Skip to main content

Martha's Story


Northern Harvest: Twenty Michigan Women in Food and Farming
https://www.waynesupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/northern-harvest

MARTHA RYAN

Martha has done so many things in the food business that I found it almost impossible to decide into which of the different rubrics in my book to place her story.  Her biggest venture was to open her own restaurant in Suttons Bay, Martha’s Leelanau Table, which celebrated its tenth year in 2018.
About her experience serving as the food service director of Leland Public Schools where she had to be creative on a very small food budget and at the same time to push back against pre-prepared foods and/or government surplus, she gave this example:

“I had a sense that I should not be buying apples shipped in from Washington, when there were apples sitting in Leelanau County that were fresh and grown in Leelanau County.”

With respect to her own childhood experience with the kitchen, she said of her mother:

“She took a lot of pride in feeding us really good food.  My job was never to assist her with cooking.”

In spite of this—or maybe on account of this?—Martha’s career in each of its stages has been to prepare and to serve others with “really good food.” 

 To read more of Martha’s story and the stories of 19 other amazing women in the food business you can order the book directly from Wayne State University Press or online from your favorite bookstore. And think of it as a great Mother’s Day gift! Publication is May 5.

In this stressful and dangerous time of the pandemic Martha’s Leelanau Table is doing take out and delivery 7 nights/week from 4-8 p.m. To order call 231-271-2344 starting at 3 p.m. Look for the menu at

marthasleelanautable.com



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dos manos in Matamoros

Dos manos      Before the trip to Brownsville, Texas, to help prepare and serve food to asylum seekers held in the tent city across the river in Matamoros, Mexico, Marti told us to bring fanny packs or other bags that would leave our hands free. Whether chopping vegetables or serving from the trays of hot food to the 1,000+ men, women, and children of every age, we would need both our hands , dos manos , at all times. How did we come to be there and why were we doing this? Hunger and homelessness exist inside our nation’s borders, both in cities and rural areas. Tightrope, the new book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, describes families shattered by what the authors call “death by despair.” Donating to good causes and volunteering at soup kitchens are not uncommon, and churches and other organizations strive to meet the need on a daily basis. Still, the need that drew a dozen women in their 60s, 70s and 80s to this community just across the Texas...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sailing and Bailing

  Messing around in boats Seems like this summer that means bailing rather than sailing, three little boats awash with rain water needing emptying over and over, a repetitive domestic chore like folding laundry or emptying the dishwasher.   Decades ago I delegated bailing boats to my three kids; decades later to my two resident grandsons.   Bribes in those days were easy, homemade cookies warm from the oven or maybe a trip to Moomers for the ice cream President Biden enjoyed on his visit last week. I used to dislike bailing.   I also disliked emptying dishwashers.   I was happy to fill the dishwasher as a way of cleaning up the kitchen surfaces, but I always got the children or someone else to do the emptying, just as I got children to bail the boats. Oddly, now, I enjoy sitting in the dinghy or in one or the other of the two sunfish and dipping the bucket over and over into the accumulated rain and emptying it into the lake.   Much of my life in reti...
4 comments
Read more
 Love and Loss on four wheels Falling in love at first sight is risky.   You know nothing of the past history, of what underlies that enchanting façade.   But the emotion and the magnetism are irresistible.   Falling in love with a car at first sight—not looking under the hood, not kicking the tires—is not just risky but crazy. For many years I had a red stick shift Corolla that I loved dearly and kept way past its prime until the inevitable repairs accumulated beyond sustainability.   I went to a local Toyota dealer where many of the repairs had been done and spotted the car of my dreams, except that I had never dreamed of any car or fixed on a model or color or anything else.   But there in front of my eyes was a splendid turquoise car, and the letters on it identified it as a Prius, a hybrid, and if I had given any thought at all to my next car it was to select a hybrid. Someone else might say my new love was green.   I believe the Toyota promot...
4 comments
Read more