Holler Hospitality
story by Donna Hecker & photography by Talitha Schroeder
Three miles back a one mile road, say the t-shirts for sale at Snug Hollow Farm Bed and Breakfast.
Driving the gravel road back to Snug Hollow Farm, with its twists and turns and ups and downs, is like passing through a magic portal. A portal that transports you to another time and place – a place where asphalt and concrete are replaced with rolling hillsides and a corkscrewing creek; a time in which nights are paced by chirping spring peepers, daylight ushered in by a whippoorwill’s plaintive lilt, and breakfast announced by a “come and get it” bell.
We arrived too late to see the sun bed down behind the hills of the holler but awoke to watch its rays track slowly down the hillsides, finally spreading across the valley and turning the meadows emerald green.
Barbara Napier has been running her Snug Hollow Farm Bed and Breakfast near Irvine, Ky. since 2000. Over the years, she’s seen her share of troubles – a divorce, business challenges, even the loss of her farm. With help from family, friends and assorted heroes, she was able to recover her precious land. That precious land helped support her family in the early days as they sold CSA memberships, filled with freshly harvested organic vegetables.
As Snug Hollow Bed and Breakfast took shape one room, one cabin, at a time; guests began to make the trek up the holler to bask in the warmth of Barbara’s hospitality and enjoy her vegetarian farmhouse spreads. Barbara told us that as she finished each room or cabin, the proceeds from its rental would pay for the next and so on.
As she was getting started, a friend and co-worker at Berea College developed her website for $35. In 2007, National Geographic Traveler named Snug Hollow Farm a top 50 destination for “Girlfriends Getaways.” A couple of years later, Barbara published Hot Food and Warm Memories, which found much success as a vegetarian Appalachian Farm cookbook. Another big break came in 2010 when Kentucky hosted the World Equestrian Games, and Snug Hollow started receiving national attention. The word was out.
Snug Hollow’s growth was so organic, and its structures so elemental, that they look as though they’ve always been there. There are three cabins and the Gathering Place, a retreat space popular with writers and other artists. Hewn of chestnut, cedar and pine, the cabins are as rooted to the land as the native wildflowers and blooming dogwood and redbud trees that surround them.
There is a labyrinth to walk in quiet meditation, mountainside trails to explore, a pond for fishing, porches for sitting, and books to be read on a rainy day. The natural beauty outside is mirrored by handcrafted beauty inside, where pitchers from nearby Tater Knob pottery hold fresh blooms and pieced quilts lie neatly folded on iron bedsteads.
As we settled in for breakfast, the first in a long time to be served on the screened-in porch, Barbara handed us a plate of fluffy oatmeal pancakes with scrambled eggs and batons of crispy breakfast polenta. The family at the next table inquired about the “spicy” bars. “First there was mush, then grits, then Italian polenta”, Barbara explained. “We season it with the same spices that go into sausage. If you can’t kill something, you’ve got to use grits.”
Barbara retold the tale of how Snug Hollow came to be, sitting at our breakfast table and wrapping things up with a simple, “and that’s my story.” With her two-toned glasses and pale spun-gold curls, Barbara radiates positive energy but says she’s ready to put her feet up. In fact, Snug Hollow is for sale. As Barbara told us, “life goes on” and she’s now imagining a home in big-city Lexington, with a beautiful yard and garden.
We hope Barbara finds her garden home soon. And we hope she finds a buyer for Snug Hollow who’ll appreciate its embodied treasure and verdant embrace. Snug Hollow Farm needs a caretaker to nurture it and Kentucky needs a place like Snug Hollow Farm. A place where life, and we, can just be.
© 2022, Holly Hill Inn/Ilex Summit, LLC and its affiliates, All Rights Reserved
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Snug Hollow Oatmeal Pancakes
One of Barbara Napier’s specialties, these are a welcome treat on cool spring mornings before a day spent in the woods.
