What do we do? Those thin plastic bags, called white pollution, are killing sea creatures and cluttering our beaches. I remember walking the beach on the Pamlico River and seeing hundreds of plastic bags hanging from cypress trees; these were the bags that would end up in our rivers and eventually pose a threat to sea life.

How many bags are used per year?

We are overrun with plastic bags.

The Wall Street Journal says 50 billion and they don’t biodegrade. So we still have all of them in some form.

As for paper sacks, making a paper bag generates more water and air pollution than a plastic bag. But we are more likely to recycle and reuse a paper bag. Neither breaks down very well in the landfill.

Cities and countries around the globe are struggling with these issues. Los Angeles is the first U.S. City to ban free plastic bags. Their “No Disposable Bag Day” held in December, 2007 was a great success. Bangladesh has banned plastic bags. Ireland has imposed a bag tax and thereby reduced its plastic bag usage by 90%. Even China has banned free plastic bags, so if you are heading to the Olympics don’t forget your grocery totes.

Plastic bags will be gone from the check-out line at Whole Foods by Earth Day, April 22, 2008. The Manhattan Whole Foods Store sold reusable totes by the designer Anya Hindmarch that taut “I’m Not a Plastic Bag”. New Yorkers began queuing up at 2 a.m. to buy these bags that were quickly sold out.  A stampede of shoppers for these trendy bags in Taiwan injured thirty people.

Target and Harris Teeter and many stores are selling the reusable bags at good prices, many under a dollar.  IKEA is charging a nickel for each plastic bag, hoping that folks will provide their own bags. Even Wal-Mart is introducing a reusable bag with “Paper or Plastic-Neither”  Wal-Mart,  forsooth? Guess it fits in with my quiet Green Revolution.

What are we doing at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast?

Well, when I lived on a boat in the Caribbean, I always took my own bags to the store. When I lived in St. Barth’s we needed these strong, unbreakable canvas boat bags because we had to carry all our groceries on a small motorcycle. Thirty years later I still use these bags; you can buy them at places like West Marine , LL Bean and Bass Pro Shops and online at Green Home. They hold more than I can carry.

At Big Mill BB we use our own bags.

Here in Williamston, North Carolina, I take my own bags to the store and the folks at the check-out counter peer at me as if I had sprouted horns. But I keep on with my, mostly tacit, vigil to help save the Earth, one aluminum can and one bag at a time. We might go through your trash if you don’t recycle at Big Mill.

And, along with the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Wan Arun Buddhist Temple in Bangkok, Thailand and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and others across the planet, Moses and I celebrated Earth Hour on March 29th. We really enjoyed the candlelight.

None of this is new for us on the farm here in coastal North Carolina; but we are glad to have the company. Someone must have noticed that we are seriously earth-friendly; we were just voted one of the Top Ten Eco-Friendly Inns by BedandBreakfast.com.

For now, at Big Mill B&B, we are supporting those businesses that are making an effort to help fight global warming and pollution. We reuse any plastic or paper bags that sneak into the house.

We give them to the fellow who sells watermelons and collards out of his truck. And we carry those cute totes to the store. But just when I think I have figured it out, the bubble bursts; so please don’t tell me we destroyed a wetland to make them.

And shame on all of us in the U.S. if we have to trail behind Bangladesh.

 Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787

Not one to toot my own horn, I just have to share this good news. Big Mill B&B has been singled out as one of the Top 10 earth-friendly inns by BedandBreakfast.com.  And we are the only North Carolina Bed and Breakfast to make the cut.  WOW!

Of course, it was wonderful to be acknowledged last year when the Washington Post ran the article about our clothesline.  And now, to be in such good company with other environmentally-friendly bed and breakfast owners … I’m just tickled.

That said, I realize that so many of the things we do here at Big Mill are second nature.  I’m always surprised when guests thank me for sharing a green-friendly tip or trick they didn’t realize.  I have a million of ’em I learned from my mom  Hmmm, I should post some of these on my blog.

In fact, I’m working on a new post called “Paper or Plastic.”  It should have been finished by now, but I got so fascinated learning new things retailers are doing, it has taken me longer to wrap up the article.  But, I promise to have it ready for you in the next day or so.  It’s very interesting, if I do say so myself

We save the seeds every year from these stately sunflowers; some to feed the birds, some to grow new sunflowers.

 Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787 

Sunnyside is an eastern North Carolina tradition and folks from all over the country come to taste these special, just-shucked oysters……………..OPENS OCTOBER, 12, 2023 at 5:30!!

Click to read more about Sunnyside Oyster Bar

SAD NOTE: We lost this wonderful eastern North Carolina treasure in 2018 to a devastating fire.

The Cypress Grill is a place you just don’t want to miss; even if you don’t like fish. Sitting precariously on the banks of the Roanoke River in eastern North Carolina, it has welcomed diners for over fifty years.

Michael Stern, who does the Road Food column on National Public Radio calls it “the last of the old-time herring shacks.” Mr. Stern’s specialty is finding wonderful out-of-the-way eateries.

The Cypress Grill sits on the banks of the Roanoke River

Click to read all about this fun Mom and Pop eatery

Oh, but I love to pick up pecans. And I like to play with limbs and sticks in the yard; but mostly I like to roll in the sunshine and throw out a few sage remarks while Chloe picks up the pecans. (I am not sure if she enjoys this as much as I do.)

Pecans and Chloe’s old Red Flyer wagon from years ago. Chloe loves that Pecan Picker gadget

Our four pecan trees were planted by Chloe’s folks in 1922, so they are quite grand and stately. We haven’t had pecans for a few years, mostly because of the storms.

When Chloe was a kid she used to sell pecans and sometimes she sold as many as 15 bushels. She told me that in all her years growing up on the farm at Big Mill she had never been hit on the head by a pecan until yesterday. Now she is wearing a hat.

This year we have five bushels of nuts and I must inspect them all.

Chloe is very fond of a potato crate and we store pecans in them. I see nothing noble about these crates. If I went in a car I used to have to ride in this ridiculous crate. It was humiliating. Imagine showing up for an event in a crate like some Eastern North Carolina country hick. I am not the one who has a Redneck Woman license tag on my pick up truck. Now I have my own carrier but I want a nicer, padded one.

We are working on a Big Mill pecan biscotti recipe. I don’t much care for biscotti, but Chloe tells me they go great with our guest’s morning coffee here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast.

Mouse flavored Biscotti might be nice – Chloe even made this for me.

I want to thank all of you kind folks who sent me presents and treats…you are great!

Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787

I saw my first Brown Bag Cookie Mold in the early eighties in a tiny shop in Virginia Highlands, a small Yuppie neighborhood in Atlanta, where I was living.

Cookie molds are used to make Beeswax Ornaments

This love affair has never ended. I have St. Nicholas from the 1983 collection, which was the first year they were made. The Brown Bag name comes from the philosophy that small, ordinary things can be wonderful works of arts.

With these clay molds you can make gorgeous cookies, cast beeswax ornaments and hand cast paper. From what I have read it seems the originator of these clay molds now only creates one a year and she donates the proceeds of the sales to charity.  For 2007 the mold was a gingerbread house and any monies will went to Habitat for Humanity.

I have about 20 of these Brown Bag Cookie molds, some made by hand, and I cherish each one of them. Many of the molds are now collected and you can find them on EBay and other sites on the internet; they are no longer sold in stores.

If you buy beeswax directly from the beekeeper, it is cheaper, but it can be dirty, so you will have to clean it.  I used to keep bees; I even had bees in my early Inn keeping days here at Big Mill Bed and Breakfast. I had a great teacher, my cousin Bobby who was blind. I was his “eyes” when he checked the hives. I ordered my first colony of bees from Sears & Roebuck and they came by mail in a small screen box. My rural mail carrier was a wreck. En route wild errant bees had attached to the outside trying to join my bees.

“Raw” beeswax after it has been cleaned.

Beekeeping is really a science, and without Bobby around, I couldn’t protect my bees from all the dangers. But I still find them fascinating. Did you know that all the bees in a hive are women? There is even a book Beekeeping For Dummies. There are many good websites and books out there now, so if you want a fascinating hobby, you won’t be bored.

My bees knew me and could tell when I was upset or nervous; the pitch of the hum in the hive went up an octave. Bees have taken a bad rap. They are not naturally aggressive like hornets and yellow jackets. Please don’t kill them; we really need all the bees here on the farm at Big Mill. They are one of the reasons our blueberries are so prolific!

Recipe for Cast Beeswax Ornaments
(Download the Brown Bag Idea Book for more projects)

• Brown Bag Cookie Molds
• 1 pound beeswax (this will yield about 6-8 ornaments)
• Small amount of thin wire (like in a twist tie)
• 1 yard very thin ribbon
• A small amount of vegetable oil, 1 Tablespoon or thereabouts
• Small paint brush to apply the vegetable oil to the molds
• Old double boiler and ladle (or 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup if using microwave*)
• Wooden spoon or paint paddle for stirring

Chill the cookie molds at least 20 minutes in the refrigerator.

Melt the beeswax in a double boiler over medium to low heat, checking often to make sure the water does not boil out.  Remove the mold from the refrigerator and brush or rub a wee amount of vegetable oil onto the inside of the mold. Place the mold on a flat surface covered with some protective covering of waxed paper. This allows you to reuse any spilled wax. The mold MUST be flat and level.

Beeswax cooling in the mold

Using a lipped ladle, gently pour beeswax into the mold. At this time you can tell if the mold is level. If not, correct this.

The wax will immediately pull away from the mold and dry quickly. When it is cloudy, insert a twisted piece of very thin wire into the back of the mold at the top. This will be your hanger. If you forget you can heat the wire and do this later. Or you can use ribbon. You do not have to wash the molds between pourings; but you may have to add more oil.

The finished angel

To remove from the mold, turn it over and rap gently on a table. Do this before the ornament is completely cold. If you have any “over pour” you can trim off the edges using a heated knife blade. If you make a bad pour, don’t fret. Just put the wax back in the pot and reheat. This is true if you break an ornament…they are very fragile.

Now for the cleanup: Call the National Guard. But DON”T let any of this wax get into your drains…or you will rue the day. Actually, a hair dryer and paper towels work well.

The Rocking Horse design is from 1984, the second year of production for Hill Design’s Brown Bag Cookie Molds. Gingerbread Man and the Cherub are from 1992. These delicate ornaments are translucent and the tree lights glow through each one. The beeswax aroma lingers and is not lost through the years.

I store these treasures flat, with sheets of waxed paper between each one. They must be kept in a cool place.

I still have my hive, my bee suit and my pith helmet!

*You can use the microwave to make these ornaments, but I prefer the stove-top because it allows me to keep the wax at a steady temperature.

Big Mill Bed & Breakfast 252-792-8787

When  holiday seasons approach I have to try to shed the Bah Humbug attitude. The best way for me to do that is to make something pretty or make a gift for someone.

How to make your own dehydrated fruit decorations

My mother and I used to cook and bake fudge, brownies and cookies and we made all our decorations mostly from things we had available. We dipped sweet gum balls in the handy five-gallon buckets of silver roof paint. Wonder if it was toxic?

I just love the dehydrated orange and grapefruit slices; they look like stained glass when hung on a Christmas tree. The apples are also great for stringing garlands and for wreaths. Funny, but I have noticed that men love to eat these dehydrated apples; women walk right by them. And no one can deny loving that wonderful, fresh citrus smell. Click to see how to DIY dried frut

All things pumpkin remind me of fall. We used to grow our own pumpkins in the corn field.  Nowadays canned pumpkin is really better than the orange pumpkins we see in stores. This Pumpkin Bread is especially good – it has a secret ingredient.

Print Recipe

Pumpkin Bread with Cardamom

This tasty Pumpkin Bread has a new twist - the elegant cardamom.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Cool10 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin, Holiday food

Servings: 8

Calories: 315kcal

Author: Chloe Tuttle

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
• 1/2 cup sweetened, shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, mashed pumpkin canned is just fine
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1 teaspoon cardamom scant teaspoon
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 mini loaf pans. Dust with flour.

  Whisk egg in a large bowl. Add sugar, oil and maple syrup. Stir in coconut and pumpkin. Stir in the flour. Pour into mini loaf pans, filling half full. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
• Cool before slicing
  

Nutrition

Calories: 315kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 11mg | Potassium: 117mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 2415IU | Vitamin C: 0.7mg | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 0.9mg

Big Mill Bed & Breakfast, Williamston, NC 27892

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.

Old Farm Truck and Chloe beside the Potato House

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

Baked Sweet Potato Fries are delicious!

Print Recipe

Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet potato fries are so good. I love the creamy insides from baking but then that crisp outer edge.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time30 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baked sweet potato fries, baked sweet potato fries recipe

Servings: 3 servings

Calories: 278kcal

Author: Chloe Tuttle

Ingredients

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

Instructions

• 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 are tender and crisp. If you want the fries to be crispier, bake longer.
• Serve hot. Oh, these are good!

Nutrition

Calories: 278kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 513mg | Potassium: 764mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 32175IU | Vitamin C: 5.4mg | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 1.4mg

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

Hayman Sweet potatoes have a light yellow-green flesh

If you want to branch out, here is a good Sweet Potato Fritters from Jenifer in New Zealand

Big Mill Bed & Breakfast, Williamston, NC 252-792-8787