Bears and Farmers

Saturday morning arrived sunny and a little cooler; or, maybe we're getting a bit acclimated. We had breakfast at the B&B and the kids picked us up a little before noon for a trip to New Bern. (I had heard them saying the name for a year, but I always pictured Neuburn or something like that in my mind.)

Eastern Carolina has extensive tidelands back behind the Outer Banks, and New Bern is the closest on-the-water town to Greenville, about an hour away. Today was the 2015 New Bern ride for MS, so we saw several packs of cyclists on the highway. As soon as we got into town, there was a 10-minute torrential downpour. I just can't imagine riding my bike through that.

I know that Bern has something to do with bears, and they don't let you forget it. Here is the City Hall with a patriotic bear out front and bears escaping from the pediment above each of the entrances. Around town, you can meet more bears on almost every corner. (Greenville does the same thing with pirates.)

As soon as it stopped raining, we had a nice lunch and then went looking for what we had apparently come to New Bern for: the Flea Market.

Kathy and the kids spent quite a bit of time "antiquing", but I don't think anyone bought anything. Hosanna looked an anvils (which she wanted for her work, but all of the tools were restored for, essentially, decorative purposes.

Later that evening, though, Patrick expressed some regret that he didn't pick up this hat.

Back home, we don't have cable TV; several years ago for Christmas we hired someone to put up an antennae on the top of our house, so we watch the local broadcast stations and the two PBS stations we can get from Newport Beach: KCLS and KOCE. Since Hosanna moved back to North Carolina, one of the shows we enjoy is "A Chef's Life", the story of Vivian Howard and her husband, successful chefs in NYC, who were lured back to Kinston, NC, a town about 50 miles from Greenville, with her parent's offer to help them start their own restaurant. It's a sweet and addictive show. (No artificial battle of the chefs, or anything like that.)

Since we were so close, we offered to take the kids. Patrick, who is very interested in cooking, tells me he has never seen the show, but that Vivian and her Chef and the Farmer restaurant are famous in the area. Patrick had called in to get reservations when he first knew that we were coming.

The food was definitely different and delicious. We ordered several "share plates" (essentially tapas) and then a few entree's which we ate family style. For the sharing plates we had peaches wrapped in bacon, cheesy grits with shrimp and andoulie sausage and a pizza that included pickled peppers.

Since Kathy and I had watched the "Butterbean" episode a couple of times, we wanted to get something with butter beans (a baby Lima bean). We got pork shoulder with butter beans and a faro ragout, as well as the famous tomato pie, with grilled vegetables. All of us agreed each dish was absolutely delicious.

After dinner, we had home-made butter-pecan ice cream, with candied pecan pieces and a sweet-potato, caramel reduction, along with coffee.

We got finished with dinner about 9:00 pm and headed back home. Tomorrow is Sunday, and we're going to meet the kids for church. I'll be back. Thank you for bearing with me!