Mike Laing: Grapes, Apples, cherries, cherries.

Hailey: I'm Hailey Robinson.

And I'm a former bear queen full of wanderlust.

I explore arts, culture, community, heritage, history and more.

One festival at a time.

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Toledo.

More than you ever imagined.

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Northern Michigan is a popular summer destination.

Some come for the dunes.

Other come from crystal Clear Lakes.

But we're here for the National Cherry Festival.

For nearly a century, Traverse City has celebrated the local cherry harvest during the annual National Cherry Festival as Victory Capital of the World.

Eight days is fitting for a cherry fun time.

What I did there.

There is cherry barbecue sauce, Cherry maple sirup, Cherry coffee.

Coffee.

Hold on.

I got my cherry coffee and now on to see the rest of the open space.

If it can be made with cherries, it's here.

A must is some cherry pie fro the Grand Traverse Pie Company.

Visitors can get a traditional slice, but I went for the flurry with a sweet treat like this.

I'm curious how many pies Grand Traverse Company goes through during the festival?

Mike Busley: I mean, between this shop and Park Street and the festival.

I don't know, 800,000 a day, something like that.

And we're also in a lot of the markets around town.

So the numbers are huge right now.

What goes into making the pie?

Denise Busley: It's pretty simple ingredients, which is pretty wonderful.

And mostly Michigan.

Mike Busley: Michigan.

Flour.

Michigan.

Sugar.

Michigan.

Fruit.

So we try to source as much locally, regionally as possible.

But it all starts with the cherry.

So we make our pie crust right here in town in small batches, and then our crumb topping.

Again, proprietary.

But we make all of that here and sweeten the cherries with flour and sugar, a little bit of almond extract and top it with crumbs.

Bake it right over there.

Denise Busley: The people that make, you know, like.

Mike Busley: And it's one.

Denise Busley Handmade every day, one by one.

Mike Busley: It's not a big machine back there.

Haylie: I was noticing that the kitchen was full.

To your point, there wasn't machinery and it was truly handmade and it was kind of almost took me bac in time a little bit like, Oh, this is what bakeries and kitchens look like.

And you keep practicing that crap.

Mike Busley: Then you can se we intentionally left it open.

You can stand there looking at all the pies on display and look right bac and see our bakers here.

Ovens.

See what's happening.

Hailey: I can't help but notice this adorable little heart on the pie.

What's the story with that?

Mike Busley: Basically, we wanted to make sure we could tell the cherry crumb pie from the lakeshore berry pie from the raspberry apple crumb pie.

So we put a heart on i so you could tell the difference in since we're going to put something on it to tell the difference.

We thought, why not put a heart?

Because, you know, warm your heart with pie.

Hailey So there's this little thing in the motto is Warm your heart with pie.

And this this company goes beyond just making pies for the festival and the town, of course, But you even pay it forward, Denise, with your programs.

Denise Busley: Well, you know, we've been in business for 27 years now, and it became evident really early on that, you know, we wanted to be more part of the community.

I did.

I did some mentoring.

And then Mike and I became involved with Michigan Youth Opportunities Initiative, which was an initiative initiative helping kids aging out of the foster care system that just led the way.

And so I was in child sexual abuse prevention for it's going on 13 years.

Wow.

So it's a heavy topic.

But, you know, we feel like you can have really difficult and heavy conversations around pie, you know.

Haylie: So that's good.

You're warming your heart with pie because you're warm in your heart.

You take that passion and put it back into the community and pay it forward.

It really is beautiful.

And it's people like you that are staples in the community and make communities like Traverse City special.

Denise Busley: That you recognize now because lif is about relationships, right?

It's about us and how we connect with one another.

Haylie: What is your favorite part of this annual event?

Mike Busley: It's kids day.

We had the princes an princesses from all the schools into our Park Street store yesterday morning making a pie that we then bake and that delivered to the Munson Hospital.

Denise Busley: It for years we made pie with the kids at the open space.

You'd have kids that had done it for 12 years, Right.

And now they're they're 14 years old, but they still want to come back and make pie.

And what an amazing memory that was for the and how cool to be part of that.

Mike Busley: But when you're really reaching deep and trying to affect the child's life in a positive way through the the parades and the prince and princesses from each of the elementary schools, that that's hard to compete with, something like that.

Hailey: I can't say over the course of this experience is that festivals are the one and only place where community traditions are not only preserved, they're actively practiced and people can participate.

You can't do that in a museum or or a book or anything.

And that's the one time you really get to indulge yourself in the community traditions.

Yeah, that's why I love them.

Denise Busley: This festival that it was a huge part in putting this community on the map.

I mean, it draws a lot of people from all over the place and the exposure that it gave to us and our pie.

It's I don't it's probably irreplaceable, you know.

Hailey: So well, it helped that you put so much love into it and made it desirable to warming hearts with pie, right?

Denise Busley: Yeah.

Haylie: It's warming parts of pie.

Yes.

And I mean, you guys knew your pie was good, but wow, that's really good.

Mike Busley: Charitable.

Hailey: It is delightful.

You guys should get in the business of this.

They're really good at making the pie.

Mike Busley There might be something there.

Hailey: There are plenty of kid friendly activities, including vibes.

An entire area of the festival grounds dedicated to free, family friendly, fun.

And for those interested in venturing off campus, Cherry Orchard tours, that delicious pie has left me curious about the harvesting process, and Nicky provides a crash course on the topic.

Nikki Rothwell: We plant the trees and they come.

We usually buy him from a nursery so we don't plant a seed.

So the bottom half of the tree is called the rootstock and that's bred separately.

So we have actually rootstock breeders out there, so we breed those separately.

And then the top is the variety or the Scion, and then they get grafted together in the nursery.

So growers actually buy trees that are almost clones of each other, you know, because it's the same rootstock with the same variety on top.

And so we plant these tree and then in the territory world because we mechanically harvest them, we had to wait until those trees are physically big enough to shake them.

And so what we do is we put the tree in the ground and then we take care of it.

And then hopefully by year six, they're big enough to shake.

Haylie: What is the the harvest season like?

How long is that for the cherries?

Nikki Rothwell: Yeah.

So it depends on the crops or crop sizes.

A little bit smaller, but we like to think of the season as the whole part of the state.

So we start the season in Southwest Michigan and then we have a great bunc of growers in West Central area.

I think those guys started at the very end of June in southwest Michigan and then our friends up at the tip of Leelanau County here, those guys harvest sometime in August and it's such a short window an you have to get the fruit off.

The fruit has to g to the processor really quickly.

It has to get off the tree really quickly.

So it just seems like it's super condensed.

It's a little hectic.

Haylie: It sounds like it's very much a community effort, all hands on deck kind of attitude.

Nikki Rothwell: Yeah, it is.

And I feel like that's I think this I think the whole region is actually really unique in that way.

I think they're really committed to agriculture.

I think esthetically I think we like the way it looks when we drive through our counties and our towns, you know, the cherry signs, the cherry trees, all that stuff that really says, hey, this is who we are.

So I think there's a big tradition and heritag of growing fruit in this area.

Now.

Haylie: There are several varieties of cherries, but really only two species.

Is that right?

Nikki Rothwell: Yet so sweet and tart are two different species.

So the tart cherries kind of the our main cherry.

In Michigan, we grow 75 to 80 of the country's tart cherries.

So these are the red guys hanging behind you there.

So those are a different species than the sweet cherry.

And we kind of just grow montmorency.

So mountain ranching is that all these are French varieties, But these guys, this lot, ranching yields beautifully and again I think no other cherry that that we grow in the tar cherry world across the country is that red color.

So I feel like it's kind of ou signature a little bit really.

Haylie: So you're not going to find a tart cherry of this variety, this red anywhere else?

Well, now you said you're a local to the region, so you've been gone Cherry Fest probably for some time.

It's been around for over 90 years.

What's your favorite tradition at the festival?

Nikki Rothwell: It's local.

It feels local.

Sometimes when you go to other places, it's kind of Polish.

I feel like there's something about the Cherry Festival that just still makes you feel like you're in a small town.

And so, you know, my daughter and my nieces, they went yesterda to they throw, you know, things and the dogs jump ou and get them and were like that.

Did you see that dog?

That dog was awesome.

And you're like, I wouldn't really that excite about dog jumping or pie eating.

Yes.

I mean, so I think there's something really like, I don't know, it makes everything's free.

That's the other thing that really and I feel like it feels lik inclusive, that it can be free.

So it's not like there's a huge, huge price tag on the National Cherry Festival that would exclude people that mayb don't have the funds to do that.

Haylie: I can say from the time we've been here, it's very evident that everyone is very community oriented and very passionate about their traditions and what makes Traverse City unique, which is the cherry.

And that's ultimately what this is all about, celebrating our uniqueness and unifying under that.

Nikki Rothwell: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree.

And it feels, you know, it feels also really good to be part of that.

Haylie: Well, now I have to check out the Air Dog show for myself though.

This is a competition.

It really is about having fun.

Since 2005, Ultimate Air Dogs has been a duck jumping event that is inclusive to all breeds and skill sets.

Whether the dog is in it to win it or just likes a dip in the pool, all canines are invited to join us.

Oh, wow.

Look at that pup.

Go.

This is so much fun.

The ultimate air dog show is among many traditions at the National Cherry Festival and Kat filled me i on some other local favorites.

Nikki Rothwell: Probably are parades, and next would probably be pie eating and pitch petting the pi spitting competition in the pie.

Eating are a very standard use of that's been around for a long time.

It's fitting.

That's fitting.

You take the cherry.

I mean, not this one, but this.

You would eat it and then keep the pit in your mouth and then you spit it along our official Peach Pit, Matt, to see the length of which you can spit a pit.

Hailey: Okay, What is what's the record so far?

Nikki Rothwell: It's over 75 feet.

Haylie 75Feet !

?

Nikki Rothwell: Yes.

You have the wind in the right direction.

It is our whole game plan.

Haylie: That's quite the strategy going in there.

Nikki Rothwell: A lot of people participate.

We do i three times during the festival and we bring out a giant mat and they.

Haylie: What makes an annual event national?

Nikki Rothwell: Oh, it's a good point.

What we became designate is the National Cherry Festival and around the 1950s previous to that, we were blessing of the Blossoms.

Now in our 97th year, we are looking forward to this at the 100th anniversary of Come.

And before I know it, we were just there's a national festival, so we are nationally known and of course we celebrate.

Cherry is all over the country now.

Haylie: We've touched on how it truly is a community event and it is all hands on deck.

How many volunteer do you get throughout the year?

Nikki Rothwell: 2400.

Give over 45,000 man hours annually to make this happen.

And we are honored and blessed to have every one of them.

They are the lifeblood of what we do.

If we didn't hav that kind of volunteer support, we wouldn't have the festival we do.

Haylie: Throughout the years since you've been volunteering since you were eight, you fell in love with the community atmosphere so much.

So you're now the executive director.

What is your favorite tradition at the Cherry Festival?

Nikki Rothwell: My favorite tradition is the parade.

The parades are my favorite.

It is a rolling storybook of the community.

Every elementary school here has junior royalty as part of the National Cherry Festival.

They have a prince and a princess.

They're first graders.

They each school build the float and those will be in tonight's parade, in Saturday's parade.

And they are incredible.

They build and based off a theme, this year's theme is 75 years of junior royalty.

So they've picke each each school as representing a different year of royalt and or different year of theme.

And it's going to be incredible to watch with these kids and families put together.

Watch it.

The kids get to sit on their floats and wave and smile in their beautiful cherry dresses and their sashes and crowns.

It's an incredible thing to get to see so many people come out to showcase what our community does.

Haylie: Did someone say parade?

Oh, yeah, Yeah.

Did.

Oh, my goodness.

Look at that dog.

So cute.

Well, thank you.

Here are two parades during the National Cherry Festival.

The junior royalty parade has been a tradition for 75 years and continues to be a cherished event.

One previous junior royalty member is now a leader in Traverse City.

Tourism.

Trevor Tkach: Well, I mean, I've got a very storied past with the Cherry Festival, so I was actually a cherr prince when I was a young man.

Hailey: Oh we're in the presence of Royal.

Oh, yes, that's right.

How much economic impact does the Cherry Fes bring to Traverse City tourism?

Trevor Tkach: Yeah, that's a great question.

So on an annual basis, tourism in general is well, well north of $1,000,000,000 of economic impact for us.

And even in just this one week, the National Cherry Festival does well over $25 million of that activity.

So you think about how man small businesses depend on that, how many locals, you know, that's their paycheck.

You know this is a really important part of how we sustain our community.

So not only is it a special tradition where people are having fun, it's having a real impact on lives as well.

Haylie At what point did Traverse City really become more of a destination?

Trevo Tkach: That's a great question.

You know, after we got past our lumbering era and the city was trying to reinvent itself just over 100 years ago, we really leaned heav into agriculture, the cherries, and we started having events like the National Cherry Festival, and people would come in in droves to come and explore and have fun and enjoy the agriculture.

Haylie: Really big attraction is this would.

Trevor Tkach: Yeah, well, roughly 50 years ago the land was donated in the preserve with the national parks, which is a huge moniker to have right at the national park.

How awesome is this?

It's 36 miles of beautiful shoreline on Lake Michigan and the dunes climb, you know, upwards of 300, 400 feet into the sky.

So it's a lot of fun.

It's just a lot of a lot of space and a lot of enjoyment in a lot of different spaces out there.

But that whole area and not just the national park, but all around it, even to the south, further down past Frankfort and going towards Manistee, thes these bluffs and the lake are, are all around and inaccessible in a lot of different ways.

So it is special.

It's neat.

They have a national park in to be kind of an entry point into a national park.

And it's a different type of national park.

You know, it's it' not a Yosemite or a Yellowstone.

It's maybe a little bi more laid back and approachable and more accessible from different directions.

Haylie: Before heading to the dunes, I advise visiting the welcome center for a map.

While inside, check out some of the informational displays about the wildlife.

With my knee injury, the climb to the top was a little challenging and well worth the views.

It is advised not to go all the way down to the water unless you can confidently climb back up, walk several miles to the welcome center, or have about $3,000 for a helicopter ride.

I'll just sit right here.

Just look at that view.

It feels like I'm on the edge of the worl and that water is breathtaking.

All that climbing calls for some bubbly, in my opinion.

Mike Laing: So this all started with a man named Larry Mosby, who the brand is, is named after, and he planted grape vines in the early seventies, not on this particular property, but down the road here prior to him planting a man named Bernie Rinke, who started basketbal winery planted in the sixties.

And these two guys plante a variety of of grape varieties.

They didn't know really what would grow best here.

And over time, it turns out that classic European varieties gro well here in northern Michigan.

And also those varieties make really desirable sparkling wines.

Haylie: That you exclusively work with grapes or do you play with other fruits?

Mike Laing: We play with other fruits.

I've used mead in the Dosanjh to finish a sparkling wine to balance the acidity.

We finish one of our ciders with a cherry.

DOSANJH Yeah.

Hailey: Oh, yeah.

So you're you're cultivating the cherry community right here on your vineyard?

Mike Laing: Yeah.

We work with one of the largest cherry growers, and we purchase concentrate from them, and we use that tart cherry crown concentrate to sweeten the wine.

Haylie You use a tart cherry as well?

Mike Laing: Yes.

We like.

We like a blend of Balaton and Montmorency.

Haylie; Oh, okay.

Mike Laing: Yeah, we did.

That wasn't developed initially.

I mean, we use just mountain runs originally, but Balaton, the blend is is is more desirable.

haylie So would you say this process is more science based or creative based?

I know it's a mix.

Mike Laing: Yeah.

So there are definitely numbers that we're looking at.

Primarily those numbers include sugar content and acidity.

Our process is driven since orally.

So by tasting, by smelling.

Haylie: We're currently celebrating the 50th anniversary.

Mike Laing: Yes, we have our 50th anniversary cuvee here for us to try.

And this is a really nice wine.

This is a bottle fermented wine, so it's three years aged in the bottle.

Before we remove the yeast, finish the wine and start.

And so.

So this is made from Chardonnay and Riesling grapes.

So those grapes were picked, fermented, and then the wine was re fermented in the actual bottle where the bubbles developed.

And then the wine was riddled and disgorged, so the yeast were removed and then we sweetened the wine with a oak aged grape brandy dosage.

Haylie: Now, is there a correct way to open up?

Mike Laing: Yeah, I did that pretty fast.

I would twist the bottle and not the cork.

Haylie: So the twist in the bottle is the technique.

Mike Laing: Yeah, that's the best way to do it.

Haylie So this actually took, you know, three years in the fermenting process.

So when did you start thinking about this mixture?

Mike Laing: We didn't decide to make this wine in 2019.

We decided to make this wine about a year ago.

Haylie: Okay.

Mike Laing: When we experimented with adjusting the dosage because by adjusting the dosage, using spirits or more sugar or less suga or red wine or mead or whatever, you can change the complexion of the wine completely so we can create several different wines just by adjusting the dosage.

Haylie: Well, should we choose to.

That.

Mike Laing: Cheers to that.

Thank you.

I think that this is really becoming well known as a as a destination for wine enthusiasts.

We we take the wine very seriously and I think it shows and other wineries are doing the same.

There's a lot of talent in th region on the grape growing side and on the winemaking side.

And our our products continue to improve.

Haylie: After some pretty celebratory sips, I'm off to welcom the next National Cherry Queen in celebratio of the National Cherry Festival.

Queen.

There's a coronation.

Every program is different.

And I'm curious how the National Cherry Festival chooses their next queen.

Angela Sayler: Our competition is actually two phase.

We narrow down all of ou applicants to the Final Four, and then they join the current Cherry Queen.

At all of the Cherry Fussell events.

They're secretly observed through different all the different events that we attend during the Cherry Festival.

And then they're also interviewed to kind of weed out the cream of the crop and who would be ready to tackle this next year of, you know, being an ambassador for the Cherry Festival.

Haylie You once were a festival queen and you kind of got sucked into this role.

I mean, what has it been like being part of the Queen's committee over the years?

Angela Sayler: It's been phenomenal.

We wor with an amazing group of women.

I was very queen in 2000, nine, ten, and shortly after that they recruited me to kind of come on board and eventually I rolle into the directorship position.

But it's been amazing.

We've just had an amazing week with with the girls and the candidates and enjoying all things very festival and from diversity.

Haylie: So what did you lov most during your time as Queen?

Oh man.

Angela Sayler: There are so many to choose from.

I think I grew up on a tree farm and so I'm sixth generation cherry grower.

I think my favorite part was just the camaraderie and connecting with the farmers in the area.

And then that was I got to speak up for them and kind of be thei spokesperson for the festival.

So it was just a really special time.

Hailey: A special time indeed.

The day I was crowned was one of the most exciting in my life, but the end was bittersweet, or should I say tart like a cherry.

It truly was an impactful year for me.

So much so I'm out finding festivals and learning about amazing community traditions.

So what is your favorite part of the Cherry Festival?

Carme Beemer: I'd probably have to say either the air show or the pi spitting competition for sure.

Haylie We heard you got about 29 feet.

Yep.

Okay.

That's pretty impressive.

Carmen Beemer: Its about the role.

Haylie: What made you want to be an ambassador for the cherry industry?

Carmen Beemer: Well, I study horticulture crops, so fruit trees and vegetables.

And I'm a really big advocate for all things agriculture.

And I know the cherry industry is definitely in need of someone who's.

Willing to go the extra mile and someone to.

Advocate and do what it takes to help the industry and the producers in the local area.

Haylie: I love that too.

You're already kind of a pro and you just have a crown with it now, right?

Carmen Beemer: Yes.

Who wouldn't not want to advocate for cherries in a crown.

Haylie: I wish Queen Cameron the best year as the national cherry Queen.

Crystal clear waters and ginormous sand dunes may draw visitors to Traverse City, but is the tight knit community that makes us destination standout National Cherry Festival has warmed my heart and the delicious pie.

Of course, I'm having a cherry good time finding festivals you can visit finding festivals.

Com To learn more about the series, get update through the digital newsletter and connect with me on social media where you can access more content on festival fun.

Denise Busley: You know, it's like we're not known for making great sandwich.

I don't know that you have really hear warming conversations that are.

That might be divisive, you know?

Mike Busley: Yeah.

Mike Liang: Mobbiness.

Haylie: Mobbiness.

Mike Liang: Yeah.

Feel it?

Haylie: Yeah feel in the Mobbiness.

Hi ho.

Cheerio.

Oh, my goodness.

Now, that's the only cherry pick up until this point.

Carmen Beemer: It's like 94 feet.

Haylie: Oh, you can do it.

I believe in you.

Carmen Beemer: So far.

Haylie: Oh, I'll just take the dog.

Man: I'll write them out.

That is the cutest little dog.

Announcer: And Finding festivals is brought to you in part by Find some Lake Erie Love?

It's a SHORE thing!

Learn how at SHORESandISLANDS.com and start an adventure today.

Toledo.

More than you ever imagined.

Learn more at visittoledo.org.