FOLK | No. 12

FOLK

FOLK BEN ASHBY’S

LIVE AUTHENTIC

Harvest & Gather

FALL 2013 | $6.95

FOLKLIFESTYLE.COM

… Jen O’Connor Presents…

Artful Décor and Accessories for the Handmade Life and Home paintings, jewelry, folk art, textiles, soft-sculpture, heirloom toys, pottery, art dolls, vintage fancies, luxury goods, books, paperies, fashion and more created by renown women artists

Catch our Art Girls’ RoadShow Shopping Events this Fall!

September 13, 14 & 15 • Country Living Fair • Columbus, Ohio September 21 & 22 • FOLK Market at the Sharon Springs Harvest Festival • Sharon Springs, NY October 25, 26 & 27 • Country Living Fair • Atlanta, Georgia

VISIT US!

….browse the extensive on-line gallery, shop for the best in original and handmade, and join the mailing list for news on our events, sales special promos and more

WELCOME FALL 2013

ROSE-COLORED GLASSES Fall is here, and with that comes a new year here at FOLK. I couldn’t be more excited for the bright days ahead in our third year. I am even more excited to have you on this journey with us. As with any journey not everyything comes easy, and that certainly holds true for us at FOLK. Over the past two years I have learned more lessons that I would like to count, but I am thankful for everyone of them and for how they have led me to where I am today. This autumn season I encourage you to celebrate the little things, the little victories, and the things we too often take for granted. As the leaves change and the days grow shorter take a moment each day to ponder upon the roads and paths that have led you to where you are today. As the autumn dusk casts its rose colored glow across America I can’t help but take a few moments to reflect on the past two years with a sense of rose-colored glasses and to look towards brighter days ahead. The journey is never short, never overly easy, but always worth it.

Join us this fall {September 21 + 22} in Sharon Springs, New York as we celebrate the season with the finest harvest goods, foods, and scenery of the season. For more information please visit enjoysharonsprings.com.

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FOLK VOLUME 3 NUMBER 4

BEN ASHBY CEO | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF editor@folklifestyle.com V.P. OPERATIONS

HEATH STILTNER heath@folklifestyle.com

CONTRIBUTORS

INDEX

Shannon Ashby Ruth Barnes Jessie Hodgson Trudy Honeycutt Melissa McArdle Tiffany Napper Jen O’Connor Linda Reid Andrew Ritchie Megan Robinson Sandy Robinson Celeste Shaw Lindsey Shiflett Smith Rikki Snyder Pam Terpstra Jacquie Wheeler

4 10 14 16 22 24 27 30

SHARE

THE GARDNER HOUSE OUTLAW FRANKY JENNIFER BAIR-WOOD JO PACKHAM MARLENE DEBELJAK LUKE WINSLOW-KING + ESTHER ROSE GATHER + LISTEN: FALL PLAYLIST AMERICAN LIFE + THE HIGHWAY

STORY

38 THE TEACHER WITH NO NAME 42 PONDERINGS 46 THE LITTLE THINGS 52 THE LEAF PILE 56 THE QUINCE TREE 60 THE COMING OF FALL

CREATE

64 WHITNEY SMITH POTTERY 68 PATTERN 70 WITH THESE HANDS 75 AUTUMN IN SHENANDOAH

FOLK LIFE

CONNECT

76 78 79

MAGICAL VERMONT FOLK FINDS SNAP SHOTS

Shop: shopfolk.us Web: folklifestyle.com Instagram: @folkmagazine Facebook: /wearefolk Pinterest: /folkmagazine

82 90 92 94

A TASTE OF AUTUMN PANCAKE CAKE WITH MAPLE CREME A GARLIC PRIMER VIRGINA’S ALLEY

96 100 104 108

TAKE A CUE THE BEEKMAN MANSION THE COUNTRY LIVING FAIR A PHOTO ESSAY

CUSTOMER SERVICE contact@folklifestyle.com FOLK P.O. Box 195 Beaver Dam, KY 42320

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GATHER

JOURNEY

THE GARDNER HOUSE Inside the historic home of Michelle Curran

In Sharon Springs, New York, the word on the street is that her Christmas parties are legendary. Locals recall rooms filled with multiple pine trees with boughs saturated by decorations, snowy vignettes tucked into archways replete with stuffed reindeer and woodland taxidermy. Mantels lit by candlelight under soaring 14-foot ceilings make the whole place glow. By all accounts, we had to see the Gardner House. And so, months before snowfall, carollers or any prospect of an invitation to a Christmas party, Michelle Curran invited us in.

BY: ANDREW RITCHIE PHOTOGRAPHY: JESSIE HODGSON

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The house stands at the summit of an 88-acre property, punctuating the end of a meandering laneway that snakes upwards from the village.

Overlooking the undulating hills of Mohawk Valley, the house was built between 1850 and 1854 by Dr. John Gardner for he and his family.

The Italianate-inspired mansion is faced entirely with limestone, much of it quarried on site. It stands resolute: stately and tall and proud. When Michelle saw it for the first time in the early 1990s, she knew she had to have it.

“I was living in Florida at the time and I drove up with a friend of mine on a whim,” she recalls.

Michelle, a real-estate agent, was immediately captivated by the charm of the house. “My partner was looking for property in the area and once I had seen this place I called him up and said, ‘I think I found it.’’

Like so many of life’s unexpected turns, Michelle’s discovery of the Gardner House seemed blessed, despite the damp basement, the raccoon nests in the attic and the faulty wiring.

The previous owner of the house was anxious to unload it and Michelle was eager to acquire it, which resulted in a fortuitous arrangement for both buyer and seller. Twenty years later, after years of refurbishment and maintenance, Michelle (now single) still calls the seven-bedroom house her home, which she shares with her two bouviers, Luc and Kali, and her cat, Annie.

The evidence of their paws and claws are everywhere in the 8,000 square-foot house, adding to the home’s beautiful, roughhewn patina. “Everything that’s brought into the house is done with the knowledge that it’s going to be annointed,” says Michelle, referring to her posse of furry housemates. “So I don’t get anything too fancy.”

Worn wood floors, walls with chipped paint and warm arrangements of vintage furniture and antiques all culminate to create an atmosphere of considerable drama when cast within the home’s grand architecture.

In one of the bedrooms upstairs, sunlight catches the texture of a peeling plaster wall over a fireplace and the room comes alive with painterly detail. “A friend of mine reminded me that people pay a fortune to get this look,” says Michelle with a wry grin. “So, I left it.”

While she embraces the patterns of time, Michelle does not allow the home to feel neglected or unloved. Vibrant wallpapers in bold florals or deep indigos in many of the bedrooms keep the spirit of the home vital. Tables and cabinets stacked high with books, huge urns filled with flowers and blissfully unpruned houseplants on the sunporch and in the living room root the life of the house to the soul of its occupant.

Michelle shrugs off her decorative decisions as “experiments” but they are evidence of a playful spirit inspired by the home’s unique quarks. The result is a curated space that melds the new with the old, the formidable with the comfortable.

Annie the cat stretches out on a chaise-lounge in the downstairs bedroom, catching the warmest rays of the afternoon sun as it pours through a tall window. Michelle’s geraniums on the sunporch are visited by errant bees who have infiltrated the side entrance. There is love and life in this home.

“If you are buying an old home,” Michelle says cautiously, “you better make sure you love it.

There is work to be done and it has to be a labor of love.”

As we say our goodbyes and take one final look at the big house on the hill I can’t help but hope to see this place again. Perhaps at Christmastime.

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OUTLAW FRANKY “I still remember the summer of 1976, the Bicentennial. The kids in the neighborhood decorated their bikes with red, white, and blue paper streamers,” says Sam Meredith, the owner of American-made and inspired home goods company Outlaw Franky. “I grew up in a typical midwestern suburb. The city even allowed us to paint the fire hydrants red, white, and blue.

Everyone had yard flags in their lawns. It made a huge impression on me. Even now I still gravitate toward anything vintage American or red, white, and blue.”

Sam was born and raised in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. He was born day the after his parents moved into the home they still live in today. “My parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and I couldn’t be prouder of them,” he says. “So much of who my parents are is what inspired me to do the things that I’ve done, and encouraged me.” His mother worked as a full-time registered nurse and his father was a contractor, and when his mother wasn’t teaching him how to care for a family and entertain them, his dad was teaching him the basics of carpentry and home repair.

“My mother was an inspiration to me while growing up,” he explains, “she had a certain way of caring for my sisters and I, and of loving our family that’s still influencing me today.” Aside from a well-kept home, Sam says that his mother always made sure that holidays were special for them. “Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July…my mother created family traditions for all of them. We’d make decorations for the tree, paint and dye eggs, carve pumpkins, and make our costumes.”

Sam says that his parents were always supportive of his dreams growing up, and that when he decided he wanted to be a performer they encouraged him. “I got involved in theater and music at an early age and my mother eventually enrolled me in classes at the school of Cleveland Ballet.” When he went to college, Sam was able to convince his parents to allow him to major in dance. After graduating, he started dancing professionally with a regional ballet company.

Shortly after he moved to New York City and danced for almost 20 years. “I’ve worked with European companies, did a Broadway show, and ended up at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet for 13 years. I couldn’t dance forever, so Outlaw Franky was born out of the necessity to make a transition but also continue to create.”

After leaving the ballet, Sam made the move to upstate New York to claim his dream of his own front door and place in the country. “When I saw the house and the property I decided it was finally time to move from the city. I have friends that made the move to surrounding counties and the seasons in New York are all so distinct and beautiful. I’m amazed by the subtle changes from week-to-week in the weather, the light, the plants and trees and wildlife. My life here involves the outdoors during all the seasons, especially with 2 dogs and 10 chickens.”

Sam said that the inspiration for his brand Outlaw Franky came when he was planning his birthday party a few years back. “I was lucky enough to be born the same year that Led Zeppilin formed and I’d made my own invitations, decorations, and linens for a ‘Dazed & Confused Since 1968’

STORY: HEATH STILTNER

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themed party,” Sam jokes. “Everyone was so keen on the pieces I made that they took most of it home.” When friends found out that Sam had designed everything they encouraged him to try it as a small business. “My good friend Laura works in production and is my greatest source for information, support, and guidance.” Sam named Outlaw Franky after his given name and his father’s, Frank, as well as a famous ‘American Outlaw’ named Frank, the brother of bandit Jesse James.

With his new home in upstate New York and with his inherited loves of his father’s carpentry and his mother’s decorating sense, Sam says that creating a company that produced home goods seemed natural. “I wanted my house to be nicely decorated, but also cozy and practical. When I create products for Outlaw Franky I use natural fibers and hand finishing so my pieces will be comfortable and can be used and treasured for a long time. My dogs’ favorite spot to snuggle is on the wool throw,” Sam laughs. “What good are home accessories if they’re too delicate or precious to be used?”

From red, white, and blue handmade woolen throws and vintage graphic pillows, Sam’s brand Outlaw Franky embodies the spirit of American in a fresh and modern way. Working face-to-face with local artists and craftspeople seemed like the perfect business model for Sam, as it allows him to collaborate with people that care as much as he does about the success of my product, as well as the process of their production. “I’ve met some wonderful people with incredible talents, and the road trips to the weavers and the mill upstate are gorgeous. It makes ‘work’ not such a 4-letter word.” Sam says that aside from his parents his inspiration for his products stems from creating things that he’d want to buy. “I love vintage Americana and historical photographs as well as Rock ‘n’ Roll and religious icons. I stay authentic and true to what I know and love when I design in hopes that others will connect and respond to it the way that I do.”

In his own home, Same says that the most important elements of his style are comfort and his authentic taste. “I’d describe my style as ‘anything goes.’ I own vintage, new, used, yard

sale, and designer. You can perfectly mismatch your surroundings if you carefully choose pieces that you love and that hold special meaning for you,” he explains. “My mom still hangs macaroni ornaments from nursery school on the tree at Christmas, she treasures items that have been made especially for her or given to her, and I carry that into my home.” Sam says he is a huge collector and collects things that remind him of his childhood and his travels. “My grandmother’s nativity scene was passed onto me and I display it every year, along with my collection of 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s ornaments that remind me of her decorations.” Sam is also a collector of vintage Lionel and American Flyer trains and memorabilia and often puts boxcars and cabooses on the mantle over the wood stove and in the bookshelves. “I love to have and use things and recall where they’re from and when I got them. I always bring home souvenirs whenever I travel and often ship items home that I find on motorcycle trips especially to National Parks, somewhere I urge others to start revisiting.”

When Sam moved into his home it was like a new adventure in design and carpentry. Having a father who was a contractor, he’d always had an interest in carpentry and home repair and had worked with him during summer break and on weekends while he was in junior high and high school. “My dad was very particular about his work and taught me to be proud of a job well done. I use the skills he taught me to build and decorate the places that I live, sometimes as simple as a neat & clean paint job, or as hard as building a piece of furniture that I want but can’t find.” He says his father has a great eye for detail, and good design and good finishing were always important. “He always took the time to consider every way to do something to finish it the best way,” Sam explains. So now Sam is following the advice of his parents in his brand and in his new home. “I still follow my parent’s example that you work hard for what you want, you always finish what you start, and you don’t spend money that you don’t have. It’s kept me out of trouble this long.”

— outlawfranky.com

JENNIFER BAIR-WOOD CARRYING ON HOMESTEADING IN RURAL IDAHO

Destined to discover “there is no place like home”, Jennifer Bair-Wood and her husband Nathan were unrelenting in their return to their rural roots. The two High school sweethearts began married life as perfect partners living and working in Western Washington State. However, shortly after their early beginning the newlyweds were faced with tragedy when Nathan, a U.S. Marine, suffered a severe head injury. Jennifer at the tender age of 18 was determined to sustain her family. Undeniably with courage and conviction Jennifer began her journey back to Idaho, her grass-roots home.

With a limited and dwindling savings, Jennifer cared for, and lived with her injured husband in a tiny camper determined to support, foster and rehabilitate her spouse. With limited resources she relied on her one true reliable friend-- the land she loved. Unyielding in her journey as a wife, nursemaid and provider of the house, Jennifer found solace and income farming and growing fruit and produce. The land was compliant, and Jennifer and Nathan persevered, despite the extreme hardship of making their camper existence manageable.

The circumstances were made all the more endurable for Jennifer knowing that hidden away at the end of a long private road, not far from the little camper was family land, her roots. Land that had once been the homestead of Jennifer’s grandmother, the epitome of rural Idaho. Rich farm land, hope, future and views stretching across quilted and wooded hills of Jennifer’s beloved Selle Valley.

Without a doubt miracles happen, and Jennifer and Nathan deserved one. While searching Craigslist one day, an unexpected Godsend in fact presented itself. Jennifer was overjoyed to discover a listing for a “free-house” being presented for the cost of moving. Serendipity?

Confirming its availability they scheduled a viewing and once inside, the character of the house seduced them. The house still had many of its original features, but having been empty, it was neglected and passé and in need of some major loving care.

Moving help was enlisted with a single call to the Marine Corps. Freedom Riders escorted the house as an accolade to Nathan, insuring

it was delivered with honor and grace to its new location - the land at the end of the long private road. Jennifer, known for her nostalgia, romanticism, and her talent for blending old into new by mixing pure vintage to create a story of her style, was undaunted by the new-old house challenge.

In addition to the naissance of their new home, the estate would lend itself to the creation of a timeless dedicated garden. Jennifer designed it around raising blueberries, raspberries and an abundance of produce. In addition, it was complemented carefully and packed with interesting and innovative mementos of previous tenants. The conception has resulted in an intensely indulgent affair.

The grand finale of their home is the 1930 children’s playhouse that is original to the property and was used by Jennifer’s mother and sister (aunt) as children. And indeed the former playhouse named “The Majestic” remains in use but is no longer a playhouse. The “Majestic” has become home to a studio and workspace for Jennifer’s production of organic soaps. Her land itself creates a redefined elegant compilation.

“There really is nothing better than a garden in summer when it’s brimming with wild flowers and an abundance of iconic garden favorites.”

Jennifer says.

This garden is the soul of the organic ingredients utilized in her soaps-- combined with the sacred secrets shared among the women in her family who, generation to generation, learned the secret to soap making. Each mélange still follows the seasons, transcending itself from land to bath.

This hand-me-down knowledge offers a rare wisdom about life—and more particularly about mothers and daughters. Jennifer Bair-Wood represents a remarkable story about the divine power of women and the transforming power of love of land and farm. Creating, authentically.

Living authentically. Proving there is genuine promise to trust in our land and the rich, assured, irresistible voice that gathers us up and doesn’t let go… not for a moment.

Jennifer sells her organic soap line “Land to Bath” at a variety of farmer’s markets, small boutique shops, & on shopfolk.us. Annually on Labor Day weekend she hosts the acclaimed “Funky Junk” antique show in Sandpoint Idaho.

STORY: CELESTE R. SHAW | PHOTOGRAPHY: CARY BURNETT

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JO PACKHAM

INSPIRING WOMEN TO CREATE, BELIEVE, & ACHIEVE “I had many jobs growing up. I remember babysitting when I was ten and I went to work scooping ice cream at the local ice cream store when I was fifteen,” laughs Jo Packham, Editor-in Chief of the popular WHERE WOMEN CREATE series of magazines. “I picked peonies every year to sell from flower buckets on the highway.” Of course, Jo wasn’t always the successful publisher of three women’s interest publications, she grew up in Ogden, Utah and says she never dreamed she would work in publishing. Jo grew up in a predominantly Mormon community where women grew up with the ambition of being the ideal wife to their husbands and mother to their children and until her mid 30s she admits that she fit that mold.

little confidence in, but it challenged her to do something she hadn’t had a chance to do since she was a teenager, create. Within a year of taking these classes with her new friend Martha, Jo had decided that she wanted to enroll in college and started her education in Fine Art at Sacramento State.

Jo’s father had what her mother called, “A champagne taste and a beer budget.” Though her family did not have a lot, Jo’s mother made sure she was always dressed in the latest fashion using her talent as a seamstress to sew Jo dresses and outfits she created from memory after weekly shopping trips with her daughter. Jo says that this kind of ingenuity through necessity is what has always carried her through less-thanideal situations. “My father was a gentle ‘man’s man’ who worried about the women in his life—my mom, my sister, and me,” says Jo. “He taught me great strength, endurance, humility, and hope among many things. My mother and grandmother taught me that the only limitations in my future were of my own choosing.”

After her husband finished his law degree and the birth of their first child, Jo moved back to Ogden, Utah and started to pursue her dream of opening Apple Arts, a craft supplies store catering to local crafters and college students, with her best friend. However, a small business with an even smaller small-town audience had doomed Jo’s Apple Arts career. “Having a career never even entered my mind until my mid 30s when there were two children and a divorce,” says Jo. “That changed my perspective on what the future of my life was going to be.”

In the late seventies and early eighties, Jo lived in California with her husband while he was finishing law school. Dreadfully lonely and eager to do something with her hands she began searching for a hobby or job in her Sacramento community while working as a waitress at a local restaurant. After enrolling at a local Junior High School, Jo started taking classes in Batik, a subject she knew very little about or had

“I remember shortly after graduating from Sacramento State that my husband Scott and I were driving home from San Francisco after a weekend in the ‘City’ and without taking a breath I shared my new, and first ‘dream’ with him,” she says. “I was pregnant with my daughter Sara and I wanted to move home and open a retail store that sold art supplies.”

One day while browsing a gift show, Jo happened upon a new trend that caught her eye.

Ginny Thompson, a craft-fair veteran, had come back from her recent stint in Denmark with a new spin on an old craft that was attracting the attention of many fair goers. When Jo saw the booth full of cross stitch patterns she sold her business and started down a new path.

“I was inspired by what Ginny was doing and reminded of something my mother used to say when I wanted to try something new,” she laughs. “She would say, ‘Does anyone else know how to do what you want to do?’ I’d usually

STORY: HEATH STILTNER

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roll my eyes and answer yes, and she would reply, ‘Then you can do it too, you only need to learn how and practice. There isn’t anything you cannot do and be successful at if you learn all you can about it and practice.’ With that phrase fueling her fire, Jo began to learn anything she could about cross-stitch, and rather than just giving people a book full of designs she went one step further to create projects with finished designs used as pillows and other items. “I began the learning curve of designing, publishing, and selling softcover, staple-bound, 24 page, $4.95 cross-stitch pattern books. I loved to tell the whole story, not just how to make something and enjoy doing it, but also how to live with it and share it.”

Jo continued her career in cross-stitch for another 7 years, but like all trends the bottom of her market eventually fell out and she was left trying to figure out what to do next. She spent the next 17 years publishing numerous books about various crafts and art featuring the talents of women everywhere and sharing their stories until she released her most successful title WHERE WOMEN CREATE: Inspiring Workspaces of Extraordinary Women.

During this time, Jo also launched three successful retail businesses with her daughter Sara, employing 45 people in three buildings and created an event she called Women Create.

However, after those seventeen years of successful book packaging and authorship, Jo again found herself in a trying situation. “My mom had a stroke, my dad got cancer, Sara’s twins were in the NICU, and I landed in a contract dispute,” she says.

“So I quit publishing. I sold the stores, worked through the problems with a lawyer, and took care of my family.”

Once Jo started to feel a sense of stability in her life, she began to look for work again. “I was so tired of publishing and I had absolutely no interest in going back so I filled out an application for a local Starbucks and decided I’d learn to love coffee before going back into publishing,” she laughs. Insistent friends had other ideas for her, though, and after a few emails with an editor friend who was working for another publisher, Stampington & Co., Jo signed on to turn her popular WHERE WOMEN CREATE title into a full series of magazines focusing her energy and effort on spreading the word of the amazing female artists she has met throughout her life. Jo began publishing her magazine just months after pitching the idea to her publisher and immediately she

began to feel inspired again, surrounding herself with a group of women who she felt were the most talented and respected in their fields and allowing them to share their owns stories through her publication. “I have never considered myself an artist and yet I love their passion and the results of it. So I shared the stories of the women I admired doing what I wish I could.”

Since publishing WHERE WOMEN CREATE and sharing the stories of countless inspiring women and the spaces that inspire them, she has also expanded her titles to include Where Women Cook, which shares the spaces and stories of real women cooks, and Where Women Create Business, Jo’s realistic portrayal of successful businesswomen and the stories of how they started their businesses. “Where Women Cook was actually started while shooting a space for Where Women Create,” Jo explains, “I was visiting Robin Brown and John Gray to photograph their studio in the Texas Hill Country for WHERE WOMEN CREATE and when we arrived in the morning and walked through the front door, one of the most beautiful kitchen scenes ever was in full view. The counters were filled with fresh vegetables—Robin was a raw vegan—and I turned to my photographer Dana and said, ‘We’re staying an extra day to shoot this kitchen, we’re finally starting Where Women Cook.’” Jo says that cooking was never her specialty either, once holding the title hor d’oeuvre queen, but twice serving raw turkey for Thanksgiving to family, so sharing the stories of women who were amazing cooks was the next logical step for her.

Jo is the type of person who genuinely cares about the stories of people around her, and it’s no surprise that she has made it her business to share them. Many, myself included, would describe her as one of the best storytellers they’ve ever met, and her efforts to tell the stories of so many others is a tribute to that. In my opinion, I have never met another woman who can inspire so many others by teaching them the successes and failures of herself and other successful women like Jo Packham. With her signature gray bangs and kind bespectacled face, Jo sets out every day to teach those willing to learn how to do, just as her mother and grandmother always taught her.

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— wherewomencreate.com

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MARLENE DEBELJAK CREATING A GOOD LIFE

Some people are no stranger to the good life, and Marlene Debeljak has not only embraced it but turned it into a lifestyle all her own. After a visit to her great-great uncle’s tailor shop at a very young age Marlene says she was so inspired she knew what she wanted to do in life. “Just being surrounded by the abundance of fabric, thread, measuring tapes, and mannequins was a thrill and I left—even as a child—being inspired to sew,” she says. “I spent years drawing pages and pages of fashions and designs for my pretend boutique, and pretty soon I had started sewing some of the designs for my dolls on my great Grandmother’s treadle sewing machine.”

It’s been a few years since Marlene started taking sewing lessons from a couture seamstress while she was in Junior High School, but she remembers it like it was yesterday. At twelve she was not only designing her own patterns, but also sewing her own clothing using them. Her parents encouraged her love of sewing, and for her thirteenth birthday bought her a sewing machine of her own. “I was so surprised,” she laughs.

Marlene grew up watching award shows and beauty pageants for the fashion and inspiration.

“Fabulous sparkling gowns would send me off drawing plenty of new designs,” she says. It’s no surprise that Marlene is now the creator of La Bonne Vie Designs, a womenswear and accessories brand based in Columbus, OH. Capturing the essence of those early days learning to sew and the vintage dresses that inspired her first designs, Marlene has created a beautiful lifestyle collection of her own. Now a talented seamstress and designer, she designs all of her products from her collection of vintage fabrics and jewelry giving each piece a new life as a bag, garment, or piece of jewelry.

“I am leading the good life doing what I love and am over the moon passionate about,” Marlene says. “Requests for my creations started coming after I would give them as gifts. So I thought, ‘Why not turn it into a little business creating garments, gifts and jewelry?’” Marlene is constantly inspired by vintage textile and jewelry finds and is especially find of midcentury fabrics from tablecloths to drapery. “I love to incorporate jewelry from the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s into my bags, garments or necklaces. I always think what stories did these vintage tablecloths hear? What parties did the rhinestone earrings go to?”

One of Marlene’s most iconic collections of products was spawned from her love of vintage postcards that she collects and uses to create her own fabric and line of products. “I decided to use the postcards to create fabric because postcards evoke such happy memories. Happy people sent them while on vacation and the recipient was happy to be thought of by the sender,” Marlene explains. Using vibrant postcards from various cities and states she has the fabric custom made for her own use. Using the fabric she then sews pillows, purses, wristlets, and her popular market bags. “The best part of using postcards,” she laughs, “you can use them for any state, city, or country! The possibilities are endless.”

For Marlene, upcycling and creating beautiful things from vintage finds is instinctual and necessary. “I have upcycled and repurposed ever since I can remember. I once created a doll dress from my dresser scarf,” she laughs. Fabric is something that excites her and fills her with ideas of what could be. “It is such a feeling of accomplishment when I finish a project. Hours before it was just a flat folded piece of fabric. Now it could be a bag, a pillow, or a jacket!”

— labonneviedesigns.com

STORY: HEATH STILTNER | PHOTOGRAPHY: RIKKI SNYDER

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LUKE WINSLOW-KING + ESTHER ROSE Traveling Musicians in Love

If you find joy in afternoon concerts in the park, trout fishing in the morning, evening swims at the end of a hot summer day, and dancing under the stars with your sweetheart, then you will appreciate what Luke Winslow-King brings to the table. His sounds are as classic as Coca-Cola; as American as a baseball game at Yankees stadium.

Guitarist, singer, composer and lyricist Winslow-King says he is always striving for rustic elegance, and those two somewhat contradictory terms bring to mind the contrasts between his childhood home of Cadillac, Michigan and his current home of New Orleans, Louisiana. In Cadillac they say “wherebouts” and in New Orleans they say “what y’at.” “You guys” from up north is known as “y’all” in the Crescent City. Don’t call it a Packzi, it’s a king cake in New Orleans. But the blues that infiltrates Luke’s music definitely steeps from his time in Michigan, Louisiana and beyond. His music is pure Americana to its core.

Inspired by original delta blues and New Orleans jazz, there are also influences of folk music, classical, ragtime, and a little rock and roll. The music of Winslow-King is sticky sweet, just like the humid air that clings to your soul on a hot summer night on Frenchman Street. In fact you can often find Luke there, playing with his trio at DBA, Three Muses, or The Spotted Cat. Luke cut his southern chops busking on the streets of New Orleans and making impressions with revered, established musicians including John Boutte, “Washboard” Chaz Leary and Paul Sanchez.

Known for his slide guitar work, Luke is accompanied by his muse and sweetheart Esther Rose on the washboard. Esther’s vocals perfectly align with Luke’s.

Watching them give silent, subtle signals to one another while they perform makes you feel like you’re witnessing something too personal for a stage, but yet there they are, putting it all out there for the world to hear, see and revel in. Rounding out the trio is bassist Cassidy Holden, making for an impossibly delightful experience overall as the trio smoothly transitions between songs from a bygone era to original tunes,

showing that you can indeed make old music sound new again in more ways than one.

Recently signed to Bloodshot Records, Winslow-King has performed festivals, jazz halls, dive bars, listening rooms, barns, theatres, and arenas across the United States and Europe. He has shared the stage with icons such as Taj Mahal, John Anderson, Jack White, Robert Earl Keen, Tower of Power, Rebirth Brass Band, and Chris Thile. Winslow-King has also performed live on CNN, the Discovery Channel, and BBC-TV in recent years. To put this year’s success in simpler terms, just ask Luke. “We’ve toured Europe twice, and have traveled to 46 of the lower 48. It’s exciting to see our music reaching a wider audience.”

I distinctly remember the first time I heard Luke, Esther and Cassidy lay down their staunchly original tunes.

It was a living room party for the 4th of July, and I was spellbound. Luke looked dapper in his pinstripe pants, and Esther looked sweet as pie in her perfect little dress and washboard accessory. And I am always smitten by an upright bass. Over the years I have become friends with the band, and it was a pleasure to take a moment to sit with Luke and dive into his story a little deeper.

TAKE ME BACK TO THE EARLY DAYS. I began playing music at a young age. I used to have impromptu performances on the mantel fireplace with my guitar and microphone at age 4 or 5. I was as fascinated and excited by music then as I am now.

TELL ME ABOUT THE MOMENT YOU KNEW YOU WANTED TO DEDICATE YOUR LIFE TO MAKING MUSIC. In 2001, I graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in Northern Michigan. There I was, surrounded by tremendously talented students from all over the world.

It was like a pressure cooker for young artists. It was there that I gained the confidence and inspiration to become a career musician.

STORY: TIFFANY NAPPER | PHOTOGRAPHY: ZACH SMITH

WHERE WOULD YOU SAY THE ROOTS OF YOUR MUSIC LIVE? The roots of my music were born in the American south in the ‘20s-‘30s, and are alive all over the world today. They live in dusty record stacks and the memories of our grandparents.

WHO WERE YOUR EARLY INFLUENCES WHEN YOU WERE FINDING YOUR MUSICAL STYLE? My dad, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Robert Johnson, Phil Collins, Milli Vanilli, and Debbie Gibson. After receiving my first electric guitar, I drew a lot from Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT CALLING NEW ORLEANS HOME? I love to return home to New Orleans for all the great friendships I have fostered there over the years. I feel lucky to have so many talented friends and colleagues there. As a band, we are all glad to return home off the road to such a vibrant music scene. The beautiful weather and architecture is inspiring too. Being from New Orleans gives you legitimacy on the road, which creates an expectation from your audience. We thrive on this as we travel. It pushes us to strive for authenticity and soul in our live show.

ESTHER ROSE PLAYS AND SINGS IN YOUR BAND, BUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP IS BIGGER THAN YOUR MUSIC. TELL ME WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HAVE YOUR BEST FRIEND AND LOVE BY YOUR SIDE ON YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY. It’s great. People tell us that we are living the dream almost weekly. We grow road weary sometimes, but we never grow tired of discovering people and places together. It’s a wonderful blessing to share freedom, youth, and love with someone in this world.

Our story as traveling musicians in love is pretty well summed up in my song ‘You & Me.’ As the lyrics say, “on the Valley, mountain high, you won’t find no place on a map that we can’t hide.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG BY ANOTHER ARTIST THAT EMBODIES YOUR IDEA OF AN AUTHENTIC LIFESTYLE? “Against the Wind” By Bob Seger struck me recently.

It is a chronicle of an entire life on the road. It can seem hokey, but it’s powerful if you give yourself to it. Also Jelly Roll Morton’s “Library of Congress Recordings.” They display the uniqueness of American culture and depict the authentic lifestyles that made way for the birth of jazz.

A FAVORITE SONG OF MINE AND THE NAME OF YOUR FULL-LENGTH DEBUT ALBUM IS THE COMING TIDE. WHAT DOES THAT SONG MEAN TO YOU? “The Coming Tide” means several different things to me. It’s about taking shelter both metaphorically and literally. It’s about redemption and dealing with my Baptist upbringing. I wanted to take the sincerity and urgency of gospel music to a secular arena.

YOUR STYLE DRAWS A LOT OF SWING DANCERS TO THE FLOOR, AND I KNOW YOU HAVE A DEEP INTEREST IN PRE-WAR BLUES AND TRADITIONAL JAZZ. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT BYGONE ERA THAT YOU LOVE THE MOST? I was drawn to this music because it was improvised, but also it’s the people’s music. It’s sophisticated yet relatable. The melodies are catchy, memorable, and nostalgic. They preserve our traditions as a people.

CAN YOU SHARE SOME SECRETS ABOUT ANY NEW SONGS YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON? There are a few traveling songs coming on our new record. We’re still dealing with a lot of water themes and addressing the healing properties of nature. Our new album should be out on Bloodshot in April of 2014.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH WITH YOUR MUSIC? IS THERE A FEELING YOU HOPE TO EVOKE IN YOUR AUDIENCE? I want to inspire people to smile and think, but really my quest is about realizing the truest deepest parts of myself and offering that to my audience.

I’ve seen my mentors do this, and it’s very powerful, but it takes a lifetime. I want to become completely vulnerable and honest on stage.

— lukewinslowking.net

GATHER + LISTEN

Lindsey Smith of Makers Workshop has gathered her favorite tunes for the autumn.

One Day | Sharon Van Etten Hand-made | Alt-J When We Fell | | Hot As Sun Silly Things | Wild Child Ain’t No Tellin | Mississippi John Hurt Dark Autumn Hour | Frontier Ruckus Mama’s Gonna Give You Love | Emily Wells

Sewee Sewee | Mountain Man The Beauty Surrounds | Houses Brown Suits and Cadillacs | Joe Purdy Fitz and the Dizzyspells | Andrew Bird Lust | The Raveonettes Sucker for Your Marketing | Sarah Jaffe Working Titles | Damien Jurado

We are firm believers that good music is key to a good life. Whether it be listening to the soundtrack of the American highway, the gentle roar of music ignighting a conversation, or simply the nostalgia of late night AM radio there is always music connecting us as part of a greater community. When I thought of creating this playlist I knew I had to have someone with impecable taste in not only music, but style, and living, as well as someone who understands and appreciates the importance of heritage, and handmade. Lindsey quickly became number one on my list. Check out her playlist on our website {folklifestyle.com} and find our more about her at Makers Workshop {makersworkshop.net}.

Lindsey Smith is the founder of Makers Workshop, a blog focused on Made In America quality handcrafted goods and the skills passed down from generation to generation. It is with a discerning eye that they offer a very well curated lot of featured craftsmen and products that will resonate with even the humblest of makers. makersworkshop.net | @makersworkshop | facebook.com/amakersworkshop

// 27 //

// 30 //

AMERICAN LIFE + THE HIGHWAY Jen takes a look back at the automobile in America

When folks first put power to wheeled vehicles, they could never have imagined how their “horseless carriages” would shape our American identity in the 20th century. Cars remain touchstones to our past far more than in any other country because here in the States -- as a young nation awaiting development and expansion -- we grew up with them.

Our nationally identity was suffused with cars when Americans yielded to the romance of the road.

We built the highways and byways that speak to our spirit as a nation; shaped across the decades like the fenders and fins, running boards and rumble seats of the autos that took us there.

A PEEK AT AUTO HISTORY The golden age of transport that opened the US to development via the auto was a long time coming! Though it’s suspected the invention came earlier, hard evidence of the wheel dates from about 3,500 BC. Of course, the classic hub and spoke wheel with an iron rim we all recognize dates from about 500 BC -- the Iron Age in Europe. If we skip ahead from those early wheels a few thousand years to the advent of steam power in the late 1600s, we’ll see it’s there where things began to truly percolate.

After almost 200 years of experimentation with steam and then electricity, it’s generally acknowledged that the first automobiles with gas-powered, internal combustion engines emerged in Germany in the 1880s. Many US inventors were working on similar projects and advancements, and by 1893 the first American car company was founded by brothers Charles and Frank Duryea.

Soon after the auto was invented, motorsport was born fueled by thrill-seekers and the spirit of competition. Creating quite a hub-bub --

and great press for the early autos -- the first American auto race was held on Thanksgiving Day, 1895 in Chicago. Car enthusiasts were early to the party, embracing autos for their speed and style. (A story for another time is the emergence of dirt track racing and later stock car racing as the largest spectator sport in the US today.)

By the turn of the century, other names dominated the fledging auto industry and Ransom Olds had founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company (we know them today as Oldsmobile). Their earliest production line was operation by 1902 creating gas-powered vehicles that looked like little more than wagons with engines and a steering wheel where horse reins were prior to the installation of a motor in front of the buckboard.

The first factory-produced Model ‘T” rolled of the assembly line of the Ford Motor Company in 1908 and 15 million of them were on the road before the stock market crashed. Henry Ford figured out how to slash production costs and increase output moving the auto from a novelty of the rich, to a standard means of personal transport replacing horse and wagon.

STORY: JEN O’CONNOR

// 32 //

POSTWAR GROWTH & THE CAR Personal auto sales only limped along during the Depression, but cars and powered vehicles worked hard to change industry and commerce through WWII. After the War, the production of autos resumed with zeal and cars became affordable to the average family. With the affordability of vehicles, the rise in wage earning potential, and the desire to live outside the city – along with a growing network of roads to serve those making an exodus from urban areas – the poplar suburban cocktail was born!

1940-1970 and the post war baby boom fanned the flames of suburbanization with the need fore more housing, more road and transportation services, and more autos. It really was a new economy and the car was the adept mascot that hauled us through it all.

Cars were in vogue for everyone with makes and models to please all budgets.

Americans watched the fenders and fins of new production models each year much like fashionistas watch hemlines and lapels. Cars became more than functional vehicles to get you from one place to another, they became totems of the emerging middle class. As social strata diversified, so too did cars, with the luxury car market taking firm root on the assembly lines along with specialty autos.

Enter the era of the mighty station wagon.

This utilitarian vehicle dominated the roadways of my youth and looms large and bright in memory. Ask anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s and the station wagon surfaces, laden with anecdotal charm, it peppered childhood with its inimitable scale and style. For those later kids of the 80s and 90s, the minivan carried the banner of mom-mobile and made cup holders de rigueur.

It’s now 2013 and the car is nothing less than completely synthesized into our American psyche and still embodies our “open road” spirited individualism. For those generations reared since the expansion of the auto industry and the prevalence of car ownership, the auto has imbued our memories with its distinct character and steered our development.

Cars have chartered a demand for roadways, transportation services and infrastructure, physically shaping our nation since their advent.

Yet, despite their many contributions to our expansion and development, autos transport us much in the same way they did when they were new; they still just get us from place to place.

The initial mechanics are simple…spark to fire gas engine, pistons, crankcase, drive shaft and roll…. Yet, a car is a machine that seems to harness time and memory so much more than other remnants of years that have passed.

THE AUTO AS TOUCHSTONE Regardless of our age, we each love the cars of our youth; they are hotwired to our identity.

Nothing brings back quite the memories like a car. While they convey the style of the time in their lines and colors, along with the technology with which they were produced, they do much more. They are sentinels to a time when we were younger, smaller and saw the world perhaps just a bit differently through their windshields. It’s how we interacted with them as machines that makes them steady placeholders of our youth; they brought us places, they moved us, they showed us our town, our state, our country.

When I think of myself as a little girl in the 1970s I am in a station wagon. Riding in back, no seat belts, crank windows, pulling the “button” up on the door, pulling an antennae

up on the front fender, lots of chrome, and all this with gas at 55 cents a gallon. My husband – who was raised in a rural area – remembers much the same thing, but he loves the chunky, flat-nosed pickups of that era; they are familiar to him in like the pages of a favorite picture book.

Four decades earlier, my Dad was among the streets of Brooklyn in the 1930s. Weaned on Saturday serials at the theater, old time gangster flicks, the golden age of Hollywood, and nickel hotdogs in Coney Island, cars in the City were only for the well-to-do; Citykids rode the trolley car or subway. Still the cars he loves are from that time, tall and dark, sleek with running boards and swooping fenders, cars that still resembled their recent forebears and still looked like carriages. They have temperature gauges on the radiators themselves, throttles on the steering wheel, cranks and engines almost as simple as the tractor you might use to mow your lawn.

THE OBSOLETE FLEET – WHO’S WHO: Featured among these pages are some of the cars of the Obsolete Fleet, our family cache of autos that have been maintained in largely original condition. Pictured are my Dad’s two faves – each heralding his childhood – and mine.

1972 Chevrolet “Townsman”, one of the longest wagons ever made sporting a 350 two-barrel engine. Purchased in 2011 via BringATrailer.com, this green machine required a road trip to Iowa to fetch it. The original bumper sticker made it worth it! It should be noted that Folk readers have shared many a

“station wagon story” most of which recall their childhood days, lying in the backety-back, the way-way back, rolling around and generally feeling free and unconfined amid the vast space.

1923 Studebaker from Honsesdale, PA. First spotted in 1948 and purchased in 1970, it’s earned its keep carrying hundreds of brides to the church on time and by working in multiple 70s and 80s fashion spreads. It sports 12,000 original miles, a top speed of 40 miles an hour, and two wheel external brakes. It’s most proud of its brazen “aaarroooogaaahh” horn and single, hand-operated windshield wiper.

1930 Model ‘A’ Ford purchased for $525 in 1961 from a florist on Long Island, NY who had lost big in Vegas and needed money. This “plain jane” of a vehicle has appeared in dozens of period pictures filmed in New York working with the likes of Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand, Charles Bronson, Oliver Finney, Carol Burnett, Candace Bergen, Spike Lee, Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington.

Most recently, it has been spotted around town dropping its owners’ grandchildren at school and being driven just for the fun of it.

1971 step side Ford “f-100” Pickup found in North Carolina in 1990 at an auto show. After serving as a Sunday driver to a gentleman farmer it was driven to its new home in Queens, NY. There it led a tidy life as a daily driver for before life got interesting. It then visited the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, was hit by an ambulance in NYC, and was repaired in time to appear as Aidan’s truck in the “Sex in the City” television series. These days it enjoys retirement and an occasional toodle around town.

Follow along as Jen takes to the highway at earthangelsstudios.com

STORY

THE STORIES THAT CONNECT US ALL

// 38 //

The Teacher With No Name BACK TO SCHOOL & BACK TO 3RD GRADE

As the season turns from summer to fall, my mind takes me in several directions. The first direction leads me to the classroom and this year I return to 3rd grade…but first, a little family history.

My family has deep roots in southern gospel music. One such source for me was the Veterans Quartet. The group of men entertained in venues from churches to benefits to the annual Centertown Horse Show. The Veterans Quartet represented four branches of the military and two conflicts as follows: John O’Brien US Marine Corps in WWII, Frank Duncan US Navy in WWII, Matthew Tichenor in the Air Force in WWII and Junior McDole who served in the US Army during the Korean War. The pianist for the group was none other than my great aunt and wife of Frank Duncan, Anna Laura Vance Duncan. And so begins my story…

It seems everyone beamed with excitement to be in her class. She always smiled and made everyone feel special. I immediately began the struggle with what to call this smiling, jet -black haired, highly favored teacher. Hands popped up and questions spurted from my eager classmates. “Mrs. Duncan?

May I sit by the window?” “Mrs. Duncan? Do we have to sit in ‘ABC’ order?” “Mrs. Duncan? Do we have to write in cursive this year?” I realized that no one else had a problem with this Mrs. Duncan thing so why did I? For all my long life…all 8 years of it…I had only called this woman Anna Laura. I knew I could never call her that at school. I surely would spend the year in the principal’s office for that, not to mention the misery awaiting me at home for displaying such disrespect. I was equally as uncomfortable calling her “Aunt Anna Laura”, “Aunt Ann” or any other similar name.

Third grade may not be as significant for others as it is for me but I had a very special teacher that year.

I often say third grade was the year I had a teacher with no name. Strange as that sounds, it was very real for me. My maternal grandfather’s only sibling taught third grade at Centertown. Though she is my great-aunt, she is only 5 years older than my mother, thus they grew up more like sisters than aunt and niece. Since Mom never referred to her as aunt, neither did I. So, in the fall of 1962, I walked up the sidewalk and into Centertown School, turned left and went to the 2nd room on the left where Anna Laura Duncan welcomed another batch of 8 (+/-) year olds into her care.

Since I couldn’t call her by her name, as I had always done, I decided the best route for me would be to just not call her anything. If I had a question I simply raised my hand and asked the question when called upon rather than raise my hand and begin my question with “Mrs. Duncan” as everyone else did.

No one seemed to notice yet I felt strange. I feared she would one day ask me why I never called her by anything and I would be embarrassed but she never asked and my anxieties were unfounded. This all was confirmed when one afternoon Mom had taken us to one of the local general merchandise stores in town and Anna Laura was there. I vividly recall how she leaned into the car to chat with Mom and

STORY: LINDA REID

also made sure she paid attention to the kids in the car. For some reason, the subject arose and I was asked the question I had dreaded for so long. “What do you call your teacher, Linda?”

I shrank in my seat and quietly said, “I don’t call her anything.” The moment that confirmed “she” didn’t realize I never called her anything was when she said, “That’s right. You don’t ever call me anything at school.” I don’t believe she was offended. I actually think she thought it was sweet that I chose to show her respect by not calling her anything.

Anna Laura’s distinctive laugh matches her infectious smile. Whenever she laughs, you know it’s genuine and not just obligatory. The music of her laughter often filled our classroom. She could make a student feel as if they always said the funniest thing in the world. Her smile kept us in line. I don’t recall her ever raising her voice to any of us. Her smile may have weakened but never totally disappeared. I know there were times we disappointed her with our behavior yet she never let it show. Even if she chastised us, she smiled and her kindness forever shined.

Though I give credit to two other teachers for inspiring me to teach, I must say that Anna Laura surely planted the seeds that others tended and grew. I often recall little things of my 3rd grade year…things that others brushed off as insignificant, trivial details. Anna Laura literally lived a stone’s throw from school so she walked to school. I rode a bus so I thought it was so awesome that someone lived close enough to walk school.

Since I rode the very last bus, I had extra time to hang out in the classroom. Though a treat for me, it must surely have been a nuisance to her. I often washed the blackboard but more often I just chatted with my great aunt. My first knowledge of lesson plans and them written in a special book came from those afternoons. I vividly remember Anna Laura making notes in a

red book and me asking her what she was doing.

With a chuckle she told me she was planning our lessons for the next few days. Until that point I just thought teachers conducted class in a natural, easy manner. I didn’t realize the amount of planning time, paper grading and other special preparations that went into making a classroom run successfully. I also recall my first understanding of the word “skedaddle” coming from the moment when Anna Laura packed her plan book and pencils into the center drawer of her big wooden desk. Once she did that and picked up her purse she smiled and said, “Okay.

It’s time to skedaddle .” I knew that meant we had to leave the building. I often watched her walk the short distance to her house on the corner diagonally from the school and then I ran off to find a baseball or basketball game or to play on the playground until my bus arrived.

Tomorrows came and went. Third grade flew by and at the end of the year my teacher regained her name…Anna Laura Duncan. Soon after my 3rd grade year, the Duncan family moved to Hartford. Centertown School’s loss was certainly Wayland Alexander School’s gain. She continued to teach and touch lives through her teaching.

Though the Veterans Quartet eventually had to disband, Anna Laura never let her distinctive style of piano playing sit idle. After her retirement, she eventually organized a group of senior citizens into a choir. They met every Mon morning at the local Senior Center. The Ohio County Senior Choir entertained at local churches and senior living facilities…reminiscent of the Veterans Quartet.

Today Anna Laura remains one of my favorite people and even when she struggled with some health issues she never lost her beautiful smile or her musical laughter. To paraphrase one of my Veterans Quartet Favorites…”To me, it WAS so wonderful”…in reference to 3rd grade and the Teacher With No Name.

Ko me da l R oa d

www.komedalroad.com

KR

PONDERINGS SHANNON ASHBY

THE JOURNEY OF MY SPIRIT and the wise woman spoke …

As a small babe, I heard the stories shared by the shaman while I listened in the quiet, wrapped in the warm blanket of my ancestors. The soul never dies. As sure as the greasy grass blows against the banks of the Rosebud stream in the valley of the Little Big Horn your spirit will be born again and again to live new life on a new journey.

My people believe in life after life - the teaching and belief that we all live forever. Each lifetime brings a different body, but garners the same heart, the same soul. For when you travel into your new realm, many will strangely know you by the closeness they sense when they are in your presence. In that new life you will be known only by those I call the wisdom keepers. For the body may change as the seasons require but the spirit never forgets its travels.

Soon now, the owl will call my name and in the hush of the blue moon, my body will give way and my spirit will take its new shape as it passes on to the other side. I share this secret with you because I know in another life we were bound together. As my body grows tired, my soul has shared the secret of my footing on vast towering mountain peaks, reaching into the heavens where I can see tomorrow. I see the eagle soar and hear the restless music of the melting snow.

Once again I long to taste the alabaster snowflakes of winter, and the blackberries of summer. I desire to inhale the fragrance of the

honeysuckle, to listen to the wolf call her kit and see the fallow tail graze upon the windblown grass of the bottom land. As the morning haze lifts on the eastern side of the tree line and I can see the frost upon the shimmering golden aspens, I feel the peace for which I long. I grow tired in this chaotic life and I trust that I, my soul, will be released into the mystery of the unknown time; a new refreshing time and quiet place to begin again.

As my soul blinks moments for me to see , I vaguely recall many moons ago - standing by a crackling cedar fire with embers glowing and as I warmed myself. I waited for my transformation to occur in hopes of a glimpse of you in my passing.

I was content with the silence of myself. I could see the seven stars of the big dipper and smiled at the legends told by my grandfathers. I smelled the fragrance of the calming wood smoke as the pumpkin colored sparks rose upward, upward into the onyx sky embellished by the twinkling Milky Way…and your spirit welcomed me there. Recall, if you can. Do you remember?

Come… go… and follow me to the fresh unknown meadow. If we become lost again in the crossing, I promise I will find you, for I will know you, not by your face but by the sound of the beating of your heart and I will wait for you…. as I have lifetime after lifetime. For all eternity, our time will come again.

// 42 //

Visit : 900 Kossuth St. Lafayette, IN | Shop Online: hothousemarket.com Follow Us on Facebook

BRENTWOOD ~ COOL SPRINGS ~ LEIPER’S FORK ~ NOLENSVILLE

Stories as unique as you are.

LISA FOX,OWNER LEIPER’S CREEK GALLERY

FIND YOURSELF IN OUR STORY. VISITFRANKLIN.COM

My name is Lisa Fox and I’m the owner of Leiper’s Creek Gallery. I’ve been in Leiper’s Fork for 11 years. Initially, I was sent to paint a mural for Aubrey Preston and was here for six months. While I spent time here, I fell in love and did not want to leave. I would hang out at lunch with everybody at Puckett’s and talk about mending fences and chasing cows and just absolutely fit in because I grew up on a farm. And I was a painter so I loved the countryside and painting the countryside. When it came time for me to leave it was evident that I just belonged here.

Aubrey had remodeled an old Gulf Station building and asked me if I would run it as a gallery. I never expected to do any such thing. I was scared to death, but I took it on and it’s been a learning process ever since. Every day is a new day. We really have an awesome stable of artists, some of the best local artists around and I’m really proud of that.

THE LITTLE THINGS BEN ASHBY

CHRISTIAN WATSON “1924, the solid, simple embodiment of an idea that in this generation there are those who still remain true to hard work, dedication, the classic blood, sweat, and tears of what goes into anything of good quality.”

— Christian Watson, owner 1924 As we journey through life, it is important that we find like-minded souls to join us in our walk towards self-discovery. Across the country there is a growing number of indivuals that I find share my world-view, and over the coming months I will be going in search of other Gen Y-ers who are celebrating the little things, promoting the importance of handmade, and working to preserve the past while looking towards the future. Each person will be asked the same five questions in this series as we come together to discuss our thoughts over the proverbial cup of coffee.

The first in this series is Christian Watson, the owner of 1924, an online curation of American-made goods and vintage finds.

WHAT INSPIRED 1924 “There was an assortment of things that inspired me to begin this project. I was raised in the southern woodlands of Oregon as a middle child of two brothers and the son of a good mother and a good father, not surrounded by too many people yet I always remained curious. My Grandparents, Nana & Papa—they would eat me alive if they found out I called them grandparents, were very good people, always remaining busy as bees and doing and teaching me an abundance

of work that any eight-year-old boy would loathe. In time, I fell in love. I learned to stack wood, fell trees, plant, build, clean, grow, love, and face humility so that in my faults I could learn.

I want 1924 to be the embodiment of that feeling, the humble adventures of a man or woman trying to share what they feel is good. I started 1924 before I even knew what it would grow to be. When I was 18, with the help of the most inspiring woman in my life, I created Lyla & Blu, a blog that we made to express our opinions, writings, and share our passions with others. Little did we know it would grow exponentially and vast.

We were in love, we had amassed a group of people who inspired us, talked with us, shared with us their stories and talents and hobbies and it overwhelmed us with kindness. This was not without trial. We are young and things are always changing in simple and challenging ways alike. With that change Lyla & Blu became 1924, the solid, simple embodiment of an idea that in this generation there are those who still remain true to hard work, dedication, the classic blood, sweat, and tears of what goes into anything of good quality.

// 46 //

Today we continue to share all aspects of this: good people, good quality, good stories. Makes for one damn good life.

WHY 1924 IS WHAT IT IS. We know that everyone will interpret what we do differently, but we feel it is very important to share the good quality of life with others, the aesthetic, and even the trials so that people can relate and see a different or shared perspective on life. We sell goods that are of impeccable quality from makers who do it for the work not for the coin. This is our passion, our livelihood.

Sometimes it puts bread on the table, sometimes bread is all you need. We worry that in 50 years, antiques will be first generation iPods and plastic HotWheels, things mass-produced on conveyer belts and made with a few clicks of the button.

Technology is great, don’t get us wrong, but as a first priority learning to craft with your fingers is not only a lot more rewarding, but it lasts. So we specialize in the odd and the old, not always built by hand, but with the ability to last in mind! The craft had purpose, and lifelong guarantees were not the selling point, but was always included. We pass on that good bit of quality by sharing our finds, creative makers, and stories with others using 1924 as our outlet.

WHERE WE WANT TO GO We hope to take this as far as we can go, to share with increasing numbers of people, to share artists and makers with others to get people in touch with travel, adventure, and a taste for good food. To share our humility so that others can learn, to press on in the face of discomfort so that living can be enjoyable even when difficult. It’s not about making coin, but about listening, sharing, expressing, and embracing every bit that comes our way in the time we are here. I hope that people see the good in the old things, that love is not perceived as a fairytale, and adventures always taking place in photographs. It is in the little moments of quiet, the smiles at dinner parties, the hurdlingover laugh that my Papa has when I come up with a witty joke, and that is 1924.

In the next few years we want to open up shop in Portland, the beautiful northern area of Oregon.

Our very best friends live there, even the ones we have yet to meet! A life, a home, and a future family built on the ideals that we embody in 1924, because for us, it’s not just our passion, it’s how we live.

— 1924.us

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THE LEAF PILE ...the grandest sight of all: the leaf pile.

Autumn is pure excitement. As an adult it means cable knit sweaters and well heeled boots can come out of summer slumber. Fall means sipping hot spiced cider while browsing quaint Main Street shops as holiday goods make their debut.

But as a child, autumn meant a new season of magic as nature’s leafy curtain fell open to reveal bone like branches, fiery colors falling from the sky, the grandest sight of all: the leaf pile.

To kids in the Northeast, autumn officially arrived with the first fleck of orange on the maple tree, regardless of the calendar date. It would be only a matter of weeks before the ground was covered in crunchy oranges, reds, and browns- the perfect blend for leaf piling!

Neighborhood kids would assemble with rakes and hoodies prepared to work hills of fun in fallen foliage. Most of us were content with a medium sized pile, about waist high, close to a wooden swing. The first jumps were slow, just a few gentle swings to test our bravery and be sure the rocks sifted to the bottom. Before long we were pumping our legs to go higher and smiling wide as we leapt from safety to land leaf covered, laughing at the awkward whooooosh! A quick raking to reform the pile and it was time to launch again.

Over the rake’s gritty scratching, we could hear them. They were there, again, just like the years before! We could hear their triple dog dare taunting and hoots and hollers.

The middle-schoolers! They were more

experienced, had already broken bones, and were massing a mountain-high pile granted by the largest oaks on the block. We couldn’t help but be lured in by the promise of danger. My friends and I would line up along the white picket fence separating the street from the twelve foot drop to the yard below. There it was: the mammoth leaf pile of doom! It was higher than the garage door and centered eight feet out from the second story deck railing: the ledge of legends. One by one, the older boys would perch atop the wooden railing and pitch themselves into the pile, burying themselves completely and emerging from the pile base with a victorious “Yeeeeeeeeehaaaawwww!” The leaf pile so well constructed it needed no re-raking.

One boy, a tall scrawny blond with a bicycle mishap scar down one arm, launched off the railing followed, without warning, by another boy who landed right on top of the blonde head. A howl escaped as the boys tumbled down the side of the pile in mock fist fighting.

Brushing themselves off with laughter they headed back up the deck steps for more.

My friends and I stared on in awe, boasting we would swan dive that pile if only they would let us….. secure in the knowledge we wouldn’t get the chance. It would be years until we were in middle school; until we were cool like that. In those days we were content with our mini leaf pile under the swing.

When we were done jumping we sat in the pile eating sunflower seeds, boasting about our Halloween costumes and promising to be the best of friends forever.

STORY: JACQUIE WHEELER | PHOTOGRAPH: ASHLIE BLAKE

// 52 //

Read more essays by Greta + check out her biography on our website folklifestyle.com

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THE QUINCE TREE A SHORT STORY

The quinces were ripening splendidly the year Carthage took sick. Each succulent piece of fruit clinging to its branch held the promise of becoming a part of the golden jelly his wife, Cleo, had been coveting to preserve in small jars.

Just days before the quinces reached their peak, Carthage was stricken with a particularly unpleasant ailment. Chills and fever accompanied bouts of delirium, causing him to exhaust his strength thrashing in his bed.

Being quite set in his ways, Carthage refused to spend his days in his nightgown. Every morning, even in his weakened condition, he rose from his bed and proceeded to dress himself. He began by taking his trousers from under his bolster, where he had folded and placed them the night before.

He pulled them on over his one-piece underwear, leaving his suspenders hanging from the waistband as he put on his shirt. Pins held the collar in place and he placed rubber bands above his elbows to keep the sleeves from slipping.

No matter how cold or hot the weather, Carthage always wore a vest. He never left the house without his hat. He wore black shoes that laced past his ankles and he used hooks to tighten and tie the laces.

A week into Carthage’s illness, he woke at the usual time, dressed himself, put on his hat, walked down the back porch steps, and set off along the path to the toilet. At the edge of the path, the branches of the quince tree, heavy with near ripe fruit, were hanging lower than usual as they swayed in the morning breeze. Carthage, breathing with a wheeze, walked under the

branches where his hat was caught by a limb and tumbled to the ground.

“Dang blasted, son of a sailor,” he muttered.

Carthage headed to the kindling house and rummaged until he found the ax. He walked back to the tree, jaw set, eyes ablaze, his pipe firmly gripped between his teeth.

With the ax grasped in both hands, he commenced chopping at the trunk of the tree.

He hacked at it until it fell to the ground, the not quite soft quinces splattering all over the yard, the branches blocking the path to the toilet.

Cleo watched from the kitchen window. She didn’t say a word.

The exertion put Carthage into a spell of weakness as perspiration poured from his body.

Much to his chagrin, he had to be helped back to the house. He stretched out on the bed, fully dressed, and closed his eyes.

The downing of the tree was never mentioned in Carthage’s presence. The quinces were left where they fell and occasionally the chickens roaming in the yard would peck at the rotting fruit.

Finally, someone dragged the tree from across the path and threw it into the ditch by the road.

Passersby pilfered firewood from the branches and trunk until only twigs and dead leaves remained.

Carthage recovered. Cleo continued to make biscuits for every meal and they ate them quietly, without quince jelly.

STORY: ALICE HALE ADAMS | PHOTOGRAPH: LORALYN CECIL

// 57 //

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THE COMING OF FALL AN ESSAY

The end of Summer is approaching and I don’t remember when it began. As I sit looking out of the window, watching the leaves on the huge oak tree turning colors before my eyes, my mind wanders to another time. A time when this large oak tree was just starting its new life. Oh, the stories this tree could tell. As Fall approaches, the leaves on the old oak tree are preparing for the next season. They will slowly change color, starting with a beautiful yellow, and moving on to a golden amber. When the sun’s rays hit these beautiful leaves, oh how beautiful they are. As the ]days progress and the temperature starts to fall these beautiful leaves will take flight. The wind picks up and one by one the leaves from the old oak tree sail like airplanes, gliding through the air until they reach their destination on the ground.

Often times, I feel like an old oak tree. I change with each season preparing for the next. The Fall brings cooler weather, which gives you a sense that something is in the air! A tingle of excitement, that you can’t explain. You just sense that something is different. As the long hot summer days drag out, we are ready for change, just like the old oak tree.

We are ready to shed our own leaves and prepare for new. This is a time to celebrate the “Coming of Fall”.

The “Coming of Fall”, means warm scents in the air, cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin. The Farmers are cutting there hay in the fields, and the smell of fresh cut hay is something you will never forget.

The cotton in the field down the road is green and I can see tiny buds appearing, preparing to bloom.

A plant that produces a fiber, cotton, what an amazing thing. When the cotton is in full bloom, it is beautiful. The soy bean field across the highway puts off a scent that I can’t describe, but I know it is the “Coming of Fall”.

There is a crispness in the air, it takes my breath away as I walk barefoot in the cool grass under the Old Oak Tree.

I look up to see the leaves flying around me. I watch one leaf as it slowly floats, and the wind picks it up and carries it to its resting place. Over time, the leaf will break down, and go slowly back into the ground from where it came. I step on something with my bare feet, I look down to see an acorn. I pick it up and think to myself, I am holding a new life in my hands. I gently place it back onto its resting place, where one day, a seedling will appear and the little acorn will begin a new life. This is the “Coming of Fall”.

“The Coming of Fall”, brings Festivals to life.

Oh the scents of cotton candy and corn dogs!

The County Fairs, the Barn Shows, and the Craft Festivals! There is music in the air with the sounds of laughter and craftsmen selling their wares.

The night brings bon fires, roasting hotdogs and drinking hot chocolate while sitting on a bale of hay, snuggling with the ones you love! Fall is a family time. It is a time to be thankful for family and friends.

As I look out my window at the old oak tree, I wonder, is it, “The Coming of Fall”?

STORY: RUTH BARNES

// 60 //

CREATE A HOUSE BECOMES A HOME

// 64 //

WHITNEY SMITH Artists and craftspeople today have to be teachers, and light the path to show potential customers a different way to acquiring goods. Saying that something is “handmade” or “made in America” is only a shorthand way of saying something about a product, and it’s not enough.

People want the story, they want to know about the process of how and why something is made. That creates a connection. When people feel connected to an artist, they want to support that artist.

— Whitney Smith It was one of those moments when you wanted to pinch yourself as you sat beneath a plum tree amidst the flourishing garden of an admired artisan that you never in a million years expected to meet, let alone, chit-chat with for a few hours on a weekday morning.

Whitney Smith is the girl-next-door who happens to be an amazing ceramics artist. Currently living in Oakland, California, she has a ceramics design studio near her home and her beautiful pieces are carried in shops all across the country. Whitney is lovely in every way possible, down-to-earth, witty, resourceful, creative, and inspiring. Her work speaks for itself and is influenced by Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th and early 20th Century. She adds a certain magic to clay, and it shines through in each piece she offers.

The future can only be brilliant and bright for this artist, for she thinks large and creates with her soul.

AT WHAT MOMENT DID YOU REALIZE MAKING POTTERY WAS YOUR CALLING IN LIFE? There was no specific moment. Clay is a relationship, and like many relationships I fell in love fast and hard, and threw my whole soul into it. I wanted to commit to making pottery, but it took years to figure out what that would look like or how I could turn pottery into a calling.

YOU HAVE A DEFINITIVE STYLE, DID YOU BEGIN WITH THIS WHIMSICAL, NATURETHEMED PATH OR DID IT EVOLVE OVER TIME? My initial interest in clay was strictly based on trying to achieve certain shapes and make the pieces function properly. Style and decoration was secondary to trying to master the skills involved in making pottery. My style evolved slowly for the first five years or so, and then all at once when I discovered my expression in clay through nature themes.

ARE THERE CERTAIN EXPERIENCES THAT SHAPE THE WAY YOU DESIGN? My experience with nature has the most influence on the way I design and make pieces. Nature is the perfect designer when it comes to form and function.

My attempts at emulating organic forms found in the natural world can be downright clumsy and labored in comparison to the fluidity of nature, but I never get bored with trying!

OUR READERS ARE DEVOTED TO SUPPORTING US-MADE PRODUCTS, REALIZING IT IS A STRUGGLE FOR A SMALL ARTISAN TO COMPETE WITH MASS PRODUCED WARES,

STORY + PHOTO: MELISSA MCARDLE

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO EMERGING ARTISTS/CRAFTSMEN TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO GROW THEIR BUSINESS ORGANICALLY? Artists and craftspeople today have to be teachers, and light the path to show potential customers a different way to acquiring goods. Saying that something is “handmade” or “made in America” is only a shorthand way of saying something about a product, and it’s not enough. People want the story, they want to know about the process of how and why something is made. That creates a connection. When people feel connected to an artist, they want to support that artist. Artists have to be willing to create the connection by telling their story, and sharing it with the public at large. This is a whole new skill set that artists have to master. It can be very challenging because it requires us to really do the work in discovering who we are, articulate the story of why we do our work, and being vulnerable.

WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED? Don’t be a complainer. If you must complain, keep it short and tell it to somebody who cares.

YOU APPRECIATE HANDMADE THINGS AND SURROUND YOURSELF WITH MEANINGFUL OBJECTS, WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU TREASURE IN YOUR HOME OR STUDIO, AND WHY? I treasure my original papercut from Elsa Mora. I find her to be very inspiring and I smile every time I look at it.

WHAT’S YOUR MOST MEMORABLE ARTISTIC MOMENT TO-DATE? The day I got my own studio that was not a garage in my house. Having a space dedicated only to creating your pottery made me feel like I was really on my way!

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE AMERICAN ARTISANS? I’m lucky enough to have many of my favorite potters as close personal friends: Christa Assad, Rae Dunn, Sara

Paloma, Diana Fayt, Kristin Pavelka. I also adore Elsa Mora (of course) Jill Bliss. I have a major weakness for any kind of paper or letterpress art so I also love Norma Toraya of crankbunny, and Anna and Mara at Dutchdoor.

IS THERE A PARTICULAR ARTIST {PAST OR PRESENT} THAT INSPIRES YOU? AND WHY? I’m always cycling through different artists that inspire me, and lately I’ve been really loving Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He was a painter, a designer, an architect, and deeply aligned with ecology. His message was about living in harmony with nature and giving humans the opportunity to use creativity to solve every problem. He was a radical non-conformist who lived his message, questioned authority and everything else while creating amazing work.

WHAT’S BEEN THE MOST SURPRISING THING ABOUT THIS VENTURE/CREATIVE PATH YOU ARE ON? How supportive my fans and customers have been and continue to be.

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AND WHITNEY SMITH POTTERY IN 5 YEARS? I see myself continuing to make work that is meaningful to me and hope people will continue to find it inspiring and beautiful.

WHEN NOT IN YOUR STUDIO, WHAT OCCUPIES YOUR TIME? During the non-winter months, my garden takes a lot of my time. I also dedicate plenty of time to reading, riding my bike, hiking, cooking, hanging out with friends, and lazing around on beaches.

FINISH THE SENTENCE: MY IDEA OF THE AMERICAN DREAM IS...

My idea of the American dream is having the freedom and support to pursue creativity in whatever way brings me and those around me joy and inspiration.

— whitneysmithpottery.com

PATTERN

TRUDY HONEYCUTT

// 68 //

MUSLIN HARVEST PUMPKIN Learn how to make these country-style muslin pumpkins.

Pumpkin…this fabulous edible is a favorite of mine, in any form. As well as being a staple in many kitchens, pumpkins are a great autumn decor piece.

For a pumpkin that will last all year give these super simple patterns a try.

Materials Needed: Fabric (muslin is a great choice) Basic Sewing Supplies Polyfil, or Muslin Scraps Craft Paint (orange and green, or color of your choice) Rusty Wire, Fabric, or Cheesecloth (for tying around the stem) Trace the pattern onto the doubled fabric.

Your tracing line will be the stitching line. Sew along line. Trim the seam to ¼”. Turn right side out. Stuff firmly with polyfil or muslin scraps. Stitch opening closed by hand.

I like to grunge my items with a mixture of coffee, tea, vanilla and cinnamon.

I make a grunging sauce, paint it on with a small paintbrush, and then bake my items in the oven at a very low temperature. (170 degrees) Turn the pieces often to provide a more even look.

Watch carefully.

After grunging and drying I sand with a medium to fine grade sandpaper. I like to dilute my craft paint with some of the grunging mixture. Diluting with coffee works well too. I find that the straight paint, or paint diluted with water, is usually a bit brighter than I like.

Bake or air-dry the painted item again.

Sand again. Use a waterproof pen to make the pumpkin lines, or stitch by hand in a running stitch. Tie on the rusty wire, curl it around a dowel or a pencil, and sign your pumpkin.

Email Trudy at theheadcrow@aol.com with any questions.

TRUDY HONEYCUTT | CROWS IN THE ATTIC

// 70 //

WITH THESE HANDS An Autumn Photo Essay

I have always adored the soft, warm, yummy sun lower in the night sky in the fall. The glow, the stillness, it is serene. I own and run a wedding venue in the northwest and work a five acre piece of property that is so near and dear to my heart. We call it Belle Victorian Gardens. When I first decided to host weddings on these glorious grounds I was not an expert gardener by any means. I have come to enable myself to say I am a gardener by every definition of the word. After much trial and error I have learned. I have learned to not only dream but to make my dreams a reality, not just a thought up vision. I have also decided that I do not like the word no. If no is in the scenario, then I will find a way to turn it to a resounding yes! I also relish the French way of doing things. I adore their love of all things beautiful, their markets, and the pastries, oh yes the pastries.

One of my couples had hired me to style their engagement session and we decided to do it here on the grounds. This was my vision for their beautiful shoot. Because my hands work this soil diligently almost every day in the summer, I was ecstatic to incorporate the apples from my 35 apple trees, my pears, and the abundant flowers that are grown in my gardens. This was a shoot with bounty from the deep, dark, rich, soil. It highlights not only

Stasha and Justin’s love for one another but the glory that comes from sharing the same passions such as gardening, antiquing, and working side by side. My husband and I have worked these grounds for 11 years together and it has been pure joy. The pumpkins, the dahlias, and the vegetables were all planted here as seed. It is stunning to see the fruit of your hands come to completion.

We imagined that our couple was biking their way through the country and came upon a fruit, flower, and vegetable vendor in the field. They would stop, shop, and load up their bike basket with a picnic fit for only them to share and enjoy. They could linger there for a bite or ride past to a beautiful meadow to retreat to their mouthwatering faire. We incorporated vintage dough tables to hold our gorgeous blooms infused with rose water. We dipped the pears in creamy melted caramel with a pecan layering around the edges. Macaroons also highlighted our selection of pastries in the colors of orange and brown.

Strawberries were also on the menu infused with the sweep of chocolate, laced with cocoa pudding in fun chocolate cups. Our stylish in love couple, dined on their delicious delights on vintage plates in beautiful colors of joy. It was a vision that came and went with the warmth of the Fall setting sun.

STORY & PRODUCTION: PAM TERPSTRA | PHOTOGRAPHY: MEGAN ROBINSON

// 71 //

// 73 //

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AUTUMN IN SHENANDOAH Eat, shop, and linger in the valley.

Nestled in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, a rustic barn overflows with art, handcrafted goods, and vintage treasures for the second annual Perennial Favorites Barn Sale. Just outside, the chickens welcome the morning sun as coffee brews near by, and vendors set up there booths on a chilly September morning. There is much to browse and admire, from home furnishings, to stationary, wooden cutting boards, and baked goods, this event offers a promising selection of quality products. Bring your friends and family to enjoy the festivities of live old-time string music from 10am-1pm, children’s pumpkin painting, smoked BBQ, homemade doughnuts, a coffee bar, hand dipped caramel apples, and more!

Saturday, September 21, 2013. 9:00AM - 2:00PM. Spring Creek Roller Mills. 6934 Beaver Creek Road, Bridgewater, Virgina

// 75 //

PHOTO ESSAY DANNY PASCHALL

MAGICAL VERMONT

“Every October I travel from my southern California home to the magical Vermont foliage. These photos are taken from some of my favorite places that have become a part of my fall ritual: Woodstock, Quechee, Stowe & Middlebury.”

// 76 //

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AMERICAN-MADE BEN’S FALL FAVORITES

FOLK FINDS Ben’s must haves for fall 2013. All items made right here in the U.S.A.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

1) Tote by Artifact Bags artifactbags.com. 2) Good Hearted T by The Strong Brand thestrongbrand.com.

3) Throw by School House Electric schoolhouseelectric.com. 4) Fall 2013 Where Women Create earthangelsstudios. com. 5) Silk Scarf by Squid Whale Designs squidwhaledesigns.com. 6) Bowtie by Forage Haberdashery forage. bigcartel.com. 7) Necklace by Grandmothers Buttons grandmothersbuttons.com. 8) Desk Caddy by Peg + Awl pegandawlbuilt.com. 9) Woodsmoke + Amber Candle by Sydney Hale Co sydneyhaleco.com.

// 78//

SNAPSHOTS

AUTUMN ACROSS AMERICA

THE HARVEST IS HERE FOLK readers take us into the pumpkin patches across America.

TOP TO BOTTOM | LEFT TO RIGHT: 1) The Grey Boxwood 2) Liana Small 3) Jeanette Chiarini 4) Angela Alderman 5) Robert Brawley 6-8) Melissa Sims 9) Shelby Walter Autumn is the whisper of the earth calling to us; in the crisp air, the crunch of falling leaves, the smell of the pumpkin patch, the tingle of the frosty dew, the glow of the harvest moon, the sweet taste of the golden apple, in the misty fog rising from the river banks.....

— KIM LEGGETT

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SHARING THE TASTES OF AMERICA

A TASTE OF HARVEST BY: RIKKI SNYDER

So many times I find myself daydreaming about color. It marvels me and has proven to be one of my biggest inspirations. Most particularly where it comes from in nature. When I’m daydreaming about this my mind then wanders to thinking about all of the great artists, like Claude Monet and his lily pads, whose work so thoughtfully uses the colors that we all see on a daily basis in nature. These artists were creating this beautiful artwork a hundred years ago off of the same colors we still have the privilege of taking in. The bold neon oranges and pinks from a sunset, the bright crisp yellow of a summer squash growing on the green stalks, the red of a cardinal and that incredible light blue of a robin’s egg. Color is always around us in nature and every corner that we look its beauty is astounding.

As you can probably guess, my favorite thing about Autumn is the color it brings along with it.

Growing up the cooler, cardigan weather, shorter days and colorful trees meant one thing to me: back to school. I dreaded this season when I was little, for no child wants to go back to school!

However, I secretly enjoyed all the little things that make up Autumn, like pumpkin patches and apple orchards, picking up acorns on the sidewalk and jumping in piles of leaves. Now that I’m older, I fully enjoy the season of Autumn with no repercussions. I no longer resist Autumn, I embrace it. I enjoy seeing the reds, oranges and golds of the leaves, I look forward to baking with the colors of the butternut squash and apples.

Even the muted browns and greens of Bosc pears, dry crunching leavings and dwindling grass on a foggy morning are pleasing to my eyes. I am ready for all the bountiful colors and flavors this season unfailingly brings and I hope you are too.

// 82 //

// 85 //

APPLE BUTTERSCOTCH BARS

PUMPKIN BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

These apple butterscotch bars are a favorite in my family. We’ll eat apples any time of the year but there is nothing quite like going to an orchard, picking your own and baking them into something delicious. Apples, cinnamon and butterscotch have become a staple of this season.

For those of you who like to hold on to the flavors of summer just a bit longer this recipe is for you.

Combining fresh blueberries with a pumpkin muffin is an unexpected yet delicious twist, blending the best flavors of Summer and Autumn to create my favorite color combination of orange and blue.

2 cups sugar 1 salt 1 cup oil 1 teaspoon cinnamon 3 eggs, beaten 3 cups apples- cored, peeled and chopped 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup butterscotch chips 2-1/2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until well combined. Stir in apples. Spread in a greased 13x9-inch baking pan. Bake for 40-45 mins until golden brown on top. Makes about three dozen.

CHOCOLATE COVERED PEARS These chocolate covered pears are Autumn at its most simplest form. Why should apples have all the fun being dipped in something tasty? Let pears have the spotlight by turning them into the perfect dessert for all ages. Melt a bag or two of chocolate chips and dip away. Try rolling them in sprinkles, nuts or shredded coconut as well.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour 3/4 cup quick cooking oats 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 1/2 cup canned pumpkin 1/2 cup milk 1/4 cup melted butter 1 cup fresh blueberries Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour muffin pan. Mix the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a medium sized bowl until evenly blended. In a separate, large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, milk, egg and butter. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, just until all ingredients are moistened.

Gently fold in the blueberries with a wooden spoon. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake in oven for about 25 minutes until tops spring back when lightly pressed.

— rikkisnyder.com

// 86 //

PUMPKIN GINGER CAKE in the pumpkin mixture just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into two greased 9-inch cake pans and bake for about 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the cake pans then gently tip out onto a wire wrack and cool completely. Frost with the spiced powdered sugar glaze.

3 cups sugar 1 teaspoon nutmeg 1 cup oil 1 teaspoon ground cloves 4 eggs 3-1/2 cups flour 2/3 cup water 2 teaspoons baking soda 15 oz. can pumpkin 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2 teaspoon ground ginger 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon allspice

SPICED POWDERED SUGAR GLAZE

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl beat together sugar, oil, and eggs. Add the water and mix well. Beat in the pumpkin and spices the set aside. In a large separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir

3 1 1 1

cups powdered sugar cup heavy cream teaspoon cinnamon teaspoon nutmeg

Stir all ingredients together until desired consistency. Ice and assemble cake.

// 89 //

PANCAKE CAKE WITH MAPLE CREAM FROSTING From: The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Desserts Cookbook We admit that we have had cake for breakfast before. Who hasn’t? But how about breakfast for dessert? This recipe came about when we accidentally made too much pancake batter on Sunday morning. It’s our take on a thousand-layer cake. The pancakes can be made up to a day ahead and refrigerated. The cake can be assembled up to 2 hours ahead. Not feeling like dessert? Prepare the pancakes using only 2 tablespoons of sugar and have them for breakfast.

PANCAKES 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned into cup and leveled off) 1/3 cup rye or whole wheat flour 2 tablespoons cornmeal 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 tablespoons light brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 11/4 cups milk 2 large eggs 2 large egg yolks 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

FILLING 11 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature 1/4 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt 5 tablespoons maple syrup 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, sifted

To make the pancakes: In a large bowl, whish together the all-purpose flour, rye flour, cornmeal, granulated and brown sugars, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, whole eggs, egg yolks, butter, and vanilla.

Coat 8-inch skillet with some melted butter and heat over mediumlow heat. Pour 1/2 cup of the batter into the pan and cook for 11/2 minutes, or until large bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake. Carefully flip the pancake over and cook for 1 minute longer, or until the underside is just cooked throuth. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining batter to make 6 pancakes an let cool to room temperature.

To make the filling: In a bowl, with and eletric mixer, beat the cream cheese and yourt until smooth. Beat in 4 tablespoons of the maple syrup and the confectiners’ sygar until well combined.

To assemble the cake: Spread each pancake with onesixth of the filling (about 5 tablespoons). Place one of the pancakes on a platter and stack the remaining pancakes on top. Drizzle the remaining 1 table-spoon maple syrup over the top of the cake.

Visit beekman1802.com to check out all of the Beekman 1802 products and to learn more about Brent and Josh’s new book.

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A GARLIC PRIMER Saying goodbye to summer stinks, but the cooling off of weather does allow us to step back and enjoy one of the often forgotten crops of late summer, garlic.

Garlic, or the stinking rose as it’s often called, is an odd crop that is planted in October before the first frost and lies dormant in the soil through winter only to burst into life in spring. After harvesting bulbs in mid-summer, the bulbs will dry for several weeks before use.

This small bulb has been used throughout history for medicinal use as well as consumption dating back as far as early Egyptian civilizations, and though its Syrian cousins have stolen the limelight, garlic is still a particularly powerful crop in Egypt. Tracing written connections through the Indus River Valley civilizations of modern Pakistan and India to a new home in China where it was praised as an aphrodisiac with lifelengthening qualities. Then to Portugal, France, and Spain where the crop once snubbed by ancient upper echelons became the ingredient à la mode for flavoring bland dishes, it then crossed the Atlantic to be a part of The New World.

What was once criticized as too volatile a food for consumption because of its alleged stimulant properties, the small bulbs have helped many races and generations ward of vampires, smallpox, and heart disease alike. Though the culinary use hasn’t always invaded every

cultures dinner plates, it has been used in a widespread fashion for medicinal purposes. Today, garlic is still a food recommended to patients with high risk associations for certain types of cancer for its richness in antioxidant and anti-carcinogenic vitamins in its raw form, and is also a great supplement for people suffering from heart disease and hypertension.

Garlic by classification is an allium, meaning it belongs to a family of flowering onion and leek plants. Though the history of garlic’s medicinal us is long, following America’s founding pilgrims back to their homelands, the use of garlic as a fairly mainstream ingredient in American food is relatively new. Spreading from traditionally ethnic neighborhoods like Brooklyn, New York, garlic found its way into American food most prevalently during early 1940s in an organic and slow osmosis. Today Americans alone consume around 250 million pounds of garlic annually.

This fall, we encourage our readers to become a part of this historically and nutritiously rich herb and plant garlic of their own. If you can’t plant it yourself, check in your local farmer’s market in early September for fresh, dried garlic for use in your own recipes. With colder weather settling in, who doesn’t want to curl up to a warm bowl of homemade minestrone and garlic bread?

BY: HEATH STILTNER

// 93 //

VIRGINIA’S ALLEY SANDY ROBINSON

// 94 //

COMMUNITY FAVORITES FROM THE HEART OF RURAL KENTUCKY Two years ago we started FOLK with the humble plans of sharing stories untold. With any story coming from rural Ohio County, Kentucky comes the inclusion of good food. When I was assembling my FOLK staff Sandy and her collection of hometown favorites and newly developed recipes was a must. This iron skillet apple pie recipe is what started it all. The recipe originally came from my grandmother (Linda’s mother) and was a community favorite. Sandy gave it her own twist and shared it in our very first issue.

Since then we get requests for the recipe weekly. Much like it has become a community favorite this recipe is a FOLK go to favorite and must have for any kitchen collection. — Ben BUTTERNUT SQUASH BUTTER 1 butternut squash (about 3 lbs), cut into rounds and roasted at 400 until very tender 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice Pinch salt 1 tsp vanilla Juice of one lemon Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

Transfer to saucepot and cook on medium/low heat for twenty minutes (stirring constantly), until thick and smooth. Let cool and store in a clean sterilized jar or store in refrigerator, where it will keep for about two weeks. Makes about two cups.

IRON SKILLET APPLE PIE 1 stick, plus 1 TBS butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup white sugar 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg 4 cup Granny Smith Apples, peeled and chopped into small pieces 1 box refrigerator piecrust (or homemade) In large iron skillet, melt 1 stick of butter and 1 cup brown sugar (do not caramelize, just melt the two together). Cover with piecrust; add apples, ¾ cup white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cover with top crust that has been slit in 3-4 places (I always cut a heart shape, feel free to choose your own cutout). Sprinkle top with remaining ¼ cup of sugar and dot with remaining TBS of butter.

Bake in 350-degree oven, for 30-45 minutes or until crust is brown and apples are tender. *When I first shared this recipe, I stated that I used margarine because this pie had not been successful with butter. Since that date, two years ago, I have made approximately 30 pies (my husbands co-workers love it) and I have used butter.

FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE 1 loaf of French bread 8 eggs 3 cups whole milk 4 tsp sugar ¾ tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1 TBS vanilla 2 TBS cut in small pieces Syrup Powdered sugar for sprinkling, optional Generously butter a 9 X 13 pan. Cut French bread in to 1 inch slices. Arrange bread slices in a single layer over bottom of pan. Beat eggs, milk, sugar, salt and vanilla in a large bowl until mixed well.

Pour over bread. Cover with foil, refrigerate over night.

Next morning, preheat oven to 350. Remove foil, dot with butter. Bake until bread is puffy or lightly browned; approximately 45-50 minutes.

Remove from oven, top with syrup and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Enjoy! Serves 8-12

PHOTOGRAPH: RIKKI SNYDER

JOURNEY

BACKROADS, MAINROADS, & CROSSROADS

TAKE A CUE

Pitmaster Andy Marshall of Puckett’s Gro. & Restaurant

I’ll never forget the first time. I was cutting through the back parking lot of a block of Main Street businesses when it hit me like a bolt of lightning.

And so I tried it for myself: a pulled pork plate with beans, slaw, squash casserole and a sweet, spicy Cajun corncake. Sure enough, Marshall had it dialed in.

Wood smoke. Grease drippings. The marbleized fibers of a tough cut of pork being patiently, deliberately broken down over low heat.

Having stoked the pit myself at Dixieland Barbecue with split hickory logs one Mississippi summer while in college, I knew that smell. Heck, I still have clothes that carry that scent. But this was different.

Upon further investigation, I quickly found the trailered smoker of Puckett’s Gro. & Restaurant, which had just opened up in downtown Franklin, Tenn. after becoming a destination in the nearby village of Leiper’s Fork. People knew Puckett’s for their burgers, the meat n’ three, the live music and the breakfast biscuits, but the star of the show was – and is – the barbecue.

What was different, to start, was that proprietor Andy Marshall, himself a competition pitmaster, preferred cherry wood over hickory, pecan, mesquite, bois d’arc or any other exotic fuel that people trying to find an angle come up with. It made sense: cherry imparts a sweeter, richer flavor that only fruitwood could bring to the table. And it’s particular tartness made it far superior to, say, apple or peach.

Cherry, Marshall had determined after years of experimentation, was where it’s at.

Now I wouldn’t claim the title of connoisseur, but I’ve eaten enough pulled pork for you and me both over the years, and I’ve sought out opportunities to do so all over the South.

Let me tell you: I’ve never found a place where at least some of the portion wasn’t dry, stringy, hard to chew, obliterated by overzealous chopping or otherwise unsavory. That’s simply not the case with the Puckett’s version: the moistest, most succulent and eerily consistent brand of pulled pork that I’ve ever put in my mouth. It’s been four years ago now, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

Naturally, I put Mr. Marshall through the paces.

What’s the secret? Why’s the texture so different, so wonderful? It even looked different, with the kind of rosy hue that one might logically attach to something smoked with cherry. Amazingly enough, he sat down and proceeded to lay all of his cards on the table.

The secret, he said, is not necessarily the cherry wood, although it does give pork a delightful flavor.

It’s not the temperature – they adhere to the standard 225-250 for eight to ten hours. What’s different is what happens after the fact.

STORY: JAY SHERIDAN | PHOTOGRAPHY: AMY WHIDBY

// 97 //

They wrap it in Saran Wrap, and then let it essentially “sous vide” in its own juices for another ten or twelve hours in a warmer at about 150 degrees.

Last fall, I had the pleasure of attending the Southern Foodways Symposium on the campus of Ole Miss, where some of the region’s best chefs and epicureans convened around the subject of “Barbecue – an Exploration of Pitmaster, Places, Smoke, and Sauce.” One of the presentations that I found most informative was Alton Brown’s -- he of Iron Chef and Good Eats fame – on the science of whole-hog cookery.

Mr. Brown’s premise, essentially, was that there is a moment at which the fat of a pig breaks down to the point where it permeates the fibers of meat as they soften, but without cooking off or completely dripping away. There is a reaction happening inside those molecules, and it’s a beautiful thing. At that point, the meat has taken on a soft, melt-in-yourmouth texture that represents the perfect preparation of pulled pork shoulder. And it’s fairly easy to screw up, if you’re not paying attention.

But if there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Puckett’s over the years, it’s the consistency. Now with other locations in downtown Nashville and Columbia, Tenn., it’s become one the restaurant’s trademarks.

No matter what day, what time of day, which location or who’s waiting on you, you know what to expect when you get there, and when your food arrives.

It’s the golden secret of the service industry, and

Marshall’s given it so much focus that his staff finds obvious joy in doing it like their leader.

Which brings me to the sauce. It was quite a process, they say, getting it right. The result was a Memphisstyle sauce, sweet with no heat. It’s just like I like it – not too thick, with some good smoke flavor. They encourage customers to put it on everything from ribs and chicken to mac and cheese and sweet potato fries. I’ve been known to drizzle it on my squash casserole.

The spicy version has a little more kick, probably more Kansas City than Memphis, but equally as good.

The bonus – if you needed one – is that you never know who you might see on the stage. This is the Music City, after all, and everyone from rising stars to multi-platinum songwriters are regulars. It’s not out of the question for a headliner to pop in and play one or two.

You can feel the heart and soul through every aspect, and that authenticity is something that gives Marshall great pride. You know your favorite server will be there the next time you come in.

That says something in this day and age, about doing it just a little different, a little better than the next guy. When I smelled that cherry smoke, I knew I’d stumbled across a different kind of barbecue. I wasn’t disappointed.

// 98 //

The House That Built The Beekman Boys It all began with an annual apple-picking excursion in upstate New York that went beautifully awry. A couple of Manhattanites, lured every autumn to the Hudson Valley and its numerous orchards, took a different route than usual one evening in 2006 and found themselves parked on Route 20 near the town of Sharon Springs marvelling at a stately white building they mistook for a museum. A year later, they were calling the nineteenth-century mansion home.

For Dr. Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell, the serendipity of the discovery inspired much more than a move to the country. The couple has been instrumental in revitalizing the community of Sharon Springs by integrating its local tradespeople into their burgeoning business, Beekman 1802, which was named after William Beekman (their home’s original occupant) and the house’s incept date.

Purveying a variety of lifestyle goods, including handmade housewares, textiles and pantry items, Beekman 1802 was initially founded on the goat-milk products inspired by the livestock on their farm. A wide selection of natural soaps, cheeses, spreads and sauces – and now ice creams – are all infused with the luxurious milk of the Beekman goat herd.

Recognizing the wealth of talent residing in Sharon Springs and its satellite communities, Brent and Josh were quick to incorporate this

homegrown craftsmanship into their business.

For Brent, it was the proud endurance of the Beekman mansion itself that inspired his commitment to supplying quality provisions that were made by hand.

“It was obvious that William Beekman was a person who cared very deeply about quality,” he says, referring to the home’s good bones. “The idea of making things that last – capable of being handed down to future generations – influences every single item that we design for Beekman 1802.”

Built between 1802 and 1804 for the family of Mr. Beekman, who was the first judge appointed to the Court of Common Pleas of Schoharie County, the house was based on the designs of Connecticut architects Asher Benjamin and William Spreatts. A Georgian/Federal hybrid with tall Palladian windows and a basic plan of four rooms over four, connected by a 14foot wide central hall, the Beekman has stood handsomely against a backdrop of 60 acres of rolling hillsides and forest groves for over 200 years.

For six of those decades, however, the house lay dormant in a state of total abandonment and decay. Marred by vandals and decades of neglect, the house was a forgotten derelict. It was Eric Selch, a musicologist from Manhattan, and his wife Patricia who devoted themselves to its revival. Tearing down a lopsided kitchen

STORY: ANDREW RITCHIE | PHOTOGRAPHY: JESSIE HODGSON

// 100 //

wing, adding several chimneys and restoring the interiors, the Selches invested three-anda-half years of renovation work. One of the Beekman’s trademark features today is its vast, wrap-around porch. This was not original to the house but was another of Selch’s modern additions, which he based on the architecture of the home’s original designers. The Selch’s owned the property from 1993 until 2005 when it was put up for sale shortly after Mr. Selch’s death.

“We had always thought we would get a ‘fixerupper,” says Brent. “But after seeing how well this one had been ‘fixed’ we decided it was a much better plan. It really was a passion project for [Selch.] It’s yet another reason why we just feel like custodians of the property until the next generation of dreamers comes along.”

While Brent and Josh were initially looking for a vacation home – a place in the country where they could escape their busy city lives (Josh was a partner in the advertising firm SS & K and Brent was the Senior Vice President of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia) fate and circumstance had other plans. Not long after buying the home, the recession hit and saw them both unemployed, which began a two-year process of rethinking and reorganizing to eventually become fulltime residents of the Beekman and – by extention and popular osmosis – ambassadors of Sharon Springs.

Having been stars of their own reality show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, which documented their transition to rural life, and subsequent winners of the 2012 season of The Amazing Race (both shows garnered a vast and devoted social-media following and fan base) the couple has been vociferously championing their new community, far and wide. They have organized seasonal festivals in Sharon Springs that have brought upwards of 10,000 people to the little town at one time, inspiring a new local economy that is showing signs of consistent growth with new inns, stores and restaurants peppering the town’s historic Main Street.

Among the most recent additions is the new Beekman 1802 Merchantile, which is now housed in the town’s original firehouse and meeting hall. It was formerly the town’s Village Hall Gallery and has now been completely renovated to reflect the Beekman brand’s commitment to quality. Brent confidently calls the location their flagship store.

It is the Beekman house itself, however, that cradles the hopes and passions of this innovative pair. Its interior decoration, by extention, reflects the couple’s tastes and interests. There is a fine and curated order to the home’s decor that is serenely simple with nods to enduring tradition and hits of modernity that speak to an appreciation of both the past and the future. Custom-built furniture mingles with flea-market finds to achieve a look that is formal but airy. Folk art, personal commissions and special pieces made by local artists accent the walls, which are kept either neutral or dressed in Cole & Son wallpaper in deep hues with delicate Chinoiserie patterns.

Despite the finery of his surroundings, Brent insists that buying an older home, aside from its splendid rewards, is a commitment not to be taken lightly. “Learn to fall in love with non-level floors and learn to do basic repairs,” he cautions. “In an old house, there are always repairs to be done!”

Outside, in a misty scrim of rain, Brent trims the grass around the barn while Josh tends to his garden. Sunday is chore day on the farm and there is always much to be done. The newest addition to their family is a lean canine beauty named Onder. Brent insists she will be an outdoor dog, even as he lovingly buries his face in her ebony fur. The puppy frolicks along the fence, not sure what to make of the wideeyed goats who are equally unsure of her.

Wind blows down from the hillside where the couple was married in June and as one takes in the vast beauty of this place one cannot help but be enamored of its residents: modern caretakers of a house that built their dreams.

JOURNEY

BACKROADS, MAINROADS, & CROSSROADS

THE COUNTRY LIVING FAIR

Rhinebeck, NY | Columbus, OH | Stone Mountain, GA | Tarrytown, NY I am calling it. The Country Living Fairs are my favorite shows, fairs, festivals, or markets to attend. With three fairs a year Country Living is whisking their readers into a world where the pages of the magazine come to life all over the country.

In conjunction with the family-run Stella Show Managment team, Country Living Magazine brings together some of the best artisans and craftspeople in the country in one area. Jeanne Stella, along with her family and friends carry on the tradition set forth by her mother every year with the Country Living Fair and it’s no surprise that the staff of Country Living and Stella have made many friends in the many vendors that loyally exhibit at each show.

The latest addition to the fair line up was The Country Living Fair North East in Rhinebeck, NY. With it being only a short distance from New York City, and an even shorter distance to the Finger Lakes and the Hudson Valley, this fair makes for the perfect summer getaway. You will find me there along with my friends shopping, eating, and meeting new people. The next stop for 2013 is the fair in Stone Mountain, GA in October.

Did I mention shopping? What I love about fairs, shows, markets, or festivals is the great shopping.

It is the thrill of the impulse buy and the uncertainty of exactly what you’ll find. The food is another reason to go. Between local favorites and treats you’ve seen in the magazine I can promise you that you won’t go hungry.

If the promise of fabulous finds and fabulous foods is enough to sell you on going go ahead and get a group together and get the car ready to head to Columbus, OH, Rhinebeck, NY, or Stone Mountain, GA. If you still need a bit more convincing I can assure you that you’ll love the demos, the classes, the talks, and the signings they have, and that doesn’t even mention the people you’ll meet while you’re there. Sarah Gray Miller, Editor-in-Chief of Country Living, loves visiting the fairs each year and remembers her first time visitng as editor. “I couldn’t see everything in my first trip, there were so many vendors,” she says. “I do remember spending all of my money on gifts for friends and family and decor for my house in Hudson.” Among her first purchases she bought jewelry from Joanna Madden of Findings, pillowcase dresses from Earth Angels for her goddaughter, and a vintage A&P sign for her house that reminded her of the local grocery store her mother worked in when she grew up.

We asked Sarah Gray for some of her tips for shoppers.

So before you plan your trip to your local Country Living Fair this year consider these, and above all else enjoy.

Don’t hesitate on vintage finds, they may not be there when you come back—I learned that from personal experience.

SARAH GRAY’S TIPS: Always carry cash in small denominations in case the booth only accepts cash.

Check prices online to see if you’re getting a good deal.

Know common objects that you can pass up in favor of real treasures.

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TOP to BOTTOM: Painting from Earth Angels Studios. Fabulous vintage sign from the Georgia fair. Roving

by Farmhouse 1807. Sarah Gray in the Findings by Summerhouse tent.

Necklaces by Pink Eyed Sissies.

Furniture & Home Decor Paints Eco-Friendly

Mineral Based with Chalk & Clays

Self-Priming Superior Adhesion Easy Clean Up Visit cececaldwells.com or find us on Facebook facebook/cecepaints

ARTISAN DIRECTORY Duct Tape And Denim Upcycled vintage jewelry: Tutus for Your Wrist, Road Trip Necklaces, & more.

Little Luxuries of Mackinac Island

The Rusty Rooster 211 N. Range Ave. Denham Springs, LA 70726 (225) 667-1710

Little Luxuries of Mackinac is a little gift shop located on beautiful DuctTapeAndDenim.com Owner Julie Guidry. From Rustic to Refined Mackinac Island. with Vintage, Architectural, Farmhouse ____________________________ info@littleluxuriesofmackinac.com (989) and Shabby Christopher Gurshin 292-0558 ____________________________ New England Paintings and Folk Art 7372-107 Main St., Bayberry Cove Quality and Distinction since 1966 Mackinac Island, MI 49757 Offering vintage-style holiday 1313 Main St., Glastonbury, CT ____________________________ decorations for all seasons 06033 Simple Folk from nationally recognized artists’ at (860) 633-7707 Primitive and Folk Art Fiber Crafts below retail prices. chris@christophergurshin.com and Other Simple Pleasures www.bayberrycove.com ____________________________ PO Box 407, Freeport, ME 04032 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Crows in the Attic Primitives simplefolk.com Victorian House Scones, LLC A variety of primitive and extreme info@simplefolk.com www.victorianhousescones.com prim dolls and critters, smalls and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ sconelady@victorianhousescones.com needfuls, everyday and holiday.

Bittersweetfolkart 877-749-1943 Handmade in the USA. Primitive Folk Dolls and Needfuls. All Artisan scone mixes—Mix, Freeze, Wholesale to qualified businesses. handmade in the USA Bake with Ease. Retail and wholesale theheadcrow@aol.com Wholesale inquiries are accepted available. crowsintheatticprimitives.blogspot.com bittersweetfolkart.com crowsintheatticprimitives.com ____________________________ bittersweetfolkart@cox.net ____________________________ ____________________________ The Hayloft Susie’s Corner 551 Port Royal Rd, Clarksville, TN Curly Willow Collections “All manner of marvelous things you 37040 (desirable, PRETTY, inspire) don’t yet know you need.”

931-801-7937 | Shirley Thomas art - cards - patterns Antiques-Collectibles-Oddities A Barn Sale with a little something for curlywillowco.etsy.com susiescorner.net or on facebook at everyone.

A marketplace of Antiques, facebook.com/curlywillowco “Susie’s Corner” Art, Vintage , Rescued Furniture , susiescornermomence@yahoo.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Repurposed... Market Goods along with a good time and so much Johanne Cassia ____________________________ shopping your head will be spinning.

Cassia is a self taught folk Gathering Better Junque Johanne Bringing the best Middle-Tennessee artist and people often say they Salvaged Gift, Garden & Home. and Southern Kentucky has to offer could walk right into her paintings.

211 W. Sycamore St. twice a year the third weekend of Johanne paints to capture the “history, Willows, CA 95988 May and October. traditions and spirit of America.”

(530) 934--3664 thehayloftatportroyal@gmail.com Olde Ipswich Shop & Gallery gatheringjunque@att.net Follow on Facebook Johanne Cassia, ____________________________ ____________________________ Folk Painter, Designer Shambora Studios 83 County Road, Ipswich, MA 01938 Willow Creek Crossing Offering ReLoved antiquities, painted (978)356-8838 jcassia@comcast.net Oakdale, PA 15071 furniture, home decor and ____________________________ 724-693-0191 adornments for you and your vintage Fawn Run Farm Mercantile willowcreekcrossing.blogspot.com inspired home.

Folk art, primitives, antiques, and A prim/folkart/country shop situated Noblesville, IN more. Folk artist/owner Marcy Dailey. on the bridge in “America’s Homejaslines@comcast.net Open 1st weekend of each month. town” Oakdale, Pennsylvania. shamborastudios.blogspot.com 3883 E. 700 N. Rolling Prairie, IN _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ____________________________ fawnrunprimitives.com The Barn Woodshop _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Our intent is to make home furniture Prairie Primitives Folk Art and accessories that warm the heart.

Primitive dolls, hearts, stars and more (574) 264-0322 handmade in Northern California. thebarnwoodshop.etsy.com PrairiePrimitives.etsy.com thebarnwoodshop@gmail PrairiePrimitivesFolkArt@gmail.com

A PHOTO ESSAY BEN SHARES A FEW OF HIS FALL FAVORITES Autumn in America is truly magical. Between the sights and flavors of the season the spirit of autumn lives within the hearts of many all year long. As I brought this issue together I was continually reminded as to why I love fall.

Outside my window the leaves have already started to change. We are already working on our Christmas issue, the Harvest Fest is next weekend, and the Country Living Fair is in three short days. This year it seems fall has crept up on us, between finishing school, working on growth, and moving the summer was all but gone before I looked up. In its place fall was knocking, and I am ready to answer the door. These are a few of my favorite images from last year, each taken at one of my favorite places.

IMAGE ONE Kentucky Roots, Sytka, KY When Heath and I started FOLK two three summers ago Autumn on the Farm was the very first show we did. We were thrilled when we were asked to attended. We pulled the furniture from my apartment to create a booth and threw together home-made signs. It was a learning experience, but one that we treasure. I took this image last year when we returned with a bit more experience and a bit better camera.

IMAGE TWO Sharon Orchards, Sharon Springs, NY Last fall Heath and I drove from Lexington to Sharon Springs one weekend to shoot our first story on Brent and Josh. On that trip I had no idea that a year later I would be sitting at this desk over-looking Main Street in Sharon Springs. At the time we simply knew that were in love with the region. It was our second trip to New York, Jen had welcomed us into Warwick early in the year. During those two trips we quickly realized there was something magical about the state of New York.

IMAGE THREE Home of Bette & James Curtis, Rockport, KY Caroline has been in basically every issue of FOLK. FOLK is roughly one month younger than she is. Each season Linda and I take copious amounts of photos of Caroline. When I first started learning to use a camera I don’t think I ever thought a toddler would become largest photo series, but three years later and it is has happened. We shot this image last fall, in what I assume is late October. Linda will tell you that the best photos are those that aren’t staged, Caroline is a constant reminder of that.

Join me as I celebrate autumn 2013 on instagram.com/folkmagazine

Make magic. Get things done. Dream big. Achieve greater. Live to the fullest.

Be good. Give often. Love more. Grant grace. Never give up. Always remember.

Seek honor. Fulfill the truth. — Ben Ashby

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