My paternal grandmother was by all accounts a saintly woman. During her life she raised or partially raised twenty children—six from her husband’s previous marriage, six from her own marriage, and eight from my father’s first marriage. I was told that she was at one time staying with a family member in Knoxville who lived in a shotgun house. For the less enlightened, a shotgun house was narrow and had a door in front and a door in back, arranged so that a bullet fired from a shotgun could go in the front door and out the back without hitting anything.

Small potatoes are the first ones from the garden in the summertime. You can also find them at the Farmer's Market if you don't have a garden.

Back in my mom’s day folks only had access to a few flavored drinks, like milk, coffee, and water. To make things more interesting, they would seek and use native plants that provided a nice change of taste. The more common ones used were sassafras tea, teaberry, spicebush, and my topic today, Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum spp.). It’s easy to find along roadsides and woodland edges and makes a pretty tasty mint tea that also has medicinal value.

In the June 26th meeting the Union County County Commission funded all budgets and set the tax rate at 1.8999. The EMS increases, the solid waste contract, the general fund, and the building of a new middle school were all in the tax levy for FY 24. The compromise took at least 8 votes. Votes were taken on proposals that spanned from 1.8990 to 1,9310. The vote was never tied so Mayor Bailey was not able to vote.

July is here and that means it is Tennessee Beef Month and National Grilling Month – a match made in heaven and it sounds like it’s time for a celebration at the Union County Farmers Market! Please take a moment this month to appreciate the hard work of our beef farmers and savor the flavors they bring to our tables.

I had an older cousin while growing up who did some of the coolest things. For instance, every summer he would catch June Bugs. He would tie a string around them and hold on to the other end. When he opened his hand, the June Bugs would take off and fly around him in a circle. I remember them making a loud buzzing noise. Then my cousin would untie the bugs and let them go. The bugs were never injured. Maybe a little inconvenienced if you can do that to a bug.

The word “chiropractic” comes from the greek words cheir (hand) and praxis (practice), which aptly describes this treatment approach. Chiropractic therapy (or chiropractic care) is a type of manual or hands-on therapy performed by a licensed chiropractor (doctor of chiropractic, or DC) to improve musculoskeletal health.

Chiropractic therapy focuses on treating disorders of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems. It’s most often used to treat various types of pain.

I remember in the early grades of elementary school our teachers let us watch educational programs on black-and-white television. These were broadcast on WSJK-TV, Sneedville, Tennessee, an affiliate of PBS, the Public Broadcast(ing) System.

Here is an easy cookie recipe. You need cookies today? No need to heat up the oven and won't take long to do either.

Solar power normally conjures up visuals of black panels that capture the sun’s energy to power a home or outdoor device. The truth is that almost every energy source we use began with solar power.

Humans and the animal kingdom in general eat food for energy. You may choose to get that energy by eating say a T-bone steak with a side salad. The steak came from a mammal that got its energy from grass, which got its energy from the sun through the miracle of photosynthesis. Same goes for the salad.