September 20, 2022 Going Dutch

The Liberty Gazette

September 20, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: So there was one more thing about our short trip to Holland, Michigan. The quaint little downtown. Typically when traveling, besides airports, we look for good restaurants and coffee shops, art galleries, bookstores, and anything unique to the area. If we’re in town long enough, we’ll look for theater (stage) or musical performances to our taste. This was a quicker trip though, so there was only time to spend a day browsing the historic downtown streets and visit some of the shops. Despite the fact that we did not come during tulip blooming season, Holland did not disappoint.

All along 8th and 9th streets are over a hundred clean and neatly-kept businesses. At Readers’ World bookstore, the multi-tiered shelves were packed with fiction and nonfiction and children’s books. We could spend hours there. 

Lovely oil paintings by local artists hung at Lake Effect art gallery. I saw one that would be perfect on one of our living room walls. 

At Fustini’s Oils & Vinegars we cruised around the store and sampled from the plethora of flavored products. They have so many different choices, you could make 800 different pairings of oil and vinegar. We took home bottles of Michigan Apple, Blueberry, Fig, and Maple balsamic vinegars and olive oils infused with walnut and basil (not together, that’s two separate bottles). We packed up extras for our family visits the following week. By the way, “fustino” is Italian for “drums,” and refers to the steel containers used to store olive oils and balsamic vinegars. After traveling through Europe, the founder, Jim Milligan, decided that would be the perfect name for the shop he envisioned, just like the ones he visited across the pond. Fustini’s offers pairing suggestions and even has four cookbooks and all manner of fantastic, must-have accessories, such as tapas plates, grater dipping plates, and charcuterie boards. And yes, you can even buy fustini from them for your own stash.

And then there was the Holland Clock Company. They sell Black Forest cuckoo clocks imported from Germany. They also sell beer steins and nutcrackers, but the cuckoo clocks got all my attention. They looked just like the ones we saw in Austria and Germany–beautiful, intricately carved works of art and storytelling. 

And what would Holland be without a windmill? Back in 1964, the city acquired De Zwaan, the only authentic Dutch windmill operating in the U.S. It’s 251 years old and still turns and grinds wheat. You can see it at the municipal park, Windmill Island Gardens. Here’s a little trivia for you: before opening De Zwaan to the public, they sent for an expert from the Netherlands to refurbish it, and that fellow made a quick trip to New York City to be a guest on “What’s My Line,” the game show where a celebrity panel had to guess the unusual jobs that guests performed.

If you’ve never been to Holland, Michigan, put it on your list. It’s well worth the trip.

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