Don’t be deceived like the spider and the ant: This plant is a predator, designed to kill. Drawn by glistening nectar glands, an insect touches off trigger-like plant hairs rooted in a hinged leaf blade. There’s no escape: Electricity pulses through the plant at four inches per second. Special cells react, tripping the leaf trap that can snap shut in less than one-tenth of a second. If that weren’t horrifying enough, the Venus flytrap then begins its denouement: Digesting its prey with specialized enzymes. Stewed bug, served cold. Yummy.
Venus flytraps love the Carolinas: The carnivorous plants grow natively in the coastal bogs around Wilmington.
Split-rail fences don’t shout “keep out.” They lean, they shift, they invite. And in western North Carolina, they remind us that some lines are meant to hold, not harden.
Each May, spring climbs nearly 3,000 feet to the seat of Alleghany County. Here, as the rhododendrons blush, a beloved mountain town welcomes visitors with its food, art, and flourish of color and creativity.
Brief but delicious, soft-shell crab season is cherished by diners as well as the folks who work around the clock to put these native pinchers on our plates.
When it comes to poultry, the best is raised close to home.
