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Rosemary House hosted four delightful couples last Wednesday night. They stayed overnight and had breakfast with us on Veteran’s Day. They agreed to let us tell you a bit about them. And take their pictures!
Putting aside the politics, the reasons for conflicts, the right-or-wrongness of why the lives of young men and women are at risk in far-away lands, the fact remains that they and their families give up years of their lives to serve this country, often under conditions of danger, uncertainty, and hardship.
So when the program B&B For Vets was proposed, in which B&Bs give a free night to a veteran, we at Rosemary House were eager to participate. All five rooms were opened to first-come first-served reservations, and soon booked. One canceled, but that left three couples and a family who arrived on November 10 to enjoy a free night’s stay at a B&B, a bit of acknowledgment for their service.
 The Wood family (Arthur, Nicole, Brittany, Tristan, and Peyton). Arthur is in the Marine Corps, stationed for ten years at MCAS New River in Jacksonville NC as a meteorologist.
 Jolene and Bob Dombek. He was a Navy photographer, stationed aboard the USS Constellation in San Diego, from 1997 until 2002.
Sa m and Linda Souza. Sam’s been a Marine since 2005, stationed at MCAS Miramar in San Diego and now at MCAS New River.
Eugene and Marilyn Dickey. He retired from the Air Force where he worked in the R&D field with an overseas assignment in Hawaii. They enjoy – wait for it – 39 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Here they are below, 3rd and 4th from the right.
 The Whole Gang A group of really nice people we were so pleased to meet and appreciate.
Veteran’s Day has come and gone, but the gratitude we owe those who serve in the military shouldn’t be confined to a single day.
Thank you for your service.
Get outside, that is – because October is festival month around here. The weather’s cool, the humidity comfortable, and the leaves are wearing the very latest colors, wine-red and citrus. It’s a perfect time to wander around a festival listening to music and exploring what is unique about Chatham County.
 photo by Mark Bashista Heritage Day at Jordan Lake. October 1, 10-3. Celebrates the rich history of this area. Live music, cloggers, BBQ, make your own old-fashioned crafts including corn husk dolls, tin punch art, cane poles, pine needle painting and more. Exhibits and demonstrations such as local arrowheads, Native American life, flint knapping, farm life, tobacco crops, wildlife and natural resources, and more. White Oak Recreation Area.
Pittsboro Pepper Festival October 2, 4-7 PM. An afternoon of peppers from Piedmont Biofarm, local food from our wonderful local restaurants, live music, crowning of a King and Queen of Peppers, pepper tasting, and more.
Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival. October 6, 2011, 10:00am through October 9, 2011, 8:00 pm. Four days, four stages, over sixty bands playing world and local music. Dancing, workshops, camping, food, family activities, and fellowship.
Goldston Old Fashion Day October 8, 2011 8:00am – 5:00pm Celebrations, crafts, music, food, children’s activities, homemade ice cream, hot dogs, Philly cheesesteaks, homemade barbecue, and more. The event has been a Goldston fall tradition for 20+ years.
Kids’ Pirate & Princess Festival! Friday, Oct 14 through Sunday, Oct 16 (9am – 2pm) At Jordan Lake State Park – Ebenezer Church Recreation Area, “Non-scary” Pirate Captain Don provides 20-minute boat rides from the beach. Come dressed as a pirate or princess and join in the fun! Pirate music, arts & crafts, treasure hunt by the picnic shelter with the Pirate Queen.
Pittsboro by Gaslight Saturday October 15, starts at noon. Don your optional Victorian apparel and wander around town. Scavenger hunt, walking minstrels, fictional history tour, parlor games, live music at multiple venues.
In addition to festivals, there’s all the usual wonderful activities and entertainment – check out the Pittsboro-Siler City CVB Events Calendar. Music at Roost, City Tap, the Bynum General Store, Reno Sharpe’s Store, and the General Store Café. A horse show, tours of Carolina Rescue, and stargazing on Jordan Lake.
Lots to do and see – get outside!
… can you find a meadery, a steampunk art gallery/bar, a charter school supported by a great little Italian restaurant, a biofuels plant, and a beautiful pollinator garden? All in one town with a population of less than 4000. Proof that you need only a few special people to create unique places.
Starrlight Mead, a winery where Ben and Becky Starr make mead wine from honey. Saturday August 6 there’s a Mead Day Celebration, noon- 5 PM. Home brew and beehive demos, sword fighting, Renaissance music, turkey legs, arts and crafts vendors and more. 480 Hillsboro St. #1000.
Davenport and Winkleperry, an uber-cool steampunk art gallery, café, and lounge that offers wine tastings, knitting and game nights, scrimshaw competition, great coffee, baked treats, bar drinks. It’s run by Emmet Davenport who also hosts a weekly radio show, Clockwork Caberet playing jazz, blues, goth, folk, swing, gypsy punk, dark cabaret, classical and other related genres, WCOM 103.5 FM-LP in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, every Monday at 11pm. 18 East Salisbury Street.
Bella Donna restaurant, authentic Italian food. Donna Bianco makes everything from scratch, so amazingly good, and uses the proceeds to support Our Neighborhood School, a charter school she runs that is located in the same building. 87 Thompson Street.
Piedmont Biofuels converts vegetable oil to diesel fuel, and substantially eliminates or reduces emissions. Biodiesel fumes smell like French fries! A coop business started by Lyle Estill, they perform research, educate, and consult on the creation of clean, renewable fuels in addition to collecting oil and turning into fuel. The facilities are also home to Piedmont Biofarm. Tours Sunday at 1:00, Fridays at 10:00. 220 Lorax Lane.
Chatham Marketplace pollinator garden was planted and is maintained by Debbie Roos, one of Chatham County’s Agriculture Agents. It’s full of beautiful plants, bees and butterflies. Debbie writes about sustainable agriculture, local farms and local food, and pollinator conservation in her Growing Small Farms blog. Garden tours on Tuesdays, September 6, October 4, and November 1 at 5:30 PM. 480 Hillsboro Street.
What’s unique in your small town?
At Rosemary House, we’re trying to conserve energy and be environmentally friendly without affecting comfort or reducing expectations. Recently I totted up our “going green” accomplishments.
The ultimate reuse – Rosemary House is a 1912 building. We added new storm windows. A major weatherization project sealed air leaks and added insulation, reducing utility bills by over 25%. CFLs in most lamps.
Our vegetarian breakfast menu uses free-range local eggs and mostly seasonal fruits, reducing our carbon footprint.
Kitchen scraps go into an indoor composter - ask to see it! Compost goes onto plantings outside.
Reusable bags for market shopping
We no longer buy bottled water; instead, filtered water is available in crocks.
Our front load washer uses less water, makes dryer more efficient
Voluntary towel reuse policy saves water and electricity.
Cloth napkins reduce waste.
Our eco-friendly Melaleuca laundry and cleaning products don’t contain bleach, ammonia, or phosphates. We love them.
Of course, geothermal HVAC and a rooftop photovoltaic system would be terrific additions to this list. Someday, perhaps.
Any suggestions for moving further along the green pathway?
Lately we’ve been buying and eating lots of sweet potatoes. If the sweet potato had a Facebook page, I would “like” it. Why?
Easy. A sweet potato microwaves beautifully in about 4 minutes. From dusty hard tuber to orange deliciousness almost instantly.
Versatile. Sweet potato pie (I make mine with tofu instead of eggs and milk). Sweet potato pecan bread is delicious, and sweet potato-black bean chili brings raves from everyone. (Recipes for the pie, the bread, and the chili are posted below.) Then there’s sweet potato pancakes, fries, ravioli, apple-stuffed, mashed, praline-topped, and pudding. For starters.
Local. The sweet potato is grown all over the world wherever this is a temperate climate and sufficient water, but North Carolina grows more than 40% of the national sweet potato supply.
Healthy. Compared to other vegetables, the sweet potato ranks highest in nutritional value when considering fiber content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium.
Sweeeeeet!
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 Sweet Potato Pie. I made one today!
1 pound silken tofu
2 cups cooked sweet potatoes
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp cloves
Put all ingredients into a food processor and puree. Spoon into an uncooked pie shell. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
Sweet Potato Pecan Bread This moist bread is low in fat and easy to make.
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mace
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
½ cup raisins
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup applesauce
4 tablespoons milk
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
Grease bottom of a loaf pan approximately 9x5x3 inches. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and spices in mixing bowl; stir in the sugar, pecans, and raisins or dates. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, applesauce, milk, and mashed sweet potatoes; stir to blend well. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a large spoon just until the mixture is moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 325° for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and continue cooling on wire rack.
Black Bean-Sweet Potato Chili. Perfect for the Super Bowl.
2 Tbs olive oil
2 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 64-ounce can low-sodium tomato juice
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon ground red pepper
2 15-oz cans peeled and diced tomatoes
3 large sweet potato, peeled, diced into 1/2″ pieces
2 can 15-oz black beans, drained, rinsed
¼ cup chopped cilantro
In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-low heat, add the onion and ¼ cup water. Cover pan and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and bell pepper with about ½ cup of the tomato juice. Cover and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, and cayenne; stir 1 minute. Then add the remaining tomato juice, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the black beans and simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Stir in the cilantro and serve with corn chips or over rice.
 Got kids?
Looking for something to do with them while visiting Pittsboro?
I’m not going to tell you about the many activities and interesting places to see with kids.
Instead, I’m going to GIVE AWAY* three (3!!) copies of a terrific book:
The Big Fun Guide to Tar Heel Country: 135+ Activities for Families in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Pittsboro, and Points in Between! by Erin Donoghue Baldwin, published by DRT Press, a Pittsboro micro-press.
Erin and her three children – ages 5, 7, and 10 – visited playgrounds and parks, took hikes, sought out places to enjoy nature, animals, farms, sports, swimming, boating, and gyms.
Each of the 135 entries in the guide has a few paragraphs describing the experience, plus contact information and the necessary details about whether it has bathrooms, is stroller friendly, has food nearby, is picnic friendly, the cost and recommended ages of children. There are also more than twenty recommendations for day trips.
*Just write a comment on any one of my blog postings, and you’ll be eligible to win a copy. (Please link to your website or an email address.) Three winners will be selected at random on Friday October 8.
Even if you don’t win – buy the book! You’ll get your money’s worth many times over.
~Karen
Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul, according to Plato. If you’re in the mood for soul enrichment, your choices are many in Chatham County.
Three upcoming festivals:
Hoppin’ John Old-Time & Bluegrass Fiddler’s Convention at Shakori Hills. Traditional string music, square dance, dance lessons, banjo contest, hoppin’ john cook-off, traditional singing. September 17-19.
 Pepper Festival at the Piedmont Biofarm. 40+ pepper varieties, chefs inspired by peppers, music, local beer & wine. October 3, 4-7 PM.
Shakori Hills Fall Festival, October 7-10. Grassroots festival, over 50 bands, four stages, four days.
Occurring regularly:
Bynum Front Porch Pickin’ & Potluck Every second and fourth Saturday each month, the picking is a Bluegrass jam session open to musicians and singers of all skill levels and ages. Bring a dish. September 11 and 25, 10:00am – 2:00pm.
Music at Reno Sharpe’s Store Twice a month, year-round, first and third Saturday mornings folks come from far and wide to take in the Gospel and Bluegrass, respectively. September 11 and 18, 10:00am – 1:00pm, in Bear Creek.
Friday nights at Charlie’s Barn for pickers, singers, and plinkers. Bands and jam sessions. 7-9 PM.
The Roost Beer Garden at Fearrington. Sit by the fountain, under the big oak trees and enjoy live music 5pm-8pm Thursday-Saturday, and 2pm-5pm on Sunday.
City Tap is a unique venue right in downtown Pittsboro with lively live music Thurs, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
General Store Café. Jazz, country swing, bluegrass on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
Music…gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. Plato, again!
~Karen
Some may think that running a B&B is about decorating a big old house, baking quiche and cleaning bathrooms, but those activities take second place in importance to dealing with people.
A bed & breakfast is a people business, anticipating and meeting their needs. From taking the reservation, through mailing confirmation letters, setting up the room before guests arrive, anticipating special diets. A warm greeting – first impressions are very important! We show them around to the dining room, to their bedroom, answer questions. Ninety percent of the time it starts with “When was this house built?” Then, “How long have you been here?” (Answers: 1912 and ten years.) Pour more juice, adjust the thermostat, give out extra towels, print their boarding passes, make decaf. And chat. Lots of chat. I usually start with, “What brings you to Pittsboro?” I am genuinely curious. Pittsboro isn’t usually a vacation destination; people come here for a reason.
We’ve been open, as I said, almost ten years, and in that time thousands of nice people have stayed at Rosemary House. And three not-so-nice individuals. (A microscopically small percentage but isn’t it funny how those stick in your head? Without going into details, they were determined to create misery.) I also remember a few very sad people, here to visit relatives in the hospital, or to go to the hospital themselves, or who were grieving. Some lovely very elderly people. Children, teenagers, newlyweds. Family reunions. Girlfriends’ getaways. Business people busy with laptops and phones, middle-aged parents coming for their children’s graduations, then weddings, then grandbabies.
So many people arrive a bit stressed and tired from travel but after a good night’s sleep and a big breakfast they leave relaxed, smiling, recharged to meet the challenges of the day.
So it’s absolutely essential that innkeepers like people. People of all sorts: old, young, clean, grubby, English-speaking and not, NC natives and out-of-state, talkative, shy, happy, stressed. Fortunately, liking people is easy, because they are polite and courteous, grateful for what we do.
And back atcha – we are grateful that they are staying with us. Win-win. What a great business!
~Karen~
PS: If Hurricane Earl misses us –Friday night (September 3): Circle City Rock-A-Billy Rumble Cruise Night and Concert in downtown Pittsboro at the City Tap, 6:30-10. Vintage cars and music.
 Empire State Building, viewed from Top of the Rock Last week I spent a couple of days with my grandson in New York City. We wandered around in awe, eyes wide open. To paraphrase Dorothy, we weren’t in North Carolina any more.
We went to Top of the Rock at dusk and watched the lights come on all over the city. We swept through the Museum of Natural History. We saw “The Lion King” at the Minskoff Theatre. The sets and costumes were incredible. We rode bikes in Central Park. We made a couple of visits to the biggest Toys ‘R Us in the world – it even has a Ferris wheel inside. Most people were friendly and helpful with directions, suggestions for restaurants, helping us take pictures. Thank you, New Yorkers.
I’m sure there are many people – millions of people, actually – who wouldn’t live anywhere else, and I’m OK with that. We all have our individual preferences.
BUT. IMHO.
Way too many people live in NYC. So many that in Times Square we could hardly move. Everywhere we went – too many people – even in Central Park on Sunday morning.
Too many bad smells. Pee, ozone, cigarettes, garbage.
Traffic, oy. I had to return a rental car to Kennedy Airport at 4 PM on a Friday. My grandson learned some new (cuss) words as I wound my way through crowded streets, asking directions, gripping the steering wheel, being honked at, trying to decipher route signs.
I came home with a bad cold but my heart was so happy to see green grass, crepe myrtle in bloom, wide open spaces, plenty of room to navigate.
New Yorkers – you live in a great city. But there’s no place like home. Right, Toto?
Many years ago in a city far away I taught math in a community college. It was a no-frills place. No dorms, no organic cafeteria offering soft-serve fro-yo. And no pressure to publish, do research or write grants.
As time passed, my path branched, twisted and turned.
Now I’m teaching at Central Carolina Community College, only this time in a creative writing program through continuing ed. Once or twice a year the school offers my course, which brings together people who want to write stories from their lives. I absolutely love this class (which could never be said about my math classes.) What could be better than listening to, crying over, and laughing about astonishing and true personal stories?
I’m proud to be a little part of CCCC and now I’m going to brag on how innovative the school is. They have developed programs around the strengths and interests of Chatham County.
For example, their sculpture program awards certificates and degrees in clay and metal. Clay classes include pottery, sculpture, glaze formulation, kiln building, tool making, and design. In metal, there’s work with a variety of metals, blacksmithing, welding, and bronze and iron casting.
You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of community colleges that offer degrees in Sustainable Farming. CCCC is one of them. Students come from all over to study better growing methods and farm economics, working in CCCC’s vegetable plots and greenhouse, visiting the organic farms that supply our many farmers’ markets and produce departments.
Other cutting-edge and unique programs include Green Building and Biofuels, training people to apply new building technologies and to create fuels that don’t depend on oil.
An exciting new program begins this fall: the Natural Chef culinary program. Students will invest an intensive five months to receive a certificate as a Natural Chef, a ticket to a career in preparing healthy food. I’m a little jealous that they’ll be learning in a fabulous brand new restaurant and teaching kitchen.
The kitchen will be housed in CCCC’s brand new classroom building with a green roof and a water recycling system. The building is on course to receive a LEED gold standard rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Of course.
~Karen
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The Wood family (Arthur, Nicole, Brittany, Tristan, and Peyton). Arthur is in the Marine Corps, stationed for ten years at MCAS New River in Jacksonville NC as a meteorologist.
Jolene and Bob Dombek. He was a Navy photographer, stationed aboard the USS Constellation in San Diego, from 1997 until 2002.
m and Linda Souza. Sam’s been a Marine since 2005, stationed at MCAS Miramar in San Diego and now at MCAS New River.
