Split, Caramel Latte and Butter Rum during June.

The store also sells popcorn equipment, popcorn gift tins, gift packages and baskets, popcorn seasonings and other treats. You can also buy wholesale from Grand Rapids Popcorn or work with the company to set up a fundraising program for groups like schools, clubs, non-profits, or sports teams.

We bought a bag of the company's Chicago Mix (a blend of cheese and caramel popcorn) and some dill-flavored popcorn during our recent visit.

Best part of our visit to the store? A free bag of popcorn fresh from the machine at the cashier's counter!

If you can't get to the store, it's easy enough to pop on to the company's Web site or Facebook page for news about the newest flavors and special promotions.

The Grand Rapids Popcorn site includes a "Kid's Club" page with games and activities like a coloring page which your child can color and bring into the store to receive a free treat like the 16 oz. slushie they're offering this month.

We thought popcorn would make a great Fathers' Day gift, so Tim went online later to order a tin of popcorn as a gift for his dad, who also happens to live in Grand Rapids.

Grand Rapids Popcorn, 4675 West River Drive, Comstock Park, Michigan 49321

https://www.grpopcorn.com

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Midwest Market Basket: Schuil Coffee Roasters in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Farmers markets, grocery stores, hardware stores, indie book stores and other local spots are among our favorite places to go souvenir shopping when we're on the road in the Midwest.

Here's another edition of Midwest Market Basket feature about some of our favorite Midwest products, shopping discoveries and where to find them.

We visit family fairly often in Grand Rapids, Michigan, so I'm always on the lookout for suggestions for good places to check out in this western Michigan town. Here's a place we checked out at the suggestion of Jessie Voigts at Wandering Educators.

Tim is a big coffee fan, so I made a special note of Jessie's story about this coffee shop attached to a roasting facility offering Estate coffee, Fair Trade and Organic coffees, dark roasts, blends and flavors, as well as teas, brewing equipment and related products.

You could, just as Jessie promised, smell the fresh-roasted coffee well before you hit the parking lot in front of Shuil's, so I knew my coffee fan would be in for a good cuppa this trip out.

We visited this shop three times over two days (!), once to check it out and twice to pick up drinks and beans. By the third time we hit the door, we felt like regulars as the staff greeted us and one of them asked about the shirts we were wearing the day before (we'd gone to a minor league baseball game at Lansing in mid-Michigan that day before heading over to Grand Rapids on the west side of the state.

Another couple in the store at the same time completed their purchases and chatted familiarly with the staff. They waited for the barista to package their order as one of them confided to me that she and her husband didn't live in the immediate area, but looked forward to traveling here a couple of times each year to visit the store and stock up on coffee.

The Schuil Coffee shop is in a quiet commercial/industrial area on 29th Street, making it a convenient quick hop over from busy 28th Street, which we invariably travel along when we're in Grand Rapids.

Schuil's, established in 1981as the first specialty coffee roaster in Michigan, boasts a selection of over 200 varieties of beans roasted on site. The coffee house has about a half dozen varieties brewed and ready for visitors to sample as they shop.

Tim isn't a big fan of heavily flavored coffees, but the fellow who helped him listened carefully to his preferences and offered him plenty of full-bodied beans to choose from, taking bean canisters from the shelves, opening them up and fanning the beans slightly so Tim could smell the differences between the beans and get an idea of the eventual brew's strength.

You can order from a full menu of coffee, tea and other hot or iced specialty drinks to enjoy at the shop or to go.

I had a fresh-brewed ice tea as I browsed through the store's stock of bagged and loose teas before purchasing a few Stash-brand Ginger Peach-flavored Green Tea bags to take home.

The shop is a pleasant place to sit as you enjoy a beverage or chat with the staff.

Working on the road? The store also offers free Wi-fi.

Check out the company's Web site for information about ordering online or to check out a few other fun things like ways to recycle your used coffee grounds or coffee-based recipes (all under the site's "Entertainment" tab).

Schuil Coffee and Tea Shoppe, 3679  29th St. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan  49512

http://schuilcoffee.com/

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved