Capital at Play December 2019 by Capital at Play Magazine

John Taylor

O.P. Taylorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Toy Store p.18

Larry & Cyndi Ziegler High Country Candles p.60

Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

2019 s w ee t a nd

savory p.74

WNC Christmas Tree Christmas Tree farms are evergreen in more ways than one. p.37

column

Holiday Gifting Guide Volume IX - Edition XII complimentary edition

capitalatplay.com

for Beer Geeks p.52 December 2019

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December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

Our Favorite Stories of 2019 Off ice staff members reveal their top picks from the past year.

“Progress & Change”

JANUARY _____________________________ This was one of our “revisits” that we do in order to update the file, so to speak, on entrepreneurs we previously profiled much earlier in the evolution of their business. East Fork Pottery had relocated their production facility from Marshall to Asheville, and were on target this year to produce more than 200,000 pieces of pottery—compared to a modest 7,500 in 2016. That is significant growth, and the kind of success story we love to report on. - Oby Morgan, Publisher

“Going Out on a Limb”

JULY _____________________________ As always, I really enjoy longtime contributor Arthur Treff’s writing. He told the story from a personal point of view, and I really enjoyed how he bounced back and forth between his personal needs for tree help, and the story of Smart Feller Tree Works’ creation. I also felt that Evan Anderson took amazing photos on that shoot; he even got to be lifted into the climbing gear with the guys. I think it’s really awesome to hear how they ended up doing their tree working with their experience being in other areas. - Bonnie Roberson, Art Director

“An Alcohol Evolution”

SEPTEMBER _____________________________ True confession: I’ve become a business report junkie. I love our individual profiles, with their human interest elements, but my detail-wonk side is 4

| December 2019

always dragging me into the weeds—or possibly into the hops and botanicals, per our annual report on the Western Nor th Carolina alcohol industr y, highlighting some of the huge legal and structural changes that have been occurring. Similarly, the May issue’s “Getting Centered: Mind/Body/Spirit” took a deep dive (preceded by a deep breath, of course) into the region’s booming spiritual retreat industry, which is far, far more than the sum of a few “Omm…” stereotypes. - Fred Mills, Editor

“Progress & Change”

JANUARY _____________________________ Though I’m really proud of my writing in this piece, what pulls me back to it again and again isn’t my personal association with it, but the marvel that is East Fork. It’s the kind of company that comes up in conversation constantly—whether I’m networking with Davidson alumni or kicking back a beer with friends at Ole Shakey’s—and I find myself presenting nuggets from this article every time. Their strategy, ambition, and straight-up cool factor have written a success story to which all local businesses can aspire. - Emily Glaser, Newsletter Editor

“One Seed at a Time”

AUGUST _____________________________ Although our article on local flower farms was a Leisure & Libation feature, it could also be seen as a Local Industry favorite. The informative narrative on Carolina Flowers (as well as others in our region) pushed us out the door to visit these nearby farms; we became inspired to bring their colorful harvest back into

our homes. Reading about the business side of the flower farm industry certainly opened my eyes and made me appreciate the hard work that goes into making the best looking blooms—and making it look like fun! - Katrina Morgan, Account Executive

“Cutting Edge”

JUNE _____________________________ I loved our Local Industry report on area barbers because of the strong response from our readers who loved the story too. Couldn't believe how many called and emailed supporting their personal barber, wanting extra copies. Classic story of relationships sustaining businesses over decades. Also, February’s “Musical Matchmaker,” because I’ve known Paul at Dream Guitars for awhile, and really enjoyed reading his business origin story and business success principles. His description of knowing when you love a guitar is classic. - Roy Brock, Account Executive

“Musical Matchmaker”

FEBRUARY _____________________________ The profile of Dream Guitars’ Paul Heumiller read like a storybook. The talk of guitars, lutherie, and fine acoustics reminded me I need to start playing again; the story’s focus on joy and service added value. Also, August’s “A Black Belt in Business,” about Dan and Betsy Reiser, was a wild ride through the life of two people who love to create and pay their own freight. - Leslee Kulba, Briefs/Events Editor Share your pick with us on social media.

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Western North Carolina's Free Spirit of Enterprise

publisher

Oby Morgan associate publisher

Jeffrey Green managing editor

contributing writers & photogr aphers

Jason Gilmer, Derek Halsey, Anthony Harden, Bill Kopp, Marla Hardee Milling, Matt Vaughan art director

Fred Mills

Bonnie Roberson

briefs and events editor

newsletter editor

Leslee Kulba

Emily Glaser

copy editors

Dasha O. Morgan, Brenda Murphy

Information & Inquiries Capital at Play is Western North Carolina’s business lifestyle magazine. It embodies the idea that capitalism thrives with creativity—that work requires an element of play. Exploring everything from local industry to the great outdoors, Capital at Play is inspiration for the modern entrepreneur. In every edition we profile those who take the risk, those who share that risk, and those who support them—telling the untold story of how capitalists are driven by their ideas and passions. We cater to those who see the world with curiosity, wonderment, and a thirst for knowledge. We present information and entertainment that capitalists want, all in one location. We are the free spirit of enterprise.

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marketing & advertising

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Roy Brock, David Morgan, Katrina Morgan

Editorial content is selected and produced because of its interest to our readership. Editorial content is not for sale and cannot be bought. Capital at Play is financially sustained by advertisers who find value in exposure alongside our unique content and to the readers who follow it. This magazine is printed with soy based ink on recycled paper. Please recycle. Copyright © 2019, Capital At Play, Inc. All rights reserved. Capital at Play is a trademark of Capital At Play, Inc. Published by Capital At Play, Inc. PO Box 5552, Asheville NC 28813

Capital at Play is protec ted through Tr ademar k Regis tr ation in the United States. The content found within this publication does not necessar ily ref lec t the views of Capital At Play, Inc. and its companies. Capital At Play, Inc. and its employees are not liable for any adver tising or editor ial content found in Capital at Play. The ar ticles, photogr aphy, and illus tr ations found in Capital at Play may not be reproduced or used in any fashion without express wr it ten consent by Capital At Play, Inc.

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Capital at Play has partnered with Bclip Productions to bring the pages of each edition to life, just for you. Featured at Capitalatplay.com and our Facebook page, we give you exclusive interviews and insider info on the people, places, and faces of Capital at Play has partnered with Bclip Productions to bring the pages of each edition to life, just for you. Featuring a new enterprise throughout Western North Carolina. Visit us on social media or at our website to see the latest 60 Seconds at Play.

second video every two weeks, we give you exclusive interviews and insider info on the people, places, and faces of enterp throughout Western North Carolina. Visit us on social media or at capitalatplay.com to see the latest 60 Seconds at Play NOVEMBER VIDEO

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At Bclip we do more than tell your story. Our business-ﬁrst mentality and c creativity set us apart from other video production companies. It’s our mis help our customers sell their products, train their staﬀ, and entertain custo video. We strive to eat, sleep, and think like the wonderful companies we w

on the cover : TREE FARM in the snow photo by Oby Morgan thi s page :

SNOWMAN CANDLE at High Countr y Candles, photo by Anthony Harden

w 60 prise y.

combustible ssion to omers with work with.

F E AT U R E D vol. ix

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD JOHN TAYLOR

ed. xii

THE CANDLESTICK MAKERS LARRY & CYNDI ZIEGLER

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

C ON T E N T S d e c e m b e r 2 019

photo courtesy of North Carolina Christmas Tree Association

lo c a l i n d u s t r y

Oh WNC Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree Farming in Western North Carolina

insight

colu m n

12 Raise a Toast

Josh Spurling of Table Wine

74 Sweet & Savory 2019

Have a Happy Holiday

Beer Geeks

Written by Matt Vaughan

Holiday Childress of Holiday Grooms

30 Carolina in the West 54 The Old North State | December 2019

Cottage Industry Entrepreneurs of WNC: Cara Mae Potters’ Skin Butter, Tarpestry, Ma’ams Hot Jam, Fermenti Farms, Sister of Mother Earth, & Cornerstone Tea

p e o p l e at p l ay

52 Holiday Gifting Guide for 88 2019 Hatch This briefs

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Entrepreneurial Accelerator events

90 Literally, more Christmasthemed activities than you’ll ever be able to partake of… but give it a shot!

NOV 4 – DEC 17, 201

NOV 4 –4DEC 17,17, 2019 NOV – DEC 2019

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December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

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Raise A Toast

Table Wine’s Josh Spurling is preparing to mark a major milestone for his business.

hile it’s a given that the Asheville area probably has more beer drinkers per capita than any other North Carolina city—not to mention plenty of breweries to service those drinkers—there are plenty of us around here who covet our wine bottles more. And if you do a simple Google search for “Asheville wine stores” you’ll be rewarded with a slew of those little red icons marking the many shops eager to service us. One such merchant is South Asheville-based Table Wine, and the store’s legacy is lengthy, extending back to July of 2010. “I founded the company mainly because I wanted to be my own boss,” says owner Josh Spurling, reflecting back on that legacy as he nears the two decade mark, “and because I love wines from smaller, family-owned and -operated wineries. And I wanted to share my love of these wines with others.” He elaborates, noting that he’s been in the larger wine industry since 1999, working on both the retail and the distribution/ import sides of the business. “But I’ve always preferred retail,” says Spurling. “My wife, Lynn, and I moved to Asheville in 2003, and it’s been exciting to see the Asheville wine scene expand, improve, and change. I’m very proud to be a wine professional in Beer City. For the record, I love beer, but I only sell wine at the shop. Our tagline is, ‘Artisanal Wines at Affordable Prices.’” In a sense, the Spurlings’ decision to open in 2010 was a bit of a grand folly: The nation was in the middle of the Great Recession. Somehow, though, the stars aligned, because the store’s still here and is on track to log growth for the tenth year in a row. “I can remember the early days of the store,” laughs Spurling. “There were days when no one came in. Slowly but surely, people did come in—I guess they liked their experience, being that we’ve been open for almost ten years now!” What, then, goes into that experience for Table Wine’s customer base? “One, we specialize in ‘farmer wines.’ These are the growers and producers who subscribe to the notion that great wine is made in the vineyard. Many of these wineries are multigenerational, and they take great pride in their work. They respect and take care of their land, and they make their wines with respect to culture and tradition. Their decisions 12

| December 2019

LYNN & JOSH photos by Emily Nichols Photography

are influenced by the many hours they spend among their vines, learning up close. In a sense, we offer a ‘farmer’s wine market,’ and if you’ve ever shopped for your vegetables at one of Asheville’s many farmer’s markets, we think you’ll agree that the tomato purchased there far surpasses the quality, freshness, and deliciousness of the one purchased at the grocery store. This same premise applies to wine!

We specialize in ‘farmer wines.’ These are the growers and producers who subscribe to the notion that great wine is made in the vineyard. “Secondly, our experience and customer service—Having worked in wine in Asheville since 2003, I know the market very well. And my three employees are also incredibly wellversed. We all love wine, we love talking about wine, and we love doing so in an unpretentious, friendly manner. Plus, there’s [the education aspect]—the best way to learn about wine is to taste it, so we offer a free and educational tasting every Saturday from two to five PM.

“And, of course, our selection. Although we stock many premium wines, the average bottle price is about $15, and there are easily over 150 wines available for $15 or less. In total, we stock nearly 800 different wines so we’ve got something for every type of wine drinker.” Spurling says he’s planning a special tasting and celebration at the store next July when that 10th anniversary rolls around, so customers should keep an eye on the store’s event calendar. No plans at the moment for an expansion, however, as he and his wife are “very happy” with where they are. “I know that sounds boring. People constantly ask me if I’m going to open a bigger store or another location. No way! I want to continue to offer personalized and high quality service. And I want to maintain a healthy work/personal life balance.” Table Wine’s Hendersonville Road location is a prime spot for a store like Spurling’s, and he enthusiastically notes that he loves South Asheville. (“The wine community down here is a lot of fun to work with. They’re open-minded and they love trying new things.”) And he says he feels lucky to have been an Asheville resident during the boom of the past decade. “Asheville’s wine scene has grown in direct relation to its food scene, and I’m lucky to have been here to witness much of that growth. I am friends with a lot of restaurant people, and we feed off of—no pun intended—each other. If I have a great meal and a bottle of wine at a local restaurant, I’m going to tell my customers about it. Likewise, many restaurant staffers shop at Table Wine and they’re constantly sending diners our way. “We also currently employ four (if you include me) full-time individuals, all who make well above a living wage as certified by Just Economics of WNC. Being able to provide gainful employment to three others is something I’m very proud of. “I like to think we’re all working together to make Asheville a premiere destination to wine and dine. I’d say we’re winning.” Table Wine is located at 1550 Hendersonville Road, Suite #102, in Asheville. Learn more at www.Tablewineasheville.com.

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Apparel, Lingerie & Body-Safe Adult Toys

Have a Happy HOLIDAY With his Holiday Grooms mobile barber service, Asheville’s Holiday Childress has found a unique niche.

VaVaVooom.com | December 2019 Ash 14 57 Broadway Street, eville

rue confession: The working title for this profile was The Rock ’n’ Roll Barber, but as you have no doubt surmised, it didn’t make the final (cough) cut. There is, however, some validity lurking within that sentiment, because if you know anything about rock ’n’ roll, you will be aware of the fact that more than a few musicians hold down day jobs as barbers and stylists. It’s a natural fit, given the oftentimes unstructured nature of the workplace hours, and there’s an undeniable creativity and self-pride that accompanies both callings as well. And so it is with Holiday Childress, known as “The Asheville Wedding Barber” and who operates mobile barber service Holiday Grooms, which specializes in on-location wedding and special events grooming inspired by, as Childress puts it, “bespoke men’s tailoring, barber shops, and speakeasies worldwide.” That rock ’n’ roll connection? He’s an accomplished musician—most recent album: 2016’s Mind the Gap (check it out on Spotify or iTunes, or grab it at his website)—and was also frontman for beloved ‘90s Asheville art-rock band The Goodies.

HOLIDAY CHILDRESS photos by Duncan Chaboudy

“I moved to Asheville from Atlanta as a musician and bandleader, singing and performing my own songs,” Childress says, reflecting upon his professional arc from rocker to barber. “As I became a family man with children, traveling and playing music was becoming more difficult, and I would alternate between performing and working as a server in fine dining restaurants. I entered cosmetology college at A-B Tech in 2007 in hopes of finding a day job that fit my personality. After

“I did not have another model to follow, so I made things up as I went along!” graduation I dove mostly into women’s hair and hair color. My original goal was to open a barber shop, but men’s grooming came later. Most of men’s cutting and shaving, I learned on my own.” And along the way, he had a brainstorm. “Although I had several mobile wedding events prior to launching Holiday Grooms,” continues Childress, “I didn’t launch the brand until the summer of 2019. After working in

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

insight

the hair and wedding industries for over a decade, I noticed the grooms and groomsmen didn’t have much to do prior to the event. I thought that there was a niche for an upscale speakeasy/barber shop vibe where the gents could get a fresh shave and a haircut. Some simple self-care.” He adds, with a laugh, “I did not have another model to follow, so I made things up as I went along!” The fact that he started a new career during the Great Recession is no small matter, either: “I was working two jobs for at least five years while establishing myself as a hairdresser.” Cue up that comment about creativity in the first paragraph. Childress’ services are certainly in demand around Western North Carolina, and he’s typically busy weekends with weddings and events. He also maintains a space at Sola Salon Studios in Asheville where he generally works Monday through Thursday. “I play it by ear and try to keep things balanced as I grow,” he says, noting that being able to open his own shop and purchase his own barber chair were milestones he

is still immensely proud of. “And I want to keep growing Holiday Grooms in all of its different areas. I have folded my unisex business and hair coloring as well as gentlemen’s grooming and mobile business all under one umbrella.” Given his line of work, and given that he operates out of a bonafide hipster haven (that would be Asheville), the inevitable question for Childress becomes, why is a beard apparently mandatory for every area male hipster and what are the biggest mistakes those men consistently make? “I’m not a very trendy guy and I never have been,” he allows. “And I’m not sure why everybody seems to like to do the same things at the same time! If it looks good and feels right, go for it. I gravitate toward authenticity. I like to help make people look like the best version of themselves, because one of the biggest mistakes men can make these days in terms of personal grooming is to overlook it.” The other inevitable question: How’s the music side of things going these days?

“Take your time and do it right. Have patience and enjoy the step that you’re in.”

| December 2019

HOLIDAY PERFORMING with the Goodies

“The last batch of songs I wrote are all on Mind the Gap,” says Childress. “I was fortunate enough to raise over $16,000 on a Kickstarter campaign to make that album. Half of it was recorded here in Asheville at Echo Mountain Studios, while the other half was recorded in Taos, New Mexico, with my friend and producer. It was an amazing experience all the way around. At the moment I am mostly just playing guitar at the house for the bliss of it. Also, the Goodies occasionally play a reunion show—I love The Goodies.” Any advice, then, for either his potential clientele or his fan base? “Yes. Take your time and do it right. Have patience and enjoy the step that you’re in. Take care of yourself. Be kind. Be authentic. It’s okay to say ‘no.’ Being a gentleman isn’t about what you are wearing or how good you look. Being a gentleman is about making the people around you feel at ease.” Spoken like a true (cough) cutting-edge rock ’n’ roll barber. Holiday Grooms can be found at 124 College Street, 2nd Floor, Suite 25, Asheville. Learn more at www.Holidaygrooms.com.

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Through THE

Eyes OF A Child written by jason gilmer photos by anthony harden

“I’m a funny guy and I have a funny hat”: John Taylor, of O.P. Taylor’s toy store, knows what makes the kids happy. 18

| December 2019

JOHN TAYLOR in The Biltmore Park Town Square store.

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 19

“I

t’s sort of cocky, but, Oh Susanna’s was, like, legendary,” Taylor says. “And I told Susie, my wife, I said, ‘I’m gonna make O.P. Taylor’s as legendary as Oh Susanna’s or better.’ “And she goes, ‘Well, good luck with that.’” Luck might have had a hand in the success of O.P. Taylor’s, but that isn’t everything. Taylor turned his toy store into a chaotic wonderland that lights up a child’s eyes and worries a parent about their credit card limit. The store hasn’t just become a Brevard shopping destination, a place to find small items to fill Christmas stockings or to purchase the present that serves as a birthday party’s centerpiece. In all honestly, it’s become more. Like Hooker Falls in nearby DuPont Forest or Potters’ Row on Highway 276, the 6,000-sq.-ft., two-story toy shop has become a place to which people plan drives. It’s a place that feels nostalgic at one moment and fresh and new at another as you walk around the corner and see a new toy. “It was well received (to start). We had a lot of local support,” Taylor says as he stands near the entrance of his store, wearing his trademark cap with its beaded propeller on the top. “But I don’t think we became a destination until about seven or eight years ago. In 2000, I guess, would probably be the pivoting point when Southern Living said we were the number one toy store in the South. They did like a five-page spread on us and also featured a store in Mississippi called Miner’s Doll and Toy Store.” “People return year after year to take their kids and grandkids shopping there,” The Transylvania Times’ co-publisher Sean Trapp says. “There’s always cool, colorful displays in the windows, and happy kids streaming out the front door. And we’re lucky enough to have it in the center of Brevard, right across from the courthouse.” More accolades have been heaped on the store, which has grown from its Brevard roots to include stores in Asheville and Greenville, South Carolina, with USA Today naming it one of the top ten toy stores in the world. Recently, Taylor was on the cover of three trade magazines in the same month, including a magazine from Japan. (Taylor has no idea what is said about him and his store on those pages.) Not bad, seeing as how O.P. Taylor’s began from a clothing store that introduced toys simply as a way to keep children occupied while parents shopped and tried on sweaters or slacks in the dressing room.

From Turtlenecks to Toys The moment that Taylor knew his clothing store, called O.P. Taylor’s Mercantile, needed some fun-filled distractions was when a toddler slipped under a dressing room door and a frantic mother, clad only in her unmentionables, raced after the child. Taylor’s clothing store, located in the same Main Street building as the current toy store, sold items by Northern Isles, 20

| December 2019

PLAYMOBIL IS ONE of the brands you can find in the store.

Patagonia, Columbia, and Woolrich, along with canoes, backpacks, and pop-up tents. It was a typical outdoorsy store that was perfectly suited for an outdoorsy town. Kids running through the store—or away from their parents—was an obstacle that could easily be remedied, thought Taylor. He just needed a train table. He drove to Atlanta and found the Brio distributor there and asked to purchase a train table for his store. You can’t, he was told, as only dealers of Brio toys could get the table. Taylor asked about the minimum number of toys he’d need to purchase to become a Brio dealer and was told $5,000. “How long have you been in the toy business?” Taylor was asked. “Counting today? One,” he responded. It wasn’t enough that Taylor would, on a whim, become a Brio Toys dealer and fork over the money to get started—the distributor needed to see his store. “But it’s a clothing store,” the distributor said when he visited Brevard. “It’s gonna be a toy store someday,” Taylor replied. In 1993 the store on the corner of Main Street in Brevard— once home to Ward’s Newsstand, Hallelujah Health Food, and a bank of lawyers’ offices upstairs, each with a fireplace—would become the first O.P. Taylor’s. December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

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Top: Roan Highlands, Mitchell County; photo: Travis Bordley Middle: Reach Out and Read Carolinas Bottom: United Way Day of Caring, Haywood County

| December 2019

Today the rooms are full and, honestly, that’s an understatement. What you won’t see, though, are Xbox or Nintendo Switch game consoles. This store is about imagination. “Our big claim to fame is ‘no batteries required,’” Taylors says. “There’s some exceptions with our remote-control department. We do sell airplanes, boats, quadcopters, cars, and trucks that are all entry-level hobby items, maybe a cut above a toy because they’re actually hobby-grade materials, but they’re entry-level prices. The idea of sitting in front of a TV and watching video graphics of stuff just doesn’t appeal to me at all.” The room on the right side of the store, the same space where Mrs. Bessie Ward would count penny candy in small paper bags, now has a wall of Legos. The popular toy, with its collections of Marvel, Ninjago, Star Wars, and other types of interlocking bricks, is the top seller at the Brevard location.

“It is one of the most unusual toy stores that exists today. Floor to ceiling toys never get old with the kids.” There’s an electric race car track in the middle of the space where kids can place cars on the track, grab a controller, and make the cars zoom around the figure-eight course. Collectibles are in cases. A drivable car in the back corner. The room on the left is similarly jammed with the items on most kids’ Christmas lists. In the back there are puzzles and board games and a display of plush white squirrels. There’s an entire spot dedicated to PlayMobil toys such as the Ghostbuster, Spirit Riding Free, and dinosaur collections. “I think the thing that makes us successful in one respect, not only attitude, but the fact that if we commit to a brand, we carry the whole brand, like Lego,” Taylor said. “There’s nothing we don’t have that’s currently available. If the kid comes in with a PlayMobil magazine and says, ‘I want that’, we have it.” The store isn’t just about fun. While Legos may teach dexterity and how to follow instructions, there are even more educational tools. The advance of STEM programs in schools have brought in families looking for those types of toys that mix engineering and math, and the store has a section of arts and crafts and a selection of books.

CHILDREN CAN explore for hours in any of Taylor's stores December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 23

“John has been a critical part of the revitalization of Brevard, not only at O.P. Taylor’s, but back when he had Oh Susanna’s restaurant,” said John Nichols, a downtown Brevard developer and president of The Nichols Company. “My kids constantly beg to go downtown to walk around the store. It is one of the most unusual toy stores that exists today. Floor to ceiling toys never get old with the kids… The reputation of OP Taylor’s has spread far and wide so that everyone who comes to visit us always wants to go to the store at least once.”

From the Shore to the Mountains As a small child Taylor would live the warm months in Rhode Island and the cooler months in Sarasota, Florida. His parents 24

| December 2019

were hoteliers in Misquamicut, Rhode Island, which is south of Provence and north of Mystic, Connecticut, and is where many New Yorkers would come for the weekend to get away at the beach. “It was a great way to grow up,” Taylor said. “I mean, we didn’t always think so, because it was like, ‘Hey, take towels down to Room 24.’” The hotel was finally sold and the family moved full-time to Sarasota, where Taylor’s father would excel as a realtor. The Siesta Key area, once a hidden gem, became known when Life magazine writer Loudon Wainwright, Taylor’s cousin, wrote a story proclaiming the beach to be the best in the world. In 1965 Taylor was sent to Camp Greenville, the South Carolina summer camp experience on Cedar Mountain, and

BOARD GAMES for all ages line the stores' shelves

known to many for the Fred W. Symmes Chapel, more popularly known as “Pretty Place.” “My first letter home was, ‘If you don’t come and get me, I’m walking back to Florida,’” recalls Taylor. “My second letter home was, ‘Can we stay the rest of the summer?’” Taylor, who enthusiastically attended Camp Greenville from 1965 to 1970, took the bus to get there from Florida a few times until his parents also fell in love with the mountains and would rent a spot during the summer. Ultimately, Taylor’s love for the area led him to move to Brevard in 1982: “My girlfriend at the time, who was a swimsuit model and a paramedic, decided it would be really brilliant to come to Brevard and open a restaurant. We had an idea for a restaurant, but it wouldn’t work in Sarasota. It would get swallowed

up in all the hubbub down there. But Brevard really needed a restaurant.” Soon, Oh Susanna’s became a popular staple in downtown Brevard. The plan was to open the restaurant each day, work a few hours, then play golf or tennis. Instead, the business took off. They baked bread in number ten food cans, made their own sauces, and developed a strong following. “We did soup, salads, and sandwiches at lunch, and all the sandwiches were named after Stephen Foster songs,” Taylor says. “So, you get a Suwanee River, which was a tuna sandwich, or a Camptown Grinder, which was a guinea grinder, they used to call them. We did the Beautiful Dreamer, which was everybody’s favorite—and I don’t know why, because it was just ham, turkey, cucumbers, and Swiss cheese.” December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 25

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“Oh Susanna’s was incredible,” The Transylvania Times’ Trapp says, “especially when you consider that we’re talking about the ‘80s, before we had so many great restaurants in Brevard. Those of us who grew up eating there still miss it. Thirty years later, I remember my two favorite sandwiches: the JT Special and the Chicken Cordon Bleu. The latter, which, if memory serves me right, was a hot sandwich with chicken salad, deli ham, and melted Swiss, was phenomenal.” The Taylors ran the restaurant for ten years until someone came in and asked to buy the business. Taylor notes that he had purchased the building for $35,000, but sold it for $1 million. He also purchased other buildings, including the building where O.P. Taylor’s is now located, which he says he paid $100,000 for in 1987. Meanwhile, after the restaurant, he restored cars and he also owned a bowling alley for a short time. Taylor now owns part of Brevard’s WSQL radio station (102 FM or 1240 AM) and other real estate properties. “Every small town needs creative entrepreneurs like John Taylor,” says Clark Lovelace, executive director of the Brevard/Transylvania Chamber of Commerce and Transylvania County Tourism (TCTI). “He has established a number of new businesses in our community over the last four decades, with O.P. Taylor’s as his masterpiece. Having one of our main downtown corners occupied by a business that stands out as a vibrant and fun location is meaningful, particularly in a small town.”

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As Taylor’s toy business bloomed, the idea of having more than one location wasn’t exactly on his mind until someone asked him to consider a second spot. He was courted by Waynesville to open a spot there, and it lasted five years, with growing success, before Taylor decided to move in 2002 to downtown Greenville, South Carolina, due to a rent increase.

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 27

“I leased a building in Greenville, picked the Waynesville store up, drove to the Greenville, dropped it in, and went from a $300,000 store to a million-dollar store overnight,” Taylor says.

“John is a great merchant who the City of Brevard greatly appreciates. He is very successful and intuitive to the needs of his customer.” Downtown Greenville has boomed in the last 20 years, and while the Greenville O.P. Taylor’s is the smallest of its three location, its business has boomed right along with the city. A third location opened in 2010 in Biltmore Park in Asheville; it has become visually iconic to shoppers there thanks to the giant, red uniform-attired toy soldiers guarding the entrance.

These days Taylor has 43 employees, with most of them part-timers who help children locate the perfect gift for a schoolmate or the toy that will make them hand off their allowance. (Taylor: “It’s a fun place to work!”) With Toys“R”Us now extinct and toy stores in malls also dying out, parents have looked for other avenues to purchase items for their kids. Yes, there are online retailers and big box stores such as Wal-Mart or Target that have some items, but finding the number of options that O.P. Taylor’s has is tough to do. “I hear more and more, ‘We used to love to take the kids to Toys“R”Us, but there’s no Toys“R”Us anymore—there’s no toy stores anymore,’” Taylor says. “No offense to Barnes & Noble, but that’s not the first place I’m going now to sit down and play with my kid and toys. So, yeah, it’s helping out (financially). In the last two months, every weekend has been at least double what we did last year, and last year was a really good year.”

*** Taylor is frequently found at the Brevard store, and the town’s mayor, Jimmy Harris, is clearly happy with O.P.

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Taylor’s presence, saying, “John is a great merchant who the City of Brevard greatly appreciates. He is very successful and intuitive to the needs of his customer.” Taylor also regularly visits the other locations—he’s easy to spot in his propeller cap. He says he saw a similar cap when he visited the famed FAO Schwartz toy store in New York City years ago and bought one on the spot. The reaction he received, from airline attendants to small kids alike, on his way back to North Carolina convinced him that such a cap would be perfect for his store: “This could be a good gimmick,” he thought. On the label was the cap’s manufacturer and a phone number. Taylor called. He’s worn one every day since. “It’s part of the shtick,” he laughs. “And I’m approachable. Kids think I’m harmless, and a lot of them point and say, ‘You have a propeller on your head!’ Instead of a creepy old man, I’m a funny guy and I have a funny hat.”

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CAROLINA

the availability of such taken-for-granted elements as restaurants, recreation, and entertainment. Coming next in the four-year project: Phase Two: Discovery, Phase Three: Collaboration, and Phase Four: Prioritization.

in the

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Not Making Much rutherford county

Those Darn Tourists buncombe county

Explore Asheville/Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority hosted the “Tourism Management Forum” at A-B Tech in late October in order to provide the public with the “results of Phase One of a yearlong process to change how monies from the Tourism Product Development Fund (TPDF) are used.” The fund is a community grant program (established in 2001 via the occupancy tax paid by overnight visitors to Asheville), and the plan is to shift from an application-based procedure—TPDFfunded project beneficiaries to date have included, (among many), the Arboretum’s Bonsai Garden, Pack Square Park Pavilion, RiverLink, the YMI Cultural Center, and Asheville Community Theatre—to a long-range investment

strategy. Following introductions and a presentation of the official Phase One: Assessment report detailing statistics related to tourism’s impact in Buncombe County and the results of a detailed public survey on attitudes towards tourism, a lively panel discussion took place featuring moderator Ed Manning (Leadership Asheville), Stephanie Brown (Explore Asheville), Mike Konzen (PGAV Planners), Himanshu Karvir (Virtelle Hospitality hoteliers), and Kevan Frazier (Asheville By Foot walking tours). While the impact of tourists upon often-raised issues, such as parking, road congestion, and short-term rentals, are ongoing concerns among residents and officials alike, the general findings of data and surveys thus far suggest an overall positive impact upon the local economy (in particular, job creation, retail sales, and wages), city/county tax revenue, and even

WLOS News 13 is investigating what US Precision is doing with over $1 million in grants and loans given to the company by the government. More than three years ago, the company, which is owned by the partnership that built the Tryon International Equestrian Center, accepted taxpayer funding for a high-tech facility that was going to build modular components for a hotel for the 2018 World Equestrian Games, and the tooling was going to be used afterwards to make things like household cabinetry. Construction of the hotel never progressed beyond the laying of its foundation, and the factory appears vacant to passersby. US Precision first accepted a state grant of $500,000 to upfit the building and hire 40, then the plant was supposed to employ 100 at full buildout. To date, only 34 employees Largest have beenselection hired. The state awarded the of upholstery company another $615,000, through

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two low-interest loans, for purchasing equipment; but the factory has not sold anything to date, claiming it is still working the bugs out of modifications it is making to the equipment. The company said WLOS could tour the plant, provided it sign a nondisclosure agreement forbidding the publication of any of its findings. WLOS did not consent.

No Relief polk county

Milliken & Company Operations is looking for additional relief for a $82,890 water bill. Representatives of the company said they had observed no pressure drop to sound alarms before the bill came, and after it did, it took three days to locate the defective pipe. By that time, an estimated 3 million gallons had leaked out of the line. The Town of Columbus handles water leaks by charging the affected customer 25% of the total bill and forgiving the rest. It also allows customers two bill adjustments per year. The county made Milliken liable for $19,388, but would go no lower. The town council unanimously denied Milliken’s request for further bill adjustment. Milliken then argued it made no sense to pay for sewer treatment, because the water had

gone straight into the creek behind the plant, so it wasn’t treated by the city. But Milliken’s request to pay a $10,000 cap in lieu of the $37,000 billed for sewage was also denied. Milliken’s third tack, attempting to procure a waiver in terms of the economic multipliers resulting from the 25% expansion it is undergoing, which will result in additional water use, was also insufficiently persuasive.

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hospitality, craft beverages, and health care (all frequent topics reported on in this magazine). He cited his more than two decades’ worth of tax/estate planning experience, plus his use of contemporary collaborative technology, as relevant to potential clients in the Asheville area.

Anticipation avery county

The Practice buncombe county

Kentucky-based Worthington Law Firm opened its downtown Asheville office in October, bringing founder/owner James C. Worthington’s trust and estate and tax-planning services to the Western North Carolina region. Worthington holds a Juris Doctor degree from Duke University as well as a Master of Law in Taxation from the University of Alabama, and he began practicing law in 1992, subsequently establishing offices in Louisville, Kentucky. Worthington is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Council, and he explained that his decision to add an Asheville branch was primarily due the similarities he saw between the Asheville and Louisville markets —in par ticu lar, tour ism /

Sugar Mountain is gearing up for its 50th ski season. The resort opened with four lifts and eleven slopes and has since built out to 21 slopes with eight lifts, offering something for beginning, intermediate, advanced, and even expert skiers. The resort also has space for ice skating and snowboarding, and it runs an events calendar through the summer. A documentary celebrating the resort’s history will debut in mid-December. Other causes to celebrate include the new Doppelmayr, four-passenger, highspeed, detachable chairlift. Recently assembled, the chairs will swivel to make it easy for beginners to sit down, and then swivel back for a straightforward ride. The Doppelmayr will replace the resort’s original, two-chair lift, which is also 50 years old. Other improvements include the deployment of one more

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

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high-efficiency, fully-automatic snowmaking machine, the addition of lighting, and the widening of some ski areas. A ceremonial ribbon cutting is scheduled for December 14.

Fashion Loss henderson county

Following accolades received for drastic restructuring, BonWorth has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The retailer of polyester clothing for women over 50 is suffering mainly from changes in fashion sense. Founded in 1966, the business operated over 300 stores at its peak. According to bankruptcy filings, BonWorth now has only 50 stores. Assets, which are being sold off, were valued at $2.5 million, but debts fell into the range of $10-$50 million, with many parties owed five digits or more. BonWorth most recently appealed to the United States Bankruptcy Court for permission to procure a loan to stay afloat during continued downsizing. At the time, the company owed $112,705 in payroll and needed additional liquidity for purchasing inventory. BonWorth currently employs 200 hourly and 15 salaried employees at its stores and headquarters, which remain in Hendersonville. Founder Loren Wells sold the company in 2014 and passed away last year. Under new leadership, strides were made to retail fashions more in-step with current demand.

Mercy Would Be Illegal haywood county

Contractor Tim Bowers says he was blindsided when he was presented with a $37,000 water and sewer capacity fee from the Town of Waynesville. Bowers was building a small commercial structure that would house the All About You salon, Los Amigos restaurant, and a tenant yet to be determined. As the contractor, it was his job to estimate

| December 2019

costs, and in February 2018, when he had asked the town about it, he was given an estimate of $3,500 each for the water and sewer taps. The problem is, the town did not have a capacity fee when he inquired. The fees had been suspended for further study following a lawsuit elsewhere in the state that challenged the practice. Bowers was disappointed that town staff neither warned him that the charge reinstatement was looming nor informed him when it went into effect. He was, however, willing to accept the charges if he could make payments; fees that steep can be deal-breakers for small business owners aspiring to set up shop somewhere. The town is refusing to bend the rules, saying it is forbidden by the state.

DIY IP macon county

The small community of Cullasaja was featured in an article in Broadband Communities. Located at high-altitude, amenity-rich Cullasaja is a popular location for second-home owners fleeing the summer humidity in states further to the south. Cullasaja’s homeowners association (HOA) is also the first on the Highlands-Cashiers Plateau to offer fiber-to-the-home internet to every residence. Like many rural communities with difficult topography, Cullasaja had difficulty finding an internet provider willing to build out that “extra mile” of infrastructure that could never pay for itself. While low-speed DSL had been made available, the system degraded with wear. Connections were so bad, a typical scene of the clubhouse would find “dozens” of homeowners trying to log on due to bad connections at their house. The final straw came when a contractor severed the cable connection to the clubhouse. But unlike other communities, Cullasaja’s residents had the money to do something about it. After four failed negotiations with other providers, Cullasaja entered into an agreement with BalsamWest FiberNET for the installation of infrastructure and

the management of a broadband network, CullasajaNet, which is wholly owned by the Cullasaja HOA. The service provides communications, television, Voice over Internet Protocol, and home security; the bill is built into the HOA dues.

Doubling Interest western north carolina

The second annual Outdoor Economy Conference was deemed a success. Over 530 participated, doubling last year’s sold-out event. Held at Western Carolina University last year, the event moved to Asheville’s Crowne Plaza Resort nestled among outdoor activities that include ziplining, mountain biking, and golf. Attendees came from 39 North Carolina counties and 20 states to hear leaders of successful organizations and companies and representatives of state and federal land management agencies. This year’s theme was “Building an Outdoor Economy,” with focus areas in workforce development, marketing and branding, supply chain management, and recreational assets and infrastructure. The event was organized by the Growing Outdoors Partnership, whose membership includes nonprofits, businesses, governmental agencies, and academic institutions in the 25 westernmost counties of the state. The Gear Expo, a production of the Outdoor Gear Builders of Western North Carolina, ran simultaneously.

The Year Round Folks haywood county

Folkmoot USA is upgrading and remaking the 100-year-old school it purchased 15 years ago. It was first acquired to provide a single housing facility for the 300 folk dancers that came from all over the world to perform at the organization’s once-a-year festival. Changes to the center will align it with changes to Folkmoot’s mission, transitioning to a year-round provider of arts and cultural activities.

In order to rent space to providers of weekly programming and special events that complement the mission, Folkmoot expects to spend $305,000 on HVAC and electrical upgrades. Since purchasing the building, the organization has already invested $1 million in repairs that include upfitting the auditorium, repairing and replacing the roof and windows, and becoming compliant with safety and accessibility codes. Donors will be recognized through a tiered structure of naming rights. To date, major contributions include $100,000 from the Flora Gammon estate, and the Town of Waynesville pledged a $10,000 sponsorship. Additional funding is supported through a lease with the SOAR Academy, an outdoor adventure boarding school for children with attention deficit disorder.

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Hendersonville City Council approved a franchise agreement that would allow a pubcycle to operate on downtown streets. Pubcycles are a growing fad that makes use of a pedal-powered street trolley, often with electrical backup. HVL Pedal and Brews will seat 15, providing room for 10 pedalers, four non-pedalers, and a conductor. The latter will be an employee of the franchise, who will exercise power over steering, braking, and operating the motor as needed. All but the conductor will be allowed to drink beer, wine, and cider on the trolley as it tours on a pub crawl, visiting the city’s breweries. Patrons may either bring their own or purchase carry-out beverages at the stops. No hard liquor will be permissible. Pubcycles are legitimized under state law that allows alcoholic beverages in the passenger areas of vehicles for hire like limousines. The pubcycle will operate Thursdays through Sundays, with the trolley providing non-alcoholic historic tours of the downtown area Saturday and Sunday mornings.

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carolina in the west

“Big”foot Turnout mcdowell county

The Second Annual Western North Carolina Bigfoot Festival, held in Marion, was deemed a success. An estimated 44,000 reportedly packed Main Street “shoulder to shoulder,” coming from as far away as Italy. Things kicked off the evening before with a screening of Harry and the Hendersons, and special activities included a Bigfoot Chase 5K, a Bigfoot calling contest, and a Bigfoot town hall. About 170 vendors maxed out available table space back in February to sell Sasquatch swag and related items. Locals are divided over the merits of the festival. Some say it helps give the town a sense of identity—the mayor just declared Bigfoot the town’s official animal—and boosts business, but others say it makes the town “look stupid.” Coincidentally, a large Sasquatch statue from Mountaineer Landscaping in Linville, Avery County, went missing about a month before the festival, only to be found in the woods after the festival, in a place where the being has been reportedly sighted.

The Costs of Demand western north carolina

Duke Energy has requested an overall 6% rate increase to boost the utility’s

income an additional $291 million a year. The typical residential bill would increase 6.7%; the average commercial bill, 5%. Duke had wanted more before state and federal tax cuts reduced their demand by 3.2%. Duke would apply the funds toward maintaining reliable service while shifting to cleaner energy. More specifically, Duke is closing down coalfired operations as it switches to natural gas and solar plants. It is also involved in major coal ash cleanup operations required by environmental regulators. New technologies being pursued include solar systems, battery storage, microgrids, and electric vehicle charging stations. Funding will also support hardening the grid against cyberattacks, building with self-healing technology that allows systems to self-detect outages and autocorrect, and distributing smart meters that provide customers feedback on usage and alerts. Duke also recently announced the awarding of $1.1 million in grants to 65 North Carolina communities to help them prepare for storm recovery.

| December 2019

Huge Wage Boost western north carolina

More Yum henderson county

The Baker’s Box is moving across town. Owners Mara and George Nicholas have been together for a long time, both working upper-end culinary positions through

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different seasons of life. While they didn’t work for the same companies until they went into business together, some of their previous local employers include the Grove Park Inn, the Radisson Hotel, the Biltmore Estate, the Kenmure Country Club, and Connestee Falls. In 2005, while working for Aramark at the Asheville School and raising their son, Mara launched The Baker’s Box as a sideline. Using fresh, local products, she made wedding cakes and other specialties sold at the Mills River Farmers’ Market for six years before the two decided to get their own storefront. Their latest move situates them in a larger space where they’ll be able to offer an expanded menu with a dine-in option. Catering and carry-out will continue to be available as well. Best known for their occasion cakes, The Baker’s Box also offers baked sweets du jour and sandwiches for carryout, while catering box lunches and gourmet hors d’oeuvres.

HCA, which now owns Mission Health Systems, announced it would pay all employees, nationwide, a minimum of $12.50 an hour. Beginning in October, the change would only affect employees now earning less than that amount. Mission, which now operates as a division of HCA,

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had previously paid a minimum wage of $11. Pay grades with the old minimum were bumped to the new minimum; whereas persons earning $11.35 will now get $12.75, and those earning $12.26 will get $13. Just Economics, an organization pushing for living wages, calculates the living wage for the Asheville area to be $13.65 or $12.15 with employer-provided health insurance. The federal minimum wage, which has not increased since 2009, is $7.25. Mission operates six hospitals, a short-term and long-term acute care system, a Level II trauma center, and several outpatient and surgery centers. It is staffed by 12,000 paid employees and 2,000 volunteers.

Continuing Education jackson, henderson, & transylvania counties

A recent agreement now allows graduates of Blue Ridge Community College (BRCC) to transfer seamlessly to Western Carolina University (WCU). To qualify for direct-entry admission, referred to as the Catamount Blue Ridge Program, though, students must meet certain qualifications. They must be enrolled in a degree-seeking capacity at BRCC, have been “in good standing” at all educational institutions previously attended, demonstrate good citizenship, have a minimum grade point

average of 2.50 for courses taken at BRCC and 2.20 for the last term completed, earn an associate’s degree in a program that accepts the transfer credits, and enroll in WCU within a year of obtaining that degree. They must also, in addition, follow the normal courses of action for applying to WCU, including providing payment for all fees. And, while students meeting all requirements are guaranteed admission to WCU, they may be denied entry to certain programs of study that have their own standards of selection.

More Anticipation watauga county

Gearing up for the 2019-2020 snow season, Beech Mountain has finished the first of two phases of upgrades for making more snow faster and with a lesser carbon footprint. The resort has added several high-tech fan guns and tower guns from Snowmakers, Incorporated. The snowmaking machines will be better supplied through the expansion of the resort’s primary reservoir. Over 6,500 newly-installed feet of wide-diameter water and air delivery lines connect the guns to the reservoir, and 8,000 feet of new, armored electric cable will supply more power to the snowmakers. A new water pumping system, in a totally-renovated pump house, will use a pump skid, manufactured by

Torrent, that automatically activates snowmaking guns as they’re needed. The technology is expected to make possible a longer ski season with fewer interruptions. Beech Mountain has also invested in 17 light towers with LED lighting designed specifically for ski slopes.

Water Woes polk county

Leadership in the Town of Tryon awarded a contract to Cranston Engineering of Augusta, Georgia, for the inspection of the dam at Lake Lanier. Estimates for the study run between $10,000 and $18,000. During a public hearing on the subject, it was asked if this should be cause for alarm. The answer is the inspection was required by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control because of the dam’s age and size; it was constructed in 1924. Lake Lanier is owned by the Town of Tryon even though it is geographically within the borders of South Carolina. There was also discussion at the meeting about South Carolina providing no enforcement for the lake since 1990. Conversations have been ongoing about giving up reliance on the reservoir and sourcing all municipal water from the surrounding mountain streams.

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| December 2019

photo by Linda Cluxton

local industry

Picked out your holiday tree yet? Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have plenty of options because, thanks to the hospitable elevation and climate, Christmas tree farms are abundant throughout Western North Carolina. Unsurprisingly, those farms are making a huge contribution to the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economic climate as well. written by bill kopp

photos courtesy of the north carolina christmas tree association unless otherwise noted .

WNC Christmas Tree December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 37

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Growing a Christmas tree takes, according to Bill Glenn, “a special kind of crazy.”

lenn, who handles marketing for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, knows what he’s talking about. “It takes nine or ten years to grow the product, it has value for only a few weeks, and then it isn’t any good for anything else,” he elaborates. But hundreds of farmers in Western North Carolina are in the business of growing Christmas trees, and, by most accounts, they’re faring well economically. The iconic Christmas tree—a prominent annual fixture of countless homes across the nation in the period between Thanksgiving and the New Year—represents a remarkably significant part of North Carolina’s sustained economic engine. From his office at the WNC Farmers Market in Asheville, Glenn refers to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) publication 2017 Census of Agriculture and notes that North Carolina harvested “just under 4,032,000 Christmas trees in a year.” That figure represents a staggering 26.7% of all Christmas tree production in the United States—our state literally accounts for more than one-fourth of those trees that wind up in living rooms (and shopping malls, and stores, and offices, and…) across the entire country. The primary market for North Carolina-grown Christmas trees is the Southeastern United States, especially Florida. But those trees are shipped all over the country. “We ship to every state in the nation,” says Jennifer Greene, of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association (NCCTA). “We even have growers who ship to Mexico, Canada, Venezuela, and Guatemala.” It’s Greene’s business to know this sort of thing: Since 2009 she has served as executive director for the Boonebased organization representing many of the 860 growers across the state. Quoting from that USDA report, Bill Glenn says that North Carolina’s share of Christmas tree sales in 2017 was in the range of $86.7 million. He points 38

| December 2019

out that that activity spurs additional revenue statewide. “I’m not an accountant,” he emphasizes, with a relieved chuckle, “but I’ve seen economic impact figures up to a quarter billion dollars off of that.”

The Fraser Fir: America’s Christmas Tree It certainly wasn’t always so. The Fraser fir—North Carolina’s primary Christmas tree crop—only took its place in recent years as America’s most popular choice. “Even when I moved to North Carolina in 1991, Fraser fir was still kind of on the ‘other’ list of trees,” Glenn says. Things changed in less than a generation. “In 2017,” he announces with visible pride, “one out every four Christmas trees harvested in the United States was a North Carolina-grown Fraser fir.” Several factors combine to help explain the growth of the North Carolina Fraser fir market. From the supply side, Glenn observes that “it has a number of really good characteristics, especially its needle retention and the way it holds up on retail lots.” A species native to the Appalachian region, the Fraser (botanically known as Abies fraseri) isn’t noted among the easiest trees to grow, but conditions in the mountains of Western North Carolina are well-suited to the tree. Owing to its popularity, if every farmer could grow Frasers, they probably would. “Fraser fir is very particular about where it will grow, and it can be a pain,” Glenn says, “because you might plant a field and they won’t perform well.” Agricultural know-how is therefore essential: “If they weren’t difficult to grow, there wouldn’t be any money in growing them.” He elaborates, explaining that the conditions— elevation, temperature, and rainfall, to name just three—that make a particular plot suitable for growing Frasers are often limited to steep land.

photo by Oby Morgan

“It’s a combination of microclimate, internal soil drainage, and some of the nutrients that are available in the soil. I’ve seen them growing well anywhere from 2,400 to 5,500 feet elevation.” In those cases they’re almost always farmed trees, because in nature, Fraser firs are only found at 5,000 feet or higher. Frasers grow in the wild in relatively few locations in North Carolina. “Just a few places in the Smokies, down in the Richland Balsams, a few around Craggy Gardens, and up on Mount Mitchell,” Glenn says. Beyond the state’s borders, “you’ll find a few [in Tennessee] up on the very peak of Roan Mountain, then on up around Mount Rogers in Virginia.” The Fraser’s rarity is part of its specialness. “I’m convinced that if Fraser fir was not cultivated for Christmas trees, it would be a threatened species. That’s one of the reasons we like it, and like it being so successful. It’s our baby.” Ashe County, north of Boone, is arguably the epicenter of the Christmas tree farming world. “Ashe is the leading Christmas tree growing county in the United States,” Glenn says. “They cut close to 1.9 million trees up there in 2017.” Of those onein-four Christmas trees that come from the Tar Heel state, some 60% are grown in Ashe. “That’s almost one in every eight farmed Frasers in the country,” he says. Even though the Fraser only thrives only in a small area of the state, he notes that it has gained quite a foothold among farmers even beyond Ashe County, saying, “We’ve got about 50 million trees right now in December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 39

local industry

the ground.” That figure represents land use of about 38,000 acres. Still, there are other varieties of Christmas trees grown in North Carolina. Jennifer Greene ticks off a list from memory. “Canaan fir, Concolor fir, Nordmann fir, Turkish fir, blue spruce, Norway spruce, white pine, Virginia pine, Scotch pine… and there are some some cedar and cypress Christmas trees,” she says. But Frasers have cornered that market: More than 94% of all species grown in North Carolina are Frasers.

A Growing Business The reasons for the Fraser fir’s rarity also pose challenges for growers. “That’s why I don’t complain too much about some of the things that limit where we can grow them,” Glenn says. “They’re in a lot of places where you can’t mechanize very much. You have to do a lot of hand work. That six-foot tree that you’ll see on a retail lot has been visited by the grower a hundred times or more before it ever gets to your house.” But growing trees on a farm is further limited by availability of land, especially in Western North Carolina. Glenn says that the Great Smoky Mountains are in fact “ground zero” for the Fraser fir: “They would grow extremely well there. But that’s protected land. The farther you go up the spine of the mountains, the more potentially good fir land is still in private hands.” When starting a Christmas tree farm, the land has to be cleared. But in the spring, when it comes time for replanting, most growers with established farms take a different approach. “You can go in and try to work the stumps out, and then reset,” Glenn explains. “But most growers go back in and literally plant next to the stump from last year’s harvest. You’ve got rows marked; you did all that work the first time. So you just move over six inches off the stump and plant again.” But won’t the farmers eventually run out of usable land? “It hasn’t happened yet,” Glenn replies with a laugh. “Fraser fir’s a pretty soft wood, so the stumps rot out pretty quickly.” One of the ways in which farmers have managed to shorten the time from planting to harvest—and to improve the yield of trees suitable for sale—is by taking the beginning part of the process indoors. In years past, maturity took 12 to 14 years. “But now we’re starting to grow our seedlings in greenhouses rather than outside in seedbeds,” Glenn explains. “So what used to take five years to produce just a little tree to take to the field now is more like two. And we’ve also improved our cultural practices; now we’re getting a six-foot tree in a seven year rotation instead of waiting eight to nine years.” 40

| December 2019

WNC TREE STATISTICS The North Carolina Christmas Tree Industry produces over

26.7%

of the real Christmas trees grown in the United States.

North Carolina Fraser Fir is a

13 Time WINNER

of the National competition to display a tree in the White House:

Winning in: 1971, 1973, 1982, 1984, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2018! More than any other state and tree species in the Nation!

It takes as long as

12 YEARS

to grow a tree to an average retail height of

6- 7

FEET

2017 USDA census of Ag

Those seedlings are available from a variety of sources. “We’ve got some out-of-state growers who are producing trees in greenhouses,” Glenn says. The North Carolina Forest Service has greenhouses of its own for producing seedlings, too. “And a number of our own growers produce their own seedlings. They use those on their own farm and/or sell to other growers.” Jack Wiseman is the owner and winemaker at Linville Falls Winery. He’s also the patriarch of Red Barn Tree Farm, part of the winery’s operations. Wiseman, who was profiled in a December 2016 feature in Capital at Play, started growing Christmas trees on the property in 1968; these days, a choose-and-cut retail operation is part of the business as well. Wiseman’s farm is one of those that is involved in the growing of its own seedlings. “We have our own seed that we have grafted onto our local root stock,” he explains. “We have what we call genetically improved seed that we have developed over about almost 50 years.” That seed eventually yields a faster-growing, more uniformly growing Fraser fir. “We collect our seed then we ship it to Weyerhauser in Shelton, Washington,” Wiseman continues. “They freeze it, and then they plant [a designated] number every spring

in greenhouses.” Each seed goes in its own cell measuring one-and-one-half-inch diameter by about six inches deep. Once that seed is sprouted, it grows one year in the greenhouse, at which point it’s about five inches tall. At that

Most farmers use machinery to plant the seedling on five-foot centers. At that rate, an acre of land can support 1,500 trees. point, Weyerhauser workers take the seedlings and plant them outdoors, where they spend another one to two years growing. “When we receive the transplant that we plant, it’s usually three years old,” Wiseman says. “And it’s probably 16-18 inches tall.” The NCCTA’s Jennifer Greene points out that growing those seedlings in this manner increases the overall success rate of trees once they’re planted. Planting a parcel is relatively straightforward process, Wiseman says. “First, you have to have the transplants available, and you have to have land that’s cleared and December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 41

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unobstructed.” Most farmers use machinery to plant the seedling on five-foot centers. At that rate, an acre of land can support 1,500 trees. “We just plant until the seedlings are gone or until we finish the acreage,” he adds. Those young seedlings need a lot of water, and the facilities for growing them make use of irrigation. Once they’re planted in the High Country of Western North Carolina, nature pretty much takes care of supplying the water that the trees need to thrive. Their maximum need for water tapers off greatly by July. “After that point, they harden off and they go dormant,” Glenn says. “Once the trees are established, they’re very drought tolerant.” He recalls the 2016 season. By October of that year, “We hadn’t had any rain in about 12 weeks. But we had one of the best harvest seasons we’ve ever had; the dry weather really doesn’t hurt harvest.” That perfect conical shape that’s associated with Christmas trees doesn’t happen by itself. “Nature does very little of that,” Glenn explains. “Fraser firs do all of their growing in late May and June.” Starting every year around mid-July, growers are on the farms, clippers in hand. “They’re shaping the trees with a 16-inch shearing knife—it looks like serrated edge straight razor—cutting the new growth off all the way around to get the exact shape they want.” The earlier each season that the trimming is done, the better, because the “bud set” for the following year can start sooner. Do it too late, and blobs of sap will appear at the cut ends. “A big part of shearing the trees is both to get the right shape and to encourage bud set for next year,” Glenn says. “Folks will wait until the trees are two to three years in the field before they start trimming them. But after that point, you’re out there trimming them every year until they’re a harvestable size.”

From Farm to Market By early October most all growers have their inventory complete and the orders booked. At that point, Glenn says, “they’ve been out tagging trees by sizes, by whether the tree is suitable, and they match that up to their inventory.” But he adds that demand always outpaces supply. “Frankly, we could sell [many] more trees than we will have this year.” In fact, a grower who somehow cut down “too many” trees would have no trouble at all selling them. The business of Christmas tree growing is very much a “hurry up and wait” endeavor, even more so than many other kinds of farming. “We start harvest very slowly on November 1 if the weather is cold,” says Jack Wiseman. He knows his land well, having farmed it for more than a half century now. And here, the steep mountainsides provide a built-in advantage. “We have staging areas that the sun never hits,” he explains. “We stand up the cut trees in those staging lots in large numbers.” By “large,” Wiseman is speaking of up to 80,000 trees in each of several staging areas. 42

| December 2019

Smart personal investing for all of life’s seasons

Years of experience have led to organization that displays almost military precision. “We have the different sizes all separated with color-coded ribbon,” Wiseman says. “So, when it comes shipping time—mid-November—we know the sizes without having to measure.” Once shipping starts, trees that have been harvested about ten days previously are strapped down on pallets. “We cover those pallets with burlap so they never see the sun,” Wiseman says. Red Barn Tree Farm schedules its shipments so that all of its retail customers will be fully stocked by Thanksgiving. And Wiseman says that they continue shipping to maintain full stock through the middle of December. “The golden day to ship is the Monday before Thanksgiving,” says Bill Glenn. “The traditional beginning of the season is the Friday after Thanksgiving. Of course, that’s a moving target.” Secondary products represent a healthy percentage of tree growers’ business as well. Glenn estimates that perhaps 10% of growers’ income derives from those sales. “There’s another $6-10 million in wreaths, garlands, swags, and that kind of thing,” he says. “You could find every kind of metal form: candy canes, bow ties, you name it.” And those ancillary products require comparatively more labor to bring them to market. “There’s labor to get the greenery off of the stump or

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secondary trees, and then labor to trim it up into the exact size to go into the wreath,” he says. “There’s a lot more that goes into it. And it takes skilled labor to get really good-looking product.” Estimating demand is critical for North Carolina growers. And for that, one might think they would look to the state’s Department of Agriculture. “I’d like to take a lot of credit for it,” Glenn says, with a chuckle. “But the fact is that the growers have a pretty good grip on it. We planted too many trees in the late ’90s, and it took almost 20 years to sort through all of that. But we’ve been planting a pretty consistent number since the early 2000s.”

’Tis the Season for Workers North Carolina’s Christmas tree growers rely on the Federal government’s H-2A program for seasonal workers. Bill Glenn

| December 2019

says that “a significant” portion of the 5,000 people employed in the industry statewide—that’s both full- and part-time—are

“It’s all much more wellmanaged than it was in those early years; it’s quite a different type business now.” foreign nationals working legally as Temporary Agricultural Workers. The harvesting season is very short, so a large labor

force is needed to bring trees from farm to market. “You have to have the labor right then and there,” Jennifer Greene says. “And if it’s late, delayed by regulatory issues, that just totally messes you up for your entire harvest season. Because you’ve got a two-month window.” Many of those workers are needed again in the spring for planting, though. “There’s not a whole lot to do on the farm between late December and March,” Glenn laughs. “But the workers come back in March, ready to have at it again.” Growers keep an eye on long-term weather trends so that they can begin planting. “You don’t want to be so early that ground freezes and pushes the seedlings back up out of the ground. But as soon as the danger of that has passed, go ahead and get them in the ground; let them get a good root system going.”

A Community of Growers Bill Glenn credits the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association’s effort as the primary driver of the Fraser’s success in the marketplace. “They do an incredible job of promoting Fraser fir,” he says. “Right at 29 years ago, they refocused all of their promotions toward North Carolina-grown Fraser, and it’s paid off.” Jack Wiseman agrees. “Whether you’re in Washington State or Pennsylvania or Michigan, we all make a living doing almost identical work and farming. We do have a whole lot in common.” And computer-based inventorying, estimation, and improvements in logistics have helped change the Christmas tree business. Today it looks very little like it did a half century ago. “It’s all so much faster,” Wiseman says. “It’s all much more well-managed than it was in those early years; it’s quite a different type business now.”

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 45

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Caring For Your

CHRISTMAS TREE Whether you opt for a choose-and-cut or purchase your Christmas tree from a corner lot or retailer closer to home, it’s important to follow some simple and straightforward practices. Those steps will keep your Fraser fir healthy through the holiday season. From the NCSU Cooperative Extension of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, here are some tips:

MAKE A FRESH CUT Wherever you’ve purchased your Fraser fir, when you get it home, cut straight across the tree’s base, removing 1-1/2” before putting the tree in its stand.

USE A BIG ENOUGH STAND Make sure the stand will support the tree and hold at least a gallon of water.

CHECK WATER LEVELS OFTEN A Fraser fir can absorb as much as one gallon of water in the first 24 hours after setup. And it can consume a quart per day after that. Preservatives aren’t really needed; just keep the water fresh and stand full.

AVOID HEAT SOURCES Place the Christmas tree away from heat sources like heater vents, fireplaces, wood stoves, radiators, and sunny windows.

CHECK ELECTRICS Make sure that lights and cords are free from broken bulbs and frayed wiring. Don’t overload electric circuits. Turn off Christmas tree lights before going to bed and whenever leaving home. 46

| December 2019

photos by Todd Bush

Competitors and Other Pests North Carolina growers face some—but not a great deal of—competition from growers in the Pacific Northwest. But the tree varieties are different. “Noble fir is the predominant species in the Northwest,” Glenn says. “Fraser firs don’t do particularly well out there, because their cycle is such that it’s hard to get a good straight top. And we have the exact same problem with Noble fir in the Southeast.” Jennifer Greene says that North Carolina Christmas tree growers’ biggest competitor is China. “Artificial trees!” she explains. Her association endeavors to “promote and educate” consumers as to the benefits of real trees. “Christmas trees are a completely renewable, recyclable resource,” she says. “They help stabilize the soil, and provide refuge for wildlife. They’re grown by American farmers; they’re not produced overseas in factories contributing to pollution.” The federal government lends a hand in getting those messages across. The National Checkoff Program is a suite of more than 20 USDA-administered marketing efforts that promote specific commodities. Slogans like, “Beef: It’s what’s for dinner,” “The incredible edible egg,” and “Got milk?” are all examples of Checkoff programs, paid for in part by fees assessed to producers. Signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014, the Christmas Tree Promotion Board started its work in 2014. “They promote and spread that message about real Christmas trees,” Greene says, explaining that those efforts emphasize the environmental angle, positioning real, domestic trees as vastly superior to plastic imported ones. She points out, though, that more of a threat to the trees themselves are a number of environmental factors: “It’s a

constant battle.” North Carolina growers are closely watching the spotted lantern fly, an insect that threatens grapevines, tree fruit, and woody ornamentals. The fly has been found in New York, Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia. Greene emphasizes that the spotted lantern fly isn’t an indigenous species. “It came from China on a load of imported rocks. We’re constantly battling things like that, because as more things are imported, you’re dealing with the risk of importing pests that could be harmful to any crop.” Another insect that can damage Fraser firs is the balsam woolly adelgid. “It’s a problem in the native stands,” says Bill Glenn, “but it’s very manageable in a cultivated environment.” Tree growers are careful to minimize the use of chemical pesticides, too. (“It’s a lot less than you would think,” Greene says.) Some estimates place the amount of chemicals that find their way onto a Christmas tree grown in North Carolina at around a tablespoon over the course of its entire eight to 12 year growing period. For Christmas tree growers in North Carolina, smart budgetary decisions often dovetail with responsible environmental practices. “Our growers use integrated pest management,” Glenn says. “They’re out there scouting, and they don’t treat until a problem reaches an economic threshold. Insecticides and herbicides are expensive. Using the absolute minimum makes economic sense as well as environmental sense.” He adds that the same thinking holds true for the use of fertilizer. “It’s expensive. You don’t want to put out any more or any less than the tree needs.” Growers do soil testing and use tissue analysis to find out any specific needs that the tree has. Even in years when there’s no harvest, farmers still

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 47

local industry

have to maintain the land, watching for insect and weed problems. When it comes to weeds, Christmas tree farmers don’t have the same issues that some other farmers might. “A lot of our growers aren’t trying to go for bare ground,” Glenn explains. “They try to use low rates of herbicides to stunt the weeds.” What often happens is that the ground around the Fraser firs ends up covered in white clover, a species Glenn describes as “about impervious to any herbicide known to man.” But it’s actually not a problem. “White clover is the perfect ground cover for Christmas trees,” he says. “It holds the soil, adds nitrogen to the soil, yet is very sensitive to the shade.” That means it grows around the trees, but not under them. “When the tree shades it, there’s no competition.”

In the Hands of Consumers Big-box retailers represent a significant portion of sales for the state’s Christmas tree growers, but specific figures are hard to come by. Several years ago a report suggested that orders from Lowe’s, Home Depot, and the like represented about 40% of the market. “Christmas tree growers hold a lot of that information very dear to themselves,” says Jennifer Greene. “They’re careful with what they share, like a lot of farmers in general.” Jack Wiseman, in his 2016 Capital at Play profile, talked a bit about how his sales really started taking off when Lowe’s (at the time, Lowe’s Hardware) approached him about purchasing trees. “They had never bought any real Christmas trees until 34 years ago,” said Wiseman. “They were good people to deal with and kind of local, based right here in the High Country. Now they ship Christmas trees all over the United States. Every year we sell them in the 200,000 tree range, and Lowe’s sells well over a million total trees a year.” Choose-and-cut facilities are perhaps the most prominent and visible Christmas tree farms in the state, but they represent a relatively small percentage of growers. Glenn says that about 150 of the more than 800 growers across North Carolina are set up for consumers to visit, pick a tree, cut it down, and take it home. In a November 2013 Capital at Play profile of choose-and-cut farms, the observation was made that growing trees for people to pick had steadily grown in popularity in Western North Carolina, with many treating it as an annual family ritual of getting out in the fresh fall air and simply enjoying nature. Nearly all of the farms have the added bonus of being beautiful. We reported, “Imagine row upon row of deep 48

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green Christmas trees undulating on hills rimmed with tractor trails. Then imagine the fun your family will have finding the perfect tree. The experience can be so joyful that many owners report that it’s not unusual for couples to announce their engagements.” To further entice customers, some farms even offer refreshments and additional family entertainment such as hayrides, petting zoos and other farm animals, face painting, etc. And as noted above, wreaths, garlands, mistletoe, etc., are available at the farms for one-stop holiday greenery shopping. Some consumers prefer to opt for a living tree, but while they might—for aesthetic or sustainability reasons—think about buying a Fraser fir with a root ball, using it in the house for the holidays, and then planting it in the yard, that’s not likely to go well. “Fraser fir doesn’t transplant well, and it doesn’t live in most of the places where we ship trees to,” Bill Glenn explains. And even if their home is at an elevation suitable for the tree, the time spent indoors will have likely done serious damage. Inside a heated home, “the tree thinks it’s springtime,” Glenn explains. “The sap starts to move up, and then you set them outside, and it’s cold…”

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A Celebrated Consumer: the White House Among the highest profile Christmas trees are the ones installed each holiday season in the White House. And North Carolina Christmas tree growers have played a major role in that tradition, providing the White House tree 13 times since 1971. “We take a lot of pride in that because that’s more than any other state in the nation,” says Jennifer Greene. But most people don’t realize that there’s intense competition for the honor. Each state or regional growers’ association has a competition of its own. “The winners from those contests are then eligible to compete in the National Christmas Tree Association Contest,” she explains. “Two winners are chosen biannually.” The judging is handled by a peer group of growers, and the tradition has gone on since 1966. Judges are looking at specific qualities and measurements. The “handle” (base) of the tree “has to be at least, but no longer than, so many inches.” Greene says. “Same with the top of the tree. They look at things like the taper, the way that it’s been sheared. And they look for things like density and uniformity of balance.”

The winning grower gains the right to deliver its Christmas trees to both the Blue Room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the Vice President’s residence at Washington D.C.’s Observatory Circle. And the 2018 winner was Larry Smith,

North Carolina Christmas tree growers have played a major role in that tradition, providing the White House tree 13 times since 1971. of Mountain Top Fraser Fir in Newland, a perennial North Carolina Tree Association winner on the state level, who had continued on to his fifth national convention. “And then I won the national competition in Green Bay

[in 2018],” Smith says. “It had been a lifelong dream and passion of mine. I set my first trees when I was a senior in high school in 1977.” The contest trees are six to eight feet tall, but the national winner provides a tree measuring more than 12 feet wide and 19 feet tall (the Blue Room’s ceiling is about 18 feet, so the tree gets a bit of a trim). When Smith delivered the tree, he brought the family along to Washington: “I brought my girlfriend, my mom, my kids, and my grandkids.” Smith actually went twice: once, dressed in a suit to present the tree, and then again, during decoration. “For that,” he adds, “I wore my overalls, like I do every day.” North Carolina tree growers take the honor—and the competition—very seriously. “The next competition will be in the North Carolina High Country in 2021,” the Agricultural Department.’s Glenn says. With a sly smile, he adds, “We’re already working on some home cooking for that one.”

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

column

Holiday Gifting Guide

In which our resident beer geeks (translation: experts) lend their expertise to help you find something special for any occasion.

HE HOLIDAYS ARE RIGHT AROUND

the corner. Your to-do list is probably a mile long; and, not only that, your list of people to get gifts for is no doubt equally long. Gift-giving can be a difficult task. Especially for those “tricky” people on your list.

matt vaughan is the owner of Arden’s Craft Centric Taproom & Bottle Shop and Fermented Nonsense Brewing.

You want your gifts to be thoughtful and wellreceived, but you don’t want to spend hours toiling over what to get. With such a fantastic craft beer culture in Western North Carolina, beer can be a great gift of choice, even for those on your list who are craft beer newbies. Choosing a beer for a person can be just as personalized as choosing any other meaningful gift, you just need to know how to choose. Feeling lost in the beer aisle? Let us help!

For That Person Who Insists They Only Like Lite Beer: More and more craft breweries are cranking out fantastic lagers and pilsners these days. Light, easydrinking beer is trending upward, which means you should have plenty of great choices. Both lagers and pilsners are great options for the lighter palates and pair well with food such as light seafood, sushi, grilled pork, and chicken. Local breweries that are putting out tasty choices in this category are Hi-Wire Brewing’s staple Hi-Wire Lager or Burial Beer’s | December 2019

Shadowclock Pilsner. If you want to take the style all the way back to its roots, Bitburger from Germany has been making an excellent pilsner for more than 200 years. Consider checking out Bitburger Pils on draft or in the company’s 16.9-oz cans.

For The Bourbon Or Whiskey Lover: You can’t go wrong with a big, robust, barrel aged stout as a Christmas gift. Barrel aged beers are typically limited releases and a little pricier. It’s because they take potentially years to make. Once the stout is brewed, it will sit in a bourbon or whiskey (or wine or gin or... the list goes on) barrel for months to years, soaking up all that it can from the barrel and aging. What comes of that is a complex stout with richer flavors and notes of whatever type of barrel it aged in. If you have someone on your list who loves their bourbon or whiskey but you want to bring them over to the beer side, look for anything that says bourbon or whiskey barrel aged on the label. These types of wood-aged beers typically are

NATURE’S JEWELS

om the worl r f y o J d

Sustainably harvested tagua nut is an organic alternative to plastic, more readily available as the season changes. Consult your good for the earth, favorite beer shop for the most recent releases, as beers for safe for makers, the season tend to change expeditiously. lovely for you.

e th ic a l gl o ba l

gi f t

For The Person Who Always Orders Those Fancy Seasonal Lattes At Starbucks:

Seasonal beers are an excellent choice for gifts during the winter season. A winter spiced ale will typically have flavors such as cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, or gingerbread. They can be subtle or in your face, depending on the beer. In Western North Carolina one of the more popular beers with this style is Cold Mountain, from Highland Brewing. Their packaging is great for gifts, and the beer has notes of vanilla, hazelnut, dark fruit, and cinnamon. Another beer to look for is Ninjabread Man, from Asheville Brewing Company, which is a porter with, as you might expect, gingerbread notes.

WITH THIS LIST, WE’RE SURE YOU’LL BE ABLE TO PICK OUT SOME AWESOME BEER GIF TS. Sample barcode shown in ad.

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We have recently noticed that,http://thewire.tenthousandvillages.com/node/23462 even for those who are scared of a bitter IPA, people have fallen in love with New England IPAs. They’re more approachable for someone just getting into craft beer and IPAs. New England IPAs, also known as hazy IPAs or northeastern IPAs, very little bitterness Tenhave Thousand Villages stores—Ad Template* Tagua 2017 — Coupon and project more citrus and juicy flavors than a typical IPA. 3 column (6.37") x 6" They’re purposefully hazy in appearance and have a creamyand-smooth mouthfeel. A mix four-pack of New England IPAs © Ten Thousand Villages would be a wonderful gift idea forPermission someonetodipping toes use this their resource as it appears adding your store information. in the vast waters of craft beer. Any alterations or use of graphic elements apart from this design must be approved by the Ten Thousand Villages Marketing Department, (717) 859-8170. Look for any IPA from Revision Brewing Company out of * Resourceshazy are now available to internal audiences on The Village Wire, Ten Thousand Villages’ intranet site. Sparks, Nevada, which makes excellent IPAs; or, more If you do not have a login and user password, contact Customer Service, who will set up your access rights. locally, Neon Ghosts from Bhramari Brewing. And Newgrass Electronic files(near for thisCharlotte), ad are available in Adobe InDesign® CS5 and Adobe Acrobat PDF 7.0. Brewing Co., out of the small town of Shelby is cranking out some amazing smooth-drinking, northeasternstyle IPAs as well.

***

GIVING THANKS

Armed with this list, we’re sure you’ll be able to pick out some awesome beer gifts this holiday season. If you still find yourself stuck, don’t be shy about stopping by your local craft beer shop—there is always a beer geek willing to lend their expertise to help you find something special for any occasion.

The Y has been strengthening the local community since 1889, thanks to generous public support. Our donors are helping us transform the health and well-being of children, families, adults, and seniors throughout the region. The Y.™ For a better us.

Mr. Vaughan additionally credits Dale Murphy, Craft Centric’s Cicerone Certified Beer Server, Bartender, Event Coordinator, and Social Media Manager

» ymcawnc.org « YMCA OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

THE OLD

NORTH

STATE [

news briefs

Supplanting Antibiotics greensboro

North Carolina A&T’s Dr. Omoanghe Isikhuemhen is raising mushrooms with hopes of empowering the livestock industry to raise farm animals without antibiotics. Isikhuemhen grew up harvesting mushrooms in the tropical rainforests of Nigeria, and, while attempting to study other subjects in the field of botany, he seemed to keep defaulting to mushrooms. The shiitake is naturally rich in nutrients and medicinal properties, so Isikhuemhen began working with graduate student Dietrich Blum, developing new strains with recombinant DNA that were screened for additional health benefits. NC A&T now has the largest reserve of that mushroom in the Western Hemisphere, with 600 new strains developed in addition to the 100

]

already stored. To date, Isikhuemhen has studied the effects of replacing antibiotics with mushrooms on poultry at NC A&T, as well as swine at Purdue University. The research is funded with assistance from the Golden Leaf Foundation and the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, which award grants to persons developing alternatives to tobacco farming in the state.

glass wrapping partially around the sides. McGonigal used to own a glass business in Pennsylvania before moving to vacation property he owned in Kure Beach. It took the family four years to design the glass house, which replaced their vacation bungalow. McGonigal said his home’s glass is thicker than a car windshield’s. It is rated as being able to withstand winds of 150-160 miles per hour or a 2x4 flying into it straight-on at 80 miles per hour. Windspeeds during Hurricane Dorian maxed out at 63 miles per hour. The family opted to shelter in-place during the storm, and the house survived without a scratch. McGonigal reported the family could feel the glass vibrate, and he put his head against the glass to feel it fluctuate with gusts. The only difference between a glass house and other structures, he said, was he had a better view of the storm action.

Confucius Wrong?

Fish Story

kure beach

The glass house in Kure Beach survived Hurricane Dorian. It was built by Bill McGonigal last year and actually consists of floor-to-ceiling glass supported by marble framing on its beachfront, with the floor-to-ceiling

wrightsville beach

Motts Channel Seafood, a fish market specializing in fresh catches, received a 117-pound black grouper that was almost six feet from end to end. A diver on the boat Orion reportedly speared the

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catch not far away. Motts launched in 1990 when founder Gene Long wanted to revive, at least in part, the traditional shops that flourished before the fishing industry waned. Long wanted his shop to be experiential in the old-fashioned way, with strong customer service and connection to community. The store continues to be owned and operated by Long’s family, his wife and children often helping around the store. The family also enjoys fishing to supply their own “catch of the day.” Large groupers are not entirely unheard-of; YouTube every so often features a video of the capturing of a “Goliath” or a “monster that weighed more than the boat.” Last year, a 500pound grouper was spotted off the coast of Everglades City, Florida.

duplicated stock items, she settled for over 80 vendors. Offerings will include artisan furniture, clothing, soap, and candles. The store has been described as Etsy or Pinterest on steroids. Three months ago, Twigg purchased the old Town and Country Antique Mall building, a real fixer-upper that had also served as an automobile dealership and newsroom. Renovations included redoing the lights and HVAC, painting and finishing the floors, adding windows, redoing the entry, and exposing the trusses for what is described as a “farmhouse-chic” look. To stir interest before the opening date, Twigg posted updates advertising giveaways from future vendors.

aberdeen

Molly Twig g relocated to Moore County with aspirations of showcasing local talent, which is something she did with Bluebelle Home Décor and Gifts in Columbus Georgia. She founded Twigg & Company a year later. She sent out a call for vendors in January, and the response was so tremendous, she had to jury the applicants. Winnowing out

Steve Vasilakakis, sells two products, the Helios Solo and the Helios Duo. Both are indoor lighting boards fit with 288 and 576 Samsung LED lights, respectively. Admittedly a niche industry, Folux already has customers in ten countries. Future ambitions include opening a bona-fide warehouse, to replace his mother’s townhouse, in the next few years and filing in Louisiana to become a publicly-traded company. Webb might also expand the product line to offer more suitable lighting for small-scale gardeners.

Adding a Human Angle gastonia

Plant Food Fast Chic

the old north state

durham

Folux Solutions, an agricultural technology company, is in the business of marketing LED light fixtures for largescale, indoor plant-growing operations. Founder Daniel Webb is 18 years old, and he said he pursued the business for the same reasons he got interested in gardening: it paid the bills and was something he could wake up in the morning feeling passionate about pursuing. The company, which was cofounded with

Owner Raj Mirchandan has relocated Bedazzled Bridal & Formal from its home for 17 years in Eastridge Mall. The business is now in a standalone, two-story, brick building, the former location of Allen Tate Realtors. Mirchandan hopes the move, among other strategies, will help set his business apart in a burgeoning industry. Like other successful modern businesses, Bedazzled is going to focus on experiential relationship-building. Brides-to-be, with their entourages, will be greeted at a welcome desk and ushered to a waiting lounge where

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December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

Don’t stop now

the old north state

friends and family can be on-hand to provide input on gowns and be comfortable between changes. The bride, in turn, will get wardrobe consultation and be able to try on various gowns in a private booth. Mirchandan hopes customers visiting his store for prom and party dresses will also have a great experience, and that clientele will be loyal for generations to come.

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High Point University has received a $5 million gift from the Kahn family. Ken Kahn is a trustee living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The gift will support the hotel that is being built as part of the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena and Conference Center. Once built, the hotel will provide hands-on learning experiences for students in the school’s event management and hospitality programs. It will double as a teaching facility offering 30 residential rooms, a fine dining restaurant, and meeting space. It will also bear the name of its benefactors. The couple also recently gave the school an endowment to fund what will be known as the Kenneth F. and Jana S. Kahn Extraordinary Staff Awards. Since 1977, Ken has been the president of LRP Media Group, a multimillion-dollar business serving business and education professionals. He also serves on a number of other boards. His wife, Jana, is the chief marketing officer for LRP.

Wiping Those Drives statesville

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The private equity firm New Capital Partners has agreed to back SMR Worldwide. SMR is a recycler that specializes in the handling of electronic equipment that may still contain sensitive data at its time of abandonment.

Services include data destruction, decommissioning, redeployment, marketing, and regular recycling. In the trade, this is known as ITAD, which is short for information technology asset disposition. The company will use the additional funds to add facilities and introduce new services. SMR was founded in 2014 by Shely Li and Arun Karottu while they were students at Duke University. The duo’s mission for the business is to provide customers turnkey, thorough, and environmentally-sensitive ITAD. NCP Principal Paul Pless was interested in the business for what he considered “meeting a critical need [with] best-in-class transparency and analytics [for] a diverse group of Fortune 1000 customers.” In its 2014 funding round, SMR exceeded targets, raising $230 million.

Tax Credit - Not raleigh

Following a year of legal turmoil, Monarch Private Capital is asking the North Carolina Department of Revenue and Secretary Ronald Penny for a declaratory ruling renouncing their position. Monarch claims the state acted illegally in reneging on tax credits promised to its clients. The suit involves almost $1 billion in investments. For almost two decades, the state had provided 35% tax credits to investors in solar. It also allowed itself to pay those credits over several years. When the tax credits were terminated in 2015, the view prevailing in the court of public opinion was that the unpaid credits should have been grandfathered and honored. However, in a different case involving an Atlantic City business in 2012, the US Court of Appeals ruled that a technology company was not a legitimate partner in a limited liability corporation, and that transactions between partners represented sales and not investments because the “investing” partners were not facing true entrepreneurial risk. The

problem started around January 2018, when investors in Monarch-sponsored partnerships started getting audit notices from the state focusing on the tax credits.

A Stretch, But … winston-salem

R J Reynolds Vapor Company is seeking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) premarket approval for multiple Vuse e-cigarette products. Reynolds claims the e-cigs are an electronic nicotine delivery system that both helps people quit smoking and reduces second-hand fumes; and, therefore, is “appropriate for the protection of the public health.” To apply for approval, Reynolds must provide the FDA with information on the composition and design of the e-cigs, as well as the processes used in manufacturing them. Data from toxicological and behavioral studies must also be collected and analyzed. Reynolds says that, to date, it has provided the FDA with over 150,000 pages of evidence supporting its claim. Some find it ironic that Reynolds is now having to jump through the hoops of the approval process for which it originally lobbied to protect its industry from lateral entrants. Unironically, Reynolds has sufficient funding to win at the game. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control continue to receive reports of vaping-related illness and death, which Reynolds considers not germane to their argument, as most of the problems are associated with products containing THC.

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Closed-Loop Economics raleigh

Emily Neville, a political science major at NC State University, has founded Reborn Clothing Company as a means of recycling cast-off textiles. Neville

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the old north state

observed universities were goldmines for unwanted fabric, which can take the form of dated event shirts, athletic uniforms, and promotional banners. Neville has formed partnerships with NC State, Duke University, Appalachian State University, Eastern Carolina University, UNC-Wilmington, and UNC-Chapel Hill to collect unwanted textiles that can be made into school swag ranging from koozies to dog beds. It is hoped colleges will pay as much attention to how they responsibly dispose of fabrics as they do to sourcing. Student uproar, for example, has forced some schools to discontinue purchasing team spirit gear from countries that allow factory workers to be taken advantage of. Neville is currently working on attaining vendor status with Barnes & Noble so she can sell her gear at student bookstores.

Cluster Cluster high point

Creative Snacks has been acquired by K IND Healthy Snacks. In 2009 Hilary and Marius Anderson founded the smaller company to sell “better-foryou,” cluster-style snack bars and trail mixes. The company has since grown to

employ 201 and bring in $55 million in annual revenue. It now retails from over 20,000 locations including recent bigname adds like Aldi, CVS, and Safeway. While Creative Snacks was founded and headquartered in North Carolina, it has been particularly popular on the West Coast, with a lot of business coming from online orders. Among its many awards and recognitions, the company boasts it is now the go-to supplier of almond clusters and coconut snacks in the United States. Since its infancy, the company turned heads with its unprecedented growth. KIND is a New York-based, privately-held company, whose snack bars are familiar to just about anybody these days. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

unicorn. Pendo is a software firm that uses behavioral analytics to improve business websites. CEO and cofounder Todd Olson said Pendo, “helps companies create software that users love.” Unlike others in the field, Pendo aims to identify for businesses, “what their customers want, why customers come back, [and] what drives them away.” Pendo still has not spent the $50 million raised last year, but it intends to use recent funding for advertising in order to expand sales geographically and to improve and diversify its offerings through engineering, investment, and acquisition. Toward this end, Olson has already purchased firms in England and Israel. Olson is also interested in hiring more engineers, indicating one can never have enough.

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Pendo has raised another $100 million in funding from its eighth round. Sapphire led this round, as it did last year’s. Tiger Global and General Atlantic also contributed significantly. The company has raised $206 million since it was founded six years ago. This brings the company’s value to $1 billion; in other words, it is a

valdese & morganton

Tires Plus Tire Pros is expanding to Morganton. Over 30 years ago, Ronnie and Donna Lefever launched a tire store with three bays in Valdese. Since then, it has grown to a full-service garage with 10 bays, and the workload justifies the opening of a second location in

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Morganton. The new site will be a clone of the Valdese site. With 19,200 square feet of building space, it will be able to service 12 vehicles simultaneously. Both locations will sell tires for cars, trucks, and agricultural machinery from big names in the industry, like Goodyear, Bridgestone, Cooper, Firestone, Uniroyal, Hercules, and Michelin. As a franchise of Tire Pros, a subsidiary of American Tire Distributors, Tires Plus can offer nationwide roadside assistance and financing options. The service station will handle routine jobs like vulcanizing, oil changes, tune-ups, and state inspections. It will also do everything from brake and muffler jobs to major and minor transmission and engine repair. The Lefevers expect the location, on one of the busiest highways in Morganton, will help with business.

They Won’t Say

foundation, the nonprofit that received the gift, is not. The amount is remaining secret at the request of the donor, Jerry Wordsworth. Jerry and his siblings founded Meadowbrook Meat Company, a foodservice distributor, which they sold in 2012 when it was doing $6 billion annually in business. Jerry and his brother Steve were also co-owners of the Carolina Panthers. Wordsworth said his unrestricted gift was an expression of his appreciation for the lawyers who helped him succeed in business, and he wanted to support the training of business lawyers “holding the highest ethical standards.” The dean of the school, Martin H. Brinkley, was MBM’s lead outside counsel for 20 years. He received the gift as a vote of confidence in the school’s support for the rule of law. Wordsworth recently made another gift of an undisclosed, substantial amount to the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

chapel hill

The University of North Carolina School of Law received the largest single cash gift in its history, but it is keeping the amount a mystery. It is able to do so because, even though the school is a public entity subject to Freedom of Information Act requests, its

Getting Stuff out There raleigh

Ray Williams did not particularly like the way he was portrayed in Rocketman, the recent fantasy biopic of Elton John.

Williams is credited with discovering Elton John with an ad he placed in New Musical Express while working as the A&R guy for Liberty Records. Williams received thousands of responses and read through or listened to them all. He thought one respondent, Reginald Dwight (later Elton John), had potential, so they made some demos that fizzled at Liberty. Williams was sympathetic to Dwight’s feelings of inadequacy as a lyricist, so he hooked him up with another respondent, Bernie Taupin. The pair went on to record over 30 albums together, with Williams managing their career for the first five years. Though only 20 when he placed that ad for Liberty, Williams said he was already an industry veteran and not the naïve, inexperienced character portrayed in the movie. But, since, “any publicity is good publicity,” Williams hopes the documentary will call attention to his startup, Crumbs Music Media. The online menu is designed to help rising stars license their media without having to go through the “small army of publishers, managers, and others” that daunts even industry insiders. Crumbs keeps a menu of songs that users can preview and license, non-exclusively, with a credit card. Exclusive licenses, Williams said, need a good negotiation process.

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Candlestick written by derek halsey photos by anthony harden

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Makers

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THE ZIEGLERS make any kind of candle you can think of.

THERE IS A CONSTANT, BUSTLING STREAM OF tourists walking the streets of Blowing Rock, North Carolina, on this October day. In and around this long-time resort town, the autumn leaves are just beginning to turn, especially on the historic and beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway, which is just a couple of miles away.Â Â Sitting at 4,000 feet above sea level, on the rim of Johns River Gorge, Blowing Rock has been a beloved destination for well over a century. On this afternoon, as with every day, many of the tourists who are exploring the small downtown area are walking into the High Country Candles shop. Open since 1994 and owned and run by Larry and Cyndi Ziegler, all the candles are made by the husband and wife team. Their son, Luke, recently joined the lineup as well, realizing his own talents with wax and creating his exclusive mushroom candle designs. 62

| December 2019

All of the candles are made in-store, providing the constant influx of curious guests a chance to walk in and see these gorgeous candles carved right in front of them. Making finely crafted, unique candles is a matter of science, equipment, oils, lotions, and potions, and a mastery of layers and colors. It is a fascinating process, and that is not lost on young and old alike who witness it. Throughout this autumn day, folks in their twenties and thirties walk into the old and quaint building that houses the High Country Candle shop and let Larry and Cyndi know that they had been in the store when they were kids. They have longstanding memories of being fascinated by the candle-making technique. One young man has made a point of bringing in his girlfriend to show her the newly-made creations and to introduce her to the Zieglers. As he stands there smiling, he is thrilled that the candle-making process is still as fascinating

to him as it was 15 years earlier. Another young lady walks in minutes later and relates nearly the same story. Thirty years ago, however, the Zieglers would probably not have believed that candle making would be in their future, much less turn into an entrepreneurial journey that would see them struggle, yet ultimately persevere in a new business endeavor. Larry and Cyndi are from Miami, Florida, which is a long way from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. Once married, they were just trying to find their way in the world. Little did they know that there was a talent hidden in them, a creative gift would one day involve the heating, forming, dipping, coloring, and carving of wax into beautifully-adorned and one-of-a-kind candles. That unexpected artistic revelation appeared in the form of friends who needed a favor.

***

On this sunny day, Cyndi Ziegler sits with me on a stone wall beside Main Street in Blowing Rock and tells the story of High Country Candles. “In Miami I was a teacher who taught high school English to seniors, which meant that every night when I came home I was grading multiple papers,” says Ziegler. “I loved it. But, I wanted to stay home with my little girl, who was about a year and a half old, and I was pregnant with my second child. It was one of the few times in my life when I said, ‘I can’t do it all.’ I just knew that I couldn’t do it, and I wanted to stay home for a few years. When I quit teaching, that cut our income in half. My husband taught school for a while, but we decided to move to Atlanta, of all places, and stay with my family there. Larry was pursuing another job, so we moved out of our apartment and we had six weeks until we would get another place. During those six weeks, however, that company told us that the job December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 63

CYNDI SHOWING customers how the candle glows when lit.

| December 2019

had fallen through. We were stuck. But then, he began a job loading trucks back in Miami.” Back now in Florida, while Larry worked at night on the loading dock, Cyndi reunited with a friend who had candle making in her family background. “My friend asked me to help her make candles in her garage,” says Ziegler. “It was in the middle of the summer, in a garage in south Florida, with no air conditioning. We were both pregnant at the time, and it was just crazy. Larry came in to help us one day, and that is when he realized that he was good with his hands. He did not know that he had any artistic ability at all until that day. He got really good at making candles right away. For a couple of years, we would help our friends sell candles at the mall every Christmas. Then, we helped her sister’s candle business for about four years in Savannah, Georgia.”

“‘I want to start my own candle business, but you cannot get a business loan for raw product.’ And that is true, because if your business fails, they can’t reclaim raw product like plain old wax that you have yet to turn into something valuable.” That is when the next step in the High Country Candles story happened, as bit by bit, the Zieglers were unknowingly making their way to a part of the world that they had never heard of—as in, the North Carolina mountains. But, there were some stops in between that proved to be fateful. “We ended up running a temporary candle store that we set up at a mall in Greenville, South Carolina,” says Cyndi Ziegler. “That was how we were going to raise our start-up money to create our business. Before that, however, when we still worked for our friend in Savannah down by the riverfront for those four years, Larry was already good at making candles, and we wanted to start our own business. But we thought it would be rude to start a business and compete in the same area as our friends, so we worked the mall in Greenville, about three hours away.” Life in Savannah was a far cry from the big city that was Miami. The relatively small-town feel in this part of coastal Georgia made it easy for the Zieglers to make friends. December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 65

“We had a friend named Chuck who ran a restaurant downtown by the river, and Larry ate there every Friday because Chuck made the best jambalaya,” Cyndi says. “Because of that, they became friends, and one day Chuck said, ‘What is on your mind? I can tell that something is on your mind.’ Larry said, ‘I want to start my own candle business, but you cannot get a business loan for raw product.’ And that is true, because if your business fails, they can’t reclaim raw product like plain old wax that you have yet to turn into something valuable. That was challenging. So, Chuck says to Larry, ‘How much would you need?’ The amount was about $8,000 or so. The next day, Chuck calls Larry and says, ‘Hey, come on down and eat lunch with me again.’ “Larry walks in and Chuck hands him a check and says, ‘Here you go. I have watched what you have done with this business for the last four years and I believe in you.’” 66

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CANDLES ARE MADE, packaged, and sold all in their store .

The restaurant owner shook Larry’s hand and told him to go and create a store for the Christmas season, pay him back, and then teach him how to make candles somewhere down the road. So, off to the mall in Greenville they went, with Larry building the kiosk by hand out of wood. The plan was for Larry to make the candles in a room in their place in Savannah and take care of the kids while Cyndi went to Greenville to sell their goods at the mall; she could stay with family who lived in the area. Before the season had ended, the Zieglers’ candle products were a hit, and they sold out all of their stock. In Greenville an encounter with a stranger led the Zieglers to another unexpected yet inspired fork in the road, and they took it. “We met a man in Greenville who was older and very wealthy,” continues Cyndi. “He used to come by and watch me make candles all of the time, and one day he says, ‘You should go to Blowing Rock.’ I had never heard of Blowing Rock before, but

he would say, ‘Oh, you got to go there. That would be a perfect place for you.’ I originally thought it would be like one of those old folk retirement villages or something. But, after we sold out our candles by Christmastime, we grabbed our kids and came here to Blowing Rock, only so we could see some snow. It was after Christmas Day and we stayed at the Cliff Dwellers Inn.” The Zieglers got the full wintertime treatment when they arrived in the middle of a wind and ice storm. And, because Christmas was in the recent rear view mirror, most of the shops were closed down and few people were on the streets. (Blowing Rock residents will no doubt sympathize.) “The wind was blowing through the door and we were tucking the kids’ underwear into all of the door cracks,” recalls Cyndi. “We came to downtown Blowing Rock and everybody was closed, except for a store that was open that had a sign on the door that said, ‘For Lease.’ She was the only business open, and she talked to us for a while about retail life in Blowing Rock. December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 67

THE GREEN AND RED color scheme is their most popular during the holiday season.

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LARRY HAND-DIPPING the candles before carving.

She was so nice—we became friends later on, and she passed away not long ago. On that day, she said, ‘Look, you guys have three kids. I’m going to tell you, I don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t think you are going to make it.’ Back then, the season did not start until June, and she didn’t think we would make money until then.”

“Larry was sleeping on a mattress in the store while he remodeled it. We officially opened up on March 17, and we had five candles on the shelves.” The next day, the Zieglers called the landlord and discovered there was a lady who was running a boutique, that was tired of it, and wanted out. So the Zieglers bought it, which included the lease, plus an air conditioner and a ceiling fan. The store space was in the famous Martin House, which used to be a resort many decades ago. They then took their mall kiosk apart and used the wood to build shelves in their new store. December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 69

“Before we moved up here from Savannah, we met a man who had stacks of glass shelves for sale and he says, ‘You can have all of them for $20, but you have to take it all at once,’” says Cyndi. “Larry was sleeping on a mattress in the store while he remodeled it. We officially opened up on March 17, and we had five candles on the shelves. It was a pretty day and we thought maybe someone would come to town and buy some candles, and we sold a few things that day and made $100. Once we had moved here, we would drop the kids off at school, come in early, and begin to make candles. People would come in, and soon we were selling enough product to buy groceries and then eventually to pay our rent. It was really hard for the first couple of years, but the people here were so good to us. People are different when they shop in a resort town than when they shop at a mall—they appreciate little mom-and-pop businesses who make things with their hands.”

*** Soon, Larry and Cyndi realized that folks really do like to see candles made and carved in person. They also branched out to make pillar candles and wonderful jar candles that contain three layers of unique fragrances, including one that features a clover and aloe mix, followed by lemongrass, and then their Stormy Night scent. The layered jar candles that are popular now came about through countless trials and experimental combinations of colors, oils, waxes, and scents made in their basement. Research and development on a small scale is still the way of the High Country Candle shop. The multi-scented jar candles became so desired at High Country Candles that the store began a program whereby if someone brings back the cleaned jar, they can get it refilled with one third of the price taken off the tag. A few years ago, Larry took a class at nearby Appalachian State University on pottery making, and that sparked yet another artistic endeavor that he has excelled at since then. Now, his distinctive pottery lines the shelves next to the rest of the hand-made items, and his work is proving to be an excellent addition to the product line. 70

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THE ZIEGLERS have learned that customers love to watch them create their works of art.

In the Martin House building, High Country Candles shares the multi-use edifice with several other shops, such as a quilt maker, a sustainable coffee importer and brewer, a book author, and more. All of the proprietors are friends, and the atmosphere is delightful. Business was going good for the High Country Candle shop—and then 2008 happened. The Great Recession affected many aspects of the economy, especially tourism, and that had a negative affect on stores that depended on tourism. Eleven years ago, the Zieglers had to scramble to stay afloat. “Back at that time, people could barely afford the gas to get up to the mountains, and if they did, they would get an ice cream and wander around and not buy anything,” says Cyndi. “So, my husband started doing handyman work because he is good at his hands and can do tile and sheet rock and things like that. I ran the shop while he did that other work, and if it wasn’t for our loyal customers, we would not have made it. People would come up and say, ‘We planned to do our Christmas shopping with you this year because we don’t want your business to go under.’ It was really rough as we almost lost our house a couple of times. But we eventually got back on track by 2011.” December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

Being able to develop a loyal customer base of the nature that High Country Candle experiences is not a given. The Zieglers have a knack for treating people right, which should be part of the business model of any retail operation, but is, sadly, not always the case in retail.

to walk in our store and all we think is, ‘I hope you buy something.’ Then, you look at them differently. It was a challenge at first, and I asked God to help me not think of people in that way.”

***

“We love our customers and we care about their worth and their value as people. That is how I feel about my store.” “Our customers are why I come to work every day,” she explains. “People are great, and everybody has a story. One of the things that is challenging when you are in retail is to not just look at people as dollar signs. Yes, I am proud of my products and I want people to buy my things and everything that goes with that, but I don’t want people CAPDec19

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2:05 PM

One day, a woman walked into the High Country Candle shop and seemed out of sorts, yet she was approached with the usual hospitality. “It was the dead of winter in February when this lady walked in, and I’m making a candle, and she hangs out for a few minutes to watch,” says Ziegler. “The lady said, ‘Do you mind if I hang out here for a while, because it is so peaceful?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ So, we are talking with each other and she tells me that her name is Grace. I said, ‘Oh, I love that name.’ She said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because of what it means. In Hebrew, that word means ‘loving kindness’. In Greek, in the New Testament, the word means something different, as in, ‘God has grace for everyone.’”

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| December 2019

Cyndi remembers catching herself and then adding, “But if you do not believe in God, I don’t want to talk about this because I feel it would be pushy.” The lady responded in a way that was spontaneous and simple, yet startling, revealing a perceived truth that was well-worn inside her mind and heart: “I used to believe in God, but I have been so bad.” “I said, ‘Oh honey, this is why you have to remember what your name means because you are loved no matter what,’” says Ziegler, tears forming in her eyes at the memory. “So, we talked for a little while, and I suggested that she read some passages in the Bible, so as to see and learn about how God feels about her. She said, ‘Can I make a phone call in the other room, as it is kind of private.’ She then hugged me and said, ‘Thank you,’ and left. “About five months later, she walks back into my store with her sister and she introduces me. She says, ‘Do you remember me?’ I said, ‘Yes. Your name is Grace and we talked for about two hours.’ As her sister walks into the other room to buy a candle, she comes back over to me alone and says, ‘The day I walked in your store was the day I had planned to take my life.’”

Cyndi is wary about telling that story because the purpose of the High Country Candle shop is not to proselytize, but instead be a positive force for good, create quality hand-made products, and simply treat people of all walks of life with respect and good intentions. But on that day, the situation called for positivity. “This is the way I am wired,” she confides. “We love our customers and we care about their worth and their value as people. That is how I feel about my store. Larry is usually very quiet, although when he is up there making candles, you would never know it because he has to be talkative then. But he is the kind of man where, if we are at a gas station somewhere and he sees someone who is in need, he’ll just go over and put gas in their tank. We are different. My gift is words, and he is behind the scenes doing good things.”

With most of life’s little daily worries like home and yard maintenance and housekeeping taken care of, you’re free to focus on your total health – body, mind and spirit. The beautiful setting, wonderful new friends, and newly discovered interests keep you engaged, active and happy! Call to schedule a visit and discover a holistic approach to a joy-filled retirement at Deerfield. Asheville, North Carolina 800-284-1531 deerfieldwnc.org December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 73

& sw ee t

savory

~2019~ written by marl a hardee milling

| December 2019

leisure & libation

It’s our favorite time of year again,

when we seek out cottage industry entrepreneurs in Western North Carolina who are putting their hearts and souls into producing edible and nonedible products that delight and inspire the buyers. These businesses, which we call “cottage industries,” take shape in the basements, barns, certified kitchens, garages, and, yes, even cottages of our region. This year, we introduce you to six unique area businesses that produce a range of products— fermented foods, fire cider, hot jam, herbal teas, skin creams and lotions, and concert blankets. Two of the businesses—Cara Mae Potters’ Skin Butter and Tarpestry—took the “million-dollar” business suggestions that friends offered and ran with them. Other business owners we are profiling created their products out of necessity as ways to sustain and provide for their households. The one common factor, though, is that they all admit that it’s been a trial and error learning process. Yet they are steadily reaching new levels of growth, and that should be a source of inspiration for their fellow entrepreneurs.

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 75

photo by Carlisle Harris

leisure & libation

Cara Mae Potters’ Skin Butter Cara Steinbuchel’s eyes grow wide in amazement when she counts the number of years she’s been producing and selling hand cream. She began her venture 15 years ago—that’s quite a milestone for someone who never really thought she’d own a business. She started creating the first batches in a back room of the Mud Hunter pottery shop on Broadway Avenue in downtown Asheville. Today that space is occupied by Brusin’ Ales beer shop, and Cara fills jars of her small batch lotions in her West Asheville home. Cara moved to Asheville in 2004 after receiving her art degree from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. “I moved here to work in galleries,” she says. A help wanted sign in the window at Mud Hunter Pottery caught her eye. She applied and earned the title of co-manager. The owner quickly put a challenge to Cara. Tired of suffering with dry hands from working with clay, she offered Cara seed money to buy the equipment and ingredients to produce a non-greasy lotion that could be a potter’s salvation. Making lotion was a brand new endeavor for Cara, but she loved science and loved experimenting. She bought a book, did some online research, and also lucked into the generosity of another body products maker in Asheville. “Alicia Armstrong Chatham gave me a basic recipe and a laundry basket full of ingredients,” recalls Cara. “Each of those ingredients had information on the label about where she got them from. She was done. She had her son and was also doing painting and didn’t think she could sustain it anymore. So instead of handing me a torch, she handed me a laundry basket full of ingredients. I still have that laundry basket.” Cara experimented with the recipe and ingredients until hitting on the right formula for a lotion that she says some of her customers call “addictive.” The creamy mixture of vegan ingredients leaves hands feeling soft and hydrated without any greasiness or sticky residue. She paid the owner’s micro-loan back within six months and began selling small batches of lotion in the shop and to family and friends. Two neighboring shops began selling it, and from there, her business continues to evolve. The lotions are currently sold in pottery-focused businesses including Highwater Clays and Village Potters in the River Arts District (RAD) and other retail shops, such as French Broad Co-op, Willow’s Dream, Malaprop’s, Skin Spa Asheville, and Sensibilities Day Spa, all in Asheville; West Village Market, Second Gear, and Villagers in West Asheville; and Nostalgique Antiques in East Asheville. In addition, Cara sets up sales booths at events like Big Crafty and the NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) Conference, which is the biggest clay conference in the country. Along with making the lotion, Cara also spends time at the potter’s wheel. She’s currently taking classes at Village Potters in the RAD and says founder and resident potter Sarah Wells Roland has become a trusted mentor and supporter. Village Potters, in fact, is currently the biggest customer for Potters’ Skin Butter. 76

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MICHELLE ROGERS & CAR A STEINBUCHEL photo by Emily Kujawa

photos cour tesy of Cara Mae Skin Care

photo by Carlisle Harris

photo by Emily Kujawa

Cara initially fell in love with the art of pottery when she studied in Italy in 2002. She’s not selling her clay creations yet, but that’s definitely part of her game plan. She does, however, continue to work part-time in the arts field. She’s employed by Arts For Life and works with kids in an outpatient clinic as they wait for appointments related to cancer treatments and other diseases. “I do that Tuesday through Thursday,” says Cara. “I work Monday and Friday on my business.”

photo by Carlisle Harris

only modestly over the years. The price for the three jar sizes is $15.95, $28.95, and $49.95, respectively. She also offers the four varieties in one size of body lotion. The price point is $19.95 for the 8-ounce jar. She tacks on an additional $2.50 for a pump top to screw on to the jar. Her greatest validation is when customers return to buy more lotion. “I have friends that every single holiday season, they have to get this lotion for their family because their family requests it,” she says. “People come to expect

“I have friends that every single holiday season, they have to get this lotion for their family because their family requests it.” Cara’s partner, Michelle Rogers, serves as CEO of the lotion business. “We got married last September,” says Cara. “She went to culinary school at A-B Tech and worked with a number of businesses at Blue Ridge Food Ventures as a production manager. I feel really lucky to have her helping me at this point.” She began her company selling tangerine scented lotion, but finally gave in to the demand for lavender. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to do a lavender, everybody does lavender,’ but people were begging,” she says. “And of course, now I’m so glad I did. Hands down, it’s the biggest seller. It accounts for probably 60 percent of my sales.” She also has an herbal mint variety and an unscented choice. The Potters’ Skin Butter comes in three sizes: 4-ounce, 8-ounce, and 16-ounces (for the self-professed addicts). She has worked with Mountain BizWorks and other mentors to create her price fee, which has gone up

it as a gift. People will give it one time and then the next year somebody will be like, ‘Where’s that lotion? I loved that!’ So that’s just the best compliment. I love making a product people can rely on or count on to work for them.” When she sets up booths at events, she will open jars of the lotions and encourage passersby to stop and sample. She knows that first-hand experience is key to making a lot of sales: “People will try it and their eyes kind of light up like, ‘Oh, this is really different!’” She says they’ll rub it into their hands and keep walking. Many ultimately return to buy a jar. “You wouldn’t believe the number of people who come back,” she adds. “They’ll say, ‘Wow. I just keep touching my hands and they are so soft.’ That makes me feel wonderful, and I’ll say, ‘I’m so glad you came back!’” Find out more at Caramaeskincare.com.

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 77

leisure & libation

photos cour tesy of Tarpestr y

Tarpestry This High Country business also got its start from the suggestion of someone else. Carrie and Ted Swartzbaugh moved to Denver, Colorado, after graduating from Appalachian State University in Boone. They worked in the food service industry and also screen-printed T-shirts at a Denver company. They decided to sell T-shirts at concerts, so they quit their jobs and hit the road traveling from venue to venue. At one concert, Carrie’s step-dad tossed out a money-making idea in the summer of 2010: Wouldn’t it be great, he suggested, to have a quilt with a waterproof tarp on the bottom? He was tired of sitting on soggy blankets. They tucked that idea in the back of their minds and then re-focused on it when the screen printing company dissolved. They shifted energy into creating an outdoor festival blanket and experimented with a few different prototypes. They officially launched Tarpestry in 2011. “We literally started in a garage in Denver,” says Ted. Their research included Googling manufacturers. “The first place we went to was a tent repair business,” says Ted. “Like, monster 40 by 80-foot circus tents—they repaired those things. We went in there super-novice and told them what we wanted to do. They immediately took us to a back room with a wall that had 100 different water repellent outdoor fabrics. They said they didn’t 78

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want to help us figure out the process, but recommended another company called Maven Backpacks. They basically were open to it. We met with them and showed them our prototypes and they figured out a price for it and decided to give it a whirl.” As a brand new product on the market, Tarpestry sales started slowly. They produced about 200 the first year and

“We pick designs and work with artists we’ve met on the road to get their artwork on these blankets.” sold about half. The next year they made 400 and sold more. They broke even in 2013 and started to make a profit in 2014. By 2015, they were ready for another transition—a move back to North Carolina. This created some headaches since the Colorado manufacturer had to ship the blankets to Kingsport, Tennessee, where they had to drive to and pick them up. They knew they needed a more streamlined process, so they began investigating similar facilities in the High Country. They found Tsuga, which produces canopies, tarps, outdoor buckets, and bags.

CARRIE & TED SWARTZBAUGH with their son Sol

“We made a clean switch over to Tsuga toward the end of 2016 and really got started with them in 2017,” says Ted. “They ended up last year getting a military contract, so that’s helped them grow. When we started with them, there were four or five employees and now they are up to about ten full-time employees. They are a mom-and-pop shop. It started with just two of them so it’s cool to watch them progress, too.” Ted and Carrie deliver the material to Tsuga, where the fabrics are rolled out, cut, and sewn up. Then the finishing is done in the Swartzbaugh’s barn, along with inspection, rolling, adding hang tags, and preparing them for shipping. If they need extra grommets, Ted measures and adds them. Carrie operates the website and handles social media and marketing. Then they take them to outdoor concerts and other events, as well as offer for sale on their website, Tarpestry.com, which is liberally decorated with their eyecatching creations. They offer cotton top blankets as well as blankets that are also water repellent on top. The bottom side is a polyester urethane—kind of like backpack material. Tsuga takes their materials and sews the various top fabrics to the bottom fabric with a webbing/binding. “We pick designs and work with artists we’ve met on the road to get their artwork on these blankets,” says Ted. “We work out contracts to print their art.” They also do custom design work and have produced blankets for a pair of bluegrass festivals—Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Northwest String Summit—and a couple of bands and

other businesses who wanted to get specific images on their promotional items. The blankets come in two main sizes: one is 5’ x 8’ and the other is close to 3’ x 5’. Prices range from $99 to $200, and custom orders are around $250, with discounts for wholesale accounts. “If someone has a high-resolution picture that they want on one of our blankets, we can do that,” says Ted. They also offer a water repellent doggie duvet cover, which ranges in price from $77 to $97. Future products are also in the works, such as a proposed outdoor pillow. Carrie and Ted are very excited about the next steps. They’ve just gotten approved for a Mountain BizWorks program called Waypoint Accelerator, described as an “outdoor entrepreneurship and innovation program for early-stage, outdoor-focused companies who have recently embarked on their journey.” “We have wholesaled to 10 different shops or so over the years, but we’re having inventory management problems and put the brakes on that,” explains Ted. “Hopefully, this business mentorship program will help us figure out a real strategy to get into it again.” When it comes to sales, it’s almost an even split between online sales and blankets sold at events. “We just started a campaign with a marketing company to boost that online ratio,” says Ted. They hit the road frequently and travel to events all over Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, and other states. The farthest west they go right now is Telluride, Colorado. As Carrie and Ted navigate building their business, they are also navigating the demands of parenting a toddler. They have a two-year-old son named Sol, who is getting an early introduction into the waterproof blanket business. As Ted puts it, “He comes with us on a lot of these road trips.” Find out more at Tarpestry.com. December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 79

leisure & libation

Ma’am’s Hot Jam

MISTY DITTMAN photos by @AppalachianWeddingPhotography

| December 2019

When Misty Dittman’s marriage ended in divorce, she had to quickly find a way to support herself and her two young sons. “I needed an income and wanted to stay home with my children,” explains Misty, who lives in Murphy. “I wanted to set my own hours and do something that I loved.” She had been making jam for years and had always received rave reviews. She made her first batches of blueberry jam in 1995 and gave away jars to her wedding guests. Then, around 2008, she had a bumper crop of peppers. “I had grown them and I didn’t know what to do with them,” she says. She made a batch of pepper jam and continued to make it as a hobby and as a way to bring in a few dollars by selling to friends. When she divorced in 2014, an investor told her, ‘If you get me a business plan, I’ll support your business.’ From there, Ma’am’s Hot Jam was officially launched. The name combines the initials of Misty and her sons: Aiden and Mathias. After her divorce, she and her kids moved in with her father and they maintain a garden across town on property owned by her mother. “I wanted to have a man around for my children,” she says. The boys were six and 11 at that time. They are now 11 and 16. They work together to grow all of the peppers (she consistently grows eight different varieties). Her father does the tilling, mowing, and helps with harvest. Misty and the kids do the planting and the weeding. “We grow a big garden,” she says. “We love fresh produce. I grew up gardening in my parents’ gardens and grandparents’ garden. We always had a pantry full of canned vegetables, applesauce, and canned peaches. I just took something I already loved and made a business out of it. It was born out of necessity, but it’s something I love to do.” Misty has a certified kitchen at home, but also uses a commercial kitchen at a local community center. “I rent it from them,” she says. “That allows me to get more done in a day’s time. The boys help me when they are out of school. It helps them learn a good work ethic.” When she first experienced the overflow of peppers, she made Blueberry Pepper Jam. Then she experimented with other various peppers and fruits and had about 13 flavors she routinely made when she did it as a hobby. She selected the four best sellers for a more streamlined offering today: Blackberry Roasted Pepper Jam, Pineapple Jalapeno Jam, Peach Three Pepper Jam, and Blueberry Seven Pepper Jam. In time, she may add flavors. “I’ve made a cranberry pepper jam that is wonderful,” she says, “And I’d like to do a raspberry seasonal.” When customers order jam from her website, they are redirected to her Etsy site. The jams are also available in a variety of retail stores in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Asheville area stores include Asheville Emporium, Asheville Goods, Battery Park Book Exchange, Cara’s Corner

(WNC Farmer’s Market), Fresh Quarter, and Mountain Merch; plus, it’s found at shops in Andrews, Brasstown, Hendersonville, and Murphy. She also has restaurants who buy quart jars of the jam. Her yearly totals are about 3000 4-ounce jars and 1500 8-ounce jars. “We’re still small. We’re still growing,” she says. She adds that selling at area markets has proven tricky. “They are so labor- and time-intensive. By the time you load up, get it to the market, pay for the rental, unload it, sell it, and then load it up again, I haven’t made enough money to justify it. There’s only so much I can do. I would love to find a partner who is already at a market to add my product to theirs.”

“Clients can work for Ma’am’s or other social enterprises to give them a job while they are getting their feet under them.” Because she knows how hard it can be as a single parent trying to provide for children, one of her major goals is to create a nonprofit called Heaven’s Ridge to provide housing, child care, and education for single parent families. “Often, people will become single not expecting to, and often they aren’t prepared to be out of the home. Not everyone has a family they can move in with. Part of the goal for Ma’am’s Hot Jam is to turn it into a social enterprise. Clients can work for Ma’am’s or other social enterprises to give them a job while they are getting their feet under them. I want to care for more than just my own children and my own family.” Misty has also taken steps to further solidify her financial health. She earned an associate’s degree this past spring, and in the summer, she became a Certified Nursing Assistant and began working part-time. “With this new job, I have the ability to move out on my own. Life will be more convenient and I won’t have to drive across town to garden. I’ll be on my own for the first time since my divorce, so that’s exciting.” Her next goal is to register at Western Carolina University and pursue a bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship beginning in the spring of 2020. “I need to practice what I preach,” she says. “I need other women to look at my life and say, ‘Okay, I can do that.’ Hopefully, Heaven’s Refuge will encourage women to do whatever it is that they love.” Find out more at Maamshotjam.com.

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com

leisure & libation

MEG CHAMBERLAIN photo by Daniela Guerrero

photo cour tesy of Fermenti Farms

Fermenti Farms While there are people who might say that each new day is a blessing, Meg Chamberlain truly identifies with that sentiment. She almost died during childbirth on New Year’s Eve 2012, and subsequently suffered with postpartum issues and massive weight gain. She wound up weighing around 340 pounds—a number that seems impossible given her trim, slim figure today. Then, in September 2016, a drunk driver ran her husband, Lars Peterson, off the road. He technically died in the accident, but after four a half minutes, emergency crews were somehow able to revive him. “In the E.R.,” remembers Meg, “he looked at me and said, ‘Honey, you gotta take care of us now.’” She turned to something she knew—fermenting foods—and has transformed it into a business that brings a steady stream of customers back for more. Their love of fermenting actually began in Missouri. But it’s best to wind back a few years before that when Meg and Lars were living in Washington, D.C.. She was working as a professional photographer and he worked for the Smithsonian. The cost of living was high in D.C., so when Meg got a job offer in Kansas City as a director of photography, they took it. Then, they got a small inheritance and made another major decision to go full-in on the concept of homesteading. They plucked up 20 acres of land in what Meg calls “nowhere Missouri.” “We had no running water or electricity,” Meg explains. “My husband built our cabin with just hand tools. Everything was reclaimed and upcycled and we grew 70 percent of what we ate and we traded and bartered for the rest of what we consumed. 82

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photo by Brittany Leckrone Photography

We lived on less than a thousand dollars a year. I mean, just enough to pay taxes and car insurance, that sort of thing.” They were near an Amish community and one day Lars came in with an armload of cabbages and a shredder that an Amish friend had given him. He announced to Meg that he planned to make sauerkraut. He put it in a crock and let it sit. Meg says the temperature varied widely in the cabin. It would swing from 40 degrees at night to 90 in the day. Initially Meg wasn’t amused by the project. “This open crock of rotting cabbage was just sitting there fermenting and I would walk by and kick it,” she says. One day, Lars decided to test it. Meg was horrified. “I said, ‘My name is on the deed. Right? Like, if you die, I’m good. Right?’ I kissed him goodbye and said I loved him and he began eating it. About a week went by and he started to fart really bad. Then two weeks went by and he would sleep better and then on like the third or fourth week he brought me flowers for no reason. So, then I started to eat it and I enjoyed it. And then I farted, and I slept better and then I was nicer. That created a loose association with fermenting, and it was kind of like a trick in our quiver.”

the biggest seller followed by the Ginger Turmeric Pink Kraut. “My (almost 7-year-old) daughter designed that. She demanded something be pink,” says Meg. “Then after those two, I would say it’s probably a tie between the Beets & Ginger, the pickles, or the quarts of plain kraut. We’re in the kitchen three times a week with Lars serving as production manager. Our batch size is growing. I can’t believe I’m saying this—it started out with gallons and now we’re up to 55-gallon batches. “When I created all the flavors of our business there was no other fermenter in the area doing any flavors similar. I very intentionally set my recipes because I’m a firm believer that there is so much diversity that I like to play and create things other people won’t do or haven’t done. I have to say, I’m kind of honored that some of them have taken a nod. I love how food can speak for itself.” They set up booths at area tailgate markets, but also sell through quite a few retail outlets. “Stores are through the roof,” Meg confides. “I’m restocking French Broad Co-op every week. I don’t even understand. It’s incredible. Right now, in the last six

“I’ve actually had to drop a couple markets this season because there’s just been too much on my plate. We’re learning how to grow.” After the traumatic birthing experience, they decided to move back to North Carolina in 2014 because as Meg says, “I figured if I was going to die, I wanted to do it where I was happy.” Before moving to Missouri, they had previously spent a summer doing a nature conservancy in Leicester. They fell in love with homesteading and with the Asheville area. Between 2014 and the time of Lars’ accident in 2016, Meg devoted time to exploring more creative ways to ferment foods and to experimenting with flavor combinations. After his accident, she didn’t consider fermenting an option to fully support them, so she applied for every local job opening she could find but was consistently told she was over-qualified. “We took the last of our life savings and started fermenting together,” says Meg. “We outgrew our three-year business plan in six months. The support and encouragement I get from my community staggers me almost weekly.” Their business, Fermenti Farms, is located on 50 acres in Marshall. They grow about 30 percent of their product on their farm with local seed and they serve as the official fermentation ambassador for Sow True Seed in Asheville. They’ve also created the annual WNC Fermentation Festival, which is held each November in Marshall featuring product demos, education, and vendors selling a range of fermented foods. Plus, Meg teaches a variety of classes throughout the year. Meg and Lars produce a variety of fermented products— kraut, pickles, kimchi, and specialty seasonings. Kimchi is

months, the stores have skyrocketed past markets. I’ve actually had to drop a couple markets this season because there’s just been too much on my plate. We’re learning how to grow.” When customers ask about how to introduce fermented foods into their diets, Meg suggests a quarter cup with every meal. She’s had customers come back to her after regularly eating fermented foods saying their symptoms for various complaints have lessened. “I’m not a doctor,” she cautions. “I will never prescribe to being a doctor, but I think it’s really interesting the experiential data that I see and hear from my customers. For myself, I blew up to 340 pounds or so. I threw my scale out at that point. I couldn’t look [at myself] anymore, but through intermittent fasting—I would eat two to four hours in the day—and then pairing fermented foods when I did eat, I lost over 200 pounds in 22 months. I didn’t exercise because I was so heavy it could hurt me.” She doesn’t want the purchase of fermented foods to be considered a luxury. She’s keen on education and will offer a helping hand to anyone who is interested in learning how to make their own. She provides free videos on how to ferment on their YouTube Channel (Fermenti Mountain). “We also sell a fermentation kit, but we even show you how to make your own kit because it’s not about selling the kit; it’s about you eating better and having the food you need.” Find out more at Fermenti.biz. December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 83

photos courtesy Sister of Mother Earth

leisure & libation

Sister of Mother Earth Move to Canada or find a new way of making a living: That’s the challenge Lori Collins Jenkins and her husband, Joseph, faced two years ago. They were living in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, and Joseph had a seemingly secure position with the company he had been with for 20 years. Then the company decided to move, and to keep his job, they would have to relocate to Canada. They decided to reject the offer, but after a year of searching for a new job, Joseph came up empty-handed. At that point, they decided to move without jobs back home to Western North Carolina in October 2017. Joined by their three children (ages 15, 16, and 21), they initially moved to Trust in Madison County before settling in Mars Hill. They had both gone to school at Mars Hill University and were happy to get reacquainted with the area. While Joseph secured new employment, Lori knew she had to ramp up her own moneymaking endeavors. She had been teaching students to play the piano, but she needed something more substantive during their transition. She found employment as a substitute school teacher in Madison County, but she also took a closer look at 84

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her hobby of making fire cider and decided to launch it as a business, which she named Sister of Mother Earth. “I guess my thought behind the name was that I’ve learned from a lot of great women and in all of those situations we all considered ourselves sisters, and sisters in our walk, and sisters in our path,” says Lori. “I just feel like that’s the way I look at other women business owners. We’re all sisters trying to get through this life together. We’re all in it together to help lift each other up.” Lori and Joseph decided a long time ago to stop taking overthe-counter medicine and look for natural remedies. “So, that was kind of my transition into herbal food medicine,” she explains. “When I started learning about this, I just kept getting these feelings, these promptings that I needed to know these things. Now it’s very important because we haven’t had insurance. It’s like we had great insurance when he had his job.” She admits her first attempts at making fire cider were pretty unappetizing when she started a decade ago, but as she experimented, took classes, consulted with others, and used different ingredients, she concocted something that she and her family would actually use. Now she says it’s a big medicine in her home. They generally take a tablespoon or so of the fire cider a day to boost immunity and ward off ill health, but it

can also be used in recipes. “It has horseradish root, ginger, garlic, onions—all of those really pungent vegetables and root vegetables,” she notes. “When I decided to make it a business,” Lori continues, “I formulated a shelf-stable fire cider because, really, fire ciders are not supposed to be sitting on the shelf. I learned a lot about science when I started this business. I had to formulate something that could last because I wanted it out in stores.”

“I’m putting all this money into building a new website because I really feel that e-commerce could be great for me.” She has some seasonal blends of Fire Cider, but her four mainstays include Roots and Shrooms, Queen of Thieves, Heart Beat, and Siren’s Song. She also produces herbal honeys from the honey she buys from Haw Creek Honey, and she has a lineup of other products such as a Creaky Bones and Joints Balm, finishing salts, and Gaia Fire: A Witch’s Brew, which is sold year-round only at Raven and Crone in Asheville. Lori is a forager and harvests ingredients for her products primarily from places in Madison County. “I’ve been foraging for a couple of years, but I actually made myself legitimate in a way because I went to the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine for the foraging course. That really boosted my confidence and made me realize just how much food is out there that we’re not utilizing, especially in the invasive wild herbs. Next year, I have the opportunity to be a faculty member at Herbalachia School of Herbal Medicine. That’s in Johnson City, Tennessee. I’m teaching their medicine-making courses, so I’m very excited about that—that’s one weekend a month.” She’s also excited about the business mentoring she’s receiving through Mountain BizWorks, including help with a brand new website. “I’m putting all this money into building a new website because I really feel that e-commerce could be great for me.” Coaches at Mountain BizWorks have also encouraged her to streamline her product line. “They say, ‘You still have too much on the table. You need to hone it in.’ I’m still working through that because I’m so attached to some things.” While her family can offer help at times, she’s basically a one-woman business. When she began in 2018, her start-up costs overshadowed any profit, but now in her second year, she’s enjoying some income and validated by repeat customers. “I want the flexibility of being able to be wherever I want to be, and even though it’s killing me that it’s just me right now. At

some point I might get an intern or an apprentice. I’ve had a few people ask to help me in the kitchen or go foraging.” She’s currently producing her products at the Madison County Extension Office, but she’s considering having her home kitchen certified so she can start working with hemp as an ingredient. “This year was all about experimenting,” says Lori. “I remember I wrote that down when we first started Test Drive.” (Test Drive is a program through Mountain Bizworks that provides startups with free festival spaces, one-on-one coaching, and other benefits). “I wanted to see where I fit in, which markets and which festivals were best, what products were bringing me money, and growing up right. Money is in the fire ciders, most definitely, but I’m also seeing an increase in the salts. A couple of months ago, I decided to start making fire cider salts, so out of the mark that comes from every fire cider batch, I take the vegetables and everything that’s in it and do it just like I do all my other finishing salts. I take that wet matter with the core salt and grind it together. I lay it out, let it dry, and then I grind it again for the table salt. There’s no waste. I’m using up all of that that was in the fire cider as a salt, which is totally awesome. “I’m just willing to be open to everything and try new things if need be!” Find out more at Sisterofmotherearth.com.

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 85

photos courtesy Cornerstone Tea

leisure & libation

Cornerstone Tea A job loss in May 2018 also set 27-year-old Stephanie Simmons Moore on a new career path. She has dual associates degrees in horticulture and business, and had been working for a landscape supply company catering to contractors. “When I lost my job, naturally you go into a state of panic and start grabbing for what’s familiar,” says Stephanie. She turned her attention to herbal teas. In 2009 she and her mother ran a business in Garner, North Carolina, just outside Raleigh, that began as a small catering company and evolved into a brick-and-mortar tea room. When her parents divorced, they shut the business down, which was right about the time Stephanie was headed off to school. Following graduation, they moved to Western North

Getting in front of potential customers is her primary sales strategy for the tea business. She sets up booths at tailgate markets and bigger events like the Tis’ the Season Holiday Market, held in November at the WNC Ag Center. While she has a website, she doesn’t look to it as a critical way to accept orders. “I’ve only made three online orders ever,” says Stephanie. “It’s really not a format that I enjoy. I’ve also found that online my tea is one out of a million. In person, I’m the tea in front of you. I’m also the sales person who can match a tea to somebody’s personality or their tastes. That’s important to me. I don’t want them to buy something on a guess that they’re going to like it. I want them to taste it and smell it and see it and know that they’re going to like it.” Her husband helps her out at big events. He works full-time in the I.T. department at Mission Hospital, where employees jokingly refer to him as “Mr. Tea Lady.” “The funny

Stephanie’s first job was an apprentice at an urban farm where she learned a lot about growing herbs and discovering which ones work well together. Carolina, while her mom continues to live in Hendersonville and has a certified kitchen in her home. Stephanie is a newlywed and she and her husband live in Weaverville, and she commutes to Hendersonville to make up batches of her herbal teas. She actually has two businesses now—the steadily-growing tea business and her own landscaping company called Divine Landscape Designs. Plus, she teaches continuing education courses at A-B Tech. “I have a course called ‘Landscaping for the Homeowner,’” she explains, “and I’m starting a new course strictly for contractors in the spring. And I have a sister course for landscaping for the homeowners called ‘Trees and Shrubs.’ My mother and grandmother were both teachers in the community college system, and I feel like it is very fitting that I should be a third-generation teacher.” 86

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part is that even before we got married, he was helping me and being supportive. That was another huge influence on how well we got along,” says Stephanie. “Finding somebody who loves and supports you doing exactly what makes you happy is a big deal, especially in this day and age.” Currently, Stephanie produces thirty-three flavors of tea, including blooming teas and matcha, and she’s always experimenting with new varieties. “The newest one is one I’m exceptionally proud of,” she says. “I blend a white peony tea with Tulsi Basil. It’s delightfully floral. It’s not like Italian basil that you get used to eating and in pesto. In my opinion, it’s a little more intoxicating even though it’s completely herbal.” Even though she and her mother first formed Cornerstone Tea, Stephanie’s first job was an apprentice at an urban farm where she learned

a lot about growing herbs and discovering which ones work well together. Her best seller is the Elderberry Bliss. It’s new on the scene this year, outranking last year’s top performer, Wild Strawberry. Chocolate Chai is also coming on strong. Each one-ounce bag of tea is priced at $6. Sales are up 200 percent over last year, and Stephanie tracks the difference in sales between markets and events. “I’ve noticed trends,” she says. “It’s hard to make money at markets in Asheville because they have a higher buy-in. I tend to stay out of the Asheville scope with the exception of Riverside Tailgate, which I just recently picked up. I do Mills River Farmer’s Market (her highest grossing market) and Weaverville Tailgate.” While she enjoys the support of family and friends, she says the biggest support she has in growing her business comes from God. The name of the company, Cornerstone, is a direct nod to her Christian faith. “We wanted to do a name that reflected that, but in a subtle way,” she says. “We adhere to certain principles because of that in business and in life, and we’ve kept it because it’s a good reminder that success comes from the Lord and we are blessed to be able to exercise freedom. Without God’s help, I would not be able to make a living doing what I do. I directly attribute my success to God. I show up to work. He basically tells me what to do.” Find out more at Cornerstonetea.com. December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 87

People Play at

1. Simeon Napoli & Charlie Ball 2. Jonathan Ross 3. Stephanie Kissel & Ailis Grosh

| December 2019

4. (L-R) Jay Worthington, Tommy Dennison, & Chris Buehler 5. Attendees listening to the rules of the event.

6. (L-R) Maxim Poslavsky, Conner Krollman, Zac Ruiz, Travis Bowman, Allison Gurliacci, Zach Brubaker, & Lisa Linder 7 . George Glackin leading the event.

2019 Hatch This Entrepreneurial Accelerator Hatchworks | Asheville, NC | November 1, 2019 Photos by Anthony Harden 9

8. Mark Zalme 9. (L-R) Bruce Waller, J Hackett, & Julian Jones 10. Grace Rains 11. Asante Monadjemi

12. (L-R) Kim Vogel, Austin Jambor, & James Richards 13. Lynn Smith & Carolann Bauer 14. Daniel Tlanepantla & Angela Brandt

15. Jon Jones, Eric Bridges, & Sam Franklin 16. (L-R) Kim Leibowitz, Jonathan Ross, & Marc Postlewaite 17. Allison Gurliacci & Zach Brubaker December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 89

events

december

EVENTS

Tryon International Equestrian Center 6881 S. NC Hwy 9, Columbus, NC The sensation is back with over two miles of custom-made light displays synchronized to music.

>Tickets: Family Car $25, Activity Van $40, Bus $80

– january 2 Winter Wonderland december 1

> 828-863-0480 > shadrackchristmas.com

8AM-8PM Grove Arcade 1 Page Ave, Asheville, NC

– january 4 Annual Gingerbread House Display december 1

The halls of the Grove Arcade are always decked with the epitome of taste. Opening night, November 29, will feature chorus carols, indoor snow, and more. A reading of “Twas the Night before Christmas” by Darr Conradson at 1PM, December 21, is among special free events planned for the season.

> 828-252-7799 > grovearcade.com

– january 5 Shadrack’s Christmas Wonderland december 1

Omni Grove Park Inn 290 Macon Ave, Asheville, NC

The creations for the 27th annual competition, will have been judged November 18. Persons not staying overnight are only allowed access anytime Monday through Thursday or Sunday after 3PM. Blackout days are November 27-28, December 23-25 and 29-31, and January 1. Half of parking proceeds benefit local nonprofits.

> Parking: Self $25, Valet $30 > 828-438-5800 > omnihotels.com/hotels/asheville-grove-

6-10PM

park

– december 28 A Tweetsie Christmas december

5-10PM (Fri, Sat)

Tweetsie Railroad 300 Tweetsie Railroad Lane, Blowing Rock, NC Fun includes a lit-for-Christmas train ride, a variety show, a visit with Santa at his Gingerbread House, and romping in human-sized snowglobes. Trains run every half hour from 5:30-9PM. Rides sell out, so advance purchase is advised.

>Tickets: Adult $44, Child (3-12) $38, Infant FREE

> 828-264-9061 > tweetsie.com

– january 4 Winter Lights december 1

6-10PM

North Carolina Arboretum 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC The gardens are lit with over 500 thousand points of light. Soft carols will play in the background, and warm beverages will be served.

Western North Carolina’s Leading Business Brokerage Firm If you own a business or are interested in buying a business in WNC, contact us for a NO cost consultation. Business Valuations* | NO Upfront Fees* Qualiﬁed Buyer Network | Oﬀer Negotiations | Deal Structuring

JEFF MCKEEHAN – MANAGING PARTNER

jmckeehan@vikingmergers.com • www.vikingmergers.com 4 Herman Avenue, Asheville, NC 28803

(828) 808-5528

Securing Entrepreneurs’ Futures Through Professional Representation *VIKING DOES NOT CHARGE AN UPFRONT FEE OR RETAINER FOR SELL SIDE ADVISOR SERVICES. FREE VALUATIONS ARE PROVIDED TO QUALIFYING BUSINESSES.

| December 2019

>Tickets: Adult $18, Child (5-11) $12 > 828-665-2492 > ncarboretum.org/winter-lights/ december 1

Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker 3PM & 7PM U.S. Cellular Center 87 Haywood St, Asheville, NC This classic holiday show features hand-painted sets, over 200 hand-sewn costumes, artistic hairdressing, special-effects makeup, and great flying birds. Bring the family to see this timeless show, and really get into the Christmas spirit.

>Ticket prices fluctuate. > 828-259-5736 > uscellularcenterasheville.com

In this free seminar Sam Ruark-Eastes, executive director of Green Built Alliance, will teach how to make any home more energy-efficient. Learn to how to save energy, what to look for, and who to work with to get green. While free, it is advised to reserve your space via Eventbrite.

> 828-254-1995 > greenbuilt.org december 5

December Wake Up Workshop

Energy Efficiency for Everyone

1-3:30PM Lenoir-Rhyne University 36 Montford Ave, Asheville, NC

7-9PM Odyssey ClayWorks 236 Clingman Ave, Asheville, NC

This month’s presenter, Alizah Epstein, will share how to use storytelling as a marketing tool, with a focus on eight learning objectives. Registration includes breakfast.

december 5 -22

Handle with Care

>Tickets: Adult $18-$38, Student $10 > 828-239-0263 > ncstage.org

Ready, Set, Throw!

8:30-10AM Lenoir-Rhyne University 36 Montford Ave, Asheville, NC

Member $10 > 828-407-4263 > afpwnc.org

The romantic comedy, of a love affair between an Israeli and an American, is described as a bilingual Jewish Christmas story.

december 6

> Registration: Nonmember $15, december 4

North Carolina Stage Company 15 Stage Lane, Asheville, NC

This is a one-night pottery class promising something for people of all ages and skill levels. Perfect for those who have always wanted to get behing the wheel but never have had the opportunity.

>Tuition: $55 > 828-285-0210 > odysseyclayworks.com december 7- 8

The Big Crafty 12-6PM

Believe in Abundance

From dreams to reality, let us help you choose the pathway.

How can we make life easier for you? Offering tax optimized financial advising, custom-designed to help achieve your goals.

Tax • Financial Management • Business Growth Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM, Member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory ServicesSM.

40 N. FRENCH BROAD AVENUE, ASHEVILLE NC 828.258.2323 | CLKCPA.COM

December 2019 | capitalatplay.com 91

events

COACHING YOUNG ADULT INDEPENDENCE

US Cellular Center 87 Haywood St, Asheville, NC

Black Mountain Center for the Arts 225 W State St, Black Mountain, NC

With over 150 artist/makers/creators selling their wares; this event is one of the most popular free bazaars of the season. You are sure to find something for everyone on your holiday gift list.

The public is invited to the live performance part of Connieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s three-day storytelling workshop. The Nationally know story teller will share the stage with her workshop participants.

> thebigcrafty.com december 7

2nd Annual Holiday Gift Market

11AM-4PM Hickory Nut Gap Farm 57 Sugar Hollow Rd, Fairview, NC

LifeTutors.com

40 local vendors and artists will have their wares for sale. Mr. & Mrs. Claus will be in attendace, along with raffle prizes, games/activities, and Christmas carols, will be in the mix.

>Tickets: donation-based to support Children First > 828-628-1027 > hickorynutgap.com

december 7

7 Convenient Locations! Call (828) 253-3691 Or visit Online at swannanoacleaners.com

You can trust your wardrobe with the professionals at Swannanoa Cleaners.

| December 2019

december 7- 8

92nd Annual Christmas Greens Market

9AM-4PM (Sat), 12-4PM (Sun) Clemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cabin 1000 Hendersonville Rd, Asheville, NC The French Broad River Garden Club Foundation is once again selling natural, woodsy Christmas decor assembled by regional artisans to raise funds for local horticultural and conservation scholarships and projects.

> fbrgcf.org/events december 7- 8

Cybersecurity for Small Business

Appalachian Ski Mountain Anniversary Weekend

A free workshop in which Jim Tippey will cover shielding devices from hacking, developing a strategy to avoid identity theft, safely browsing the internet, managing passwords, and backing up data.

Celebrating 57 years, App Ski takes their ticket prices back to 1962. With 12 different slopes everyone can find the right fit for their skiing style.

9AM-12PM A-B Tech Small Business Center 1465 Sand Hill Road, Candler, NC

Because you Know There Will be Stains

> Admission: Advance $15, Door $20 > 828-669-0930 > blackmountainarts.org

> 828-271-4786 > asheville.score.org december 7

A Slice of Life: Storytelling with Connie Regan-Blake 7:30-9PM

8AM-5PM Appalachian Ski Mountain 940 Ski Mountain Rd, Blowing Rock, NC

>Tickets: $5 > 828-295-7828 december 9

Waynesville Christmas Parade 6PM Main Street Waynesville, NC

A “Candy Cane Christmas” themed Parade featuring Santa as the guest of honor! Come out for a classic holiday parade experience.

> downtownwaynesville.com/calendar/ december 9 -12

Grant Writing Certificate Program

9AM-4PM WCU – Biltmore Park 28 Schenck Pwy, Asheville, NC Instructor Jack Smith says grant writing is evolving with technology and changes of focus for community needs. He’ll help applicants organize and prioritize their value for a persuasive pitch. Registration includes lunch.

Your source for Hearth & Patio needs

> Registration: $449 > 828-654-6498 > pdp.wcu.edu

264 Biltmore Ave. Asheville, NC | 828.252.2789

december 10

Cougar Tank Fair

5-6 PM Asheville Middle School 211 S French Broad, Asheville, NC As spotlighted in our November issue, Cougar Tank aims to empower students and encourage their business/ entrepreneurial skills. It will take place during the AMS Homework Diner and showcase what some of those students have created; last year the 11-, 12-, and 13-year old kids notched $700 in sales.

> 828-350-6200 > unitedwayabc.org/cougar-tank december 12

2019 Venture 15 and Venture Asheville Honors 7-10PM The Orange Peel 101 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC

We help y ou After all, tell your life’s sto each of u r s is the su y. of our exp m e cherished riences. Our mo st m downs, o oments, our ups a ur roots a nd n Share you r long-las d journey. ting lega with your c descenda family, friends, an y nts. Gettin d g yo u r s onto th specialty, e written page is tor y our an look for w d our narration ex ard to talk p ing with y erts ou.

scribian.c

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events

Honored will be the 15 fastest-growing Asheville startups and five special awards for those who help make it possible. To be nominated, companies had to have been in business at least two years with annual revenues of at least $150,000.

>Tickets: $20 > 828-398-1837 > ventureasheville.com december 13 -15

The Nutcracker 7:30PM (Fri, Sat), 2:30PM (Sat, Sun) Diana Wortham Theatre 18 Biltmore Ave, Asheville, NC The Asheville Ballet, directed by Ann Dunn, continues the tradition with its 49th season of the classic.

>Tickets: $15-$50 > 828-252-4761 > ashevilleballet.com december 13 -15

SugarFest

8:30AM-8:30PM Sugar Mountain Resort 1009 Sugar Mountain Dr, Banner Elk, NC

Olympic medalist Andrew Weibrecht will teach the preseason ski clinic. More fun includes winter sports, Mini Games, food and drink, and a skating performance by Olympic medalist Paul Wylie.

> Clinic: Pass Holder $175,

>Tickets: Advance $18, Door $20 > 828-575-2737 > isisasheville.com

december 14

Holidays Around the World With HSO

december 17

3-5PM BRCC Conference Hall 49 East Campus Dr, Flat Rock, NC

Talk (and Shop!) with Jennifer Pharr Davis

Selections by the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra promise a diversity of celebration. Prepare to warm up your pipes for a medley of sing-a-long carols as well.

december 15

2nd Annual Celtic Christmas

7:30-9:30PM Isis Music Hall 743 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC Rosalind Buda and Kelly Brzozowski play Celtic Christmas delights on harp and pipe. Dinner seating is available with reservations.

General $250 > 800-784-2768 > skisugar.com/sugarfest/

>Tickets: Adult $45, Student $12 > 828-694-1707 > hso.donorshops.com

with the Reel Sisters

2-6PM Blue Ridge Hiking Company 70 College St, Asheville, NC

The lo c a l Nati o n al G e ographi c Adventurer of the Year will be at her new downtown outdoor gear store to discuss backpacking. Pharr Davis has traveled over 14,000 miles of long distance trails, and set the fastest known time on the Appalachian Trial.

> 828-713-5451 > blueridgehikingco.com

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– january 1 Iceless Skating Rink december 18

11AM-8PM Downtown Hendersonville 201 South Main St, Hendersonville, NC This year, the synthetic polymer has a section dedicated to curling. Skate rental is included with the price of admission. The funds all stay in Henderson county, going to benefit the American in Bloom program. There can be 60 people on the rink at a time.

> Admission: Adult $8, Child (0-10) $5 > 828-693-9708 > hendersoncountyinblooms.com december 21

Mountain Home Music Celtic Christmas

7:30-9:30PM Appalachian Theatre of the High Country 559 West King St, Boone, NC John Doyle and Duncan Wickel collaborate with the Appalachian Theatre to present traditional sounds with award-winning talent in voice and strings.

> 828-865-3000 > mountainhomemusic.com

december 21

Naturalist Niche: Winter Walk

10:30AM-12:30PM Chimney Rock State Park 742 Chimney Rock Park Rd, Chimney Rock, NC Learn about the peaceful world under the leaves. Price includes admission, advance registration required.

> Registration: Adult $23, Youth (5-15) $13 > 828-625-9611 > chimneyrockpark.com

december 22

A Celebrative Christmas

10:30AM-12PM Cornerstone Presbyterian PCA 645 Bert Lane Rd, Brevard, NC

The Braidstone Trio will accompany a Christmas service on flute, cello, and harp in a free performance.

> 828-712-8518 > cornerstonepcabrevard.com december 27

Jamie Laval’s Celtic Christmas

december 21-22

7:30-9:30PM Tryon Fine Arts Center 34 Melrose Ave, Tryon, NC

6-7:30PM West Hendersonville Baptist Church 730 Willow Rd, Hendersonville, NC

In what is becoming a tradition, Laval and friends share music, dance, poetry, and storytelling derived from ancient celebrations in Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Iceland. The show reprises December 28 at the Asheville Community Theatre.

Christmas Cantata: Messiah – Heaven’s Glory

A free performance to wish you joy this holiday season.

> 828-692-6607 > westhendersonvillebaptist.org

>Tickets: $35-$40 > 206-226-5663 > jamielaval.com

Trip Information: Join two WCU Spanish professors in Valencia, Spain this

upcoming summer for an educational trip with global perspectives and local insights. The city of Valencia and the surrounding area will transport you to Roman and Medieval times and then back to the 21st century! You can visit Spain’s third-largest city and surrounding areas with WCU world language professors Dr. Alberto Centeno-Pulido and Dr. Lori Oxford. This program includes guided walks all around the city of Valencia, including such sites as the City of Arts and Sciences complex, the Mercado Central, Valencia’s cathedral, La Lonja (a 15th century mercantile exchange), the Torres de Serranos (what remains of Valencia’s 14th century fortifications around the city), and much more. Summer 2020 dates and prices will be coming soon. For more information about the trip, visit learn.wcu.edu/spanish-experience

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events

december 28

Holiday Twilight in the Treetops 5:45-9:30PM Adventure Center of Asheville 85 Expo Dr, Asheville, NC

The obstacle course at Asheville Treetops Adventure Park will be lit with Christmas lights for nighttime tree climbing. Children under 4 may not climb.

> Reservations: $39 per person > 877-247-5539

Step back a century to usher in the next decade, with a 1920s jazz combo, Grove’s Gin Tonic cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, speakeasy-style entertainment, a photo booth, and more. Costumes are encouraged.

>Tickets: $30-$40 > nye.grovearcade.com december 31

Tryon Midnight 7-10:30PM Downtown Tryon

This free event held by The Polk County Community Foundation and TDDA, and is very family friendly. There will be music from band “Special Edition” who will play a variety of popular songs for your dancing pleasure. Hot chocolate will be available to keep all warm.

december 31

New Years Eve Roaring Twenties

7-10PM Grove Arcade 1 Page Ave, Asheville, NC

> firstpeaknc.com/event/tryonmidnight/2019-12-31/

– january 1 New Year’s Eve Apple Rise december 31

11PM-12AM Historic Henderson County Courthouse 1 Historic Courthouse Square, Hendersonville, NC Build anticipation playing games as a DJ replays the year’s greatest hits. Party favors will be provided while supplies last. A family celebration will be held for the change of the decades in Greenwich Mean Time.

> 828-233-3205 > hendersoncountync.gov/recreation If your organization has any local press releases for our briefs section, or events that you would like to see here, feel free to email us at events@capitalatplay.com. Please submit your event at least six weeks in advance.

// GIVE THE GIFT OF ORGANIZATION s h e l v i n g & r a c k s • c a b i n e t s • ove r h e a d s to r a g e • f l o o r i n g

North Carolina 828-202-5287 | South Carolina 864-332-4521 | www.thegarageauthority.com 96

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