WGL September-October 2016

West Georgia

LiVing Sept./Oct. 2016

Life . Art . Music . People

Here's to the

Family Farm

Also ...

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September - October 2016

Features 21

16

Local wineries rekindle a little of west Georgia's past

27

Family strives to keep rural traditions alive at Waldrop Farms

Commissioner Lee Powers is committed to protect Carroll County's farmland

PLUS A mule and plow wasn't all bad - 8 Banning Mill holds unique beauty - 13 Udderly Cool Cheeses offers rich quality -43 There's CHAOS at Halloween - 56

35

The Bradley brothers carry on a nearly 30-year-old tradition that is SWEET

39

Handley keeps jellies, jams and preserves available for Carroll County

On the Cover: The sun rises on the farm worked by Dennis and Patrick Steed in Carroll County. Photograph by Melanie Boyd 4 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Doing it SOUTHERN STYLE! Everyone looks forward to Autumn, cool evenings begin to set in, sitting on the front porch enjoying the night air, the start of football season, and our leaves begin their spectacular fall show of color.

Brilliant reds, yellows and oranges dot the landscape in a show of force.

Color may be the first thing you see, but when trees and shrubs drop their leaves they can reveal much more. Red berries and exfoliating bark can be the real show underneath all those leaves.

The Ginkgo Biloba tree is a stunning example of a bright yellow show of leaves in the fall. These trees can grow to over 40 feet tall and 30 feet wide, and make an excellent shade tree. During the year the tree has fan-shaped green leaves that flutter in the breeze. When the night temperatures begin to cool, the tree transforms into a golden masterpiece.

Perhaps you prefer red. From the Autumn Blaze Maple to a Burning bush or Firepower Nandina, you can plant something that people will see from a distance. Whereas the Maple and the Burning Bush lose their leaves, the Nandina has “staying power” and does not drop leaves during the winter so they can continue to show color. The American Beauty Berry, a Georgia native plant, is a beautiful shrub with long stems, distinctive pink flowers that produce brightly colored purple berries for lasting color in your garden.

Crape Myrtle trees are often over looked as an autumn foliage tree. While Crape Myrtles do provide people with beautiful blooms in the summer, the blooms often times last into the fall. I’ll let you in on a secret about them; their leaves turn amazing colors in the fall as well.

Sioux and Natchez Crape Myrtles have very dark green leaves that create a radiant show of contrasting colors. Then in the fall the leaves turn unique shades of purple and red. The Tonto Crape Myrtle has blooms that range from dark fuchsia to red. During autumn the Tonto Crape’s leaves go from deep green to dark maroon.

It is not too late to get started with your own color landscape. In the professional landscape industry, planting goes on year-round. However, fall is the best time of year to plant in terms of root growth and plant establishment. Unlike the tops of woody ornamental plants that go dormant and cease growth for the winter, roots continue to grow

throughout the winter months.

During the fall, the above-ground portion of a plant begins slowing down its growth as it moves toward dormancy. As a result, it makes little demand on the roots.

Therefore, the energy produced via photosynthesis during the previous season can be directed toward root growth. When spring arrives and a new growing season begins, the plant has a wellestablished root system ready to provide the necessary water and nutrients for optimum plant growth which is necessary for plants to survive our long, hot summers. Soil preparation and planting are perhaps the most critical of all landscape practices. Proper planting assures rapid plant establishment and healthy growth. Haphazard planting is like sentencing plants to lifelong stress and suffering, making them more susceptible to injury, pests, drought, and cold. If you are unsure about the condition of your soil, take the time to do a soil test. Good results start with good soil. Soil amendments might be necessary if the existing soil is lacking the proper structure, although there is no exact recipe. An ideal soil is one that contains air space for good drainage, yet has good water holding capacity, some mineral matter to provide the soil chemistry necessary for nutrient absorption, and a small amount of organic matter to supply slow-release nutrients.

Proper planting involves more than simply digging a hole and sticking a plant in it. It all starts with digging the proper hole for your plant.

Pay close attention to the width, give your plant room to put out new surface roots and make sure of the depth, not too deep, and keep the existing root ball at or slightly above the ground line. It may also be a good idea to place a light ground cover over the root ball, but be sure not to smother your plant. So with all that said, seek out healthy plants, grab your shovel, and give your plants their best chance with careful soil preparation and planting. Then sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Now is the time to “Get Growing”! Southern Home & Ranch Garden Center is the place to come for all your plants, shrubs, trees and planting needs, so turn on the COLOR, WE CAN HELP! Please be sure to “Come by and Visit”, hope to see you soon ...

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West Georgia

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

Volume 6 . Issue 5 September/October 2016

West Georgia is a place that is a little bit country and a little bit city. Interstate 20 connects our three counties to the metropolis of Atlanta, yet there's plenty of space here for the quiet and peace of a rural life.

Li Ving Publisher Marvin Enderle publisher@times-georgian.com

Editor Ken Denney ken@times-georgian.com

Advertising Melissa Wilson melissa@times-georgian.com

Photographer Ricky Stilley rstilley@times-georgian.com

Design Richard Swihart rswihart@messenger-inquirer.com

Contributors Melanie Boyd, Robert Coval, Nancy Dombrowsky, Rob DuvĂŠ, Susie Hopper, Joyce McArthur, Arthia Nixon Josh Sewell, Molly Stassfort

This issue is all about how we keep our rural traditions alive in a 21st century world.

And it isn't easy. Arthia Nixon starts us out with the tale of how some of west Georgia's leaders balance the needs of local economies with the lifestyle to which we have all become accustomed.

Then we take a look at the growing agribusiness of wine-making in our region. At the end of the 19th century, this was one of the largest wine-making centers of the country. Now entrepreneurs are bringing it back, and in a big way. Local wineries are giving California grapes a run for the money.

We also will be taking a look at some fami-

lies in west Georgia who are making a living with farm-based businesses. There's the Waldrops in Douglas County for example; still working the same farm after generations. There's also Olivia Handley, a small business owner in Carroll County who makes jams and jellies. And the Bradley Brothers turn sorghum cane into sorghum syrup every fall.

And there's more in this issue. We visit Historic Banning Mill, which is quickly becoming one of the top tourist destinations in our state. Our Master Gardeners introduce you to some native trees that you should consider for your backyard. And we profile Toby Marriott, who is stepping from the shadows of a famous dad to make his own name in rock.

So, get all your farm chores done and come inside for some iced tea. It's time to start reading a whole new issue of West Georgia Living.

Departments FOOD

A R T I S T' S C O R N E R 51

Toby Marriott has found his own voice

31

Rediscovering old-school meat preservation

To advertise in West Georgia Living, call Melissa Wilson at 770-834-6631.

West Georgia Living is a bi-monthly publication of the Newspapers of West Georgia.

Submissions, photography and ideas may be submitted to Ken Denney c/o The Times-Georgian, 901 Hays Mill Rd., Carrollton, GA 30117.

46

Submissions will not be returned unless requested and accompanied with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

West Georgia Living reserves the right to edit any submission.

Direct mail subscriptions to West Georgia Living are available for $24 a year.

Copyright 2016 by the Times-Georgian

6 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

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Harnessing tradition in our roots

O

nce, when I was a young boy, I plowed behind a mule.

My grandfather, whose farm was next to our house near Roopville, had called in a fellow who owned a mule team to break up granddad’s field for spring planting. There was no particular reason for my grandfather to do this; he had a perfectly good tractor.

Years later, I figured it out. The time for mules and the farm life he had known as a child had long passed, and he knew it. But something about those days lingered in his mind and he wanted to see them again. And he wanted me to see them too, before they were gone for good.

When I came over that morning, he put me behind the plow, slipped the harness over my back and showed me how to snap the lines to get the mule to move. I held onto the walking plow as best I good, stumbling over the clods of dirt as the plow split a furrow into the earth. I plowed one, pitifully crooked row. But I did it.

as alien as another planet. In many ways, that is a blessing. The social conventions and prejudices of that earlier day limited the potential of some people, and granted unearned privilege to others.

But there are some things lost that could be rediscovered and made useful again.

Farm life is a seasonal life, governed by nature and the orbit of the earth. Modern life separates us from the rhythms of the planet. We intentionally disconnect ourselves from summer harvest so that we can have seasonal food whenever we want. In my parents’ day, and possibly yours, a watermelon was something you could only enjoy in the summertime. Now, courtesy of farmers living far away, we can have a melon with Thanksgiving dinner.

Is that progress? Maybe. Yet I wonder about the advantages of living an on-demand life. We satisfy our immediate wants, but ignore how those wants are satisfied.

Each week, we all go to the supermarket to buy food.

It’s a ritual that defines modern life, yet it has also inured us to the labor of producing that food. For us, food is something that comes wrapped in plastic, or boxed in printed cardboard. We read the labels to see how much of that package contains things that are When things changed, the change happened breathtak- not natural: colors and preservatives added to make ingly fast and within one generation. Factories came to it more visually appealing than nutritious. The food is west Georgia, which offered farm workers like my par- more about growing profits for those who provide it, ents a chance to earn a paycheck that was steady and not sustaining those who consume it. sure. A whole season of farm work could be wiped out in a single sudden storm, or the slow spread of disease; If we ourselves no longer produce our own food, then factory work meant a family could gather and invest in the responsibility for that labor is transferred to somethe future. Children could be educated and take jobs one else. And the remoteness of those people make it that had nothing to do with farm life. possible for us to ignore the conditions in which they live. How hard they must work so that we can swing by But for every gain, there is a loss. Plowing with a mule the store and pick something up for a quick and easy under the hot Georgia sun is a misery, to be sure. But it dinner. Our convenience is paid for by the hands of connected my grandfather with a time which was more people we will never meet. And if we did meet, would familiar to him than the sweeping changes coming in we ever thank them for it? the time of his children and his grandchildren. He did not need a mule team to break up his land; he did not We are separated from our grandparents’ time, just as need even to plant a crop. But he needed to live his life we are separated from the earth that provides us life. in a way that to him made sense.

And while we may live in a more socially enlightened time, I can’t help but think that the progress for which Our grandparents’ time in west Georgia was an era of we praise ourselves is an illusion. farms and quiet towns; of long summer days without air conditioning and long winter nights lit by stars, The earth turns, as it is meant to, and rains and storms not streetlights. Distances were connected only by come with sunny days and cold nights. Each day the sky telephone wire and long stretches of road and no strip is lit with beautiful sunrises and sunsets; each night, the malls in between. People – black and white, rich and stars rotate above. The moon shifts from a crescent of poor – may have lived apart, but they were all in the light to the full face of another planet, set in the heavsame place. No one was a stranger. ens.

In his day, my grandfather had planted vegetables to feed his family, and cotton to earn the money needed for everything else in life. That was the way everyone in west Georgia had lived for generations.

It is a cliché, but the world is a different place now, and that bygone time is as foreign to us as another culture,

KEN DENNEY 8 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Our grandparents and generations beyond them were tied to the earth, its seasons and its changes, while we, in our modern day, have done all we can to break those ties. It’s fair to ask, I think, whether we have improved our lives as much as we think. WGL

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CINEMA

Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander in the fantasy adventure "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them," a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

2016 Fall Movie PREVIEW

T

he worst summer movie season in years is mercifully over, but that means we’re in the even more brutal entertainment purgatory that exists between mindless blockbusters and the more prestige-minded fall. Luckily, awards season and holiday releases are right around the corner. Here are just a few upcoming movies I’m looking forward to, in order of their release dates:

“Sully”

Clint Eastwood hasn’t had the best directorial track record lately (2008’s “Gran Torino” was his last movie that I truly loved) but his latest looks promising.

Based on the true story of the hero pilot who landed his plane on the Hudson River 10 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

after catastrophic engine failure, the film chronicles that miraculous feat, along with the inquiry and media circus that followed.

In a stroke of casting genius, Tom Hanks plays the titular pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. (Sept. 9)

“The Magnificent Seven”

Director Antoine Fuqua reunites with his “Training Day” and “The Equalizer” collaborator Denzel Washington in this revamp of the iconic western. The beloved actor leads an ensemble that also includes Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D’Onofrio in what looks to be a thrilling update of the genre. And before anyone

JOSH SEWELL

starts claiming that it’s sacrilege to remake the 1960s version (which starred Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson), remember that now iconic film was an Americanized version of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic, “Seven Samurai.”

(Sept. 23)

“Deepwater Horizon”

Mark Wahlberg re-teams with his “Lone Survivor” director Peter Berg in this factbased take on the 2010 explosion of an offshore drilling rig that killed 11 workers, injured 17 others and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The film co-stars Kate Hudson, John Malkovich and – best of all – Kurt Russell. Seeing one of my favorite actors’ names attached to a movie is all it

“Life of Pi.” His latest boasts an eclectic cast, including Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Garrett Hedlund, Steve Martin and Chris Tucker. Newcomer Joe Alwyn plays the title character, who becomes a hero during a battle in Iraq and is brought home temporarily for a victory tour. However, flashbacks reveal the story isn’t quite what it seems. (Nov. 11)

takes to guarantee my seat in a theater. (Sept.

30)

“The Birth of a Nation”

Nate Parker’s directorial debut, which deliberately name-checks D.W. Griffith’s cinematically groundbreaking - yet morally troubling silent film, focuses on the 1831 slave rebellion led by preacher Nat Turner (played by Parker, who also wrote the screenplay).

The film is already generating intense awards season buzz.

(Oct. 7)

Mark Wahlberg stars in “Deepwater Horizon,” released

by Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation.

“Jack Reacher: Never Go Back”

This sequel to Tom Cruise’s 2012 thriller finds the titular military investigator (Cruise) trying to clear a colleague (Cobie Smulders), who has been framed for murder. The protagonist described in Lee Child’s popular book series looks nothing like Cruise (he’s built more like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the first film. I’m genuinely anticipating this installment. (Oct. 21)

“Doctor Strange”

The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe finds the massively popular franchise delving into the mystical realms of the comics. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a brilliant, arrogant surgeon whose career is destroyed after a car accident. However, on a quest to find meaning in his life, he learns to harness the powers of mysticism in order to unlock the doors to hidden worlds. It sounds trippy, but I’m a big fan of director and co-writer Scott Derrickson. I loved his take on the spiritual realm in “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” so I’m curious to see what he does here. (Nov. 4)

“Loving”

Yet another fact-based story hitting theaters soon, this film chronicles the momentous legal journey of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple sentenced to prison in 1950s Virginia because they committed the crime of getting married.

Their case was ultimately heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which used the opportunity to strike down the country’s despicable, unconstitutional miscegenation laws. (Nov. 4)

“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” A new film from director Ang Lee is something to get excited about, especially since he’s been off the radar since 2012’s Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga star in “Loving” by Focus Features.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”

The first in a planned trilogy from “Harry Potter” collaborators J.K. Rowling (author of the books, obviously) and David Yates (director of the last four films), this highly anticipated film brings viewers back into the magical realm.

However, it takes place in New York City nearly a century before the events of the previous series. Eddie Redmayne seems like a perfect fit for Rowling’s world, but I’m curious to see the roles that co-stars Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight and Katherine Waterston play. (Nov. 18)

“Moana”

I’m onboard for any new Disney animated film, especially after their strong work with “Frozen” and “Zootopia.” This one’s an adventure about a young princess (newcomer Auli’l Cravalho) who teams up with a demigod (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) in the South Pacific to find a mythical island. But I’m mostly excited because Broadway superstar Lin-Manuel Miranda contributed music for the movie.

I’ve been obsessed with his hip-hop musical “Hamilton” for the last year – it’s a masterpiece, and I don’t use that term lightly – so I can’t wait to see what he has in store for viewers here. (Nov. 25)

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”

Disney isn’t letting the universe they bought from George Lucas rest for a second. This is the first of several spin-off films the studio has planned for the years in between “official” episodes of the ongoing saga. The story takes place in the years leading up West Georgia Living September/October 2016 11

to “A New Hope” and centers on a group of rebels (led by the wonderful Felicity Jones) tasked with stealing the plans for the Death Star. Perhaps most intriguing of all is that, because of where this movie falls in the “Star Wars” timeline, James Earl Jones reprises his iconic role as the voice of Darth Vader. (Dec. 16)

Chris Pratt stars in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Columbia Pictures’ “The Magnificent Seven.”

“Passengers”

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, two of the biggest movie stars in the world, team up for this sci-fi tale about two people on a spacecraft whose hibernation pods malfunction while they are still 90 years away from their destination. Industry folks have been raving about Jon Spaihts’ screenplay for years, and I’m downright jittery at the chance to experience the story for myself. (Dec. 23) WGL E-mail: joshsewll81@gmail.com Twitter: @IAmJoshSewell Facebook:facebook.com/josh8199

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Banning Mill : A wooded corner of

HISTORY West Georgia Living September/October 2016 13

A family walks on a bridge at Historic Banning Mills.

There are almost 10 miles of zip lines at Historic Banning Mills Adventure Park, the longest anywhere in the world.

Historic Banning Mills near Whitesburg in Carroll County is home to Screaming Eagle, the world's best and Largest zip line canopy tour, as verified by Guinness World Records. Located in Snake Creek Gorge, the family resort is surrounded by beautiful scenery, which registered guests are free to explore. The resort features a country inn and other facilities that cater to families, as well as other facilities for corporate retreats and meetings. The site was originally a textile and paper mill town that flourished after the Civil War and became known as Banning Mill by 1882. At its peak, there were 10 mills at the site, including two pulp mills, a grist mill and a saw mill. It also was one of the first places in Georgia to generate its own electricity, long before Atlanta.

PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD 14 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Snake Creek flows through the heart of the Banning Mills site.

Ruins of a former paper mill.

Registered guests at Historic Banning Mills can explore the site, including this nature trail.

West Georgia Living September/October 2016 15

'Til th

"I am going to protect this farm

Carroll County Commissioner Lee Powers on his farm.

16 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

he LORD comes" L

ee Powers is the kind of farmer who has respect for the land, a passion for agriculture and is fulfilling what he sees as a mission from God to keep portions of west Georgia rural.

With its rolling hills and bright green pastures which could inspire landscape painters, Powers Farm still has some of the smokehouses, barns and cotton seed houses built over 100 years ago. Powers purchased the property from Judy Perdue with the He also sits on the Carroll County Board of Commissioners, promise that she would be able to live out her lifetime on the representing district 5, a broad swath of territory that wraps from property. He wants to eventually have it preserved as a historic Sandhill to Roopville. It’s an area of cattle farms, chicken houses site. and hayfields.

Powers is a fifth generation cattle farmer. He raises beef, unlike “I ran on keeping it agricultural and all for the farmer, and now his grandfathers, who stuck to the dairy side of things. Powers' that I am elected, I promise you, I will keep that all the way father, Frank, opted to go into ministry 53 years ago, but spends a through,” said Powers. “I am very passionate about protecting the great deal of time helping his son with various tasks, like cutting farmers and these farms in Carroll County. I believe it is something hay and running cows. that the Lord has placed on me to do. I think that I am in the position that God would have me in, right now, to do just that.”

On Powers Farm there's no such thing as a “man's job.” Powers’ wife Sandy raises the hens and donates the eggs to the church and community, and he brags that daughter Kendell can handle a STORY BY ARTHIA NIXON / PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD tractor better than most. Both of his daughters have asked for plots West Georgia Living September/October 2016 17

of land to farm, but he says they are not getting any handouts in the family business.

“They’re going to have to earn it, just like I had to,” he said.

The Powers women's interest in farming comes at a time when the Georgia Field Office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service predicts more female farmers will be listed in the next major Census, despite a 14 percent decline of total farms in the area.

The 2012 Census of Agriculture ranks Carroll as the seventh largest poultry producer in the state. The county ranks 21st in cattle production. The average age of Carroll County farmers is 60.9, and 462 people listed farming as their primary occupation while another 100 listed farming as a secondary income. The average income per farm is $211,382.

Carroll County had 12,700 beef cows and heifers calved in the most recent reports.

By comparison, Coweta’s 2016 cattle inventory stands at 7,900, Douglas is 900, Haralson 5,300, Heard 5,400, Troup 5,700 and Spalding 2,700.

The general decline in farming has not discouraged Powers, who took an old cotton 18 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

plantation, plus an additional 130 acres in Carroll and Troup counties, to raise his cattle. He is one of those people who feel passionately that commercial and residential development should stay in areas like Carrollton, while the outskirts are left for farming.

“A lot of people say ‘Well Lee, you’ve got to have some development out here in these rural places’ and that may be the truth. But the farmlands need to stay farmlands,” he said. “And I am going to protect this farm 'til the Lord comes.

“There are too many people that come out and say, ‘Well I’m going to buy me this piece of land and I’m going to just cut it up into little pieces,’ and that’s fine.

But it will destroy the farmland. I am big on agriculture and I don’t want to mess anything up for the farmers. More people are being born every day and we’ve got to find a way to raise food. If you see a farmer out there today, make sure to thank him, because if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be able to eat in these restaurants and at home right now.”

A few miles away, Haralson County Chamber of Commerce Tourism Coordinator Gail Priest says she faces challenges in trying to brand her county as a agritourism destination. ”Right now we really don’t have anything going on in Haralson,” said Priest. “There is a vineyard (Trillium) hoping to get what it needs for a tasting room within the next year, and hopefully that will come into being. There are several individuals with their vineyards in Haralson County and one person sells his products from Carroll County. I'm not sure if they will go commercial or not but there is definitely potential in that area.

Once the tasting room gets complete and up and running, I think individuals in the county will see the possible interest to either join that vineyard or consider

their options.”

what west Georgia is known for, Angela Pendley – the the only woman in the 3rd District congressional race – is paying close attention to the way the state handles medical marijuana. She says it could lead to a new cash crop for local farmers.

By having commercial agriculture, Priest says there is nothing that can be done on the retail end to draw tourists.

“That’s the issue with agriculture here at the moment,” she said.

“There's no tourism involved for it because things have to be open for tourists or retail.

The issue that I have is that it is hard for me to market because (the county has) to have something there. Right now, people can't really go on tours or purchase on-site, even with the apple orchards, so I’m really banking on this wine tasting room because it really is a challenge to advertise agritourism and market it, if there is nothing open for tourists to visit.”

Kevin Livingston, a Douglas County Agriculture & Natural Resources agent for over 10 years with the University of Georgia Extension Service, says farms are pretty limited in that county.

A home gardener himself, he said the focus is to boost more small scale farms, organic farms and small nursery, vegetable and fruit crops. He also works closely with Garden Mentors, a group of UGA extension volunteers whose meetings highlight ways to bring home and school gardens to higher standards.

“We are really working hard to raise agriculture awareness, especially with the school system,” he said. “We partnered with two elementary schools last year, and this year we are looking to get a lot more on board. We have a six-session program where they start by reading books on composting, and over the summer we continued by introducing children to agricultural resources. I'm a fan of small gardening. I think it makes a big difference.

I have a 10 x 20 plot at home with a lot of tomatoes and sweet peppers and, to be honest, once you take care of it, you can really generate a good bit of food within a small space.”

While farming cattle or food might be

their families.

Pendley has degrees in allied health and health science and said that she is also concerned with the way the state is torn over HB 722, also known as the “Medical Marijuana Law.” With 20 years experience in allied health care, she has worked with autistic children and

“I think the medical cannabis bill is something I would like more attention drawn to,” said Pendley. “Children with special needs, others with seizures and people with mental health issues can benefit from cannabis oil and medical marijuana.

Also, the state could benefit by allowing us to farm it, and then farmers would have a new crop where billions of dollars could be earned.”

As for Carroll Commissioner Powers, he hopes that whatever steps are made, as long as he can continue to keep the areas rural - and to stand up for those with the same passion he has - he knows the future of his district will be in good hands. WGL

West Georgia Living September/October 2016 19

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RETURN TO GRAPENESS West Georgia wines promise an economic boomlet in agribusiness

W

est Georgia is a long way from Napa Valley, and in more than a geographic sense. Yet our little corner of the woods is beginning to be mentioned by the Birkenstock-wearing arbiters of taste in California.

In fact, there are sophisticated palates aplenty who are making The award-winning wines of Little Vine Vineyards in Carroll County. the pilgrimage each week to Douglas, Carroll and Haralson counties. Amid sales, wine tastings and wine events - and no regions of Europe. To push the idea forward, the rising and falling sound of cicadas, these one now knows whether wine will be a big he got a group of Hungarian and Slovakian visitors stand together in the humid twilight thing, or an insanely big thing. immigrants – who knew the secrets of air, talking the universal language of wine. winemaking from the old country – to move here from Pennsylvania.

But we should already have a pretty good Yes, wine. A few years ago, when some idea. We’ve been here before. entrepreneurs in west Georgia started For nearly 20 years, west Georgia was one talking about making wine in kudzu country, of the largest wine-producing regions of the An industry that died on the vine there were a few who thought the idea was United States. In 1900, Haralson County kind of … well, crazy. But crazy doesn’t win alone had 20,000 acres of grapevines. No Back in 1886, a Connecticut Yankee named medals at prestigious wine events. other county in Georgia came close.

Ralph Spencer arrived in Tallapoosa and shortly afterward was advertising this So far, two vineyards here have begun It didn’t last. In 1908, the state of Georgia region as the place for Gilded Age investors producing wine, and those wines have been abolished the sale of alcohol. It was wanting to make a fortune. He convinced gathering medals faster than your grandma hundreds to sink their dollars into a bustling the culmination of decades of work by could shell butterbeans. And there are more industrial town that existed mostly on paper. Temperance reformers and other moralizers vineyards climbing up behind them, waiting In the end, as many of those industries to institute Prohibition in the state, a decade in the lengthy queue that Mother Nature ahead of national Prohibition and the 18th disappeared, many of those investors were requires for the transformation of vine to Amendment to the Constitution. certain they had been swindled. grape, to bottle to glass.

What had been a bustling industry in But one of Spencer’s ideas was not a bust.

West Georgia is at the dawn of a new west Georgia was killed dead. Slowly, the Looking around the area, he thought the economic boom, an industry that ties Hungarian colony dwindled, as did the soil was very similar to the wine producing together agriculture and tourism and grapes they had nurtured and grown. The hospitality. A region known more for little villages these homesick immigrants manufacturing and commerce is about to STORY BY KEN DENNEY had made – Toka, Nitra, Budapest – have all experience a flood of revenue from wine PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD West Georgia Living September/October 2016 21

Budapest cemetery in Haralson County is the final resting place of several immigrant families who made west Georgia a wine center in the late 19th Century.

Trillium Vineyard, Haralson County.

disappeared. The only trace now left of the latter is a cemetery in Haralson County.

National Prohibition was in effect for 13 years, until repealed by the 21st Amendment. Georgia’s prohibition lasted until 1935, and the damage had been done. Having been forced to abandon wine making, west Georgia seemingly forgot how to do it. Without the immigrants to tend them, their vines died out, or through cross pollination became lost in a tangle of genetics.

Take that, wine snobs Jane Garvey is an expert on wines. Based out of Atlanta, she has been watching the revival of the vineyards in west Georgia with increasing enthusiasm, and she has written about them for some of the leading wine publications in the nation.

“Ultimately, we’re restarting a tradition in west Georgia, and we’re starting it with grapes (the immigrants) did not know, or grow, in the 1890s,” she said. “At this point, we have no clue what they were growing.

We know that they had two tiers of wines; one more expensive than the other. But exactly what they were growing, we really have no clue.”

22 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

So, the new grape growers of west Georgia have settled on several hybrid varieties that have proven resilient to the blazing sun, and to a particularly bad plant pathogen known as Pierce’s Disease.

including resistance to disease. The most successful wines in west Georgia, red and white, are coming from four cultivars:

Lenoir and Norton are two black, or red, grapes. Lenoir may sound French, but it has a Texas twang, Bruce Cross of Trillium Vineyard and neither Pierce’s expects to start producing wine this disease or the hot sun year. messes with it much.

Norton was bred in Virginia and has long been a part of wine making in Missouri.

Both varietals produce deep red wines.

Lenoir tastes more of raspberry and spices, experts say, and pairs well with duck, venison and brisket.

Norton has many floral aromas and compliments poultry and seafood.

Now, here’s a thing about wine drinkers you may already know: some of them are snobs. Some turn up their educated noses at hybrid grapes, preferring instead such “classic” grapes as Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc. Those are all “vinifera” grapes, from their Latin classification, Vitis vinifera, and they grow in Europe.

West Georgia’s grapes are hybrids, bred from varieties with specific desirable traits,

Two white grapes grown here are Blanc du Bois and Villard blanc. Blanc du Bois is relatively new, having been bred in Florida in 1968 with a heavy influence of native species from the Sunshine State, and named for a Tallahassee winemaker. Villard blanc is high-yield grape that originated in France but is now more widely known in the U.S. Blanc du Bois wines have a dry, crisp taste with a floral aroma and pairs well with poultry, seafood and cheeses. Villard blanc produces a wine with a similar, but less intense, flavor to Sauvignon Blanc and

“Ultimately, we’re restarting a tradition in west Georgia, and we’re starting it with grapes (the immigrants) did not know, or grow, in the 1890s. At this point, we have no clue what they were growing. ” — Jane Garvey serves well with fish.

Garvey, who definitely is not a wine snob (she derisively pronounces “connoisseur” as “con-wasser”) has little patience for vinifera zealots, and nothing but praise for the quality of west Georgia wines. And she definitely believes that those snobs could learn a thing or two from west Georgians.

“I run into people who have traveled extensively who live out there.

These are not folks who just learned how to put on shoes and tie them.”

grapes on that one vine that it can’t produce enough sugar for each particular grape. The critical part of a (wine) grape is the sugar content of it. So if you have a soil where the plant doesn’t produce as many grapes, the grape vine will produce enough sugar to make those grapes as sugary as you would want them.”

And Cross says that unlike other parts of Georgia, known for its red clay soil, the dirt

Grape Growing 101

The people who grape growers in west Georgia aspire to be are Jerry and Sherrie Culver, and Randy and Ann Muller. They are the power couples of the local wine scene, with vineyards that are not only in production, but producing award-winning wines.

The Culvers’ Little Vine Vineyards & Winery is located in the Hulett community of Carroll County; the Mullers’ place, The Vineyards at Mill Creek, is located north of Temple. Their separate vineyards have together brought the west Georgia region to the attention of the wider wine-appreciation world.

Bruce Cross is a wine grower in Haralson County who is on the cusp of producing his first wine.

Trillium Vineyard, located near Bremen, made its first plantings in 2013 and he expects to make a harvest of about 10 tons of grapes this fall. He clearly expects to do well; he’s already building a tasting room.

Jerry Culver, who runs Little Vine Vineyard in Carroll County, agrees.

“This soil is not very good, which means it’s good for grapes. If you have a grape vine that’s in very, very fertile soil, you’ll have a grape vine that will produce so many

Oh, and also birds. Culver has learned the hard way about the necessity of putting nets over his vines to prevent an early harvest by winged pests. Last year, he said, he lost 10 tons of grapes that way ­- the equivalent of over $140,000 in revenue.

If you build it, they will come

One of the words that wine snobs like to throw around is “terroir.” Pronounced “tere-wahr” it’s a French term that refers to all the natural elements that contribute to the growing of a grape, like sunshine, humidity and soil conditions. It turns out that west Georgia has a particularly good terroir for wine making.

“Haralson County does not grow cotton,” Cross noted; a fact that has always impacted local farmers’ ability to raise a cash crop. “This is fairly poor soil for the big row crops.”

The varietals he, Culver and several other growers have chosen are resistant to a variety of disease and, more importantly, the brutal Georgia sun, which is unlike anything found at European latitudes.

Oddly enough, the biggest threat, weather-wise, is the winter cold.

of west Georgia is often well draining, which suits grape vines because those plants, he said, “don’t like to get their feet wet.”

“If I had solid clay soil and I augured a big hole, its tantamount to making a clay pot” for his grape vines, he said. “All that water is going to sit in there in that clay pot and rot the roots. So we’ve been very blessed to have up here, on top of this hill, well-draining soil.”

Earlier this year, three of the Culvers’ wines won medals at the highly prestigious Finger Lakes International Wine Competition in central New York state, with their Blanc du Bois carrying off a gold medal. Two of their wines won bronze medals last year at the 35th annual San Francisco International Wine Competition.

The Mullers' vineyard started as a family venture in 2012 and now they hope to expand. Their wine is produced off-site and it has also won a slew of medals in West Georgia Living September/October 2016 23

competition. The Mullers proudly show off their wines at their venue, Uncorked on Main, in downtown Villa Rica.

flock to Little Vine, or to Uncorked – and eventually to Bruce Cross’ tasting room – will spend their money on gas, on motels, on restaurants and at the stores and shops in the area.

The Culvers have their tasting room at the vineyard, and the enthusiasm for west Georgia’s wines was evident to them from the very first day the doors opened.

And unlike people who move here and stay here, the counties will not have to pay for the amenities that property owners must fund, like schools and infrastructure and other county services. This new segment of agritourism has the potential of bringing in a continual flow of revenue with every harvest of grapes.

“There were almost 300 folks who showed up,” he said. “We were not prepared for it, absolutely not. We thought 50 or 60 maybe. The line went around the building up to the front.”

The Culvers are still occasionally surprised by the weekly turnout to their wine-tasting events, but they have also started keeping careful track of who their visitors are, and where they come from. A large number of them, it turns out, are coming here from outside the state of Georgia.

Jerry and Sherrie Culver of Little Vine Vineyard, near the Hulett community of Carroll County

“The first full year of our operation, we had almost 5,000 customers down here. Another statistic that we’ve been keeping up with are new customers, and over the last few months it’s been running about 50 percent new customers every time we’ve opened the door. Which is incredible.”

Growing a new industry The money made by wine growers is just the tip of the iceberg, as far as the economic impact of this new industry for west Georgia. For every $100 realized by a grower, the county itself gets a return of over $1,000; that’s because tourists who

What could stop this growth? Oddly enough, it’s related to the same thing that killed the industry a century ago: people concerned over the moral issues surrounding alcohol.

In Carroll County, for example, an effort to allow Sunday sales of alcohol was recently defeated. Growers like Culver, Cross and the Mullers usually earn about a third of their annual incomes from Sunday sales.

That’s revenue lost not only to them, but to the counties of west Georgia.

But there’s another aspect that supports the idea of encouraging, and not discouraging, the growth of the wine industry. And that, simply put, is the prestige that it brings to the area and the recognition that there’s more to the metro area than just the

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terms of worldwide wine quality.

Jane Garvey, who knows a thing or two about the quality of wine, has nothing but praise for what is being produced here.

It's true that wine snobs may never “get it,” but they are ultimately unimportant.

What matters most is that people who live normal lives and yet have sophisticated, adventurous tastes, are discovering the wines produced here are as complex and interesting as anything produced in California, which has overtaken Europe in

••• If the tasters at Finger Lakes, or San Francisco or any of the other highlyrespected wine competitions think that west Georgia vines are worthy of gold, and silver medals, then we must be doing something right.

“The market is wide open for anyone else who wants to do this,” Culver said. “It’s

actually better to have more wineries because you attract a larger number of folks.”

And they are good folks, he said.

“One of the biggest benefits, other than the income, is all the interesting people you get to meet. That is one of the most enjoyable parts of it. I get to talk to all types, all kinds of folks that come through the door. And I haven’t met one yet that I didn’t like.” WGL

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A Place Called

Waldrop Farm Seven generations of a Douglas family keep their rural traditions alive

O

ff Post Road in the Douglas County town of Winston, a tiny store called Waldrop Mercantile and Farm Market welcomes you to a place where family values and tradition flow like honey on a warm summer day.

A Texas longhorn.

Speaking of honey, you can find it here. Allen Taylor Waldrop, the fourth child and youngest son of Tommy Sr. and Elaine Waldrop, is a beekeeper when he isn’t on duty as chaplain with the Georgia State Patrol. Descendants of honeybees raised in 1935 by his grandfather, Gilliard Taylor, produce his award-winning honey, and Allen has tended the bees himself since he was 12.

The mercantile is open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., but in-season produce and fresh eggs are sold anytime on the porch via the honor system. You simply get what you want and leave the money in a box. That may seem unusual in this day and time, but Allen says “People just want to be trusted.”

It is a system that seems to work well for this family whose faith is strong, and who were raised to work hard and be kind to others.

Allen Christian Waldrop and his wife, Gracie settled Waldrop Farm in 1835. Their first child, Abraham, was born on the farm in 1836 when the land was part of the now-defunct Campbell County.

“Abe” served in the Confederate army as a member of Company K, 42nd Georgia Infantry. In 1864, while on leave and plowing with a mule, he was surrounded by Yankee soldiers and taken prisoner. Family lore says that his wife Eliza tried to stop the soldiers with hot lye from soap making, but the troops took everything from the farm, right down to Abe’s mule. When the war ended, Abe was able to return to the land he loved and start over. He and Eliza passed the farm down to Allen

STORY BY SUSIE HOPPER PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD West Georgia Living September/October 2016 27

James Henry Winn (1828-1896) was the first postmaster at the general store he operated near the farm in 1881.

Allen Waldrop in the Waldrop Mercantile.

Christian Waldrop II in 1923.

Allen II, together with wife, Carrie and their eight children, produced cotton, corn, and syrup cane as the first generation to attend public school. The first of his family to seek employment outside the farm, Allen II managed the Villa Rica Oil and Gin Company of Winston for many years. He passed the farm to his son, Fred, in 1934.

Fred worked in the Winston Cotton Mill, and a short time with the railroad, before returning to the land that he had farmed with his father. He operated Fred Waldrop’s Gas, Groceries, and Oil on Highway 78 for

many years. He was one of the first school bus drivers for Douglas County and served two terms as a deputy sheriff, from 1933 to 1953 and again from 1956 until his retirement in 1964. He returned to farming with his wife, Audrey and their two children until his passing in 1970. Waldrop Farm was passed to their son, Thomas Eugene Waldrop.

Thomas – better known as Tommy – had started a dairy on the farm when he was only 10 years old with prize money from his many 4H awards. He had his own milk route and delivered to 20-25 customers. He ran his business mostly on his own, but with a little help from Fred. When he graduated

Fred Waldrop, with his older sister Minnie Faye in a cotton field on Waldrop Farm, 1908 from high school, Tommy followed his father into law enforcement and became a state trooper. He eventually became a post commander.

The Waldrop Mercantile shop.

28 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Tommy and his wife, Elaine settled on the family farm to raise five children. Tommy, Jr. is a commanding officer for the state patrol; Leanne is a stay-at-home mom who home schools her five children.

Tommy, Sr. was elected Sheriff of Douglas County in 1992. He served for eight years and one of his accomplishments in office was establishing an inmate farm program, training inmates to grow crops for their own consumption, resulting in a huge savings for the county.

Now retired, Tommy, Sr. devotes his time to serving his state and community on several committees and continues to farm.

Waldrop Farm today raises organically fed beef cattle available to the public in quarters or halves. Choice of cut is up to the buyer. Pork sausage is available as well. Tomatoes, corn, okra, summer and fall squash, beans, peppers, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, onions, turnip greens, and collards are planted each year, and are for sale in the mercantile, which was built by Allen as a gift for his mother.

“We always plant a row of cotton to pay homage to the past when King Cotton paid the bills and put shoes on our ancestors’ feet,” Allen said.

A visitor can sense the rich heritage of Waldrop Farm just by stepping onto the ground. From the soft jingling of wind chimes in the breeze, to the many bird feeders and birdhouses to the sound of cattle in the distance, Waldrop Farm is a welcoming, peaceful place.

Located at 2912 Post Road, it is a place that is both modern and a throwback to those early days on the farm.

“Our ancestors gave us roots in the fertile soil of days gone by and it is our job to grow the branches,” Allen said. “So that our rich heritage is not lost, but cultivated and planted deeply into the hearts of those who will walk this path long after we are gone. If we lose our past, we’ll never be able to find our future.” WGL

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BASICS Rediscovering old-school ways of preserving meats at home

West Georgia Living September/October 2016 31

FOOD

I

f you’ve read my entries over the past few years, you’ll know that I come from a house where my father was the primary cook, and the diversity of his food knew no bounds.

There was always an experiment working somewhere, a new cuisine to try, or something that just piqued his interest and took his food in a different direction. One of the long-term effects of this was that I and my siblings were turned into foodies – and in no small way.

Recently my brother has taken on the challenge of getting his food a little closer to home. “Back to Basics” as it were. This means he prepares and stores more and more of his own food. In the process, he’s discovering the value in not only knowing where his food comes from, he’s taking the most natural approach to cooking and preserving his food that he can.

This got me thinking. Not only have we gotten away from how our food is prepared, even the people who grow local foods have forgotten many of the ways of our forefathers.

This is particular true when it comes to meat. Keeping meat around for a while isn’t much of a concern for large-scale meat producers, with their super-refrigerated warehouses and high-speed delivery system.

They are concerned with sales and keeping their products moving.

But there was a time when farmers, with their small-scale operations, had to store what they raised so that it might last throughout a season.

Fried corned beef and sauerkraut make a great reuben sandwich.

* * QUICK TIP * *

One method for preserving meat that was common years ago is still effective: using such curing salts as sodium nitrate. Not only do these salts help cure the meat and avoid spoilage, they also aid in the absorption of the flavors and keep the meat a pinkish color, not to the gray color that cooked meats usually have. However, it should be noted that sodium nitrate is very poisonous, and you should use no amount more than two percent of the weight of the meat to be cured. In the case of the bacon recipe, 5 pounds of meat means that you would use no more than 1.6 ounces of sodium nitrate, by weight.

To help us re-connect with the past, and to take more of a hands-on approach in our personal food chain, I would like to share a few techniques that once were commonplace, but are now considered artisanal products, or done only at high-end restaurants.

Our forefathers knew a thing or two about preserving meats, giving them one-of-a-kind flavors in the process. It’s time we rediscovered them.

Bacon Rob Duvé 32 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Sure, I could have started anywhere and built up to the Bacon Crescendo but why

waste time? We all know that bacon is what we love.

To be honest, making your own bacon is a process that takes time. But it is also a project that you can work on, then walk away from for a few days. And there’s no limit to the flavors that can be achieved.

5 lbs local pork belly (in one piece) 1 cup sugar 1 cup sea salt ¼ fresh ground black pepper ½ cup molasses ½ gallon water Half gallon of apple cider In a large steel pot, bring sugar, sea salt, pepper, molasses, water, and apple cider to a boil just long enough to dissolve the ingredients. Place in the refrigerator and cool. Once cooled, submerge the pork belly in the pot and store in the refrigerator for three days. Make sure to place a fork or some other steel utensil underneath to keep the belly from resting on the bottom. You may also need to place something on top, as the meat may float.

After the three days, remove and pat dry thoroughly with paper towels or a clean tea towel. Place the belly on a cookie rack so that air may pass all the way around it and use a small fan to dry out the surface, creating a bit of a skin on the outside. Once dried a bit, smoke in a cold smoker at about 175 degrees for 2-3 hours, or until the desired level of smoke has been reached. Wrap in cling wrap and chill overnight or at least 6 hours.

PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD

A corned beef and sauerkraut reuben sandwich.

Slice as thin or thick as you like and either fry in a large skillet, or bake on a rack in the oven at 400 degrees until the desired level of crispy delight is achieved.

This recipe will keep the bacon in the refrigerator for over a week and will keep in the freezer for months.

Now that you have the basic information on making bacon, try changing things up by creating new and interesting tastes. Where I work, we’ve even done Chinese Five Spice bacon. The possibilities are endless.

Corned Beef I recently was part of a team that fully rebuilt a menu, and we had decided to produce a few things in-house, and to buy a few others from vendors.

However, I was insistent that we make our own corned beef for a couple of reasons.

The first being that its quality is far superior to any product that can be purchased – and it’s so very easy to do.

1 8-10 pound brisket, fat trimmed down to ¼ inch 2 gallons water

Corned beef, pork belly, pickling spice, pink curing sauce and bacon.

3 cups pickling spice 10 cloves of garlic 1 whole white onion, quartered 3 lemons, cut in half ¼ sea salt ¼ cup fresh ground black pepper ¼ cup pink curing salt In a large steel pot, add all ingredients and bring to a rolling boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until the onions and the inner flesh of the lemons are translucent. Allow to cool in the refrigerator until the mixture reaches a temperature of 40 degrees or less.

In the same pot – or a plastic container with a lid large enough to hold the brisket without it touching the sides – place a few forks or other steel utensils on the bottom of the container so the meat doesn’t rest directly on the bottom. Refrigerate this for 7-10 days, flipping every 2 days.

When brining is complete, rinse very well and fill your pot with fresh, clear water. Place the brisket in the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about three hours.

Since it is a tougher cut of beef, the brisket must cook for some time to make it tender, but a few stages of completion exist when it comes to corned beef. If you care to slice it thin to stack on sandwiches, three hours should be sufficient. If

you would like it fall-apart tender for something such as corned beef hash, continue to boil it until pieces are easily pulled from the surface.

As you can tell, these are some very simple recipes but they were used for centuries to help preserve meats for long-term storage and, like a great many of these methods, have grown close to our hearts and have become standards along with many others.

If you enjoy exploring new things and spending some time creating, I would encourage you to delve into the wondrous world of what we chefs call Charcuterie, the art of art of turning preserved food into items of beauty and taste.

It’s not only a wonderful world of tastes created through minimal effort, it’s one of the most important links to our culinary past.

! y o j En

As Always,

1fcart@gmail.com West Georgia Living September/October 2016 33

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Making SORGHUM SYRUP

O

Wayman Bradley scoops out impurities from his cane juice as he cooks it to make sorghum.

The heat needed to cook the liquid causes a lot of steam .

ut on Farmer’s High Road, off the Bowdon Highway in Carroll County, there’s a curiosity that occurs every September and October. That’s when the Bradley brothers start cooking syrup.

When fall turns the morning air cool, Wayman and Roger start preparing for a tradition they have followed for nearly 30 years, a Southern tradition that in modern times has largely given way to mass production and big-box food markets.

Like generations of farmers before them who lived off the land, they cap off the growing season by making gallons of sweet sorghum

syrup – enough for themselves, and for quite a few of their west Georgia friends.

STORY BY KEN DENNEY PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

The modern world has easy access to sugar, thanks to huge commercial operations and factories that turn out sugar substitutes, including controversial high fructose corn syrup. But when the Bradley brothers and

West Georgia Living September/October 2016 35

their siblings were growing up – and their fathers and ancestors – the best source for the sweet life was in the acres of sorghum cane they had out in the field.

On the Bradley farm, the mill is run by an ancient International truck engine set up on cinder blocks. A belt drives the mill, which clanks and rattles as the rollers inside slowly churn.

Men unloading the trailers feed the cane stalks in one end by hand, about five to six at a time. Out the other end come the chewed-up remains of the stalks, while the juice extracted from the plants pours in a continual rivulet.

Making syrup is hard work – cutting the cane, milling it to extract the juice, then boiling down that juice under a high and steady heat to remove the impurities and water. It is hot work that takes long hours, and maybe that’s why so few people do it anymore.

The juice runs downhill in a pipe until it reaches a shack.

While Roger Bradley is supervising the milling of the cane, Wayman is inside the shack taking charge of the cooking process.

“These old farmers have got too old to do it,” says Wayman. “And these young ones – if they can’t sit on a tractor and do it, they won’t.”

But the result is worth it.

Sorghum cane syrup is unlike anything you can get in a store, full of complex flavors. Knowledgeable cooks swear by it for what it adds to recipes. But for old-time growers like the Bradleys, sorghum syrup is what adds the Southern to a simple breakfast of buttered cat head biscuits - maybe with a slab of ham.

“What we did with it, we buttered biscuits and then mama made tea cakes,” says Roger, who proceeds to give the recipe for sorghum cookies, made with nothing more than plain flour, baking soda, baking powder – and of course sorghum syrup.

“Best cookies you ever ate,” he says.

When it is syrup-making time, trucks pulling flatbed trailers piled high with cut cane start arriving at the Bradley farm near Bowdon. Most of those trucks are from over the border in Alabama, where for some reason – related to the iron content of the soil perhaps – the best available cane can be grown. The Bradleys are maybe the the only people in the area who make syrup in such quantities; other makers are deep in Alabama, or away up in the Georgia mountains.

The Bradleys rely on an ancient cane mill that was made decades ago by a foundry in Columbus. Very few of these mills are made anymore, and syrup-makers across the nation swap and sell parts over the internet.

36 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Cane juice pours out of the press. Below, the finished product.

He stands over a long metal table mounted over a cinder block enclosure. The table is a maze-like array of baffles which, if laid end to end, would stretch out for over 80 feet. Underneath the table, unseen to visitors, is a long propane burner.

When Wayman lights off the burner, there is a loud roar and the temperature inside the building suddenly starts to rise.

The juice comes in at the upper end of the table and slowly works its way through the maze. Wayman fills the part of the table not filled by syrup with water so that the aluminum does not start to melt or buckle from the gas jets underneath.

The water and the syrup are separated by cotton towels that he slowly pulls back as more and more cane juice enters the maze.

Pretty soon, the shack is filled with thick steam and a heavy smell that is hard to describe. The cane juice is boiling and a greenish film appears on top that Wayman skims off. The juice slowly darkens as it moves through the maze, but no one knows what the final color will be. One of the mysteries of the process is that no crop of cane produces the same color of syrup; sometimes cane taken from one part of a field will produce syrup darker than cane harvested from another section.

It takes 10-12 gallons of juice to produce a single gallon of syrup, and it takes about an hour for the first batch of syrup to run

Roger Bradley feeds the cane stalks through a press, squeezing out the juice, which is then gravity-delivered to the cooker.

through the maze. When it is finally ready – thick and dripping in long thin strands from the skimmer – the brothers open a little sluice at the end of the maze and the syrup runs through a strainer into a plastic bucket.

The end product is a semi-golden thick liquid that the brothers put up in quart Mason jars. They lay aside a few hundred jars for regular customers; other folks come by the farm to make individual purchases.

It is an old process, slightly modified by modern technology, but still such a curiosity that the brothers receive regular visits from high school groups.

The Bradleys don’t make much profit, if any, from their sales, and the expense of buying jars and propane fuel is high. But they keep on doing it because it is something they know – and it’s something their west Georgia neighbors have come to expect. WGL

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w e l l s t a r. o r g

PRESERVING Tradition

Olivia Handley puts sweets and jellies on local tables

F

ruit is supposed to be seasonal.

Apples are usually picked in the fall; some peaches ripen in the spring.

Strawberries and blueberries are ready by mid June.

Experiencing life governed by seasonal harvests used to be part of rural life. No more; the encroachment of urban modernity means people can get these items year round at the nearest supermarket.

Olivia Handley finds this mindset ridiculous.

As the owner of Olivia Marie’s Sweets & Treats, she makes it her mission to keep oldfashioned jams, jellies and preserves a staple in Carroll County.

Farming and gardening has been a part of her life as long as she can remember. Olivia was born and raised in Macon County, Ga. to a farmer father and schoolteacher mother.

Her dad changed career paths to become an engineer, but never discarded his love for growing.

Olivia Handley peels peaches for jam at her home.

After the birth of her children about 16 years ago, Olivia decided to quit her job to be a stay-at-home mom.

In 2008, she and a friend opened MaryAnna’s Tea Room, but when the recession hit, the tearoom did not survive. After closing the restaurant, Olivia didn’t let the kitchen machinery go to waste; she refitted the mudroom in her family home into a processing room to continue her love of canning.

“I had a pretty rural background – my dad loved to farm and grow things; we always just enjoyed a laid-back lifestyle.”

“When the tearoom didn’t work out, I thought there’s no need to waste all of this, so After receiving her bachelor’s degree in I started canning again. We always had a lot chemistry from Young Harris College, Hand- of extra produce, and I had to figure out what ley went on to work in a lab. Her husband to do with all of it. Since I love to cook and Tod, also from Macon County, shares a love can, it was kinda a no-brainer for me.” for the rural life; the family has a two-acre garden at their home in Roopville.

In 2011, she acquired a health certificate to officially begin making jellies at home, and “We make a good pair – he grows and I proOlivia Marie’s was born. She later took a process,” laughs Olivia. cessing class to earn a certification to process acidified foods, like pickles and salsa.

She first started canning 20 years ago just for herself and her husband with blueberries “Cooking is just chemistry – checking your from the garden.

“I just thought they looked so pretty, and I still do. Also, they tasted so good.”

STORY BY MOLLY STASSFORT PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD

pH balance and sugar content; it all goes back to what I learned in school.”

Her cooking includes jams, jellies, preserves, butters and salsas, with all produce under the rainbow included. In her home garden alone she grows pears, apples, plums, muscadines, scuppernongs, blackberries, blueberries, peppers, green beans, okra, tomatoes and strawberries; and those are just for her business. Her husband also grows a fair amount of other produce, including squash and potatoes, that the family uses just for themselves.

“We grow most of what I put up, but some of it I can’t grow enough of, or I just can’t grow it at all. If I can’t though, I trade or buy as locally as possible. It just tastes better, but it also helps keep the cost down.”

Figs are one thing Olivia finds herself trading for, as well as cranberries and fresh, Georgia peaches. Anything she grows that she can’t use, she trades to other local farmers, or to Farmer’s Fresh CSA on Adamson Square.

Growing at home and buying local means the season determines the current products.

For summer, her strawberry, blueberry and peach jams are the hot commodity, while West Georgia Living September/October 2016 39

Blueberries

muscadine jam, apple butter and pear preserves dominate the fall. Cranberry marmalade is the holiday favorite, but pepper jelly and salsa rule year round.

season, but once I’m out, I’m out until next year. But customers are always looking forward to seasonal options ‘cause their favorite comes back around.”

“Food is supposed to be seasonal; it’s something to look forward to throughout the year. We’re a spoiled society – we think we should be able to go buy watermelon in January and that’s just not how it works; we should only have what’s around at the time.

To try and meet these yearround demands, she does freeze peaches, strawberries, blueberries and a particular, local favorite:

“I put up what I can for the

Olivia Handley in her garden near Roopville in Carroll County.

40 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

“I make as much salsa as possible to get to the next year, but I still sometimes run out. There are only so many tomatoes we can grow though. For my fam-

ily, it’s just a way of life.

My husband loves to garden, and it’s great to reap the benefits from all that work.”

Freshness and locality are what makes Olivia’s commodities stand out among the commercial grocery stores. Olivia has a large family and group of friends who are always eager to snatch their seasonal favorites at the final twist of the lid. Every can contains a product she stirred herself.

“There’s nothing confus-

ing on the label that you couldn’t spell in a spelling bee; it might be oldfashioned, but that’s what makes it good: it tastes better, it’s fresher, it looks better. A lot of this very processed food is harder for bodies to digest, and you feel how you eat – if you eat a cheeseburger and fries, an hour later you don’t always feel great.”

now. I have the traditional old-fashioned flavors like strawberry, blueberry and blackberry, but I like to make newer flavors too, like plum peachy jelly. I have three kinds of pepper jelly now, too.”

Being a small business is something Olivia thrives on. Leaving her personal stamp on every product is one of the joys in her life and growing any bigger would take away that special extra ingredient her sweets and treats have.

Besides just canning and selling for herself, she has also taught a few close friends how to can and start making their own treats.

“Lots of people know how to can, or to make jelly; it’s not rocket science, but it does take time and most people don’t have the time or want to take the time. It’s kinda my niche.

I don’t like to give away all my secrets, but I don’t want to hide the ingredients either. If people ask me what’s in it, I’ll tell them because I know it’s nothing that they wouldn’t have at their house.”

Olivia’s treats can be found all around the

greater Carroll County area: Ace Hardware, Southern Home and Ranch, Feathers & Twigs, Farmers Fresh, Arnold’s Grocery in Newnan and Farmer’s Table in Douglasville, as well as at the farmer’s market in Newnan, the only farmer’s market where she currently sells.

“I’m happy with where I’m at right now. If the business got any bigger, it would be too stressful, and I’d probably have to start outsourcing and mass producing and that takes away from the simplicity of it.

I like the sustainability I’m at; I can put up what I grow, and I’m not wasting.

As for the future of Olivia Marie’s Sweets & Treats, growth is not in the plan, but keeping up her standards for freshness and variety is.

“My goal was to never become a huge, manufacturing business; it’s just part of me and something I love doing. I measure, cut and peel everything, and I like it that way; I get to say ‘I made that.’” WGL

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here is this stuff most of us call cheese which is neon yellow, and is sold in individual slices wrapped in plastic. Then there is the cheese that fewer people know: a rich, creamy substance, layered in taste and texture, with complex flavors that compliments any food.

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UDDERLY COOL DAIRY

That is the kind of cheese that’s made – made – by a husband and wife team in a small facility tucked away in a corner of Roopville. From such an unlikely origin, the award-winning cheeses made

by Udderly Cool Dairy travel, to be served in some of the finest restaurants in Atlanta, and to be appreciated by an ever widening circle.

The craftsmen at work here are Jeff and Karen Green.

They don’t make cheese for Jeff and Karen Green pose in the room snobs; they make the same where they make the cheese at Udderly kinds of cheeses found at Cool Dairy. high-end supermarkets. Yet these have that little someInside, behind a small shop where the thing extra that is lost in cheeses are for sale, is a surgically clean large-scale manufacturing – a kick and a room, where Jeff and Karen work together, nuance than only artisans can create. In and alone, to create the alchemy of milk and other words, you don’t know cheddar until natural enzymes by which cheese is made, you’ve had some of theirs. starting with 300 gallons of fresh milk (hor“We’ve developed our recipes for each of our mone and antibiotic free) delivered from the dairy farm at Berry College in Rome. cheeses from a combination of other published recipes, then tweaked those,” says Jeff “We get that milk every other week,” says Green, who had 18 years’ experience in the Karen. “We load it into the bulk (milk) tank dairy industry before establishing Udderly and end up making approximately four Cool with Karen about four years ago. batches of cheese in three days.”

The dairy is located at the far end of West Drive in Roopville, just past the city limit. It They have to work quickly, since milk is peris a small facility, but contains all the equip- ishable, but the end product is something which only improves with age. ment needed to make a variety of cheeses; products which have won many medals at prestigious competitions, including those STORY BY KEN DENNEY held in Wisconsin, the cheese capital of America.

PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

“Cheese is a living thing. And it even continues to age in your refrigerator. Not very fast - but if it’s packaged it will keep aging,” says Karen.

Cheesemaking is a complex, involved process, and all cheeses require a little aging before they ripen into a food that reflects the complexity of its process. The Greens age all their cheeses on site inside a large room which is kept cold, but not cold enough to hinder the aging process. There, the cheeses sit stacked on racks, all neatly labeled as to variety and date of manufacture.

Recordkeeping is an important part of the process, according to Jeff. Not only must each batch be labeled for inspection by authorities, the Greens also keep careful notes on how each batch was prepared.

Like any chef or cook, the Greens will use these records to improve the taste or quality West Georgia Living September/October 2016 43

of future cheeses.

Karen admits to having gone through “a steep learning curve” in the beginning, since it is impossible to make a cheese and know how it will taste in a few months. By trial and error, however, the couple eventually learned exactly when the cheese could be sold. Time is also a factor in inventory control.

“The cheese we make today is going to be cheese that will be sold 3-6 months from now,” says Karen. “So we’re always looking ahead and trying to predict what we’re going to need at that point.”

Their products have been very well

received, not only by the judges in Wisconsin, but also by customers – at farmers’ markets across West Georgia, and by chefs and restaurateurs in Atlanta. While some of these have shown interest in such varieties as Gouda or Tomme cheeses, it is goodold cheddar which sells the best, according to Jeff.

The success of the dairy has the Greens thinking of the day when they will expand.

At that point, Jeff says, they will grow everything they need on the farm, from the dairy cattle to the various spices that go into their secret recipes. And Karen says that there may even come a day when their store sells other dairy products, like ice cream.

There hasn’t been a lot of marketing for their company. Instead, Jeff and Karen have been relying on word of mouth, some of which has been generated by going out to public events around the area and setting up a booth on a sidewalk.

“All I have to do, or all Jeff have to do, is to say to someone “we make cheese in Roopville – and half the time they don’t know where Roopville is – but they immediately they come to the table and taste it.

And most people are so interested,” says Karen.

“And that’s what’s fun about it. People do take an interest in it and that’s my favorite part.” WGL

Udderly Cool Dairy's cheeses are sold at a variety of locations, including right at the dairy.

A specialized variety named Jack-N-Dill ages on the shelf.

44 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

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GARDEN

NATIVE TREES W

American Crabapple (Malus coronaria)

FOR WEST GEORGIA GARDENS

hen die-hard gardeners talk about course, trees. There are some beautiful trees the best plants for home landscape, native to west Georgia that would make the list always includes native plants. excellent additions to your backyard.

But native plants sometimes get a bad rap: “they are not showy enough; they look like weeds; you can’t find them at the big box stores.” But they have a lot of advantages: they are used to the hot, humid summers of Georgia and they can handle the long dry spells that sometimes occur. Moreover, they can deal with pests and diseases found in this area, because varieties of these plants have lived in Georgia for hundreds of years.

When you plan the landscaping of your yard, you need to think in terms of layers of height. Gardeners think in terms of five layers. The canopy layer: trees that grow in full sun and tower over all of the trees. Next are shade trees: not quite as tall as the canopy layer, and grow primarily in full sun. The mid layer is composed of shorter specimen trees and tall shrubs

STORY BY

The most dominant plants in your home landscape are, of 46 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

that grow in the dappled shade of the high canopy and shade trees. After this are the small layer and the short layer, respectively consisting of small bushes and shrubs, and of grasses, ferns, annuals and perennials.

But let’s concentrate on the first three of those layers, dealing with different types of trees.

If you are looking for a large shade producing tree, one of my favorites is the Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). It is also known as JOYCE MCARTHUR AND NANCY DOMBROWSKY a yellow-poplar, tulip magnolia, tulip tree, or whitewood.

PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD Tulip poplar actually is not a

poplar, but a member of the magnolia family. You will love the distinctive tulip shaped leaves, and the lovely flowers that look uncannily like yellow and orange tulip blossoms. It does grow to be a large tree, but if you have the space you will love the rapid growth, the neat pyramidal form and the brilliant yellow color in the fall. Tulip poplar has a natural resistance to insect and disease damage.

wildlife throughout the winter. Its ease of growth, pest-resistance, attractive foliage and flowers, and wildlife-attracting fruits would make Devilwood a popular specimen for your landscape, or for using in a mixed shrubbery border. Devilwood is so-named because the fine-textured wood is difficult to split and hard to work with.

Native Specimen Trees

When you’re looking for a small native tree for your landscape, you’ve got some great choices that thrive here in west Georgia.

The type of tree you are looking for is sometimes referred to as a specimen tree.

Another favorite is the Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica). Don’t forget we are still talking canopy trees. This tree can get to be 100 feet tall, and it has year-round interest. It is a member of the tupelo family and the bark has a deeply grooved “alligator hide” appearance. Clusters of greenish flowers appear as early as April, just as the new leaves unfold. In September to October, plum-like, bluish-black fruit appear and the leaves turn bright scarlet or purple.

Many of the popular flowering specimen trees bloom in spring, before the (nonnative) crepe myrtles burst out with all their colors. Here are few that we find particularly lovely and generally easy to grow, keeping below about 25’ high. Check some specialty or native plant nurseries for these species – they’re not often found at the big box stores.

If these trees are way too big for your space, try something a little smaller like Silverbell or Devilwood. (We just think the names are interesting.) These fall into the tall or shade tree category.

Silverbells (Halesia tetraptera), also known as snowdrop trees, require a protected environment. They grow best in a stand of trees because they need light shade. Their height ranges from 30 to 40 feet, and the branches can spread from 20 to 35 feet. The flowers and fruits are what make this tree such a wonderful addition to your landscape. The tree flowers from April to early May, producing flowers that are bell-shaped and white or pale rose. They are ½” to ¾” long and are borne on pendulous stalks in clusters of two to five blooms. Their yellow anthers hang down like a clapper. The fruit that is produced is star-shaped with four wings, and is green, turning light brown.

As the white bells fade and fall, these palegreen fruits sit among the leaves producing a distinctly ornamental look throughout the season. The brown fruit persists until the following year. The snowdrop tree is a favorite in gardens and is easily transplanted and grows in bush or tree form, according to the pruning it receives.

Devilwood (Osmanthus americanus) is a very attractive, small evergreen tree that is most commonly seen at 15 to 25 feet in height, but can get to be 30 to 40 feet tall.

It is a slow growing tree that sports lush, dark, olive-green leaves throughout the year. Devilwood produces clusters of small, white, fragrant, early springtime flowers.

These are followed by the production of small, dark blue fruits, ripening in fall and persisting until the following spring. The fruits can provide food for birds and other

Grancy Graybeard (Chionanthus virginicus)

Serviceberry tree (Amelanchier arborea)

The Possum Haw (Ilex decidua) is an upright shrub growing to heights between 7 feet and 15 feet and spreading across 3 feet to 9 feet. If you are looking for ways to make your landscape more interesting in the winter, the Possum Haw may be your answer.

It drops all of its foliage in the fall, but in the winter months it boasts loads of yellow, orange or red berries that are attractive in the landscape. Branches are light-gray in color, accentuating the bright berries. These berries provide food for opossums, birds and other animals. The shrub can be grown in low spots, or along ponds or streams with somewhat wet soil conditions. So you can fill in a low spot, provide food for the animals and add winter interest with two plants. That’s two because the plants are dioecious, meaning there are separate male and female plants, so you must plant both types of plants to have good production of berries.

Downy Serviceberry, (Amelanchier arborea), also called Juneberry. This small Southern native multi-trunked tree has a profusion of white flowers in early spring, before it is literally covered in sweet tasting, blueberry like fruits. The birds love them, so you should gather as many as you can as they ripen, before the birds find out that it’s Serviceberry time. One or two robins or mockingbirds aren’t a big problem; there are enough berries for all of us. Once a flock of fruit loving birds finds the trees in your front yard, it’s all over; soon the trees will be absolutely, thoroughly picked bare.

Though the native species of Serviceberry is an attractive tree, the variety Amalanchier x grandiflora “Autumn Brilliance,” a cross between two species (a. arborea and a. laeWest Georgia Living September/October 2016 47

vis) has absolutely brilliant red fall color. “Autumn Brilliance” grows quickly and is resistant to leaf spot and fire blight, which can be a problem with the species, as it is in the rose family.

the leaves. As the trees mature, they seem to handle fire blight better.

Red Buckeye, (Aesculus pavia). This Southeastern native is particularly attractive to hummingbirds with its scarlet trumpet-shaped flowers in March and April, and to butterflies as long as the weather is warm enough. Red Buckeye flowers as well in shade as it does in sun. It’s a carefree large shrub that grows 12 to 15 feet high and 8 to 10 feet wide, and prefers moist conditions of lower forest slopes. It can be limbed up into a tree shape with multiple trunks, making a lovely specimen in the home landscape. Though deer don’t care for the leaves, the nuts are well liked by deer, chipmunks and squirrels.

Fringetree or Grancy Greybeard, (Chionanthus virginicus). Another native, this hardy little tree has white flowers that look like crepe paper tassels. It too has berries, but these are not edible.

Fringetree is absolutely charming in the spring, with all the little tassels blowing in the breeze. The fragrance reminds one of jasmine, its sweet redolence perfuming the air all around the yard.

Fringetree stays pretty small at 12’ to 20’ mature height, just perfect to situate in the yard opposite a picture window.

This lovely tree has virtually no pests, it’s easy to care for, and has dependable spring flowering. Steve Bender, “The Grumpy Gardener” refers to Fringetree as “The Best Native Tree Nobody Grows.” You will be charmed by its spring and summer beauty.

•••

American Crabapple (Malus coronaria) American Crabapple, (Malus coronaria). There are hundreds of varieties of add tons of sugar, and you’ve got jelly. crabapple, with white, pink or red flowers, Because of the long spines, deer are a little tiny to large fruits, reddish leaves or green. less inclined to nibble this crabapple than Birds and bees love them, and though the some of the other specimen crabs. Amerilarger fruits are a mess in the yard, they can Crabapples (the name always makes make great jelly, if you are inclined to can- me think of Bart Simpson’s favorite teachning. The American Crabapple is spiny er, Miss Krabappel) grow slowly, up to 35 and has mouth-puckeringly acidic fruit, feet high and 25 feet wide. This is another but if you’re a jelly maker, this is the tree member of the rose family, and fire blight for you. The fruits are high in pectin – just can be an issue; bright orange spots on

Native trees give not only shade, color and texture to your landscaping, they provide food and habitat for thousands of birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. Many exotics or non-native plants look lovely, but don’t provide sustenance to the creatures around us. Anyone who loves to see hummingbirds or butterflies and moths in the garden will enjoy the abundance of pollinators that native trees will attract. WGL Joyce McArthur is a member of the Carroll County Master Gardener Association and Vice President of Education for the Georgia Master Gardener Association. Nancy Dombrowsky is a vice president of the Carroll County Master Gardener Association.

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48 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

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Kevin Charron MD

Who can have shoulder arthroscopy?

If you have shoulder problems that persist despite nonsurgical treatment, including rest, physical therapy, medicine and injections to reduce inflammation, you are likely a candidate.

Let’s take a quick look at the basics: Shoulder arthroscopy has been performed for decades and has made treatment of shoulder problems safer, easier and faster than ever.

More than a million of the procedures are performed around the world every year.

Shoulder arthroscopy is a procedure used by surgeons to diagnose and repair problems in the shoulder joint, using a small cut the size of a buttonhole. If your shoulder needs to be repaired, your surgeon may insert other small instruments through one to three more small cuts in your shoulder. After surgery the cuts will be closed with stitches and covered with bandages.

How long is recovery?

How is arthroscopy different from traditional surgery?

Arthroscopy uses small incisions to access your shoulder joint, minimizing the risk of complications. In traditional open surgery, large incisions are made to completely expose the joint.

What shoulder problems can arthroscopy repair?

The surgery often is done with nothing more Shoulder arthroscopy is used to repair many than a regional nerve block and perhaps a shoulder conditions, including: light sedation.

Torn ligaments – ligaments help stabilize Here are a few questions that my colleagues the shoulder and I frequently receive:

Most patients are in a sling for a week or so and experience pain and discomfort that become less severe on a daily basis. Recovery from more complicated procedures takes more time. Once healed, most people resume their favorite activities with less shoulder pain and better quality of life than beforehand.

For more information about orthopedic and spine care at Tanner, visit www.TannerOrtho.org or call 770.214.CARE for a referral to an orthopedic specialist on Tanner’s medical staff. Tanner Ortho and Spine Center and Carrollton Orthopaedic Clinic offer services in Carrollton, Villa Rica and Bremen.

– Advertorial West Georgia Living September/October 2016 49

Byrd Creation Art Studio & Glory Garden B Byrdd CCreation i AArt SStudio di andd Gl Glory GGarden d iis the unexpected result of a lifelong love of art.

Faye Minor was one of 14 children often kept out of school to help on the family farm in Douglas County, Georgia. Certainly attending college and becoming an art teacher seemed far beyond her reach. But God knew and He had a plan, so He sent many wonderful people to encourage her along the way.

Faye’s love of flowers came from her mother, Alice, who along with Faye’s father, Sherman, encouraged their children to follow their dreams and always set a godly example for their children.

It was Faye’s older sister, Mary, who introduced her to art, gifting her with art books and supplies, some of which are treasured possessions even today. Working a series of jobs while she attended one class at a time at State University of West Georgia, Faye achieved what seemed impossible, a Master’s in Art Education. Faye’s teaching career spanned 32 years. Now retired, she enjoys giving private art lessons in her home studio and garden, a gift from her husband of 51 years, Bennie Byrd.

Private Art Lessons K-6 Fall thru Spring Art Class Painting, drawing & much more!

Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday Home School & after school welcome

TO REGISTER Call 770-832-9993 Or email eulabyrd@yahoo.com

Faye loves to share her garden and considers it an extension of her art studio. Her students are encouraged to venture into the peaceful, serene landscape as inspiration for their art.

Children’s classes are offered year-round and Creative Stroke (group classes for women) is offered during the summer while school is not in session.

Faye (Minor) Byrd, BA,M.Ed. Certified Art Specialist

TOBY MARRIOTT FINDS HIS VOICE OWN

Englishman turned Georgian makes music in Carrollton STORY BY MOLLY STASSFORT PHOTOS BY MELANIE BOYD West Georgia Living September/October 2016 51

ARTIST'S CORNER

B

eing an Englishman in Georgia is cause enough to stand out. Add to that touring in a punk band, playing to a screaming audience of 30,000 and having a father who played in two of the biggest rock groups of the ‘60s and ‘70s. It all seems too much to be true, but here’s Toby Marriott – at home in Carrollton.

B

Born in London in 1976, Toby is the only son of famed guitarist Steve Marriott, best known for his time in the bands Small Faces and Humble Pie. The first decade or so of Toby’s life consisted of moving across countries, following his dad’s tour bus and watching him perform. Toby’s family relocated to Carrollton in 1990. He graduated from Central High School.

Although his father is considered a rock ‘n’ roll great, Toby doesn’t consider him a huge influence on his own desire to learn to play music.

“It was intimidating playing with him, and he was kind of intense when it came to teaching.”

It wasn’t until after his father passed away in 1991 that Toby even really started playing guitar and planning to be a musician. As he grew as a guitarist, though, Toby began drawing from his childhood memories of touring with his dad and watching him play to huge arenas.

Like most musicians (or people in general), Marriott cites the Beatles as one of his favorite bands and biggest musical influences – along with other classic rock bands from the ‘60s and ‘70s, like the

Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd.

Being a teen during the grunge era of the 1990s, Toby became immersed in Seattle-based music, listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam. “That sound of grunge was something so new compared to all the terrible music to come out of the late 80’s.”

By the end of the 90’s, the entire music scene began to shift, thanks in part mostly to shows like “Total Request Live!” on MTV. “I think that was the end of real rock music; it just stopped getting aired and pop kind of took over the television as well as radio. It’s sad, ‘cause there’s still plenty of good (rock) bands out there now, but they’re just not being promoted.

What a lot of people don’t realize about the radio is they’re just listening to a record meeting.”

Marriott continued to travel back and forth between the States and England before finally moving to Los Angeles a little over a decade ago. Being in the entertainment capitol of the world proved a powerful motivation for Marriott. In

52 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

California, he found three other musicians who shared his love for rock ‘n’ roll; collectively, they became known as the Strays.

Heavily inspired by another English punk band, the Clash, the Strays’ sound was punk rock for the new millennium. Their debut LP “Le Futur Noir” was released in 2006.

“We became kind of successful for about five seconds,” Toby says of his time as the band’s guitarist and vocalist. Humility aside, the album charted in several European countries, and the band made an appearance on MTV. Their status as an emerging rock presence also allowed them to open for acts like 30 Seconds to Mars and Oasis.

He returned to Carrollton in 2007. “I felt tied here.” Upon his return, Marriott met

for music legends Lynryd Skynyrd, as well as Sheryl Crow and the Marshall Tucker Band.

Performing, however, is a hard experience for Marriott to describe.

singer Heather Russell, the lead singer of the country rock band Paris Luna.

While his primary instrument is guitar, Marriott plays bass with Paris Luna. The band’s first album “City Lights” debuted in 2007 and a follow-up project, “Between the Ditches,” in 2013. In 2012, the band won a Georgia Music Award for Best Rock Female.

In 2012, his father’s first band, Small Faces, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Marriott attended as his dad was posthumously given honors for outstanding musical achievement.

“That was definitely one of the highlights for me and my family, getting to see my father being recognized.”

Since his success with the Strays, Marriott has opened with Paris Luna

“A lot of it has to do with the mindset of the environment and who you’re playing with – or to. Since I’m playing an instrument, that’s what I’m concentrating on; whereas, if you’re a singer, you have to focus on not only the music, but also engaging the crowd. It’s an interesting balance.”

When he’s not on stage, he’s recording music, whether for a band or for himself.

Toby turned his home into his personal music sanctuary, equipped with a recording studio. When he isn’t spending his day at work at a website design company, he spends time in his studio, hashing out new tunes.

he doesn’t let that idea degrade his past and present work.

This year, 2016, is all “up in the air” for Toby right now. His daughter just graduated from Central High School and will take off for college this fall.

Paris Luna plans to record a new album sometime this year in Nashville.

“I’m at a point right now where everything could change in a few weeks; the old band has talked about a reunion, and as great as that would be, figuring out the technicalities is tricky. Paris Luna right now is looking at another album so I think that’s really the main goal this year.”

As for future plans to form a new band, Marriott is hesitant.

“It gets harder to get signed to a record label the older you get. At this point in my life, I much more enjoy playing with an established artist as part of their backing band than trying to find other musicians and start something new.”

Marriott’s connection to music spans more than just one lifetime; his father’s work and his own leave two different, yet distinct marks on the music industry.

Listening to Toby talk about both, however, is intriguing. His humble demeanor of his work frames how music is more than just a job for him; it’s a passion.

“Music is just something I’ve always been into; no specific starting moment and probably no specific ending moment.” WGL

“I always write the music first and the lyrics the absolute last; I kinda hate writing lyrics actually,” he laughed. Although Marriott claims “it is impossible to be original these days,” West Georgia Living September/October 2016

53

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56 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Haunted House

Everybody loves a good fright - and what better place to get one than CHAOS Haunted House on Hwy. 27 North in Carroll County? The venue is open every year at naturally - Halloween. Clockwise from left: Zombies, from left, Colby Boyce, Steven Sloan, and Nikki Waddell try to escape and get their hands on ceramic doll Ansley Ballew; staff members are made up and ready for their "victims;" Bobo (Brandon Edwards) is ready to give chase on his four wheeler; Brooke Lewis puts on her makeup; Robbie Tumblin and Madison Weldon get chased by a killer clown with a chainsaw; Tammy Crews, left, gives a fright to Riya Jones, Jaylan Jackson, Jaylynn Jones, and Jamari Jones.

PHOTOS BY RICKY STILLEY

West Georgia Living September/October 2016 57

BOOKS

Myths, mysteries and storytelling Joshilyn Jackson.

"The Opposite of Everyone."

William Morrow, 2016.

P

eople see themselves as the heroes of their own stories.

In first-person fiction, this attitude is especially true, continuing an artistic tradition extending to the beginnings of literature. From childhood, we love to hear stories, especially stories about ourselves.

This storytelling tradition shapes people’s personal lives, as well as the cultures and the religions in which people live.

Joshilyn Jackson’s most recent novel shows how we shape the stories of our lives, even as the stories of others shape us. We follow the tangled thread of Paula Jane Vauss’ life as she tries to make sense of the present by understanding her past, her personal quest taking her in surprising directions.

The protagonist’s unconventional life begins when her free-spirited mother, fascinated by Hindu mythology, names her Kali Jai, after the goddess Kalijai, or simply Kali. Renamed Paula Jane on her birth certificate by her grandparents, she spends her first 10 years traipsing after her mother – who frequently changes identities and male companions – until the mother goes to prison and Paula/Kali goes to a foster home.

As the novel opens, Paula is a tough divorce attorney whose personal life and relationships reflect her childhood influences. Her occasional intimate consort is her binge-drinking investigator, Zach Birdwine; a relationship as emotionally complicated as it is physically direct.

While she is in the middle of handling a contentious divorce case, her previously unknown half brother appears. Before he was adopted and renamed Julian, their

58 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

in the search for identity

AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

mother had named him Ganesh after the Hindu elephant-headed god.

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times best-selling author of seven novels. She has received numerous awards, including the SIBA novel of the year award and two Georgia Author of the Year Awards. A former actor, she has been recognized for her audio versions of her own novels, as well as those of other novelists. She appears frequently on the WABE Radio program City Lights. She lives in Decatur with her husband, two children, and numerous pets.

Like his sister, he bears two names and two identities. The two begin a quest to find their mother and to determine the truth about their own identities. The plot twists result in a delightful story about the nature of our personal stories.

Jackson’s use of Hindu myths provides an interesting cross-cultural subtext to the novel’s plot lines. Kai’s free-wheeling and unorthodox retelling of the stories about Kali, Ganesh, and the other figures in the Hindu pantheon gives her children a unique world view that contrasts with their Deep South cultural roots. As Paula says, “But I was born in Alabama. My mother invoked Kali on the black and bloody soil of the American South, and she didn’t get renewal, hope, or springtime. She got me.”

The reader does not need more than a passing familiarity with Hinduism to follow the allusions, as Jackson fills in the necessary background. As a child, Paula is introduced to her namesake Kali, a fierce goddess of creation and destruction, of whom Kai says: “Kali destroys only to renew, to restore justice. Kali brings fresh starts.” The contrasts of destruction and renewal, of violence and tenderness, reflect Paula’s own complicated personality.

The characters’ shifting identities throughout the novel recall the Hindu deities’ various forms – avatars – as they appear in different shapes and roles throughout the various religious texts.

For example, Paula’s complicated personality shifts, even as she adopts various roles in her life: divorce attorney, sister/caretaker of her half brother, daughter/caretaker of her own mother.

Julian’s identity shifts when he is adopted and his name is changed, and his role alters again when he finds his half sister.

lines. Careful reading is rewarded for the reader who is willing to delve beneath the surface.

Jackson’s style of storytelling keeps the reader engaged in the tale. The use of a first-person narrative gives the reader insights into Paula’s worldview. Her sometimes-hardnosed and sarcastic personality adds an element of humor to the novel, while her underlying tenderness prevents the reader from seeing her as merely bitter and angry. As she is telling her own story, and the stories of those around her, she maintains some objectivity in her self-image.

ROBERT C. COVEL REVIEWER BIO Robert C. Covel, a retired university and high school English teacher, received his Ph.D. in English from Georgia State University. He has published two books of poetry and he is also writing a novel. When not reading and writing, he enjoys playing trivia. He lives with his wife Deloris and his dog Monet in West Georgia.

Throughout the novel this subtext of Hinduism adds a delightful level of meaning to the characters’ personalities and plot

Because the novel is a story of selfdiscovery, a kind of personal mystery, the use of limited first-person perspective allows the reader to participate in the quest.

The reader learns as Paula learns: about her own past and about her relationships with others. As Paula learns more about her mother’s past, she learns more about her own identity, discovering one surprise after another.

This ever-shifting narrative is less of a timeline than a web of events; the points of connection become clear as the story is woven. Jackson is masterful in managing such a complex narrative as she develops characters and moves the story, keeping clear the interconnections of events for the reader. WGL

Tammie Pero-Lyle (770) 832-0911 102 Trojan Drive, Suite A Carrollton tammiepero@allstate.com tperolyle@allstate.com “Helping Families and Friends Honor Their Loved One” Phone: 770-258-7239 Fax: (770) 258-7230 rainwaterfuneralhome.com

© 2011 Allstate Insurance Company

West Georgia Living September/October2016 59

TAKE 5

Herman Parker Pastor, First Baptist Church of Bremen

I never dreamed I’d … ever be pastor of a church like First Baptist Bremen. I am from a very poor family from rural Alabama. The thought of pastoring First Baptist Bremen was an impossibility.

My best friend is … my wife. I had rather be with her than anyone that I know.

If stranded on an island, I would want this book with me … my Bible with me. It corrects me, instructs me, inspires me, challenges me and comforts me.

I would love to share a cup of coffee with … my friends at First Baptist.

My heroes are … my mother and father. They were the "salt of the earth" people who loved their children unconditionally. Their sacrifice for us children will never be forgotten. I wish that I could be as good a parent as they.

People probably don't know that … I am very shy by nature. Although I have been preaching for 57 years, I still get nervous when I stand before a crowd, even a small one.

When I have 10 minutes alone, I like to … just think, reflect and meditate on the goodness of God. My parents taught me … to work hard, respect others and to be a man of my word. Integrity was very important to them and they drilled that into me.

My personal motto is … to love God supremely, serve others with compassion and to be myself. I can be Herman better than anyone else.

My favorite childhood memory is … hunting and fishing and throwing a ball with my father. My relationship with him was very special.

60 West Georgia Living September/October 2016

Photo by Melanie Boyd

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XLI (; (57

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West Georgia businesses answer consumer questions Being a Foster Parent

Getting Fit For Fall

Carroll County Education Collaborative (CCEC)

Pets Shaking Its Ears

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XLI (; (57 What BEING A FOSTER PARENT SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

"

Lara Willox, PhD Associate Professor Qualifications Lara Willox and her wife Sarah Jones have been foster parents in Carroll County for four years. They have fostered 17 children and currently have three children placed in their home. In April 2016 they adopted sevenyear-old Zayvion. They also have a biological child, 17 year old Aquay. Lara works at the University of West Georgia and Sarah is a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia. They have lived in Carrollton for six years.

1. I always wanted to be a foster parent because I knew that there were kids who needed stable homes, kids who are innocent bystanders to their families’ troubles. However, I wanted to wait until my biological son was older so he wouldn’t have to compete with other kids in the home. Once we moved to Georgia we were prompted by a colleague who serves on the Citizen’s Review panel to start the process.

It took us about 9 months to get our home approved after we began the process. We started to foster in August of 2012.

2. The biggest reward is watching kids thrive and families heal. We have had the pleasure of fostering 17 children and we learn something from every child who has entered our home.

We had many misconceptions regarding the troubles the children would have and the extraordinary action it may take to incorporate them in our home. We quickly discovered that kids are kids; our children are resilient, appreciate a routine, and can thrive when they

know there are many people who care about them.

3. We would be unable to foster if it were not for our CASA (Court appointed special advocates) volunteers. Our CASA volunteers are the voice for the children in our care. They help us match resources to the kids in care and help us navigate the (sometimes) confusing court system. If you cannot foster, consider being a CASA volunteer. You can also support a foster family by volunteering to babysit, fixing a meal when a new child is placed in their home, donating diapers, formula or other items, or participate in the Foster Parent training and serve as respite for kids in transition.

LEARN MORE: www.carrollcasa.org

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XLI (; (57

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

"

What every West Georgian needs to know about...

What is the Carrollton â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Carroll County Education Collaborative (CCEC)?

What is the Carrollton-Carroll County Education Collaborative?

Explain the structure of the CCEC. Leaders from the community, post-secondary education, P-12 education, business and government will work together to achieve the CCEC goals and to increase opportunities for all students. The following structure, made up of volunteers from all educational institutions in Carroll County â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both public and independent (private), as well as community organizations - is designed to ensure the success of the CCEC and ultimately the success of all students in Carroll County.

The Carrollton-Carroll County Educational Collaborative (CCEC) is an integrated community approach to create academic success for students through educational attainment and workforce preparedness within a P-16 framework. The collaborative seeks to prepare students to succeed in the workforce and/or postsecondary opportunities.

Who are the members of the CarrolltonCarroll County Education Collaborative?

Paula Gillispie

â&#x20AC;˘ Executive Committee: UWG president, WGTC president, public and independent school superintendents, Carroll Chamber of Commerce CEO, and community leaders. â&#x20AC;˘ Action Teams: These teams focus on performance and research processes, student support and interventions, and communication and partnerships. â&#x20AC;˘ Organizational Effectiveness Teams: These teams address operations and design improvement for optimum efficiency and effectiveness.

The educational entities involved are the University of West Georgia (UWG), West Georgia Technical College (WGTC), Carrollton City Schools, Carroll County Schools, and Oak Mountain Academy. Community support is provided by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, the Community Foundation of West Georgia, and Communities in Schools.

Head of School Oak Mountain Academy, Carroll Countyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only independent, college-preparatory, faith-based, day school

Qualifications

What are the goals of the CCEC?

Earning her graduate degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, Paula is a lifetime educator in her fifth year as Head of School at Oak Mountain Academy. Professionally, she chairs Accreditation Teams for the Southern Association of Independent Schools, is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and Phi Delta Kappa. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Independent School Association.

Paula is a member of the Carrollton Dawnbreakers Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, and she serves on the Workforce and Education Committee and the Board of Trustees of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

The CCEC grew out of a need to prepare more effectively all Carroll County students for life beyond high school and to ensure the future success of Carroll County with a qualified and committed workforce. The CCEC is gaining momentum and attention at the local, state, and national levels. As a member of the CCEC, I join my colleagues in the excitement of what is yet to come not only for our students but also for the workforce of the entire Carroll County area.

As a collaborative academic community, the educational institutions and community leaders have united in this extraordinary joining of forces throughout our community to accomplish the following: â&#x20AC;˘ Ensure academic success for all students, P-16. â&#x20AC;˘ Educate and promote career pathways and access to postsecondary education. â&#x20AC;˘ Ensure all students graduate from high school prepared to enter the workforce and/or succeed in two-year or four-year colleges or universities. â&#x20AC;˘ Increase opportunities for all students through a community network.

Learn more at: www.oakmountain.us 770-834-6651 paulagillispie@oakmountain.us

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$6. every West Georgian should know about...

XLI (; (57 What CURRENT RESIDENTIAL WATERING RESTRICTIONS

"

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Roughly half of the state of Georgia is experiencing drought conditions this year. Understanding the watering restrictions set forth by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the state Environmental Protection Division is a must for area homeowners to avoid costly fines while protecting your landscape investments.

When can I water my existing landscape materials?

Helen Albrightson Business Manager Qualifications A native of Wisconsin, Helen joined NG Turf in 2001. Her responsibilities include oversight of internal functions including accounting, sales, marketing and human resources. Helen has been a Certified Turfgrass Professional since 2005.

The Georgia Water Stewardship Act, which went into effect statewide on June 2, 2010, allows daily outdoor watering for purposes of planting, growing, managing, or maintaining ground cover, trees, shrubs, or other plants only between the hours of 4 pm and 10 am by anyone whose water is supplied by a municipal water system.

Watering outside of these times can result in fines and citations.

Are there special rules for new installations?

Yes. Newly laid sod can be watered as needed without restriction for 30 days after installation. After this period time, you will be required to follow the 4 pm to 10 am rules.

What if I have a well or use reclaimed water?

The watering restrictions of the Georgia Water

Stewardship Act only apply to people using water from municipal sources. If you have a private well on your property, use reclaimed storm water, or recycled gray water, you may water as needed without restriction.

Other exceptions to the 4 pm to 10 am rule include hand watering with a watering can or a hose using a sprayer head with an automatic cutoff handle; drip irrigation and soaker hoses; and during the installation, maintenance, or calibration of irrigation systems.

Where can I look for updated drought information?

The most up to date drought condition information for Georgia (and all 50 states) can be found on the United States Drought Monitor website at http:// droughtmonitor.unl.edu/. You can also reach out to your local Georgia Ag Extension. You can find a directory on our website under the Resources tab at http://ngturf. com/about-us/resources/.

Need a rain gauge this summer?

The first 20 callers to mention this ad will receive one for free!

Call NG Turf @ 770-832-8608.

Ask the Ex ert

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What every West Georgian should know about...

BREAKING FREE ❑

❑

Greg Towler, Pastor Crossroads Church Pastor Greg has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has been the Lead Pastor of Crossroads Church in Douglasville, GA for over 15 years.

❑

How do I break free from clutter in my life? – The fi rst thing we have to do is decide what will drive us this year. We need to determine what we will live for the most.

Th is helps us to prioritize our focus in our lives. If you don’t decide, someone else will decide for you! When we discover how to say yes to the things that are most important to us, it allows us to say no to the things that hold us back from living our lives to the fullest.

How do I break free from failure in 2016 – When it comes to avoiding failures in our lives, we have to fi rst define what success is before we can begin to pursue it. It is my belief that God wants nothing but success for us. The key to our success doesn’t rely on our own doing, but instead if we are seeking and trusting in God’s will, He will direct our path to success (Proverbs 3:5-8). If we follow the right path in 2016, we will avoid failure and find success!

How do I break free from destructive habits? – Every New Year, we all find ourselves making resolutions to quit our bad habits. Some of these habits are harmless, but others are destructive to our bodies, our minds, our relationships, and our lives. The best way to break free from a destructive habit is to kill our unhealthy desires. The

habits we feed will become the habits that control us. We kill unhealthy desires by starving them and not allowing them to grow into even unhealthier actions.

Breaking Free: A New Message Series What if there was a way for you to finally break free from all the things that are holding you back in life? What if you could discover how to be satisfied with your life, how to get where you want to be, how to have enough, how to profit from your mistakes, and even how to make a positive impact on others? We think there is! We invite you discover how to break free this year, so that you can have the best year of your life.

Jan. 3rd & 6th – You are here!

(So how do I get there?)

Jan. 10th & 13th – Free from a Cluttered Life Jan. 17th & 20th – Free to Succeed Jan. 24th & 27th – Free from Destructive Habits

Jan. 31st & Feb. 3rd – Free from Controlling People

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Chesley Large, CWWS, SET Tanner Health System

Qualifications: Chesley Large, CWWS, SET, is an exercise specialist and health coach with Tanner Health System. She attended college at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Ala., where she received a bachelor’s in exercise science and wellness with a minor in nutrition. She has more than five years of health coaching experience. She is a certified exercise specialist and group fitness instructor.

What every West Georgian should know about Getting Fit for Fall

Q

Do I need to maintain my exercise even after swimsuit season?

A

Looking good with little on is one of the major incentives for getting in shape, but there are other huge benefits for toning up and slimming down: feeling better overall, having more energy and still being confident in your appearance in the fall and winter. Exercise not only helps you with maintaining a healthy weight; it also helps you control your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk for chronic diseases.

Q

Won’t my summer workouts carry me through the fall?

A

As long as you maintain them, yes. Exercise helps you develop a fitness level — basically, a fundamental level of exertion that you’re able to maintain over time, like being able to jog for 30 minutes without rest — but your fitness level is fleeting. Without maintaining your exercise habits, your level of physical fitness begins to diminish within weeks, even if you’re maintaining your diet and not necessarily gaining any weight. That’s why finding ways to keep up your current level of activity into cooler weather is so important. Unfortunately, as the days get shorter and night falls earlier, it can be difficult to safely continue our outdoor activities through the autumn months.

Q

I’ve slacked off on my exercise over the summer. Is it too late to pick it up again for fall?

A

Every season — and every day — is a new opportunity to do things differently. Believe it or not, summer tends to make most people at least a little more active, whether they realize it or not.

Evening walks, weekend hikes and even typical summer activities like swimming and yard work keeps us active. So even if you’ve stepped away from your formal exercise routine, you may find starting up again is easier than you think. You just have to make that commitment and go for it again.

Q

What are some ways I can keep fit through the fall?

A

There are a lot of ways to keep active into the fall. Find a friend to exercise with; he or she can help keep you accountable. If losing daylight is cutting into your workout, squeeze in some mini-workouts during your day; research has shown that 30 minutes of exercise broken out into five- or 10-minute activities still provides the same health benefits as exercising for 30 minutes at once. And make sure you’re still making time for yourself; with school starting back, it’s easy to think you’re too busy to keep up with your exercise, but it’s too important to put off.

For more information, call 770.214.CARE or visit www.GetHealthyLiveWell.org.

Advancing Health WITH HEART HEALTH BEYOND MEASURE. Be smart with your heart. Make changes to lower your risk of heart disease — quit smoking, get moving and eat right.

Need help? Tanner has education programs and resources to help you quit smoking, eat healthy, get fit and be well. Plus, we continually provide free classes and information to improve your health. If you have heart disease, you can count on our cardiac experts for personalized guidance and support to pursue a healthier lifestyle. Focusing on your heart health is how Tanner delivers medicine beyond measure.

To find a heart specialist, call 770.214.CARE. Learn more about how you can keep your heart strong at TannerHeartCare.org.

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Jason Harden, D.V.M

Carroll County Animal Hospital

Qualifications: Dr. Jason Harden is a native of Carrollton, GA. He graduated from Oak Mountain Academy and continued on to the University of Georgia where he received his degree in Biology and his doctorate in veterinary medicine. His interests in veterinary medicine include surgery, exotic medicine, and ophthalmology. Dr. Harden is married to Chloe Harden, and they have 2 children, Maggie and Reese. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association, and the American Animal Hospital Association. He is the chairman of the Oak Mountain Academy school board, a member of the Carrollton Lions Club, and on the board of directors of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce.

What every West Georgian should know about their pets shaking its ears.

One of the most common problems we deal with is owners bringing their pets in because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shaking its head. There are a number of causes for this but to really understand this we need to understand how the ear canal of dogs and cats differs from humans.

Dogs and cats have a vertical canal as well as a horizontal canal.

Humans just have a horizontal canal. This leads to a great deal of problems for the pets if their ears are not properly cleaned on a regular basis. Pets bodies are constantly producing small amounts of wax in an effort to flush the ear but this wax needs to be removed. When this wax is not removed it shuts down air flow in the ear canal and this leads to infections. The pets then begins to scratch which can introduce yeast that were around the nail beds into the ear canal and the problem worsens. If left untreated these symptoms will continue to worsen and the ear will become ulcerated and extremely painful.

your pets ear infection. Treat the infection past when you are seeing symptoms. We generally will recheck your pet in 10 days with another cytology to determine if the ear medication can be discontinued or not. If any yeast are still present even if your pet is no longer scratching we will have to continue the medication. Once we effectively treat the infection and the medication is discontinued. If the symptoms of scratching their heads returns there is likely an underlying cause that will need to be addressed. Talk with your veterinarian on how best to treat your pet the next time they are scratching their ears, and make sure you are cleaning your pets ears regularly. If you have any questions regarding this topic or any other topics donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hesitate to call one of our offices.

When you bring your pet into your veterinarian, your veterinarian should examine the entire pet for clues to any underlying problem, but then should evaluate the ear canal with an instrument called an otoscope to visualize the canal and ear drum and to look for any parasites in the ears like ear mites.

An ear cytology should also be performed to determine what type of infection is present and how bad the infection is. Once your veterinarian has determined the type and extent of the infection present medication will be prescribed based on the exact cause. Here is the most crucial step to effectively treating

For more information, call 770-832-2475 or 770-834-1000 or visit www.carrollcountyah.com

Carroll County

Animal Hospital Sometimes your petâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health care canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be scheduled Office Hours: Mon. - Sun. 8am - Midnight Regular Office Hours: Mon. - Sun. 8am - 6pm

NOW SERVING YOU FROM TWO LOCATIONS

(770) 832-2475

635 Columbia Dr. 1155 Stripling Chapel Rd. Carrollton, Ga. 30117 Carrollton, Ga. 30116 #OLUMBIA $R s #ARROLLTON 'A (770) 832-2475 Across from Sony(770) Music834-1000

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What every West Georgian should know about...

A Need for Ceremony?!

Do you believe we have a Need for Ceremony during a time of death?!?

With so many tragic deaths and unexpected deaths of notable people recently in the news, our hearts have been left heavy and affected by the loss of each unique life. Also as a funeral director, it’s very touching and very clear that people DO need to grieve. We have all witnessed the overwhelming outpouring of tributes, flowers, cards, posts on social media, etc., that members of the communities have taken to Orlando, the University of Tennessee (Coach Pat Summitt), places their loved ones have passed away, on the sides of roadways, etc.

To watch and to also be part of this enormous outpouring of public emotional tributes allows us to create our own connection with the losses and establish significance regarding the impact of grief.

Scott McBrayer Ellen Wynn McBrayer Jones-Wynn Funeral Home & Crematory and Meadowbrook Memory Gardens As always, we remain “A Family Serving Families®....Since 1950”

Qualifications Scott & Ellen McBrayer are both licensed funeral directors and embalmers. Jones-Wynn Funeral Homes & Crematory has served our community since 1950. We keep our funeral home & crematory synonymous with its name & reputation of serving & caring for families. We are three generations carrying on one tradition. We offer Peace of Mind with the highest quality of service and affordable options. Our funeral home family is always available to help you clarify or answer questions you might need help with.

What does a “Ceremony or a Need to Grieve” mean?

Whether we know the person or people who died personally, or if we knew a friend of theirs, or if we are just deeply affected by their story, the one thing that seems to unite us all is that we have a need to connect with the loss. Even if it’s just a simple need to talk to someone about it, to “pay our respects” to the life they lived, post something meaningful on social media, make a donation, travel to where it happened, or to attend a service, the need still exists. The news of these events has truly affected us all, and we have followed these events and all the details surrounding them. With so much accessibility to these stories, we truly DO have a deep connection to them. And yes, we also grieve in our own, individual way.

Do we need a Ceremony for our personal family? Even if your loved ones says, “don’t have a service for me”?!

We live in a world where (sometimes) we don’t want to actually face the death or heartache of someone that is closest to us. Meaning that we often see families across America who have a death of a loved one and want to have cremation as soon as possible. Then the service is postponed until a later

date for whatever reason. The emotional danger in this is that the “service later” might not ever happen.

A celebration of life, a memorial service, or a funeral is a time for us, our loved ones, friends, and others to all have a chance to connect and pay our respects for a life of someone we loved. The service doesn’t need to be formal, or right away, but it’s important to make sure that you allow yourself a chance to reflect and honor your loved ones.

Just think of the times your closest family members said things like, “Don’t get me anything for my birthday!” or “Don’t worry about me...focus on others” But how much did it mean to the same loved one when you did remember them in some way (big or small). The service is more about a “time to remember” or “celebration of life” that we need to heal. The ceremony isn’t for the loved one who passed away; it’s about the impact they had on our lives.

Even if it’s a time to honor them on their birthday, tell stories about them and remember them when you are with family during the holidays. Just remember that grief lasts longer than sympathy, and the grief journey is long. The only way to survive the grief journey is to face it and keep trying.

Allow your loved ones to join the journey with you, and help them to know what your emotional needs are. Express to them where you are on the journey.

If we have a broken leg, then our friends can see the cast and better understand our struggle. They know when we need help getting up, or help to open the door. A broken heart is as real as a broken leg, but the difference is that others can’t physically see your broken heart and might need guidance on how to be supportive for you. Putting on a brave face doesn’t mean that your grief journey is over, nor does it mean that you are doing something unhealthy. What it means is that you are simply trying to keep walking in this life by using strides that match your particular grief journey. Remember that the pace is always up to you.

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Georgians are fortunate to have such a variety of state parks and historic sites where they can have fun in the

Q Do you have any activities just for dog lovers?

great outdoors, learn about our past, and protect special environments for future generations.

We recently launched the new Tails on Trails

Club which encourages people to hike with their four-legged friends. Visitors can purchase a $15 membership card at the seven participating state

Q What’s special about this year? We heard it includes a photo contest.

parks, which includes Sweetwater Creek State Park in Douglas County. After hiking each one, they get their card punched in the office. Upon

During 2016, we are celebrating the 85th anniversary of our system that began with two of the oldest state

Kim Hatcher Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites Kim has been promoting Georgia’s State Parks and Historic Sites since 1993 and serves as a spokesperson for the Department of Natural Resources.

parks in the nation, Indian Springs and Vogel. Park rangers have revealed their favorite “Hidden Gems” and planned many events that highlight these little-known

completion, we’ll send them a “members only” t-shirt plus a matching bandana for their dog.

GeorgiaStateParks.org/TailsonTrails

places. During July and August, guests can post photos of the Hidden Gems to Instagram for a chance to win

Q What’s new for campers?

a two-night camping getaway. All of the Hidden Gems and contest rules are posted on GeorgiaStateParks.org/ HiddenGems.

Starting in August, campers can make site-specific reservations at four Georgia State Parks. That way, they’ll know their favorite site is still waiting for them once they arrive. The entire campground at James H. Floyd (Summerville) and Richard B. Russell (Elberton) will be site-specific, while select sections of Reed Bingham (Adel) and Laura S. Walker (Waycross) will be site-specific.

Q Can visitors bring pets to Georgia’s State Parks?

Yes, we love to see four-legged visitors enjoying the great outdoors. Well behaved dogs are allowed in campgrounds and specific dog-friendly cabins.

These book up early, so make reservations in advance.

Leashed pets are also welcome on nearly all of our trails, with the exception of some at Tallulah Gorge and Panola Mountain. A few parks even offer ranger-led hikes where dogs can meet new friends on the trail.

GeorgiaStateParks.org/traveling-with-pets

To learn more, visit GeorgiaStateParks.org/ reservations or call 800-864-7275.

Explore the Hidden Gems at Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites!

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Adventure Lodges Historic Sites Camping, Cottages and Yurts

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View our online state parks guide!

Think you’ve seen all that Georgia State Parks have to offer? Do you have a knack for exploration and discovery? Introducing Georgia State Parks: Hidden Gems, your chance to see the undiscovered side of Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites. From a ranger-led hike to the Marble Mine at “Sloppy” Floyd State Park, to finding the Prohibition Era Moonshine Truck at Amicalola Falls, you don’t want to miss these once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Visit GaStateParks.org/HiddenGems to sign up and plan your visit. Act quickly, because many of these events are limited. Book your stay today!

GaStateParks.org | 800-864-7275 reservations

Hidden Gem

Advancing Health WHERE PATIENTS ARE A VIRTUE. Choosing a healthcare provider is one of the most important decisions you’ll make.

It isn’t always an easy choice, but it’s a crucial one. How well does the hospital perform? Are the patients there satisfied with the care they’ve received and the way they were treated?

Does the hospital go above and beyond to keep their patients safe?

These are the metrics that Truven Health Analytics and The Leapfrog Group use to rate the nation’s hospitals. They consider ways the hospitals are keeping patients safe — reducing falls, controlling for hospital-acquired infections and limiting lengths of stay — as well as how well patients rate their experiences.

For the third consecutive year — and the fourth time in five years — Tanner Health System is among the 15 Top Health Systems in the nation, ranked by Truven Health Analytics. And Tanner Medical Center/ Carrollton is among only 17 Georgia hospitals to earn an A rating in patient safety from The Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score.

THELEAPFROGGROUP

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These achievements demonstrate the lengths Tanner goes for its neighbors. It speaks not only to consistency, but to Tanner’s unrelenting drive to improve. Every health system is adapting. Everyone is getting better at delivering care. Here, to continue to perform at the top of the industry, Tanner is staying ahead of the curve.

So when you have to make that choice — whether for you, your child or your parent — the better choice is simple. And it’s close to home.

To read more about Truven’s 15 Top Health Systems, visit http://bit.ly/25bnkPv. To learn more about The Leapfrog Group scores, visit http://bit.ly/1TkhQqF.

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