Green Options

If life’s a journey, Journey Inn — an eco-inn and retreat that’s designed with nature completely in mind, spirit and body – serves as a guide.

Located in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, about an hour from St. Paul-Minneapolis, this Travel Green Wisconsin and Green Routes certified enterprise launched by John Huffaker and Charlene Torchia in 2006 artistically crafts a peaceful refuge to enhance our experiences with nature and allow our inner beings to breathe. Journey Inn is part restoration enterprise and part center for recreating our human soul in more meaningful ways.

I had the opportunity to stay at Journey Inn for a couple days this past September with my family, since we prefer ecotravel-oriented accommodation options. We hiked some of the abundant hiking trails on their sixty-six acre property that includes a spectacularly restored prairie and garden labyrinth. We sipped tea while relaxing in their gardens. We even shared a few of our cucumbers and tomatoes from Inn Serendipity with a couple celebrating their honeymoon there.

I’m feeling a little guilty about my posting last week, When Life Gives You Raspberries, Add Vodka. No guilt on the idea of blending raspberries and vodka, it’s just I recommended “cheap vodka” as an ingredient for the Raspberry Cordial recipe. Shame on me. There’s no point in praising the glories of local, organic raspberries and then regress to mixing them with no name, no good sustainable karma vodka just to save a buck.

Turns out I have better options, thanks to the burgeoning rise of “micro-distilleries.” Over 100 of these small, independent, locally owned distilleries can be found across the county and continue to pop up at the rate of ten to twenty a year. Turns out one of these sits just north of my farm in Madison, Wisconsin: Yahara Bay Distillers, making small batches of vodka, white rum and other spirits using local ingredients from family-run farms ideally within 100 miles.

“A year ago I couldn’t spell distillery, now I’m making the stuff,” confesses owner Nick Quint with a smile. Unlike wineries and breweries, small micro-distilleries can get up and running with a much lower investment and learning curve. “Folks are drinking less but drinking better and they want to be aware of what they’re drinking, and that’s where local spirits fit in. People want to slow down and consciously enjoy a quality cocktail.”

I’m convinced. But just to set me permanently straight on why I shouldn’t fall for cheap vodka again, Quint offers these three reasons to seek out micro-distilleries:

For Westerners, sake has always held a bit of a mystery. What exactly is it? How is it made? What are the different styles? And how do you drink it?

I have to admit that I am a relative newcomer to the world of sake. I’ve found that it isn’t the hot, overly alcoholic, biting beverage many people think it is. I’ve been fortunate enough to taste freshly filtered sake. If you think wine words like bouquet, fruity, body, luscious or elegant can not be used for a wine made from only rice, you would be wrong. Premium sake (and especially American made sake, as you will see) has easily proven itself to be worthy of appreciation on the same level as fine wine.