A large slate-blue basket sits in front of an old farmhouse flanked by two porches. This is the entrance to Basket Garden Farm, the home of basket maker par excellence, Barbara Blossey Chuvalas. If you follow the drive around to the back, past the horse barn that is home to Mackinac, Cimmaron and Dewars, you'll find Barbara's cottage. It's filled to the beams with cane and reed and hand-made baskets in varying stages of completion, along with a big bag of carrots for the horses. If it's cold out, the wood stove will be going, and a cat and a springer spaniel (Barbara and her husband Ron rescue them) will be curled up there as close as they can get. In the summer, there are flowers galore around the drive, and the horses will whinny and snort until you stop to pet them. Barbara not only creates her baskets here, she teaches classes, too. It's a cozy and convivial place when classes are going on.
For information about classes contact Barbara at rbchuvalas@aol.com
