Read the 2008 Fun Guide online here
Fashion Farm fun, Tri-State Blugrass Festival
Step away from the rush, to solitude at
Quiet Corner, and be serenaded
By Jody Grismore Vance
Off a country road and down a lane and into the woods – go there and you will find a tearoom. In the middle of the dining area with curving walls full of windows, under the wooden-beamed roof that reaches up toward the sky, you will find a scaled down baby grand piano. It is a rustic place with a feel of casual elegance.
This tearoom – The Quiet Corner Tea and Coffee Room – is a personal place of relaxing atmosphere that the owners – Richard and Shirley Rinker – want to share as much as it is a business. In fact, after talking with Dick Rinker, the argument can be made that it is more a labor of the heart than an economic enterprise.
Why do I begin this piece with gentle talk of mood rather than the specifics of teas and coffees available and sandwiches on homemade bread? I think I do because it is the mood of the place that is actually the chief item on the menu.
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Years and years of fun at Fashion Farm
By Jody Grismore Vance
Russ Becker makes the homemade ice cream at Fashion Farm in Ligonier.
For those of you unfamiliar with Fashion Farm, it is not a clothing mall, nor design business; it is a restaurant, an “Old Memory House,” a greenhouse, a 200-acre farm, the old Ligonier Jail…and the site of October’s Pumpkin Fantasyland. As to the name – Fashion—well, that relates to a heifer purchased in the 20’s by the founder, Charles (Charlie) Williams, Russ Becker’s father-in-law. The animal’s name was Ole Fashion…and the 200-acre farm was her farm.
For those of you unfamiliar with the old-fashioned ice cream machines, they had cranks on them and on hot summer days, family members would take turns turning that crank. Being allowed to crank was almost a rite of passage event – albeit one that was more fun anticipated than performed.
Ask Becker about his ice cream machine while miming the cranking motion, and his response is a hearty chuckle as he himself cranks the air and says, “My ice cream maker is almost to that point because it is 32 years old.”
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Family Reunion without in-laws
By Jody Grismore Vance
We know what to expect when the Apple Festival is at the fairgrounds – and we’ve had over a 100 years of experience with the Noble County fair. But twice a year since 1990—on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends – the Tri-State Bluegrass Festival pitches camp there and, well, we’re not so well versed in its protocol.
The main point is this: It can be a destination for enjoyment. Northern Indiana Bluegrass Association President Jim Winger compares it to a family reunion atmosphere, only here you don’t have to share genes or put up with in-laws – here the connection is music, playing or listening.
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