• Wednesday-What'sUP December 5 - 10:53 pm

Miners Castle, part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a scenic spot that many a U.P. visitor has ventured out to see. You can get there by vehicle and a short hike, but not too many folks make the trek there in the winter months. Thanks to Scott Mitchell, today we can all sit back at our desks (or wherever you do your Pasty Camming) and enjoy the snowy scape with the lone castle and surroundings all covered in white. It looks the same, yet different too and the color of the water - that vivid green - is beautiful against the snowy shoreline.

Thanks for the great picture!

Mary, I think I will take your advice and enjoy the scenic beauty from my warm computer room! Great picture Scott.

I think that's a snowman with a black top hat. over looking Gitcheegoomie. And at his side, is an arm or a chimney sweeps brush. I like this 'before the morning coffee look at pictures'. lol

What a gorgeous picture, Scott! That is pretty enough to be on a Christmas card! I've never seen a snow-covered Miner's Castle. It should be considered for next year's calendar. Thank you, Scott and Mary, for this morning's picture, to enjoy. (If you are going to talk about what it might look like, I think it looks like a polar bear, laying down, with his nose just nosing into Mother Superior, and covered in a winter coat, over his own. :-)

Oh my! That is an absolutely splendid picture of the Miner's Castle. Thank you!

A Superior Picture!!

Wow! I have never seen a view of Miner's Castle like this. That is spectacular. I can definitely see the snowman, too. In fact, now whenever I look at it, that's what I see first. Great job, Scott!

Hello folks, I posted some information over in the What'sUP section about our ongoing project looking at potato farming in Houghton County.

Thought I'd repeat the two upcoming events. The first will be Saturday, December 8, from 12-4 p. m. They are calling it the "Potato Festival" and will include a variety of potato dishes to sample, games for children, and a tour of the exhibits. Participants will get to try potato dishes from various cultures; make a potato print; and vote for your favorite way to eat potatoes!

The second event will be Friday, December 14, 6-8 p.m. I'll give a heavily illustrated presentation on the development of potato farming in Houghton County (probably start around 6:30). There will be light refreshments and this event is designed to key into the Friday night downtown shopping activities Houghton is doing leading up to the holidays.

Both are at the Carnegie Museum in Houghton, where they have an exhibit called "one potato, two potato" which includes the MTU Archives exhibit on the Great Depresssion and the development of potato farming in the region.

The exhibits will continue at the Carnegie through the end of January, and the museum's winter hours are:

Tuesdays 12-7 pm
Thursdays 12-5 pm
Saturdays 12-4 pm

I can just hear the quiet and peace.

The lonely turret.

Re Erik's comments, does anyone in the U.P. call potatoes "spuds"? This is a word not often heard in the tri-state area of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.

What's Finn for potato?

Where do the no-see-ums go in the winter? Very nice picture...Did somebody say potato sausage? Don't know if that's a Finn thing or a Swedish dish, but it's the best thing that ever happened to a potato!

Just a note to all those locals that have asked where they can get the 2008 calender. You CAN NOT get them at Walmart. There was a miscommunication somewhere and some people were told that they were at Walmart. They ARE NOT. So please don't go into Walmart in Houghton looking for them because you won't find them. Thanks!

Would love to try a potato sausage.

Mary says: If you're looking for Potato Sausage locally here in the Keweenaw, Vollwerth's (one of our Pasty Central sponsors) in Hancock makes a delicious ring of it year round and is available in the local grocery stores.

Gee Erick, wish we could be there.

I thought part of that rock formation fell into the lake a couple years back.....?????

Have never seen the snow man before.....cool

I think the potato sausage is Swedish ..... my grandma always had it. We called it patatascorb ......my own spelling %^)

God Bless you all..........

My local meat market sells potato sausages (unfortunately only around Christmas) They are excellent. They're called "Swedish potato sausages"

My grandpa, in addition to running a 'corner store' and being a miner, was a potato farmer. My brother still owns the farm in Traprock.

Oh daaaaaaaa I get it....the lone castle....
better get some coffee in me so I can read...lol

Rowdy...Finnish for potato is peruna or pottu

Looks beautiful, wish I was there......

The water at the pictured rocks could be the carribean its so blue. That with the views make it beautiful.

Put 3-4 golf ball size spuds in a paper bag. Microwave for 2-3 minutes. After they are cool, press them flat, skins and all with your palm. Fry in butter til golden brown.

Ahhhhhhhh the new Miners Castle.
Remember the days of the "two top" castle?
Everyone stay warm..

In Idaho, Spud is the term. Spud Farmer. Grow Spuds. Spud Harvest. And, so on. Chippers, Reds, Yukons, and Bakers to name a few are lumped into the term Spuds. You know what is being dug by the time of the season.

My new computer background! I'm going to try the potato idea, Tom!

Its a little cool to be out on a kayak today but the water sure looks inviting.

Happy Wednesday to all and Tinksno!

Anyone else ever heard it pronounced
Pah-day-ders or maybe even bah-day-ders?
I'm trying to print what my ears hear.

My grandmother said "bah day dos"

One of the 2 turrets did fall in I believe Spring of 2006, a victim of erosion. Someday, the other turret will fall in as well.....

I remember Vollwerth Potato Sausage; mmmmmmmm!!!
Shhesh, you people sure know how to make a fellow Yooper feel homesick!!! :P

Rowdy (Roudymi):
"What's Finn for potato?"

Judy Kinnunen (Finngal):
"Finnish for potato is peruna or pottu"

Judy's got it, although peruna is more technically correct true "Finnish", while pottu is more accurately "Finglish", as often spoken in da Yoop.

Kinda demonstrates the idea of false cognates. From your knowledge of English, you might have guessed that peruna might perhaps mean "prune", but no, it's potato.

There are really very few real Finnish/English cognates, other than perhaps recent adoptions from English, and even those are usually seriously modified to fit Finnish pronunciation.

Similarly, who would ever guess that English: telephone (the device) is puhelin in Finnish!

The photo looks like BOTH turrets are there. What a beautiful shot!

I just called Vollwerth's and they still make a potato sausage. In fact, they make it all year round and it's for sale in Econo and Pat's locally. She said it's fully cooked and although some people have been known to eat it cold, most people do heat it up (boil or baked seems to be the popular options).

Will have to try it.

Beautiful view ! Also a first, have never seen Miners Castle in the snow, wish we were there, thx !

Made some good venison sausage on Saturday

As part of the "One potato, Two potato" exhibit, the Carnegie Museum is soliciting potato recipes.

You should e-mail your recipe to history@cityofhoughton.com and they'll post it as part of the exhibit.

A small correction, where above I said:

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Quote:

"Kinda demonstrates the idea of false cognates."

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It's really interesting, how people see the same picture differently. When Theresa posted this morning about the snow man, and I did not see that then. I had been concentrating on the bigger part of the picture, which does look like a polar bear to me, with his white nose sticking out of his covering/coat of trees, into Mother Superior. I did not realize that the snow man was just the tip, that is actually Miner's Castle, or the polar bear's nose, if you will. That is really cool, how different parts of a picture can look so different, to different people. :-)

I really do love this picture! Great work, Scott Mitchell. Again, thank you, Scott and Mary for sharing this gorgeous picture with us! :-)

Potato sausage year round?! What a concept. It's Easter or Christmas in Muskegon. That's the only time the guy with the best recipe has time to cook it. There's only one cure...

My English GrandFather used to call them Pah-day-does'. Like the female deer.

My Polish grandma called them spudskis.