Farm Fresh North Carolina uncovers farm-to-fork gems

Farm Fresh North Carolina, the new guide to farms, restaurants, festivals, lodging, and more has earned a place in my glove compartment. For folks interested in sustainable living or Slow Food, it's an even better travel companion than the Road Food series.

Diane Daniel writes that while researching the book she:

kissed a llama, patted a giant hog, picked all types of berries, took a hayride out to a pumpkin patch, sipped on merlot while overlooking the grapevines, shopped at dozens of farmers' markets, watched sorghum being made, ...

and much more. She invites you to go beyond the Top 40 tourist experiences to find delights that are specific to our region. Memories of vacations spent at outlet malls can become a blur, but I bet you and your kids will remember walking an alpaca at Twelve Acre Academy or seeing the biggest birds on Earth at the BirdBrain Ostrich Ranch, birds that rancher Pat Roberts compares to dinosaurs.

You don't have to be a tourist or a kid to love Farm Fresh North Carolina. Diane shows the sustainable aspect to unexpected businesses. I visit Asheville often, but had never stopped by the French Broad Chocolate Lounge until I read this:

While cacao cannot be locally sourced, what a chocolatier puts inside a candy can be.... Their heavenly truffles are made with fruits, berries, honey, and eggs from area farms, along with herbs from their backyard garden.

The introduction to the Chocolate Lounge's liquid truffles was well worth the price of the book! I also enjoyed an upscale locavore lunch at Table. Farm Fresh recommends many of my old favorites, too: Early Girl Eatery, Mamacita's, and The Green Sage.

Farm Fresh North Carolina is even more useful on unfamiliar turf. It saved me from dinner at Taco Bell in rural North Carolina near Charlotte. I never would have left the main highway to go to tiny Spindale, home of the sophisticated and scrumptious M² Restaurant.

But the book provides new perspective even in familiar territory. I never would have splurged on a birthday dinner at Herons without Diane's encouragement and without meeting Chef Scott Crawford and two of the farmers who supply his super-fresh, super-local ingredients at her book event at Quail Ridge Books. That's locavore food with the art and innuendo of a Christopher Nolan film. Farm Fresh doesn't always mean down home.

Treat yourself to Farm Fresh North Carolina if you plan to spend any time in North Carolina and get a copy for any grads, newcomers, or old-timers who might do the same. They're sure to find new delights, whether looking for mushrooms or Christmas trees, four-star restaurants or farm stands.