Edna, of Sweet Creek Farm  (Tour Stop #9), brought this delicious Chicken Salad made with pecans and fresh herbs from her garden. Thank you, Edna, for sharing your recipe and writing it with such detail for any cook to make this delicious salad with success. We look forward to sharing some more tasty recipes from our potluck dinner. Thank you, all for a wonderful evening and a tasty meal!

Sweet Creek Chicken Salad

Yield: 4 servings

• 4 cups diced poached chicken
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 smallish purple onion, diced
• 1.5 teaspoons finely chopped fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves stripped
• ½ – 1 cup chopped pecans

Dressing:

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a mixing bowl, toss together the chicken, celery, onion, herbs, & pecans.

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayo, lemon juice, mustard, salt & pepper.  Add to the chicken and mix gently until combined.  Refrigerate.

You can adjust this recipe to suit your taste – more or less onion, celery, etc.  My husband prefers it without the pecans and dill, with diced sweet pickle added.  Or try it in a sandwich with a little bacon, lettuce and tomato on bread from Twin Forks Farm!

Cook’s note:  Poaching the chicken adds flavor and moisture to the meat.

Poached Chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts, with bone & skin
• 10 sprigs parsley
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 small carrot, roughly chopped in large pieces
• 1 stalk celery, in large pieces

Cut chicken breasts in half and place in large pot along with vegetables and herbs.  Cover with water, bring just to a boil.  Lower heat to very low and cover.  Poach for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch.  Cool the chicken, discard bone and skin, and dice.

Thanks to all who came out to visit us from near and far. Thanks to all who helped spread the word. Thanks to our dedicated volunteers who generously gave of their time and talent. Thanks to those special folks who opened their gates and hearts to over 500 curious, adventurous souls taking the Arts & Ag Tour. We are overwhelmed with gratitude and can’t wait to do it again next Memorial Day Weekend!

–Vanessa Davis, Nicole Lewis and Antonia Meadors

Arts & Ag Tour Stop #22:  228 Hinson Lane, Centerville, Tennessee 37033  Featuring the following:

• Tom the Furniture Guy
• April’s Attic
• Fondue Vintage Homewares
• Mark the Fiddlist
• Door Prizes and too much fun!

Stop #22 features a husband and wife team who each bring creative and unique items to the tour.  Tom, the Furniture Guy uses barnwood to create his custom furniture and playful signs. By salvaging wood from storm-damaged barns, Tom makes sure these beautiful buildings live on.  His wife April has created April’s Attic, a unique collection of vintage items she finds on her many treasure hunting trips. She never knows what she is going to find and that helps create the fun and friendly environment that is April’s Attic.

Fondue Vintage Homewares will be setting up shop in April’s Attic, too. Fondue Vintage creates home décor covered in real vintage wallpapers making the mundane and utilitarian – like lamp shades, switch plate covers and tissue box covers – into something that will make you smile! Visit Nicole and catch the opportunity for some good deals (scroll down for a coupon!).

ALSO – don’t miss Mark the Fiddlist on Saturday from 11-4. Mark has entertained with some of the very best of them and we’ll be lucky enough to hear (and hang with!) him for this very special opportunity on Saturday. He will also have cds and fiddles for sale. Always wanted to learn how to play? Well, Mark’s the man who can teach you! Need a fiddle to be repaired? Again – Mark’s the guy who can help you out.

And, at Tour Stop #22 will also be Tour Maps, fans, bumper stickers and ice cold water for sale (all proceeds from these sales go towards next year’s tour expenses).

Buckle up, drive carefully and roll those windows down. We’re looking forward to seeing you!

A native of West Virginia, Hopkins has completed more than 250 commissioned works for clients in her 3o-year plus career and has been painting in the Centerville area for more than a decade. She plans to display a number of paintings during the Tour that showcase Hickman County.

These are All-American Tees: 100% made in the USA from the cotton, to the fabric manufacturing, to the finished tee. All-American Tees help create and sustain jobs right here in America. Made of 100% cotton. Sizes available are adult small through 3X.

Please email your t-shirt order with quantities and sizes to Vicki at VickiMoore@chromatics.com. Upon receiving your email, Vicki will send you an order confirmation and payment details. Order yours today – supplies are limited!

Vicki Moore is the amazing Arts & Ag volunteer facilitating the t-shirt creation for us. She will also be tending to the Arts & Ag info booth which will be located at stop #23 with Turnbull Farms where you can pick your own flower bouquet as well as Krusa Guitars where you can see (and hear) instrumental works of art by luthier Kipp Krusa. THANK YOU, VICKI!

Download your free map here: http://artsandagtour.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/arts-ag-tour-maps-available-now-for-free-download/

As our family grew over the years, we longed to go back to a farm, believing it to be a wonderful place to raise a family and believing that children benefit greatly from learning the value of hard work, good work ethic and serving others, fresh air and lots of sunshine, time working together as a family, simple pleasures, and time to think, pray, play, create, read, study, and enjoy God’s creation.

The early goal was that of being able to learn to raise enough food for our family, some to share, and eventually to be able to produce enough to make available to others who also wish to feed their families food of good quality and more locally and sustainably grown.

In an effort to bloom where planted and with much to learn, our family of fifteen practiced on a small acreage in our home state of Alabama with hopes of more opportunities in the future and of eventually working a small and diversified family farm together.

Gradually a few milk cows were acquired along with a pair of work horses, goats, and some egg and meat chickens. Vegetables, herbs, and corn for cornmeal and grits were grown and also sorghum which was to be made into syrup and also used as the sweetener in our bread recipe. Daily happenings included trying to learn all that we could from others and skills needed to shorten the grocery list.

But in April of 2011, many things changed. Tornadoes ravaged many parts of our former state and our community, we were now a family of fourteen, and we would need to re-build or relocate.

But the dream of farming as a family lived on. While still in temporary housing and after about eight months of much prayer and recovering, it was decided that we would relocate to a home already built and land ready to be farmed. And that’s how we ended up here in Tennessee sixteen months ago and on what we call Leegacy Farm.

We still have much to learn and much to do, but we’re very grateful for new beginnings and mercies, and we’re currently growing pork, chicken, rabbits, sheep, milk cows, and goats (for soap-making).

Plants have just been brought out of the hoop house and placed in the garden beds, and corn and sorghum will be planted in late May and with Jim and Jack, Jordan’s Percheron horses, doing the plowing of the beautiful Tennessee soil.

We continue to try and learn more and more about butter making and cheeses and such. So please come on by and take a turn at churning or offer tips you may be willing to share.

There are kid goats available for sale and playing in the fields and bunny rabbits (meat and pet) for petting or purchase. Heirloom non-gmo corn is available to be ground into cornmeal and there are the cows to be milked. Also, there will be crafts, wagon rides, a little farm store containing many organic products, dry goods, wood items, soaps, aprons and other gift items. And plenty of homemade treats: lemonade, breads, herb or honey butters, jams, foods, and fried pies JUST like grandma used to make!

And while you’re sitting by the bubbling stream and possibly sipping lemonade, spring water or a delicious spritzer or Kumbucha tea, enjoy some beautiful toetapping tunes provided by the West Ladies or some melodious and elegant stringed music provided by Eleganza. AND…both groups will also have tables set up and including many of their own various crafts, CD’s and products!

As you plan your route and enjoy visiting many of the beautiful farms and businesses here in Hickman County, we do hope you can make it out to Leegacy Farm. And if you’d like to be signed up for future emails making you aware as various meats, dairy, produce, crafts and other store items become available, don’t forget to leave your contact information before leaving the farm! Or email us at: jordan@leegacyfarm.com. We are still working on a website, but you may visit our family blog at: a baker’s dozen barnhouse news.
Blessings,
The Lee Family

“A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one’s accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes.” ~ Wendell Berry

American Flag by Tom Podnar

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday which occurs every year on the final Monday of May.^[1] It is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.^[2] Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day; Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, while Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, living or dead.^[4]

Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. By the 20th century Memorial Day had been extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars and as an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as people visited the graves of their deceased relatives in church cemeteries, whether they had served in the military or not.

Annual Decoration Days for particular cemeteries are held on a Sunday in late spring or early summer in some rural areas of the American South. People gather on the designated day and put flowers on graves and renew contacts with kinfolk and others. There often is a religious service and a “dinner on the ground,” the traditional term for a potluck meal in which people used to spread the dishes out on sheets or tablecloths on the grass. It is believed that this practice began before the American Civil War and thus may reflect the real origin of the “memorial day” idea.^[3]

On Memorial Day the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon.^[37] It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.^[38]  The half-staff position remembers the more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service of their country. At noon their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all.

Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day