What is that beautiful flowering plant?

Mother Nature is working her magic at Bloomsbury...working overtime! Over 400 azaleas are showing their colors; pink and white dogwoods are making an amazing display. As our guests come and go, we inquire as to which color is their favorite. We hear: purple, pink, white, red, flame, this color right here in my shirt, orange, soft pink, and cream. We are certain that you can find a color to admire.

Azaleas are perennial members of the Rhododendron genus, commonly grown for their showy, spring blooming flowers. Bloomsbury hosts both evergreen and deciduous Azaleas on the grounds. This very shallow rooted plant prefers some shade and acidic soil. Annual pruning should be completed after the showy spring performance. This woody plant when pruned from the tops and sides only or not pruned will develop long, leggy stems with only surface exposed leaves. The preferred method of pruning is to remove 1/3 of each plant each year. Prune from the inside to the outside and cut 1/3 of the plant back to the parent stem. Thus, on a three year rotation you have full, leafy bushes that show exceptionally well. You can "clone" your favorite Azaleas by rooting the stems you remove while pruning. Set your cuttings in water for three days, then dip each stem in a root-growth enhancer before planting it in a well drained sandy soil.

The best-known azalea reference book is Azaleas, by Fred Galle, published by Timber Press. It covers all aspects of azaleas, and describes around 6000 varieties. There are a large number of other books about azaleas

A Sunset Breakfast - Dawn Inspired Dishes Served at Dusk

The University of Georgia recently hosted a meal plan special event which featured a fruit dish from Bloomsbury Inn. The presentation, A Sunset Breakfast, featured menu items from select bed and breakfasts from across the United States. The Bloomsbury Cold Fruit Soup was one of three fruit selections presented. Of the hundreds of recipes tested, this recipe was one of thirty-four menu items featured. The selected recipes were served to over 8,300 industry participants.

The Bloomsbury Cold Fruit Soup recipe will again be featured in the Sunset Breakfast event when it competes for national recognition in the Loyal E. Horton Menu Awards in mid April. Bloomsbury Inn and owners, Bruce and Katherine Brown, were presented a commemorative plate in appreciation of their participation. Katherine Brown noted, "It is an honor to be the only bed in breakfast in the State of South Carolina to have a recipe selected for another state's event which will now compete for national recognition. We often receive compliments on the soup when we offer it as our first course at breakfast, but it had not occurred to me that it was special enough to be one of the top three in the Nation." The soup is offered three or four times a month to the guests of Bloomsbury Inn. Bruce Brown thinks that, "Katherine is too modest about the breakfast meals that she serves. I was not surprised when we learned that one of her recipes had been selected with recipes presented by such renown chefs as Matthew Minor, The Swag near Ashville NC, vegan Chef Kyle Evans of Stanford Inn by the Sea in CA, or Four Seasons Farm Chef Pierre Wolfe."

Bloomsbury recipes are shared in a variety of ways. You can now dine at the University of Georgia to enjoy the soup; you can book an evening at Bloomsbury Inn and request the soup for breakfast; or, you can make it for yourself. The recipe can be found online: www.bloomsburyinn.com or in the Camden Junior Welfare League cookbook, Dining by Candlelight.

The Bloomsbury "Smoak" House

Having cooked in the old kitchen house of Bloomsbury a few times, my interest in the old "smoak" house is growing. Most early references to the Smokehouse is "smoak" house or meat house. Over the course of many years, the large acreage of Bloomsbury was divided, sub-divided and sold. The current Bloomsbury property is about two acres. The "smoak" house is actually on the property of our neighbors. But, that has not withered my interest as I continue to experiment in the old kitchen house.

The "smoak" house is normally positioned far enough from the manor house to ensure the smoke did not disturb the household and to ensure a fire was not left unattended in close proximity to the house. Historically, it is a small, windowless building where meats and fish could be smoked and stored. Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering wood and plant materials. Cheese, vegetables and whisky can also be smoked. Hot smoking occurs within the range of 165-185 degrees; higher temperatures will remove far too much moisture from the food and will cause excessive shrinkage. Hickory, mesquite, oak, pecan, alder, maple and fruit-tree woods are the preferred woods for smoking. Most meats were smoked for at least two weeks, and could be stored for upwards of two years.

Meats and fish were not removed from the "smoak" house until they were to be used. The meats would age without mold as long as the walls were not made of stone or greenwood. The keeper of the meats had to be very careful of mold, especially bright molds. Bright green and purple mold can be very nasty; however, duller molds and the creosote were just washed or cut off the mean with no harm done.

With the introduction of electricity and refrigeration, the labor-intensive process of smoking meat and fish gave way to storing and cooking in more controlled environments. But, the thought of experimenting with the old "smoak" of Bloomsbury is rather intriguing.

Sassafras: The root beer tree

As the blooms of the Bradford Pear begin to fall to the ground, the yellow blooms of the Sassafras are shining bright. Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is one of the easier trees to identify by its leaves. Sassafras leaves can have a mitten shape, with either a left thumb or a right thumb, or the sassafras leaf can be three-lobed. It can also have an oval, unlobed leaf. Usually, you'll see all three shapes on the same tree. Yes, all three shapes on a single limb...amazing.

Bloomsbury hosts one Sassafras Tree. It took us several investigating attempts to identify the tree until the very distinctive leaves appeared.

Yesterday, one of our visitors recalled that her Grandfather cut himself a toothbrush from a Sassafras Tree each year. She said he would carve/cut it and use it each year until it was all worn out. He professed that it voided all tooth decay.

Until the FDA outlawed the Sassafras oil use, it was the primary ingredient in Root Beer. Many home micro brewers continue to use Sassafras oil today!