On the first mild summer day to appear in weeks I decided it was much too nice to stay indoors.  With the day off, I took a look at the trail descriptions for some of the area trails and settled on the Twenty Mile Loop trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I had heard wonderful things about the hike from guests and other staff at the Lodge.

And so I set out.  The first mile and a half of the loop proceeds at a gentle incline, with several creek crossings.  (Its not necessary to actually ford the creeks, because the park service maintains log bridges with one-sided handrails.)  The next three miles wind up to the crest of the mountain at a more moderate incline.  In many places, the trail is crowded with underbrush and as it increases in elevation, the creek falls away.  At the end of this three mile section, the loop trail meets up with Long Hundry Ridge Trail, one of two trails that join the Appalachian Trail from the Twenty Mile Loop.  At this point, the creek also rejoins trail.

I was hoping to get in a little trail running, and the final three miles were pretty well suited for that.  The final section is pretty wide at most points and primarily downhill.  A little over a half mile from the end of the end of the loop is the Twenty Mile Cascade.  It is the perfect spot to take off your shoes and socks for a cool wade among the rocks!  If at the beginning of the hike you make a right at the first fork in the trail you’ll hit the Cascade first.  It’s only a little over half a mile past the trail head, so it would be a good spot to walk to for a quick scenic lunch.

I’d reccomend bug spray and long pants.  The only downside to the hike was the nearly constant presence of bugs, including a black fly or two.  A brisk pace kept them from being much of a problem.  Since it is back country hiking, pack in your own water or be prepared to boil water if you’re camping.  And don’t forget the camera like I did!

If you’re in the area, be sure to drive Highway 28 to Fontana Dam, just a little ways up the road.

Publish or Perish: Caitlin and Cathy are still sporting old posts.  I’m hoping they’ll get their blog on soon.

Tags: PUBLISH OR PERISH, summer

As anyone who has ventured outside in the past few weeks will likely know, it is hot enough to bake a pizza on the roof of a car.  In consideration of the fact that I add to the temperatures in the kitchen by turning on every piece of equipment that exists to get from one end of dinner service to the other, I’ve been spending some time in cooler environs when I can.

Last week, in honor of the RIMBY cause, I went to Rattler Ford, a campground area in the Nantahala forest that’s actually just down the road from work.  I had never been before and I was eager to follow up on rumors that it boasts a nice swimming hole.  It is an OK swimming hole, certainly useful for cooling off on too-hot days since it is freezing cold.  In truth I didn’t get much swimming done, but I did enjoy wading in the creek, trying to catch minnows and walking out with numb toes!

I also had the opportunity to watch the movie Adam (2009) featuring Hugh Dancy.  Adam is about a man with Asperger’s  whose parents have passed away and who is mostly friendless and attempting to navigate living alone.  When Adam meets his new neighbor, Beth, the challenges that people with Asperger’s face in communication and interpersonal skills are amplified as he attempts to forge a romantic relationship.  Adam is quite funny and provides valuable insight into a unique portion of the population.  It was a an excellent follow-up to Look Me in The Eye.

To continue to keep things cool, I’ve been big into the summer reading.  I’m actually working on best sellers of summers past, The Secret Life of Bees and The Friday Night Knitting Club, with a pile of paperbacks in line to follow.  I’d love to hear what other people are reading this summer, too!

Publish or Perish:  I very nearly slipped up and forgot that it is a PoP night because I had a super unusual lunch shift today at work.  Caitlin has not yet posted, but Cathy swears she’s got stuff in the pipelines for PoP days!

Tags: PUBLISH OR PERISH, summer

On a cleaning day several weeks ago I eyed my bookcases with a mind to do a reasonable sweep of their contents.  The result was a pile of mostly textbooks that I had weaned from my collection as books that I will likely never crack again.

Enter side comment:  don’t save your college textbooks!  It is just completely insane to think that you will actually use them again–even for a quick fact check.  The pervasiveness of the internet and the quality information that can be found on the web has made saving textbooks obsolete in my opinion.  There is probably some exception to this concept somewhere, but it holds true for me.

I set out a find a way to off-load my textbooks with a financial gain.  Because, why not?  A quick perusal of amazon.com and ebay.com yielded some idea of the market value for used textbooks, but I found the process of selling fifteen books through either of these fee-heavy systems too intimidating for my limited time off.  And that’s how the textbooks ended up staying in their pile a little too long.

On Saturday, I found an article on NYtimes.com called How to Find Cheaper College Textbooks. Aha!  A back door on how to sell college textbooks.  I did, in fact, find the article to be helpful.  In particular, I learned that Campusbooks.com has a nifty search-engine feature that allows you to enter a book’s ISBN number (apparently now thirteen numbers instead of ten–my how the times have changed!), which then shows websites that are buying that textbook and their rates.  Most of the websites are not offering a ton of money, but when you think about the fees that you would incur and the time involved on selling through ebay or amazon, I didn’t think the prices were unreasonable.  They also include free UPS shipping, so all you do is pack up your books and drop off your box at the nearest UPS drop-off.

Also in the list of websites buying books is Better World Books.  While Better World Books does buy some textbooks, they are primarily a repository for book donations.  When a search for a particular ISBN on Campusbooks.com yields no results for potential buyers, donating to Better World Books seems like a better option than dropping your old textbooks at the nearest thrift store where they will quickly find their way into the dumpster.  Better World Books sells donated books online to fund literacy initiatives around the world.  Donating to them includes free shipping, just like selling textbooks to other vendors.

I found that I really like Better World Books.  They have new titles, textbooks and a bargain bin–5 books for $15.  Shipping is free (or $3.97 worldwide) and in the process of checking out you can choose to provide a small amount of money (thirty cents in my case) to allow your shipment to be carbon-neutral.  I didn’t look through their entire collection, but I did find the bargain book section to have plenty of best sellers from years past, reference books, and children’s books.  I placed an order for books from the bargain bin, and I am excited that the proceeds from the sales they generate go to a good place.  According to the Better World Books website, “the company has converted more than 35 million donated books into $7.5 million in funding for literacy and education. In the process, [Better World Books] also diverted more than 13,000 tons of books from landfills.”

On top of all of this goodwill, I received a completely amusing email from Better World Books, presumably written by my books.

That’s my pitch!  Get rid of your college textbooks, and donate books that you can’t sell to Better World Books.  While you’re there, check out their website for that book your just haven’t gotten around to, or the one you badly want to re-read (I purchased the Earth’s Children books that I don’t have in anticipation of the release of a new book in the series next year).

Happy reading!

Publish or Perish:  Caitlin is up and running with a cool post about the financial challenges of eating healthily and responsibly on a budget.  Cathy is (according to Caitlin) experiencing computer hardship.  I’m clearly down to the wire, but since I work weekends I’m not sure I’ll ever get out of the habit of posting at 11:58 pm, Monday. 

Tags: donating, ny times, textbooks

Hello Sarah,

(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note – it seemed unusual, but who are we to say no?)

Holy canasta! It’s me… it’s me! I can’t believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I’ve got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can’t believe I’m leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already – the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge – so many memories. I don’t have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it’s time to see the world!

I can’t wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen) and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol’ brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I’ve had, I’m ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn’t take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I’ve found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

But hey, enough about me, I’ve been asked to brief you on a few things:

We sent your order to the following address:

Sarah Zell

(Address deleted)

Order #: xxxxxxxxx

We provide quick shipping service to all our customers. You chose USPS Standard Mail shipping, your book should arrive within 4 – 14 business days. The Postal Service may occasionally take slightly longer to deliver your book.

At this time, we are not able to offer tracking on our USPS Standard Mail shipments.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email my friends in Customer Care at help@betterworldbooks.com. If you could please include your order number (xxxxxxxx) that would be very helpful.

Eagerly awaiting our meeting,

Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah’s Book Club)
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (Plume Contemporary Fiction)
The Valley of Horses
The Plains of Passage (Earth’s Children)
The Mammoth Hunters (Earth’s Children)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Earth’s Children)

On my way to work this morning I listed to a Slate.com podcast of an essay written by Mark Oppenheimer called “Judging a book by her cover.”  Amazon announced last week that it is selling more e-books than hard copies of books, and this essay defines one person’s perspective on life after the Kindle.  Mr. Oppenheimer gives a handful of anecdotes about the role that (physical) books have played in his life and, in particular, in relationships.  One of the things he talks about is loaning books to other people, which is something that I still enjoy doing.

I have recently borrowed a handful of books from a coworker.  I love sharing books because in addition to getting to read something new, fresh and cheap, I am also learning a little bit about the person I am borrowing the book from.  Books seem to me, and to Mr. Oppenheimer, to provide commentary on their owner in some ways.

My latest borrowed read is Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison, the brother of Running with Scissors author Augusten Burroughs.  Robison writes in the introduction to his book that the treatment he received as a real-life character in Running with Scissors gave him the confidence to examine his own life more fully in the form of a memoir.

What my coworker and I both like about Look Me in the Eye is that the story is a true one–full of adventure, challenges, and success.  Robison’s life is supremely interesting, and part of what makes it so fascinating is the Asperger’s lens through which he sees the world.

Asperger’s is an autism spectrum disorder that entered the medical scene as a diagnosis in 1994.  Asperger’s is typically demonstrated by impaired social skills, and by very focused and limited patterns of behavior, including “intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness,” as described by wikipedia.

The author experiences most of these symptoms, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.  What makes the memoir so interesting are the ways in which the author’s seeming limitations allow him exceptional focus and skill in very narrow and particular fields.  The best example of this is how his savant-like abilities to manipulate electronic circuits land him a job with the band KISS.

It isn’t until he is 40 that Robison is correctly diagnosed by a friend who is also a therapist.  Robison’s memoir is a testament to the ability to embrace living a unique way of life, rather than focusing on the idea that Asperger’s is a disease that needs curing.

PUBLISH or PERISH:  Still waiting on my girls to get their blog on!

Tags: books, slate

Despite what my local paper’s editor had to say about Asheville, I find the town to be a great day-trip for those of us out here in the sticks.  To be honest, a fair amount of my day there usually involves food, but Asheville has a few note-worthy sites and people watching abounds.

For brevity’s sake, I’m dividing this topic into two posts–one on food and a second on sights and events.  Since I am a certified food-lover, I’ll start with places to dine.  The follow-up blog entry will deal with what to do between meals!

If I’m really making a day of Asheville, I start with brunch (after all, I’m not an early riser and it is an hour-and-a-half drive).  One of the local favorites is Tupelo Honey, a southern-style restaurant that until recently had a single packed location in Downtown Asheville on College Street.  I tried Tupelo Honey for brunch several times (I’ve never experienced their evening menu) and I was always disappointed.  I think this is mostly because I like eggs benedict for brunch and they overcooked my eggs every single time.  Also, the staff always seemed over-burdened and I never felt like service was great, even though I very much liked the servers.

All of that being said, Tupelo Honey recently opened a South Asheville location that I found to be significantly more pleasant–less crowded, more spacious and with attentive staff.  The downtown location has an open kitchen, while the south Asheville spot does not, and since I work in a kitchen, I’m thankful not to have to look at one while I’m eating.  I also like the food better at the south Asheville location, though they have the same menu so that may just be psychology.

The Noodle Shop on Pack Square in Downtown Asheville is a great lunch destination.  They have outside seating with a great people-watching location at a prime intersection.  Indoor seating is also available, with about ten tables available in this small restaurant.  I love the pan seared pork dumplings as an appetizer, and there is some random noodle entree whose name I cannot remember that contains wood fungus which is incredibly good.  Anything with wood fungus gets my vote! (Author’s note:  the wood fungus noodle dish only appears on the lunch menu.)  Other reviewers have spoken favorably of the soup bowls, although I haven’t had them myself.  At last check, the restaurant closed from 3:30-5:00 pm, so don’t plan on an almost-dinner lunch.

Next door to the Noodle Shop is The Cupcake Corner, by the Sisters McMullen.  They are mostly a day time operation during the week (closing at 6 p.m.) and so they are relegated to the snack category Monday-Thursday.   On Friday and Saturday they stay open until 9 p.m. so you may be able to catch them for an after-dinner dessert.

Here comes the tricky part:  the evening meal.  There are several options here.  Either hop around Downtown Asheville eating appetizers, sampling drinks and nibbling on desserts until you’re full; commit to one location for each course;  one-stop-shop your meal.  All are reasonable options depending on your level of commitment to variety.

Limones, near Pack Square, has an extensive appetizer selection in the California-Mexican fashion.  They open for dinner at 5 p.m. allowing plenty of time to have a small plate or two before walking around for a bit and moving on to dinner.  Conversely, they have lots of interesting options that encourage diners to linger in order to enjoy all of the various selections.  They also have some interesting cocktails, and apparently they serve a Sunday brunch.

Table is an excellent new find that I’ve added to my dining repertoire.  The chef-owner is a fellow French Culinary Institute graduate and I really enjoyed the entirety of my one meal there.  I had foie gras with basil peach risotto and prosecco foam to start and it was perfect.  My entree was seared duck (ordered chef’s preference on temperature) with roasted mushrooms ans sour cherries.  The space is industrial chic with rustic tables thrown in for good measure, and if you’re lucky to sit by the window facing college street, it affords excellent people-watching while you dine.  The service was exceptional and they have fun cocktails as well.  As with many Asheville restaurants, Table is serving a local and seasonal menu;  theirs happens to change daily.

The Market Place is just a few blocks away on the cobblestone-lined Wall Street, just south of the Grove Arcade.  This restaurant has been an Asheville staple for me over the past couple of years.  Their menu changes seasonally but they are huge proponents of the local/seasonal food movement.  Everything I have every eaten their has been wonderful, and the service is always exceptional.  One of my favorites was an Eggs & Bacon appetizer–seared and braised pork belly with grits and sunny-side-up quail eggs.  I love their cocktail menu which always throws in lots of herbs, vegetables, fresh juices and creative pairings of flavor.

The dinner restaurants that I have suggested all serve wonderful desserts.  If you’re looking for a change of scenery though, mosey on over to French Broad Chocolates where you can find pretty much any dessert to suit the chocolate lover.  They have artisan truffles, cakes, cookies, drinks (wines, beers, teas, coffees, and chocolate), and other cold desserts.  They do have non-chocolate desserts, as well as vegan options.  The French Broad Chocolate Lounge is open until 11 p.m. weeknights, midnight on weekends.

All of the above are located in the downtown area (see The Asheville Print-and-Go Restaurant Guide post), allowing you to meander the city streets and enjoy the local culture.

The Admiral is a gastro-pub on the outskirts of town that really is a pretty seedy looking joint.  This is the place to go if you’ve already had all of those other meals and are out late, as they are open until 2 a.m. They have good food, artfully prepared and with a menu that changes regularly.   I’ve had seared elk, steak tartar, pork belly and a scary-stout manhattan.  All were delicious and unique.

Publish or Perish:  I’ve gotten an unusually early start today, so I’m hoping that I’ll have delicious blog treats from Caitlin and Cathy when I get home tonight.  Miss y’all!

Tags: asheville, favorite, food, Travel

Tupelo Honey.

1829 Hendersonville Rd.  828.505.7676.

Closed Mondays, Tuesday-Thursday 9am-9pm, Friday-Saturday 9am-10pm, Sunday 9am-8pm.

The Noodle Shop.

3 Pack Square.  828.250.9898.

Open Monday-Sunday

Cupcake Corner, The Sisters McMullen.

1 N. Pack Square.  828.252.9454.

Monday-Wednesday 7:30am-6pm, Thursday-Friday 7:30am-9pm, Saturday 9am-9pm, Closed Sunday.

Limones.

13 Eagle Street. 828.252.2327.

Monday-Sunday 5pm-10pm, Sunday Brunch 10:30am-2:30pm.

Table.

48 College Street. 828.254.8980.

Monday, Wednesday-Saturday 11:30am-2:30pm, 5:30pm-10pm, Sunday Brunch 10:30-2:20, Dinner 5:30-10pm, Closed Tuesdays.

The Market Place.

20 Wall Street. 828.252.4162.

Monday-Saturday 5:30pm-9ish pm, Closed Sunday.

French Broad Chocolates.

10 S. Lexington Avenue. 828.252.4181.

Sunday-Thursday 11am-11pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-Midnight.

The Admiral.

400 Haywood Road.  828.252.2541.

Monday-Saturday 4pm-2am, Closed Sunday.

See the Asheville Restraunt Guide Google Map for printing!

Tags: favorite, food, map, PUBLISH OR PERISH, Travel

It happens all too often that we live in a place and never bother to make the time to experience the things that place is known for.  Perhaps we think we’ve seen all there is to see, or maybe we think we’ll get around to it–someday.  And then someday comes and goes, and we move on to another town whose treasures we’ll ignore.

In an effort to get motivated to do more running, I looked up races in North Carolina a couple of weeks ago.  I was shocked to learn that Xterra is sponsoring a race in my very own town at Tsali Recreational Area, part of the Nantahala National Forest.  It is a trail race, something I have never done before, and there are races of four, eight and eleven miles.  I was intrigued.

Today, I decided to brave the trail racing experience for fun, and I’m glad I did.  The running was great, but the area was just as awesome and it is a place I have driven past dozens of times.  There are campsites, a boat launch and 39 miles of trails in the Tsali Recreational Area.  The trails are used by mountain bikers and horseback riders on alternating days of the week, while hikers are welcome all days.  Most of the trail that I ran on (the right loop) was within view of Fontana Lake, whose clean waters were very tempting on this hot day!

On my run, I just kept thinking about all of the wonderful places that there are to see in the area and how few I have actually gotten around to.  I’ve been a “not in my backyard” tourist, spending time in nearby cities and missing a lot of the things that are nearby.  Time to change that.

The new challenge: to be a local tourist, right in my back yard.  Much like the popular local food concept, I’m going to consider a 100-mile radius to be my backyard.  Off the top of my head, that necessarily includes Nantahala National Forest, Cherokee National Forest, Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, Nantahala Lake, Lake Santeetlah, Hiawasse Lake, Smoky Mountains National Park, the Appalachian Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Cherohala Skyway, Tail of the Dragon, several Indian museums that deal with the Trail of Tears, and numerous small memorials and historic sights.

With any luck, I will try one new trail, historic sight, lake or creek each week.  Any exploits that fall into this category will fall under the RIMBY (right in my backyard) tourist category on Chef in the Sticks.

Tags: local travel, running, summer, trail running, Travel

Part of what we offer our guests at the Lodge is the opportunity to enjoy art and music classes, guide-led hikes, and cooking classes.  I decided to join in on one the art classes a couple of years ago and discovered the art of encaustic painting with Kat Fitzpatrick, an artist out of Bay Saint Louis, Missouri.  Kat is back at the Lodge this week, and this morning I took a little time to get creative somewhere other than the kitchen!

Encaustic, hot wax painting, is actually a very old medium, although it has only recently regained traction in the art world.  It was used in ancient Greece to caulk the joints and waterproof the hulls of seafaring vessels.  Adding pigment and creating designs on the boats was a simple extension of this practice.  In the 1st century A.D., Pliny the Elder, the Roman historian, wrote about artists from the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. using encaustic.

In Egypt, head and shoulder wax paintaings were set into mummy castings to transport bodies into the afterlife.  Over six hundred encaustic funerary paintings have survived  the passage of time, with rich color and brushstrokes.

Contemporary encaustic painting owes its resurgence in large part to Jasper Johns, an American artist born in 1930.  His works include Flag and Map, both part of the collection of art at MOMA in New York City.

Encaustic utilizes beeswax and usually includes a tempering agent that hardens the wax.  Damar resin, a hardened sap of a fir native to Indonesia and Malaysia, is most frequently used for this purpose.  Dry pigments are added to the wax to create colored wax.

Encaustic is very much about fusing layers.  Encaustic can be as simple as painting with pigmented wax, it can be a method of sculpting, and it lends itself well to collage. A series of modern tools allow artists not only to appropriately layer wax, but also to keep the medium workable long after its initial application and subsequent hardening of the wax.  Tools used to work with clay can be used to manipulate warm wax by carving and shaping.  Heat guns, irons, lamps and torches are used to achieve a variety of textures and effects and each has a different end result.

Solid substrates tend to provide a strong foundation for wax painting, whereas canvas is a flexible substrate that would likely lead to cracking of a finished product.  Plywood is both inexpensive and an appropriate starting point.  Your local hardware store can trim a sheet of plywood to various sizes to suit your needs.

I like encuastic for its wide-ranging flexibility.  Depending on the temperature of the wax, what transfers from brush to board can be either a smooth wax (at higher temperatures) or a more rough, textured wax.  It is easy to include dried vegetation (leaves, spices, flowers, etc.) into a painting.  Similarly, buttons, string, screen, glitter–really anything that is not wet–can be applied with wax to create a varied, texture-rich paintings.

There are some safety precautions that should be taken with dry pigments and when using heating elements.  R & F Handmade Paints has a good safety section on their website and The Art of Encaustic Painting by Joanne Mattera includes plenty of the same but is also an excellent primer for anyone interested in working with encaustic.

Publish or Perish:  Caitlin did get in a mid-week post about attending a conference and all of the craziness that entails, like smoking cigars and ::gasp:: paying for internet.  Cathy is probably at another concert!

Tags: art, encaustic

If you’re a friend of mine on Facebook, then you likely know that I am currently enjoying picking blackberries on the side of the road.  By saying “side of the road” I think I give the impression that picking blackberries is on whim and without preparation.  Not true!  Below, you’ll find some guidelines for picking blackberries.

1) Wear pants, even if it’s really hot.  I would also recommend a light, long sleeved shirt. Blackberry plants are brambles and they bite and scratch!

2) Wear boots or sturdy sneakers.  Tuck your pant legs into your socks or boots.  If you’re thinking this is a terrible fashion statement, you’re right.  But it will save you having to experience chiggers, ticks and other mountain bugs that love to hang out where you are getting ready to tromp.

3) Wear bug spray.

4) Take a bucket.  I prefer several small containers if I’m really expecting a haul, because they will get heavy, and because you can place smaller buckets beneath where you’re picking to catch any stray falling berries.  (Quart-sized plastic take-out containers or ziploc containers, both with lids, are great for transporting your loot!)

5) Blackberries love to grow on banks.  Pick a spot on the side of the road, work up one side and back the other.

6) Berries don’t ripen all at once–there will be some shiny berries that are ready to pick that nearly fall off of the cane when you touch them, and others that won’t come off without some tugging.  If you have to tug, they aren’t ready and probably aren’t worth eating.  Leave them for some other lucky creature or come back in a few days when they are ripe.

7) Blackberries in the wild aren’t usually as gigantic as the ones you find in the grocery store (or at Stoney Hollow Farm, as I discovered when I bought a quart yesterday!).  Collecting enough to make a cobbler or pie may take a little while, especially if you are choosing quality specimen.  Be patient.  Reward yourself with the occasional completely tasty looking blackberry morsel as a reminder of your cause. Be sure to pick enough to eat a decent handful in the car, because they never make it home untouched.

8)  Share your booty, but DO NOT SHARE YOUR SPOT!  Much like fishing, nobody shares their blackberry picking spot, and it is rude to even ask.  Find your very own honey hole(s) and keep your lips zipped!

9) Make a delicious treat.  If you have collected ripe, sweet blackberries, wash and eat them as-is.  If they’re a little tart, adding a tiny bit of sugar to your bowl may work, or you can use your berries for baking.  Blackberrry cobbler is always a winner.

10) Occasionally, skip all of this advice and just stop on the side of the road and pick berries in shorts and sandals with a plastic grocery store bag.  Live a little!  The haul will seem sweeter, and next time, you’ll plan ahead!

PUBLISH OR PERISH: Caitlin and Cathy are still missing in action.  Come back y’all!

Tags: blackberries, brambles, bug spray, chiggers, dessert, fashion statement, food, fruit, simple, stoney hollow farm, summer