Flame azaleas and mountain laurel

More ramp festivals

Just to be fair to all the others, the two ramp festivals I mentioned last week aren't the only ones: here's one in Flag Pond, TN this coming weekend; this site has a list of all the local ramp festivals, starting in March in Cherokee. Lots are in West Virginia.
The oldest one around here may be the one held this past weekend in Waynesville, NC, the 74th annual, according to this story in the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Riding time

Spring colors

This would have been even better if the indigo bunting hadn't flown at the last moment:

Rainy day in Murphy

The Spring Festival downtown didn't attract as many folks as usual but was still a treat:

Hot rods and great barbecue. What else do you need?

The flame azaleas are out

Murphy newspaper

Have you seen the new Cherokee Scout website? Now they have breaking news, a searchable archive, and will be adding a photo gallery. (And a poll. Go there and vote for preserving ridgetops.)

Fleeting beauty

A Fraser magnolia; these last only a day or two.

More from the weekend

On a cool cloudy Saturday afternoon, after the ramp festival, a few glimpses of beautiful southeast Tennessee:
Hiwassee River.

A little piece of history: site of Maggie's Mill, north of Reliance, where 'When You and I were Young, Maggie' was written.

Bald River Falls.

Upper Tellico River.

And on a sunny Sunday, western Cherokee County farm lands.

Down on Greasy Creek

They held the 49th annual Polk County, TN 'Ramp Tramp' this weekend. Our first time at this down-home gathering, but it won't be the last.

The site is a 4-H camp originally built by the CCC.

Inside, folks enjoying local music and the ramp dinner.

Outside, vendors sell local products: here they are steeping sassafras tea.

Lots of cooks to make this delicious meal:

Beans, corn muffins, potatoes, bacon, and eggs with ramps. Buttermilk pie and coffee. Yum.

The band? Ducktown Station. They got lots of folks up and clogging.





The Cosby Ramp Festival, at the other end of the Smokies in Tennessee, is next weekend. The one in Cosby is just a bit older than the 49-year-old Polk fest; it was started in 1954.

What are ramps? According to this description, they are a wild member of the onion family that grows from Nova Scotia south. That explains why I think the 'wild leeks' that a neighbor searched for every spring in our creekbed in upstate NY were the same thing. They probably were.

Here's a lot more on using ramps or wild leeks.

Thanks to Lisa Jacobi for the ramp photo.

(Update:) More photos from the Ramp Tramp are in a slide show on Ducktown Station's website, via Lisa Jacobi. But if you're on dialup like me, be warned it will take awhile to load.

Rainy day sunset

Worrying about the land

When I first came to Western North Carolina in the mid-1970s, I was suprised at how developed it was. I had expected large stretches of wilderness but found that every mountain cove had homes in it. Despite that, in Black Mountain, where I lived then, and in other areas, you could ride a few miles out of town and find nothing but old farms and a few small cabins, and feel free of civilization for awhile.

No more. The area around Black Mountain is filled with large new developments, in areas I'd never have expected to see fancy homes going in.

Now that I live several counties west, where development was rare when we first started visiting here, we are shocked to see large tracts of land being cut and roads going in for multi-lot developments. We wonder how the roads will be able to handle the number of people who could live here in the future, if houses go up on all those lots.

Environment North Carolina has released a new report that says thousands of acres of forests and farmlands in NC are being lost to development every year; two million acres in the last 20 years and they expect over two million acres more by 2027. In Western NC, according to this Asheville Citizen-Times story about the report, developed land has increased 44 per cent in the last two decades and will increase by another 22 percent in the next 20 years.

We all need wilderness to feed our souls. In the future, will our children only be able to find it in managed parks?

Note also, Environment North Carolina's photo gallery on Flickr, lots of photos contributed by the photographers. Lovely, and a reminder of what could be lost.

Spring slowly returning

Wineries

(Updated:) The Asheville Citizen-Times reported on the damage to North Carolina's wine crop from this month's freeze. These Georgia vineyards suffered similar damage, but they say they'll get some wine this year.

On the way back from Dahlonega, a couple stops along the Georgia Wine Trail:

These are from Wolf Mountain Vineyards:




This is Three Sisters:
Oh, wait, what's that alien-looking UFO in the photo?


Must have been that pesky wasp hanging around an umbrella.



Frogtown:

Hiwassee Earth Day

Check out the lovely photos from the Hiwassee River posted by R. Neal on Knox Views last night.

More from the Bear

Photos from Bear in the Square in Dahlonega, starting with more of the beautiful architecture around the square:




And more picking:


Loved the goards:



And various yard, doorway art:


Even some history.