Capital at Play May 2014

Constant Change at TSA Choice

Velvet, Varnish, & Vines The Tatum Family

Paula Dawkins

Design leads to Dancing

The Free Spirit Of Enterprise

Southern Sacrament THE

what

Barbecue means to the South and why

p.37

Local Industry p.24

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Capital Adventurist p.80

The Land of Waterfalls May 2014

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Publisher’s Thoughts

Springtime is one of my favorite times to be outdoors.

Plants begin to bud, and the forests acquire a certain impressionistic quality. Week-long excursions and weekend adventures being what they are, my mind has been feeding cliché analogies about business and the outdoors to my subconscious.

S

urvival in the wilderness is a roller coaster of highs and lows. You may have a warm fire and a dry shelter, and within minutes a severe storm can destroy those things that you found so precious, and worked so hard to achieve.

Things you depended on for life, for a better future. This is why we form communities, society, government, to protect us from those abysmal lows that the world can bring us to. Thus we create a more protective world, a place that is sheltered from those tragedies. And we’re doing a pretty good job here in America, historically speaking. What I seldom hear acknowledged is the opportunity cost of that safety.

What do we lose? When we insulate ourselves from those lows, we also eliminate the potential for the highs, the emotions, the elations that come along with success in the face of the same odds that can bring tragedy. To me, this is what makes life, life. Truly speaking, life is a terminal engagement anyhow.

Individualism is what I’m driving at here. It is one of the most important elements of capitalism. Individualism is one of the strongest motivators we can tap into.

It forces us to understand the impacts of our actions to ourselves and to other individuals, the casualties of our failures, and it provides a particularly clear measure of our successes. It directly incentivizes us to shape the world around us to whatever degree we can effect it. This is entirely based on the assumption that you are the person best suited to determine your own potential. Faith in one’s self, having confidence in your abilities, is paramount for this assumption.

This month’s Capital Adventurist (p.80) featuring a handful of waterfalls in Western North Carolina, briefly mentions a local man’s decision to run a particularly dangerous waterfall in a kayak. Legally what he did was considered attempted suicide. Pat Keller happens to be one of the best in the world at what he does, and he saw a different possible outcome. It may be reasonable for the Park Service to not condone people doing as he did, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be done, or that he wouldn’t try.

Sincerely,

Oby Morgan

4

| May 2014

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

5

The Free Spirit Of Enterprise

publisher & editor

Oby Morgan associate publisher

Jeffrey Green

Chapter 6

Practical solUtions

contributing editors

Dasha O. Morgan, Alexina O. Morgan, Brenda Murphy contributing writers

Eric Crews, Roger McCredie, Jim Murphy, Anna Raddatz, Mike Summey

Practical solUtions For YoUr BUsiness

start here

gr aphic designer & illustr ator

Hanna Trussler marketing & advertising

Ashley Brown, David Morgan, Pat Starnes

chaPter 6 Over time, our book has been filled with all kinds of lending stories. We have worked with many types of businesses, some starting and others expanding. Whatever stage your business is in, you owe it to yourself to talk to one of our lending experts. They make understanding your business needs a priority and work as a team to find practical solutions. It’s the style of banking you’ll have to experience

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F E AT U R E S vol. iv

12 THE TATUM FAMILY VELVET, VARNISH, & VINES IN THE HIGH COUNTRY

ed. v

50

66

CONSTANT CHANGE

PAULA DAWKINS

- TSA CHOICE -

DESIGN LEADS TO DANCING - JEWELS THAT DANCE -

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

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Contents 4 p u b l i s h e r ’s n ot e

•

m a y 2 014

6 m a s t h e a d & i n f o r m at i o n

•

s u b s c r i b e o n l i n e at c a p i ta l at p l ay . c o m

lo c a l i n d u s t ry

columns

24 Cookin’ up some serious business

58 Debt Settlement: A Blessing Or A Curse

at Blue Ridge Food Ventures

Mike Summey

l e i s u r e & l i b at i o n

c a p i ta l a d v e n t u r i s t

37 The Southern Sacrament

80 Exploring the Waterfalls

What barbecue means to the South & why

keepin’ it brief

events

32 Carolina in the West

90 Go. Do. See. It’s nice out there.

62 The Old North State 76 National & World News

10

in Western North Carolina

| May 2014

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Velvet, Varnish, 12

& Vines | May 2014

How one family created three businesses to serve the tastes of the North Carolina High Country written by anna r addatz

|

photos by ellen gwin

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

13

steve tatum

14

| May 2014

F

or owners of businesses that are popular with summer tourists, Sally and Steve Tatum sure are busy on a winter morning. They zip back and forth from the locations of their two businesses, field customer phone calls, answer questions from staff, and share laughs with each other, all the while being orbited by a crew of friendly canines. In the midst of the bustle, you somehow get the idea that they wouldn’t have it any other way.

North Carolina natives, but transplants to the High Country, the Tatums long ago made Banner Elk their home. Over 36 years of marriage, they have built two businesses and a family, which today are completely intertwined, like the grape vines growing behind their home and the dovetail joints in their handcrafted dresser drawers.

At first glance, owning a furniture store and a winery might seem like disparate and unrelated undertakings. But in the Tatums’ case, the connection seems natural, fitting, and homegrown. In the mountains of Avery County, they’ve built complementary businesses—Tatum Galleries and Grandfather Vineyard Winery—that delight their customers from the living room to the wine cellar.

From the Ski Slopes to Small Business Owners Sally and Steve, both 63, met when they were fresh out of college, both working at Appalachian Ski Mountain near Blowing Rock. Steve, originally from Burlington, North Carolina, was on the ski patrol during the winter, working construction in the warmer months; and Sally, who hailed from Charlotte, worked in group sales year-round. They were married in 1978. “People have asked us how we’ve worked together and stayed together

steve & sally tatum standing in front of their barn May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

15

inside the tatum galleries 16

| May 2014

for all these years,” says Sally. “It probably has something to do with the fact that we got married on April Fool’s Day.” Steve had always enjoyed building things, and the year after the wedding, he found a woodshop he could use. When he wasn’t working on the slopes, he was building furniture, and sold some small items made of wormy chestnut through a local “hole in the wall” shop. The pieces sold well, so Steve and Sally decided to open their own store, Native Wood Reproductions. At the beginning, the store sold only Steve’s handmade furniture and a few local crafts. As sales picked up, the couple decided to work on the business full-time. In 1981, they received a bank loan to buy a plot of land and build a store—the building that would become Tatum Galleries.

They moved the business into the new woodshop and showroom in 1982. Like mothers everywhere, Sally remembers dates by recalling what her children were up to at the time. One day in that year, her then eleven-month-old son, Dylan, took a tumble out of a window, which was open because of all of the wood dust and wallboard dust from the new construction. “He fell two stories and only got a scratch on his thumb,” she says.

“An angel caught him!”

The Tatum’s young family grew up in the store. “Our kids were raised in here,” says Sally. “They’d get off the school bus

sally tatum looks over her library of fabric samples.

and spend the afternoon here with me.” At the time, it was probably impossible to imagine just how involved the children would become.

Designing Women Tatum Galleries is chock full—couches, dining room tables, lamps, wall art, throw pillows, rugs, trays, and dressers.

Everywhere you turn, there’s another vignette, another inviting seating area, another luxurious fabric or accessory for the home. While the eclectic selection ensures there’s something for every taste here—a mix-and-matcher’s dream—the large store somehow also maintains a cohesive flavor, a cozy sense that it all belongs together.

A key part of managing a home decor store is appointing the space in a way that’s appealing to customers. Sally, with a degree in elementary education but no formal interior design training, found that the decorating role suited her—a fact that she credits to her parents, both of whom she says had excellent taste.

“Customers liked how I decorated the store, so they would ask me to come out and help them,” says Sally. She started doing some interior design work in the evenings, since she was

responsible for managing the store during the day. In 1986, Sally began hiring other interior designers to join her team, realizing that interior design would be a large component of the business.

Today, she has four or five ladies that help out at the store, depending on the time of year—including her daughter, Jesse Rose, 32, who holds an interior design degree. “Because we all help people with things like picking fabrics for upholstery,” says Sally, “everybody on staff has to have a good sense of design.”

A constant challenge in the interior design industry is keeping up with new trends. Sally has purposefully hired younger designers to ensure that the styles they offer are up to date. But much of the store’s “look” is due to Sally herself. She spends a lot of time sourcing new merchandise for the store, making sure the shop has a fresh look every season, since many of her customers are return customers. “This store would not be what it is without her eye for design,” says Steve. “She’s able to pick out the things that other people want to buy, and that’s a hard thing to do.”

Sally says that she enjoys projects that involve working with a client’s existing furniture and belongings. But in a region with many second homes—the Tatums estimate that around 75-80% of Tatum Galleries’ customers are people with second homes in the area—Sally also has many customers who hire her to May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

17

Appalachian Hardwood COLLECTION

completely outfit their High Country vacation houses or condos. “She can load up a whole truck, from picture frames to tables, and take it to a client’s house, and the client will keep 95% of it,” says Steve.

In an area heavily dependent on warm-weather tourism, the Tatums have found that the interior design business also helps balance out winter revenue. “We work on interior jobs all winter long,” says Sally, “because it’s a perfect time to remodel.” Clients sometimes give their keys to Sally and trust her to decorate their home in their absence.

Then, when the summer months roll around, those clients make it a point to stop by the shop. “One of the best compliments we get is, ‘Every time I come to the mountains, I come to see you,’” says Sally.

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Ten years ago, the Tatums doubled the size of their building, expanding the retail shop to fill the top floor, and moving the woodworking shop into the 2,500 square foot basement.

Here, Steve and two employees cut, sand, and stain new furniture pieces amid stacks and piles of wood. Increasingly, Steve spends his time on the winery business, but at the top of their production, he and his team were making 50 to 75 new pieces each year—everything from tables and chairs to dressers and beds.

Back in the early years, the store sold only Steve’s handmade pieces, but as things progressed they started doing custom orders, which is most of what they produce today.

“There are still certain people who don’t settle for things,” says Steve. “These are people who have looked to find a certain table or chest of drawers in a certain size or color, and can’t find what they want.”

He gives the example of a customer who owns a round dining room table with an inset lazy susan.

The customer plans to give the table to his daughter, and has ordered a new and larger version for his own home—sixty-six inches wide, made of curly maple, and with that same clever lazy susan inset into the middle.

The shop also carries furniture from other makers, ranging from local craftsmen to larger producers. “We like to look for solid wood furniture made in the United States, but it’s getting harder and harder to find,” says Steve. “The furniture industry in this country is drying up.”

But Steve and his craftsmen are doing their best to keep the American handmade legacy alive. “Our furniture is as good a quality as money can buy,” says Steve proudly.

“It’s built to last through generations—what some people call the ‘antiques of the future.’”

These days, though, another project has taken over much of Steve’s time, energy, and imagination: the winery.

In fact, the clientele for both Tatum Galleries & Grandfather Vineyard Winery are similar—folks with disposable income who enjoy the finer things in life.

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If you pull out of the Tatum Galleries parking lot and drive two miles down Highway 105, then turn right onto Vineyard Lane, you’ll cross a charming little bridge that spans a rushing brook and come upon Steve and Sally’s newest endeavor: Grandfather

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these carboys are used to top-off

barrels once they are fermented, as some of the wine evaporates.

Vineyard Winery.

As you face the green-roofed, barn-style building that contains the tasting room, to your right will be a steep slope of criss-crossing terraces, tangled with grape vines. To your left, Adirondack chairs invite you to relax on the grassy bank beside the boulder-edged brook. And behind you, you can make out the horizontal profile of a face in the contours of the landscape—Grandfather Mountain, the namesake of this business.

If you happen to glance behind the tasting room, you might notice another building—this is Sally and Steve’s home, where they’ve lived since 1979.

In 1998, the owners of this 13-acre plot of land decided to sell, and asked the Tatums if they would have any interest in purchasing it, since it abuts their property. The couple, who had dreamed of owning it for many years, jumped at the opportunity.

Once it was theirs, they wondered what to do with it. They played with a variety of options, including starting a tree farm, but nothing seemed quite right.

Both Sally and Steve are wine lovers (in fact, they both remember the bottle of wine they shared on their first date), so eventually the idea of grapes came up. They had noticed that most of their “old-timer” neighbors had small grape trellises, just enough for producing a few jars of jam each year. “Most of them didn’t know what kinds of grapes they were,” says Steve.

“They considered them red grapes, pink grapes, or white grapes.

20

| May 2014

But they grew, that was the important thing.”

Steve started doing research to find out if there were any wine grapes that would grow at their elevation of 3,100 feet, especially considering the High Country weather patterns. In 2003, he planted six varieties, which did remarkably well. “The next year, me and Sally not getting any younger and knowing how long it takes for wine grapes to mature, we thought, ‘We’ll just terrace the land and grow grapes. We can sell them and it’ll be beautiful to look at, too.’”

While they had no plans to open a winery at that time, once the grapes started producing, the Tatums began making wine for themselves in their garage. They slowly realized that if they did put in a winery, it would be a hit because of the location. “When you talk to the owners of other wineries that are fairly removed from main traffic flows,” says Steve,” their main challenge is getting the tourists to pull off an interstate and drive five or ten miles.”

Being only a few hundred feet off of a main road means that Grandfather Winery receives a constant flow of tourists during the warmer months. In a twist that seems to bring this couple’s story full-circle, the Tatum’s winery also stays busy in the winter due to visiting skiers. In fact, the clientele for both Tatum Galleries and Grandfather Vineyard Winery are similar—folks with disposable income who enjoy the finer things in life. As a result, many of the Tatums’ customers frequent both businesses.

Last year, 7,400 people visited the winery for tastings.

dyl an tatum in the Vineyard barrelroom.

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

21

The tasting menu includes about a dozen different wines, from a smoky Zinfandel to a honey-sweet ice wine. The vineyard now produces fifteen different varieties of grapes—Steve describes it as an “experimental vineyard”—and as a result they do a lot of blending. Their Profile Red contains ten different red varieties, making for a very unique flavor.

“A lot of people tell us that they can’t believe they’re drinking wine from North Carolina,” says Steve. The North Carolina Wine Growers Association lists Grandfather Winery as one of only six wineries in its “mountain region,” which is comprised of most of Western North Carolina. With only five acres of grapes, the business also purchases grapes from other local vineyards to meet production needs.

The Tatum’s son, Dylan, 29, is the winemaker. When the couple planted their first vines, Dylan was a college student and became intrigued by grape-growing. He went on to study viticulture (the study of grape production) and enology (the study of winemaking) at Surry Community College. He also received a business degree from Appalachian State University, providing a solid knowledge base for managing the winery. Today the winery produces 1,500 to 1,700 cases of wine annually, most of which is sold at the winery itself, with some bottles being sold at local restaurants and shops.

It should come as no surprise that Steve built many of the wooden elements in the tasting room—from the giant eight-foot-tall front door (which Steve describes as a “dungeon door”) to the white oak wood-slab bar, complete with clever wine-glassshaped inlays.

He also made the wooden mantel shelf that juts out from the stone fireplace, which displays about a dozen bottles wearing medals. Steve explains that they are awards from the North Carolina State Fair and the Mid-Atlantic Southeastern Wine Competition.

Last year at the latter, Grandfather Winery won best in show for its Legacy blended red, beating out nearly 600 other wineries. “It was a huge honor for us because we’re such a small winery,” says Steve.

When asked about any expansion plans for either business, Steve says that he and Sally already have their hands full and are happy with how things are. These days what he likes most is taking a break to literally enjoy the fruits of his family’s labor.

“I just love to grab a glass of wine and sit out there with the customers and talk,” says Steve, smiling.

22

| May 2014

the tatum family (lef t to right ):

daughter Jesse Rose Blalock, son-in-law Lance Blalock, grandson Lincoln Blalock, son Dylan Tatum, Steve and Sally Tatum.

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 23

local industry

Cookin’ up some serious business

at Blue Ridge Food Ventures writ ten by jim murphy

|

photos by anthony harden

labeling 5th Sun salsas

I

preparing Smiling Hara Tempeh

In Western North Carolina, the road from farm to table often runs through a kitchen in Enka. That’s where an entrepreneur with a recipe and a dream—and a little money and a lot of energy—can turn a fanciful idea into a solid business.

Blue Ridge Food Ventures (BRFV) is a nonprofit “kitchen incubator,” a term which covers just about every facet of a food business from the original recipe to final delivery. BRFV executive director Chris Reedy says the incubator concept began in the late 1990s. He explains that it provides the commercial kitchen and packaging equipment that would represent

24

| May 2014

a staggering investment for a small entrepreneur, as well as the expertise to navigate the maze of health regulations and business pitfalls the entrepreneur is likely to encounter.

“It’s like the American dream,” Reedy says. “You look at Chef Boyardee, at Hines, these guys started small. Granted they started back in the ‘30s, but they grew into these huge

businesses. There’s no reason why somebody out of here couldn’t do the same thing.”

“Somebody out of here” now numbers about 70 clients (see a full list on our website), preparing their food products in the three kitchens that form the centerpiece of the BRFV facility, a rented building on the Enka campus of A-B Tech. The kitchens gleam with commercial-strength stainless steel equipment that can accomplish whatever specialized operation the client requires.

“We’ve got about a million-and-a-half to two million dollars worth of equipment here,” Reedy says. In addition to the standard kitchen equipment, BRFV has three walk-in freezers, a cooler, a dehydrator, a culturing fermentation space and a warehouse area. “A small entrepreneur would never be able to make an investment like that. It would just overwhelm them.”

But at the BRFV fee of $200 a day, that small start-up entrepreneur can prepare his product, package it and take it to market.

The kitchens have been operating since 2005—well, actually, late in 2004 when, Reedy recalls, they got started in a big way.

“There was a client who did sweet potato pies. And they had an invitation by QVC to come on and sell their pies, and I think it was like 10 or 15 thousand pies that they had to make for QVC. And so they came in and did their production and made it happen.”

With 10,000 sweet potato pies under their belt, the kitchens were off and incubating!

Now, nearly 20 years later, the three BRFV kitchens serve clients, from food trucks to caterers to specialty food producers, and even cosmetics and cream products. Each of the kitchens serve a different segment of BRFV’s client base. Reedy explains the “dry” kitchen is equipped to produce such items as chips or bagels. The “wet” kitchen handles liquid-based items such as salsas or sauces. And then there’s what one might call the “goo” kitchen, which is outfitted to produce cosmetics, body creams, and lotions.

Add the packaging and labeling equipment, then add the

chris reedy, Blue Ridge Food

Ventures Executive Director

Since Blue Ridge opened it has nurtured no fewer than 31 businesses to the point that they were able to set up their own kitchens and packaging operations and go out on their own. business and regulatory assistance, and the operation shapes up as a life-line service for the aspiring food producer.

Even discounting any other challenges, the regulatory requirements of a food business could be enough to derail a start-up before it can get started. The start-up could quickly turn into a melt-down. BRFV simplifies that burden.

“When we get a new client, he sends his recipe to a food scientist at NC State in Raleigh. The scientist examines the recipe, then gives our client all the technical details, such as acidity requirement or moisture level and the process he’ll need to meet that requirement. An inspector from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture checks on the client during his first preparation session, then they return on a random basis. We May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 25

local industry

g r a d u at e s * Businesses that got their start at Blue Ridge Food Ventures (partial list)

Buchi Kombucha Bushelle Seasonings (fresh herbal seasonings) Chef Ricardo’s (tomato sauces) Dolci di Maria (gluten-free sweets) Imladris Jam Kanini's Catering Lenny Boy Kombucha Lusty Monk Mustard

hand - rolling

UliMana raw chocolate truffles

Sadie’s Caribbean Fish Cakes World’s Best Carrot Cakes

* NOTE: Unlike a traditional business incubator, there is no process or length of time for “graduating” from Blue Ridge Food Ventures. We use the term loosely and informally. Any business can continue to use Blue Ridge for as long as they wish; everyone pays by the hour for use of the facility and equipment and rents space, if they wish, for storage of inventory or supplies.

In many of the cases above, businesses “outgrew” the space at Blue Ridge and moved into their own production facility.

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| May 2014

Theresa Green, owner of UliMana, with Ko’alani DeBoer

Everyone starts with a lump of clay.

michael henzel

labeling his 5th Sun salsas

have a state inspector here for random checks every week.”

From the details of technical state regulations to the nuts-and-bolts of cooking up a product and putting a label on a bottle, BRFV clients agree that its services are vital to their success.

“Without this facility I don’t think my business would survive.” Theresa Green attributes much of her success to BRFV. Her company, UliMana, produces a line of hand-rolled raw chocolate truffles in 12 flavors. She brings her team of five employees to the facility one or two days every week. One of them mixes the ingredients, using something that looks like your old-fashioned countertop kitchen mixer—on steroids. The 1.5 horsepower Hobart mixer stands about three feet high and churns its ingredients in a stainless steel 60-quart bowl. The mixture is spread out on a baker’s tray and placed in a cooling chamber until the rolling team is ready for it. The team reminds one of an old-fashioned quilting bee as the five women stand around a big table, rolling squares of chocolate between their hands until they are shaped into truffle-size balls. The truffles are then dipped into a powder coating before they are packaged for shipment.

Theresa Green calls her truffles a niche product, explaining that instead of sugar they contain agave and coconut nectar as sweeteners. They sell in health food stores from Maine to Maui, with annual sales in the $300,000 range. Her team can produce as many as 600 jars a day, but without BRFV, she says she would be unable to produce enough to fill her orders. “If we didn’t have this facility, I would not be able to do what I’ve done.”

Michael Henzel, another BRFV client, offers a similar appraisal. Michael produces a line of salsas and hot sauces under the label 5th Sun. “Without a place like this I’d have to invest a lot more money, and it may be an unwise investment.” Michael has been making his sauces and salsas at BRFV for 15 months. He moved here from Vermont, where he had used a local kitchen incubator. So, did the BRFV incubator

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clockwise from top right :

Tommy Ingallinera looks proudly over the production of Smiling Hara Tempeh, while Alex Krug and Matt Shimko work in the background.

Alex Krug mixing the tempeh.

Adding the final touches to a jar of Potters’ Skin Butter by Cara Mae Skin Care.

Cara Steinbuchel of Cara Mae Skin Care.

Chris Reedy inspects equipment.

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| May 2014

figure in his decision to move to Asheville?

“Yes.” Michael quickly enumerated some of the challenges that would have made it “extremely difficult, essentially impossible” to start his business without the help of BRFV. “At least $100,000 investment in equipment, plus I’d have to rent a facility, then go through the permitting processes. It just might not have happened.”

Since BRFV opened it has nurtured no fewer than 31 businesses to the point that they were able to set up their own kitchens and packaging operations and go out on their own (see some of the best known graduates in the sidebar on page 26). He points to two brands that people might recognize: Lusty Monk mustard and Buchi Kombucha fermented tea.

Those successful “alumni” of BRFV represent one end of its experience; at the other end are hopeful new clients just walking in the door.

For those new clients, BRFV has a screening process to help them understand the challenges they’re facing. The initial questionnaire asks if the applicant has a business plan, a financial plan, if he’s using his own capital or borrowing money to get started.

“Most of the time they’re putting their life savings into this business,” Chris Reedy says. To help potential clients develop a plan, he recommends Mountain Business Works or the business center at one of the community colleges. “All the community colleges have a small business center. It’s a huge resource that I think people don’t take advantage of. And, it’s free.”

He explains why he wants to see a new client’s business plan. “You can look at their business plans and you can know if they’ve done their homework.” He looks at the plans with an experienced eye. His parents owned restaurants, and he was exposed to the peculiar requirements of the food business at an early age. Now, with an MBA, he brings a professional perspective to his interviews with clients.

Chris does not project the image of an MBA. A big and bulky man, he sports a mane of curly red hair, usually tied into a bun at the nape of his neck. His full red beard is beginning to show flecks of grey, and his thick mustache winds itself into elaborate curls, the full image suggesting a Viking who happened to fall into the wrong century. Confounding the Viking image is an easy grin and a soft-spoken manner—and a man-sized skateboard standing in a corner of his office.

“Most of the time they’re putting their life savings into this business,” Chris Reedy says.

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local industry

He offers a lengthy list of duties that go with the executive-director title, beginning with writing applications for grants. At $200 a day for the use of a kitchen, the 70 BRFV clients cover only about half the cost of keeping the freezers freezing and the ovens cooking. The rest comes from grants offered by organizations such as the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Asheville Merchants Fund, and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.

The BRFV operates under the banner of Advantage West, a nonprofit economic development partnership that has worked in the 23 counties of Western North Carolina for the past 20 years.

To increase the number of clients and, not so incidentally, the BRFV income, Chris is expanding the reach of the kitchens. Until now it has served the 23 counties of Western North Carolina, but the outreach plan envisions attracting entrepreneurs from other parts of North Carolina and surrounding states.

“We‘re developing a co-packing program,” Chris says. “We’re going to hire a crew of workers who can do production for you if you’re outside the region. So if you live in Tennessee or some place that makes it hard to get here, we’ll do the production for you, or we’ll help you find a staff of experienced workers to do

Friends Forever!

it. Then we can ship the product to you or to your customers.”

Chris hopes the expanded territory produces an expanded roster of clients to minimize down-time in the kitchens and maximize BRFV income.

Another income-producing program that serves both local farmers and retail customers is Winter Sun Farms, a community-supported agriculture program that provides flash frozen fruits and vegetables to members from December through March. More than 50 area farmers supply produce, which is prepped, flash frozen and packaged. The packages are then distributed monthly to members. Depending on the farmers’ crops for any given year, the winter bounty could include raspberries, blackberries, salad greens, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, okra, and whatever else the local farmers may produce.

Priced at $125 for the season, members pick up monthly packages of fruits and veggies through the winter. Each package contains seven or eight items. Distribution sites are at the BRFV kitchens in Enka. For an extra $10 a season, members can pick up their packages at the Grove Arcade or in Flat Rock or Black Mountain. And for a $20 surcharge, BRFV will deliver the Winter Sun crops to a distribution point in Greenville, South Carolina.

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| May 2014

The Winter Sun program is relatively small, but Chris Reedy says it is the perfect example of the “farm-to-table” concept.

“People can get local fruits and vegetables all through the winter, and the farmers get another outlet for their products. It’s the kind of thing we take real pride in.”

Chris could also take pride in the comments of his kitchen clients who depend on BRFV for the equipment they need—and for much more than that.

Cara Steinbuchel has produced Cara Mae Skin Care products for 10 years. She developed her potters’ skin butter when she became aware of the pottery artisans in the Asheville area and began to notice the damage to their hands. “My sales have doubled or even tripled since I began working here,” she says.

“Before I came here, I could produce about 60 jars a day at home.

Now I can produce 450 jars a day.”

Cara talks about the business advice she gets at BRFV, and she echoes several other clients when she mentions a sense of community among the dealers. “The community aspect of it is important. These dealers have experience and they’re happy to share what they know. It’s like we’re all in this together.”

Tommy Ingallinera and Sara Krug were running empty packages on a conveyor belt past a device that was stamping

expiration dates on them. The packages would soon be filled with Smiling Hara Tempeh.

Tommy said the equipment at BRFV had allowed Smiling Hara to increase production from about 300 pounds to 1,000 pounds a day. Alex picked up his thought: “This enables a small business to become competitive. Plus, with all these different food entrepreneurs under one roof, there’s a lot of shared knowledge.

This place is an invaluable community resource.”

A community resource that, in Chris Reedy’s words, stretches all the way to the American dream.

Got an opinion? Share it on our website by scanning this QR code or visiting capitalatplay.com/brfv

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CAROLINA

Sierra Nevada brewery’s first public event date set

in the

WEST [

news briefs

Pardee Hospital announces five-way partnership hendersonville

Pardee Hospital participated in an official joint announcement of a five-way partnership with the City of Hendersonville, Henderson County, Blue Ridge Community College (BRCC) and Wingate University to build an educational facility on the Pardee campus.

The 60,000-square-foot facility should be completed by December 1, 2015. Its intention is to contribute to the betterment of Henderson County and to improve educational opportunities and medical care for county residents by strengthening ties between the hospital, higher education institutions and municipal groups. Jay Kirby, president and CEO

mills river

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company announced plans for a seven-city, cross-country series of beer festivals this summer that will conclude in a grand opening celebration of the brewery’s new facility in Mills River. The 15-day Beer Camp Across America tour will kick off in Sierra Nevada’s original home of Chico, California and finish in Mills River on Sunday, August 3rd, when the new East Coast brewery will be revealed to the public. The other stops are San Diego, Denver, Chicago, Portland, Maine, and Philadelphia. Sierra Nevada is inviting each of the nearly 2,700 craft breweries in the United States to register and participate by serving their beers at any one of the regional events along the 4,800-mile tour. While the August 3rd event is the official grand opening of the Mills River brewery, Sierra Nevada spokesman Ryan Arnold said some features of the facility’s customer experience, such as tours, may open to the general public before the big event. As part of the Beer Camp Across America, the company has decided to create a variety 12-pack of beers produced

]

of Pardee Hospital, said, “This initiative is good for the overall economic growth of our region. Program offerings through both BRCC and Wingate University will provide certificate and degree programs to expand the future healthcare workforce in our region.” Specifically, the facility will offer BRCC allied health education programs and coursework including nursing, surgical technology, nursing assistant, and phlebotomy. Wingate University will initially offer courses toward its physician assistant, pharmacy, and MBA programs.

Over 400 students, faculty, and staff will be based in the facility. Additionally, approximately 25,000 square feet of space are designated for Pardee to provide health care services. This aims to increase access to care from world-class physicians in downtown Hendersonville and provide space for future growth of services.

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in collaboration with a dozen of the most respected and accomplished breweries from coast to coast, hand-picked by Sierra Nevada. The Beer Camp Across America 12-pack will be released along with the tour in July throughout Sierra Nevada’s existing distribution network nationwide. The 12-packs will cost about $25 and feature assorted and unique beers, test batches of which have been produced by Sierra Nevada and the participating breweries the past few months on Sierra Nevada’s pilot brewing system in Chico. Each variety pack will feature 10 bottles and two cans, one of which is from Oskar Blues, which is producing a rye bock beer called CANfusion. The other local representative is a Scotch ale called Tater Ridge from the Asheville Brewers Alliance member breweries that pays homage to Western North Carolina’s agricultural roots and Scots-Irish heritage.

The beer will be produced with 1,000 pounds of sweet potatoes for the eventual 1,000-barrel main production run.

Some beers will be produced in Chico and others in Mills River, including the ABA brew and a Belgian-style blonde ale from Russian River Brewing in Santa Rosa, California. Sierra Nevada’s festival website with details about the festival, purchasing tickets and brewery sign-ups is www.sierranevada.com/beercamp.

62

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the old north state

national & world

Women’s funds merge high country

The High Country Women’s Fund and the Appalachian Women’s Fund have merged organizations, establishing the new Women’s Fund of the Blue Ridge (WFBR). During the official merging event at Bistro Roca last month, Kay McKloske and Grace Palacios-Will thanked outgoing directors, Parker Stevens of the Appalachian Women’s Fund and Rebecca Moore of the High Country Women’s Fund, for their contributions to their respective organizations. Karen Sabo was presented as the executive director of the new Women’s Fund of the Blue Ridge.

Previously, Sabo ran the New Opportunity School for Women at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk. Sabo said: “I hope we can use our good fortune to help other women and children in our area who are less fortunate…People who know me, know that I hate waste. We don’t want to spend any money that could be used to help our clients…And I don’t like the waste of human lives, of women and children in our area not reaching their full potential; women living in poverty and not being able to further their education; women with self-esteem issues because they have been living with a violent partner.”

The Women’s Fund of the Blue Ridge is

NOW

carolina in the west

committed to raising money for various organizations that work to better the lives of women and children in a seven-county region in Western North Carolina, including Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties.

The new organization’s opening fundraising event, scheduled for June 26th at the Linville Ridge Country Club, will be the first WFBR Fundraising Luncheon.

YMCA to unveil new mobile kitchen western north carolina

The YMCA of Western North Carolina revealed its new mobile kitchen last month during Healthy Kids Day in Asheville. Using grant money from the Walmart Foundation, the organization has transformed a 72-passenger bus into a mobile kitchen that can be used to teach children about healthy cooking and eating. Jim Spearin, senior executive director of Association Youth Development for the YMCA of Western North Carolina, said they will use the bus at its various camps to offer hands-on opportunities for learning about healthy eating. “Not only will we be able to teach kids how to properly prepare healthy foods, and how to eat healthy, we also have partnerships with

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carolina in the west

various farms and community groups including MANNA, which is going to allow us to give away free food to many different neighborhoods throughout Asheville city and Buncombe County and all the other counties as well,” he explained. The YMCA currently provides meals at its various programs, but Spearin added, “This mobile kitchen will be able to expand the services we provide.” The kitchen is said to be the first of its kind.

UhaulCarShare hourly rental program at UNC Asheville asheville, nc

Two new cars will be seen parked directly in front of Brown Hall on the UNC Asheville campus in the coming months.

They will be offered as a new transportation option for the community. Through the UhaulCarShare hourly rental program, students, faculty, staff, and visitors to the campus can access a car without having to worry about the costs of purchasing, storing, and maintaining a personal vehicle. There will be three cars parked downtown and two on the campus that are all available to members of the program.

There is no fee to become a member and

enrollment can be done online. Members must be 18 years or older. Once approved, members reserve a car online, enter and start the car with a code, and only pay for the hours and miles used. Insurance is included. The Office of Public Safety at UNC Asheville partnered with the City of Asheville and U-Haul to bring the program to the UNC Asheville campus.

Schencks win Lela McBride award for conservation work cedar mountain, nc

Last month, Sandy and Missy Schenck, co-owners of the Green River Preserve summer camp in Cedar Mountain, attended a White House conference on engaging the next generation of conservation leaders. Shortly after, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy (CMLC) honored the environmental educators as winners of the 2014 Lela McBride Award. The award, presented at CMLC’s annual meeting at Camp Tekoa, distinguishes individuals who have made significant contributions to land conservation and stewardship in the region.

Previous winners have included North Carolina representative Chuck McGrady,

agriculture secretary Steve Troxler, and congressman Charles Taylor. In 1987, the Schencks founded Green River Preserve, a co-ed summer camp that concentrates on connecting children and nature.

Emphasizing programming that uses “nature’s classroom,” they hoped to nurture young campers by encouraging skills such as curiosity, creativity, optimism and perseverance. Their belief that learning is enriched by the natural world also led the Schencks to help form Muddy Sneakers in 2007. The nonprofit uses experiential outdoor learning to teach science to fifth-graders from 18 schools in four counties. Attending summer camps and spending ample time outdoors growing up was largely responsible for forming their strong conservation ethic. Sandy’s parents, Alex and Laurie Schenck, bought the 3,400 acres that now comprise Green River Preserve in the early 1950s as a place to spend weekends and summers fishing, hiking, and exploring. An avid fly fisherman, Alex Schenck taught a love of the land and water to his son. In 2006, the Schencks entered 2,600 acres of the Green River Preserve into a conservation easement with CMLC, permanently protecting the land from development.

It is currently the group’s single-largest easement, making up nearly 10 percent of the 27,000 acres CMLC has protected to

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date. Besides preserving wildlife corridors, mountain scenery and habitat for rare species, the Schenck’s easement also created a protected buffer bordering DuPont State Forest, forming a contiguous area of more than 13,000 acres of conserved natural lands.

1931 Roadster to be raffled blowing rock

An anonymous donor has donated a 1931 Ford Model A Roadster to the Blowing Rock School PTO to be used while raising funds for the organization’s ongoing Playground Rejuvenation project. Raffle tickets for the vehicle are $100 apiece and can be purchased at the Blowing Rock School office and Blowing Rock Produce and Provisions. A drawing for the car will be held at Blowing Rock School’s annual Spring Fling, to be held at the school on Saturday, May 24, 2014. In the 1930s, Ford’s Model A Roadster was the top of the line vehicle. Since it was more powerful, more comfortable, and improvements in tires and suspension allowed it to travel over rougher terrain, it was considered a significant improvement from the Model A and Model T brands that the Ford Motor Company built and sold in the 1920s. This

Model A Roadster comes in bright yellow with metallic flake brown fenders and running board. It is a convertible version of the Model A with a rumble seat in the back. It is also in perfect running order and currently licensed and registered in the state of North Carolina. Checks for the raffle can be made out to: Blowing Rock School PTO.

Mobility program to be offered monthly boone, nc

To help older adults learn how to prevent falls, Appalachian State University’s BlueShield of North Carolina Institute for Health and Human Services will offer free monthly CHAMP screenings at the Lois E. Harrill Senior Center April through November. CHAMP stands for Community Health and Mobility Partnership. The program is designed to improve strength, balance and mobility to help older individuals avoid falls and stay independent and active for life.

A nurse will conduct the screenings and physical therapist will identify participants at risk for falls and offer individualized fall prevention recommendations. Area physicians or home health workers are encouraged to refer

patients to this service. CHAMP was initiated in McDowell County in 2009 as a two-year collaborative research project with Dr. Vicki Mercer at UNC, with Baxter International Foundation serving as the founding sponsor. It is a modified form of the Otago Exercise Programme, which has been proven to result in a 35 percent reduction in falls and fall related injuries. Dates include April 25, May 30, June 13, July 11, August 22, September 19, October 18 and November 7. Interested individuals should schedule an appointment by contacting Carol Cook at 828-262-7674 or cookcb@appstate.edu. The center is located in the Watauga County Human Services Building at 132 Poplar Grove Connector, Suite A. CHAMP is sponsored by a collaboration of Watauga County agencies, including the Lois E. Harrill Senior Center, Appalachian’s BlueShield of North Carolina Institute for Health and Human Services in the College of Health Sciences, and the university’s Department of Nursing, Department of Sociology and Gerontology, and athletic training programs.

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L leisure & libation

Southern Sacrament THE

ď‚Ť

written by roger mccredie

|

photos by anthony harden

What barbecue

means to the South and why

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 37

H

ere’s how articles like this actually get written: I was minding my own business when the phone rang. It was Oby Morgan, the publisher of this magazine. “How Southern are you?” he asked. “Seriously?” “Yeah. I mean—” “Well, let’s see…my mother’s people came to Jamestown in 1607. My dad’s ancestors got off the boat from Scotland in time to enlist in the Confederate Army. When I was in college some other fools and I stuck the Stars and Bars on top of the Pawley’s Island water tower at four in the morning—” “Okay,” said Oby. “—I spent two years as Chief of Heritage Defense of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and seven years as executive director of the Southern Legal Resource Center—” “Yeah, but—” “—I got my first rifle when I was eleven. I eat hoppin’ John on New Year’s, and I know the difference between good and bad sweet tea, and I know you can substitute chicken for squirrel in Brunswick stew, but it’s just not the same—”

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| May 2014

“Okay, okay, that’s where I’m headed. I just wanted to see if you were competent to do an article on barbecue.”

“Seriously?”

The misgiving in my voice must have been evident because Oby wanted to know why I, the prototypical Southerner, seemed less than tickled at the chance to write about an iconic region’s most iconic food. I did something very risky for any writer who has just been handed, on a silver platter, an unsolicited assignment that pays good money: I expressed reservations about it.

“I don’t want to write ‘The Barbecue Story,’” I said. “One, I’m not a food critic. Two, every Southern periodical on God’s green earth publishes ‘The Barbecue Article’ at least once a year, and they all say the same thing. They’re set pieces. They get all gushy about ingredients and cooking method. Sometimes they mumble something about barbecue being a part of Southern culture, but they don’t say why or how—” “I know. That’s why I want you to be the one to write the article.”

“Oh. Seriously?”

L



BARBECUE MAKES UP ONE OF THE FOUR BASIC Southern food groups, along with fried chicken, biscuits and gravy, and banana pudding. But unlike the other three, which are merely foods, barbecue is a concept, entire of itself, fleshed out by its very own history, folklore and mores. In that respect, it occupies the same position in Southern culture as moonshine whiskey, over which it has the consumer advantage of being legal: you can walk in and order a plate of barbecue; you don’t have to knock on a strange door or arrange a meeting with somebody you’ve never met who will signal you with a blink of his lights on a dark country road.

Remember that “barbecue” is both a verb and a noun. It refers to the actual cooking process as well as the end product of that process. There are many theories as to the origin of the term. One of the most original (if not particularly academic) was cited by Southern scholar S. Jonathan Bass in 1999. Bass alleged to have heard tell of an ad for an establishment that was a combination beer and liquor joint, pool hall and purveyor of roasted pig, which called itself the “Bar-Beer-Cue-Pig.” Now,

it’s entirely possible that there was/is such an establishment, but if so, its name is a latter-day witticism along the same lines as the alleged sign at the roadside café/filling station, “Eat Here and Get Gas.” More plausible is the theory that the word derives from the French phrase barbe a queue—“head [lit: “beard”] to tail.”

A preponderance of evidence suggests that the single word “barbecue’” describing the method of slow-roasting a pig over white-hot coals, originated “among indigenous peoples” of the Caribbean, specifically Haiti. Since Haiti has a centuries-old affiliation with France, it’s entirely possible that the Haitian word for the process, barbacoa, is a dialectical version of the French phrase, used to describe a much older method of cooking. Anyhow, “barbecue” (yes, the modern spelling) made it into no less a scholarly work than Samuel Johnson’s 1756 dictionary as both a verb and a noun. (“A method for dressing a whole hog/ a hog dressed whole”).

“Barbecue” would have made a pretty exotic entry in Johnson’s work. English nobility weren’t crowding the sun dappled lawns May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 39

leisure & libation

of Downton Abbey of a summer’s afternoon, swilling champagne and inhaling the appetizing aroma of roasting pig while liveried footmen passed the hushpuppies. Howbeit (as they said in those days) that’s exactly what was happening in certain of His Majestie’s Southern American colonies, where “barbecue” as a noun had taken on a further meaning as a social gathering centered around ye cooking and eating of roasted meat.

And thus informed, dear reader, we arrive (finally) at the crux of this whole matter, which is how barbecue—noun and verb, has come to be associated almost exclusively with the American South.

As we have seen, the South did not invent barbecue any more than Scotland invented the bagpipe. Roasting meat over a pit is almost as old as fire, and using a bellows-like sack to power a flute was a technique known in ancient Babylon. But it was in the South, as in Scotland, that the idea came to be perfected.

Both concepts involve a certain amount of incidental squealing before the desired result can be obtained, but whereas Scots’ bagpipes evolved after centuries of imitation, innovation and tinkering, Southern barbecue’s emergence as a cultural icon was largely due to the fortuitous introduction of a single factor:



t he 

PIG This is probably the place to introduce an important disclaimer, before the Capital at Play offices are stormed by an angry mob of Texans and Kentuckians hollering, “Remember the Alamo!”, “Go Wildcats!” or whatever seems appropriate to them. As we have seen, “barbecue” refers to a method of cooking as well as to what is cooked. You can barbecue just about any meat; them ol’ indigenous peoples of the West Indies, who gave us the word to begin with, mostly used goats. Hence Texans, who claim to have more or less singlehandedly invented cattle, tend to barbecue beef, and it is true that beef brisket cooked in this manner is delicious.

The denizens of parts of Kentucky are partial, for reasons known only to themselves, to mutton. But the highest and best application of the barbecuer’s art remains—as it has before the first longhorn steer hit the Old Chisholm Trail or Daniel Boone had bushwhacked through Cumberland Gap—reserved for pig. Hogs. Swine.

Fossil evidence suggests that pig-like creatures have been 40

| May 2014

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leisure & libation

around for 40 million years, give or take. Domesticated pigs were being raised for food in China by 5000 bc (concomitant with the rise of sweet and sour sauce) and were established as livestock in Europe by 1500 bc, by which time European woods were also full of the pig’s ferocious cousin, the wild boar. Queen Isabella insisted that Columbus take eight pigs with him to the new world. Why Her Most Catholic Majesty made this request is not known, but she was paying for the trip so the pigs went.

Their eventual fate is likewise uncertain. What is certain is that a few years later Hernando DeSoto carried 13 pigs with him to what is now Tampa. The Spanish swine (as well as the pigs) thrived; in fact the Native Americans of that area found pig meat such a tasty novelty that they actually raided local pigpens, whooping, shooting arrows and crying, “Extra sauce and hold the slaw!” Many of DeSoto’s pigs escaped into the wild, becoming the ancestors of the feral pigs that inhabit Southern woodlands to this day.

Eventually Tampa Bay and other Caribbean area ports became regular stops for seafaring robbers. These pirates had brought with them the barbacoa meat-cooking technique they had picked up, along with just about everything else, while scouring the islands. Their word for the cooking apparatus they used was boucan and the merry thieves who employed it were nicknamed boucaniers, hence “buccaneer.”

Not everybody in the new world was as enthusiastic about hog meat. In the eighteenth century, William Byrd, in his History of the Dividing Line Betwixt North Carolina and Virginia, sneered, “…these people [North Carolinians] live so much upon swine’s flesh that it don’t only incline them to the yaws, and consequently to the…[loss] of their noses, but makes them likewise extremely hoggish in their temper, and many of them seem to grunt rather than speak in their ordinary conversation.”

If Byrd, an inveterate bookworm, had kept abreast of things instead of trying to keep his wife from messing about in his library, he would have noticed that not a single case of yaws was ever directly connected to eating pork, so there.

The point is, hogs and the raising of them flourished in the South from early on. Hogs were low maintenance, they multiplied like rabbits, and they could be turned loose in the woods to forage for themselves and be caught later for butchering. In fact, hog killing became a community event and the roasting of a pig or two for such gatherings gave rise to the third definition of “barbecue”—as a social occasion. Roasting a whole pig was a cheap way to entertain, and the pig meat went even further if it was pulled apart. Thus, it was a short step from hog-killin’ get-togethers to political rallies, church fund-raisers, and debutante parties where the honorees squealed, “Ewww! Grease on my dress!” Nor were such events limited to goings-on up at the big house. The love of barbecue, then as now, cut across all class and racial lines. By the outbreak of the War Between the States, Southerners were eating five pounds of pork for every pound of other meat. (Lord knows, there was little enough of

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HAM:

Baked for Sunday or ceremonial dinners, cooked with an infinite number of glazes and served with countless sauces. Or covered with black pepper, smoked and hung in a smokehouse, kitchen or sometimes a bedroom for years until it attains the proper greenish glow.

PIG’S FEET:

Proletarian delicacy regrettably seldom found any more except in old side street bars or country roadhouses where what you think is sawdust on the floor is actually yesterday’s furniture. You’ll find them in a large, squat glass jar between the pickled eggs and the Slim Jims.

Immortalized in the old Memphis blues, “Gimme a pig’s foot and a bottle of beer.” ‘Nuff said.

BACON:

Not BBQ material, but a staff of life. Superb accompaniment for everything from eggs to peanut butter. Primary ingredient of BLT’s and Hoppin’ John.

L what good is a

PIG illustr ation by hanna trussler

  

BACK FAT (or fatback):

Incomparable source of seasoning for beans and greens of all types.

LOIN:

Source of pork chops and pork roast. It’s possible to barbecue, but you have to be careful—there’s little protective fat so it’s easy to overcook.

SPARE RIBS:

The holy grail of barbecue cuts, they are cooked and usually served as an intact rack. Particularly suitable for “dry rubbing” with black & cayenne pepper, garlic and whatever else. Not known why they’re called “spare”—the pig would probably have definite feelings about that…

CLEAR PLATE:

What you do to a mess of barbecue, beans, coleslaw, and hush puppies.

BOSTON BUTT:

Neither a butt nor unique to Boston, which only shows that some people don’t know their butts from a hog on the ground.

However, it’s one of the prime barbecue cuts, along with…

PICNIC (aka Pork Shoulder):

preferred joint of many BBQ joints.

JOWLS:

used for seasoning and occasionally deep fried. Frequently represented by snooty yankee media as a staple of Southern diet.

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May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 43

leisure & libation

it to eat for a long time afterwards.)

Cookery being the ever-evolving science that it is, the popularity of the pig also launched the invention of sauces—for seasoning at time of serving only; true barbecue meat may be rubbed with dry ingredients before cooking but is never basted. The makeup of these sauces was based on availability of ingredients and personal taste, and recipes were not only seldom written down but often varied from one application to another. Oral tradition and copycatting carried the framework of some recipes around a given district, which explains the predominance of vinegar-and-pepper sauce in Eastern North Carolina, the same framework with the addition of tomatoes and stock further west, and yellow mustard-based sauce in parts of South Carolina and Georgia.

And somewhere along the line, it occurred to some entrepreneurial farmer that he could make a little extra money doing barbecue. He already had the pigs; he had, probably in his head, a recipe of sorts for a sauce; he had firewood and a shovel. So he went down to a part of his property near the big road, dug himself a pit, and thus was born…

T HE

Barbecue Joint 

The farmer would have needed a counter of sorts, probably a plank or an old door across two sawhorses, and if trade proved good enough, it would have eventually occurred to him to throw together some plywood and corrugated tin to make a semi-enclosed shack. Eventually there would have been a little building—not much more than a shed, but with a plank or even concrete floor and a few stools. The missus may have contributed sweet tea to wash the pig meat down with. As business picked up and what had been a sideline was taking more and more of his time, the farmer may have contracted with his daughter to run the place and his wasteof-space son-in-law to tend the fire.

Word spreads. Somebody else opens a barbecue stand and adds hush puppies. In a nation increasingly mobile and looking for on-the-go food, sandwiches become king of the road and somebody promptly figures out that pulled or shredded barbecue can be served right on a bun…and a whole new restaurant genre is born. When restaurants across the country ratcheted service to the car-loving public up a notch by introducing the drive-in, the barbecue joints kept pace by adding parking lots and curb hops.

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Which is fine in its way, but barbecue consumed in the car can be a dicey proposition for clothes and upholstery, and take-out barbecue doesn’t travel well. There are few things less appetizing than a Styrofoam plate of tepid barbecue in a puddle of congealing sauce. Nor is jump-starting it via microwave effective.

When the freshness is gone, it’s gone. The finest barbecue is that which is still warm from the hog’s carcass, consumed in a place with worn wooden floors and at least one calendar on the wall, and freshly doused with house sauce. (Forget the arbitrary sectional differences; it’s all good.)

“We serve five different sauces at our place,” says Jackie (Mrs. Phil) Garrison of Phil’s Barbecue Pit in Black Mountain, North Carolina. “Phil’s folks are from here, but he and I were both raised in Alabama. Down there they like a kind of thick, sweet, tomato-based sauce. We kept that recipe when we opened here [in 2007] but we knew lots of folks around here like vinegar-and-pepper sauce, and these days you’ve got people coming in from all over and they all want the kind of sauce they’re used to. So we’ve got white sauce, which has a mayonnaise and vinegar base, and mustard sauce, and our house sauce, which is a mixture of things and a secret. It’s all homemade, though, right here,” she says. Which is only right and proper; in fact, anything not homemade, introduced into the manufacture or consumption of barbecue, is an abomination unto the Lord.

Even in foodie-capital-of-the-western-world Asheville, where the same block may house Indian, French provincial and fusion food establishments, barbecue holds its own. Little Pigs BBQ, strategically located across from Asheville High, has been a local fixture for half a century. Two newcomers, Luella’s and 12 Bones (the latter claiming the distinction of having been visited by Asheville tourist Barack Obama) stay packed—and mostly by a younger crowd. “For a while there,” one Asheville lady executive who eats out a lot said, “everything looked like it was going vegan. Now there’s been this sea change. A lot of people my age want authentic local food, and barbecue is about as authentic as it comes.” The Squeelin’ Pig is certainly that, with their smokin’ trailer towed up on Merrimon Avenue near Weaverville between Wednesday and Sunday. A local landscaper and patron said, “If you get there after 1pm, the ribs are aren’t.

So how is it that handmade barbecue, the quintessential regional cuisine, has been able not merely to survive but thrive

The finest barbecue is that which is still warm from the hog’s carcass, consumed in a place with worn wooden floors.

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in the South, withstanding the onslaught of fast food and chain theme restaurants? And why, for that matter, has it never gained the same kind of hold in other parts of the country?

Well, for one thing, barbecuing, from pig to table, is not an easy process. It requires extensive preparation time as well as the stamina and willingness to stand over intense heat for hours, maintaining coals and checking cooking progress.

The necessary time and patience to produce good barbecue is not considered cost efficient in—um—less discerning parts of the country.

But there is another reason, even more basic than its inherent tastiness, why barbecue in all its forms and variants, is virtually a Southern sacrament. It’s because, to Southerners, it speaks of…

home   

In The Mind of the South, W. J. Cash called Dixie “not quite a nation within a nation but the next thing to it.” Certainly the South has been a place unto itself since America’s beginnings, its different-ness shaped first by climate and geographical isolation and later by the internal bond of having lost America’s only home-grown war, plus the destruction and deprivation that resulted therefrom. (It was not fighting the War Between the States but losing it that created the “Solid South.”)

Southerners, another writer said, “have a tendency to cherish those aspects of the South that defy the traditions of the rest of the United States,” and this rugged individualism is expressed eloquently in its foodways.

But a gentler, bedrock reason why barbecue is so dear to the Southern heart is simply that it speaks of home. Southerners have what Florence King calls “a granite sense of self” that is rooted in history, place and family. Barbecue partakes of all these things. If there is such a thing as a food being able to stand for, to speak for, an entire people, that food is barbecue, Southern identity in edible form.

Whether four o’clock in the morning occurs in the cold pitch-blackness of midwinter or in the pearly predawn light of high summer, that’s about the time of day when, all across the South, an army of unsung saints called “pit men” go forth to stoke the hardwood fires that, when they become white-hot coals, will receive the meat which hours and hours later will be transformed into barbecue. Which was and is and ever shall be. Amen.

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The only constant is

Change

TSAChoice Guides Western North Carolina Businesses Through 30 Years of Technological Evolution written by anna r addatz 50

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|

photos by anthony harden

When you think of “technology,” perhaps you think of

gadgets and apps. Consumers today have at their disposal a seemingly endless array of electronic devices, from smart phones and e-books to laptops and tablets.

Software developers tout their newest games, apps, and widgets that promise to entertain and “engage.” And the media can’t get enough of tech startup stories.

It’s a culture that busies itself with what’s new at SXSW this year, or how to be an early adapter on the newest social media platform.

In the meantime, there are other technology businesses out there, not in the spotlight but in the trenches. Businesses that quietly work to understand the latest technologies, determine which elements have staying power, and help their clients to implement them. TSAChoice, headquartered in Candler, is one of those businesses.

Instead of dreaming up the “next big thing,” this business is more concerned with finding and implementing the systems that actually help their clients work more effectively, efficiently, and securely.

TSAChoice is what is known as a technology integrator but describes itself as “the largest and oldest provider of office technology in Western North Carolina.”

Originally founded in 1982 as a telephone system provider, the business has evolved and grown over the years, morphing into a full-service technology company that provides a myriad of systems for a variety of clients.

This isn’t some flash-in-the-pan startup with arcade games in the break room.

This is an established business that’s seen a thing or two and is built to last.

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

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left-to - right :

Lynn Banks, Kerry LaPierre, and Jeff Lowdermilk, executive vicepresident of TSAChoice

dan higgins ,

vice president of technical services

T

SAChoice offers their customers a full suite of technology services, which they have packaged into six categories: voice (traditional telephone systems and the new VOIP-voice over Internet Protocol ), IT (computer systems and network engineering), cabling (design and installation of all types of technology cables), audiovisual (videoconferencing, conference room technology, and home-automation), and security (video surveillance, access control, and alarm systems).

At first, it’s a lot to wrap your head around. But one of their promotional videos shows how many of the pieces can work together for a business owner. In the video, the owner of a local car dealership explains how TSAChoice designed and installed numerous systems, everything from iPads and smart phones for the sales and service staff, to weather-proof security surveillance and electronic access controls for customer records.

It’s this all-inclusive model that makes TSAChoice stand apart and defines what a true technology integrator is all about.

By offering so many different services, they are able to ensure that all of the individual functions “play nice” with each other.

Of course, to run a business of over 60 employees, the key is to have a leadership that “plays nice,” too. And that’s where 52

| May 2014

Bill, Jeff, and Dan come in. This executive team has been working together successfully for over 30 years, and is made up of men who started their careers before cell phones and personal computers took over everyday life, when the cutting edge technology was based on two simpler modes of communication: radio and telephone.

The Seed of a Business After graduating with a business degree from Appalachian State University in 1978, Bill Arledge, now president of TSAChoice, got a job at Motorola selling two-way radio communications systems that businesses used to communicate with their trucks. After a few years, he went on to work for Executone, which Arledge explains was one of the first companies to provide telephone systems for businesses. This might seem strange, given that by the 1980s the patent for the first telephone was over 100 years old. But at that time, AT&T maintained a monopoly on the American phone system—not just the phone lines, but the equipment as well, which was rented to subscribers. “AT&T still ruled the world,” recalls Arledge. “They would sue you if you put any other kind of equipment on their phone lines.”

bill arledge ,

president of TSAChoice

But as the result of an antitrust lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Justice broke up the monopoly in the early 1980s. At that point, a flood of new telephone technology entered the market— and Arledge was on the front lines. “When you’re a monopoly, you don’t have to keep up with technology,” says Arledge of AT&T. “So it was very easy selling, because we were able to offer hands-free intercoms and paging through the phone. Customers had been used to paying so much to AT&T, but we were able to give them so much more.”

MB Haynes Corporation, an Asheville-based multi-trade contracting company, was one business that was eager to get into the telephone business. They purchased a telephone system and hired Arledge to lead the division, which they called Telephone Systems of Asheville (TSA). Within a year, Arledge would hire the two men who would become his business partners, Jeff Lowdermilk and Dan Higgins.

Building a Team Lowdermilk, who is now the executive vice-president of TSAChoice, had worked in advertising and sales for a Western North Carolina radio station and was drawn to the sales position in an up-and-coming industry. Higgins, who today is the vice

president of technical services, had been a telephone installation and repair technician for four years in the United States Air Force.

He found TSA was a great place to put his new skills to work.

It was an exciting time to work in communications. “We were in an industry that was brand new,” says Lowdermilk. “To sell, maintain, and install telephone equipment were fairly radical, new things to do. We had a good bit of freedom to help chart where we were going within the structure of MB Haynes.”

After several years, the men pursued the idea of going out on their own by buying the telephone division from MB Haynes. “We had become a very viable part of MB Haynes,” says Lowdermilk, “but they recognized our entrepreneurial drive.” Through an owner-financed arrangement, Arledge, Lowdermilk, and Higgins purchased the business in 1995.

For the first eight or nine years, the company sold and installed telephone systems exclusively. But as desktop computers took over offices everywhere, demand for new services increased. “A lot of our customers asked if we could wire for their computer systems as well,” says Arledge. In order to respond to their customers’ demands for more data related services, TSA purchased Choice Computer Center and changed its name to TSAChoice.

“That’s how we’ve grown our business,” says Arledge. “Our customers have asked us to do more and more.” It’s a page May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

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will arledge ,

installing a system

they’ve borrowed from their initial parent company. “MB Haynes wanted to provide everything having to do with building,” Arledge explains, “from plumbing to heating to electrical and general contracting. We wanted to provide everything for our customers’ technology. It all just seemed to flow together.”

The Only Constant is Change Today the company serves a wide range of clients, from small businesses—like law firms and dentist offices—to larger institutions, like Mission Healthcare System, the Biltmore Company, and Buncombe County Government. Because of TSAChoice’s model of providing a range of services and upgrading them over time, it has enjoyed many long-term client relationships; Lowdermilk says they’ve had some of their clients for over 25 years, nearly as long as the business has existed. “As the technology has changed, they trust us to lead them,” he says.

And change it has. The business has witnessed the rise and fall of numerous technologies, including fax machines (which were big business when they first came out) and car phones (which Arledge remembers costing around $1,500 each—they were kits that had to be installed by technicians). “We’re always on that bleeding edge,” says Arledge, “trying to determine which technologies have lasting power.”

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Right now, that edge is in the cloud. No longer just a fluffy white thing in the sky, the cloud (short for “cloud computing”) is the future—and, increasingly, the present—of technology systems. Higgins says that with more services moving to the cloud every day, it signals a sea of change for both the industry and TSAChoice, as they understand how to embrace it and learn how to manage it for their customers. They now offer cloud-based servers and phone systems.

But the thing that all three partners are most excited about— and where they see potential for major growth—is their newest offering: managed services. In a nutshell, TSAChoice can act as an outsourced full-service IT department. “Our clients want to concentrate on what’s core to their business, whether they’re a law firm or a brewery,” says Lowdermilk. “For all of the other things that every business has to have around tech, they are preferring to have us as a trusted partner.” If clients have questions or issues, they’re invited to take advantage of TSAChoice’s help desk, which goes into action to triage and fix any problems that might arise.

But through all of the technological innovations and evolutions, the TSAChoice leadership finds that there are some things that always stay the same. First of all, Higgins explains that no matter what technology you’re dealing with, it should follow the “five nines” concept—that your systems should be up and fully functional 99.999% of the time. Dependability,

lynn banks

conceived the idea for the Women in Technology group

The first gathering of the Women in Technology group was held at TSAChoice last February. Now the group meets at various locations around the region and has over 200 women on its mailing list.

naturally, is essential.

In addition, Higgins says that neatness counts. Whether it’s installing a PC or a server, making the cables tidy and accessible is important for client satisfaction. “There’s a craftsmanship that goes into making things look neat,” he says. “It’s hard to find people who can do that.”

Investing in People What Arledge, Lowdermilk, and Higgins have found over the years is that it’s actually better in the long-term to invest in staff who have the right personality, and then invest the time and training to equip them with the right skills. “A lot of companies go out and hire experienced people,” explains Arledge. “But we’ve found that our best employees are the ones that fit our culture and have an aptitude, and then we’ve trained them from the start on the technology or sales side.” They also make an effort to hire from the local community, finding employees who are already invested in the region, as opposed to recruiting folks from farther away. Today there are around 50 employees at the

Candler office and six in the new Greenville office. Impressively, Arledge says the average employee tenure is 10 to 15 years.

All three men agree that the office culture is one of the most important aspects of TSAChoice, heavily based around an “open door” policy, wherein staff members are encouraged to come directly to the leadership with any problems. Lowdermilk says that the business has had some employees leave and come back because they missed the culture. “People thought they were leaving for better opportunities, but when they got there they found out it was culturally very different from TSAChoice.”

Higgins describes the environment as “dynamic and diverse,” due to the wide range of staff roles, from client-facing sales reps in suits to “guys that are crawling through attics and crawlspaces” doing installation work.

As you walk through the maze-like 20,000-square-foot office space, you can see that diversity pretty clearly. There May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

55

are separate sections for administration, sales, support, and, of course, technical work—the last of which is easily identified by tables littered with nests of wires and components in various states of assembly. The facility also includes a 3,500-square-foot warehouse space, which contains around $1 million worth of inventory, including parts to repair any of the equipment TSAChoice sells.

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As Asheville attracts more technical talent, TSAChoice has made an effort to stay connected to the local technology community. One way they do this is through a group called Tech After Five, which offers networking events for IT professionals.

Started in Greenville, South Carolina, Tech After Five now has nine chapters around the Southeast. Lowdermilk was instrumental in bringing the concept to Asheville a couple years ago; now TSAChoice sponsors the local monthly events, which draw up to 100 attendees. “It’s a way to get the tech community together as a whole and see how we can move the ball forward together,” says Lowdermilk.

The business also supported the launch of Asheville Women in Technology last year, an idea conceived by Lynn Banks, a sales engineer at TSAChoice, and spearheaded

by Banks and a core group of women from other area businesses. “We would find ourselves at tech networking events, and we were always in the minority,” says Banks.

At their monthly meetings, the members mentor one another and discuss what they’re working on. “It’s a different kind of bonding than going out with my girlfriends,” says Banks. “It provides an opportunity for women in technology, engineering, and math to be with women who are more like them.”

The first gathering of the Women in Technology group was held at TSAChoice last February, and attracted 35 attendees. Now the group meets at various locations around the region and has over 200 women on its mailing list. “We were very happy to help get that group going,” says Lowdermilk. “It’s important that we help provide a career path for young ladies in this male-dominated industry.”

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| May 2014

“A lot of good and bad luck is who you’re working with,” says Higgins. It’s something that any working adult knows to be true. And it’s clear that the TSAChoice leadership found a lot of good luck in each other. The business has grown four-fold since they purchased it, and this year they plan to do a little over $8 million in sales.

All three contend that their partnership has been drama-free, which is extraordinary for any relationship that has weathered three decades. “In 30 years, I don’t think we’ve had a cross word between us,” says Arledge. Higgins agrees. “For whatever reason, we don’t butt heads much,” he says. “There are disagreements, but we work things out in a way that has never gotten heated.”

It helps that each man is well-suited to his work—Arledge likes analyzing numbers and strategizing; he oversees the operations and administrative side of the business; Lowdermilk puts his sociable personality to work interfacing with clients and overseeing the sales team; Higgins uses his technical background and on-the-ground work ethic to oversee the technical staff. “We all respect each other very much and understand our roles,” says Arledge.

He underscores the dedication and commitment that he and his partners have invested in their business. “It’s always been about building something,” says Arledge.

“All of us have been in this thing from the start, and we’re in it for the long-term.”

For his part, Higgins says his favorite thing about working at TSAChoice is the people. “When I started at TSA, I thought I’d be here for five years and then move on to something else,” he says. “I’m glad that didn’t work out. The people here are dedicated to their work and very talented. I learn from them every day.”

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by MIKE SUMMEY

Debt Settlement

mike is an

entrepreneur, author of several books on real estate, and also an avid pilot and philanthropist.

illustr ation by hanna trussler

Can Be A Blessing Or A Curse

M

An unfortunate outcome of the current economic downturn is the growing number of people facing debts they can’t pay. This has spawned a wave of advertising from companies who claim they can negotiate debt settlements for pennies on the dollar and help you avoid bankruptcy. Of course, it comes with a fee for their services. What the ads don’t disclose are the negative consequences of entering into debt settlement agreements.

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Do you have a CD, IRA or Annuity maturing?

Y

our credit will be affected, but not as severely as it would be if you are forced to file bankruptcy. Think of it as the lesser of two evils.

If you are buried in debt and thinking of contacting one of the debt settlement companies, the first thing you should do is analyze how you got in financial trouble. If you got there by simply overspending until you exhausted your ability to borrow, you are not going to be a good candidate for debt settlement unless you can change the way you live.

Debt settlement is for people who want to pay their bills, but have experienced unexpected hardships that have negatively impacted their ability to pay.

These are people who, prior to some unfortunate situation such as an accident, illness, job loss, divorce or other unforeseen event, were in good standing with their creditors. They want to get back to that position. They are people who are unable, not unwilling, to meet their financial obligations. Unfortunately, debt settlement is a largely unregulated industry that has attracted some unscrupulous players who prey on vulnerable individuals. It does little good to sign on with a debt settlement company if undisclosed fees and charges end up costing you more than they save.

With consumer debt approaching $2.8 trillion, coupled with a sagging economy, the number of people in trouble is growing exponentially. The failure of our educational system to teach basic financial literacy leaves millions of people facing financial hardship with little or no knowledge of how to overcome the problem. Unfortunately, these are frequently people who fall into the lower to middle income bracket and have few assets to draw against when faced with

Let’s Discuss your options.

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May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 59

Once you are back on your feet, let the experience be a lesson and start planning for the next unexpected financial setback which will surely come. It won’t hurt nearly as much if you are prepared. unexpected financial adversity. It is this combination of circumstances that make them vulnerable to unscrupulous practices.

For those experiencing severe financial hardship, debt settlement can provide a better alternative than debt consolidation loans, bankruptcy, or trying to hide from creditors. For people willing to make the needed sacrifices, legitimate debt settlement companies provide the financial advice and advocacy needed to negotiate plans to reconcile debt, improve income to debt ratios and help you gain control over the process of getting out of debt.

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If you are facing mounting debts and are considering calling a debt settlement company, here are some things to consider:

1

You must be committed to reducing your spending so you can save money to fund a settlement agreement.

2

You must understand that the results of a debt settlement can’t be guaranteed.

3

You should never allow a debt settlement company to escrow your money on the pretense that they will pay your bills.

4

You should know that the IRS classifies any amount of settled debt in excess of $600 as taxable income.

5

Your creditors, especially if they are lending institutions, may exercise their right to offset and seize any deposits you have with them to apply to your debt.

6

Creditors may continue to call you even after you have entered into a debt settlement agreement.

7

A debt settlement agreement will probably have a negative impact on your credit score and credit bureaus may still report “settled for less than full amount” even after paying settlements in full.

8

You should always make sure the debt settlement company is working solely for you and not any third parties, and is fully disclosing all fees and charges up front.

10

Finally, if you feel you are a candidate for debt settlement, be sure the company you chose has written policies and procedures about their debt settlement program, are members of the Better Business Bureau, have a customer dispute resolution and review policy, and have in-house legal counsel that has experience with credit industry compliance.

Here’s a tip: if you follow these guidelines, you may be able to resolve your credit problems and get yourself back in good graces with your creditors and start improving your credit rating. Once you are back on your feet, let the experience be a lesson and start planning for the next unexpected financial setback which will surely come. It won’t hurt nearly as much if you are prepared.

9

Before even considering a debt settlement company, you should review your finances and determine if you can afford to fund a program based on your expected income and expenses.

Got an opinion? Share it on our website by scanning this QR code or visiting capitalatplay.com/debt-settlement

THINK

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THE OLD

NORTH

STATE [

news briefs

N.C. State releases details about indoor athletics training facility raleigh

During construction of the N.C. State indoor training facility at the CarterFinley Stadium complex, tailgaters will lose between 700 and 800 spots, primarily in the Stadium Southeast Red lot. University athletics officials are progressing with the project that has a projected $14 million price tag. They also released preliminary details about where the facility will be located and what kind of parking it will include. The project is supposed to begin construction in June and be completed in March of 2015. The facility will sit on the corner of Westchase Boulevard and the outer loop road. Once complete, a 400-space paved parking HunterBanks_CapitalPlay lot with lined parking spots will ad.pdf 1 11/4/11

]

rest just behind the facility, or on the opposite side of Carter-Finley Stadium.

To compensate for the 300 to 400 lost parking spots, NCSU will renovate the Faculty and Trinity lots by adding parking bumpers to lay out designated parking spaces.

Alcohol board forces Mellow Mushroom to end beer club statewide

The Nor t h C a rol i na A lc ohol ic Beverage Control Board has come down on the Mellow Mushroom Beer Club because it encourages diners to consume alcohol. Tammy Lucich is the manager of special events and promotions for Mellow Mushroom. According to10:42 an AM email he sent to members of the

Asheville’s Full Service Fly Shop

Beer Club: “Unfortunately, we have just gotten the bad news that we have to discontinue Beer Club in the state of North Carolina, as the ABC has informed us that it falls under the ‘incentivizing your guest to drink’ clause, which now makes it illegal for us to continue to offer this fun program.” For those unfamiliar with the club, frequent diners at Mellow Mushroom are able to get a membership to the Beer Club, and as they sample 100 different beers, they can earn points towards rewards. If you were in one of these clubs, you can still collect rewards.

Lucich noted that Mellow Mushroom is establishing a guest recognition program that will reward guests for their interactions, including in-store goodies that include beer.

Wake Forest School of Business partners with CVS winston-salem, nc

CVS Caremark will co-host the annual Retail and Health Innovation Challenge with the Wake Forest University School of Business Center for Retail Innovation through 2018. The contest is a two-day competition each fall during which 20

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teams from business schools around the nation present business plans centering around aging health consumers. CVS Caremark, the largest integrated pharmacy chain in the country with more than 7,600 stores, was the lead sponsor of the event in 2013, when the theme was the coming “silver tsunami” of older consumers on the health care system.

Rob Price, chief marketing officer of CVS/pharmacy said, “Our sponsorship of the Retail and Health Innovation Challenge provides a unique way for us to identify and nurture new ideas and solutions to address the health care challenges of our aging population…We look forward to deepening our ongoing partnership with Wake Forest University School of Business.”

Co-working space for entrepreneurs planned winston-salem, nc

Three Winston-Salem companies are planning to open a co-working space they have labeled Flywheel in the new 525@Vine building in the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter. Fly wheel has signed a lease for 11,585 square feet of space in the building and is scheduled

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carolina in the west

national & world

to open in June. Flywheel will offer independent contractors, entrepreneurs and others flexible short-term and long-term memberships, providing access to both open and enclosed work spaces and support services 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

Brad Bennett, the CEO of Wildfire, said he and his partners refer to Flywheel as a “co-working innovation space” because outside of the shared working quarters, it will have a “knowledge concierge” staff person available to help members connect with professional services and will also organize networking and learning opportunities on a regular basis. Part of the space is a one-quarter-scale basketball court that can be converted into an auditorium seating 100 people for events that will be open to the community. Members will pay for different levels of access to the space and its services, from as little as $20 for a day pass up to $1,500 per month for an enclosed office space with room for multiple people. Memberships will have certain levels of access to amenities such as copier use and video conferencing. The 525@Vine building will also host Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Division of Public Health Sciences and Physician Assistant Program, Forsyth Technical Community College’s Center for Emerging

the old north state

Technologies and an express branch of the YMCA of Northwest North Carolina.

PNC Arena to spend up to $800K for LED upgrade raleigh

The Centennial Authority, an appointed body that acts as the PNC Arena’s landlord, approved up to $800,000 to upgrade the bowl lights from traditional lamps to LED. This could allegedly save tens of thousands of dollars on electricity annually. The bowl lights are not lights in the general concourse or in suites, but rather those that light the play area, either ice or hardwood. According to PNC Arena financial data, the existing lights generate total annual energy costs of about $56,000. Depending on the contractor and what kind of LED lights the Centennial Authority chooses, total annual energy costs could drop to between $15,000 and $17,000. Last month, Centennial Authority staff sent out a request for proposal for bids from companies to install the new lights, so the exact costs are not yet known.

Technically, authority board members must approve the final bid before work

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can go forward, but the full board already placed the $800,000 cap on the project.

Installation will probably happen sometime in August, before hockey players return for preseason practice, so crews can alter any light angles before actual game play starts, if necessary.

Pudding and Butter Pecan. The original Yarborough’s ice cream shop is located at 132 McIver Street in downtown Sanford.

Sanford ice cream in Lowes Foods stores

vale, nc

lee county

Yarborough’s Ice Cream, a local favorite of Lee County residents and tourists, will begin selling its popular flavors in area Lowes Foods stores. Michael Yarborough has started a new company, Michael’s Best, which will offer ice cream to Lowes Foods stores in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Flavors will include favorites such as Banana

WoodMill Winery goes global with first shipment to China The first overseas shipment of North Carolina muscadine wine from WoodMill Winery is reportedly on its way around the globe. Owner Larry Cagle recently made a business deal with an international visitor who found the Vale, North Carolina, winery online. If the initial shipment of 1,260 bottles packed in handmade crates makes it safely to a distributor in China, Cagle anticipates more orders. “I never expected to have events that brought in over 1,000 people.

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I never expected to be in a grocery store, and I certainly never expected to ship wine to China,” Cagle expressed.

WoodMill produces 65,000 bottles of wine per year, with 90 percent of the fruit grown on its 12-acre vineyard in Lincoln County. The rest is purchased from local farmers. Opened in 2006, the family-run winery has expanded quickly and now hosts festivals, weddings and other events. Its wine can be found in more than 100 locations in Lincoln, Gaston and surrounding counties.

APAC call center to hire 500 in High Point high point, nc

APAC Customer Services, a provider of call-center outsourcing and other customer-care service that recently

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disclosed plans to close its Charlotte facility, revealed plans to add 500 fulltime workers to its call center in High Point by the end of July.

The hiring follows a contract with an unidentified new client in the telecommunications industry. Employees will work in customer service and sales support.

The call center is on Federal Drive near Piedmont Triad International Airport and has a Greensboro mailing address.

Its work force has been through ups and downs, as it had about 700 employees when it was run by NCO Customer Management Inc. in early 2012, but almost all of those jobs were eliminated in March of that year. Then, in August 2012, following a merger between NCO and APAC, the company announced that basically all those jobs were being restored to the facility. A spokesperson for the company said that there are

currently about 500 employees at the site. small laptop and a box with a laser scans APAC plans to close its Charlotte facility a drug sample to identify ingredients compares it to a database Centice would reportedly lay off 239 workers. It We makeand water work for you. has collected. The computer then tells was not immediately clear if some of the officer what the sampling contains. those workers would be transferred to Police can then verify if, for example, a the High Point location. person has cocaine, aspirin, or baking soda. The mobile field lab can cost up to $15,000 or the components of the kit can be sold separately. Currently, officers that do not use these kits use chemical tubes that drugs are added to, and if the colors change, the drug is positively identified. raleigh These chemical kits require reordering, Centice Corporation is using its library but Centice claims its product only has a of 3,800 pharmaceuticals to help law one-time cost. According to Centice CEO, enforcement in speeding the arrest and John Goehrke, Albuquerque has already plea process for drug offenders. The pharpurchased 10 of these kits for field use. maceutical identification company, based Other clients include port authorities, in Raleigh, is using Raman spectroscopy mail hubs, veterans hospitals and schools. technology to allow law enforcement Centice was founded in 2005, and has agents in the field to test and confirm less than $5 million in annual revenue. illicit street drugs. A field kit holding a

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Paula Dawkins Design leads to Dancing written by dasha morgan

|

photos by anthony harden

Pete Suder works meticulously on a handcrafted ring.

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 67

“The best well cut

gemstones sparkle dance & before your eyes,” —says Paula Dawkins of Jewels That Dance in downtown Asheville.

For her a gem show is an exciting event where she finds herself surrounded by what she calls “eye candy,” candy to her creative soul.

Some stones are speaking to her, asking for a particular design to be created, perhaps a pair of delicate earrings or a stunning necklace. She may later set the stone in gold, silver or platinum, but she looks for that special stone, one that is more beautiful than the others.

Just think of the glorious colors and shades of well cut gemstones: the light blue tones of an aquamarine, the penetrating reds of a ruby, or the rich greens of the emeralds. The gemstones before her eyes at a gem show are all inviting her to create a new design. Perhaps she will surround it with glittering diamonds. Will it be contemporary or traditional or a combination of both? Her creative juices begin to flow, releasing Paula’s vivid imagination. The process has begun.

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right to left : Paula Dawkins &

co-owner Carol Schniedewind May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 69

W

ith an upscale gallery and studio now at 63 Haywood Street, Paula Dawkins is recognized as one of Asheville’s earliest creative artist/jewelers, an early innovator, well before Asheville became the East Coast destination, the Paris of the South, for the young and creative. From the very beginning she made her own jewelry. One day in 1973 a friend had suggested, “If you want to make some money, go into jewelry making.” She took his advice. When the silver earrings she made sold rapidly, Paula was hooked and began going to craft shows and selling her items. Ironically, she mostly went north of the Mason/Dixon line from her geodesic home in Grassy Creek of Ashe County, North Carolina, to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or Washington, D.C. She traveled the craft show circuit for ten years. Two items were very popular: a silver pierced tree the size of a nickel with braided wires and her earrings. These items were then selling for approximately $20 to $30.

Since that time Paula has grown, educated herself, and finetuned her understanding of jewelry making. She accepted and pursued the necessary learning challenges that were brought on by her career. She took on learning computer-aided design (CAD) which increases productivity and assists in the creative process. It is a valuable tool, but quite a complicated process to learn. She added new jewelry making equipment with amazing technological precision. She slowly shifted away from being a craftsperson into a fine jeweler who creates special, one of a kind fine jewelry—stunning pieces of original design. By having been a bench jeweler from the ground up, she has a full understanding of the process and can translate it into reality using modern technology. She developed her own signature style with award winning designs.

Over the years, some giant business decisions had to be taken.

Jewelry Design, as the business was called early on, went from being a very small 250/300-square-foot business that opened on Lexington Avenue in 1983 to Jewels That Dance on Haywood Street with almost 1,600 square feet in 1986. This was a much better location, between Winner’s Hair Salon and Malaprops Bookstore and just down the street from the Asheville Civic Center. Paula had a wholesale business as well, made a line of jewelry and sold it around the country. She bolstered her ability by attending courses at Penland School for the Arts and Holland's School for Jewelers. She also obtained her certification

Paula’s current workspace is quite large, with a laser welder, a CNC mill machine, casting room, and polishing room.

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above : Paula working on a new design. bottom right : Digital CAD design for a bracelet. bottom left : The finished bracelet.

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

71

stephanie ellis fires up her blow torch to begin the casting process.

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in diamond grading from the Gemological Institute of America.

She sold her designs to at least 75 national galleries and retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. Over the years her local retail business grew and improved due to the increased foot traffic and more window shoppers. Eventually it became necessary to downsize the wholesale division. Paula no longer sells wholesale.

Paula loves to travel and visit new countries. She has kayaked down the Snake, the Salmon, and the Colorado rivers. She has camped in Maine, been to St. Johns, and the Thousand Islands, as well as the Everglades. She has gone to England, France, Greece, Germany, Thailand, China, and India. Some of the trips opened her eyes to indigenous jewelry styles. She noticed that the jewelry in Germany was often sleek and modern, while the jewelry in India was very intricate and detailed. Each country seems to have a particular style. Recently, Paula and her showroom manager of 23 years, Marlene Clevenger, went to South Africa to visit the diamond mines there. Wearing white mining uniforms and hard hats with lights, they visited the Finsch Diamond Mine, South Africa’s second largest producer of diamonds. “I was amazed at how much rock it took to find just one diamond, and then where the diamonds were actually found—in riverbeds, in pipes, all over, ” said Paula. They saw rough diamonds being cut by master cutters with amazing skill and expertise. Jewels That Dance only buys ethically sourced diamonds and diamonds that are conflict free. (For your information, conflict diamonds are diamonds that have been traded to fund rebel wars.)

In 1997, Paula and her co-owner Carol Schniedewind wanted to renovate, enlarge and expand the gallery and studio. The Haywood Street space now has approximately 3,200 square feet.

They enlisted Barbara Field of Spaceplan and local artisans to create a striking facade that would be in keeping with the city’s Art Deco architecture. Undulating Art Nouveau sculptural relief ornaments frame the store’s facade and entrance. The storefront window invites shoppers to come inside for a closer look at the fine jewelry. Once inside the building, modern track lighting and elegant display cases made by Bulls Eye Glass add to the jewelry’s handsome handcrafted appearance. Contrasting colors in the background of each case with side lighting accent the designs and craftsmanship of the fine jewelry it displays.

A couple of years later, Paula and Carol had the opportunity to buy the building. They decided to join with Patti Glazer of Glazer Architecture, Beth Retser, and Irene Pyper Scott to form an LLC. They turned to Charles Taylor of Blue Ridge Savings for a loan. He appreciated their business plan, believed in their future, and the fact that Jewels That Dance would be located in the building, and thus was willing to take the risk. These women were possibly the first women-only group to take on a project in downtown Asheville. They totally renovated the upper floors and turned those spaces into condominiums. Paula and Carol purchased the Jewels That Dance space. The LLC was

peeking through the window

of the laser welder.

cle aning will bring a

sparkle to the ring.

lost- wa x casting : The wax cast (with spruing)

and the final product poured in metal.

centrifugal casting creates precise metal casts from Paula’s designs.

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 73

dissolved after the condos were sold.

With these decisions, Paula became a part of the revitalized Asheville, which was slowly making changes. She credits many of Asheville’s leaders in the ‘80s with saving and preserving so many of the amazing architecturally significant local buildings, such as Pack Place and the Grove Arcade. People like Julian Price and Roger McGuire worked tirelessly to revitalize downtown Asheville and had faith in the future of the city. They were willing to invest in the city. There were many other pioneers who helped clean up Asheville and bring it to the vibrant city we see today—with such a wide diversity of people and activities.

How many cities have a nun impersonator flying around on a tall bicycle or a free-for-all drum circle and dancing downtown every Friday night? How many cities have people gliding down the street on high stilts in amazing costumes? Not many.

Asheville is a city full of daily surprises, a place people like to visit, with tourists from all over the United States arriving and then returning later to buy a house for a longer stay.

As Paula said, “a rising tide raises all boats,” and she considers herself and her store fortunate to be a part of that rising tide.

Paula herself likes to contribute and to give back to the community in whatever way she can. She has given jewelry making classes to students of the Isaac Dickson School, worked for the local YWCA, participated in Bele Chere, is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, and donates to many local charities. Paula has received many awards for her jewelry design over the years. In 2008, Jewels That Dance was featured in the October issue of Instore Magazine as one of America’s “coolest” jewelry stores.

Paula’s current workspace is quite large, with a laser welder, a CNC mill machine (a Computer Numerical Control mill machine automates the production of CAD design), casting room, and polishing room. It is simply amazing to see the wax being carved away as directed by the computer. Here is where the creative process takes shape and comes to fruition. There are also offices in the back area. Paula works closely with her co-owner Carol, who “has been invaluable to me, helps with all business decisions, the marketing, and loves the product.” Pete Suder has been at the bench for 30 years, lived in Philadelphia for several years and had his own store in Florida. He has a

steady hand. Apparently it takes a very steady hand to make jewelry. Sometimes you can’t even breathe, or you will ruin the piece. Pete is a master stone setter and master jeweler.

Stephanie Ellis, who is originally from Iowa, has a BFA in art and design/metals, a Masters Degree in metalsmithing, and has been with the store for over four years. Among other things, she restrings customers pearls, using silk, and must wear gloves to keep the oils from the silk. Marlene Clevenger is the showroom manager, with Becky Ayers and Joyce Hunter on the sales floor, who says, “they make it, and we, the sales force make it go out the door.” Paula finds the responsibility of a large store a challenge and certainly more responsibility than her early years as a traveling craftsman. “I have become responsible for the welfare of others on a whole new level.”

In 2008, Jewels That Dance was struggling to survive like every other business. “We needed to figure out what we did best and pursue that. Carol and I tightened our belts and sharpened our pencils.” Custom work and repairs took on a greater part of the business. With Paula’s degree in psychology from Appalachian State, she found that she had a knack for intuiting her customer’s wishes with custom pieces.

In addition, it was, and is, a great pleasure to learn the history of a family piece of jewelry, then to talk over the new design with the client, and be able to show them in three dimension with CAD on the computer how it will look.

“There is a lot of trust involved, when a valuable heirloom is brought to me to be repaired or changed.” As for pricing, custom work usually starts around $300 and goes up from there. For the last couple of years, Paula has taken a road trip once a year to the Forsythe Jewelry Store in Hilton Head, where she works with a number of their customers, who are seeking custom jewelry pieces.

Over the years, Paula Dawkins has established herself as a successful business presence in downtown Asheville. Her customers find that she communicates clearly with them and helps them find the right choice for their custom items—within their budget and price range. Today she sees the economy slowly improving. “It is sputtering.” She hopes it will continue to go forward.

Paula became a part of the revitalized Asheville, which was slowly making changes. People like Julian Price and Roger McGuire worked tirelessly to revitalize downtown Asheville and had faith in the future of the city. They were willing to invest in the city.

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UPDATES FOR

NATIONAL WORLD [

& news briefs

]

whatever developer wins the job. It will likely require a three-to-five year commitment from some of its most talented executives.

$100M investment in Haiti brewery haiti

AEG, Hines and North American pull out of Braves project georgia

A powerhouse team that included Los-Angeles-based sports and entertainment company AEG has pulled out of consideration to develop the $400 million mixed-use project surrounding the Atlanta Braves new Cobb County ballpark. The AEG development group also included Houston-based Hines Interests and Cincinnati-based North American Properties. In a statement, the Braves said: “As we continue to make progress, we are even more optimistic and confident to bring both a world-class ballpark and a vibrant mixed-use development to Braves fans and the community. We have been dedicated to finding the best partners for

the long-term success of this project…We The Dutch brewer Heineken is investing are committed to our detailed process as $100 million in its Haiti production plant we evaluate potential developers for the that makes the popular lager Prestige. mixed-use portion of this project and are The comparatively large investment is excited about the progress we have made significant because many international thus far.” The Atlanta Braves have tapped companies have been hesitant to spend world-renowned architect The Jerde money in Haiti because of a business Partnership Inc. to design the project. climate hampered by red tape, claims of Last fall, the Braves surprised the city corruption and a fragile infrastructure. and much of Major League Baseball when However, Jose Matthijsse, general directhe team decided to relocate its stadium tor of the National Brewery of Haiti that from downtown to the suburbs. The Heineken owns, said the Dutch company Braves have been playing at Turner Field is eager to invest more in the Caribbean since 1997. The team wants to open the country because political stability and new Cobb stadium and mixed-use project cooperation have improved under the current government. Heineken bought the by the first pitch of the 2017 season. It Haitian brewery in 2011, and owns 95% remains unclear as to why the AEG, of the company that produces Prestige.

Hines, and North American Properties Introducing The The other 5% is held by Diageo Ireland, group dropped out. The mixed-use the company that makes Guinness stout. project is an essential piece of the new Nearly one-fifth of the new investment Braves stadium. It is also complicated for

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has already gone toward construction of a second 24,300-square-foot production line that opened in December in the same facility in Port-au-Prince. The addition will let the brewery double its output.

The new production line has also enabled the brewery to introduce a 16-ounce bottle of Prestige. The remainder of the investment will be used to further increase lager production, manufacture more bottles and to purchase items such as trucks and generators.

Architects to build giant bubbles to beat smog china

A London-based architecture and design company has come up with a new solution called “Bubbles” to battle the increasing air pollution in China. Their project, still in the conceptual stage, would generate outdoor green spaces covered by giant bubble-shaped domes in the Chinese cities where adverse environmental conditions mean that people are unable to spend time outdoors without risking their health. The architectural concept “Bubble” will be in the form of a covered botanical garden, retail, and office complex under a giant transparent

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roof. Rajat Sodhi, co-founder of the Orproject, an architecture practice with offices in London, Beijing and New Delhi explained, “Bubbles’ structure encloses a botanical garden offering a giant balloon with filtered air with controlled temperature and humidity throughout the year.”

“Bubbles” is based on the principles of biomimetic architecture, typically lightweight environmental structures inspired by nature. The geometry of the “Bubbles” canopy was generated using an algorithm that simulates the development of veins in leaves or in butterfly wings. “Bubbles could work in Beijing and Shanghai, and in all the major cities of China, and it could work in India in places like Delhi and Mumbai,” Sodhi said. It could also work well in cities like Moscow, where the temperature change across winter and summer is roughly minus four to plus 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and where green spaces aren’t visible.

Carmakers push to eliminate side mirrors nationwide

Seeking to increase fuel economy on new vehicles, the auto industry is hoping United States regulations will

national & world

be reformed to no longer require side mirrors on cars and trucks.

A group of automakers including General Motors, Toyota, Tesla Motors and Volkswagen reportedly petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to allow automakers to replace side mirrors with digital cameras. They claim this will help increase vehicle aerodynamics, which in turn would improve fuel economy. The petition follows an NHTSA announcement that lays out guidelines for a long-awaited mandate that requires backup cameras on all vehicles beginning in May 2018.

BMW Manufacturing to spend $1B in expansion for new model south carolina

B M W M a nu fa c t u r i n g C omp a ny plans to spend $1 billion to boost its work force in Spartanburg County, South Carolina by 800 jobs. With the expansion, BMW will increase its auto assembly capacity by 50 percent to 450,000 per year by the end of 2016 and add a new model: a crossover X7. The

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region’s economic vitality through technological innovation, environmental stewardship, and development of a highly skilled work force.”

Los Alamos, Sandia share in new grant nationwide

A group of universities and national laboratories including Los Alamos and Sandia have been awarded a $25 million grant by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to develop new nuclear arms control verification technologies. According to the NNSA, the grant is being given in increments of $5 million over the next five years. The consortium consists of 13 universities and eight national laboratories. Nina Rosenberg, director of the Laboratory’s

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Nuclear Nonproliferation and Security Program, explained: “Los Alamos is excited to participate in the consortium as it will help us bring our long and unique history of nuclear expertise to a new generation of researchers who are passionate about national-security science…Moreover, we will see significant benefit to our Laboratory through strengthened connections with the academic community.”

Tunica’s biggest casino closing mississippi

Those who enjoy gambling just outside of Memphis will soon have one less option.

Caesars Entertainment Corporation is reportedly closing its Harrah’s Tunica property. The 2,000-acre property, with

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new jobs will bring the plant to 8,800 jobs. The operation, off Interstate 85 at Greer, launched production 20 years ago and has assembled 2.5 million BM Ws since 1994. “This expansion means Spartanburg will have the largest production capacity of any plant in our global production network,” claimed Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the BMW Group’s board of management. Nearly 70% of the X3 through X6 models made in the huge facility are exported to customers around the world. According to Reithofer, the value of last year’s exports, primarily through the Charleston, South Carolina, port, was $7.5 billion. In a press release, Erlacher explained: “The increase in annual capacity, the number of models produced, and the number of jobs on site, reinforce the major role BM W is playing in the

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1,300 hotel rooms, is the largest casino in Tunica, Mississippi and will close June 2nd. Harrah’s Tunica has seen its visitor numbers decline from 3.4 million visitors in 2007 to 1.7 million visitors in 2013. Caesars owns two other properties in Tunica, which will have eight casinos after Harrah’s closes.

Wearable chip start-up gets funding from Qualcomm and Samsung worldwide

Start-up Ineda Systems received $17 million in funding from investors, including major semiconductor industry players Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics, as it designs low-power

chips for smart watches and other wearable computing gadgets. Ineda closed it s ser ies B f u nding w ith Qualcomm, Samsung and other investors in December. The company has 180 employees and is using the money to develop ultra-low power chips for wearable computing gadgets designed to function for up to a month without needing to recharge. A key criticism of smart watches launched over the past year has been the need to recharge them as frequently as once a day, as is usually required for smartphones. “In today’s market, people are using smartphone technology to deliver these watches.

That has led to good products but not to breakthrough products,” Ineda chairman, Sanjay Jha, explained. Ineda is sampling its “wearable processor units” with customers and intends to begin shipping chips in higher volumes in the

second half of this year. The chips come in four tiers, the lowest aimed at simple wearable devices like bracelets and the high-end chip aimed at advanced smart watches running platforms like Google’s Android. Qualcomm, considered the global leader in mobile chips, has been working on its own wearable components and has even launched its own smart watch: the Toq. In addition, Qualcomm is supporting Google’s recently announced Android Wear smartphone platform with its Snapdragon chips, initially designed for smartphones.

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high falls

in DuPont State Recreational Forest 80

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capital adventurist

exploring the

Waterfalls of Western North Carolina by eric cre ws

when it comes to adventures in western north carolina , there are few things more inspiring than reaching a beautiful waterfall tucked away in a dense forest.

w

h e th e r it ’ s e n joy ing the solitude of a quiet hike through a beautiful forest or witnessing the sheer beauty of whitewater cascading over a rock outcropping as it falls into a pool of clear, cold water below, there’s something for nearly everyone to enjoy at the many waterfalls in Western North Carolina.

The mountains of North Carolina are blessed with an abundance of water and, in turn, a high

concentration of beautiful waterfalls. In Transylvania County, a place known as “The Land of Waterfalls,” that abundance of water is exceedingly clear. Certain areas within the county receive over 90 inches of rain on average per year, which makes it one of the rainiest places in the United States. Combined with the steep topography of the county, the numerous creeks and tributaries form over 250 waterfalls, giving the area the distinction of having one of the highest concentrations of waterfalls in the country.

But “The Land of Waterfalls” isn’t the only place in Western North Carolina with spectacular sightseeing May 2014 | capitalatplay.com

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While the trail to the waterfall is fairly easy to navigate, getting to the trailhead is a large part of the adventure. To reach the falls, head down N.C. Highway 215 for 6.5 miles south from the Blue Ridge Parkway and turn left onto Forest Road 140 (Courthouse Creek Road). Go three miles down the road and park on the right just after crossing the bridge over Courthouse Creek. Follow the marked trail for .36 miles to the falls, which will be on the left. Afterward, head north to the Blue Ridge Parkway via highway 215 stopping at a large pullout with great views of the Devil’s Courthouse before reaching the Parkway where a short drive will take visitors to the Devil’s Courthouse pulloff. The actual rock summit can be reached via a short hike.

s liding rock

the 60 - foot- long plunge

down Sliding Rock

opportunities for waterfall chasers. In total, the region has around 500 named waterfalls spread throughout, which makes nearly every town and city in Western North Carolina a great destination for those in search of a tumbling cataract. To make it easier for you to discover for yourself what we consider some of the best waterfall hikes in the region, we’ve put together a mini-guide with 15 of our favorite waterfalls found in Western North Carolina.

co u rt h o u s e fa l l s

Pisgah National Forest Moderately difficult

The 60-foot-tall Courthouse Falls has been drawing crowds deep into the Pisgah National Forest for years. One look at the waterfall and it’s easy to see why. The tall, slender sliver of silver water flows between two large, moss-covered granite outcrops into a deep pool of water that makes an ideal swimming hole on warm summer days. The waterfall is part of Courthouse Creek, which flows through the Pisgah National Forest near the Devil’s Courthouse, a large outcrop that was long considered a sacred area of the Cherokee Indians who inhabited the region for centuries. While the drive to access the falls is long and windy, the actual hike is a short, quarter-mile walk on mostly flat terrain.

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Pisgah National Forest Very easy

One of Western North Carolina’s most popular attractions is the 60-foot-long Sliding Rock in Pisgah National Forest.

Thousands of visitors each week take a trip down the smooth rock slide on Looking Glass Creek before they take the final plunge into a large, deep pool at the bottom.

For years, visitors to Brevard and Pisgah National Forest have cooled off by taking a dip in the cool water of the natural rock water slide. In recent years, the area was developed by the U.S. Forest Service into a popular recreation area. Parking is available in a large lot above the rock and beside U.S. Highway 276. There are two viewing platforms, steps down to the pool and railings to help climb the rocks on the left side before sliding down. A restroom and changing room is provided and a lifeguard is periodically on duty especially during summer weekends. At other times, sliding down the waterfall is done at a visitor’s own risk. Children must be of a certain size to slide alone, otherwise, they may slide in the lap of an adult.

A $1.00 per person fee is charged by the Forest Service to use the area between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, when lifeguards and rangers are on duty. The rock is closed to sliders during times of high water or when lightning is detected in the area.

To get to the recreation area and the falls, travel north from the intersection of U.S. Highway 276, approximately 7.7 miles north of the intersection of 276, U.S. Highway 64, and N.C. Highway 280 in Brevard, North Carolina. En route, you will pass Looking Glass Falls and the parking area for Moore Cove Falls.

lo o k i n g g l a s s fa l l s

Pisgah National Forest Very easy

One of the most popular and highly visited waterfalls in North Carolina, Looking Glass Falls, which takes its name from nearby Looking Glass Rock, is an 80-foot-tall cascade located only a few hundred feet from U.S. 276.

Looking Glass Falls are open year round, free of charge, just minutes from Brevard, North Carolina. With its ease of access thanks to the roadside location, the waterfall is very popular and often draws large crowds during summer months. As a result, there are frequently injuries and even deaths at the 80-foot-tall waterfall. As with any waterfall, visitors should use the utmost caution when approaching the river due to slick, moss-covered rocks.

The waterfall has been successfully kayaked on several occasions.

g r av e ya r d f i e l d s

Blue Ridge Parkway Moderately difficult

Graveyard Fields is home to three beautiful cascades located in one of the most scenic sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The high elevation balds of Shining Rock Wilderness area make for unique vistas unlike anything else in the Southern Highlands region. The 60-foot-tall Second Falls can be seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Graveyard Fields Overlook, but visitors should opt to take a closer look by taking the short hike from the Graveyard Fields parking area down to the overlook. Along the way, hikers will cross Yellowstone Prong before ambling down a set of stairs to the viewing area. Upstream of Second Falls is First Falls, which can be accessed by a roughly 7-mile-long round trip hike (difficult). The access area for both waterfalls is located between Mileposts 418 and 419 on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

h o o k e r fa l l s

DuPont State Recreational Forest Easy At 15 feet tall, Hooker Falls isn’t one of the tallest of the many North Carolina waterfalls, but it is one of the most popular and highly-visited falls in the entire state.

Hooker Falls has been known for years to local residents and was named for Edmund Hooker, who operated a mill below the falls in the late 1800s. At the time, it was named Mill Shoals Falls. In recent years, visitors have flocked to the falls during summer months to swim in Cascade Lake at the base of the falls. While jumping from the falls is illegal, occasionally daring visitors can be seen leaping from the center of the waterfall into a small, deep pool below.

The waterfall also gained notoriety for its role in a scene in the movie Last of the Mohicans when the characters run the waterfall in canoes. As a kayaking destination, the waterfall is the final drop in a series of steep waterfalls and slides along the Little River renown as a top whitewater paddling river when water levels rise following heavy rains.

Visitors may park at the Hooker Falls parking area, and then hike the short Hooker Falls Trail for roughly ¼ mile. There are two views of the falls, the first overlooking the falls from above, and a second view from across the plunge pool that lets you view the entire falls.

DuPont State Forest may also allow access to the falls to handicapped persons.

Contact the DuPont State Forest for more information.

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looking gl ass falls 84

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h i g h fa l l s & tr i p l e fa l l s

DuPont State Recreational Forest Easy

High Falls is located on the Little River in the DuPont State Forest. It is one of four major waterfalls on the Little River in this area, the others being Triple Falls, Hooker Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls. Above the falls itself, the river is level and calm. The falls consists of a wide, ever-steepening slide over granite, and the water generally stays on the rock the whole way down. In some places, the water free-falls for a few feet or jumps off the rock face, but it is not possible to get behind the falls anywhere.

High Falls has been known for years to local residents. In the 1990s, DuPont Forest was sold to the State of North Carolina, and as DuPont has completed cleanup of various areas, those areas have been made open to the public as a part of the 10,000+ acre DuPont State Forest.

Visitors may park at the Hooker Falls parking area, and then hike the Triple Falls / High Falls Trail for roughly one mile (past the spectacular view of aptly named Triple Falls). Alternately, the High Falls Parking Area offers visitors a chance to access the falls through a scenic trail near the Visitors Center. The handicap-accessible High Falls Trail takes visitors to a pavilion with a view of the falls from above, after which hikers can head down the stairs to the base of the falls for a closer look. * Tour all four waterfalls on the Little River by bus; see our events section p. 92.

r a i n b ow fa l l s

Pisgah National Forest Moderate difficulty Rainbow Falls is a waterfall in Western North Carolina, located near Brevard. The falls is located on the Horsepasture River. It is on Pisgah National Forest land just outside Gorges State Park.

According to wikipedia.com, a proposal to route the flow of the river around the falls in the mid 1980s for a hydroelectric power plant was thwarted by public opposition.

On October 27, 1986, the Horsepasture River was designated a national Wild and Scenic River, protecting the falls from future development.

The rock face over which the river flows is not vertical, but the large volume of water during normal river flows causes it to leap many feet out from the rock and creates a deep plunge pool at the bottom of the falls. It creates large amounts of wind and mist that race up it creates large amounts the hillside opposite the falls. If the sun is in the right position, a of wind and mist that rainbow is easily observed here, race up the hillside giving the falls its name. opposite the falls As of 2011, there is a new three mile round-trip trail to Rainbow Falls through Gorges State Park.

From the parking lot, follow the trail for five minutes, bearing right at the intersection.

20 minutes further, the trail enters the Nantahala National Forest, with a side trail to the left that heads to Stairway Falls. Bearing right takes you to Rainbow Falls in about 20 more minutes. Hikers can then go further up the trail to Turtleback Falls.

Prior to the opening of the park, the only path to the falls was through an unofficial trail on National Forest property.

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t u rt l e b ac k fa l l s

Nantahala National Forest Difficult

Turtleback Falls, also called Umbrella Falls, is a waterfall in Western North Carolina, located near Brevard. The falls is located on the Horsepasture River in the Nantahala National Forest land just outside Gorges State Park.

The falls has a large, deep pool at the bottom commonly known as the “Chug Hole.� The river flows over a large, sloping slab of rock before curving steeper and finally dropping into the pool. The appearance of the rock, similar to a turtle’s shell, gives the falls its name.

To access the falls, take a short hike starting in Gorges State Park before passing through Pisgah National Forest property into the Nantahala National Forest. The 20-minute-long hike takes visitors to Rainbow Falls before heading further upstream to reach Turtle Back Falls. The area is a popular place for swimming and people frequently slide over the falls into the Chug Hole during low water; however, the currents can be dangerous in higher flows and people have drowned at Turtleback or have been swept downriver and over the 125-foot-high Rainbow Falls.

triple falls at dupont state recre ational forest

r ainbow falls at gorges state park

turtleback falls 86

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l i n v i l l e fa l l s

Located just a short drive from Linville, North Carolina, Linville Falls features several different drops that begin in a twin set of upper falls before moving down a small gorge and culminating in a high-volume 45-foot drop.

The name of the Linville Gorge and the falls themselves comes from an ill-fated expedition into the gorge by the Linville brothers that ended when two out of three members of the expedition were killed by local Native Americans. Until August of 2010, it was believed that no one had survived a trip down the Linville Falls. However, Pat Keller, of Asheville, changed that when he bombed the three-tiered waterfall in a kayak.

The triple-tiered waterfall had been eyed by many experienced kayakers over the years, but the intimidating upper drop had been, until Keller’s descent, thought until august of 2010, it was to be un-runnable. During Keller’s successful drop of believed that no one had the upper waterfall, the survived a trip down the upper falls proved to be the most difficult section. linville falls however , The falls are owned by pat keller , of asheville , the National Park Service, which operates a visitor changed that when he center and several miles of bombed the three tiered non-handicapped accessible waterfall in a kayak trails with four overlooks for the falls. The 0.5-mile (0.80 km) Upper Falls trail leads to the top of the falls, where visitors can see the small twin upper falls and the water spiraling through a small canyon on its way to the main falls. The Erwin’s View trail leads to two overlooks, the Chimney View overlook (0.7 miles /1.1 km) and the Erwin’s View overlook (0.8 miles /1.1 km ). The 0.5-mile (0.80 km) Plunge Basin Trail leads to the Plunge Basin Overlook, which provides a view of the falls from the other side of the river. Finally, the 0.7-mile (1.1 km) Gorge Trail, which branches off from the Plunge Basin trail, leads to an area near the foot of the falls. Swimming is prohibited at all areas of Linville Falls, as many deaths have occurred.

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u p p e r c r e e k fa l l s

Wilson Creek Wild & Scenic River Area Moderate difficulty Located on Highway 181 near the entrance to the Linville Gorge, Upper Creek Falls is renown as one of the most unique and popular swimming holes in the area thanks to the natural waterslides located along Upper Creek. The trail begins on the left side of the parking lot and descends into the gorge by way of a series of switchbacks (please remain on trail to prevent erosion). Once at the water’s edge, exploration both upstream and downstream presents the adventurer with beautiful waterfalls and perfect swimming holes. The trail heads downstream to Lower Falls where one of the area’s most incredible natural waterslides can be found. Head back to the parking lot by crossing the creek and following the well-traveled trail uphill past rocky outcrops and large boulders.

May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 87

capital adventurist

whale ’s back falls on the davidson river

do u g l a s fa l l s

Big Ivy Wilderness Moderate difficulty

With two ways to access Douglas Falls, the route one takes could mean the difference between a difficult 4-mile-long approach to the 80-foot-tall waterfall or a nice, gentle walk of just a quarter of a mile. Both make for excellent adventures, but if an easy approach suits your style, we recommend heading into the Big Ivy Wilderness in Barnardsville and following the long, winding gravel road to a small parking lot at the end of the road. From there, a short hike takes visitors to the base of Douglas Falls.

soco fa l l s

Blue Ridge Parkway Easy History holds that the Cherokee used Soco Gap and Soco Falls as a hideout and as a way to ambush their enemies. These days, Soco Falls is a popular tourist destination in large part because of the spectacular waterfalls that are easily accessed and viewed from the nearby Blue Ridge Parkway. The falls are located about 11 miles east of Cherokee on U.S. 19 while driving toward Maggie Valley. Waterfall hunters should be on the lookout for a small unmarked pull-off where a short walk leads you to a viewing platform for Soco Falls and another smaller falls.

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h i c ko ry n u t f a l l s

Chimney Rock State Park Moderate difficulty

At over 400 feet in height, Hickory Nut Falls is one of the tallest of the waterfalls in North Carolina, as well as one of the most famous as it was featured in the final climactic battle of the film, The Last of the Mohicans. While it’s possible to view this towering and beautiful waterfall from Highway 64 in the town of Chimney Rock, we recommend getting an up-close view of the waterfall from Chimney Rock Park by hiking one of several trails that lead to both the base and to the top of Hickory Nut Falls.

wa l k e r f a l l s

Blue Ridge Parkway Easy

Walker Falls is an enormous 45-foot cascading waterfall located near Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina, in Buncombe County.

It is very easy to get to, making it highly popular among those that are searching for waterfalls. Walker Falls is located in the Pisgah National Forest near Barnardsville on Walker Branch, which is right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Hwy N.C. 197 accesses the secondary roads that lead to this waterfall, as well. You can enjoy driving the Blue Ridge Parkway to get to this amazing waterfall.

When's the last t o m ’s c r e e k fa l l s

Pisgah National Forest Easy

The 60-foot Tom’s Creek Falls are a great attraction for people near Marion in Western North Carolina. Tom’s Creek flows over several cascading upper sections of bedrock into a near-vertical lower cascade, ending in a small scoop in the rocks. A wide, flat pool area is at the base, located in a gully that has large amounts of mica embedded in the rock.

To access the falls, follow the mostly easy 0.4-mile-long trail to a short, but steep climb before scrambling down to the base of the falls. For years visitors had to ford a small creek, but in recent years a bridge was built over the creek that allows hikers to keep their feet dry if they want to.

Tom’s Creek Falls is located seven miles north of Marion, just off of U.S. 221. Turn left at Huskins Branch Road, just before Woodlawn Motel. Go approximately 1.5 miles. Park on the right hand side of the road at the gravel lot before the small bridge. The trail begins on the right of the parking lot. When the trail forks, follow the left fork along the creek. Trail distance is an easy 2-mile loop. watc h yo u r s t e p - Unfortunately every year tourists and locals alike go on adventures and ignore simple precautions and injure themselves unnecesarily. Please remember to proceed with caution when exploring any new territory, especially on slippery rocks, cliffs, and especially when near the top of waterfalls.

time you spent your vacation chasing

giants?

He's known as Judaculla. His feet are as big as Buicks. And you might just spot him while you're hiking through the nearby Great Smokies or driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here, you just never know.

And that's more than half the fun.

Big adventures await: VisitCherokeeNC.com | 800.438.1601

Eric Crews is a writer and photographer who writes about outdoor adventure sports in the mountains of North Carolina.

Follow his adventures online at: www.wnc-adventures.com May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 89

events

May - 11 The Fantasticks may 1

wed & fri 8 pm thurs & sat 2pm & 8 pm sun 2pm flat rock playhouse 125 s main street, hendersonville, nc Flat Rock Playhouse Downtown presents The Fantasticks, the longest-running production of any kind in the world. This musical tells the story of two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud. The fathers hire traveling actors to stage a mock abduction, so that Matt can heroically seem to save Luisa, ending the supposed feud. When the children discover the deception, they reject the arranged love match and separate.

Each then gains disillusioning experiences of the real world, seen in parallel fantasy sequences. They return to each other bruised, but enlightened and they renew their vows with more maturity. The Fantasticks has charmed audiences at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City’s Greenwich Village, The Jerry Orbach Theatre in Times Square ever since Dwight Eisenhower was President.

admission: $40 | 828 - 693 - 0731 | 866 -732- 8008 may 3 - 4

Rhododendron & Azalea Flower Show nc arboretum , 100 frederick law olmsted way, asheville, nc American Rhododendron Society Southeast Show features hundreds of blooms, education classes, plant and supply vendors, along with Rhododendron Society members to answer questions and provide growing advice. Spring and summer blooming rhododendrons and azaleas are favorites of the weekend. The North Carolina Arboretum is home to the National Native Azalea Collection, and visitors are encouraged to explore the collection, located along Bent Creek, representing nearly every species native to the United States.

admission: free for members or with the standard parking fee ($12 per vehicle) www. ncarboretum .org may 3 - 4

Blue to Black Studio Tour 10 am - 6 pm More than 40 artists, studios and art venues from the Blue Ridge Parkway at US Highway 70 heading east to Black Mountain 90

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and beyond will be open to the public for the Blue to Black Art Weekend Art Stroll & Studio Tour. The two-day event is a chance to visit working artist studios and downtown Black Mountain art venues, and to take part in demonstrations, workshops, studio tours, children’s crafts and live entertainment throughout the weekend. Spinning wheel demonstrations, handspun yarns, art quilts, earthy ceramics and Arts & Crafts handmade chairs can be discovered during the two-day event. Event destinations include east Asheville, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, Fairview, Ridgecrest, and Old Fort.

free admission an interactive tour map at : www. bluetoblackartweekend.com may 4

Tour of Historic Homes 1pm - 5pm

various locations in historic hendersonville The Historic Preservation Commission sponsors this self-driving tour of nine homes in the Hendersonville Hyman Heights Historic District. Tickets can be purchased at Killarney House, 322 Killarney Street.

admission: $15 828 - 697-3088 | www. hendersonvillehpc .org may 6

Mother Goose Troop 2pm -3 pm

henderson county library, 301 n washington st, hendersonville, nc Local children’s theatre group Mother Goose Troop will present Jack and the Bean Tree, an Appalachian version of Jack & the Beanstalk at the Main Library, Kaplan Auditorium. This program is a children’s centennial event.

free admission | 828 - 697- 4725 may 9

Bearfootin’ Public Art Reveal 4 pm - 6 pm main street and 6th avenue, hendersonville, nc See the showcasing of original hand painted bears, which have contributed to raising a considerable amount of money for local charities and art in Historic Downtown. Funds from the auctions helped facilitate the artist selection process that

eventually resulted in the creation of “Mountain Memory,” the fountain found at the First Citizen’s Bank Plaza today.

free admission | 828 -233 -3216

may 10

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 8 pm asheville symphony thomas wolfe auditorium , asheville, nc

may 9 -10

The Spencers: Theatre of Illusion 8 pm diana wortham theatre, asheville, nc Blending the theatrical elements of a Broadway production with the driving energy of a rock concert, these “Modern Day Houdinis” take their audience on a journey to the brink of impossibility.

tickets: regular $35 | student $30 | children 12 & under $15 student rush day- of-show ( with valid id) $10 828 -257- 4530 | www. dwtheatre.com

Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello will bring an eloquence and dynamic range to the keyboard. With its sumptuous harmonies counterpoised with the power of bold chords, Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Concerto showcases how the piano can sing as well as explode with vivid color against a dramatic orchestral landscape. Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony, while also brilliantly orchestrated to extract maximum effect, is inspired by actual events from Russia’s history. The tragic events of the year 1905, including “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” serve as a starter for music of tragedy, exaltation, struggle, and chaos. A symphonic thriller, Shostakovich’s 11th seemed to please the Soviet regime’s taste for music that glorified the State, while somehow also managing to transmit a subversive, personal critique of the trials of contemporary life in the USSR.

AT B E A U T I F U L L A K E E D E N ASHEVILLE-BLACK MTN NC

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BEATS ANTIQUE

FESTIVAL

MAY 8-11 SAT

BOOTSY COLLINS

Music. Dance. Handcraft. Folk Arts. Poetry. Healing Arts.

Kids Villages. L a k e s p o r t s . G r e a t O u t d o o r s .

Local Brews & Eats.

Camping & Cabins.

#1 Music Fest • #1 Fest For Kids • #1 Fest For Camping

2014

38th

admission: ticket prices vary (see website ) ashevillesymphony.org

SUN

JUSt ADDED!

ADVANCED TICKETS ONLY May 2014 | capitalatplay.com 91

events

may 10 -11

Fiber Weekend folk art center , milepost 382 , blue ridge pkwy, asheville, nc Craftspeople at the Folk Art Center share their inspiration and expertise in a variety of textile arts. Saturday demonstrations include: quilting and appliqué, doll making, weaving, mixed media fiber arts, clothing design, printing and surface design, tapestry weaving, and natural dyeing. There will be two fashion shows on Sunday.

free admission | www.southernhighlandguild.org may 10 & 11

Tour de Falls 9: 00 am -2:30 pm

dupont state recreational forest, 1400 staton rd, cedar mountain , nc Buses will be available every half-hour in the parking lot on DuPont/Staton Road to take visitors to High Falls, Triple Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Lake Julia. Full 12-mile tour takes 3+ hours. Buses are not handicap accessible and no pets are allowed on the bus. Sponsored by the Friends of DuPont State Forest.

donation: adults $12 | ages 6 -17 $6 828 - 692-2929 may 16 -17

Southeastern Fly Fishing Festival 8 am - 4 pm ramsey center arena , western carolina university, 92 catamount rd, cullowhee, nc

Visit Orvis for distinctive men’s and women’s clothing, unique gifts, pet accessories, and the world’s finest fly-fishing gear.

Orvis Asheville

28 Schenck Parkway, Suite 150 Asheville, NC 28803 828 687 0301 | orvis.com/asheville Store Hours: Monday - Wednesday: 10:00am - 6:00pm Thursday - Saturday: 10:00am - 7:00pm Sunday: 12:00pm - 5:00pm 92

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The Southeastern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers has selected Jackson County to host this fun-filled weekend of programs, presenters, and exhibitors. At least forty exhibitors are expected. In addition to numerous (mostly free) presentations and classes, the Cullowhee area offers non-fishing activities for the entire family. Steve Rajeff and Leslie Holmes will headline the talented group of casting instructors. In addition to two days of casting instruction offered by some of the best instructors in the country, you will also be able to take the tests to become a CCI, MCI or THCI. Be sure to register in advance. On Friday night, the folks at Little River TU will host the Back the Brookie BBQ. All profits from this event will support brook trout restoration in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Hunter Banks and Highland Brewing Company have sponsored the beer for this event. On Saturday night, there will be a banquet and great auction items. Tickets include presentations and programs, along with the opportunity to sign up for paid instruction in casting and fly-tying.

admission: $5 per day for individuals $10 per day for families southeastfff.org /festival-2014 - main /

may 15 -18

Music on the Rock: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 8 pm flat rock playhouse 125 s main street, hendersonville, nc Flat Rock Playhouse Downtown presents Music on the Rock: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, a tribute concert featuring the hits of the artists.

admission: $24 828 - 693 - 0731 | 866 -732- 8008 may 16 -18

Grandfather Mountain Naturalist Weekend grandfather mountain ,

2050 blowing rock highway, linville nc The Grandfather Mountain Naturalist Weekend is a fascinating collection of programs and guided walks offered to help guests discover more about the diversity of life at Grandfather Mountain. These three days are filled with guided hikes and special presentations on the birds, wildflowers and nature of the mountain. Fee is included with regular admission.

www.grandfather .com /events / naturalistweekend/ admission: adult $20 | senior 60+ $18 child 4 -12 $9 may 17

Montford Arts and Music Festival 10 am -7pm montford avenue, asheville, nc Celebrating its 11th year as one of the largest one-day free music and arts festivals in Asheville, this event has over 100 vendors of art, crafts, plants and food. There are also two stages with non-stop entertainment from 20 groups, plus a children’s area. Located down from Asheville Visitors Center in Historic Montford with on street parking, and a bike corral. The event will be held rain or shine.

free admission www. montfordfestival .com

Vibrant. Active. Fulfilling.

That describes life at Deerfield. Our residents enjoy activity-filled days and nights, an extensive list of amenities that includes a fitness and aquatic center, a spa, art and craft studios and classes – and they feel safe, secure and well cared for by our expert staff.

Enjoy the comfort and peace of mind that living in a Life Care community provides.

Our beautiful campus is located just minutes from the historic Biltmore Estate and Asheville’s eclectic downtown. Call to schedule a visit and discover the active retirement lifestyle you deserve.

A N E P I S C O PA L R E T I R E M E N T CO M M U N I TY

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events

may 23 -26

American Kennel Club (AKC) Dog Agility Trial fri -sun 8 am -3 pm | mon 8 am -2pm wnc agricultural center , mcgough arena , 1301 fanning bridge rd, fletcher , nc During this Blue Ridge Agility Club sponsored event, dogs jump hurdles, race through tunnels and climb over A-frames at high speed. Spectators are welcome, but please leave your dogs comfortably at home if you are viewing.

free admission | 828 -713 -3278 may 24 -25

Rose Show

nc arboretum , 100 frederick law olmsted way, asheville, nc The annual Asheville-Blue Ridge Rose Society Exhibition features award-winning roses of every color and size. Experts will be on hand to answer questions and provide information about the selection, care, and history of roses. Educational programs will be offered throughout the weekend, including a special lecture presented by Paul Zimmerman, rose expert and author of the best-selling book, Everyday Roses, and a presentation by Biltmore Rosarian and Arboretum Board member, Lucas Jack, on the roses of Biltmore Estate.

admission: free for members or with standard parking fee ($12 per personal motor vehicle) www. ncarboretum .org may 24 -25

White Squirrel Festival in Brevard saturday 10 am - 6 pm | sunday 12pm - 6 pm downtown brevard, nc This fun street festival honors these special wildlife critters, the white squirrels. These are not albinos, but siblings to the gray Eastern tree squirrel. This particular species made its way to Brevard in 1949 as a result of a carnival wreck in central Florida. The music is the major showcase of this festival, giving prominence to national and even international performers who are connected to Transylvania County. There will be plenty of food, art and crafts. For safety reasons, dogs are not allowed on festival grounds. No alcohol is allowed at the festival, except for in the approved designated area.

admission: entry is free whitesquirrelfestival .com 94

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Traveler Sportshirts: Wrinkle-Free Two-ply fine cotton and single-needle construction make these extra durable and wrinkle resistant. Button-through sleeve placket, back pleat.

ASHEVILLE

Historic Biltmore Village 9 Kitchin Place • 828-274-2630 Store Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30am-7pm Sat 9:30am-6pm • Sun 12pm-5pm

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events

local farms,

LOCAL FOOD

may 24 & 25

21st Annual Garden Jubilee Festival 9am - 5pm sixth avenue- caswell st, historic downtown hendersonville, nc There will be over 200 vendor spaces selling thousands of plants, arts and crafts, lawn and garden accessories, garden talks and experts, a children’s hands-on clinic, and food.

828 - 693 - 9708 | 800 - 828 - 4244 www. historichendersonville.org may 24 -31

May '14 Events 25th Annual Spring Herb Festival Largest Herb Festival in the Southeast Friday, May 2nd 9am-5pm Saturday, May 3rd 9-5 Sunday, May 4th 10-3 Master Gardener Plant Clinic Saturday, May 10th & 24th 11-2

New Arrivals Beets Cabbage Cucumbers Green Peas Kale Squash Strawberries Tomatoes

Asheville Beer Week & Beer City Festival festival 1- 6 pm on may 31st | beer week schedule online asheville, nc The 3rd Annual Asheville Beer Week will culminate with the Beer City Festival on Saturday, May 31st. Organized by a beer-loving group of regional beer industry folks, Asheville Beer Week will offer a variety of events in and around the Asheville and Western North Carolina area. This year’s eight-day celebration will include keynote speakers, education, tastings, dinners, and other beer-centric events. More than 40 breweries are scheduled to appear at Beer City Festival, with many other national brands at events throughout the week.

admission: $45 locally or $50 online beercityfestival .com | ashevillebeerweek .com may 26

Carl Sandburg Folk Music Festival 11am - 4 pm carl sandburg home, 81 carl sandburg lane, flat rock , nc The folk festival honors Carl Sandburg and his preservation of traditional folk music as found in his collection The American Songbag, featuring live music and storytelling.

828 - 693 - 4178 may 28

WNC Farmers Market open daily 8-6 570 Brevard Road, Asheville

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Celiac Support Group 5pm travinia italian kitchen , 264 thetford street, biltmore park town square, asheville, nc Join the support group for a restaurant outing at Travinia Italian Kitchen. Travinia has an extensive gluten-free menu and utilizes separate surfaces, cookware and utensils for gluten-free orders. Reserve your place by calling Laurie at 828-696-1000 ext. 3654.

You may leave a message with your name, phone number, and the number of people in your party.

view the travinia dinner menu at traviniaitaliankitchen .com

RE A ST C O TU RA A TI L O N S

CUSTOM CARS & RESTORATIONS may 30 -june 1

Nature Photography Weekend grandfather mountain , 2050 blowing rock highway, linville, nc Learn from top nature photographers and photograph nature at its best on Grandfather Mountain. Presentations are planned in the evenings, while participants photograph spectacular scenery and native animals during the day. Enter your best shots from the weekend into an informal contest, with winners announced Sunday. Online registration opens April 1st. Family members and guests can enter the mountain at a discounted rate. Registration is required.

stomers!

Thank you to our cu siness for 30 years in bu

5522 WILLOW ROAD HENDERSONVILLE, NC 828-693-8246

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admission: npw participant– $115 npw guest– $95 guest–adult $40 , child $20 guests for sat dinner – $10 www.grandfather.com/ product/npw-participant/

www.bealandco.net

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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

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A new day dawns for community banking.

Friday, April 4th was like any other day.

Except for the merger between two of our region’s strongest community banks.

Forest Commercial Bank has merged with Carolina Alliance Bank, creating one of the best community banking opportunities.

All locations are now branches of Carolina Alliance Bank.While the signs outside have changed, inside you’ll find the same banking professionals you’ve counted on for years.

Our dedication to the Asheville and Hendersonville communities, and to helping them grow, is also unchanged.

If we can answer any questions, be sure to ask. Or stop by the location nearest you.

We look forward to showing you just what this new day has in store.

1127 Hendersonville Rd., Asheville, NC 28803 • 828-255-5711 218 North Main St., Hendersonville. NC 28792 • 828-233-0900 122 Cherokee Rd., Charlotte, NC 28207 • 980-321-5946 (Loan Production Office)

Also in Spartanburg and Seneca

carolinaalliancebank.com

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