Life In Lansing - Everything you need to know about Lansing, Events, and More!

According to popular wisdom, we are what we eat. What we eat says volumes about us - our backgrounds, our social, cultural, economic and religious status, our food preferences, in other words, who we are. The Michigan State University Museum serves up an appetizing new special exhibition, "Michigan Eats: Regional Culture Through Food," April 5 - Nov. 15 in the Heritage Gallery.

The exhibition follows a statewide tour along side the Smithsonian's "Key Ingredients: America by Food," last year and centers on distinctive Michigan specialties that tell the story of how "Michigan Eats." The updated and expanded exhibition, now debuting at home at the MSU Museum, examines the creation of early Michigan cookbooks and a variety of food-centered celebrations -- from fish fries to cherry and berry festivals aplenty.

The exhibit also explores the concept of "foodways." "Foodways represents an entire complex of ideas, behaviors and beliefs centered on food production, preparation, presentation and consumption, and the role of culture in shaping and preserving it," explains Yvonne Lockwood, MSU Museum curator of folklife. "The biological necessity to eat is unquestionable; however, it is to culture, not biology, that we must look to explain why we eat what we eat." At the same time, "Michigan Eats" draws on the MSU Museum's extensive history and cultural collections to help illustrate Michigan's foodways and regional riches -- like cabbage slicers for sauerkraut, sap buckets for maple syrup, apple picking sacks, Native American wild rice winnowing baskets, and early Kellogg's cereal packaging.

Check the MSU Museum web site at http://museum.msu.edu/Exhibitions/Current/Michigan_Eats.html for upcoming programs and activities related to "Michigan Eats." The MSU Museum is Michigan's natural history and culture museum and the state's first Smithsonian Institution affiliate. The MSU Museum -- accredited by the American Association of Museums -- collects, preserves, studies and interprets cultural artifacts and natural history specimens, with collections numbering more than 1 million in four buildings on the MSU campus. One of the oldest museums in the midwest, the MSU Museum is committed to education, exhibitions, research and the building and stewardship of collections that focus on Michigan and its relationship to the Great Lakes and the world beyond. The MSU Museum features three floors of special collections and changing exhibits and is open seven days a week free of charge (donations are encouraged). Located on West Circle Drive next to Beaumont Tower on the MSU campus in East Lansing, the MSU Museum is accessible to persons with disabilities. Hours are Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. -5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Visitor parking is available in front of the building and at metered spaces at the Grand River Ramp, one block away at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Charles Street. For more information, call (517) 355-2370 or see http://museum.msu.edu.