Port Kydd, 1929. Joshua Rivers, his pregnant wife Lily, his criminal sister Olive, a geriatric dog Orla, and a cast of ne'er-do-wells eke out life in The Swill, a speakeasy passed down through the Rivers family. Outside, political and race wars rage in The Bonny, the rough Irish neighborhood where they have always lived. But when Olive's in trouble and asks her brother to help her pull a job--one with roots that reach way back into the Rivers family history--who will take the fall? Can The Swill shelter the family, as it always has, or is their luck gone for good? Michael Keenan Gutierrez is the author of The Trench Angel and earned degrees from UCLA, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of New Hampshire. His work has been published in The Guardian, The Delmarva Review, Contrary, The Collagist, Scarab, The Pisgah Review, Untoward, The Boiler, and Public Books. His screenplay, The Granite State, was a finalist at the Austin Film Festival and he has received fellowships from The University of Houston and the New York Public Library. He lives with his wife and son in Chapel Hill where he teaches writing at the University of North Carolina. Daniel Wallace is the author of six novels, including Extraordinary Adventures, 2017, and Big Fish, his first, which was adapted into a film and a Broadway musical, and translated into twenty-five languages. He’s published two children’s books, dozens of short stories and essays, and is an illustrator whose drawings have appeared in books, newspapers and magazines all over the world. His seventh book, This Isn’t Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew, will be published by Algonquin Books in April, 2023.

2022 FALL FESTIVAL This year our farm will be open to the public every weekend beginning Saturday, September 24 through Sunday, October 30. We will also be holding our Home Teacher Work Day/ Home Schooler Day Oct 14 (more information below). Our hours are: Saturdays 10 am to 6 pm Sundays 1 pm to 6 pm We suggest you plan on at least two and a half to three hours to experience all the farm has to offer. Last admission is always 1 hour before we close, last hayride is always 30 minutes before we close, so come early to enjoy all the fun!

Gardeners across the nation are seeing clear signs of trouble in their home gardens, no matter the size—like many aspects of life on our warming planet, gardening practices need updates. In the Southeast, gardeners are under pressure to deal with increasing weather extremes, shifting hardiness zones, and seasonal unpredictability. Such environmental conditions are increasingly tough on plants as well as insects, pollinators, birds, and mammals. In this lively and heartening guide, Barbara J. Sullivan offers an essential, easy-to-use resource for adapting to the new realities of climate change. This book will empower southerners to grow beautiful gardens while using gardening practices that contribute to solutions for our shared environment. Barbara J. Sullivan, author of Garden Perennials for the Coastal South, lives and gardens in Wilmington, North Carolina. UNC Press executive editor Elaine Maisner retired in April 2022 after 35 years in publishing, including the past 28 years at UNC Press, where she established award-winning lists in the areas of religious studies, Latin American and Caribbean studies, and food studies.

We are now open every Wednesday night and will feature live music each week from 6-9pm. Reservations highly recommended. See schedule below and check back for new bands to be added weekly! 9/28- Dave Quick 10/5- Tony Galliani Jazz Quartet 10/12- Kris Whitenack trio 11/2- Oakboro 11/9- Dave Quick 11/16- Lauren Meehan Band 11/23- Kris Whitenack trio

Jocelyn, Jodie, Jennifer, Jacqui, Joelle. Ignoring the optimistic advice of elders, these five working-class teens in the Rust Belt band together in their embrace of bad behavior and poor taste as they navigate sexuality and identity with loud-mouthed joy and clear-eyed cynicism. Winner of the 2021 Blue Light Books Prize, Rochelle Hurt's The J Girls: A Reality Show is a tribute to the grit and glitter of millennial girlhood and a testament to its dangers and traumas. Hurt's creative, genre-bending mix of poetry, fiction, and screenplay brings the girls to life with campy performances of monologues, soap opera clips, mock interviews, talk shows, commercials, and even burlesque. Vulgar, rhapsodic language serves as costume and shield, allowing the J Girls to script their own images and project glowing, outsized versions of themselves into the safe space of the TV screen. Playful and poignant, The J Girls is a flashy ode to performance and a nostalgic elegy for adolescent friendships. Rochelle Hurt is a poet and essayist. Her other books include In Which I Play the Runaway, which won the Barrow Street Book Prize, and The Rusted City: A Novel in Poems. Her work has been included in Poetry magazine and the Best New Poets anthology series, and she's been awarded prizes and fellowships from Poetry International, Arts & Letters, Vermont Studio Center, Jentel, and Yaddo. Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, she now lives in Orlando and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida. Leslie Wheeler is the author of the Poetry’s Possible Worlds, a memoir exploring the restorative power of poetry during a time of crisis. Her other books include the novel Unbecoming and five books of poetry, most recently The State She’s In. Her poems and essays appear in such journals as Poetry, Poets & Writers, American […]

Look for the Bazzar Night Market at The Plant, brought to you by Reclamation Vintage! Food Trucks, Beverages, Music, Vintage Vendors, Local Artisan Vendors, Music and much more!

**STORM UPDATE!** We may get a few inches of rain and heavy.wind. If so, we will be here, and open - pots and checkout in the big barn. But, PLEASE USE CAUTION DRIVING, wear your boots, and bring your umbrella! **** Ready for some bargains? Great pottery, all sizes and shapes at great prices. ONE DAY ONLY! Saturday, October 1st, 2022, 10am-5pm. Come find some treasures for yourself or for the perfect gift. Handmade, wood-fired pots made right here at the pottery by Mark Hewitt and his intern, Dalton Hughes Vases, tumblers, mugs, pitchers, plates and bowls and jars - a wide variety all marked down for one day only, and a tent of minor seconds (less than perfect pots.) Our open air barn/showroom makes for easy social distancing. A few of Mark’s signature ‘Big Pots’ will be on sale as well. Come enjoy a day in the country, bargains and all! Bring the family ~ we have swings! ~ Mark and Carol Hewitt

Kick off autumn with Calico Studio! Join us for artisan jewelry, gourmet specialty foods, one-of-a-kind home accessories, glass, wood, ceramics, and much more! Come for the vendors, but stay for the music and food! This fall we have some favorites onstage; including Rhonda Robichaux & Meaux, Fallow Ground, Leah Magner, and Reese McHenry. Join us in welcoming Thick as Thieves, and keep your fingers crossed for the return of the Carrboro High School Jazz Ensemble. And FOOD TRUCKS! Come out and enjoy the delectable delights of The Latin Effect's tacos, taquitos, enchiladas and Blu Tee Spoon's vegan burgers and comfort food! It's going to be our best Makers Market so far! 1141 Smith Level Road.

Nothing Like A Puffin celebrates the puffin, a truly amazing creature, which is completely unique and one-of-a kind. A ladder is nothing like a puffin. A house is nothing like a puffin. A newspaper is nothing like a puffin. . . . But wait! Who would have guessed? Could these things be more alike than you think? Young children will love following this mischievous puffin in an entertaining exercise in creative classification— and are guaranteed to start looking at everyday things in a whole new way. In The Stars Just Up the Street, illustrated by Christine Davenier, a grandpa’s memories of brilliant night skies inspire a little girl to take action in a tale for budding community organizers and star lovers alike. Sue's forthcoming picture book The Moon Moved In, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez (illustrator of the award-winning Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away, written by Meg Medina), will be published by Chronicle Books in 2023. Sue Soltis is the author of the picture books Nothing Like a Puffin, illustrated by Bob Kolar, and The Stars Just Up the Street, illustrated by Christine Davenier (both from Candlewick Press). Ever since she started writing poems in a Snoopy notebook at age 12, she’s been hooked on writing! She lives with her family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she’s trying to help all the little invertebrates in the yard by planting native plants, hosting mason bees, and composting—a subject found in her next picture book The Moon Moved In (forthcoming, 2023, Chronicle Books, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez)

Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes. From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide. But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board… Mur Lafferty is an author, podcaster, and editor. She has been nominated for many awards and even won a few. She lives in Durham, NC with her family.

We are now open every Wednesday night and will feature live music each week from 6-9pm. Reservations highly recommended. See schedule below and check back for new bands to be added weekly! 10/5- Tony Galliani Jazz Quartet 10/12- Kris Whitenack trio 11/2- Oakboro 11/9- Dave Quick 11/16- Lauren Meehan Band 11/23- Kris Whitenack trio

A lyrical and evocative collection of personal stories from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun, in which the queen of wanderlust reflects on the comforts of home. While Frances Mayes is known for her travels, she has always sought a sense of home wherever she goes. In this poetic testament to the power of place in our lives, Mayes reflects on "home," from the earliest imprint of four walls to the startling discoveries of feeling the strange ease of homes abroad, friends’ homes, and even momentary homes that spark desires for other lives. Her musings are all the more poignant after so many have spent their long pandemic months at home. From her travels across Italy—Tuscany, of course, to Venice and Capri—to the American South, France, and Mexico, Mayes examines the connective tissue among them through the homes she's inhabited. A Place in the World explores Mayes’s passion and obsessions with houses and the things that inhabit them—old books, rich food, beloved friends, transportive art. The indelible marks each refuge left on her and how each home influenced the next are the foundations of each chapter. Written in Mayes's signature intimate style, A Place in the World captures the adventure of moving on while seeking comfort in the cornerstone closest to all of us—home. Frances Mayes is the author of the now-classic Under the Tuscan Sun, which was a New York Times bestseller for more than two and a half years and became a Touchstone movie starring Diane Lane. Other international bestsellers include: Bella Tuscany, Every Day in Tuscany, A Year in the World. She is also the author of two novels, Swan and Women in Sunlight, three illustrated books, six books of poetry, and The Discovery of Poetry. Her books have been translated […]