West Chester Dish

Somehow I took a wrong turn (almost impossible in a town like Floyd) and had to turn around in a bank parking lot. Only I couldn’t turn around. The lot looped around into a traffic line headed for the bank window. I was second in line at the window. As the truck in front of me pulled away, I drove up to the speaker.

“Hello, how can I help you?” The bank girl behind the glass window said. (I swear she was the girl from Ray’s that “gets crazy when she gets a few drinks in her,” but I couldn’t be sure.)

“Um, hello. Is there a local farmer’s market in town?”

“A what?”

“You know, like local produce, flowers, baked goods. Do you do anything like that here?”

“Oh. Produce. Well, you can find organic produce and groceries at the Harvest Moon Food Store, or you can get regular produce at the Food Lion. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes, thank you so much, I really appreciate it.” I withheld the temptation to ask for a lollipop, giggled to my friend that it seemed like a normal request to the bank teller and slowly drove away in the direction of the Harvest Moon.

This proved to be a great stop. The downstairs was a full grocery store of organic, natural, gluten-free and other specialty foods. The upstairs was the Over The Moon Gallery and coffee shop. I shopped my heart out in the Harvest Moon Food store, tasted all the glorious samples and then made my way upstairs.

My friend and I are local art fans and mug users (she drinks tea and hot chocolate, I drink tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cider, melted ice cream, etc.) so we both were smitten with the handmade Republic of Floyd mugs. We each had to own one.

The other art collections were creative and extensive. The sweet staff were helpful in telling the artist’s tales for the pottery, jewelry, prints, scarves and tea sets. After checking out the art we explored the sweet-smelling coffee bar and bakery.

The baked-goods display case was bursting with homemade treats both healthy and sinful. Luckily they had samples, so I could taste a bit without feeling too guilty about being sedentary in a car. As samples are a pretty good indicator, it’s safe to say that everything from this bakery is delicious.

My friend bought me a cup of coffee (I switched to decaf) and hot chocolate for her. We said good bye to the ladies at the coffee shop and stopped to pose for some silly pictures with the lawn sculptures out front.

Quote of the afternoon: From Jason, a friendly local we met in the gallery coffee shop. He noticed us on his way out, snapping pics with lawn art. “Hey…I thought you were trying to fit in around here? (he laughed). You may want to lose the camera and John Deere Hat.”