She is as creative in her cooking as she is in her arts and crafts. Col. Gloria Diggs, U.S. Army retired, a Mathews County native who now lives in the family home, The House of Diggs, on Winter Harbor at Onemo, starts her day with a good breakfast. From there her hands continue to make the creations for which she is so well known.

Following her graduation from the Medical College of Virginia School of Nursing, Gloria spent 33 years as an army nurse. During those years there were many places she called home, and it was at these places that Gloria had the pleasure of tasting and then learning many ethnic styles of cooking. "We did a lot of entertaining in the military and always took something of the area and made our menus of that. When I entertained, I cooked, but also ate at many restaurants. There was a Russian restaurant in Europe that I liked and ate there a lot. That’s how my Borscht recipe came about but I did my own thing to it."

Gloria gives the credit to...