Back in the 1950's, when I worked for Agricultural Extension
Service, I took a course in Agricultural Journalism that introduced me to
feature writing and the idea of cultivating serendipity. For those of you who don't know the story
behind that word, "serendipity" is based on the adventures of the
three Princes of Serendip. During their travels, they developed a facility for
discovering, by chance, or by sagacity, valuable things and ideas for which
they weren't really searching. Although they may have been searching for
something else, when they stumbled across something worthwhile, they always
recognized it. Serendipity often happens to me when I'm wandering around in
adjoining states, looking for one thing and finding another.
Last week, we traveled to Roswell, Georgia looking for the
elusive pitcher plant for a book of poetry about plants that I'm writing and
for which my friend, Victoria Sullivan, is taking photographs of plants. We had
read that the pitcher plant was alive and doing well in the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell, so we set out for this town north of Atlanta to find a
plant that grows in wetland areas and that we more often find thriving along the Gulf coast.
The Chattahoochee Nature Center began its activities in the 1970's,
and during the past five years, the Center has partnered with other
organizations in the rescue, propagation, and re-introduction of threatened and
endangered native plants. The 127 acres of native plants and gardens also include
50 species of injured, non-releasable wildlife.
We arrived at the Center an hour before it opened and sat on dew-damp
benches beside the entrance, enjoying the sight of skippers having breakfast in
the Joe Pye Weed nearby and hoping the summer humidity of Georgia wouldn't
spoil our walk along the Wetland Trail to find the Pitcher Plant. The garden on
this trail represents five types of wetlands in Georgia that stretch from the
Blue Ridge Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.
At 10 sharp, we joined a groundswell of children entering the
headquarters of the Center, and ten minutes later, we had begun to wander the
Wetlands Trail. We hadn't walked far before we spotted the plant that also grows
in boggy areas of the Gulf Coast states. Although the Pitcher Plant seemed to
be asleep in a sun that was climbing higher by the moment, Vickie took some
wonderful shots of the colorful, funnel-shaped leaves with the reddish veins
that attract and trap visiting insects. I told my botanist friend that the
pitchers resembled peppermint candy, and she informed me that the plants probably
looked that way to insects and that the nectar was the attraction. These leaves
become the insects' downfall as they slip and fall into the liquid within that
is laced with digestive enzymes. Downward pointing hairs prevent the insects
from escaping up the slippery walls inside the attractive pitcher.
We walked several other trails that included the Watershed Trail
where animals make their homes and the Forest Trail through upland oak-hickory
woods before we returned to the air-conditioned Nature Center to purchase a
souvenir shirt and another book to add to a burgeoning plants library.
Lunchtime brought us to the point of serendipity. In a small
mall, we located a cafe within Roswell Farmers Market that we had discovered
on YELP. Inside, we approached a woman with a kerchief around her hair and
announced to her that we were ravenously hungry. It was only 11:30 a.m., but we
had worked up an appetite during the walk on the Center's trails. She looked
surprised but promised us lunch within fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes later, Vickie
was devouring a special shrimp dish and a salad. Because I'm allergic to
shellfish, the owner and chef, Shannon Gowland, had (spontaneously) created a
dish for me that contained ground grass-fed beef, tiny cubed sweet potatoes,
purple top turnip roots, and Tioga beets, accompanied by mashed gold potatoes
mixed with raw milk cheddar. The salad contained mixed greens, shredded zucchini,
celery, and pumpkin seed, topped with a soy vinegar dressing that was the
chef's specialty and which she offered to bottle for us.
The authentic Serendip was the chef—Shannon—who owns
the Farmers Market grocery (no GMO foods) and Cafe, a herbal clinic, and deals
in Weight Loss and Meal Consultations. Born and raised on what she called a "biodynamic
farm" near Marietta, Georgia, Shannon often helped her grandfather gather
plants to make medicinals and grew up with a healthy respect for food. She
worked as a dietician for pre-op and post-op patients in a Georgia hospital
before establishing a herbal business, then opened the Roswell Farmers Market
last year. She touts 100% grass-fed beef, organic, biodynamic, vegan, and
gluten free food, and she knows how to concoct delicious dishes that have all
these ingredients without offending diners by serving food that sounds like it
may be medicine.
We spent two hours with Shannon and her staff, and with a
son and a daughter she plans to home school next year. Conversation centered on
plants, and when we stopped talking and opened the door to leave, Vickie
casually mentioned her book Why Water Plants Don't Drown. I encouraged
her to bring in the copy she had put in her briefcase to show at the Nature
Center, and Shannon bought it on the spot. We left her turning the pages with
the enthusiasm of a genuine plant lover. She also offered to sponsor a
meal/reading for us any time we had business in Georgia, saying that she could
whip up an event with an enthusiastic audience on short notice. We added that
ability to a list of her obvious talents.
As I wrote when I began this blog, it's important to
cultivate serendipity... especially when you travel in Georgia, which is fast
becoming one of my favorite states!
Photographs by Victoria I. Sullivan
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