Tomato Fest and More

As a veteran of farmer's market vending, I know that it can be quite the struggle to grow a market. A town with a small population makes that task all the more difficult, however, they are doing their best here in Murphy to get the town folks to visit the market. The most recent event was dubbed, Tomato Fest  with a Bloody Mary contest, games and activities for children, live entertainment, as well as chef demonstrations. Sounds good, right?  While we had a wonderful time, there was definitely room for improvement when it came to attendance. Nevertheless, I will show you what I saw beginning with this crazy fancy BM from a restaurant in nearby Hayesville.

Pretty elaborate is one way to put it. There were tastings, however, only the judges were permitted the added alcohol. Which reminds me of something I learned only recently and that is that Murphy was a dry county until very recently. According to this blog post I found, it wasn't until 2016 that full liquor sales were approved. It never occurred to me, but then again, it didn't occur to me that at noon the national anthem, along with a prayer and the singing of another patriotic song, would be playing on the local radio. One person I've talked to claimed that the town is in no hurry to change and likes things the way that they are and who am I to argue with that notion?  After two weeks with no local news, we are finally learning what is happening around us by reading the Cherokee Scout. Have I already mentioned this? Forgive me if that is the case. At any rate, it is a gold mine of news stories, obituaries and letters to the editor. An example of the letters to the editor this week were two expressing thanks to their fellow citizens for helping them through recent deaths of family members. How sweet is that? Another amazing article appeared this week outlining how the city commissioners are going to vote next month as to whether pool tables should be allowed in restaurants. Apparently there are memories of bad brawls at the local pool halls in the past. I will keep you posted! 

Okay, back to theTomato Fest....check out this little cutie who, according to this chef who is a neighbor,

as soon as she heard about the festival, ordering the costume was a must.

So fun! As to the attention she caused, it looked like she was loving every minute of it. 

There were two demonstrations, one of which was for stuffed cherry tomatoes with a filling of goat cheese among other ingredients, but the one that stuck with me was the one that she is demonstrating in the photo above the tomato girl. She showed off a really neat way to cut peppers which I have now tried at home as well as how to core a tomato efficiently which I have also tried at home.

Both worked quite nicely. Although I have been cooking for most all of my life, I really have never been taught how to cook. When you think about that, how many other things in life could we actually pull off for decades with no real training? Probably not very many! One of the items I brought from home was the neat blender Alissa gave me for Christmas which worked quite nicely in batches.

By golly it was delicious!

Back to the market, here is another set up for the contest. All of this is held in the old depot where many things are since the trains quit coming to town. 

All of the floral arrangements pictured above are grown locally. Here is the outside of the market where you might notice the caboose in the photo.

I guess the caboose isn't all that visible, so here's another look with the man of the house pictured.

Astute readers will also notice the banner tied to said caboose advertising the model railroad club which we had read about in the "Scout." As we were the only folks visiting, we had plenty of time to chat with the two remaining members of the club.

Sadly their third member just passed away. Bruce told the gentleman that I was a blogger and would be sure to include in my narrative that they are searching for new members! Note the Henn Theatre in nearby Andrews.

May I presume that you remember there is a second location here in Murphy? How presumptuous of  me! 

It's really cute as can be and has taken countless hours of work. Here comes the train!

Not only have countless hours been spent on putting it all together, countless dollars have as well, which is one reason they need more members to help pay to keep the lights on.

The above would be the square in downtown Murphy which is presumably going to become a roundabout in the near future. Again I am being presumptuous, but I wrote this post after our first week here and reported that not everyone is thrilled with the idea. :)

Back outside here is Ann or maybe Anne, we are not really on those terms just yet such that I can ask the spelling. Nevertheless, we have been visiting her booth for the last few weeks picking up baked goods at alarmingly inexpensive prices. She claims she is good and would rather not come home with anything, thus the low prices. Last week we had a lesson on the Cornish pasties and the miners in Cornwall. What part of England she is from remains a mystery for now.

She has an unusual method of covering her various bins with shower caps. Furthermore she uses any old container to send you home with your scrumptious treats, including cottage cheese containers, as well as berry containers. I am all for recycling, but those berry containers with the holes are not my favorite as they do tend to speed up the staling process. Is staling a word? Let me see. Aha...seems to be.

About two blocks from the market is our sweet church which looks like this. Super photogenic!

In my last post, I told you we were going to play bingo and so we did. It takes about ten minutes to get to church btw, as there are only a handful of cars on the streets. Anyway was it ever fun!!

Mr. Peck won the first round and doggonit, he won another round later on. We were asked to bring wrapped little items, which we really didn't know what that meant, but we soon found out. Bruce's first prize? A can of tuna fish!! When my numbers came up though, it was two knitted caps!

We began the evening singing the doxology led by Priest Maggie, (in the pink) who is a real dynamo.

Another dynamo was the young man who called the numbers, a great grandson of one of the parishioners. Relishing every minute of it, this eight year old boy loved his time in the spotlight.

Here's a funny story we only learned about yesterday at church: when Bruce won for the second time he picked up the gift that looked similar to his tuna can because he figured we could make two sandwiches. Instead, Maggie suggested he take something else. By then I had gotten up to help with the clean-up from the meal we had shared, so I may have this wrong, but essentially the lady pictured in the foreground went home with a similarly wrapped gift which she assumed was tuna fish. Nope, cat food! So plenty of silly fun. What is troubling though is the same thing that ails the train club, not enough young people. With so many people not attending church anymore, these beautiful places of worship have very uncertain futures or so it seems to me. 

Speaking of dying out, I have now visited all three in-town cemeteries, this being the smallest of the three.

The one by the river walk is large and called the Sunset Cemetery because it is high upon a hill with sweeping views of the mountains. We drove through there to better understand what I was seeing from the path below.

On Church street behind our church, not to mention the Cherokee Scout offices, is a large cemetery begun by the Methodists with graves dating to the 1840's. It is also the site of the Harshaw Chapel completed in 1869.

There is a lot of history associated with this cemetery, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. What I will say about it is that there are some very interesting graves including this one.

Such a sweet sentiment. So many people are choosing cremation these days so, like most anything around today, who knows what the future holds for cemeteries? 

I hate going off topic, but it does remind me to mention how cash is king around these parts. Just saying.

A simple headstone for the young girl and some big time markers for the adults.

This has been kind of fun, right, learning how the other half lives? I cannot tell you the number of people who have said they were so happy to have found this place. But, then again, the ones who weren't so happy aren't here to tell me that are they? For us we are thrilled with no traffic and this very simple life. The shopping opportunities, not so much!

your friend,

Gail