Not everywhere can you pull in to your local marina and buy raccoon meat.

Except in Martin County in eastern North Carolina. Yep, raccoon meat. So to keep a tradition we wanted our guests to have our special Raccoon Meat Quiche. Just down the road from Big Mill Bed & Breakfast at Gardner’s Creek is Roberson’s Marina where you can rent a canoe and, in season, get raccoon meat. I haven’t seen the sign for ‘possum yet.

Big Mill RACCOON QUICHE Recipe 

• 1 1/2 cups shredded southwest style hash brown potatoes (found in the refrigerated section at the grocery store)
• 4 Tablespoons butter, melted and divided
• 3 scallions/green onion with tops
• 1/2 medium sized red bell pepper (about 1/2 cup diced)
• 4-5 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• dash of cayenne pepper
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 3/4 cup grated Swiss or Jarlsberg cheese
• 1/2 cup cooked coon meat, diced (see below) 
• paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a round 8-inch or 9-inch quiche dish. Stir together the shredded potatoes and 1 Tablespoon of the melted butter. Sprinkle with salt. Press into the greased dish. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until edges start to brown. Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.  

Chop the scallions, bottoms and tops. Dice the red pepper. Saute both in 2 tablespoons of butter, until just barely tender, keeping them separated while cooking.

Whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, cayenne pepper, 2 Tablespoons of the butter, 1 Tablespoon flour, salt and black pepper. Sprinkle the cheese over the baked shredded potatoes. Add the coon meat, scallions and red pepper. Fill the dish full with the custard mixture and sprinkle with paprika. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Serve with hot sauce. Yield: 5-6 servings

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APRIL FOOL’s…..got’cha!

Now did you really think the same folks who will eat Raccoon will actually eat homemade yogurt with granola????  I don’t have a camouflage baseball cap, so my Vocation Vacations cap will have to do.

But really, the hunters here in Eastern North Carolina do eat many different game animals, including raccoon. The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service has a long list of Wild Game recipes, including bear, opossum, grouse, deer, moose, beaver, wild turkey and, yep, raccoon.

I talked to Frank Scearce, a raccoon hunter and game chef from way back; and this is how Frank cooks a whole raccoon. Cleaning a raccoon is serious business. They have about 14 musk glads that must be removed, or, I hear, it will run you out of your house. And don’t forget to remove the feet.

And I have to ‘fess up … Frank cleaned and cooked the racoon for the above quiche.  I had EVERY intention of cooking this raccoon myself, but Frank rolled his eyes, Two of my guests, Sarah and Jackson, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, actually requested this ‘Coon Quiche. They liked it! 

A confession:  I hardly eat any meat, so this is the one and only time I plan to make this quiche.

How to Cook a Raccoon  

• 1 coon, skinned with feet  and head removed
• 1 onion
• 1 potato, peeled
• Salt and Black Pepper
• 1-2 Tablespoons dried sage
• 1-2 pints barbecue sauce

Fill a large pot with water. Put the coon, onion, potato, a good sprinkling of salt, some black pepper and sage into the pot. Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender.

Remove Raccoon from pot and place whole coon in a roasting pan.  Discard onion and potato.  Baste coon with barbecue sauce. Cook in a 250 degree oven for one hour, basting with barbecue sauce several times. The meat should flake off the bones easily. Note: you might want to save certain bones, I hear they are magic.

Wild game entrees and politics have been in the news lately. At the death of North Carolina Governor Bob Scott the News and Observer states that Bob Scott might have been rural North Carolina’s "…last political hurrah — the last governor proficient at milking a cow, the last associated with the country crowd called the Branchhead Boys, the last to hold Executive Mansion possum dinners."

Speaking of President William Howard Taft the Atlanta Journal Constitution writes "Nothing says “hail to the chief” like a steaming plate of possum".  In 1910 at a large banquet in Atanta, a waiter presented to President Taft the ’possum entree that "sat grinning in a bed of gravy and sweet potatoes." The New York Times wrote "Taft eats Possum."  Billy Possum even became the mascot for Taft’s presidency. If you plan to eat wild game, it is best if you don’t name them…that just won’t work. I still remember when Brother John’s calf Blackie became steaks in the freezer. I was a wee little girl, but I cried.

In the south we all ate whatever we raised, trapped or hunted. Growing up on the farm here at Big Mill it just seemed normal to try it all. We ate rabbit, squirrel, quail, black birds, dove, duck, goose, frogs.  We once ate a guinea hen that had been run over; it was decided we just couldn’t do that again. Guess what, now I hardly eat any meat.

My good friend Ted Gardner who grew up near Gardner’s Creek told me they ate most any critter but, "Mama drew the line at ‘possum." I think I agree with Ted "Pearl.’

In her 1928 classic southern cookbook, Southern Cooking, Atlanta Journal food editor Henrietta Dull includes a recipe for cooking ’possum. I have this book; it was a gift from Sara Sutherland Tuttle (Mama Tut) who was a friend of Mrs. Dull.

If you decide that you really do want to eat like the locals, the North Carolina Extension Service at NC State University has many wild game recipes, including raccoon. They have Fricassed Raccoon and Dove Tetrazinni.  Eating raccoon and possum really makes as much sense as eating a crab.

I’d love to hear your comments … leave them below.  And don’t fret; I probably won’t serve you raccoon quiche at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast!

P.S. ’sorry to those of you who received this April Fool post early…’twas a real operator malfunction.

                       

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Every year for thirty years in the small Eastern North Carolina community of Farm Life, not very far from Big Mill Bed and Breakfast, the folks of Piney Grove Baptist Church present an outdoor drama of the final days of the life of Jesus Christ.

The Message of Easter began as a vision of E.T. Taylor, a childhood friend of mine. It has grown and some nights thousands of folks attend, coming from all over.  

E.T. was no novice to outdoor drama, having played Governor Eden in Blackbeard, Knight of the Black Flag, in historic Bath, N.C, a few moons ago in the seventies.

E.T. Taylor and Chloe

We sailed 10 miles on the Pamlico River to see E.T. in this performance; the return sail was under a gorgeous full moon.

In its first few years The Message of Easter was performed on the lawn. Now visitors enjoy the performances in a large outdoor theater that seats 3,000 folks with special lighting, surround sound and ample parking. And all this is offered at no charge.

Church members do it all: acting, set design, lighting, costumes, parking and everything in between. Some folks have never missed a performance.

Thirty years ago E.T. chose Jimmy Griffin to play Jesus, and Jimmy is still fulfilling that promise. Leslie Hardison is the only man to ever play Peter. 

Billy Peel is a barber by trade; but every year for thirty years in the weeks before Easter he is Pontius Pilot. Billy was my first boyfriend: I was two, he was three. His wife Betty Jo is tired of hearing us talk about it; I don't blame her. And for thirty years she has been Pilot's wife.

Williamston is a small town, not unlike Mayberry, and I call many of the folks at Piney Grove, "Cousin."  Imagine for a moment that the good folks of Mayberry presented an outdoor drama. You can be sure they would be sincere, the drama would be first class and the community would be involved. That's what happens in Farm Life in the weeks leading up to Easter. Everyone works together and works hard and everyone is welcome.

This year's drama will be March 26, 27 and 28 and March 31 through April 4, 2010. For information about the Message of Easter call 252-792-2954. Remember early spring can be chilly. If our Big Mill B&B guests attend the Easter drama, we send them off with cushions and blankets.

If you've ever attended an Easter season outdoor drama, do leave a comment below.  I'd love to hear your stories.

Dedicated to the memory of E.T. Taylor, a friend to many.

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Lake Mattamuskeet and the Pocosin Lakes of eastern North Carolina come alive every winter as thousands of tundra swans and snow geese make the journey from the Alaska tundra to our Inner Banks. Both refuges are an easy day trip from Big Mill Bed and Breakfast.

(Photo of Tundra Swans by Guy Livesay of Livesay Photography)

As many as 20,000 Tundra swans and 80,000 snow geese overwinter in these refuges. These magnificent swans and gregarious snow geese feed in the fields during the day and return to the lakes, rivers and sounds for the evening.

(Photo of tundra swan by Guy Livesay of Livesay Photography)

There are over 50,000 acres in the Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Preserve in Hyde County and over 110,000 acres in the Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Preserve in Hyde, Tyrell and Washington counties.

Pocosin is an Algonquin word meaning swamp on a hill. A type of shrub bog, the Pocosin habitat is unique to the southeastern US from Virginia to Florida, but most common in eastern North Carolina. I can still remember my mother talking about some wild-haired person as "looking like a Pocosin bull," usually in reference to an unkempt relative.  

(Wilson snipe photo taken by Big Mill guests Jane and Craig)

Pocosin Lakes is also home to raptors, black bears and the endangered red wolves and the Red-cockaded woodpecker; and neo-tropical songbirds can be seen here in summer and on their spring and fall migrations.

Fires burn often in these peat bogs and in June, 2008, lightening started a wildfire that burned 40,000 acres in ten days; smoke drifted as far west as Raleigh. This fire continued to burn for most of the summer of 2008, burning thousands more acres of peat bog. Birds and wildlife were displaced but they are very adaptable. Scientists think that the fire may actually be a benefit to the preserve habitat.

(Lake Mattamuskeet at sunset by Guy Livesay of Guy Livesay Photography)

Fires are not the only threat to these fragile lands. The Federal Government planned to acquire 30,000 acres for military purposes to build an Outlying Landing Field near the Pocosin Lakes Refuge where jets would battle the swans. A hue and a cry went up from residents of these small family farms, who were joined by other folks who cared. Nearly every yard in these inland coastal counties had its NO OLF sign.

After a long, tedious and bitter battle the Navy announced on January, 2008, that it was abandoning the project. I could hardly believe it, that residents, man and beast, reptile and fowl of the Pocossin won. Still to this day I cry every time I think about this victory. You can still see NO OLF signs in yards-some folks don’t want us to forget this hard-won fight. 

Thanks to my birding friends I have met here at Big Mill B&B for all the birding tips and the great photos. Some of these folks belong to the Carolina Bird Club and their January, 2009, meeting was held in Williamston. Club members made numerous field trips and recorded 126 species of birds.

Big Mill Bed & Breakfast has recently been designated a Birder Friendly Business by the North Carolina Birding Trail. 

Bird watchers are a great bunch of folks and they are trying so very hard to teach me to recognize all the birds that come to Big Mill for Bird and Breakfast. And if I name a bird incorrectly I expect my birding friends to let me know.                                                     

 

While you are in eastern North Carolina be sure to check out Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park in Scotland Neck.

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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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It’s magic — those tiny lights that twinkle in the wine bottles in the rooms at our own North Carolina Bed and Breakfast, Big Mill Inn-the perfect romantic getaway.

The idea is really simple: just drill a hole in a glass bottle and push the lights in. Guests ask me all the time, "How do you do it?"  Now is the perfect time to learn and these glowing wine bottles make great gifts.

First you need an empty bottle; wine bottles are good because they are free. The best ones are light green, usually Chardonnay, or blue, usually Riesling, but not always. The dark green bottles used for red wines like Merlot just don’t illuminate well.

You can either drink the wine or beg your friends to give you their empties. I have been saving wine bottles for years and now I have quite a stash.

Supplies and Equipment you will need:

Light green or blue wine bottle

1/2-inch ceramic tile drill bit (each bit will drill 6-8 bottles)

Small piece of masking tape

Electric drill (battery ones just can’t cut it)

20-count tiny Christmas light set. You need the kind that has a plug on one end only, not the end-to-end kind. The best time to buy these is at Christmas, they are difficult to find otherwise. It is a good idea to wear glasses or protective goggles. Gloves are also a good idea. Some of the bottles will break.

Place a small piece of masking tape on the back of the bottle about 3 inches up from the bottom. Start drilling; don’t use too much pressure, the bottle might break. The tape is to keep the drill bit from jumping around when you first get started.

Be VERY careful; this is a slow process and is not to be attempted by impatient folks.

Drill until the bit goes all the way through the glass. There will be glass dust in the bottle so you will have to rinse this out.  Allow bottle to dry.

Push each light into the hole that you have just drilled. This can be tedious and is not for the fainthearted. After all 20 are inside you are finished. Voila, it is gorgeous and magic!

Some folks decorate the bottles with all kinds of sequins, glitter and bottle covers. I don’t add anything because I like to see the wine labels.

We have these pretty wine bottles everywhere here at Big Mill B&B.  Everyone loves them and the price is certainly right. Oops, forgot to tell you that the ceramic drill bits cost about $16 each.

 What a fun way to recycle!  

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War wages every year on the first weekend in November as the Confederates attempt to defend Fort Branch against the Union Army.  Fort Branch is located in Hamilton, North Carolina — just about 12 miles from Big Mill Bed & Breakfast. 

Yankee reenactor Mike Kerriker (below) gets his weapon ready for battle in the annual Civil War Battle Re-Enactment this weekend near Big Mill B&B. 

Fort Branch sits high up on a cliff at a bend in the muddy, fast-moving Roanoke River near Hamilton, NC. 

Here, the Confederates built a dirt mound fort and it was strategic in the Roanoke Valley defense against the Union Army. From this vantage point, the Confederates had a clear view that enabled their troops to protect the railway bridge near Weldon and the construction site of the 122 foot ironclad ship the Ram C.S.S.Albemarle. From Ft. Branch, Johnny Reb could see if the Yankees were coming.

As a child we called this fascinating place Rainbow Banks, some called it Rainbow Bend. Since 1987, in early November Fort Branch comes alive again when Civil War Battle Re-Enactors recreate scenes of 1862. On the last day of the reenactment, war is waged with canons, musket fire and some pretty authentic-looking casualties. There was a real battle of Fort Branch and it took place in July, 1862.

But the days leading up to the battle are full of regular folk stuff like cooking on an open fire, making candles, making butter, playing music….all the things folks did to stay alive almost 150 years ago.

One of the reenactors gave me a piece of Hard Tack, a heavy, unleavened cracker or biscuit that was a staple for the soldiers on both sides of the war. Also called Sea Biscuits, these crackers are hard as a rock and are selling like hot cakes on the internet by the G.H.Bent Cookie Company. But you can make your own.

Hard Tack Recipe

(Preheat oven to 400 degrees)

2 cups flour

½ to ¾ cup water

6 pinches salt

1 Tablespoon lard or shorting (optional)

Mix all ingredients together to make a batter that does not stick to your hands, as dry as possible.

Roll out or press onto an ungreased cookie sheet to a thickness of ½ inch thick. Bake for 30-45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cut into 3-inch squares. Punch 4 holes into each cracker. Do not pierce all the way through. Flip and bake for another half hour or until crackers are dry. Turn oven off and leave hard tack in the oven until they are cool.

Note: Cooking times may vary. Hard tack can keep for up to a year.   

I am not a reenactor, but this is an exciting place to be. As I wandered through the campgrounds, I was shocked by the "dark." There were no electric lights, no flashlights … nothing of the twenty first century. Folks walked around carrying wooden lanterns lit with beeswax candles, men were wearing wool uniforms, smoke was everywhere, from the camp fires and the canons that they fire at dusk.

They do have concessions for folks to buy hand-forged iron things, candles, ball gowns, long underwear, artillery, ammunition, knives and most anything that a man would need to fight a war in 1862. The pretty hand-made gowns are for the women to wear on the last night of the reenactment when the Rebels join the Yankees to revel, dance and make merry.

The musicians above just picked up their instruments and started making music. On the left is Tommy Britt in civilian clothing. The mandolin player is obviously a Rebel and Ann Ortiz is playing the banjo. Most of these reenactors follow the circuit and they know each other from other battles up and down the east coast.

Ann plays regularly with the Huckleberry Brothers band from the NC 18th and the NC 27th Regimental Infantry units. They play instruments of the Civil war era including fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, pennywhistle, bones, bodhran (Irish drum), mountain dulcimer and sometimes a harmonica. As Ann says of their music,  "It is Old Time Civil War Period and Minstrel Music of the Old South, full of bawdry humor and wit."  While I was wandering around Fort Branch I think I saw some Yankees playing music with some Rebels. This is one of the songs you might hear them play:

Old Dan Tucker

Old Dan Tucker was a mean old man
Washed his face in a frying pan
Combed his hair with a wagon wheel
Died with a toothache in his heel

Get out the way, old Dan Tucker
You’re too late to get your supper
Suppers over, breakfasts cookin’
Old Dan Tucker just stands there lookin’

Old Dan Tucker. old no good
Went to Alaska looking for food
The weather tried to freeze him,
did its level best. (song of the Civil War era)

As night falls the camp gets quiet, soldiers sleep when they can in the tents, but always with a sentry to watch for a possible Yankee invasion.

I did hear that sometimes it is necessary to have a "defector" if they don’t have enough Yankees to fight the battle. This might just be a joke among the group, but it sounds reasonable to me. 

After Robert E. Lee’s surrender in 1865 the Confederates spiked the canons and dumped them over the cliff and into the Roanoke River. Several have been recovered but some are still lie at the bottom of the river.

Today the site is maintained by the Fort Branch Battlefield Commission and the 1st NC Volunteers/11th Regiment NC Troops. Each year on the first Saturday in December, Fort Branch hosts a Christmas candlelight tour of the fort ending with visitors joining to sing carols around an open camp fire. It is usually held the first Saturday in December. Wear warm clothes, it can get really cold on the banks of the Roanoke.

Fort Branch is a wonderful site and is definitely worth a visit.  Donations can be sent to Fort Branch Battlefield Commission, P.O. Box 355, Hamilton, NC 27840 or email them for more information — adjutant@fortbranchcivilwarsite.com. This year’s Re-enactment is November 6, 7, 8, 2009. 

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Summer nights bring back memories of childhood on the farm. You could heard the frogs, the crickets and you could smell the tobacco curing. It was a sweet, wonderful smell not at all like the smell associated with cigarette smoke.  I can still look out the window and see tobacco growing.

You can too, if you visit Big Mill Bed and Breakffast or eastern North Carolina in spring, summer or fall. Tobacco is a beautiful, stately plant with sticky, pink flowers.

In years past, come January the tiny seeds were sewn in beds that were then covered with cheese cloth. In May these plants were pulled and planted one at a time in rows in the fields that were "set off" with 8 rows and then a wider truck row. This was done so that when it was time to "pull or prime" the tobacco there would be room for the mule and the tobacco truck. We don’t "pick" tobacco.

This truck was a wooden cart with wooden wheels and it was pulled by a mule. Later tractors did this job. 

Pictured above are Mother, Monk, Sammy and our wonderful mule Mary. Mary lived to be 40 years old and spent her whole life here at Big Mill. Her room is being renovated for a Writer’s Retreat here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast and we are calling it the Mule Shed.

Above: Nephew Monk is piled up (as we say in the South) in a tobacco truck full of green tobacco.

Left: My cousin Jean Carol and Aunt Effie in the late forties. (I assume that is true because Aunt Effie is wearing her Army uniform).

After it was piled into the tobacco truck, the tobacco was carried to the "scaffold" and looped onto sticks. The looped tobacco was poked up into the barn and dried with a wood fire; later it was flue-cured.  It was then removed from the sticks, graded and tied into pretty bundles, ready for market. 

In late August the tobacco was taken to the warehouse to be auctioned off and sold to the highest bidder. My dad owned one of these warehouses The Roanoke Dixie.
Wow, that was a fun place for a child to play.   

(Above) That is my dad Ops (back view) wearing the hat. It seems that he has stopped the sale and is probably asking the tobacco buyer for a better price. The fellow on the left has walked over from Griffin’s Quick Lunch, just across the street. Griffin’s is still in business and they still sell Martin County barbecue.

This is how tobacco is harvested now, we aren’t Tobacco Road anymore. The warehouses are a thing of the past…the tobacco companies buy the tobacco right out of the field. That is sad; some of the art is lost. Oh, well….it is still a beautiful crop. Some day we will find the perfect use for tobacco.

By the way, I have never smoked a cigarette, or dipped or chewed…but I did make myself a snuff brush out of a dogwood twig. And I saw on the internet how to make your own snuff….hmmm.

 

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