Ada Chili & Beer Festival ~ December 4, 2021

Since 2014, this Ada festival in the church parking lot has gathered hundreds and thousands of people to taste a little chili and drink a little beer. Last year was cancelled due to Covid so everyone was fired up for this year's event. On Thursday the tents were set up.

After the walls were up, it was time to install the fence.

Lights and tables made an appearance on Friday.

Saturday morning at 5:30 am, cooks and volunteers arrived to get things started.

(Above Photo by Martin Waalkes)

One doesn't often see chili being cooked in a beer keg but it seemed pretty perfect for this day.

Chili aromas were floating on the breeze, or maybe on the brisk wind 😊

A returning contestant brought its previous years' trophies, one of them repaired with duct tape 😊

When the Santa Parade was over and the Health Inspector approved the chilis, the festival officially opened. And people showed up, over 3,000 of them.

If you were lucky enough to volunteer for beer pulling or pouring for one of the breweries, you either got to hang out with old friends or make new best friends.

Other volunteers checked ID's, sold tickets for the tastings of beer and chili, kept the peace and/or made sure things stayed organized.

(Above photo courtesy of Waalkes)

The band, Highway 22, played on through the festival and was fantastic.

Finally the votes were tallied and the trophies arrived.

But first, we had a few comments from Andrew Grashuis (Festival Chairman) and Billy Norden (The Community Church pastor).

Then Edward Kuo, the Event Director, announced the winners of each category.

Judges Vote, Open Division

1st place - Coconut Curry Chili (New Union Brewery) - #401

2nd place - Chili'n Like a Vili'n - #202

Judges Vote, Professional Division

1st- Good Mooed Chili (Railtown) - #307

2nd - Pork Green Chili (Broad Leaf Brewery) - #302

Popular Open Division

1st place - 52nd Street Smokers - #102

2nd place - Team Cropduster's Hot Chicken Chili - #104

Popular Vote, Professional Division

1st- Green With Vandy (Vander Mill) - #103

2nd - Texas Style Cowboy Chili (Cork) - #105

These are the sponsors, chili contestants, and breweries that participated:

And then it was all over, except for the clean-up.

Big thanks to the chili makers, the breweries, the sponsors, the 23 judges, and the 100+ volunteers for making this happen!

(Photo below by Andrew Grashuis)

(Next seven photos by Sheila Kyllonen)

Short Video from the Festival

2014 Chili Beer Write-Up

Hope to see you all next year!

Ed Dunneback and Girls Farm Market, 3025 6 Mile Road NW, Grand Rapids MI 49544 ~ August 27, 2021

The farm is much more than a sunflower field but the field is magical. We visited initially on August 13 when things were just starting to bloom.

The goats are always ready for you, however.

Edwin Dunneback bought these 170 acres back in 1922 and it has continued to be family-run. His son, Edward, met his wife Helen here at a dance in the barn. Together they had three children. When their only son Michael was killed in Vietnam, the "and son" sign on the barn was changed to "and girls" and it's been that way ever since.

The farm is a wonderful place to visit, and when the sunflowers are in full bloom, areas are mowed, staged, and carved out for all of your photo opportunities. Here are a few of them, some stranger than others 😊

Someone swung a little too hard.

The flowers themselves are the stars of the show.

The temperature was 85 degrees and there was no one else in the field until we bumped into John Gonzelaz shooting a video of the farm. I asked him if he was doing a news story and he answered "yup." That's him in the red shirt in the distance.

(We ended up being in his video for a few seconds and here's a screen shot from that.)

We have it on good authority that he did not pay the required $5 fee to walk the field but he will be providing free advertising for the farm so we won't quibble 😊

We paid our fee afterward because we were already at the field when we saw the sign requiring payment at the market. As we paid a very kind woman asked if we had cut our two sunflowers, and we had not because we didn't know we could. She loaned me clippers and back I went.

Keeping with the girls theme, there's a lot of pink around here. Pink Barrel Cellars is also part of the farm, producing beer, wine, cider and seltzers.

Food, ice cream, produce, live music, and so much more is available at this Farm Market so stop in if you have a chance and experience this historic family farm.

The Farm Website

Meijer Gardens ~ 4/22/21

It's cherry blossom time at Meijer Gardens and its time is brief. Already today the path and the ground under some of the trees were littered with spent blooms, displaying a beauty of their own.

Redbuds, Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Magnolias were in various stages of flowering.

But overall, the cherry blossoms held sway over the day.

Take a look while you can.