Rock & Roll Farm

Tuesday! Jul 29 2003 // 11:52 am //

up north

I just got back from my weekend in Bear Lake. M and I were visiting a very good friend of his from college. I had a spectacular time, evidenced by the spectacular sunburn I am sporting on my back, shoulders, and chest (and nose!). We spent a lot of time in Arcadia, at their annual summer festival, Arcadia Daze. Arcadia is a town of 600, who get together once a year in Finch Park to listen to live country music, and drink Budweiser. The parade and craft fair on Sunday afternoon was mostly emergency vehicles, construction equipment, quilts, and jams. It charmed the socks right off me.

The whole time we were up there, and the whole way home, we threw around ideas for how to make a life in northern Michigan. Live in a tiny house, open a restaurant, keep only the bar open for the winter. Knit, paint, fish, camp, repeat. We watched the sunset from the highest point overlooking Lake Michigan, and I thought to myself, this is something I could get used to. I don’t remember a lot from my early childhood in Mount Pleasant, but I know that every time I’ve visited the north, it has felt like home.

We talked to our hosts, M’s friend and his friend’s father, about what it’s like to live up there. J said that in the winter, when everything is white for months, it’s a different kind of friendship you have with your neighbors. It’s like you’re going through something really rough with someone year in, year out. I wonder how I would survive.

Now that I’ve been living the big city life for so long, I wonder if I could deal with that kind of isolation. Knitting circle wouldn’t be a spirited political debate anymore. Picking up a zine would mean ordering it from a distro. Seeing a show would mean a day of driving across the state. I probably wouldn’t be in a band again. And the odds of meeting a random blogger for coffee would become, well, I’m sure you can do the math on that one yourselves. But are these things me? Or just part of me? If I moved up there I would be banking on them being things I could set aside - just as I have set aside many things to live the life I have currently. Sometimes I pine for the outdoors, living simply, being miles from nowhere, tending bar, baking, cooking, washing dishes, and eating food fresh from the field. But would the yearning for my city-self be stronger if I lived in the country?

A few years ago, I accompanied a friend on a trip we called our Northern Michigan Foods Tour. The purpose was to interview owners of organic food businesses (one of my jobs was to take photos - if I ever get a scanner, I’ll share them.). It was a life-changing experience. Working for Avalon in Detroit was one side of the organic, artisan foods coin. On the tour, I experienced the flipside, which involves being surrounded by the natural resources that actually produce the food. We visited Stone House Bread in Leland, Pleasanton Brick Oven Breads in Pleasanton, Food For Thought in Honor, American Spoon Foods in Petoskey, and Leelanau Cheese Company, part of Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay. [aside: I found this interview with Pleasanton Brick Oven Breads and Food For Thought, on what it is to be in the “green” foods business. This interview is part of someone else’s project - and isn’t from the tour I’ve been talking about.]

The tour springs to mind every time I mull over what it would be like to make a go of it up there as a foodie. It makes the idea seem incredibly possible. Aside from the tour, Traverse City is enough of a metropolis that I could find an office or fancy restaurant job. And, I know people up there. And, I’ll bet my family and friends would be more apt to visit me up there.

I’ll bet my family and friends would be more apt to visit me up there. That’s exactly what worries me. The reason there are only 600 people in Arcadia is because it’s a tourist town. The whole area lives off the three months of summer to keep them going through winter. How many people visit Mackinac Island in January? Around 230,000 cars crossed the bridge this January, in contrast to nearly 700,000 in July (02). Northern Michigan is, by definition, a getaway. Is my yearning simply a knee-jerk reaction to the stress I’ve felt lately? Or is the stress because I’m not living the way I want to? I guess I’ve already determined that I’m not living the way I want to. What I haven’t determined is what to do about that.

So many interests, so few decision making skills. Maybe I’ll make a pros and cons list.

sara Friday! Jun 27 2008 // 9:15 pm random up north blogger here…. love me some coffee, love me some zines (from random distro)… arcadia daze, coming soon!!!