Category: Food

Like many Southerners, I use the word “honey” as a term of endearment. But I love that sweet, golden delight made by bees, especially drizzled on toasted muffins and hot biscuits. Man has always enjoyed the benefits of honey. It’s a sweetener for beverages and often cooked in cakes and breads.

In the South, honey is usually a key ingredient in barbeque sauces. Medicinally it is used for treating burns and soothing throats. Many beauty products like soaps, lip balms and lotions feature honey. And local raw honey, which contains pollen, can help build immunities and alleviate the symptoms of some allergies. While looking for unusual holiday gifts a couple of years ago, I discovered raw honey from Ross Berry Farm. The honey was big hit and of course I kept a few jars. It’s incredibly flavorful and delicious! Looking for the best beauty products? Why not try these beauty products with cbd oil to achieve the beauty that you desire!

In relation to CBD products as mentioned, you can also check out SmokePost CBD Dispensary available online.

Recently I got a chance to chat with Terry Ross of Ross Berry Farm and Apiaries in Canton, Georgia. Terry and his wife Jeannie started their business back in 1994. “Originally the plan was to grow raspberries,” Ross explains. “But we soon found that organic raspberries were a fragile crop with a short shelf life. We couldn’t figure out how to ship them fast enough to market.”

To help pollinate the raspberries, they got some bees. That’s when the magic happened. Ross Berry Farm is in an ideal area for harvesting honey. And as it turns out, raw honey keeps indefinitely!
“Shortly after we got our first hives I found myself at the local library co-founding The Cherokee Bee Keepers,” adds Ross. Starting with two hives, the farm now has more than 45. “Our hives are scattered throughout the farm and in the north Georgia mountains, so the bees are able to find a lot of nectar sources,” he says.
Once Ross and his wife got involved with bees, they realized how important bees are to our ecosystem. “Bees pollinate about 1/3 of our food supply,” he explains. He cautions people to be mindful of bees that visit their gardens, and tells me one thing that most people do wrong. If you want to learn how to get rid of hover flies on patio, please don’t use Seven Dust, he says. “Bees mistake it for pollen and it can kill them. If you have to use something, get liquid Seven. It’s best to spray in the evening after bees have gone back to their hives. Spray foliage and not flowers, so you keep the nectar safe for the bees.” You can find everything you need to know about gardening at Homegardenscare.

I recommend the Georgia Wildflower Honey from Ross Berry Farm. It’s their most popular flavor. I was surprised to learn about the different kinds of pollen that go into making this honey such as cherry, poplar, kudzu, privet, blackberry, blueberry and wild crab apple! They also offer Tupelo and Gallberry Honey. You can purchase honey at their farm in Canton and at locations around the state, like Scottsdale Farms in Alpharetta, and Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens. For info or to order online, visit Ross Berry Farm’s Website and click on Queen Bee Gifts.

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Karen.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Pretty Southern contributing culture and lifestyle reporter Karen Hatchett is a life-long southerner and resident of Smyrna, Georgia. She’s a Marketing & PR professional, arts & music lover, jewelry designer and casual gardener.[/author_info] [/author]

Take two former lawyers with great taste and a whole lot of gumption then y’all have got the foodie heaven of West Egg. Atlanta’s up-and-coming Westside is history in the making, thanks in part to businesses like this new restaurant.

Owners Jennifer and Ben Johnson met while attending law school at Duke. Right before graduation, Ben popped the question and they’ve been together ever since. They both practiced law at large firms in Atlanta following law school before Jennifer got the itch to open a restaurant then left her practice in about 2002 to start working on what would become West Egg.

“It was opened on a shoestring, with friends and family rallying round to help paint, build and otherwise turn a raw space into a slightly less raw restaurant,” the couple explained. Ben kept his day job for several more years before joining West Egg full time in 2007.

The name West Egg comes from the fictional town in “The Great Gatsby”, which has always been a favorite book of the Johnsons. “We even had a passage from it read at our wedding long before there was any thought of a restaurant,” they said. “When we found the original space, the Westside was a far different place than it is today. Bacchanalia and Taqueria del Sol were pioneers just up the street, but back then there was nothing in the area to speak of south of the railroad track and 14th Street except Northside Tavern. It was the Westside; we were serving coffee and breakfast; West Egg just jumped out as the perfect name.”

West Egg is now housed in Westside Provisions on Howell Mill. The space is ideal for dates, working lunches, coffee breaks or even just to come and hang out. “In moving from an old industrial building into a brand new space, we tried to carry over references to the industrial character of the surrounding neighborhood. From the mirrored reclaimed factory windows in the dining room to the old chicken-wire safety glass around our bakery area, almost all of the furnishings are vintage or reclaimed in some way.”

“Our menu is based around Southern comfort foods. Many of our desserts, such as the Coca-Cola cupcake and buttermilk pie, are based on my grandmother’s recipes. We make our own pimiento cheese, pickle our own okra, and put bacon on just about anything. Our dinner menu includes Pig & Grits (slow roasted pork shoulder over grits) and Country Captain (a traditional low country dish of chicken stewed in tomato curry). Our boozy milkshakes are based on our homemade vanilla softserve and include sweet tea (made with our housemade liqueur) and bourbon chocolate. Our cocktails include the Maple Mint Julep (sweetened with maple syrup) and the Seersucker (gin, basil, and lemonade).”

“The South always has had a defining tradition of graciousness. Hospitality, to kin and stranger alike, simply is a part of life.  We have tried to capture that tradition of Southern comfort and hospitality with West Egg but also free it from triteness or too much nostalgia. We want a come-as-you-are casualness befitting a dynamic city like Atlanta, where tattooed twenty-somethings sit next to families with young kids who sit next to pinstriped lawyers who sit next to young entrepreneurs on laptops who sit next to students twenty minutes out of bed – and who all feel equally welcome and at home.”

On one afternoon, this PrettySouthern writer found herself writing with an iced cafe au lait, which lead to a beer sampling and then a piece of buttermilk pie! For more information on West Egg, check out their website and tell Ben and Jennifer that you saw them on PrettySouthern!