American Food Festivals - Now widely cultivated, this festival celebrates a fruit once just harvested in the wild
Our next stop takes us back to Michigan, but this time to the scenic and sparsely populated Upper Peninsula.
Blueberries are a main ingredient in everything from muffins to pancakes to pies. They are treasured for their sweetness and, increasingly, for their antitoxin health benefits. Not that many years ago, blueberries were harvested in the wild.
Our next stop takes us back to Michigan, but this time to the scenic and sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. The township of Paradise, Michigan, hosts The Wild Blueberry Capital of Michigan, for their annual Wild Blueberry Festival on August 16 through the 18th.
Before their cultivation, wild blueberries were grown in this corner of the Upper Peninsula. In the 1920s and 30s, up to 1,500 pickers gathered the fruit, then shipped by water to Detroit, Chicago, and Buffalo.
The advent of cultivated blueberries and labor shortages during WWII led to the decline of the local wild blueberry business. However, wild blueberries still thrive in the area, and a few commercial operations have persevered.The three-day festival started in 1984 and has been held annually (except during the COVID-19 shutdown) in this town hugging the shore of Lake Superior's Whitefish Bay. Along with craft fairs and entertainment, the festival features blueberry bake sales all three days. Naturally, on all three days, a blueberry pancake breakfast will be between 9 a.m. and noon, followed by a Brat sale and off course a blueberry pie eating contest.
If you are visiting Paradise, many notable attractions are nearby, including Tahquamenon Falls State Park. The 46,000-acre park on the Tahquamenon River is the site of the second tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi River, and the hike to the falls is worth the visit.
History and maritime buffs should take advantage of the chance to visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and Whitefish Point Light Station. The museum chronicles Great Lakes maritime history and has the 200-pound bronze bell recovered from the wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in a ferocious Lake Superior and Whitefish Bay storm on November 10, 1975.
As noted, Michigan's Upper Peninsula is sparsely populated, so the best lodging option is a 60-mile drive to Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie). There are also several small hotels on U.S. Highway 2, about an hour away, along the picturesque north shore of Lake Michigan.
For the more adventurous, there are hundreds of campsites in the forest or lakeside in the Upper Peninsula. Just remember to bring your bug spray, a warm sleeping bag and to say hello to all the Yoopers you meet! Current information on the Wild Blueberry Festival is available on their Facebook page.
