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!

Polk County TN

If you think the drive through Highlands was nice, just wait til you get to the Ocoee Country in Polk County Tennessee. Now there’s even more beautiful rock faces, scenic drives along the river, and a lot of opportunities to pull over and take pictures.

The recreation opportunities here are endless. This is also the area that the 1996 Olympics held their white water rafting in a natural river (usually they’re man-made). There’s a natural beauty about this place that we feel is largely untouched by corporate retail looks, at least not on the main Southern Highroads Trail it’s not. It’s such a peaceful drive and we’ve been fortunate every time we come through here that it’s sunny. I’m not sure how Mother Nature manages it for us every time, but we’re very thankful.

Ocoee River, TN - White Water Rafting

I would have to say that the main reason for visiting Polk County, TN would be for their water recreation. That alone is notorious and bountiful. They also have some very nice events and festivals for the whole family. There’s also a lot of back stories, legends, and their own hauntings. My favorite place though is inside of Benton, there’s a lovely B&B there called the Ocoee Mist, which will have to be a post by itself because the experience deserves a full blown post about it.

Downtown Highlands NC

We start driving early morning from Atlanta, and we always head East on the Southern Highroads Trail. I’m not sure why we do this, but this is what we’ve always done and it kind of stuck.

I know largely it has to do with being able to stop by Highlands, North Carolina on a late Saturday afternoon. Every time we seem to go it’s pretty quiet. Maybe everyone is tired from shopping or recreational, or they’re all getting ready for dinner and we’re just early birds.
Many restaurants in Highlands have received noticeable attention from magazines and even TV shows. There are playhouses, creative arts center, antique shopping, and just a wonderful area for a casual stroll through a quaint downtown area.
I feel that the waterfalls are the main attraction. They have: Cullasaja Falls, Dry Falls, Quarry Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls

We get to stay in Franklin, NC at a beautiful timber frame home and the morning drive to get back on the road is awesome. It really is one of the most beautiful scenic drives you’ll ever take. No matter what season… it’s breathtaking. The waterfalls, the cliffs, the turns, and the scenery.
We enjoy Franklin for it’s annual Gemboree Gem and Jewelry show because Franklin is “the gem capital of the world” and there’s a lot of family fun to be had in gem mining. Their downtown area is also nice to walk around in.

Scenic Drive through Franklin NC

You can stay on the Southern Highroads and land right in Highlands and Franklin, there are no extra turns you have to make. When you do drive through there, GO SLOW! There are many photo opportunities and if you’re going too fast, you’ll miss it and there’s nowhere to really turn around.

I highly suggest getting a good digital camera or video camera and mounting it to your dashboard while you drive. After you watch the footage, it does get a litte nauseating, but it’s something you will watch over and over again.

We do.

Yea. That’s where we stayed. Talk about living in the lap of luxury, and honestly, it wasn’t that expensive and it was worth every penny. Pam (owner) has thought about every single detail of this home. The only thing we really had to bring was ourselves and a change of clothes. There was even leftover food in the fridge and freezer and plenty of condiments. The kitchen was fully equipped and we didn’t have to want for anything.

We took a nice nature walk during sunset, and once nighttime came around, we sat outside on the back porch and could actually count the stars. It was beautiful, fantastic, and peaceful. In the morning we woke up to birds singing, a beautiful mountain breeze, and coffee on the back porch (it had the best view). Coffee was provided. I told you, there was very little we had to bring.

So how does this experience differ from a stay in a hotel? Well I just got back from another trip and let me just tell you the difference:
- We had to go to the front office to get more sugar, more towels, and some little shampoos.
- The people next to us really enjoyed watching a movie… LOUD
- Some guys outside our door talked until 2am.
- We were near a fire station.
- I opened our curtains and our lovely view was a guy bending over (yea, not kidding there)
- We had to go out to eat, which is nice sure, but after driving for 6 hours.. we only wanted to rest and didn’t want to have to get back into the car.

You really pay for the experience, the exclusivity of the area, and the bragging rights once you get back home. And honestly, when we returned home we didn’t have that exhausted feeling. We felt extremely refreshed. I know that has to do with Pam’s attention to detail in The Pond House.

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!

Just as you’re coming around a curve you see a beautiful field with a mound and a memorial sitting on top of it. That is the Indian Mound of Sautee-Nacoochee, often mispronounced, but the people are pleasant enough to correct you and smile and keep listening while you try again.. and get it wrong.. again (I know because it’s what happened to me). But there’s more to this area than a historic Indian Mound. The beauty of Sautee-Nacoochee is the richness and development of their culture and appreciation of the arts. There is a wonderful folk pottery and history museum, heritage sites, and the Sautee-Nacoochee Center enter that really encourages the Fine Arts in the area.

You can pick up Scenic 197 through Clarkesville, which has a historic downtown with many original 1800s buildings (more on that later) or you could just pick it up a little past Helen. We chose to pick it up off of Helen, GA. A cute Alpine village tucked to the side of a mountain. It’s a family-friendly area with a lot of wonderful shopping, restaurants, and things to do. I highly recommend staying in this area by way of cabin or quaint Inn to really get the full effect of the area.

Scenic 197 may be a beautiful scenic highway, but originally it was to run moonshine. It has twists, turns, and quaint shops, restaurants, and inns dotted through-out the entire highway. It really is a nice beginning to logging your miles onto Southern Highroads. Follow 197 all the way to the end.. and by taking a right, you can go to Mountain City, where the Foxfire Museum is or you could take a left and head over to Hiawassee.

Kind of like a You-Choose-Adventure story right? More to come on our travels.