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A Great Lakes Region Culinary Experience

There is something special about lettuce freshly plucked from a farm garden sharing a plate with a still-sun-warmed tomato sliced in thick scarlet wedges. Sprinkle this lovely duo with a fresh dressing of oil, vinegar and mustard, then top it with wildflowers and strawberries, and voila, you have created what might just be the perfect salad. This is only the first stop in what will be a day-long culinary adventure.

Your next sensory experience might involve the tasting of organically grown coffee beans, breaking the crust of the bean to consider its aroma and then sipping up the coarsely ground coffee and judging is full flavor for yourself. Or maybe you’ll meet the fishmonger who just came in from Lake Michigan with a feast of fresh water salmon ready for a gourmet grilling on a wood fire. Or you may learn how to smoke your own meats to take home after class.

Perhaps you’ll find yourself in the tasting room of a local winery, chatting with the vintner about how last spring’s late frost affected the harvest.

No matter the type, food and drink simply taste better when we have had a hand in growing, harvesting and preparing it. By meeting and talking directly with farmers, fishermen, cattlemen and vintners in their own natural setting, how could we not feel more connected to the land next time we share a meal?

This is the message that Ann Dougherty, owner and creator of Learn Great Food (LGF), hopes to instill in participants of the organic, culinary tours offered by Learn Great Foods. Dougherty, a 40-something native of Farmington Hills, Michigan, chucked a good paying career as a chemical engineer specializing in environmental matters to create Learn Great Foods. Since incorporating LGF in April 2005, she has led people of all ages on more than 100 tours in Northern Michigan, the Driftless region of Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri. She works with more than 25 hand-selected local organic farms and artisan food shops, and employs local chefs for all of the accompanying meals.

Monica Eng, Chicago Tribune reporter, was one of the participants in a LGF herb tour and she lauded the tour saying “…in just 24 hours, I was able to taste wines at a vineyard, tour an organic herb farm, hang out with a shiitake mushroom grower, buy a batch of steaks from grass-fed cattle, take cooking lessons from a professional chef, enjoy a home-cooked dinner, sleep in a charming Victorian Inn, chow on the best homemade raspberry coffee cake of my life and snag a cold gallon of raw milk from a farmer who’d squeezed it out of his cow that morning.”

“If you think that all of this is a little too “gourmet” for your wallet, you’d be wrong. With over 50 events in Northern Michigan and more in the Driftless region of Illinois this year and a half-dozen themed weekends, there’s something for every interest and every budget. ‘Our events are for everybody,’ Dougherty says, ‘Tours are $95 for the day, $35 for teenagers, and include the tour, the cooking class, and dinner. Weekend prices are $325, including two nights lodging, double occupancy, which includes a Friday night reception, five meals, two cooking classes, and fantastic touring; some of the weekend events can also be participated in without accommodations. The weekend packages are also full of gifts; recipes, a Friday night book gift, and other surprises throughout.’” states Kristi Kates in the Northern Express Weekly, May 5, 2008, Learn Great Foods: Food Tours Blend Great Cooking with Sustainable Ingredients ,

As well as experiencing an out of this world culinary experience, tour members also learn about the benefits of buying local. Without preaching, Dougherty conveys “after energy, food and water are our next environmental issues. The U.S. food system has problems, so tourism and food tours are a way to change the food system one tour at a time. ’Green’ is a movement, and we all are in motion, but ‘green’ does not need to be scruffy or dogmatic; adults learn when we are having fun. And our guests tell us about the changes they are making after the tours.”

For information and to register for Learn Great Foods events (reservations are required), visit their website at www.learngreatfoods.com or phone 231-758-3407.

Picture reprinted with permission of:

Specialty Travel Agents Association
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