October 2026 – Birch Lake Yacht Club

Crockpot Challenge Roundup

We had an excellent crockpot challenge at the BLYC on Saturday, September 26. Ronni Eshleman won first place in the savory category with her Creamy Hungarian Mushroom Soup, and Dan Waxman won 2nd place in the savory category with his Meaty Queso Dip. In the sweet category, Donna Hogoboom’s apple crips, and Karen Curtis Miller’s Chocalate Lava Cake took home the top awards.

Upon request, Ronni and Dan have shared their prize-winning recipes.

Thank you to everyone who turned out for the final event of the 2026 BLYC season!

Creamy Hungarian Mushroom Soup – Ronni Eshleman

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion finely chopped
1.5 pounds cremini mushrooms sliced (or bella mushrooms, or portobello)
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika or regular sweet paprika
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon Tamari sauce
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
2 tablespoons fresh dillchopped
1 tablespoon fresh thymechopped
Salt, pepper, and ground chili pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 3-4 minutes.
Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for 7-8 minutes until they release their moisture and become golden brown, stirring occasionally.
Sprinkle the flour and Hungarian paprika over the mushrooms, stirring well to coat everything evenly. Cook for another 1-2 minutes to remove the raw flour taste.
Gradually add the chicken broth while stirring to prevent lumps. Pour in the milk and Tamari sauce, then mix everything together. Bring to a gentle simmer and let cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After the soup has simmered for 10 minutes, remove it from heat. Stir in the sour cream, lemon juice, fresh parsley, dill, thyme, salt, black pepper, and ground chili pepper. Mix well until smooth and combined.
Let the soup rest for a couple of minutes before serving. Garnish with extra fresh herbs if desired and enjoy with crusty bread or a light salad.

Meaty Queso Dip – Dan Waxman

Ingredients

1 pound breakfast sausage, browned, and drained
2 pounds block cream cheese cubed
Two cans Ro*Tel

Instructions

Add all ingredients into the crockpot turn on high until cream cheese has melted(about one hour), stir ingredients so that it is all mixed and then switch to low or warm before you serve as a hot dip.

Commodore’s Comments

As the leaves start to change and Summer comes to an end, we reflect on what has happened this past year and what we are looking forward to for next year. At the last board meeting, we voted to have Water Quality apply for a 501c3 status to try to build a fund to help cover our fight with milfoil and the next invasive that comes into our lake. This is a great first step with high hopes to be able to stay ahead of whatever comes next and keep Birch Lake as one of Michigan’s best clear and clean lakes.

The Bad Patty Crock Pot challenge was held last Saturday night with some great food and desserts put on display by some of our own chefs. On the savory side, Ronnie Eshleman took first place with her mushroom soup, and Dan Waxman took second with his queso dip. On the sweet side, Donna Hogoboom’s apple crisp took first, and Karen Curtis Miller’s Chocolate Lava Cake took second. A big thank you goes to Bill Luecht for chairing this event; a great time was had by all. A special thanks to Lori Snider for running the 50/50 going to the benefit of the building fund. The winner was Jon Rondot (Lind Harman’s son-in-law), who promptly donated his share back, for a total of a $305 windfall for the club’s building fund.

On a matter for next year, we are looking for a delivery person to take over Sue Williams’ route on the south shore. If anyone could help with this, please call me. Also, keep the date of May 15^th, 2027 open for the Spring Dinner; location to be determined. Finally, one more thanks to Patti Russwurm, Sue Davis, and Sandy Vitale for doing the final cleanup at the club before we winterize the building for the winter.

~Commodore Ron Niezgodski

Fleet Captain’s Corner

We finished the sailing season off strong by racing all five races for the Labor Day Regatta. It was a great weekend with great wind for sailing. For the Labor Day Regatta in the MC Class, Scott Troeger got 1^st, Pat Welch 2^nd, and Bill Luecht 3^rd. In the Sunfish Class, we had a tie for 1^st between Stewart Spratt and me, Bob Niezgodski, with Herb Cleveland finishing 3^rd. All-in-all, the regular season didn’t turn out all that bad. We ended up sailing 24 Sunfish and 19 MC Races. Not too bad considering how awful the wind was in July. Now, drumroll please. For the season in the MC class, the final standings were 1^st Scott Troeger, 2^nd Barb Cassady, 3^rd Bill Luecht. In the Sunfish class, the final standings were 1^st Rick Russwurm, 2^nd Stewart Spratt, 3^rd Herb Cleveland. Of note, Bill Luecht and Bob Niezgodski had 100% attendance.

Also, I wanted to take the time to thank several people for helping with sailing this year. First, a thank you to Tom and Megan Caplis for hosting the Kidz Regatta. Second, thanks to Ron Niezgodski, Bill Butler, Stacia Andriano, and Steve Plaia for serving on the Committee boat. Also, thank you to Bill Butler, Steve Plaia, Tom Eslinger, Rick Doolittle, Bob King, Phil and Sandy Vitale, and Buzz and Phylis Rasmussen for coming out and serving as safety boats during the year. A big thanks to John Ball, Vic Jones, and Tom Lacy for setting the course up every weekend. Finally, thank you to Buzz and Phyllis Rasmussen, and Bob King for taking great photos this year. Everyone’s help is greatly appreciated. If I missed anyone, I apologize. Also, if anyone is interested in helping out, particularly on the committee boat or safety boats, please let me know.

As always, if you are interested in learning to sail or know someone who might be, please reach out. The sailors can help, whether it is finding a boat to sail next summer or giving lessons; we are always happy to help.

~FC Bob Niezgodski

Events

More Free Trees

Hello, and happy September!

Many of you have had trees planted on your properties through our Planting Trees for Clean Water project. I hope your trees are faring well! We will be doing another round of planting this fall, and you are welcome to sign up for more trees if you have space, or if you need to replace any trees that have died.

Like before, you are eligible to participate if you have property on Round, Gravel, and Eagle Lakes in Van Buren County or Harwood, Birch, and Baldwin Lakes in Cass County. Please pass this message along to any neighbors who might be interested.

If you would like to participate, please fill out the interest form at https://tinyurl.com/lakestrees-fall2026 as soon as possible.

The Michigan Lakes and Streams Association hosted a webinar this spring where I shared information about the importance of planting trees near waterways and specifics about this project. The webinar is available for viewing at your convenience at this link: Planting Trees for Clean Water – Spring Webinar.

For more information, contact me (watershed@VanBurenCD.org) or Colleen Forestieri (AgConservation@vanburencd.org) at the Van Buren Conservation District.

This project is funded by a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which are equal opportunity providers. For more information on Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Projects, visit glri.us.

2027 BLYC Calendar

The tentative 2027 dates are coming soon! Click here to add the BLYC calendar of events to your Google Calendar. The calendar will be updated if events change.

Board meetings take place at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings at the Yacht Club from May through September, and are open to all lake residents.

Public Service Announcements

Power Loading Boats

Please remember as you’re taking your boats out for the season to not power load it on to your trailer. This damages the ramp at the boat launch!

Turtle Signs

Time to put away your “Slow Down” signs for the winter!

Update Your Email Preferences

You can choose which emails you want to receive from the Birch Barker! Please click here to update your email preferences.

BLYC Directory

Corrections and updates to the new directory? Send any updates to birchbarker1@gmail.com and we’ll publish them here for folks to update their directories.

Marsha Williams (east shore): correct email is marwillims@gmail.com

Nina Frurip (east shore): correct phone number is 989-859-4773 (not 4774)