DAY TRIP TO SILOAM VINTAGE & DOBSON PRODUCE (Cheri)

I wanted an orange cherry tomato plant.

It was always easy to get Sungold tomato plants in the Monterey area.

Last year we bought some from a 90-something year-old lady who grows them from seed and sells the plants to benefit her church.  We thought we would do that again, but she chose different varieties this year, so I was still on the lookout for that particular type of plant.

Someone told me that they were available in Dobson, about 45 miles from here.  I didn't want to do what was on my list for yesterday anyway, so we we dropped our plans and hit the road!

Dobson Produce carries all types of "real" fruits and veggies - stuff that doesn't look like it was grown on large farms - as well as plants and other things that you need if you want to grow your own.

I was intrigued by the variety of dried beans that were available.  Check out the names:

There were also many hyper-local foods and items that are specific to Southern tastes:

(The pickled quail eggs are spiced with jalapenos.)

After we finished buying a bunch of super-fresh tomatoes, some Amish candy, and other items, we started heading home on a different route because I wanted to get some pictures for another blog post that I've been developing in my head.

That post - which I will put up next - will be about the history of Siloam, North Carolina.   It will be really interesting, much more than this bit about our ramble . . . but we had fun yesterday, so I'm sharing this first!

Siloam is now little more than an intersection of two small roads, on a railroad line and by the Yadkin River:

To the right of this picture is the building that you saw at the top of this page.

The first time we saw the building, it appeared to be unused.  The second time was during the annual "Siloam 7-Mile Sale," about which we blogged a couple of years ago.

I didn't expect it to be open yesterday, but we lucked out!  This is the interior of the right side of the building:

I believe one side was a grocery originally, and the other possibly a mill?  There is no electricity, so you are dependent upon light coming from the doorway.

Listening to the conversations between the locals while I was poking around, it seems that the owner opens the buildings to sell the belongings of various neighbors as they pass on.

Here are closeups of the patches used on the floor:

I missed my mother when I saw this:

It was her Sabbath china pattern.  I texted my sister the picture and asked her if she recognized it and she said "Oh yes, the turkey would have been on that!"

There were some interesting books:

This one appeared at first glance to be about a well-intentioned group that developed into a religious cult:

I'll have to look more it.  I see online that there is some connection between the group's founder and the institution of Habitat for Humanity.  I may have misjudged.

Anyway, there was also this fun jigsaw puzzle:

I bought it for $2.  The pieces themselves are actually still bright, so I guess we will put it together before passing it on.

While I was shopping, Mark was mostly taking pictures of nearby structures.  Here's a nearby building and its surprisingly-bright and refined interior: