Mabry Mills and vineyards

This past weekend I hired a car and managed to get out a bit. Friday night (when I picked up the car) involved a trip to Walmart. Not very exciting but I did find pumpkin flavored marshmallows! They actually taste like ginger bread to me but still good! I also got some bits for Thanksgiving. And takeout from Red Robin.

Most exciting Walmart find!

On Saturday, after brunch with Cait and a trip to Bollos (for treats) and Home depot (window insulation - not very exciting but my bank account will thank me later),  I headed to the south section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have been wanting to go for Mabry Mill for a while, apparently the most photograph place in Virginia for a while. Though my photographs don't look like any I have seen. It has been a little chilly recent!

Mabry Mill and frozen pond

Really big Icicles. 

And I mean huge!

All over the place.

A small broken off section, with my bag for scaling purposes.

I want to go back when it is open. (There weren't many people there but I was not the only one very sad when the restaurant and bathrooms weren't open.) In the summer that have demonstrations and activities on. And I had been planning on the hot chocolate. :-(

Cart

Mill pond.

More ice

I loved the wheel and icicles though.

It's been very cold.

And had a lot of fun watching the ducks ice skating.

Much sliding involved (though annoyingly more graceful than me on ice!)

The mill

After the mill, I attempted to get to a winery I have been wanting to visit for a while. But my GPS said not happening. Maybe next time. I ended up at Chateau Morissette. This is the local wine you find in the supermarket. And not very good. Still the tasting room was pretty.

Chateau Morissette

Inside.

I ended up with some sweet wines, including a ice wine which were ok and pretty cheap (VA wines are usually seriously overpriced). And I got some final christmas presents so not a bad stop. After the vineyard I went to a Meade winery. It was an interesting trip. (Alongside "find fastest route" on my GPS, I want a setting saying "Route I am most likely to live through". Currently we disagree on what route that is!) I also spent most of that trip wishing for a bring orange car as it was as hunting area.

I was a bit nervous when I got there and it looked like someones house. Thankfully there were other people there doing a tasting so I figured I was in the right place and my GPS hadn't sent me to the middle of nowhere. (Seriously around some of these places you have to be careful. They will come out with a shotgun if the think you are trespassing.)

The Meade winery

Different Meades

Meade is a honey wine and I didn't realize there were so many different types. (Honestly I went there hoping they were selling the honey too. But it seemed rude not to try them as I was there!) I got 2 different ones, a pumpkin spice Meade and a raspberry Meade.
I just managed to get to my last stop before they shut (and 2 other groups had the same last minute idea) at Foggy Ridge Cider.

Outside

Inside

Tasting options

This was the first good cider I have had in a while. (Most of the cider here is apple juice - I have been disappointed here more than once.) I got a few plus the one on the end in the photo above, an apple brandy. very tasty.

I ended up sitting outside for a while before driving home for obvious reasons!

On the evening, it was work and takeout. (Most places here don't deliver, assuming everyone has their own car so I took advantage and got thai from my favorite place.) And some more wine, of course. :-)

Cyder Farm!

On Wednesday, we went to Healey's Cyder Farm near Newquay. We took the tour which shows us around the brewery part and the museum which showed the history of making cider. The apples used to be put in a stone basin and a donkey would walk around, pulling a stone wheel to mash the apples. Some would spill out and the cider makers would just shovel it up and pput it back in. (Remember the donkey is walking around etc.) Nice. Apparentely the droppings made the cider brew quicker so they even went to the point of nailing pieces of meat around the area to acttract mice and rate etc. Lovely! However, in that time, the cider was still safer to drink than the water. Which is where the saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" comes from. Now why did no one tell me the apple was in the cider form? :-)

Their motto!

Some of the ciders are stored in old whiskey or rum barrels in the cellors to create the reserve ciders. They are brewed whiskey there a few years ago, the first time in 300 yrs that whiskey has been brewed in Cornwall. They auctions the bottles of. The first bottle sold for over £2000! The rest went for £150 a bottle.
We also got a tractor tour around the orchards. The orchards were lovely and the blue bells are out along the road. And they have my apples!

Ready for Katy apple cider

After that, we went back to the shop and got a free cyder tasting. We tried about 10 different ciders, from scrumpy and the normal oak barrel matured cider, to the Rattler cider (the latest production from Healey's and very nice), the the reserves which were amazing, especially the ones form the whiskey barrels. They also make some fruit wines which were nice but not the best wine I have tasted. I wanted to try the apple brandy but they were way too expensive. (Maybe next time.) We got some of the reserve ciders, some apple juice and some of the jams they also make there. I didn't take any photos as I was too busy sampling! :-)

On the site there were also some farm animals. Storm the horse is a shire horse and was born on a stormy morning. (His brother Sunny was born on, you guessed it, a sunny morning!) And Storm was definitely a male horse. The phrase "hung like a horse" took on a whole new meaning!!! :-) (Mom wouldn't let me take a photo.)

After the cider farm, we went into Truro and I had all my hair cut off! It wasn't the cider talking, just time. And it was annoying me. :-)