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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Not for the squeamish …. 

(Truthfully, if you want to remember all farms as Green Acres, maybe skip this post)

It seems my meat-eating city friends seem to think sausages commit suicide or that hogs retire to Florida before becoming bacon. So be forewarned  - this is what really happens just before the bacon becomes bacon.

Some years ago, cold weather on the farm here in eastern North Carolina meant hog killing time and that happened at first light on a cold, cold morning usually in January or February.  

(Brother John backside with boots-a hammock hangs here today.
The big old truck in this photo is still running)

The hogs were about nine months old and weighed about 200 pounds.  No boar hogs were slaughtered – only females and castrated males; this part they didn't explain to me. My dad, Ops, couldn't kill his own hogs. 

My brother John told me that sometimes they fed coal to the hogs – he said it made their intestines smooth. Hmmm. I remember that they poured burnt cylinder oil on the hogs.  I guess that was for dry skin.

Neighbors helped neighbors. Each week my folks would get up really early and go and help other farmers kill hogs. They, in turn, came and helped us.

(That's my mother, Chloe, in the middle with the hat)

As a child, it was alright for me to go in the pasture with the mules and cows, but not with the hogs. But the best fishing worms were in the hog pens. I did sneak in to get those Rocky Mountain crawlers. Don't tell anybody.

When it was our turn to have the hog killing, I was very excited. I could stay home from school. The food was phenomenal: fried chicken, country ham, sausage, collards, succotash, sweet potatoes, corn bread, biscuits and so many desserts.

(My dad, Johnnie Gurkin, is on the right foreground in the photo above. Uncle Jimmy is at the end of the table and Henry Peel is leaning on the picket fence)

My dad couldn't kill his own hogs – someone else had to do that job. We killed 20 hogs each winter.

(Stuffing sausage. Brother John is walking away on the right.
That is also my back door here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast.
That well-bench is still there, only now it has pansies growning on it.)

Uncle Charlie was the sausage man-he seasoned all the sausage. Aunt Annie had a sage bed and grew sage for everyone. Ops liked sausage to be HOT so lots of red pepper flakes were added to our sausage  The ground up pork, fat and seasonings were stuffed into casings of small intestines (chitterlings) and hung in the smoke house to dry. Fresh sausage was called green, as opposed to dry.

Just beyond this scalding vat is the hole where the chitterlings were cleaned. It is now my glorious organic garden. It grows tall sunflowers and lots of wonderful fruit and vegetables that we serve to our guests here at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast.  

Hogs were killed, bled, scalded (to remove bristles), cut up, salted, cooked or cured. Five families lived here so we needed the food. The smoke house and all the buildings in these photos are still here. So are the lard paddles and scrapers and the large crocks that were used to store the salt pork.

Same farm, same family, same trees, same outbuildings, same house. Heritage is a precious thing.

These wonderful black & white photos were taken almost
60 years ago by my brother-in-law Barney Conway, Sr.

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Cracklins:  Pork fat and skins that are deep fried
in rendered lard until they are crunchy.
(From the Eastern North Carolina lingo dictionary)

Cooking Up Cracklins

Cracklins used to be common fare on southern tables. Sometimes you have to go back to your roots and eat the food of your heritage. My folks and the neighboring farm families had hog killings in the winter and they made cracklins/cracklings. So in cold weather we ate cracklin bread. Rest assured we don't eat like this all the time.

Cracklin Corn Pone Bread Recipe (eggless corn bread popular in the South)

• 1 cup pork cracklins
• 2 cups fine ground corn meal (I use House-Autry)
• 2 Tablespoons self rising flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of sugar (optional)
• 1 cups warm water (add more if needed)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease the pone pan with some really sturdy grease like Crisco or lard.

Chop cracklins. If you don't like brown flecks in the bread, then grind the cracklins.

In a large mixing bowl stir together the cracklins, corn meal, flour, salt and sugar. Add the water slowly, stirring until the mixture is the consistency of pancake batter.

Pour into pone pan, filling to the top. Bake until edges are brown and bread is crusty, 35-45 minutes. As soon as the bread is cool enough to handle, pop the pones out of the pan. Serve immediately while bread is hot.

Yield: 16 pones.

This bread is made in a cast iron corn pone pan

The corn meal is also important. When I was growing up I rode my bicycle down our dirt road to the Big Mill to get a paper bag full of fresh ground corn meal; usually from our own corn. Miss Sadie James made the best meal; I can't find any meal of that quality now. My dad Ops taught me how to take the raw meal in your hand, squeeze it and it should clump together like clay. If not, then it was ground too fast and the stone heated the meal too much.

Cracklin bread ready to eat

If you really want to try eating cracklins and you aren't planning to attend any hog killings, you can buy them in some grocery stores like Piggly Wiggly. Buy the cracklins without skins, your teeth will thank you.

I did find a Cracklin' Bread Recipe in the White Trash Cookbook, but don't think cracklins are just for us down home folks anymore. Emeril Lagasse has a recipe on how to make Cracklins and a Cracklin Bread recipe!

To see Cracklins being made, join us at the Martin County Farm Heritage Fair in Williamston, N.C. at the Senator Bob Martin Agriculture Center on December 5th, 2009, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you attend, look for me – I will be spinning wool, taking photos and eating cracklins. And I will be hoping my jams win another first prize!

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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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It’s berry picking time in Eastern North Carolina

…and all the Big Mill Bed & Breakfast guests can be certain they will feast on "just picked" strawberries in the months of April, May and June. We have two U-Pick Strawberry fields here in Martin County and our local produce is the best. Folks say berries from different fields have different flavors, and I believe them.

At the Berry Patch in Robersonville you can buy local grown cabbages, onions, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, peas, potatoes and corn.  And you can get just-made strawberry jam.

Shirley is going on her eleventh year at the Berry Patch…I only see her in the strawberry season, but that can be at least several times a week. The berries are so luscious, I can’t resist picking more than I need. Vivian, Shirley and Carleen are also familiar faces at the Berry Patch.

At the fields you pick (and eat) berries, weigh them and off you go with quarts of ripe red fruit. Then you must decide what to do with all these pounds of berries that you picked. 

I make strawberry jam for our Big Mill B&B guests. Don’t think I’m bragging (much!), but this is an award-winning strawberry jam recipe!  It won best-of-show at our Farm Heritage Fair.  It is wonderful.

When I was growing up, we would pick the berries, make jam and – on the very same night — we ate homemade biscuits with jam and homemade butter.

Growing your own and buying local is a growing trend — and a good one. All around us there are many farmer’s markets, vegetable stands and local folks selling their produce. We even have vendors who sell collards out of a pick up truck. We need to support them all. You can find a list of farmers in your area at Local Harvest and at North Carolina Farm Fresh. 

I will be posting some guest articles on The Bountiful Kitchen – Inn Cuisine.  The article with my recipe for Chloe’s Strawberry Jam is just the first in a series of eating local, sustainable foods.  

Plan to Visit: The Berry Patch in Robersonville, NC 252-795-4903 and Berry Tyme Farm in Jamesville, NC 252-792-6916. This year, there is a new J & J Farm Produce in Martin County near Jamesville 252-799-8110. They are not a You-Pick farm, but they do sell strawberries, cabbage, potatoes, May peas, corn and asparagus.              

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It snowed on the farm…so we made snow cream.

And when it snows in eastern North Carolina, we go all to pieces.  If the weather man predicts snow, we buy all the milk and white bread in every grocery store. Well, I buy heavy cream, popcorn and artichoke hearts. Then we hunker down and wait for the beautiful snow. We close schools and take photos of everything in sight. But one thing we do that is really unique — we make snow cream.

Note: This article looks much better when you read it on the website.
Click here to read the pretty version at Chloe’s blog.

I don’t know how far south snow cream is made, but they don’t make it north of here in Virginia. Maybe it is only a North Carolina treat. When I was growing up we couldn’t wait for snow, but we had to, because it didn’t snow every year.

Snow Cream Recipe

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup cream
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg (optional)
• 1 bowl of light, clean snow (6-8 cups)

Cream together the cream, sugar and vanilla. Some folks add the egg, but I don’t. Using a flexible utensil like a spatula, add the snow a little at a time to the cream mixture until it is the consistency of creamy ice cream. You will have about 3 servings and you must eat it immediately because it melts fast! Oh, what a treat. (In a pinch you can use sweetened condensed milk in place of the cream and sugar. We always kept a can around just in case it snowed).

At Big Mill Bed and Breakfast when it snows, we feed the birds, make snow cream, take photos of everything and play in the snow.

Above: a photo at Big Mill from years ago of Chloe Ann (left), that’s me and Chloe, Sr. on the right-my mother. Same yard, same outbuildings. We thought this was a big hill. Santa brought Nephew Barney and me these strange things called snowflakes. They were round, fast and steering them was impossible. But they were fun.

Above: photo taken by nephew Monk of the barns in the snow

I’m curious … have you ever eaten snow cream? Feel free to share your memories and recipes for snow cream by leaving a comment below.
We all eat well at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast when it snows.

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It’s Christmas here at my favorite Bed and Breakfast in North Carolina … I am the resident fur person and that is my opinion.

You know I have been around a lot, being a cat and all that.  So when I picked Chloe’s B&B, it was after much thought and I love it here. I even really like Chloe.

That is except when she gives me a bath and when she makes me dress up and pose for a photo. I knew this was coming, but she sneaked up on me. Hope you like me in my Santa outfit. Harrumph.  

She tried to get me to wear a beard, but I flatly refused. I am a lady – what was Chloe thinking?  Thankfully, it was only a Santa hat.

Life on the farm is always special, but at Christmas, it is magical. We never really finish decorating but we have such fun doing it. Chloe says I am a big help, Well, I try. 

(Below: Chloe made the wreath on the Pack House from our grapevine prunings.)

Chloe and I both want to let all our friends and guests know how much we care about them. This has been a wonderful year here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast and we have met the very best folks.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, Seasons Greetings and we hope to see all of you soon.

And Happy New year from both of us.

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