Berea, KY

You just never know what you're going to run across while you're on your way to an appointment. As a born and raised city girl, I am still surprised by the wildlife that shows itself along the highway, but sadly a lot of that wildlife ends up in the middle of the road. In the rural areas, it's not uncommon to see dead animals that have been hit and killed by a passing car. But sometimes, one can escape that terrible fate.

Yesterday, on the way to a consultation, I was driving down a country highway toward my destination and I saw something quite large sitting smack in the middle of my lane. Like most drivers, I positioned my wheels so that the object would stay between them when I passed.

At first it looked like a partially deflated ball, but as I drove up to the object, I realized it was a large turtle! I could see that it was still alive, and the poor thing was ducking its head for cover into its shell as my car passed over. I immediately careened off the road into the embankment and backed up. Then I had to stand there in agony as several more cars passed over it before I could pick it up.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it was quite large: almost a foot in length, and about 9 inches across. This was a beautiful turtle, looked possibly like a slider of some kind (didn't have a hinged shell and had webbed back feet) and was obviously a male from its long claws. I didn't know where it came from, didn't see any bodies of water nearby and didn't have time to look around, so I put him in the back seat of my car and drove to my appointment.

Turns out the potential client I was meeting with worked at Berea College, and was also an animal lover. When I told him about the turtle, he suggested that we take it to the Berea College Farm, since it has a large pond there.

As soon as we got to the farm and started walking around the edge of the pond, Mr. Turtle got excited. He began to kick out his back legs and poke his nose out for a sniff. I found a nice place next to the water and set him down. I was hoping he would come out of his shell for a nicer look at the markings on his head, but he wouldn't oblige, so we left him alone to explore his new surroundings.

Then my client took me over to meet the pigs. I had never seen a full-grown pig in person before and could not get over how large they were! They must have been the size of a small sofa!

They were very interested in us and came right over to say hello and get a drink of water. They seem to be very social creatures; they were snorting and nuzzling each other the whole time. I even got to pet one of them - wow; they have very thick, stiff hairs, almost like gigantic cat whiskers.

The college does raise animals for the sale of meat at their Farmers Market. But the pig's pens were enormous, about the size of a double-wide bowling lane. There were only 1 - 3 animals in each pen so they had lots of room to run around, and they seemed to be very happy under the circumstances.

How wild that if it weren't for Mr. Turtle that I wouldn't have gotten to meet the pigs! So the next time you are driving down a rural road and see a fellow earthling stranded in the middle of the road, I hope you stop and give it a hand. You never know where it will take you or who else you will meet!

Berea Spoonbread Festival - Berea Kentucky

If you haven't had a bite of spoonbread in your life, now is the time to eat your fill of the tasty stuff! Granny used to make this for the family get-together. Not to be confused with those tasty grits!

The 14th annual Berea Spoonbread Festival has plenty of activities, 5-K Run, beauty pagent,hot air baloons,motercycle rally, crafts, free concerts at Memorial Park and events to please everyone in the family. Located in the heart of Berea, Kentucky, the Folk Arts And Crafts Capitol Of Kentucky.

Have you ever wondered how it's made?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white cornmeal
• 2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cold milk
• 2 large eggs, well beaten
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Preparation:

In a large saucepan, combine cornmeal with 2 cups of water; add 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring mixture to a boil then lower the heat; cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. The mixture will be very stiff. Remove from heat and slowly stir in 1 cup of cold milk. Stir in the beaten eggs and melted butter. Preheat oven to 400° and heat a greased 1 1/2 to 2-quart baking dish or 8-inch square baking dish. Pour the well blended batter into the hot baking dish; bake for about 40 minutes, or until firm in the middle and nicely browned. Serve hot, straight from the baking dish. This quantity provides 4 to 6 small servings; for more, double the recipe.

Go try it first at the festival.

Some of the events will be:

Hot Air Balloon Glow

Scenic Motorcycle Ride & Rally

Music Concerts

Dog Show

Car Show

Loads of yummy spoonbread to eat at the Spoonbread Eating Contest!

The Berea Spoonbread Festival hours:

Friday - September 17th, 3:00PM - 9:00PM

Saturday - September 18th, 6AM - 9:00PM

Sunday - September 19th, 10AM - 5:00PM

For more information call : 859-986-9760

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*Berea Spoonbread Festival - Berea KY*

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I would like to invite all of you to the 14th Annual Spoonbread Festival to be held Sept. 17-19, 2010 at Memorial Park, Jefferson St. Berea, KY. This is three days of family fun in the Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky, Berea. The festival will kick off on Friday afternoon in Memorial Park with exhibitors, a free concert and a balloon glow that night. Saturday is an action packed day with more exhibits, Fun Park activities, 5K Run, tethered balloon rides, motorcycle show, dog show and free concerts in the park. Sunday features more exhibits, a car show and family fun in the Fun Park. Stop by the spoonbread and say hello, we will be making and serving fresh spoonbread all three days, hope you can make it.

New Artists in Old Town Berea

Tucked away in "Old Town" Berea, Kentucky is a street full of shops run by artists who sell their handmade art and craft. These artists often create one-of-a-kind pieces that cannot be found anywhere else. The most recent addition to this elite group of shopkeepers are Nora Swanson and Dale Brandt, who specialize in crafting copper and brass jewelry and architectural elements for the home and then applying oxidized patinas to the pieces.

Nora originally is a native of Boulder Colorado, Dale hails from Troy Ohio; they moved to Berea in the spring of 2009 from Denver. Why move from Colorado to Kentucky? "We get that question a lot," says Nora. "The idea to move to Kentucky was actually Dale's. He had the foresight to see that this area was within a day's drive of several major cities, giving us the access for potentially doing business in those areas. Once I started looking into it, I was drawn to the climate region because I love gardening. You can do a much wider variety of gardening in Kentucky than in Colorado, and for a longer growing season."

"As far as why we chose Berea specifically, we actually had no idea that this was an artist's community. We looked around in Louisville and Lexington first, and then headed south and discovered Berea. It was a perfect match; it felt like it was meant to be."

It wasn't long after Nora and Dale had found a place to live in Berea that Nora was presented with the opportunity to open a store in Old Town Berea. "The price and the timing were right and everything seemed to point in that direction. I fell really privileged to be able to join the kinds of artists that reside here."

A stop into Nora's store is like a mini-visit to a museum. The jewelry has a very ancient quality to it, while having a funky, modern appeal as well. "We like to make things that look like they could have been unearthed at an archaeology dig, but can fit with modern culture as well. We also like that our jewelry can be worn with very casual clothing but look very elegant if dressed up."

So how are the pieces made? "We start with raw materials from scrap yards and recycling centers, mostly copper and brass sheet metal. Then we trace the shapes from templates, and cut them out with tin snips. A few of our shapes are outsourced for cutting by dies, but that's about as far as it gets from not being completely processed by us. Then we hand hammer most of the pieces on the end of a cut log to give them an aged and distressed look." Sure enough, Nora has a log at her store, which stands on end next to her workbench, so that passer-bys can watch her tapping away, or she can conduct demonstrations for guests. "After that, the pieces have holes drilled in them and then all the rough edges are buffed down."

For the spectacular colorings, the pieces are put through a "patina spa" as Nora describes it. "We can't tell you exactly how it's done; that's the super-secret part." says Nora, smiling, "but we can say that we use different combinations of chemicals that are applied to the pieces. The free-floating electrons in the air get trapped by the chemicals and then bond permanently into the positively charged metals. There are no paints or dyes involved in this process. We're recreating the natural oxidization process, like on copper roofs that have turned green, but we can deliberately produce a range of colors."

Once the patina has set in, the pieces are washed three different ways and multiple coats of a specialized protective clear-coating is applied, to prevent any color change by further oxidization. Then the pieces are assembled into finished jewelry by adding rings, chains, earring hooks, etc. "It's a long process from start to finish," says Nora, "I finally counted it up and each piece of metal is handled at about 17 times during the entire process."

Since moving from Colorado, Nora says that the patina "recipes" have changed quite a bit. "We realized right away that we were going to have to update our recipes, because the atmosphere is so different here. We've spent the last year creating new recipes that are, in my opinion, better that anything we've seen so far. Kentucky air is good to us!"

"We're getting consistent results from a few of the recipes, and they've earned nicknames to describe the colors." Nora points out some of the color families. Juicy Blues, Nutmeg, Chocolate Love, and Melon Patch are just a few of the "standards" available. Each purchase also comes with a certificate of authenticity and pedigree.

Nora goes on: "But because the results are so dependent upon what's floating around in the air, the patina color and pattern varies a bit from piece to piece and from batch to batch. There may be a thunderstorm passing over, a different kind of pollen in the air, or a neighbor burning leaves upwind of us and these kinds of things can affect the results of our work, sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically. It makes every piece truly one-of-a-kind."

On the back wall of Nora's store is evidence of further artistry. A picture-frame folding screen holds photos of home installation projects such as range hoods, counter tops, and doors. "Any of the patinas in our store can be applied to a larger piece of copper and brass. This was Dale's main line of work for seven years prior to when we met. I got the idea for making jewelry when I saw two similar scraps of copper on the floor and thought they would make a great pair of earrings. We started making copper and brass jewelry after that."

When asked about focusing specifically with copper and brass, Nora answers, "We've been approached a few times about working with gold and silver, but they don't accept the patinas. I've become very fond of copper and brass and just prefer to specialize, and besides, we've only just scratched the surface of what we can do with these metals. I'm so excited about what is still yet to come."

Nora Swanson Arts is located at 121 North Broadway Street, Berea, Ky 40403. For more information, contact Nora Swanson at 859-866-2420 or visit www.nswanson-arts.com.