Kirkwood Winery is a mainstay at the wine festivals around the state. They tend to have lots of fruity, sweet wines, but they also carry some others you might cook with - ramp wine or dandelion. They have apple, blush, blackberry, cherry, peach, pear, blueberry, currant, raspberry, plum, elderberry, grapple, ginseng and even more.

Kirkwood Winery is also home to the Isaiah Morgan Distillery, which is southern West Virginia's first mini-distillery that crafts rye, southern moon and grappa spirits.

I really liked the blackberry wine, the peach and the plum, too. If you like a sweeter wine, this is your place. The shop also has some other trinkets; I picked up a wine glass. Overall, a nice little stop if you find yourself in Summersville!

Tastings are free. Business hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Elkins is such a cool little town. They have a neat little arts scene, a nice brewery and some great restaurants. El Gran Sabor is an authentic Venezuelan restaurant. Elkins, West Virginia, has authentic Venezuelan food? Yep. The short version: Derdlim Masten (head chef and co-owner) came to the United States from Venezuelan to visit her cousin. She fell in love with the town, met her husband and opened the restaurant.

And we, the people of West Virginia, are so benefitting. The restaurant was pretty busy (a good sign!), so we sat outside to wait until a table was ready. I talked with some other folks who were waiting about their favorite dishes. The "cachapa" was the crowd favorite. After a 20-minute wait or so, we were seated and looked over the menu.

And there it was - the cachapa. The menu says it's their most popular dish. You can get a veggie cachapa, a surf 'n turf cachapa, a beef cachapa, a chicken cachapa, a cheese cachapa, a pork cachapa, or a ham and cheese cachapa. It comes with a choice of latin rice and black beans and choice of soup or salad.

I ordered a pork cachapa with their shrimp squash soup. At first, I wasn't super impressed with this soup. But as I tried it more, I was able to detect some more rich flavors - almost reminded me of a curry. But pretty good.

And the cachapa was excellent. It was tender, flavorful pork encased in a sweet corn pancake. The salty and sweet combo was so, so good. Plus there were two sauces - one that was like an herb dipping sauce and the other I loved but can't remember what it was (this is what happens when I'm so behind on posts; I started to forget). This was DELICIOUS, though. The beans and rice were meh, but the cachapa had a perfect balance of flavors. Plus the sauce was like the find touch to help it all come together.

Between the cool vibe and excellent food, this was one of the better restaurants I've had in quite some time. Even if it did start out with a bit of a wait.

Grade: A 

There's something really satisfying about plucking blueberries from the bush, dropping them into a gallon bucket and taking them home to make a delicious blueberry crisp or pie with the fruits of your labor (ha! get it?).



My friend Lisa and I went to Blueberry Ridge Farms for pick-your-own blueberries a week or two ago. Check in with their Facebook to see which days they are open - mostly 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. MWF, but also they try to do some Saturday hours. No appointments are necessary. It's $18 for a bucket or $17 if you use your own bucket or have the one from last year. Blueberry Ridge Farms provides detailed instructions on how to navigate to the farm in Fairmont:





 There's another farm not too far away, but you must set up an appointment.



So if you have a free evening after work or can catch them on a Saturday soon (while blueberry season lasts!), do so. It was nice to get out and pluck the blueberries for myself, choosing which ones I want and leaving the others to ripen a bit longer.

I picked a gallon and made a blueberry crisp, ate a few handfuls and froze the remainder. I washed them of (though they don't spray at this farm), dried them, put them on a piece of wax paper on a cookie sheet and froze for an hour before taking them out and bagging them up to freeze. Each morning I've been taking a handful of frozen blueberries and mixing them with some greek yogurt for breakfast.

Has anyone been? Or has anyone been to the other farm? It's a fun way to spend some time and get some goodies out of it too!