It’s time to visit Hillside Orchard Farm and Country Store! I absolutely love places like this and so does my family. There’s plenty of outside activities and places you can duck inside for some A/C when the sun gets to be too much.

Hillside Orchard Farm and Country Store is a working farm that is located in the beautiful North Georgia mountains. The farm was built around an old barn which dates back to the 1950’s. In the 1980’s the farm was brought back to a working farm and vegetables were planted to be used in products that are manufactured at their processing plant. In the 1990’s a country store was opened at the farm to sell the products they manufacture.  Jams, Jellies, Butters, Pickles, Relish, Sauces, Syrups, Ciders, Fruit Breads and Fritters. Sounds delicious am I right? There’s nothing like buying food items AT the actual place you’ve visited. You feel so connected! They do have a place for souvenirs and gifts. You can even choose what products go into a gift basket!

There’s plenty to do here at Hillside Orchard for the whole family. We stopped by the gem mine and panned for gems. It’s such a rush when you discover a shiny object in your pan! There’s also a barnyard for you to feed the farm animals (chickens, turkeys, donkeys Jack and Jenny, pigs, rabbits, and the cows Daisy, Ms Walker and Lady). The barn also has a vending machine so you feed the animals the proper food, and not part of your PB&J.

As always we brought our own lunch (it saves a lot of money this way!) and luckily Hillside has some beautiful Walking Trails and some picnic tables for us to use. Along the trails are corn, blackberries, and a trout stream. We got our “sweets” from the country store, and let me tell you… try the peach ice cream! The peach ice cream is a soft serve with peaches added for the best flavor ever!

After we ate we went to another small gift shop near the country store, and there they have a Sorghum Pan. What’s Sorghum you ask? I had to ask. Sorghum is a type of corn. Its grain can be made into flour or syrup, and here at Hillside Orchard they make syrup out of it! Some other places to visit on the farm is the Moonshine Still (it’s been disabled), Blacksmith Show, Burr Mill (grinds corn), Apples Grader. See what I mean that there’s plenty to do here? Don’t expect to come here for a few minutes to visit the store. Explore!

We went during Spring but during the Fall – Hillside Orchard really starts bustling with activities. Much like the Honey House they have on the premises (tours can be arranged)! They have Hay Rides, a Corn Maze (it turns haunted around Halloween!), their Fall Farm Days in the beginning of October, and they grow pumpkins and apples to sell in their country store. Sad to miss it on this round, but we’ll come back for that! We’ll also have to come back for their U-pick farm of strawberries and blackberries!

They do have a music stage for their yearly festivals which are held the third Sat in May (May 15, 2010) and the 2nd and 3rd Saturday in October they have Blue Grass and Gospel Music.

There’s one more thing, which I think is the absolute coolest. They have an Ethonol Facility! Appointments should be made to tour the facility. They use the by products of the processing plant (fruit left from making other products) to make the ethonol. The ethonol will be used to run their equipment and boilers. How self-sustaining is that?

All in all… if you plan on visiting the North Georgia mountains, make it a BIG point on your traveling schedule to stop by Hillside Orchard Farm and Country Store. Even if it’s to visit the country store., you’ll be doing yourself a big favor!

We are a traveling family. We love to get into the car on a dark early morning (leaving when it’s dark makes us feel like we’re truckers) and just have a plan of where we will stay, but not necessarily what we will do. However, this time, I had a request. I really wanted us to go to the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. I wanted to go there the last time we went on the Southern Highroads, but we didn’t have enough time. Now, we’re going to make the time.

The drive from Atlanta to Southern Highroads is always a pleasant, scenic journey and this was no exception. Driving off of old hwy 64, you turn onto Brasstown Rd at Clay’s Corner Gas station, a good stopping off point for an ice cream cone or some canned possum meat (not kidding).

Clay’s is famous for their annual New Year’s possum drop celebration. As you turn onto Brasstown Road you approach the Folk School’s campus, first driving by the hayfields and along meadows, the first turn to the left takes you to the school’s Craft Shop. The next turn just up the hill on the left is the wooded circular drive to the  Historic Keith House, where the main office is located. The school’s History Center is also here. The Folk School unfolded before my eyes!

Thanks to JCCFS for letting us use this picture!

John C. Campbell Folk School opened in 1925 thanks to Olive Dame Campbell and Marguerite Butler (along with the vision of Olive’s husband John who passed away before the vision was completed). They brought in their collective knowledge that they had obtained from traveling through Appalachia which included agricultural practices, crafts, ballads, tools, and the heartbeat of the mountain life. Along with the founders, the local people of Brasstown helped to build and develop the folk school into what it is today: a culture center of learning and living together.

We were just dropping in for the day, but we were able to explore the campus on our own and able to look into each of the classes. I found the campus to be extremely accessible and it had such a peaceful feeling. I was hoping to move in. They do have lodging available including a campground with RV sites. See? I can live in a tent right there. But my husband said something about my job, our child, washing dishes? Details. Details. Oh well, it was a nice dream for a little bit.

The classes we were able to peak into were basketry, quilting, woodcarving (they’re home to the famous Brasstown Carvers), and blacksmithing. Looking into the classes makes you want to go to their Craft Store and get some of their books to take home and try it yourself. There were many other classes going on, but our 5yr old was getting a little squirmy so we decided to take one of the Nature Trails. It’s not just any Nature Trail either, there is *plenty* to experience along the paths, and the backdrop of the mountains was breathtaking. We decided to picnic right there at Rivercane Walk rather than eating at the school’s dining room. It felt nice not keeping to a tight schedule or a tour group, but be able to meander around and take our sweet time. After we were done eating, we headed over to the History Center to learn about the school and the area and also see some of the crafts from their 85yr history.

It’s perfect for a one day visit, or even if you have a few hours to spend in the area… go to the folk school to do your souvenir shopping, learn about Appalachia culture and history, and take in nature. That’s what we all do when we’re on vacation right? Well, you can do that all here at the folk school. Plus on most Friday nights they have a concert series (which I missed) and on Saturday nights they have community dances (which I missed). So you know what that means?
We need to plan another visit!

Stumphouse Tunnel – The tunnel was a project that was planned in the 1850s to connect South Carolina to the Midwest with a direct rail line.  Unfortunately, work on the project was abandoned during the War Between the States due to the lack of funds. 1,300 feet of the tunnel is open to the public.

Issaqueena Falls – A short easy walking trail leads from Stumphouse Mountain Park to Issaqueena Falls, a beautiful 200-ft. cascade. Legend has it that the Indian maiden, Issaqueena, rode to the nearby fort to warn of a pending Indian attack and then escaped pursuing Indians by pretending to leap over the falls, but actually hiding beneath them.

Brasstown Falls – Brasstown Falls is a series of three equally dramatic cascades that drop over 120 feet: Brasstown Cascades, Brasstown Veil, and Brasstown Sluice. If you are searching for more, look for Little Brasstown Falls, a 40 foot waterfall, located just above the Brasstown Cascades!

Chattooga River – Designated the South’s first National Wild and Scenic River in 1974, the Chattooga is one of the premier whitewater rafting rivers in the Eastern United States, dropping an average of 49.3 feet per mile. Made famous in the movie “Deliverance,” the Chattooga is one of the longest and largest free flowing mountain rivers in the Southeast that remains in a relatively undeveloped condition. The Chattooga forms the boundary between South Carolina and Georgia and offers wonderful boating, fishing and rafting experiences.

The experience is absolutely wonderful. There are volunteers at each building, and they describe to you what they’re doing, how people lived in those days, and invite you to take part in activities. This year there was a blacksmith, a wookworker, home-school moms cooking over a fire, and a master storyteller.

Michelle is the one who began this 2 years ago, and with the help of the Rabun County Home Educators and Foxfire, she was able to bring Living History Days alive, and alive is truly what it is. It couldn’t be held in a better or more authentic location. The Foxfire Museum is so far up Black Rock Mountain that you can’t hear the roaring of any cars. You truly feel like you’ve time traveled and these volunteers have really made this a memorable experience. Keep Southern Highroads Trail website bookmarked on the events page to see when this event will take place again.

However, if you travel on the Southern Highroads Trail, you may see actual foxfire, but one may be talking about The Foxfire Fund. The Foxfire Fund is an educational and literary organization in Mountain City, Georgia. Less than 5 miles off Southern Highroads, up Black Rock Mountain, around a dirt road, and just when you think you’re lost.. you’re there!

Foxfire Fund produces magazines and books in order to educate and entertain people about the lives and culture of the Appalachia people. They’re not just simple “hillbillies”. It is a vast and rich culture of self-sustaining folks who have a wealth of knowledge. And this knowledge was bound together in a magazine beginning in the late 1960s, with the first production of their book in 1972.

Foxfire has produced many books since that time and has turned it into a learning experience for those in Rabun County, GA. Their learning technique has actually come into demand from other people wishing to expand on their own culture.

Due to the popularity and profitability of the Foxfire books, the Foxfire Fund (and the help of their students) were able to get land on Black Rock Mountain and clear it out to make way for the Foxfire Museum and Heritage Center. The students built the buildings you see here. Yes. Students. High school students built all of that. That’s how passionate they feel about the organization they belong to.

A little blog post like this does not give Foxfire enough credit to them though. To really experience it, you have to visit their museum. For more information about them, visit their website: The Foxfire Fund. On our trip we were lucky to coordinate it on the Living History Days, which will be in another post. Look for that soon!