Every August, on a bright and sunny summer morning, students from across East Tennessee load up their grills and meet at the Appalachian Gray Fair in Gray, Tennessee, between Kingsport and Johnson City.

A frequent question I hear is “Can I use an electric multi-cooker, such as the Instant Pot®, for canning?” Well, the answer is simple. No. Why? Below are some of the reasons:

John 21:12 KJV:
[12] Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.
It’s the third meeting Jesus is hosting for some of his disciples after his Resurrection. Like any good host, Jesus wants everyone to be relaxed before they really get into the serious business at hand for them. So he starts his meeting with a fish fry as it were. Fish sandwiches to be exact or at least their version of a fish sandwich, which was simply bread and fish—a highly appropriate meal for a meeting with a bunch of fishermen, cooked by someone that once said, “man does not live by bread alone.” (Matthew 4:4)

The state of Tennessee is the greatest place on earth. I have not lived anywhere else so I might be a little partial but most that live here, or visit will agree it’s a pretty great place.
Tennessee has a list of things that are symbolic to the state. One of the most recognizable symbols is our state flag. The flag has the iconic three stars that represents the three parts of the state that have their own qualities due to geographical and cultural differences. Those differences come together to make a state like no other.

In the summertime, fresh from the garden, Mother would stir up a cucumber and onion salad. She never put sugar in her dish. I do. She combined vinegar, salt and water with the sliced cucumbers and onions. Mother never used sour cream in anything. We didn't have a refrigerator back in the day.

I started school eighty-six years ago. I was four years old. We lived in a tenant house on the farm owner’s land. Dad earned forty dollars a month milking cows and working in the fields. The Great Depression was well under way. Farm work was the only job Dad could find. He had worked previously as a lineman, setting poles and stringing telephone wire. Most country people didn’t have phones until them.

I was at the tender age of 16 when I received the message. It wasn’t a text since we didn’t have smartphones back in the ’80s. And no, it wasn’t a note somebody slipped to me during class. This one came from a higher source.

With autumn comes the nostalgia of the apple harvest, a fruit whose history goes back a long way. Legend and art have made the Tree of Knowledge that led to the downfall of Adam and Eve an apple, but the Bible only refers to a fruit. What follows is more apple knowledge of this famous fruit than you probably care to know.
Apples were first brought to America from England in 1629 by Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop. The first apples probably came from the trees Winthrop planted in Boston, from which “ten fair pippins” (apples) were picked in 1639.

Country Connections by James and Ellen Perry
It’s early autumn now, nights getting cooler, days getting shorter with cool mornings and warm afternoons. Some trees are showing color and goldenrods are bright yellow with flowers.
Goldenrods are the last honey flow for the bees before winter sets in. The reptiles are searching for underground places to overwinter in. Black bears and groundhogs are hunting food to build fat reserves for their upcoming hibernation.

After helping my mother put up our humble, four-foot artificial Christmas for a few years, the responsibility was turned over to me. I’m not sure Mother was ever really fond of putting up a Christmas tree. I had an unspoken rule that the tree was to be put up two weeks before Christmas and taken down the day after.