Debbie and I vacationed along the Lake Michigan shore west of Traverse City last week. In the third week of September we were between the summer people and the fall foliage people. It was almost totally deserted, which suited us just fine. We could stroll along Good Harbor Bay for hours and not see another person.
The owner of the cottage we rented suggested we go to Bunting’s Cedar Market because they made their own sausage every week and if you went early in the week they’d have lots of good stuff. Well… I’m all about sausage, so that was one of our first stops.
We rolled into Cedar, Michigan and drove up to Bunting’s and… “is this it?” “No, this can’t be it. It’s a gas station. Let’s fill up and see what we can find out.” Bunting’s looked like your backwoods version of a Kwik-E-Mart. Gas pumps, ice machine, and almost certainly filled inside with processed industrial delights such as Slim Jims. Were we ever wrong!
The first thing you see upon stepping inside is the meat counter, filled with all the amazing smoked meats they’ve made. Around the corner is the cooler with their bratwurst and kielbasa and hot dogs and ring bologna. Turn just a bit and there’s the rack of wines filled with the local Michigan wines.
We bought a pack of Italian sausages to cook on the grill at our cottage, and on the last day of our vacation we went back and bought a cooler full of bratwurst and kielbasa and hot dogs to bring home.
Buntings is a vision of what might have been, if we hadn’t paved paradise and put up a Wal*Mart.
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