Weekends of Wow | Half-Mile Farm

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: 2021/12 – December

So here is a shout-out to the creative team at Half-Mile Farm by Old Edwards.  Just in time to escape the winter doldrums, they are hosting two true sensory experiences – joyful escapades through the culinary landscape.  

The weekend of January 21–23, Cheese Biscuit Queen Mary Greene is on property, demonstrating and talking about the traditional flavors of her Southern heritage as handed down from her family’s history. 

Attendees are sure to see a genial, warm, and engaging Greene doing her thing – demonstrating the art of making cheese biscuits and chatting by the fireside on Saturday. On weekend evenings, accompanied by complimentary hors d’oeuvres, live music, and craft cocktails, she will dish about folks she met along the way of a political journey – in which food was her medium to connect.  

Greene will relate how she forged her path by feeding as a way to win friends and influence people in her lobbying and business careers. Likely she will share political anecdotes from her book The Cheese Biscuit Queen Tells All, about the famous – Hilary Clinton, Walter Mondale, Governor Mark Sanford among them – and the lesser-known.  

With her legendary lack of pretense and a knack for keeping the conversation fresh and lively, Greene has nailed the formula for an invigorating weekend of discovery and laughter.

Sara Scarborough, founder of Tea Huntress in Nashville, will take the stage the weekend of February 18-20, sharing how tea’s ancient art and rituals can feed both your body and soul while connecting you to nature in profound ways. 

Since 2001, Scarborough has been connecting tea lovers with tea growers to improve the lives of both. 

This “Mistress of Tea” will relate her incredible journey during social hour on  on Friday and Saturday evenings. Born to an American father and Finnish mother, she grew up in both countries and developed a love of nature that took her to studies in sustainable agriculture.  After college, she founded her first tea company – in New Zealand – and eventually returned to the U.S., spending time in Montana and California, working as a buyer, and traveling the world to identify the best teas.  

That experience led to the creation of her company, Firepot Nomadic Teas – beautifully packaged, caffeine-free, and hippie-dippy in a delightfully health-minded way.  

Even if tea isn’t your thing, Tea Huntress is likely to make it so.  You’ll learn about tea’s medicinal properties as an aid in meditation and relaxation and learn to buy the right tea wares for your practice. 

“There is much confusion around tea — what type to choose, how to steep, which teaware to use,” she says. “It is my greatest pleasure to demystify tea.”