Treat your taste buds, your senses, and your curiosity….

Treat your taste buds, your senses, and your curiosity to the food, drink, and music at the Lake Pepin Food, Wine, and Cider Festival, September 21, at Maiden Rock Winery & Cidery, host of the event.  Randall Toenges, Chef Instructor C.E.C at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, is overseeing the pairings of extraordinary ciders and wines with mouth-watering dishes.  Look at this menu.

• Charcuterie Plate

           o    Faux Gras Mousse on Toast with Caramelized Apples
           o    5-Spice Cured Duck Breast with Cider-Soy Glaze and Chinese Mustard
           o    Beet Cure Salmon on Potato Pancake with Watercress and Horseradish-Apple Slaw

• Field Greens with Smoked Blue Cheese, Crispy Onions, and Spicy Hard Cider Vinaigrette
• Cider Braised Pork Brisket with Root Vegetable Puree and Baby Kale
• Apple Turnover with Ice Cream

While you sip the cider and wine and savor the foods, relax to the music of Xibaba, a Brazilian jazz group featuring Mira and Tom Kehoe and Hans Friese.  You may even want to dance to some of the selections.  From intimate clubs to concert stages, Xibaba has performed through out North and South America.  Their performances include music, original compositions, theatre, and movement.

Appease your curiosity and learn tips and techniques for making hard cider and considerations for cooking with cider directly from the experts.  Reservations are required; make yours immediately.  Before September 1, tickets for adults are $35 plus tax and children under 12 are $15 plus tax.  After September 1, adult tickets are $50 plus tax and children’s tickets are $25 plus tax.  Click here to register online or call (715) 448-3502.  Find more information on the event here.

We’d love to have you join us!
Herdie, Carol, and Staff
Maiden Rock Winery & Cidery  

See the timeless gift left to Stockholm….

The original builders in Stockholm made use of the readily available limestone in the area.  They tapped into what glaciers didn’t touch.  That’s right, didn’t touch.  The prominent hillsides and bluffs of the river valley exist because the glaciers were not here.  Consequently, our area is called driftless.  It is unique to Wisconsin.   The glaciers’ absence gave a timeless gift of limestone to the original settlers and today’s owners. 

Harley of Stockholm Gardens recently used area rock to rebuild a bridge on the upriver side of the Stockholm.  He explained that the limestone must be manipulated with a hammer, chisel, and diamond cutter.  Julius Hanson, a 6’3” Norwegian immigrant, constructed the original bridge in 1912 with rocks from the immediate area.  Harley, a skilled stone wall designer, updated Julius’s bridge and created a stunning piece of rock work.  Take a look at it here.

Often today limestone is placed in gardens as a retaining wall and a handsome backdrop for plants.  Many years ago limestone was used as a foundation in barns, buildings, and homes.  Since limestone absorbs and releases moisture through the exposed stone, farmers whitewashed the inside of their barns for sanitation.   A number of buildings in Stockholm use limestone.  Ingebretsen’s is an all limestone building while TansyHus is an excellent example of a limestone foundation. 

After selling real estate for sixteen years in Los Angeles and seldom seeing old homes with good foundations, I was amazed the first time I saw the limestone foundation at TansyHus.  At a prominent corner of Mill and Second Streets, the house sits up a steep hill from Highway 35.  Built in 1904, Tansyhus’s nearly two foot thick solid limestone foundation appeared solid and straight.  It provided a remarkable base for the proud and majestic century-old home.   

Stop by and see TansyHus’s foundation up close on your next visit to Stockholm.  Appreciate the timeless gift of limestone from millions of years ago that is still important in our foundations, bridges, and gardens. 

We’d love to see you again,

John and Sandra Myklebust

TansyHus

Bask in the colors of summer.

Our gardens are lush and colorful.  Beautiful butterflies are flitting up and down Spring Street.  Wonderfully, the giant swallowtails have returned.  Lake Pepin is a startling blue.  Stockholm is awash in the colors of summer. 

Take a ride on the prettiest drive in America, the Great River Road, soak in the scenery, and enjoy the variety in our shops and eateries.  Guests from Madison and Milwaukee have been discovering all of this the past weeks.  They love the relaxing atmosphere!

Sunday, August 18, at 7:00 p.m. Widespot is presenting Goin’ Coastal:  A Radio Variety Show from the Shores of Lake Pepin.  This one hour show featuring local talent will have a special interview with Mother Banjo and a performance by her trio.  Tickets for adults are $10, and kids 12 and under are $5.  Find out more at widespotperformingarts.org.

Soak in the colors of summer in Stockholm during perfect weather this weekend.

We’d love to see you again,
Stockholm Merchants

Come for the free concert this Saturday

This Saturday, August 10, from 5 - 7 p.m. join us in celebrating our grand opening at Running Dog Ranch with a potluck and a free Norsk Relief Carving Demonstration.  From 7 - 9 p.m. enjoy a free concert of Eclectric Irish Guitar Music by Keith Reins, one of the Beggarmen Musicians.  Bring your lawn chair and a dish to pass.  We will provide beverages.  We’ll give you the grand tour of the ranch, too.  You can meet all our ranch critters and see where we conduct our workshops.

All of the upcoming workshops below have openings.  Click here to contact me and sign up.  For more information on each workshop, click on runningdogranch.org.

Beyond Strumming Guitar Workshop (Age 12+)  Aug. 10, Sat 2 - 4 p.m.
Build and Bake in a PORTABLE Brick Oven  Aug. 17, Sat 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Beginning Fruit Wine Making and Tasting (Adults only) Aug. 21, Wed 6 - 8:30 p.m.
One-Hour Portrait Technique with NanC Method   Aug. 27, Tues 10-11:30 a.m. or Aug. 28, Wed 6:30-8 p.m.
Japanese Ink Painting  Aug.27, Tues 1-3 p.m. or Aug.28, Wed 10 a.m. - Noon
Watercolor Painting the Great Outdoors  Aug. 27, Tues 5-7 p. m. or Aug. 28, Wed 1-3 p.m.
Oil Painting Your Favorite Image Aug. 29, Thurs 9 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Make Your Own Drum Workshop Aug. 31, Sat 1-6 p.m.

Check for September and October workshops at runningdogranch.org or go to our Facebook page, Facebook.com/runningdogranch.

I hope that you can join us in our grand opening celebration Saturday.

We’d love to see you,
Corrine Young
Running Dog Ranch Folk Craft and Learning Center