Out and About with Bonnie and Bill

Another day and where to go with Laurie’s sister Bonnie and Bonnie’s husband Bill?  They’ve visited us often enough that finding new and different places for them can be challenging.  But as usual, we came up with a couple of ideas…

Laurie and I decided to take them to Grain Bin Commodities in/near Sweetwater Tennessee.  This family operation had opened up after Bonnie and Bill’s last visit to East Tennessee.   Once again Laurie and I loaded up on Caramel ‘Crack’ and “Fire Crackers”, baked saltines with red pepper flakes.

The family that operates Grain Bin Commodities has operated a dairy farm here for many, many years.  It is a generational thing… Now they have the bakery with a patio and outdoor pizza ovens as well as a barn full of decorator items and antiques. 

After our little group did some damage in the bakery…making a number of purchases…we move onto the barn.  There was a nice selection of quality items available.  We were told that they are focused on buying decorative items that are made in America…and then blending them in with the antiques that they acquire.  Bonnie did make a small purchase in the barn.

Grain Bin Commodities is located at 5215 Holt Road near Sweetwater Tennessee.  They are located just a short distance west of I-75 at Exit 62.  Phone: 865-599-9001.  Grain Bin Commodities regularly advertises/touts their available products via Facebook.  Their website can be found at https://www.grainbincommodities.com/. 

Our next stop was at Tsali Notch Vineyard and Tasting Room.  The setting certainly was striking.  Too bad that it was a chilly and cloudy day.  Love all those little hills…actually the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.

This was in early April and Tsali Notch was sponsoring one of their market days…”Market at the Notch”.  Events like this involve a local farm or other large property sponsoring an event where vendors sell local crafts and other products.  It helps the local crafters and farmers sell their products while bringing visitors to the farm…in this case to the Vineyard.

I looked around a bit, taking photos of whatever caught my fancy.  The first structure is a recently refurbished 2-room farmhouse from the 1800s.  It is called ‘The Jackson Lounge’ and I suspect that it plays a part in private events, such as weddings and reunions that take place at Tsali Notch.

The second building is a reconstructed log building that is used as Tsali Notch’s tasting room.  The wines produced in East Tennessee are just too sweet for our northern palates so we skipped this opportunity.  However, it is important to note that Monroe County, the city of Sweetwater and Tsali Notch hosts an annual East Tennessee Muscatine Grape Festival and it is a fun filled event!  You can learn more about this event at this Website: https://www.monroecountychamber.org/muscadine-festival/.

Unfortunately, it was too early to grab a bite to eat.  A food truck/trailer was on site at the vineyard to serve the vendors and guests attending the marketplace event.  This is “Roots”, a food truck based out of Athens Tennessee that serves up authentic Puerto Rican food.  I noticed that they were scheduled for a return to Tsali Notch on May 7^th, so they must be popular.  Phone: 609-849-7540.  “Roots” is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RosariosRoots/.

The preceding photo shows some of the grapevines at Tsali Notch.  This vineyard specializes in muscadine grapes that are grown on more than 6,000 vines on 21 miles of trellis.  The grapevines cover 35 acres of this 202 acre property.  The average elevation of the vineyard is 1,150 feet… During harvest season, the Notch welcomes people to come and pick the grapes for their own juice, jelly and winemaking.  Tsali Notch grows six different varieties of muscadines…

Muscadine is a grapevine species that is native to the southeastern and south-central United States.  It grows all the way from Florida to the New Jersey coast and west as far as Texas and Oklahoma.  These grapes have been extensively cultivated since the 1500s.

As for this tree, I asked Laurie to take a photo of it just because I liked the way it looked…

Fortunately the ‘Market at the Notch’ was staged in this barn…which also serves as a large event site.  It was too darn cold to be outside in the wind!  At one point, the wind gusted to well over 50 miles an hour and sleet blew horizontally past the open barn door.  Nothing like spring weather to keep us off balance!

On the other hand, if you take a look at the barn’s walls, you can see that the structure was built to allow air movement…critical in hot weather.  There were a number of heaters scattered around the barn but they had little positive effect unless I stood right next to one!

In any case, both the visitors/customers and vendors were mostly bundled up and seemed to be doing all right.  I’ve included just 3 photos of the vendor’s booths in the barn.  There was pottery, baked goods, beef, handmade jewelry, farm products and a variety of other arts and crafts. 

The last photo I took is the one occupied by Suzanne Harper, the owner and proprietor of Udder Joy Farms.  Laurie always has a number of Suzanne’s goat milk based beauty and personal care products on hand at home and she didn’t fail to make a purchase on this occasion either… Note: Suzanne was behind the post!

To learn more about the products that Suzanne and Udder Joy Farms offer for sale, you can go to her website at: https://udderjoyfarms.com/.

To learn more about Tsali Notch Vineyard including their hours and directions, they are on both Facebook and the web.  Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/tsalinotchvineyard/ and/or at https://tsalinotch.com/about/.  Phone: 423-506-9895.

That’s about it for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave