Belmont Farm Distillery & Pink Chintz

Well it must be some kind of Great Pumpkin Halloween miracle, because here I am writing my first blog post in over a year! Don’t worry, you really haven’t missed much since I posted last. Ha! Eventually we will do some catching up – there’s a handful of pictures and posts that I never got around to and would still love to share!

Last Saturday, we had a wonderful day hanging out with my in-laws. They invited us to go with them to check out Belmont Farm Distillery, where there was going to be a band and some vendors (I’m always interested in going to any kind of craft fair to browse, let’s be honest!). And we invited them back to our house afterwards for homemade chicken soup. We put the soup on simmer, they picked us up, and we headed onto country scenic roads, which I never get tired of!

We turned onto a long gravel road, corn stalks to our left. Down the road we went until we got to the distillery, which none of us knew anything about!

We parked in a fenced in field, their make-shift parking lot for the event, right in front of the farm house. I must be a country girl at heart because those green open fields had my heart going all pitter patter!

Around the farm house we went, to another fenced in field where the vendors were. David got some bbq right away, while my mother-in-law and I perused the goods.

At some point, we lost our men. They were somewhere over at the distillery but we didn’t quite know where. We opened the doors to the shop of the distillery and there they were, grinning away with a plate full of whiskey samples!

As I was peering around, taking in this little place (their moonshine museum), right after I snapped the above picture, one of the employees said I had to get a picture with this cardboard cutout guy. I sensed saying “no thank you” was out of question and she handed me the cardboard, directing me where to place it. Here’s the result:

A tour had started of the distillery, which the guys had already taken, but they urged us to go in and check it out. I had never seen a distillery up close and personal and thought it would be pretty interesting!

About six of us piled into this room with large tanks filled with whiskey, (legal) moonshine, and something about corn, which they get right from their farm. I learned that you have to take off the top layer of moonshine because it’s poisonous. I also learned that the distillery is part of a show on the Discovery channel called Moonshiners! We had no idea! And how I found out, do you wonder? I took the above picture and the nice guy giving the tour called me out and said I could take pictures but not video because Discovery owns the rights and Chuck, the owner of the distillery, could get in trouble. Note taken! We don’t want anyone getting in trouble!

We also learned that they use the oldest operating copper pot in America!

This is where they bottle and package everything. All the equipment is old fashioned, which is how they like it!

Country singer, Loretta Lynn, requested a moonshine blend from them, which they sell in their shop!

We saw how they store their whiskey. I learned how they empty and fill the barrels through a part of the barrel called a “bung hole”. Oh, the things you never thought you’d learn or need to know!

This was the end of the tour, and we walked out on the other end of the distillery, where I saw the cutest vintage stove being used as decor!

After we got back to our house, the soup was halfway done, simmering away on the stove. We set our little kitchen table by the coffee bar with beautiful bowls in the Pink Chintz pattern by Johnson Brothers.

After dinner, my mother-in-law and I went to go have a little fun and bought some lottery rickets (unfortunately, no winners here, folks!). It was her first ever lottery ticket purchase and I decided I had to document it!