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Greetings from Carrboro, The light’s different when I walk the dogs in the morning. The tomatoes brought in from farms are smaller, the vibrant sungolds so remarkably sweet. There’s the earthy smell of the marigolds brought by Wild Hare at the host stand . And I find myself thinking of roasted peppers more than those […]

Greetings from Carrboro, You’re supposed to spit. That’s after the swirling and slushing necessary to mark you as a wine professional. And usually into a champagne bucket or some other necessarily opaque vessel/spittoon. When the server put one on the table, the large man across from me looked alarmed. “You can take that away, mate. […]

Greetings from Carrboro, There they were. Finally. It was a relief after the countless hours of driving through the relentlessly flat middle of America. The majestic Rockies shimmered in the distance. Denver was nigh. Or, well, not. It would be wrong to call the snow-capped image a mirage; the Rockies do, in fact, exist. As […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Fringe is probably the wrong word. And aficionado feels entirely too erudite. But most of us really and truly dig something that distinctly lacks that Taylor-Swift-ian mass appeal. Low budget 70s horror movies. Japanese hip hop. Carnivorous plants. Choose your poison. Some people go so far as to wear T-shirts that say, “Ask Me About […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Some words need to be retired. Or, you know, set aside for a bit – with enough time to get its mojo back. I had a teacher in college who was adamant that we never use the word “share” in anything that we wrote because it had been utterly ruined by the […]

Greetings from Carrboro, Sometimes you learn things in the wrong order. Like finding out that “Ring Around the Rosie” is a really cute song about dying from the black plague a good ten years after the song is embedded in your brain. From then on, the plague is awkwardly linked to kindergarten and giggling. An […]

Greetings from Carrboro, I guess it made sense in the 70’s. The closest we get to it now is when someone sneaks a sandwich into the movie theater. Or, I guess, when you have a hot dog at a Bulls game. But there was a very distinct shotgun marriage between eating out and entertainment in […]

Greetings from Carrboro, By now I’ve figured it out. But it took me a hot minute; my ego is not, um, the fastest learner. The trick goes like this: 1) We serve a dish – let’s say rutabagas – at a dinner with a fixed, multi-course menu. 2) A very kind guest tells me how […]

Greetings from Carrboro, We couldn’t just pick anywhere on the farm. So we waited in the shade. The girl running the stand told us that the man would be right back and asked did we want a Coke. It was early enough that she was just walking out the baskets of fruits and vegetables and […]

Greetings from Carrboro, We struggle. A lot. Not with making something taste delicious; that part we get. But making something sound delicious is often a very real challenge. And honestly, not just delicious but also smart. The lexicon of words used to describe southern food can leave a lot to be desired. Equally cannibalized by […]