“Nothing is too precious,” says Ashley English, whose cabin in Candler is full of the serving dishes she uses to promote a homesteading-lifestyle business.
“We’ve reached a critical mass with our platter situation,” says Ashley English, the stylish homesteading blogger and author of such books as Handmade Gatherings and A Year of Pies.
“I think we’re only a quarter there,” insists her husband and work-life partner, Glenn English.
To be sure, the tiny pantry in their Candler home is filled just about to capacity with all manner of platters (as well as bowls, cake stands, and other tableware) — a professional necessity for the couple’s work, but also a natural offshoot of their proclivity toward entertaining. Ashley’s newest book, A Year of Picnics (requiring its own separate basket collection), arrives in April. Glenn collaborates closely, testing recipes, delving into research, and — perhaps most emphatically — helping to curate the look of each photograph, right down to obsessive platter procurement and selection. (He holds an MFA with a concentration in color theory, and expounds readily on the importance of pattern in a healthy environment.)
The Englishes’ platter collection — numbering over one hundred — hews strongly to weathered, textured looks. They favor materials like wood, pewter, ceramic, galvanized metal, and even enamelware. “We almost always choose things that are earthy and mineral-y,” says Glenn.
“We’re deep in the woods of Western North Carolina,” adds Ashley. “Our look reflects our space.”
Eclecticism is key. Nothing is too “matchy-matchy,” as Ashley puts it. The collection truly began to burgeon as they worked on Handmade Gatherings, about the art of the potluck. Every dish needed a different look — and the book featured 16 separate potluck meals. “There was so much nuance between them,” Ashley affirms. “I don’t feel at all that we’ve reached any kind of hoarding level, because we use all of it. This is a working, functioning house.”
Those same platters come out for the parties the Englishes host (such as a yearly cookie exchange in December and an Easter egg fête) or even just for a simple lunch shared by the two of them and Huxley, their six-year-old son. “Glenn is super deliberate about everything he does — never anything slapdash,” says Ashley. Nothing vexes him more than haphazard platter selection. “He’ll be like, ‘You worked so hard on that! Why did you put it on the wrong platter?’ Even if it’s cheesy eggs for breakfast, he’s going to make life beautiful on a regular basis.”
Provenance for the platters isn’t subjected to any pretension. Civil War–era antiques are stacked alongside inexpensive mass-market finds from the likes of Pier 1. “It’s like a United Nations of platters,” says Ashley. “All different socioeconomic demographics are represented. I like that. Nothing is too precious.” Which is a good thing, because the sheer size of the collection and its precarious storage has led to a few inevitable casualties.
Many platters were acquired at places such as Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, Goodwill, Tuesday Morning, and T.J. Maxx, though the couple notes that the perimeter surrounding Asheville can be better for finding diamonds in the rough, as Asheville proper gets picked over. Glenn is an avid and patient thrift-and antique-store shopper, and he continues to bring home additions, even as Ashley insists that for every new platter that comes in, one must go. “One time he tried to sneak some in,” she says.
“The thing is, different [foods] have a different palate, color, size, shape that is the right thing for the dish,” Glenn contends. “And sometimes you’re like, ‘Ah! I don’t have it!’ Even as a color theorist, there’s no absolutely predicting any of it — the way the noodles are in a bowl. You just have to have the right options sometimes.” (Ashley claims that “Options” is one of Glenn’s nicknames.)
Other collection favorites are more bespoke. Several sturdy earthenware pieces come from local artisans including East Fork Pottery — a company founded in Madison County by Alex Matisse and recently relocated to downtown Asheville — and Melissa Weiss. Glenn even took a class offered by Weiss last winter and created a set of speckled gray plates and bowls, which have garnered considerable interest on social media from would-be shoppers. “That’s really fun to have this element of the personal — truly our own collection,” says Ashley. “They’re so heavy and robust. Glenn has a tendency to like things that are overbuilt — I call it built for the apocalypse.”
Lighter-weight enamelware was ideal for carrying to a series of picnics for the latest book, though, and Ashley points to a thin, metal thrift-store find with an antique patina that she reaches for regularly, for everything from Thanksgiving turkey to weeknight suppers.
The Englishes are currently at work on a Southern-foods book, which presents what they term “the brown food problem.” “So many of the Southern foods that are most unctuous and delicious are beige, like biscuits and gravy,” says Glenn. Setting that food against their hallmark pottery or wood grain can diminish its visual appeal — or not. “Sometimes the answer is to go with it and make it monotone,” he suggests. “And sometimes you want something like this teal platter. It’s not exactly like the others, but chromatically it’s the right solution to a brown-food problem.”
Luckily, he has options.
“A Year of Picnics: Recipes for Dining Well in the Great Outdoors,” by Ashley English with photos by Jen Altman, will be released in April by Roost Books, available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. For more information, see the author’s website: www.smallmeasure.com.