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Michigan is an agricultural state. In fact, in agricultural products,
Michigan is second only to California among the diversity of its
products. Agriculture and farming is a large segment of our local
West Michigan economy.
West Michigan is nationally known for its fruit production, including
blueberries, cherries, apples, grapes and peaches. Add to this local
organic farmers that sell to local restaurants and grocery stores and
you can see how important growing food is to our local economy.
We like to support local businesses and farmers. Local produce is
the best! So visit your local farmers’ Market in Kent County and
see what you have been missing. Fresh produce is here in Michigan
and available in most areas near you.
Ada MI Farmers’ Market – Community Church Parking Lot
Tuesdays June 22 – Sept. 28, 2010 2:00 – 7 pm
Project FRESH accepted
“Chef in the Market” cooking demonstration program, also accepting
food basket donations for delivery to food pantry
Allendale Famers’ Market – 6101 Lake Michigan Dr – Heritage Town
Square Parking Lot ( North side of Lake Michigan Dr) June – October
Tuesdays and Fridays 11:00 am – 4 pm Project FRESH accepted
Byron Center Farmers’ Market – Pathway Church Parking Lot or
grassy area north of the Post Office – 8350 Byron Center Av.
May – October Saturday 8am-1 pm Project FRESH accepted.
Caledonia Michigan Farmers’ Market – M 37 & 100th St Intersection
Saturday 8am – 12 pm until Oct 30th 2010
Coopersville Farmers’ Market – North Main St parking lot pavilion
May 7- Oct 29 Wednesday 8 am – 1 pm Project FRESH accepted
Fulton Street Farmer’s Market – 1147 E. Fulton St Grand Rapids MI
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
May to Christmas
Grand Rapids South East Area Farmers’ Market
Corner of Franklin & Fuller Grand Rapids Michigan
June – October Thursday 10am – 4 pm
Project FRESH & Food Stamps accepted
Grand Rapids West Side Farmer’ Market
Alpine at 11th St ( City View Church) Grand Rapids Michigan
Thursday May 6 – October 7 Thursday 10am – 6:30 pm
Project FRESH accepted
Grandville Farmers’ Market – 4055 Maple St SW Grandville, MI
North of the Grandville Library
May 4 – Oct 19 Tuesday 8 am – 1 pm
Howard City Famers’ Market – 120 W. Edgerton at the White Pine Trail
staging area near the depot at Ensley and Edgerton St. Intersection
May 8 – October Saturday 9 am – 1 pm
Hudsonville Farmers’ Market & Crafts – 3302 Prospect St corner of
Prospect and School just off Chicago Dr.
June 2 – October 6, 2010 Wednesdays 8 am – 2 pm
Project FRESH accepted
Lowell MI Farmers’ Market – 225 S Hudson Lowell Fairgrounds
Thursdays May 13- Oct 7 2010 2 pm – 7 pm Handicap Parking Avail.
Metro Health Hospital Farmers’ Market– Metro Health Village
5900 Byron Center Ave Wyoming MI – easy access off M-6
May 6 – late Sept. 2010 Thursday 9am – 1 pm
Project FRESH accepted; free health screenings; live entertainment
Plainfield Township Farmers’ Market – 4411 Plainfield Ave NE
(corner of 5 Mile Rd and Plainfield Ave) adjacent to Fire Station # 3.
June 15 – Oct 14, 2010 Tuesday & Thursday 2 pm – 7 pm
Rockford MI Farmers’ Market – South Squires St Parking Lot off Main St
June 5 – Oct 30, 2010 Saturday 8 am – 1 pm
Walker Farmers’ Market – 4300 Remembrance Rd at Rylee’s Ace Hardware
Saturday June – Sept 8am – 2 pm
Link to Michigan Farmer’s Markets
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The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate, the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in West Michigan. Grand Rapids Michigan is a vibrant, growing metropolitan area with a diverse business community, great medical research & services, numerous universities, plus lively arts and entertainment of all kinds.
We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live!
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate
Contact Terry 616-292-7263
Lots of controversy on a proposed wind farm in Lake Michigan about
1-2 miles off the West Michigan shore. Wind Farms are up and
contributing to the grid in Texas, Iowa, California, Washington, and
Minnesota, which are the top 5 wind power states. Wind power
grew by 39% in capacity over 2008, for a total of 35 gigawatts,
according to the American Wind Energy Association.
A proposed offshore Wind Farm that would cost $3 Billion dollars is
trying to get public support for its plan. The Scandia Wind Energy
LLC say it would create thousands of jobs, primarily constructing the
massive wind turbines in the waters of Lake Michigan just south of
Ludington. The company says that location is positioned to transmit
electricity to Chicago or Detroit areas perfectly.
A new jet engine wind turbine with 4 times the efficiency has interested
the DOE enough to give $ 8 Million in grants for further testing. The theory
is that it would take less electricity to power the turbines, so output would
be doubled. This could be the look of the future, with massive wind
turbines scattered over the countryside and in our lakes.
Grand Rapids is proposing putting two 300 foot wind turbines on land they
own in Grand Haven, on Lake Michigan to power their water plant. If this
project goes forward it would be the first of its type in Michigan.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The authors of the this blog write about Grand Rapids Real Estate, the Greater Grand Rapids MI area, and what it is like to live in West Michigan. Grand Rapids Michigan is a vibrant, growing metropolitan area with a diverse business community, great medical research & services, numerous universities, plus lively arts and entertainment of all kinds. We believe: Grand Rapids is a Great Place to Live! Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate Contact Terry 616-292-7263
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Holiday traditions to celebrate the winter solstice are common
to every culture around the world. The transition from the shortest,
darkest day in mid-winter to the longest day of light at the beginning
of summer are a common theme to our world.
Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids
celebrates the light by showing the traditions of many countries
and cultures around the world. Besides the forty one gorgeous
Christmas Trees that are decorated as they would be in their native
regions, they also display Kwanza, Jewish, and Buddhist traditional
decorations. New this year is Tet Nguyen Dan, the Vietnamese
celebration of the lunar New Year; pronounced day wen don,
it literally means, “the first morning of the first day.”
Meijer Gardens is celebrating the completion of a $7.6 million
renovation and expansion that was awarded a silver level LEED
certificate in energy and environmental design. The renovation
and expansion was centered around the cafe, visitor areas, office
and storage spaces. The new cafe has a stunning Dale Chihuly
blown glass sculpture of colored glass flowers hanging from
the ceiling.
We have put together a few photos we took at the gardens
recently, so you can see some of the holiday decorations from
near and far. The gorgeous Christmas trees are all 12-15 feet tall
and loaded with beautiful ornaments. This is just a sampling of the
Christmas Traditions displayed here:
Our Holiday Wishes for Peace & Goodwill to all of you!
Six different schools in the Forest Hills Public School District are under
some kind of construction this summer.
- Central High School
- Ada Elementary School
- Central Middle School
- Ada Vista School
- Collins Elementary School
- Community & Aquatic Center
- Central Woodlands 5/6
- Northern Trails 5/6
Every school site will receive different combinations of security cameras,
roof repair/ replacement, parking lot resurfacing, and energy
conservation/sustainability improvements (window replacement,
lighting and mechanical system upgrades).
See details at Forest Hills District News Site
Some photos of the Construction Sites:
Warning - if you like hard hats, you will be in 7th heaven!
Ada Elementary School
Ada Elementary School
Central Middle School
Central Middle School
Forest Hills Central High School
Forest Hills Central High School
School districts reflect the interest people have in their
community public education systems. Forest Hills Schools are
one of the best in our state in almost every category. New
school updates are one of the ways we try to keep you informed
on what is happening in the Forest Hills District.
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids Real Estate
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Photos by Bonnie Westbrook
There are so many golf courses in Michigan, over 900 public courses,
ranking third in the nation in public golf courses and over 400 member
clubs to play. We are crazy about golf in Michigan.
With courses like Spring Lake Country Club, it is easy to see why.
Spring Lake Country Club is an old course, founded in 1911, and it is a
private, member owned facility. From the longest tees, it is 6525 yards.
“Going green” is taken seriously at Spring Lake CC. In May of 2005,
they received the honor of being named a Certified Audubon Cooperative
Sanctuary, only the 14th course in Michigan to be recognized. In 2007,
SLCC was named #1 for total number of bird species counted on the course
in the Great Lakes region and 3rd in the entire country for the Audubon
International North American Bird Watch Open, held in May each year.
Spring Lake CC is seriously into Junior Golf. Don’t be surprised to
see a few future PGA professionals hail from this course. Last year
they had 180 Junior PGA Golfers (aged 7-17) in their Annual Junior
Golf Tournament held in August.
We were invited to play this fabulous course last week by our friends,
Charles and Joann. We had a beautiful day to play golf and enjoy the
aesthetics of this picturesque golf course. Spring Lake CC is heavily
wooded, and indeed, we saw several oak trees with trunk girths of
15-20 feet or more.
75-80 degrees, sunny and a slight breeze off the Lake (Spring Lake is
open to Lake Michigan) is a perfect Michigan summer day. And we
couldn’t think of a better way to spend it. Because Spring Lake is
connected to Lake Michigan, it is a prime resort area and has many
elite homes on the lake.
We are sharing our photo montage of Spring Lake Country Club.
Grab a cart and ride along!
Spring Lake Country Club
18496 Fruitport Rd
Spring Lake Michigan 49456
616-842-4200
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids Real Estate
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Photos by Bonnie Westbrook
Tuesday was the first day of the Ada Farm Market at a new place,
Thornapple Community Church on Thornapple River Drive in downtown Ada.
The Farm Market will run Tuesdays, 2-7 pm from now until the end of
September. We took a video so you could see the market for yourself.
We found all kinds of goodies, freshly roasted coffee, chickens and other
meat available from local farmers. Fresh strawberries, sweet cherries,
lettuce, Walla-Walla onions, radishes, and other great looking items.
Some of the farmers will sell you a share in their crops. You contribute
a set amount and they will deliver fresh produce to you every week all
summer!! We might look into that if our gardening days are getting too
difficult.
We came home with some freshly picked black raspberries and a
King Kong Coleus.
I will definitely be back next week for some of those Walla-Walla
onions and fresh eggs from free range chickens.
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids Real Estate
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Okay, so it is a small thing. The average six pack is rumored to put
7 pounds of carbon in the atmosphere in production & shipping. An
excellent reason to drink your local brew. Grand Rapidians are
especially fortunate because we are home to Founders Brewing,
located at 235 Grandville Avenue.
On June 20th , the 2nd Annual Founders Fest will take place there.
The street will be cordoned off (between Williams and Bartlett)and
all the happy beer drinkers can help save the planet by drinking
Founders locally craft brewed beer and enjoying the outdoor beer &
music festival.
The Big Event will be from 3-11pm and cost is $15 for a ticket.
Regional entertainment will be provided by Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe,
Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, Four Finger Five, Chance Jones,
Total Blam Blams, Oracle, Back Forty, Red Frog and Mucca Pazza.
In case you have been hiding under a beer keg for the past 12 years,
Founders Brewing is rated the 7th Best Brewery IN THE WORLD.
Yeah, pretty great, huh? Serious beer aficionados from around the
world would love to be here for this festival.
Some of them will come. Will you ?
Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Forest Hills Michigan – Home to a Growing Public School District
We just received the Superintendant’s News Letter with all the Forest
Hills Public School news. Of course, there was talk of budget challenges
and difficult times. Even school districts that are well-funded, like Forest
Hills Public, are having budget issues because of state funding reductions.
Forest Hills is focused on student education, and is still reducing
administrative overhead. 76.7% of the school budget is spent on
classroom and instructional support.
2009 Forest Hills School News:
- 3 Teachers recognized on state & national levels for excellence
- Conserved 1.9 million in reduced energy costs
- ALL Forest Hills Schools receive Green Certificates
- Received David D Smith Award for Environmental Stewardship
- Growing enrollment while 80% of Michigan districts are declining
- 2007 Bond Issue allows investment in infrastructure
- 10,100+ students, 2nd in size in Kent County, 23rd largest in
Michigan, out of 552
- 2009 Student MEAP Scores Highest in Michigan
Grand Rapids Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
What’s the Impact of Paying Bills Online? : TreeHugger has a great article
that shows exactly how much energy you can save and how it will affect
your local environment. Gone are the days when we can say, “ Oh,
my little contribution doesn’t matter in the overview of environmental
change. Each of us has an impact and we can each change our world
one bill-day at a time.
I went to the Payitgreen.org site and used their green calculator to
see how much I am saving by going online to pay my bills.
In one year, I will save 7# of paper, 65 gallons of water, 3.3 gallons
of gasoline, and 146# of greenhouse gases. WOW!! This amount of
greenhouse gases is equivalent to 144 miles not driven in my car, 2 trees
planted( and grown for 10 years), & 20 square feet of forest preserved
from deforestation.
I had no idea my little effort would make such a dent in our environment.
I’ve paid most of my bills online for quite a while. Won’t you join the
online gang and make your effort at greening our environment a little
bit better?
Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
