It's not too late to join us in our next dinner and conversation with our farmers. 

Jamie Ager will be here, telling about his pasture-raised beef and pork at Hickory Nut Gap (where they also grow apples and many other things.)  Brendan will be making a Cassoulet, a wonderful French stew which will feature Hickory Nut Gap's meat.

Scott and Linda will be here from Firefly Farms. They grow a lot of our produce. This time of year we're really enjoying their Candy Roaster Squash.  We'll have a soup with this wonderful, sweet squash and will also have Braised Greens from them.

And we're also looking forward to introducing you to Jennifer Perkins from Looking Glass Creamery. She and her husband make all sorts of cheeses which they produce using milk from a number of area farmers.  We'll start with an assortment of looking Glass Creamery cheeses.

I'm delighted to announce a new trash system here.  We're working with a new fellow and almost everything we discard is now usable in some fashion.  We've been composting and recycling for years but Danny's compost possibilities are more extensive than the previous options we've had.

Check our trash bins in the cafe for directions.  Recycling sitll goes in the recycling bin but many more things are compostable including our plastic cups, straws, paper napkins, and much of our to-go packaging.  All table scraps, including meat scraps, now go into the compost.

These are very fun for me and, it seems, for the folks who have been coming.

 

Wednesday, October 14 -  Appetizers

THURSDAY, October 22 - Harvest favorites, featuring foods from the markets

Wednesday, October 28 - Soups

 

Dinners 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 (252-0200)

or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

Monday October 12 *Citrus Herbed Chicken with Grilled Asparagus 10.75

Tuesday October 13 House-made Potato Gnocchi w/ Local Vegetable Ragout 11.25

Wednesday October 14 Grilled East Fork Lamb Burgers with Roasted Potatoes 12.25

Thursday October 15 Meatloaf with Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes 11.50

Friday October 16 *Pan-seared NC Trout with Garlicky Local Kale 13.75

* these items are Gluten Free

We make a special casserole each Wednesday.

Order by noon or so. Order a half if you have around 4 folks. If you have a bigger group, or you just like leftovers, order a full-sized one. Then come pick up between 3:00 and 8:00. (Or bring a gang and enjoy your dinner right here. WE DO have beer and wine by the glass, you know.)

This week's special casserole is on Wednesday, October 14

Carolina Chicken Pot Pie

Full: 35

I spent much of the day on Saturday messing around with caramel.  A bride wanted a bunch of caramel apples as party favors for her wedding.  I made some WONDERFUL caramel from scratch yesterday which, though fabulous, did not set up.  I ended up getting a help from some little, made-by-someone-else caramel treats and these apples are the result.  The finals were wrapped in cellophane bags and tied with a ribbon. 

When we offer Whole Smoked Mountain Trout on a party, we are the ones who smoke it.  Here are five beauties, fresh from Sunburst Trout company, just out of their brine, and ready for the smoke.

Hickory Nut Gap is one of our featured farmers this week.  The Clarke farm has been growing apples for years and here's a box they brought by earlier this week.  We have Arkansas Blacks, Mutsus, Romes, Stamens, and others.  

Good morning.

It’s Sunday. Yesterday was a full day for me with no time to sit and ponder much of anything, not to mention sit and write.

As you see, I fiddled around with Caramel for a lot of the day, finally getting enough caramel-covered apples to fill an order for a bride. Fun, but time consuming to figure out how long to heat and how fast to twirl and how to get the sticks into the apples without getting blisters. Oh the hazards of this life.

We’re hosting a wedding in the Garden Room next weekend and it has come to my attention that the joint needs paint! So as soon as we sent out all the parties, I changed clothes and worked for a few hours getting a start on this project. I am not doing it alone – thank goodness – and I’m not exactly sure why I decided that I even needed to be one of the painters, but I did and that’s that. We’ll finish it up in a few hours today. Should be nice and bright for the wedding – and for our regular café visitors.

We had our first jam session here last week. THAT was fun! I poke around on the fiddle, though I have kept it tucked in its case for awhile. I figured that getting people to come to MY place would force me to play. I did play on Tuesday and it was really, really fun. This Tuesday will be our first Uke jam – another push to get me to play more. I expect these will both take off. If you play a uke or any old-time music, do come and join us. If you just like to listen, that’s fine too. Have a beer or some simple supper and you may feel the urge to dust off your shelf ornaments too.

And I made my local stage debut this week too. Jubilee!, the place where I go for spiritual communion, is celebrating its 20th year right now. I was invited to be in a little skit about its start. It was a goofy little bit but I got myself all worked up about the lines I needed to memorize. Turns out I was able to become very familiar with them AND have them with me (just in case) so that took a lot of pressure off and allowed me to have fun. I don’t think I’ll be appearing on a stage on any sort of regular basis, but it WAS fun.

And tomorrow I get to stay home. I’m having some tree work done and that feels exciting. There is one big dead tree that looms over my house and a couple of others that also need to get cut. I have to be home with the tree cutters which means I’ll have a whole day of weeding and cleaning and clearing. It feels good. I’ve been working very hard here and it will be nice to have a day of just being at home.

Things have been very good here lately. We’ve made lots of great food and have connected with a growing number of farmers. Yesterday I got a call from someone who is growing kiwis and Jerusalem artichokes and turnips. I LOVE this. My dream, to have more and more and more from right here, seems really to be coming true.

Henry made it through his bone marrow transplant this past Friday.  The most recent note from Adam and Emily spoke with love about the peace of watching him rest.  He has been through quite a lot in these past days, weeks, and months.  And so have Adam and Emily, his parents, who are two of our managers.

At this point, the name of the game is waiting to see if it will take hold.  We're all praying and trusting it will. 

Mark your calendars for Sunday, November 8th.  We'll be having a big pancake breakfast benefit.  And we'll also be a part of 11% on the 11th, another benefit that a number of local businesses will be doing.

In the meantime, you can check out the Caring Bridge link to find out more about Team Thome.