Knoxville’s Chilhowee Park is known around town as the place for exhibits, the Tennessee Valley Fair, and special events.  But one building, listed in Knox Heritage‘s  Fragile Fifteen, is an endangered structure:  the historic Rabbit & Poultry Barn.  Built in the 1930s from the wood of a dismantled roller coaster in use at the 1910 Appalachian Exposition and incorporating windows from the 1910 Exposition Building, the barn is a treasure, albeit a dilapidated one.  In its heyday, the frequently visited (during the fair, that is) Rabbit & Poultry Barn housed over 400 rabbit and 1,300 poultry exhibits.

From every angle, it’s a photographer’s treat!

For more great angles in this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge: From Every Angle, click here.

Great turnout! Opening of The Art and Salvage Shop of Knox Heritage.

First Friday in Knoxville (especially during Dogwood Arts Festival) brings on new openings and new opportunities to view art and reconnect with community. But picking one or two events becomes a challenge in and of itself.

The opening of the newly relocated Art and Salvage Shop of Knox Heritage hit home with us:  we love art, old things, and the mission of Knox Heritage.  So we found ourselves at the new location — 619 Broadway — at the Grand Opening.  And so did a lot of other folks!

Open spaces with bare concrete floors and exposed brick seemed a fitting backdrop for the goods inside.  Repurposed salvage like this chalkboard with corks and the coat rack from molding caught our eyes.

Repurposed finds: The Art and Salvage Shop of Knox Heritage

Along with bins of salvaged windows and doors . . .

Doing some serious looking through bins of salvaged windows and doors

And walls of objets d’art! We found this guest reading the THANKS poster — it lists hard-working volunteers and staff responsible for re-opening the old building (once home to a bicycle repair shop) as a salvage shop.

Art and salvage on display at the new Salvage Shop

To celebrate the Grand Opening, staff, volunteers, and guests gathered for conversation and finger foods in the main room.

Talking about the opening of the newly relocated Salvage Shop: Brent Menchey, John Craig, and Kim Trent, Director of Knox Heritage.

A cake from Magpies became the focus of conversation around the snack table.  Yes, it’s a cake.  And everything was edible right down to the trowels, seed labels, paint chips.  Even the dirt.

It’s all edible — cake from Magpies with paint can and brush, trowel and dirt, and seed packets and paint chips!

Space for artists’ studios was available for viewing in the back of the shop and upstairs.  Lovely space, we might add — some already painted and ready for real work and real sales.  Like this one that photographer Michelle Jephcott painted and organized for her matted photos and cards. Her subject matter? Gay Street Bridge, night scenes, Knoxville fireworks, and springtime flowers.

Photographer Michelle Jephcott poses in her newly refurbished artist studio at The Salvage Shop.

Some shoppers stopped to admire the flowing tops created from old linens by Brenna Elrod of Evelyn & Elsie.  The linens, Brenna told us, mostly belonged to my grandmother.  

Other spaces had potential. And were quite inviting — from the size of the room to the paint colors to the urban scenery from the upstairs windows.

Upstairs space for future art studio

Of course, new digs don’t come cheaply in downtown Knoxville.  A Kickstarter campaign offered guests the opportunity to fund renovations right there on the spot.  Knox Heritage set up laptops so donors could get in on the collective action of putting their money to work immediately.  We tried the site, and, with the help of John Craig, we got in easily. (Want to donate?  See link below.)

Kickstarter Campaign to fund The Salvage Shop

We like this new place:  open with a combination of untouched and finished goods, artists’ studios, and helpful folks everywhere.  If you’re out looking at dogwoods (Trails open April 8th.), you may want to swing by.  Who knows?  You just may need an old door — and The Art and Salvage Shop has ’em.  Along with lots of other great finds.

For more information:

The Salvage Shop, 619 Broadway, Knoxville, TN; http://knoxheritage.org/salvage/

Knox Heritage: http://knoxheritage.org/

Kickstarter campaign for Knox Heritage Art & Salvage Shop Project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1158170043/knox-heritage-art-and-salvage-shop-makeover

Dennis Fox pours out our harvest at The Fruit and Berry Patch

Sometimes the serendipitous adventures are best — well, at least it was last Sunday as my husband Bert and I took a leisurely ride through Halls (North Knoxville) just looking at all the new developments and changes out that way. 

Have you ever been to The Fruit and Berry Patch? I asked. 

Can’t say that I have, he answered — and that’s when we took the country road up to the farm of Dr. Dennis Fox.

Owner Dennis Fox tells us what’s in season and where the best pickin’s can be found!

Former botany professor at UT, Dr. Fox is an affable, knowledgeable, committed-to-sharing farmer who’s here almost seven days a week at this heavenly pick-your-own site. He spends quality time with city slickers like us, telling us what’s ripe and where to find not-yet-picked-over bushes.  We saw a young man holding a bucket ready to hit the fields of blueberries, but we were pretty sure we couldn’t stand the 100-degree heat that afternoon just for a few berries!

A visitor ready for berry-picking

So, we looked around the place. 

We spotted fresh honey (and there’s lots more to come since Dr. Fox has recently bought all the honey one local beekeeper can harvest).

And preserves and apple butter made locally from his fruit. 

Gallons of apple cider.

And fried pies, too.  Peach, fresh apple, blueberry, strawberry — some made from old family recipes, some new. (Strawberry’s my choice, but Bert ALWAYS picks apple desserts in any form!)

A cooler of home-made fried pies!

The place has a sense of humor, too, in a country sort of way.

But really, we had no intention of picking.  That is, until Dr. Fox showed us a map of the farm, how close the blueberries were to the shop, and the location of the “berriest” bushes that hadn’t been over-picked!  It’s been a tough summer for blueberries — we just haven’t had any rain to speak of, he told us.  But you can still find them, if you look.

Then he handed us a bucket.  How could we resist?

Bert reaches high to find the best berries.

So, with no hat, sunscreen, or appropriate clothing, we were off on our berry pickin’ adventure.

I did my share of picking — and loving the quiet!

We met up with this family — and listened to them one row over as we all picked in the silence of the fields. Look for the big, fat blue ones, the mother told her child.  And I could just imagine little pickers intent on learning the craft by grabbing not only blue but also green berries, twigs, leaves and all — anything to fill a bucket!  Happens, I suppose!

Family fun – berry pickin’ on a Sunday afternoon

But we were off in search of big fat blue ones, ourselves.  The berries we found were beautiful — or so we thought — until one man passed by and said, I know everyone thinks they’ve found just the right spot, but really, if you go down to the end of that row (and he pointed left and down), you’ll find some bushes that are just loaded. He was right.

That’s the fun of picking!  You hunt for the bushes with the best berries — down the lane, around the corner, up and down.  Even when your bucket is full. Just a few more, you say to yourself! It’s the hunt as much as it is the harvest!

In search of bountiful blueberry bushes

We were quite fortunate that young man came along, because the journey to find the best blueberries had a side benefit: we were squarely in front of the neighboring blackberry patch — and that’s a whole ‘nother story.  We hadn’t even thought of blackberries, yet here they were: huge blackberries ripe for the pickin’.  Well, mostly.  Lots more red ones this trip — waiting to turn black after summer storms like the ones we’ve had this week.  (Maybe if you go now, you can get the ones we left behind!)

More red than black — but that’s what makes the search so interesting!

Life lessons abound, I suppose, through experiences like this, and my English teacher mind couldn’t help but find symbolism in the simple act of picking blackberries: the search for something desirable, the joy of finding it– even if the find is based on happenstance and spare at best. Then the reach –careful, of course, to avoid tangles or an encounter with a stinging creature. And the fun of bounty hunting — God’s perfect (and sometimes imperfect) berries in an idyllic farm in Halls on a hot afternoon! Simple summer pleasures, for sure.

Rows of blackberry bushes with beautiful blue sky behind – Does it get any better than this?

We brought back our bucketfuls for Dr. Fox to weigh.

Weighing the pickin’s

And then plunked down extra money for bottled water and a fried pie — rewards for a job well done! 

If you want to go, call ahead first and listen to Dr. Fox’s daily message.  At this writing, here are the latest announcements:  1) Blueberries, blackberries, and peaches are ready to pick, but 2) The Fruit and Berry Patch will close if the temperature hits 94 degrees.  (Good plan!)

My advice? Go early — and that’s not just to beat the heat.  After all, it’s the other pickers you’re really racing against! Here’s the number to call:  865-922-3779.

So, what did we do with all those gorgeous blackberries?  Make a cobbler, of course!

Foundry’s Blackberry Cobbler from Summer Suppers

Here’s an easy recipe from the Knox Heritage Summer Suppers cookbook for Foundry’s Blackberry Cobbler.  If you’re not familiar with the Summer Supper program that offers Southern meals in great settings — like farms, historic homes, etc. — just click here for more information.  We love these events! 

Here’s Cynthia Moxley’s blog, The Blue Streak, on one we just attended:    Four Centuries, Four Visionaries, Four Blocks. A great progressive dinner in four different downtown locations!

And now for the recipe for this cobbler that was served at Strong Stock Farm in 2009.

Foundry’s Blackberry Cobbler

1/2 cup butter

3 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup milk

24 oz. blackberries

Melt butter in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish.  Mix together 1 1/2 cups sugar, flour, and baking powder.  Add milk and lightly whisk.  Pour batter on top of melted butter in baking dish.  On medium heat, cook blackberries and remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar until mixture begins to boil.  Add blackberry mixture to top of batter and bake at 350 degrees until batter browns.  Cool and top with vanilla ice cream.

It’s worth it!

If you want to go to The Fruit and Berry Patch (Please do!), here’s what we suggest:

• Call ahead to see what’s available and in what abundance: 865-922-3779.
• Dress appropriately — cool clothing, sunscreen, hat.
• You don’t have to bring your own container unless you’re planning to pick a lot.  Buckets and cardboard trays are available.
• Be prepared to buy something else — the apple cider, fried pies, honey, and preserves are hard to resist!

Enjoy the day!

The Fruit and Berry Patch

Owners: Dennis and Judie Fox

Co-owners: Jeff and Sandy Fox

4407 McCloud Road

Knoxville, TN 37938

865.92.BERRY

www.thefruitandberrypatch.com