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Door County Living Cover v12i01

Early Summer 2014 – volume 12 issue 1

Executive Editor Madeline Johnson

Editor Jim Lundstrom

Assistant Editor Alissa Ehmke

Arts & Literature Editor Sally Slattery

Contributing Editors:  Lauren Bremer, Alissa Ehmke, Jess Farley, Madalyn Gray, Gary Jones, Katie Lott Schnorr, Roy Lukes, Jim Lundstrom, Ryan Miller, Angela Sherman, Sally Slattery, Michael C. Thomas, Carol Thompson, Len Villano, Sean Zak

Photography Director Len Villano

Illustrator Ryan Miller

Advertising Sales Madeline Johnson, Jess Farley, Steve Grutzmacher

Publisher David Eliot

Owners Madeline Johnson & David Eliot

Door County Living magazine is published five times annually by: Door County Living, Inc.
P.O. Box 695, Baileys Harbor, WI 54202

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In this issue

  • Gary Jones

    Cooking Wild

    My earliest childhood memories on Pleasant Ridge include hunting morel mushrooms each spring. When the umbrella leaves of May Apples opened in our woods, my family knew morels wouldn’t be far behind; all the mushrooms needed was the encouragement of a warm rain, and on a good year, we’d fill paper grocery bags with our […]

  • The Black Nine: Bill Bertschinger’s Baby

    It takes awhile before Door County’s bay side forces you to ride the brake pedal. Once across Sturgeon Bay’s bridges, there are about 17 scenic miles along Green Bay waters before Horseshoe Bay Road winds east and west. Without the landscape-forced hesitation, it would be easy to drive right by the Alpine Golf Course, and […]

  • Steve Osterhaus Casts in a County Not Known for Fly Fishing

    It may not be as renowned as Montana’s Bighorn River or the creeks twisting through Yellowstone, but a May evening on the Mink River in Ellison Bay is exactly where Steve Osterhaus wants to cast his flies. “Any kind of fish that swims will basically take a fly,” he said. “It’s a matter of getting […]

  • Ephraim Yacht Club Prides Itself on Sailing Education

    The words “yacht club” connote certain things such as old money and exclusivity, however the Ephraim Yacht Club prides itself on being just the opposite. If it had a motto, it might be “Sailing for everyone!” “Since the early 1980s, there hasn’t been anything exclusive about the club. All you gotta do is walk in […]

  • Six Storied History: The Otumba

    What if a multi-story, luxury hotel was built in downtown Sturgeon Bay? How would Sturgeon Bay and the peninsula be different? A six-story, 100-room luxury resort just feet from the Sturgeon Bay Shipping Canal – this was in the cards for Door County in 1929. Come 1930, the stock market crash laid waste to these […]

  • Len Villano

    Let’s Plan a Garden!

    Making a prairie requires a clover and one bee, Emily Dickinson wrote, and reverie – reverie alone, if bees are few. The same might be said for making gardens. When I was a child the Jung Seed Catalog would arrive during the white of winter, and I would turn glossy pages vibrant with flowers, fruits […]

  • Maria Quiroga

    Jacob Mueller Launches PAINCAVE

    Jacob Mueller may not strike you as a competitor upon introduction – easygoing, friendly and relaxed – until he straps on his bike helmet and mounts his Giant Propel or tosses around a pigskin or enters the Fish Creek Winter Festival’s kickball tournament. He transforms – focused, alert and aggressive. “I was a traditional Wisconsin […]

  • Ryan Sherman

    Hidden Vegetables

    Almost everyone enjoys a good fruit smoothie but did you know that you could further fill your belly with the power of vegetables while sipping that sweetness? There are few rules when creating smoothies, but here are a some tips and tricks to help make delicious smoothies the whole family will love. • Use fresh, […]

  • Jim Lundstrom

    Pete Thelen Turns Life Into Song

    For a reason I still cannot fathom, I started what turned out to be a four-hour-plus interview in two different sessions by asking Pete Thelen the idiot interviewer’s question:  Which comes first for you, poetry or song? Pete did not guffaw at the inanity of the question. Instead, he answered without hesitation. “To me they’re […]

  • Len Villano

    Always in Style: Fish Creek Moccasin Works

    Fashion trends seem to change as often as the weather. Time is the ultimate test, though, for those trends that outlast the fickle caprice of American taste. Blue jeans, flip flops and t-shirts all seem omnipresent in the pages of fashion’s history. Add to that list an ageless, versatile, and comfortable piece of footwear that’s […]

  • Len Villano

    Mary Beth Mead Upcycles Vintage Jewelry

    Mary Beth Mead always felt inclined to collect vintage jewelry, especially from the ’40s and ’50s. “I love the colors they used – bright and funky, and a little off,” she smiles gesturing toward a string of seafoam green beads in her studio, a converted shed with piles, containers and strands of beads in every […]

  • Len Villano, fawn

    Wild Baby Animals

    It was immediately following the melting of winter’s snow of 1940 that my cousin Buzz Besadny and I were hired to rake the huge lawn and clean the flowerbeds at one of the large homes in south Kewaunee. Both of us felt we were being greatly underpaid for the difficult job; as it turned out, […]

  • Everything’s Better with Cheese

    Who doesn’t love cheese? In my opinion, we Wisconsinites have a lot to be proud of. The variety of amazing artisan cheeses made in our backyard has got to be at the top of any amateur chef’s culinary list of awesomeness. Don’t take our access to amazing cheese for granted. We really have something here […]

  • Jim Lundstrom, WI Cheese Masters

    An Advocate for Artisan Cheese

    A fortuitous family drive opened up the world of artisan cheese to Jim Pionkoski. “We were past Dodgeville on our way to Spring Green,” Pionkoski said. “We passed a cheese factory and I had never been in one. It was an old one, a house somebody had converted into a cheese factory.” They stopped, thinking […]

  • Len Villano, cheese

    The Art of Serving Cheese

    Cheeses can be served in a variety of ways, times, and for different occasions. I will never forget the time my father, brother and I were visiting relatives in Scotland in the late ’70s. My cousin Robin and his wife Winnabelle had us over for dinner one evening, and after we finished a satisfying four-course […]

  • The Process

    Chris Renard graciously took us through the daily cheesemaking process that takes place at the Renard’s Cheese plant on County S. Chris and his wife Ann own and run the store on Highway 57, while his uncle Brian Renard lives above the County S plant and owns and runs the store next to the plant. […]

  • Len Villano, Jesse Johnson, goats

    New Kid on the Block: Door County Creamery

    T hree generations of goats greet Jesse Johnson with bawling entreaties for brunch as he arrives at the barn for the first of two daily feedings. “It’s second-cutting hay, which is usually the best cut of hay. It has alfalfa in it,” Johnson said as he spread two bales of the still-green hay in the […]

  • Len Villano, Gray family

    Fresh and Local at the Gray-Aire Dairy Farm

    Growing up on a farm is definitely not what it seems. It certainly has its perks, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty it’s a lot of hard work and dedication. My name is Madalyn Gray, more commonly known as Maddy. It amazes me how much I have gained from growing up in this […]

  • Cheese by the Numbers

    3,000 Pounds of breaded cheese curds Renard’s sold every week in summer 2013 40 Percent of Renard’s cheese product sold as curds 90 Percent of Wisconsin’s milk that is made into cheese 33 Pounds of cheese the average American eats in a year 2.8 Billion pounds of cheese Wisconsin cheesemakers make every year 72 Pounds […]

  • Len Villano, Schoolhouse Artisan Cheese

    The Culture of Cheese: The Roots of Cheesemaking in the Door

    Wisconsin’s cheese culture runs as far back as the recipes used to turn fresh milk into wheels of soft chèvre or bricks of sharp cheddar. It is the industry that kept our grandfathers employed, it’s the food on our tables and it’s our heritage. Dairy farming first came to the state in the mid-1800s, and […]