Innkeeper’s Suet Recipe
Our special Earth Day gift to birds here at Big Mill Bird & Breakfast

Earth Day 2013 is just around the corner, so it seemed like a perfect time to celebrate the birds we love with a suet recipe they delight in eating.

When I am cooking for the bed and breakfast guests, I also make suet for our lovely feathered travelers. And this suet recipe is made from things that we all have in our larders, especially innkeepers.

Well, those of you who live north of Virginia might not have the lard, but you could render your own “Suet fat” out of bacon fat and other fats. Southerners know and understand lard and we have a deep respect for this delicacy.

Innkeeper’s Suet for the Birds

•    6 eggshells (about ¼ cup crushed) *
•    1 cup lard – no substitutions unless you use rendered fat. NO CRISCO
•    1 cup crunchy peanut butter
•    1 cup leftover granola
•    1 cup uncooked oats
•    ½ cup seeds like sunflower, pumpkin seeds or bird seed
•    ½ cup dried fruit like raisins, cranberries, blueberries, dates, etc.
•    ½ cup chopped nuts
•    1 cup corn meal
•    1 cup flour
•    Optional: ½ cup fresh, chopped fruit like pears, apple, orange, strawberries or blueberries if you are using Suet right away
•    large pine cone & about 6 feet of strong string

Wash eggshells and microwave wet shells for 4 minutes. Cool and crush.

Put lard and peanut butter into large cooking pan and heat on low heat till soft. Remove from heat and add eggshells, granola, oats, bird seed, dried fruit, nuts, corn meal and fresh fruit if you are using it.

Allow to cool until it is no longer “runny.”  You can refrigerate if you need it to cool quicker but it might get too stiff.

Stuff the suet into the pine cone. Tie a long string about 1/4 way down pine cone and leave about 4 feet tail on the string. Hang from a tree limb.

* (you can omit eggsshells)

Yield: 4 ½ cups

Remember that all the birds can’t eat from your suet feeder. Cardinals are ground feeders, so throw some out for them on the ground. This Innkeeper’s Suet Recipe is a great way to recycle too. We have other suet recipes here.

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I love the pecan trees that my parents planted in 1922 -
and honey roasted pecans are just the best.

This year I picked up 6 bushels of pecans. Hurricane Sandy knocked them off the trees for me. I had the pecans cracked at Martin Supply and then I picked them out.  I usually sell some of my pecans, but this year I decided to keep them all for the Bed and Breakfast and friends.

These honey roasted nuts are crispy, sweet and a bit salty  – perfect for snacking and parties. And this recipe is so easy!

Honey Roasted Pecan Recipe

• 3 cups shelled pecans
• 3 Tablespoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon salt plus extra for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spray a heavy, rimmed cookie sheet with cooking oil spray. Place pecans on cookie sheet in a single layer.

Bake pecans for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and put nuts in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add 3 Tablespoons honey and stir to coat pecans. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and stir again.

Spray cookie sheet again and put nuts on the sheet in single layer. Bake at 220-250 for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring one time.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with a wee bit of salt. Separate any nuts that have clumped. Cool and store in air tight container. Nuts will keep fresh for at least a week.

Yield: 3 cups

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In another life, I had sheep in my yard. Remember the sixties?
Chloe, Maggie Belle & Yorick (photo by Peter Galuszka)

I didn’t have a lawn mower and I really did believe that the sheep would groom my yard. I needed the fleeces – I was working on my master’s degree in fibers – spinning and natural dyeing. 

I lived on the south side of the Pamlico River and keeping my sheep in the yard was difficult. Neighbors said they didn’t mind Maggie Belle and Yorick, but my guinea hens had to stay home. I had bees too.

I learned to spin wool, dye the yard with nuts and berries that I found and then I would weave my yarns into cloth.

The Martin County Arts Council is hosting a Fiber Arts Show at the Flatiron Building in Williamston; I will be spinnng for the opening on January 10. It has been a while since I did any spinning and this will be fun! I am happy to be spinning again and now I want to resurrect my bee hive.

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For couples who want  romantic seclusion for their wedding or vow renewal, the private, rustic setting of Big Mill Bed & Breakfast is perfect. No crowds. Just you, your mate and a few friends – if you want them.

No fuss, no stress – our team does it all for you with your guidance. Our photographer, Guy, takes the bride and groom around the farm, the lakes, the barns to get that perfect shot.  He might even use the old red truck.

If you want a different setting, we will travel – if you want to renew your vows on your boat, we will go. At your house or at the beach – our wedding officiant, Barney Conway, and photographer, Guy Livesay will join you there. Need a cake? We do that too.

We only do small, intimate ceremonies – we want your day to be an affair to remember.

(Video by Barney Conway & video photos by Guy Livesay)

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I love our new hand-drawn B&B farm map – made just for Big Mill

Lydia at Hand-Drawn Maps is a very talented English artist and she has drawn a map just for Big Mill B&B and the farm.

I love the outbuildings here on the farm – they are almost 100 years old. We have the Smoke House where my folks cured sausage and hams and stored the lard and fatback to feed five families; the Wash House where my mother heated the water with wood to wash the clothes; the Pack House where the mules lived; the Sweet Potato House where they cured the sweet potatoes; the Chicken Coop where we had chickens – my job was to gather the eggs.

We had tobacco barns for curing the tobacco, some were wood-fired and there were sheds for storing tools and equipment. It is all still here on the farm.

We used to raise cows, mules, pigs, chickens…Lydia even added a sheep. My sheep, Maggie Belle and Yorick, came here to live when I moved to a sailboat. They loved the pastures. If you look closely, you can see Sophia, my calf, and my favorite mule, Mary.

Now when our guests stroll around the farm they can better understand the heritage of all these wonderful old farm buildings.

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High Cotton in the antebellum South meant that the cotton was high,
prices were good and all was well on the plantation.

Yep, we’re in High Cotton on the farm here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast this year. Right outside my kitchen window the cotton is as high as I can remember. My brother John does say that isn’t necessarily a grand thing, but I like it. And this is the best looking cotton in the county.

Just last winter, my kitchen view was a gorgeous field of winter wheat. This spring they planted the cotton seeds right into the wheat field, leaving the tall wheat standing. It is called “no till.” Growing cotton from seed to harvested cotton takes about 25 weeks.

Then as the summer came, the cotton crowded out the wheat and voila, a cotton plant emerged.

In summer, cotton has gorgeous pink blossoms that turn to white. Then it turns to a green ball and that pops open to become a cotton boll. It is magic.

In October the leaves fall off the plant – don’t ask me why. All I know for sure is that I don’t go outside on that day or hang my clothes on the clothesline.

Then the huge machines come into the field and pick the cotton.

They don’t dare run over me while I am taking my photos – benefits of being the “farmer’s daughter.”

This harvested cotton is compacted into really large bales that are wrapped in colorful plastic; these bales will sit in the fields until there is room at the gin. Our cotton has “room at the inn” until it has “room at the gin.” Oh, how corny.

One day these bales disappear and off they go to the cotton gin in Everetts. The by-product of this is dumped near the gin and locals can go and gather this composted cotton detritus for mulch. 

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Late summer evenings in Big Mill B&B’s garden are filled with sweet scents

Photo by Chloe Tuttle

The show begins in the afternoon at 5 o’clock, when the Four O’clocks start blooming. They are an old flower that my mother and grandmother raised and shared with their friends. It is a wonderful plant and each flower can have several colors. They are not edible, but they have been used in food coloring.

Just before dark the moon flowers open and smell as sweet as honeysuckle.

Photo by Chloe Tuttle

And as it is turning dark, the Devil’s Trumpet slowly opens with its fragrant perfume. Georgia O’Keefe painted this beauty – it is also called Jimson Weed. Now I want an Angel’s trumpet. I hear it is sweet smelling.

Photo by Chloe Tuttle

 Lingering from night into day, the ginger lilies perfume the air.

Photo by Chloe Tuttle

So at five, six and seven in the evening, there is a sweet-smelling show every night in late summer and early fall in the Big Mill garden. Do you have any “blooming perfumes” in your garden this year?  Share in the comments below.

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This original salsa recipe is a crowd-pleaser and a cook-pleaser -
It only takes 5 minutes to make.  My nephew Barney created it
after several years of tasting and testing.

His salsa recipe is certainly one of his claims to fame. Barney’s best claim to fame is that he is my nephew, and he was born in the house that is now Big Mill B&B – two days after I was born here. He is also a gifted musician and still plays in his band Barney Conway and the Shadows.

Need a gluten-free, vegetarian appetizer to take to the party? This is perfect – tasty, easy to make and inexpensive.

This salsa is quite piquant, so if you want a milder taste, hold off on some of the jalapeno.

Barney’s Tomato Salsa

• 1 28-ounce can diced (not petite diced) tomatoes
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons jalapeno slices (in a jar)
• 1 Tablespoon juice from the jalapeno jar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup fresh, loosely packed cilantro
• 1/4 medium sized onion
• Few drops lemon juice

Put half the tomatoes and their juice, jalapeno slices plus the Tablespoon of the liquid, sugar, cilantro, onion and lemon juice into a blender or food processor. Blend well.

Add remaining tomatoes and pulse several times.

Chill before serving. Serve with tortilla chips. Recipe will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Barney and I spent an idyllic childhood growing up together here on the farm. We rode mules, fished and wandered all over picking blackberries.

Barney and Chloe in the yard of Big Mill in the late forties. (Note the Pack House in the background). Barney is back in North Carolina now and on the farm almost every day – he is a great asset to Big Mill Bed & Breakfast. Heritage is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

• Yield: 1 quart
• Time required: Fewer than 5 minutes

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