Country Drawl

This post is long overdue. A while back, Cory's sister Lindsey (who you first read about here) was kind enough to invite me on her company's retreat. I had no idea what I was getting into, but I happily said yes anyway. Little did I know what an AMAZING experience we were in for.


Welcome to Blackberry Farm. As in Knoxville. As in Tennessee. I'd never been to the land of the Smoky Mountains before, but the trip from start to end was tremendous. Blackberry Farm is a working farm-turned-chic-hotel. Guests there are treated to an outdoorsy retreat that ensures no actual "roughing it" occurs.

Here's Lindsey and I riding the party bus to the farm. We look excited, don't we?


Once at BF, we checked into our room. The place is divided into small home-like buildings. Each "home" has a living room when you walk in. It looked very woodsy.

The rooms were very cute. Each one is decorated differently with plenty of antiques and quaint details.

Food was a major focus here. Blackberry Farms grows all their own food and everything you eat, from the cheese to the honey to the sausage, is made on site. One fun spot to eat at here is the old red barn, an Amish construction the company shipped over piece by piece. On the outside it looks like a real working barn, but the inside looks like an upscale restaurant.


Over the course of the weekend we participated in lots of fun activities, including a trip to the farm's spa (that's a funny sentence) and a sunrise horse riding tour. You may remember I'm something of a novice horseback rider (read that post here) and the guide recognized this immediately. I was given the horse described as "so docile a child can ride him." Unfortunately, I was busy holding on for dear life, so there are no pics of the ride. But it was good fun.

Lindsey and I also participated in a wine tasting and a scotch tasting. Not at the same time. We discovered we like wine and don't like scotch. All very informative.


It was an incredible weekend and I was so lucky that Lindsey brought me. Had she not, I may have never discovered my inner cowgirl. Here's a link to the Blackberry Farm's site for those who want more info: http://www.blackberryfarm.com/

And here are some gratuitous shots courtesy of Lindsey T:









Psst. If you keep up with the horse racing sheets, which I know you do, you know Erica from America The Horse ran last Sunday. I'm pleased to announce she came in second. This is a big improvement over her prior race, when she actually went backward for a moment. I hope that's not meant to be symbolic. Read more about her meteoric climb to fame here.