Celebrating Mother's Day in Scotland: 5 '16

Visiting Scotland

Learning more about my Scottish heritage has always been on my bucket list, so as an early Mother’s Day treat, Bruce took me to Scotland,  and bought me a bottle of Campbell’s Wine.

..Scotland County, N.C., that is.

It is fairly well established by that there were Highlanders living in the center of the coastal plain of North Carolina as early as 1729, when North Carolina became a royal colony. However, much of the Scot settlement came in the next quarter century. It was during this period that many Scots pushed up the Cape Fear River into the area surrounding their Cross Creek settlement, later Campbellton (now Fayetteville), and consequently, into the area that is now Scotland County. Through the ensuing years, their Scottish descendants have continued to inhabit and develop the county. For Example:

Cypress Bend Vineyards

which was our first stop in Scotland County

The land which Cypress Bend Vineyards calls home, is steeped in rich history, passed down through the generations since 1807. The beautiful farm land, known as “Riverton,” was discovered by a Scottish couple, Reverend Daniel White and his wife Catherine Campbell White. 

The Whites raised five children in Riverton, and to this day their descendants, (including the current  Smith Family), continue to enjoy the farm and its native surroundings.

Running along the farm, you will find the Lumber River, trimming the borders with cypress trees and sweet aromas. The Lumber River helps nurture the land, making it the perfect grape growing soil.

Cypress Bend Vineyards

In 2002, Dan Smith, a fourth generation descendant of Daniel and Catherine, along with his wife Tina, returned to the ancestral farm and began planting Native American varietals known as Muscadine (also known as Scuppernong). 

Since its official opening in 2005, the Cypress Bend Winery has won 111 awards in competitons for Southern Wines, including: 9 Double Gold, 22 Gold, 44 Silver, 36 Bronze, as well as Best in Class ,Best Native American Red , and MUSCADINE CUP , BEST MUSCADINE awards.

Campbell Red Muscadine   

The  vineyard’s most popular red Muscadine  wine “Campbell” has garnered 13 awards since it was introduced including the prestigious MUSCADINE CUP – “BEST MUSCADINE

After a wine tasting, and purchasing of a  few of our favorite vintages (including Campbell’s), Bruce and I headed off to find a place to picnic near the Lumber River.

Black water of Lumber River

The Lumber River (which meanders along the border between Scotland, Hoke, Robeson and Columbus counties before heading further south for its rendezvous with the little Pee Dee in South Carolina), was so named for its 19th century use as a means of transportation for timber harvesting in the watershed. Poet John Charles McNeill argued persuasively that the name actually came from a Lumbee word meaning “black water.”

Originally called Drowning Creek by the early settlers, the river now boasts 81 miles under protection as a black water National Wild and Scenic River. This is especially true of the Scotland County section, which remains undeveloped for virtually its entire length.

This section of the Lumber River Canoe Trail is narrow and somewhat swifter than lower sections. Canoeists and kayakers should check river levels and be wary of fallen trees and sandbars.

Because of its Wild River protection status, road access to the Lumber River’s banks is limited. Our best bet for having a picnic near the river was at  the Chalk Banks Access in the Lumber River State Park section of river. In addition to clean public facilities, this recreation area is ideal for picnicking and for scenic river from well maintained hiking trails.

So overall it was a great beginning to exploring this very interesting area of the South.

'Winterizing' our Garden 9 '15

Front yard  5_27_15

You might remember the photo I posted of  our front flower bed in early spring.  The area was filled with colorful annuals that were planted in pots tucked between the perennial green shrubs. The pots were hidden with pine straw leaving only the colorful foliage and flowers exposed.  Most were chosen because they have colorful foliage and attract and feed humming birds and butterflies ..  Some ( like the mustard, and  basil were even edible by humans.  But an annual is still limited to a one season life cycle. No matter how many birds and butterflies it feeds it will eventually die back and need to be removed and replaced.  September  is usually when we start to see the annuals in the front begin to fade and know it time to remove the past year's annuals and replace them with something appropriate to the upcoming  fall and winter.   The the photo below is what the front flower bed looks like  today with  potted chrysanthemums tucked into where where the blue flowering  basil had been.

Front yard 9 -26-15

Since the humming bird and butterfly migration won't be over until mid October, I have left the plants that were still blooming in place, but soon even those will be removed and replaced with something like pansies.

Deck  garden looking South

And here is what the upstairs deck looks like today.   During the spring and  summer it had lots of annual red flowering sage, tarragon and sun chokes in flower to feed the butterflies ( scattered in pots between the usual assortment of perennial low growing culinary herbs).

Deck garden looking SE

Over the course of the past month I have been taking the edible annuals from the front yard carrying them upstairs and harvesting what I could of the basil. (It's and annual ritual to make pesto from whatever basil I have left at the end of the season)  I then emptied the soil out of the pots, cleaned them and carried them back to the front  yard with new soil for the fall winter flowers.   The old soil was then used to fill in any areas along the driveway or backyard which had suffered soil erosion during the summer rainy season.  I then did the same thing with the all the regular pots  on the deck.  So now we are back to the  low growing  perennial culinary herbs with a few empty  spaces left for some winter ornamental plants.

Deck Garden Looking at NE corner

Of course there are still a few  things that are seasonal occupants.   The carpets are only put down When I am outside using the deck.  Too much chance of their getting wet.  Three tender perennial plants  like my dwarf banana tree and Kat's lemon grass reside in my bedroom in the winter, and move into the Carolina room in the early spring before coming back out onto the deck after all danger of frost is past.

Deck Garden looking west

Of course there are times that everything has to come inside.  All of the pots ( and the umbrella stand)  are on casters and have drip pots to keep them from coming in contact with the deck.  This not only makes it easy to move them around for cleaning, but also makes it possible to quickly roll them into the house for safety purposes should a hurricane or ice storm  comes roaring through.  (I've had to do this several times.)  Having everything on wheels makes it a much easier task. And getting  the gardens prepped for winter early makes for moving a lot more efficient.

Winer Tasting Tour: 6 '15

By Monday, all of the family had settled into their accommodations.  As our first joint family activity of the reunion, the sisters decided to take a Limo driven wine tasting tour of all of  the Verde Valley's Four Wineries. ( A big "Thank you"goes  to Laura McClellan, who volunteered to watch Jeannine' s two great grandchildren, so that  Jeannie could join  her other sister's  on the tour).  

Our limo driver picked us all up at our resort, and drove us to each of the four boutique wineries. Along the way to our tastings he educated us on wine growing  in  the area. He explained that while  one doesn't normally associate vineyards and wine tasting with deserts landscapes, but as it turns out, Sedona - and surrounding areas Page Springs and Cornville - are the beating heart of Arizona's wine country. High altitude, rich volcanic soil and weather that swings from hot, dry summers to August monsoons to cool nights and mild winters make it ideal for growing big, jammy reds like Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet as well as Chardonnay that can compete with any Napa white. A huge Aquifer under the Verde Valley supplies the spring water to keep the vines lush and and fruit plump and succulent. One can even get a college degree in wine-making in the area.

Alcantara Vineyards

Our first stop was at the family owned and run Alcantara Vineyards.  

Our Limo  sits shaded between one of the vineyards and the tasting room.

Situated on the confluence of the Verde River and Oak Creek, it was by far the largest of the four wineries we visited in terms of acreage and in terms of the size of its tasting room.

First toast

Specializing in Appellation: Yavapai County (100% Alcantara Vineyard Grapes) they produced a wide range of award winning red and white varietals and blends.  After  each of us tried tasting five different varieties ( with quite a bit of sharing ) we settled on taking a bottle of their dessert Moscatto  to share in the limo .

Of course, five tastings, and a bottle of Moscatto before lunch,

 resulted in some pretty happy faced sisters,

by the time we got to our next stop we were all acting silly.

Javelina Leap Winery

Our second stop, was Javelina Leap Winery.

Javelina Leap Tasting Room 

  This time we were sampling pure varietals

made from grapes grown in Arizona soil.  While the winery produces both red and white varietals, their biggest award winners are their zinfandels.   Bruce  and I purchased a bottle of the Javelina Leap 2013 Estate Legacy Zinfandel to take home with us.

Decision, decisions.

While this tasting room was far less elegant that our first, the tour of the vineyards and cellars that followed the tastings was far more interesting.

Javelina Leap vineyard

 The tour included an explanation of the unusual growing conditions and practices which give Javelina Leap wines their unique characteristics.  The main vineyard is a 10 1/4 acre estate nestled 3,800 ft. above sea level. The Estate vineyards are located on the steep slopes of an extinct volcanic mountain, overlooking the lush greenbelt of Oak Creek. The  Estate Vineyard uses native plants intermingled with their estate zinfandel vines. They believe these plants are a natural sustainable resource that benefits their vines. They also have chosen to avoid all chemical weed control and use a weed whip instead. While their wines are made from 100% Arizona grapes, not all of their grapes are grown in the vineyards around the tasting room. Some come from Prescott .  All of their  Northern Arizona Vineyards are pruned and harvested by hand to ensure the highest quality.

We also got a tour of their cellars.  Boy did that feel good after being out of doors in the heat of the Arizona summer.  (It was  105 F+ in the shade in the Verde Valley)

Javelina Leap Cellar Tour

Then it was back in the limo an on to our third tasting at:

Oak Creek Vineyards

Oak Creek Vineyards tasting room

This is another family owned and operated small winery. They currently have approximately 4,000 plants on just over ten acres. In the higher elevations of the property they grow Syrah, Merlot, Tempranillo and the lower portion is reserved for Zinfandel and Chardonnay.  In addition to the red and white varietals, they also produce some high quality dessert wines.

In the Oak Creek Vineyard tasting  room

Even though we had been sharing our tasting to cut down on the alcohol consumption, both Bruce and I were beginning to lose sensation in our taste buds. We opted to skip the dinner wines tastings and go straight to tasting their port and sherry. Both dessert wines were delicious, and we bought a bottle of each.

Oak Creek Vineyard also gets CC's vote for having the best Wine related Blogsite of the four.  Be sure to check out their recipes  and interesting wine anecdotes.: 

Our final stop on the tour was

Page Spring Cellars Tasting Room Entrance

Page Spring Cellars

This family owned vineyard and winery crafts fine Arizona Wines from grapes grown in their own vineyards in the volcanic landscape overlooking pristine Oak Creek. Page Springs Cellars Vineyards offers Rhône style wines. (They work primarily with Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache and Mourvedre). They also collaborate with several other Arizona vineyards in varying locations and climates on a quest to secure quality fruit to make wines that are an expression of these places.

PSC Vineyards

 Do you think we've had enough samples?

In addition to the usual wine sampling in the tasting room ( which is filled with wine arts and crafts), visitors to the winery can get a massage, or have an aromatherapy session, or have a picnic overlooking oak creek.

We opted to follow the path through the grape arbor to the picnic area and some much needed lunch.

Overall, it was a great afternoon, and a wonderful start to the family reunion.

Virginia Winery Tours '12

 We also spent a day touring a few of the local wineries. (There are a couple hundred wineries in the area) I especially like the small family run wineries on the back roads where you could talk with the wine-maker and taste some really good small production  vintages that you wouldn't find in your local market.

Stone Mountain Winery

 It's not just the countryside that is colorful. I kid you not some of the native Virginians we met have a really thick accent. We commented to one of the winemakers about the abundance of wildlife we'd seen in the area. He relied, "Yah. Thar's always a bar, coon, gobbler, or dare out there in that field" ( read phonetically.. this is the way he pronounced bear and deer) . And sure enough, on the road out, we saw a black " bar" cross the road.