Half-Back

Okay...so if you don't know where Blue Ridge, GA is...we're near the point where Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina connect. It's a charming, Norman Rockwell town for tourists. For long-time residents, it's home. For people who have never been here - it's where they filmed Deliverance. It is a hunter's paradise, a fisherman's dream, a hiker's goal...and more.

There are plenty of us new transplants now in town, and together with long-time residents we're working on developing an economic base that will support and grow the community in a sustainable manner that will benefit all. They call us Florida-folk, Floridiots. I consider myself more fitting of the loosely defined nickname Half-Back, which means I was born a Yankee, moved to Florida and then finally became smart enough to move halfway back to paradise in North Georgia.

It is the true South - filled with soft-spoken southern belles and drawling rednecks - all proud of their ancestral roots. People smile here. God, Country, Family and Guns are all part of every day life. It is a place of Southern literary genius and hard-time country lyrics. Where meat-and-three is a term for a restaurant; pickup trucks come equipped with gun racks; and a sip of the perfect glass of sweet tea requires a side of insulin.

During a recent manicure, my manicurist and I began speaking about the area and how much we love it. We talked about the sustainable community garden project we are developing and the goal of illustrating to visitors and locals alike the bounty of the region, which makes being self-sustainable nearly attainable.

And that's when it happened. Another discussion that simply makes me adore and amaze at this place.

My sweet, petite manicurist told me about her four deer she killed this season. And the fact that she and her family eat mainly chicken and deer. She loved my project concept, talked about Putting Up hundreds of cans from her garden harvest, including Blackberry jam. She talked about the peace and solitude she finds with hunting (she prefers not to hunt with her husband); she shined talking about her 11-year old son who is quite the skilled hunter, getting 4 four deer himself this season, two by bow. She said she was waiting on him to get a couple more squirrel so she could make a mess, fixin' them up with the four already waiting in the freezer.

And while I am not a hunter (but The Chef is) I have such respect for people who truly take hold of the available product around them. In fact, Danny's quipped about squirrel hunting often, saying he's going to whip up a stew one of these days...and while I know he can make miracles out of most everything - I really hope he doesn't tell me until after we're done eating.

Either way I realized, I am not a half-back. I am simply back - where I belong.

So if you're in these parts, look us up. We'll be waiting, ya hear?