Blackberry Farm day two
We got up to a beautiful hot day. There has been a lot of rain down in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee so everything is lush and a tad humid.
Breakfast and lunch is served every day in the main house. Just like dinner the menu changes daily. There is a warm basket of freshly baked biscuits including two specialities that were made that morning. The buttery biscuits just melt in your mouth. This warm basket also includes two jams made on the premises.
Emily and I decided to take a hike. En route to the hike we passed the lake that sits below the breakfast/lunch house.
We passed the henhouse.
Through most of the walk we followed this brook. Kind of nice to walk with a babbling stream next to you. Very soothing.
You can hike around the premises that sit at the bottom of the Smoky Mountains. We got a guide to take us. Smart move as I am pretty sure we would have take a wrong turn somewhere and our guide had a serious pace going that kept us focused. The hike was about 4.5 miles. We got a nice education on the woods from plants and bugs. En route to the hike we passed the lake that sits below the breakfast/lunch house.
We made it up to the peak and through the mass of trees got a peak at the resort from above.
The honeysuckle is intoxicating.
After our hike it was time for lunch. Just to start we had a bowl of deep fried black-eyed peas.
We split a cheese plate for round 2. Everything is made on the premises including the charcuterie.
Our main course was a vegetable salad that had probably just been picked from the farm that morning. Over the top was a freshly grilled boneless chicken breast. Perfect meal.
The afternoon consisted of sitting by the pool. The views from the pool are insanely beautiful. Then we had a little spa treatment. The resort is in the midst of building a brand new spa so something to look forward to on our return trip.
For dinner that night we went with a red wine, Barbera D'Alba 2010. A few highlights again. Carmelized diver scallops over a potato yogurt mouse, mushrooms and a parley puree.
Roasted golden tilefish with preserved lemons, Charleston gold rice, inlet clams, chorizo and watercress.
After dinner we jumped in our golf cart and made our way home for the next day ahead.
Comments (Archived):
What a wonderful giftJ
Looks great! I got to tell you. I love the SOUTH! I really do. Every time we go I’m amazed. It’s got so much going for it.
.Well, uhh, can you imagine how nice it is to actually live there?Just for the record, I love NYC and other big cities but the rest of the North you can take it. Well, except for Maine.If you really want to love the South drive through the Shenandoah Valley on those little black roads and see the Breadbasket of the Confederacy up close and personal.JLM.
I would love to do that. I would love to take a month and just drive around. I just need to find that month!I’m sure it’s divine to live there and peaceful.
.It is waiting for you in the Shenandoah Valley, Highlands, Wrightsville Beach, Destin, Apalachicola, Cedar Key, Natchez, River Road, Key West, New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, Amelia Island and Folly Beach.Go see some plantations, go to the beach, go to the mountains, eat your way through great cities.Develop a Southern drawl.Take the whole damn summer off and explore.JLM.
Will you come up here and write my book for me? I have a March deadline. I have done Savannah and New Orleans. We were headed for Charleston last month but the Boston bombings happened and my daughter was in school there and we couldn’t leave. Have spent some time in Mississippi, GA, Memphis and other spots too. But the Shenandoah Valley and Natchez are calling out to me.
.Natchez is a very interesting place. They surrendered to the Union after the siege of Vicksburg which destroyed Vicksburg.One cannon shot and Natchez surrendered.When King Cotton reigned there were more millionaires in Natchez than NYC.Since they surrendered, none of the plantations were destroyed. Like River Road.Go see Monmouth Plantation started by a guy from Monmouth County, New Jersey. Long before the Civil War.Other than the plantations, there is not much to see in Natchez. Not a great food town like New Orleans.JLM.
I’m with you on its beauty. It’s a place with a lot of allure and magic to it.Need to tell you though that for a generation like my parents that grew up in ethnic and lower middle class neighborhoods up north, the south to them is still the world of civil rights, poverty and some scary preconceptions.The south that I know through some projects with entrepreneurs is steeped in a beautiful environment but with a point of view that is utterly modern in its sensibilities.The south needs better marketing!
It definitely needs better marketing. There is also a very conservative bend to it which bases on todays article in south Carolina that is changing. People protesting ultra conservatives. In the nyxs
.Like most places the South is not monolithic.Take SC as a example — the Low Country around Charleston and the Coast, the Midlands around Columbia (Capital, USC, government) and the Uplands around Greenville (traditionally the Bible Belt, textiles, manufacturing, agriculture and very, very, very conservative).The Low Country is libertine.The Midlands are liberal.Only the Uplands are really conservative.Remember SC has a black arithmetic majority and thus its reputation as a very conservative voting bloc is not based solely upon demographics.SC has a conservative Sikh woman Governor.People make a huge mistake when they try to paint the South with a monolithic brush.Its demographics and ethnic and political makeup are very complex. Just like everywhere.At the end of the day, the South does not really want better marketing. It is quite content to be what it really is. It is the fastest growing part of the US and its retirement demographic trends are enormous. It is where folks want to live because the living is easy.JLM.
The living is easy. Isnt that a lyric in a song?
Definitely a different part of the world
Someone needs to open a restaurant in NY that understands salads, like the one pictured above, like how they really get it in LA salad, wise.
Looks wonderful. I think I’ll need to go when we next visit my sister in Tennessee. Probably good to stay away from Tilefish though – bad for your brain.
really? who knew.go with your sister…you would love it.