Light in Montana (photos by C. D’Avanzo)
Arielle, Adrian & I ventured to Alabama’s Black Belt, a lesser known part of the state that is reinventing itself in food, farming and agriculture. Together we explored some of the area’s history, including an overnight stay at the Moore-Webb-Holmes Plantation (ca. 1819), one of Alabama’s last active plantations, which has been in the same family since the early 1800s.
But the main reason for our trip was to spend a day with Scott Peacock, a James Beard Award-winning chef who stepped away from a high-profile culinary career in Atlanta 10 years ago to rediscover his roots in Alabama and write a new chapter in his life and career. We spent the most incredible day with Scott at Reverie (ca. 1858) in Marion, learning the art of biscuits in the mansion’s sun showered kitchen.
You would think a lesson in biscuits would be a fairly simple process, but layers of complexity reveal themselves throughout the day. “[Biscuit making] is really simple, and simple is really hard,” Scott noted, as he sifted heirloom flour from Anson Mills and showed us how to make homemade baking powder. This was just one of many ‘biscuit-isms’ casually dropped throughout the day and we soaked up every word of kitchen wisdom he had to impart.
To say this trip was special for us would be an understatement. To try and describe Scott in a few words here, well, is not that easy. He is sweet and funny and generous and kind, and so full of love and passion for the home state to which he’s returned. If ‘a biscuit expresses the cook,’ as this Alabama native attests, then all you need to do is spend a day with Chef Peacock in the kitchen and let the biscuits tell the story.
More about The Black Belt Biscuit Experience...
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, read “A Southern Thanksgiving with Chef Scott Peacock” from Martha Stewart Living for some culinary inspo.
And if you’re planning a trip to the Black Belt and visit to the Moore-Webb-Holmes Plantation, book a tour through host Cooper Holmes to see and learn more of the region’s rich history. (better yet, stay the night there! 🙂 )
Hiking on Gorham Mountain at Acadia National Park, we were guided by beautiful cairns throughout the trail. These rustic guideposts were originally created by Waldron Bates, an early trail builder who built many of the rustic yet elegant cairns seen all along Acadia’s trails.
We recently got back from an epic fall getaway exploring coastal Maine. Now we’re trying to hatch a plan to get there more often…or perhaps one day live there part of the year. Well, we can dream, can’t we? 🙂
This morning I stopped to let a bunny cross the road. He sat up, took a long look at me, then hopped away into a field. He wasn’t worried…nor was he in any particular hurry. It was such a sweet little moment, and made me think of our trip to England this past spring and a day we spent in the countryside, in Hampshire, with painter Aldo Galli, exploring the beautiful (and very real) area known as Watership Down. Aldo created all of the new illustrations in the 40th anniversary edition of the beloved novel named after the same and — lucky for us — has become a friend. Mike and I took only a few photos that day (we were just too busy taking it all in), but Aldo recently sent us some more, this time featuring the big, beautiful rabbits that still inhabit the area, captured during one of the many walks he regularly takes on the Down.
We think the rabbits there have long since accepted him as one of their own.
New Town Churchyard, from the novel
The Beech Hanger
Nuthanger Farm
Original, Handmade Block Prints
$17.00 – $32.50
Hand Forged Wine Cradle
$75.00
Farm Fresh Candle
$20.00
