Tag: Empire Asparagus Festival

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Long Live the Queen!

May 25, 2012 at 5:26 PM | by | Comments (0)

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Everything about this year’s Asparagus Festival parade was green—from the clothes to the hats to the face paint, all the way to the parade’s commitment to the environment. No cars or trucks or lawn mowers or greenhouse-gas-emitting anythings were allowed. Other than that, as long as you celebrated the stalk, you could join the fray.

Twice.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Cupcakes and Poetry

May 24, 2012 at 5:46 PM | by | Comments (0)


Blueberry and asparagus cupcakes

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Empire, Michigan’s ninth annual Asparagus Festival hosted a cook-off with sixteen entries that showcased, if nothing else, myriad ways in which people will meld asparagus with just about anything. Red lentil dahl, blueberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, smoothies, pesto; just add “and asparagus” and you’ve got…well, you’ve got something.

Festival attendees can taste all the entrants’ dishes for free. The only requirement is that you stay long enough to hear the top three announced, since eating and bolting is bad form in these parts. And it’s worth it to taste the standouts like winner Janet Golenberg’s asparagus cashew miso dip. A pop of garlic and a fresh, crunchy veggie to scoop it with (not an asparagus spear, thank you very much) made it an easy favorite.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Kick Ass-paragus

May 23, 2012 at 4:22 PM | by | Comment (1)


Two runners who got their Ass-paragus kicked

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Ron Zywicki, this year's winner of Empire, Michigan’s “Kick Ass-paragus” 5k may have finished the race in 17:39, but the participants who ran more slowly—perhaps because they filled up on the asparagus beer the night before during the town’s annual Asparagus Festival kickoff—probably weren’t phased. It’s not as if the race is all that competitive, especially considering they don’t begin it with an actual clock, but rather by dropping a single asparagus spear on the ground: when it lands, you go.

The real bummer of running the 5k at a leisurely pace is that you get to the Asparagus Festival’s food tent later than everyone else, lengthening your wait time for a slice of asparagus pizza, or an asparagus boule, or get a brain freeze on some asparagus ice cream.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: OMG. ASPARAGUS BEER

May 22, 2012 at 3:44 PM | by | Comment (1)

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

I’ll be honest: If I were going to an asparagus festival and they didn’t have asparagus beer, I’d be pissed. After all, the tangy, bright flavor of asparagus is an ideal complement to beer’s bready body. So good thing Right Brain Brewery agrees with me and stocked Empire, Michigan’s ninth annual Asparagus Festival with an asparagus beer that gives you the best of a good beer without losing the flavor—and flare—of the weekend’s favored vegetable.

Right Brain Brewery’s asparagus ale is light and potable. Maybe even a little too potable, judging from the numbers of people who quaffed a glass (or five) at the festival’s Friday night kickoff, then grooved to the sounds of local musicians, The Benzie Playboyz. The band’s name is possibly awful, but you don't need another pint to appreciate the fact that they have not one but two members who play a washboard. And one of the players is under age twelve.

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Stalking the Empire Asparagus Festival: Welcome to Piss-Happy Michigan

May 21, 2012 at 4:16 PM | by | Comments (0)

Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

Empire, Michigan may host the only food festival where people talk extensively about pee. A necessary conversation cornerstone, perhaps, when you dedicate an entire weekend to asparagus, the vegetable that can transform a “humble chamberpot into a bower of aromatic perfume,” as Marcel Proust once put it.

Embracing funky pee is just part of the whole asparagus experience trumpeted by Empire residents, from root to shoot. Each year, the 400-person village on the white-sand shores of Lake Michigan swells to hold thousands, all coming together for asparagus beer, the asparagus parade, an asparagus cook-off, the “Kick Ass-paragus” 5k, and (of course!) the asparagus poetry contest.

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