"michigan" news and stories

Growing up in cities (Los Angeles and then Portland, OR), county fairs really weren't a part of my life. However, they've always fascinated me, particularly the competitions in which people enter their baked goods, cans of jam and garden veggies. If you have a similar fascination, you'll love this piece, which appeared today in the Dan Berry's This Land column in the New York Times, titled Where the Competition Is Stiff but Sweet.

Berry regularly delves into the less-visible aspects of American life and this week features the baking competition at the Marquette County Fair in Sands Township, MI. He introduces us to the judges, a convenience store owner and a retired social worker, who taste their way through every single pie, cake, bread and cookie entered into the competition. Additionally, he briefly hits on the ways in which the state of the economy is impacting the entries into the baking contest. It's a lovely piece and makes me want to plan a weekend to head to a less citified area of Pennsylvania and attend some fairs.

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We all love Girl Scout cookies, right? I try to stay away from them or I'll a whole box at a time, but I love them all the same. Well so does one scout from Michigan, who actually broke sales records.

Jennifer Sharpe sold, I kid you not, 17, 328 boxes of cookies. That's a lot of Samoa's! I can't imagine selling even a fraction of that. Apparently, though, all that selling really helped Jennifer get over being shy. Not only that, the cookie sales (about $21,000) is paying for her troop to go to Europe this winter.

Just think about that next time you buy a box of Girl Scout cookies!

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When I first saw this picture, my first impulse was to want to crawl straight into it. Check out that bowl of yellow and orange plums, with the sliver of water in the background. I want to be there.

There are a number of fantastic things to do with plums like that. Jam would make them last long past the summer season. A big crumble would be delicious dessert to serve to friends and family. You could also stew them down into a chunky sauce and serve it over pancakes, corn bread or scones. Oh the options!

Thanks to benderbending for the photo

Mario Batali will cook for you and 11 of your closest friends, if you are the highest bidder at a charity auction in Michigan next month. The "Sunday afternoon lunch in the true style of Rome", to be held on August 27th, includes a cooking lesson with as much participation as you want to have in preparing the food, wine tasting and (of course) a 10-course lunch. He auctioned a similar lunch for the group, The Conservancy, last year, which sold for $25,000. Batali says that he offers 6 to 10 such functions for charitable events every year and that most of them sell for around $50,000.

The silent auction closes on August 1st and bids can be placed online. The bidding starts at $5,000.

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The researchers at the University of Michigan recently announced that they believe ginger may kill cancer cells. Before you rush out to the store, though, you should know how the experiment was done. Powdered ginger root was applied to test samples of ovarian cancer cells - a type of cancer that is notoriously difficult to treat. The ginger caused the cells both to die and to self-digest. The researchers are hopeful that there is a component, a chemical in ginger that may be able to form the base of new cancer-treating drugs in the future and believe that the cancerous cells would be unable to build up a resistance to it, due to they way the ginger effects them. If nothing else, the scientists seem to be confident that ginger might be able to help current chemotherapy treatments become more effective.

While more results are needed to fully corroborate this conclusion, ginger does have other health benefits, in addition to being a wonderful spice, including the abilities to quell nausea and reduce inflammation. Simply increasing your intake of ginger, however, is unlikely to result in significant health benefits, at least in terms of cancer treatment.

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