From the Innkeeper

Merry Christmas from Chloe Ann and all of us here at Big Mill Life on the farm is always magic at Christmas time. Today I walked to the woods (too wet for Old Red Truck) and found holly with berries. When I was growing up my dad and I would go into the woods to gather holly… Read more

A good friend and frequent guest at Big Mill Bed & Breakfast emailed me the other day to let me know how much she missed my blog articles. I was chagrined when I realized how long it had been since I posted something! Rest assured, these hands have not been idle! In fact, I don’t… Read more

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… Read more

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… Read more

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. 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… Read more

‘Bet you never even heard of Dinner on the Ground. Sadly, it has been called a fading tradition. It seems these days I look up and things I thought would always be there are gone or leaving.  Dinner on the Ground is one of them. But for now they are still with us.  For many years it has… Read more

In the Florida Keys there is a pass through the mangroves called Toilet Seat Pass If you have ever spent any amount of time around the sea and in waterways, you will know that the locals have their own navigational aids. In North Carolina’s Outer Banks on the island of Ocracoke you will see empty… Read more

When you run a Bed and Breakfast, carving out time for your personal R&R can be a challenge.  But again this year I have made my escape!  I am in Islamorada on holiday with friends Joy and Patrick . We’re staying at the paradise home of our friends George and Louise, who have headed to Alberta in search of ducks… Read more

Growing up on the farm in North Carolina, we loved picking berries right off the bushes. We picked blueberries that we called huckleberries or blackberries that we called briar-berries. I only grew up in the summer – there are no fun stories about winter. My nephew Barney and I would get on our bicycles and… click to get Innkeeper Chloe Tuttle’s Southern Blueberry jam Recipe