Our hummingbirds arrived at Big Mill B&B quite late this year -
but once they landed, it was with a flourish and a big show,
chattering and demanding food.   (Photo by Guy Livesay)

And since we are a designated Bird and Breakfast Bird-Friendly Business, we willingly obliged. Guy's outstanding photo, taken here at Big Mill B&B, earned him 1st place in the 2010 Beaufort County Arts Council Nature/Wildlife photography contest. 

Our zinnias seem to be a favorite 

Photo by Guy Livesay

Guests often ask me if there is any time during the year when you should stop feeding hummingbirds? If you have had a similar question, here's my answer:

It is perfectly alright to leave the feeders out until freezing weather arrives. The birds usually leave when their food sources (flower nectar and bugs) are no longer available. You may get a traveling hummingbird guest en route to warmer climates.  Big Mill seems to be a favorite spot for such hummingbird "refuelings!"

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe

4 parts hot boiling water
1 part refined white sugar
Few drops of red food coloring, optional, but not necessary

Stir this mixture until all the sugar is dissolved. (Audubon suggests that you boil the sugar to kill any bacteria. If you change the water every day, this is not necessary).

Allow solution to cool before filling feeders. This sugar water can spoil in hot weather, so change it often, at least two times a week or more. Store any excess nectar in the refrigerator.

Oops! Just gotta get to that great nectar. (Photo by Guy Livesay)

So, have you had any good hummingbird sightings this summer?  Share your best photos with us over on Big Mill Bed and Breakfast's Facebook page .

And while you're there, take a minute to write on our "Wall."  

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Did you know that bees are responsible for every third bite of food that we eat?
Bees are fascinating little creatures and they are in trouble.

Sunflowers on the farm

The Great Sunflower Project was begun in 2008 by the biology department at San Francisco State University to study the wild bee population. In 2009, lots of us were given free lemon sunflower seeds to plant in our gardens. We were to monitor the bee activity for a certain amount of time each day. There were 50,000 participants!

Bees love the bee balm at Big Mill B&B

Well, something ate my lemon sunflowers … bummer … so I couldn't participate. But this year, they have expanded the flower list to include bee balm, tickseed, cosmos, purple coneflower and rosemary. So I am fired up and ready to go!

Coreopsis (tickseed) in the Big Mill Garden

Why don't you join in this Hunt for Bees? All you have to do is plant one of the flowers listed, get comfortable in your garden, watch the bee activity and record it. Any size garden will work – even container gardens!  The bonus, of course, by planting these flowers, you increase the odds of attracting hummingbirds and butterflies too.

Learn more about the project here: http://www.greatsunflower.org/ and on Facebook.

PS — Share your Great Sunflower Project photos over on Big Mill's Facebook Page!

Let's create a buzz!           

Bzzzzzzz …  I used to keep bees, but that is next year's project.

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 Oh, there is absolutely nothing quite so tasty
as that first homegrown tomato…

… and a tomato sandwich is even better!

There are many versions of this classic sandwich, but the down-home plain and simple sandwich made with white bread and Duke’s mayonnaise is the award winner.  

Chloe’s Farmhouse Tomato Sandwich Recipe

• 1 medium size ripe, preferably homegrown, tomato
• 2 slices bread (even the bread of my youth like Wonder Bread works great.) I really do like Pepperidge Farm Oat Bread now.
• 2 Tablespoons Duke’s Mayonnaise
• Salt and pepper

Wash and cut the tomato into thick slices. Spread the mayonnaise onto both slices of the bread, one side only. Make sure to spread the mayonnaise to the edge of each slice of bread.

Place the tomato slices on one piece of bread. Add salt and pepper. Cover with the second slice of bread, mayonnaise side down, of course.

Cut the sandwich into two pieces and enjoy the best tomato sandwich ever. How to cut the sandwich is debatable-corner to corner or straight across the middle? We all have an opinion. Serves 1.

This recipe was featured on the Bountiful Kitchen, a part of Inn Cuisine.

When I was a child I delivered baskets of tomatoes with my Schwinn bicycle to the restaurants in Williamston. Some were 3 miles away and I had to ride part way on a dirt road and partly on U.S. Highway 17. Surely couldn’t do it today.

Here in the Inner Banks of North Carolina, Hellman’s Mayonnaise is sold to transplants. And don’t even consider Kraft Mayonnaise.

Just remember, if it ain’t homemade, it has to be Duke’s.

If you don’t believe me, ask Eddy Browning, food columnist for the New Bern Sun Journal. He heard tell of various barroom brawls in this great mayonnaise debate. Eddy does advocate for homemade mayonnaise, so stay tuned. We will have that recipe on Chloe’s blog soon.

So it is just normal here in eastern North Carolina to see a display of Duke’s with six shelves, lest we run out ….. forsooth.

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Hurricanes bring out the spirit of hunkering down and staying put. So when Hurricane Hanna blew through eastern North Carolina, those of us here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast hunkered down. After the wind stopped several of us wandered out to check out the damage.

In the orchard we found bushels of pears lying on the ground. 

I really don’t like to waste anything, so I admitted that I knew how to make pear preserves. That was when Nurse Nancy, Paul and I decided to make Hurricane Hannah Pear Preserves…and pear butter…and pear brandy… and finally dehydrated pears. We trashed the kitchen but that was fun; and luckily we only lost electricity once. 

We did have a rule for these pear projects — we had to use what we already had on hand-no trotting to the store for anything. And also trotting to the store during a hurricane is a bad idea.

Award-Winning Recipe – Our Big Mill Pear Preserves won a  Blue Ribbon at the Martin County Farm Heritage Fair. We belong to the North Carolina Agritourism Association as a Farm Homestead Bed and Breakfast lodging. Our jams and preserves are for sale here at the Inn.

Pear Brandy Preserves These Homemade Pear Preserves are a House Specialty at Big Mill Inn.   .

• 8-10 half-pint canning jars with lids and rings
• 10-12 pounds hard, canning pears like Kieffer (this is about 16 cups of cut up pears) *
• 8 cups sugar (yes, these preserves are sweet)
• 3 lemons
• 1/2 cup brandy (We used Apricot Brandy because we had it). I bought this brandy for my dear friend, Mr. Ed. So these pears are in memory of that one-of-a-kind, cantankerous man. He also liked to can and preserve fruits and vegetables. Ed did most of the gorgeous tile work here at Big Mill B&B.)
• Wash and sterilize the jars. This can be easily done in a dish washer.

Wash, peel and core the pears. Cut into 2-ince pieces. As you peel the pears, place the cut pieces in a large pan filled with water and some Fruit Fresh, lemon or lime juice. This will prevent the fruit from discoloring.

Moses came in for the hurricane; she was our barometer. She also took a shine to Paul, one of our guests, hovering by his ankles all day. When she asked to go out, we knew the worst was over.

Wash the lemons. Slice into thin pieces, removing seeds. Discard/compost the end pieces.

In a large cooking pot, layer the pears, lemon slices and sugar. Continue until all the pears, lemon and sugar are used. Allow to sit four hours. This will draw the juice out of the pears. There will be plenty of liquid without having to add water.

Stir gently and bring to a slow boil. Lower heat and continue to boil gently for an hour. Add the brandy and cook 1-2 hours more or until the pears are tender and golden and translucent. If you overcook them they will be a dark color. They still taste good, they just aren’t as pretty.

Using a slotted spoon, ladle the pears and a lemon slice into the jars. Fill with pear syrup. You might have some syrup left over but this is good on ice cream or pancakes.

Process according to the canning instructions. Yield: 8-10 half pints

Nurse Nancy cut the pears into chunks. I met Nancy when she was a guest here at Big Mill B&B years ago…she is now a Big Mill regular and a dear friend.

* Kieffer Pears are heirloom pears that are often seen in old, country orchards and thriving on abandoned homesteads in the south. They are grainy and hard and they ripen in September in Coastal North Carolina.

My father planted my Kieffer pear tree for me in 1971 and it survives with very little attention. Every year it breaks its limbs with an over abundance of fruit. This old variety of pear has stood the test of time.

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There is a difference between a sweet potato and a yam. They aren’t even related yet sweet potatoes are often mistakenly referred to as yams. Sweet potatoes are actually the root of a morning glory vine. A yam is the tuber of a vine grown in Central and South America.

Yams are quite toxic if eaten raw. Sweet potatoes are a good eaten raw and I know for a fact that they will give you a stomach ache if you eat too many. But they are not toxic.

Somehow the word candied just seems to pair with yam. Oh, well, henceforth, it will be Candied Sweet Potatoes around here. Maybe someone should ask the USDA why they require the word yam to accompany sweet potato on package labeling.

When I was growing up on the farm here at Big Mill we grew lots of sweet potatoes.  My father’s favorite was Hayman, an heirloom sweet potato. They are pale green in color and produce fewer potatoes per acre, but locals declare they taste better.

Everyone saved seed potatoes so we never had to buy the plants. We raised acres of sweet potatoes and folks came from all over to buy my father’s Hayman potatoes.

Sweet potatoes are harvested or dug in the fall. After we dug the potatoes they were cured with a low heat. The potato house is my favorite of all the barns here at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast.

I do believe the Hayman sweet potatoes are sweeter.  

This old Dodge farm truck hauled bushels of sweet potatoes to the potato house (right of truck). Chloe is sitting on the truck. The goat really did eat the windshield wipers.

Sweet Potato Fries

• 2 large or 4 small red sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Slice each sweet potato into large steak fries. Spread on a cookie sheet in a single layer, leaving a space between each fry. Toss with the oil. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and turn each fry. Return to the oven and bake 15 more minutes or until the fries ae tender and crisp. If you want the fries to be crispier, bake longer.

Serve hot. Oh, these are good!

Yield: 3 servings

Heirloom Hayman sweet potatoes have a lighter colored skin and a pale green flesh. 

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When I was growing up here on the farm in North Carolina, one of the most fun things to do was to pick berries, either blueberries that we called huckleberries, or blackberries.

(I only grew up in the summer…there are no fun stories about winter.) Barney and I would get on our bicycles and go as far away as five miles, all on dirt roads.

The only mishap would be a good case of red bugs, town folks called them chiggers, but they are miserable by either name.

Mother would make jams, pies, cobblers and ice cream with these wonderful wild berries. The blueberries that grew wild around here were small, low-bush berries and they grew in the edge of the woods. The blackberries grew in the ditches and sadly, I never see them anymore. I don’t see the wild blueberries either, so I planted some in my yard by an old pine tree stump.

The blueberry bushes that we have here at Big Mill are the high-bush variety, reaching way over my head. Each year I position a step ladder in amongst the bushes and leave it there for the entire season. I also place Earl, an inflatable snake in the bushes too. His job is to deter some of the birds. Fat chance! He does scare Big Mill B&B guests sometimes.

The blueberry is native to North America and they are one of only a few blue foods on all the earth. This tiny berry is gaining respect among folks who want to stay healthy, since it is a great source of antioxidants.

So blueberries are good for you…Isn’t it great that they taste so good?

Blueberry Jam…This jam is gorgeous. I almost hate to eat it.

4 pints fresh blueberries
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
7 cups sugar
½ teaspoon butter, to reduce foaming (optional)
2 pouches liquid fruit pectin (6 ounces total)

Don’t double the recipe! I don’t know why, but it will fail. If Irma in The Joy of Cooking says, "Don’t double," then I won’t even try it.

Fresh-picked, blueberries, with some of the berries not totally ripe make the best jam. So if you are able to pick your own and make the jam immediately, it will be worth it. My blueberries are growing right outside my kitchen window, so they are very fresh.

Put half of the berries in an enamel or stainless cooking pot and crush the berries, making juice. Stir in the remaining berries, the lemon zest and lemon juice. Add the sugar and butter and bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Pay careful attention to the pot. It will boil over in a heartbeat and you don’t know what a mess is until you boil over blueberry jam.

While the berries are seriously boiling, quickly add the fruit pectin and stir for exactly one minute. Remove from heat and put in sterilized jars, following canning directions.

Yield: 10 half pints plus a wee jar for tasting.

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To me, summers at Big Mill are about the night. The air is soft. Sitting in a wicker swing, for a few moments all is quiet. Then the sounds come. Bullfrogs show off with their throaty noises and then you can hear kaplop as they swim away. I am always amazed to see how big they are, or rather aren’t. The smallest frog can make the biggest noise.

Crickets will start in mid summer, when the nights are still. Maybe that is why I have always liked Tennessee Williams. Growing up, we left the windows and doors open, there was no air conditioning. I don’t remember being too hot. Now we have wonderful, energy efficient air conditioners. We wonder how we survived without them.

 

Nights also bring the summer smells. First comes the honeysuckle, then the gardenia, or as the old folks called them, Cape jasmine. Moonflowers are next and the glorious ginger lilies, they permeate the night air with a sweet smell of jasmine.

 

In late July and in August the smell of tobacco curing sneaks in. None of us smoke, but the night smell of curing tobacco is comforting and reminds me of home and youth, playing with my nephew Barney. It is a good thing to remember. Barney has now come back to his roots, just as I have. We are happy.

 

And you cannot forget the night sights: the fireflies, the shooting stars and the imagined space ships. They are all still here and that too is good. You just might see one if you join us.

 

 

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