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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The “Dart” Found Williamston

Fox News-Detroit does a segment called “throw the dart.” Wherever the dart lands – that town gets a call. Well, it landed on Williamston, NC, and they called the Martin County Travel & Tourism Authority.

Tourism director Sarah Katherine Adams asked my nephew Barney Conway to take the call. And, of course, he did a stellar job. It’s like they called Andy of Mayberry and got Charles Kuralt. Our whole town is a-buzz! We are still talking about it.

Let me know what you think. Doesn’t it make you want to head to North Carolina? And, of course, Big Mill B&B got an honorable mention.

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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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I first tasted Gazpacho in the sixties when I was a young student in Spain.

Photo by Chloe Tuttle

It was in a little cafe in Toledo and I still remember the cafe, the handsome young man and the Gazpacho.

It seems there are as many Gazpacho recipes as there are barbecue recipes. I finally found one that reminds me of that night in Toledo.  I have adapted my recipe from one in Craig Claiborne’s New York Times International Cookbook – my favorite cookbook. Did you know that Craig Claiborne – food editor for the New York Times  – was born in Sunflower, Mississippi?

Gazpacho – Chilled Tomato Soup

• 4 cups tomatoes with cores removed (2 1/2 to 3 pounds) *
• 1 1/2 cups peeled cucumber, cut into large chunks
• 1/2 cup cucumber, diced into small pieces for garnish (reserved)
• 1 green pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
• 1 small clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 5 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar or white vinegar (wine vinegar is more distinctive)
• 1 1/2 slices of bread or 2 slices French bread

(You will need a kitchen sieve for this recipe).

Place tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups cucumber, green pepper, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and bread into a blender. Blend until pureed.

Pour through a kitchen sieve and press with the pestle to extract the liquid. Discard the seed and skins – they make great compost.

Chill and serve in flat bowls with the reserved, diced cucumber as garnish.

*You can also make this gazpacho with one 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes

Yield: 6-7 one-cup servings

Photo by Chloe Tuttle

The basket in the photo (above) is very special – it was a gift from Miss Sadie, owner of the original Big Mill grist mill.  Years ago she used it to take three dozen eggs up town every week to trade for coffee and sugar and things she couldn’t grow. It still has the cotton seeds in it,  They were used to keep the eggs from breaking.

I grew these tomatoes in my Big Mill Cook’s garden. The garden is in my orchard where our livestock used to graze under the apple trees.

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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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Sweet cucumber pickles are as southern as iced tea

(photo credit: Chloe Tuttle)

Not just any pickles either – they must be homemade and preferably homegrown. It is alright if someone gives you the cucumbers, or you pick them up fresh from your local Farmers Market.

We all have a family recipe that has been passed down and it usually involves days of work for our pickles to have just the right crunch. My mother, Chloe, had several pickle recipes, but this one is my favorite.

(photo credit: Chloe Tuttle)

Sweet Cucumber Pickle Recipe

• 7 lbs cucumbers
• 2 cups pickling lime
• Numerous buckets of water
• 1/2 gallon 5% white distilled vinegar (most vinegar is 5%)
• 5 pounds sugar
• 3 Tablespoons pickling spice & cheesecloth

Use small or long pickling cucumbers. Burpless work too. Just don’t use large cucumbers with many seeds. Wash the cucumbers. Slice crosswise into 1/8″-1/4″ slices.

Mix 2 cups of lime with several cups of water in a large ceramic, enamel or stainless steel vessel. Stir to blend.

Add the cut cucumbers and enough water to cover them. Gently stir the mixture.  Be very careful — they will break so easily. 

Soak for 24 hours.

I remember my mother making these pickles. Sometimes she had a plate on top to hold down the cucumbers. As you pass by, gently stir under the cukes, just to loosen the settled lime. Note: you can soak them for 48 hours and they are still wonderful.

After soaking for 24 hours, rinse the cucumbers in clear water. Then change the water every hour on the hour, 4 times.

Tie pickling spices in a double thickness of cheesecloth. Put 1/2 gallon distilled vinegar, 5 pounds sugar and the pickling spices into a large stainless steel or enamel cooking pot.  Stir to melt the sugar. Add the cucumbers and bring to a boil. Let stand overnight.

Next day bring the cucumbers and vinegar to a boil and simmer for 1 hour. Pack pickles and vinegar mixture into sterilized jars according to canning instructions.

Yield: 9-10 pints

FYI – I also have a pickle fork in several different sterling patterns. It’s a southern thing.

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