It is a cracked and crumpled layer-cake of rocks, 480 million years in the making, a landscape sculpted by ice then transformed by man and a witness to the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

UNESCO: Global Geoparks

They are making "tea cups to cake stands to everything, 450 pieces in a beautiful raku, " a Japanese-style of pottery, Ms. Foppiani says.

WSJ: Lily Pads and Bamboo Stalks, Made of Clay

But even as I grew confident around a stove, progressing from roasting a chicken to boning a duck, from baking muffins to culturing sourdough, I avoided making funnel cake.

NPR: The Curious Incident of the Funnel Cake in the Lawn