The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for July 16 - 20, 2007
Liberty Hill Farm

This week's newsletter will be my Vermont Travelogue.

This is the place my sisters and I stayed last week for my mini book-signing tour. This glorious farm is tucked next to a lovely river, is the home of a big herd of Holsteins, and is one of the places whose milk becomes Cabot Cheese and Grafton Village Cheese. Beth and her family took great care of us, loading the breakfast and supper table each day, and graciously including us in as much as interested us. I did milk a cow for a squirt or two, just to remind myself that I knew how, you know.

I'm considering going back and inviting you to come too. We'll visit the best food things that Vermont has to offer. Stay tuned for more thoughts on the subject.

The Rochester Parade

Tiny town that this is, Rochester put on a dandy parade and chicken barbecue. One sister was the parade organizer, one sister became the tie-breaking judge (though there were five judges on the panel so you figure that one out...) and I roved around, snapping pictures of festive red,white, and blue-clad souls. There were a lot of them!

This group, the local theatrical troupe, hoisted their signs in a sweetly-choreographed routine and sang at the tops of their lungs, encouraging us onlookers to join in - which we did!

Seasoned Book and Bakery

Rochester has a lovely little bookstore that hosted me and my book. The sign on their door said, "Book Signing Tonight by Heather's sister!" (Heather just moved away but was a pillar in that community for a long time.) Located in a quaint house, there is a little cafe which serves all local or organic food, a nice clothing store (I bought a new coat), and a place to buy handmade soaps that the chef's husband makes. They are a wi-fi spot too and that's where I was last week when I sent out the newsletter. Go visit when you're in Vermont, why don't you?

Dinners to go

Dinners, as you know, come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day, and made-right-here bread of the day. We take reservations until noon or so. Please order by phone (252-1500), by FAX (252-02002) or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

As a reminder, every time you order a dinner to go you are eligible to enter our drawing. Just drop a card in our drawing jar (a business card works or fill out one of the cards that we have right here) and, at the end of the month, we'll pull one card which will be good for two free dinners-to-go.

Maybe you'll win next month.

Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!! Here's this week's menu:

Monday July 16 Fig and Prosciutto-stuffed Chicken 10.25
Tuesday July 17 Chickpea Cakes with Sesame Tabouleh 9.95
Wednesday July 18 Hickory Nut Gap Beef Stuffed Peppers 10.95
Thursday July 19 Shrimp and Scallop Fettuccine Alfredo 12.75
Friday July 20 Crab Cakes with Dilled Tomato Remoulade 12.25

Our website
Special casserole of the week

We make a special casserole each week. Order before noon on Wednesday and we'll have yours ready to pick up between 4:30 and 6:00 that very afternoon. (Yes, you can order in advance too.) Order a full for 9 portions or, if your gang is smaller, opt for the half-sized one, which serves 4 or so.

This week's offering is:

Wednesday, July 18
Carolina Chicken Pot Pie with a Fried Green Tomato Crust
Whole 34.25
Half 17.25
Say, we'll happily make a salad and provide bread for you if you like, just let us know when you call and we'll get you all set up.

The Brandon Parade

This town is bigger and puts on quite a show. Their parade is listed as one of Vermont's top ten attractions and I now can see why. They had dogs and fancy cars and a few marching bands and Shriner on snowmobiles and in little cars and women and girls with beauty pageant banners draped over their tanned, lithe selves.

Everything stops for the entire morning as the gathered masses watch the floats meander down Park Street, through town on the main street, up to and through Conant Square and off, finally, down Pearl Street. My sisters and I sat on the lawn under a huge maple and clapped and enjoyed ourselves completely.

Sweetie Pies in Brandon

These are some of the dogs on parade. I wish I had room for all of them but you'll just have to imagine the red, white, and blue ribboned pups, the bulls (well there was just one but he was HUGE), and assorted other quadrupeds.

Briggs Carriage Bookstore in Brandon

Here's the place that was a shoe store when I was growing up. It does NOT, sadly, smell like new PF Flyers anymore, but it is still a nice space and I loved being there, reading my stories to my family and my old friends. There were a number of people I didn't know too, and some surprise attendees who made me stop and take a breath before plunging in to my reading.

The trip was great, especially to be in that home place with those people. At one point my sisters and I were in town and saw a fellow who we recognized. We stopped him and caught up with him and his life and filled him in on ours. He had known my mother, I remembered, and he told us that she had been his best friend. I loved thinking about that, kept me warm all day.

A Note From Laurey
July 14, 2007

Happy Days. July (a fine month.) It's the 14th which is my favorite number, just so you know. I'm sitting at my desk in the quiet of a morning in lovely Asheville. As soon as I send this out I’ll go across the street to the market to buy flowers for our café tables, one of my favorite things to do.

It’s been a fine week. I’m happy to be home after my trip to Vermont. The Tour du France is in full swing and that is one of my favorite things to keep up with at this time of year. And there are other things swirling around too.

I found out that we’re in a new book called: Eat This, 1001 things to eat before you diet, by Ian Jackman. Much to my surprise, we are the only place noted in Asheville (there are plenty of wonderful places here to eat, but I’m thrilled that he highlighted us and our “gourmet comfort food.”)

I was interviewed twice this week. Once for a new book that is being written about places of bliss in the world. That one will be out in January and is being written by Eric Weiner, a former NPR reporter who, having reported in awful places about awful things, is writing a book about good people in good places.
The other interview was for a book about Asheville and will be filled with pictures of us and our town. It was fun stuff for me to get to stop and think about and talk about Asheville and life here. I’m lucky to get to travel and also always lucky to get to come back here.

Tonight I get to go to Sylva to read my stories at City Lights Bookstore. I know there’s a lot to do around here these days but I’d love to have you come over if you’re in that neighborhood. I’ll be there around 7.

And beyond that, well, it’s a quiet time in general. Lots of people are at the beach so things on the party front are a bit quieter (though next week is plenty busy…) I like it. I like having the time to breathe and catch up with my home and the lawn and the dog and cat. These past few months have been overly full for me so having days which can include a nap make me very happy indeed.

I hope all is well with you. See if you can get to a tailgate market this week. The watermelon is great, the tomatoes are coming on strong, and the flowers, if you don’t have any in your yard, are ripe for the buying. Yup, I think I’ll go do that right now.

OH! Don’t forget – next Saturday is our staff art and craft sale. I’ll have my glass for sale, Andrew is making a special summer CD which will be the perfect accompaniment to your grilling times, and Noel and Kether are bringing their hand-fused glass jewelry. Come see. It'll go from 10 in the morning until we close. (We’ll keep the leftovers out during the following week too but the finest assortment will be available on Saturday.)

Diane in all her glory!!!

My half-sister Diane still lives in Goshen, right down the road from Blueberry Hill. The Red Barn is now filled with her gigantic collection of costumes which she cares for. She is the costume mistress for all the local theatricals. This summer's production is Hello Dolly so she gussied up some of the actors (and herself) and drove them in the parade. Yes, this is a VW Bug, but a parade is a parade and this was the perfect carrier of waving ladies, in my estimation!

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