SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING
FALL COLOR FORECAST | AFRILACHIAN HERITAGE | DOLLYWOOD OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
Celebrating Southern Appalachians
MEADOWVIEW MIRACLE • VIRGINIA’S STATE THEATER • EAST TENNESSEE’S WINDSOR CHAIR MAKER • LEARNING TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE
THE
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 • VOL. 13 • NO. 5
smliv.com
Abingdon’s Barter Theatre
Woodworking the Windsor Way
Lessons on Doing What You Love
Explore the Folklore of an Appalachian Bestiary Sevierville Barbecue Served with a Side of Gospel
we lco m e :
FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR
Mountain rivers always run cold. The Pigeon’s headwaters are at Sam Knob on Black Mountain, elevation 6,130 feet. We waded into the water in increments, gasping, flapping our hands, and laughing. We had the entire swimming hole to ourselves, save for about a dozen Pipevine and Eastern Swallowtail butterflies hanging out on the smooth river rocks. The butterflies had the right idea. Refreshed and somewhat numb, Amanda and I each found a rock in the middle of the river on which to perch and soak up some sun. It wasn’t bad—for a Thursday. Such are the advantages of living in the Southern Appalachian mountains, Western North Carolina in particular, and my town in specific. What we lack may also be seen as an advantage. There’s no mass, public transportation nor 24-hour retail shopping; there’s not a Starbucks on every corner nor chain restaurants huddled around our highway exit. Instead, on most warm days lawn mower engines hum, and local mill workers sound the steam whistle to celebrate our high school’s sports teams’ wins. I give directions to my house using a giant oak tree as a landmark, and my husband and I don’t even have to order drinks at the Mexican restaurant down the street—the waiters all just know what we want and bring it to the table. I can be in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pisgah National Forest, or on the Blue Ridge Parkway each in less than 30 minutes. It’s a trade off. We give up certain conveniences to gain what’s important to our quality of life. Of course, we don’t all measure quality of life by the same yardstick. Some would rather have department stores than dirt in which to dig. I just happen to choose dirt. This edition of Smoky Mountain Living is dedicated to the theme of trade, which includes these such trade offs, skilled trades, and trading with one another. It’s an edition that has several emotional touch points and forces readers to ask, “Am I doing something at which I’m good, and am I doing what love?” I hope the answer is “yes,” but if not, I hope this issue provides the inspiration to make a change.
SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO
“Of course, we
One afternoon in late August Amanda and I took off from work and headed up past Lake Logan on N.C. 215 to Sunburst. The cooler was packed with a picnic lunch courtesy of Amanda’s mom, Kathy, a woman who never turned down an opportunity to cook. There was pasta salad, pimento cheese, and pound cake all carefully proportioned in Tupperware containers. We ate from pink, plastic plates while sitting at a mossy, concrete picnic table, cool in the shade of the Forest Service campground. Properly sustained, Amanda and I made for the river. Granted they say that one should wait a half hour after eating before going swimming, but given that the day brought the first real sunshine in weeks of grey and rain, we were racing the clock against an approaching autumn. Indeed, crimson maple leaves already had begun to fall.
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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
don’t all measure quality of life by the same yardstick. Some would rather have department stores than dirt in which to dig. I just happen to choose dirt.”
— Sarah E. Kucharski, managing editor
About our writers VOL. 13 • NUMBER 5 Publisher/Editor . . . . . . . . . . . Scott McLeod editor@smliv.com General Manager . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd ads@smliv.com Advertising Sales Manager . . Hylah Smalley hylah@smliv.com Managing Editor . . . . . . . Sarah E. Kucharski sarah@smliv.com Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . Travis Bumgardner travis@smliv.com Graphics . . . . . . . Micah McClure, Emily Moss Finance & Admin. . . . . . . Amanda Singletary Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Boothroyd, Whitney Burton, Amanda Bradley Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott Collier Editorial Assistants . . . . . . . . . . Colby Dunn, Glenda Kucharski Contributing Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Molly Dugger Brennan, Paul Clark, Jo Harris, Joe Hooten, Marla Hardee Milling, Anna Oakes, Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, Michael W. Twitty Contributing Photographers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jason Barnette, Paul Clark, Diana Gates, Jo Harris, Bob Joralemon, Ed Kelley, Yvette McClure, Anna Oakes, Sherry Shook, Beverly Slone Contributing Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mandy Newham-Cobb Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly by SM Living LLC. Smoky Mountain Living has made every effort to insure listings and information are accurate and assumes no liability for errors or omissions. For advertising information, contact Hylah Smalley at 828.452.2251 or hylah@smliv.com. For editorial inquiries, contact Sarah Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com. Smoky Mountain Living assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Queries should be sent to Sarah E. Kucharski at sarah@smliv.com. ©2013. All rights reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reprinted without the express, written consent of the publisher. Smoky Mountain Living is published bi-monthly (Dec/Jan, Feb/Mar, Apr/May, Jun/Jul, Aug/Sep, Oct/Nov) by SM Living, LLC, 34 Church Street, Waynesville, NC 28786. Periodical Postage paid at Waynesville, N.C., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: please send address changes to Smoky Mountain Living, PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786.
Michael W. Twitty is a culinary historian, Judaics teacher and food writer from the Washington. D.C. area and blogs at Afroculinaria.com. He is @koshersoul on Twitter.
Joe Hooten
was born in Macon, Ga., but spent his formative years surfing the beaches near his home in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. He eventually found his way to Western North Carolina. Hooten taught public middle and high school history in Hendersonville, Cary and then Raleigh for ten years before moving back to Asheville with his wife and three young kids in 2008. A second-rate guitarist, he can be found most evenings pickin’ some tunes on the back porch while enjoying the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains.
Director of Communications at Mars Hill College—but her greatest role is that of mom to Ben and Hannah.
Molly Dugger Brennan is a Southern humorist who lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia with her husband, four monster dogs, and a cat she never wanted but likes well enough. Read more of her stories at mollyduggerbrennan.com.
Paul Clark is a resident of Weaverville, N.C., and has worked as a journalist for more than three decades. He is currently studying photography and videography.
Jo Harris
vegetarian artist and illustrator living right outside of Philly. Newham is the illustrator of three children’s books: Razzmatazz!, “Bullet” Joe: A Kansas City Monarch, and The Little Brown Hen (forthcoming). She earned her bachelor of fine arts at Florida State University and her master of fine arts in drawing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
is a Pigeon Forge, Tenn., native. Her ancestors were among the earliest to settle the wilderness we call the Great Smokies. She began writing in 2011 when her other hobby—collecting American and post-WWII Japanese china—was abandoned for lack of cabinet space. She found freelance writing more fun than ad copy, press releases, and stockholder reports she’d written during her twenty-year banking career. She lives in Kodak, Tenn., within sight of her daily inspiration—the Great Smoky Mountains.
Marla Hardee Milling is a
Rebecca Tolley-Stokes
lifelong resident of Asheville, N.C. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and her work has appeared in Our State, WNC, Charleston, Denver, Blue Ridge Country, Luxury Living, Health, Parenting, Redbook, Pregnancy, American Style and many others. She spent ten years at WLOS-TV as a news producer and six years as
is a writer, librarian, and East Tennessee native who no longer has time to knit, sew, quilt, play accordion, ride horses, or enjoy any other favorite pastimes. She hates the way that people from “off” mispronounce Appalachia, and loves how the Southern Appalachian region is rife with opportunities for learning about ecology, community, and culture.
Mandy NewhamCobb is a lefty
WWW.SMLIV.COM
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Contents
FEATU RE STO RIES
FARM & CRAFT Meadowview Farmers’ Guild General Store and Harvest Table Restaurant is an outgrowth of author Barbara Kingsolver’s best-selling work, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and a boon for a tiny town. BY PAUL CLARK
PAGE
PRODUCING A TRADITION
LIVING THE LIFE YOU LOVE
The Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va., was built on trading lettuce for a laugh and has grown to stage world-class performances.
Creative kinds share their lessons on giving up the rat-race in order to pursue their passions.
BY PAUL CLARK
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58
TAKE A SEAT Jonesborough, Tenn., chair maker Curtis Buchanan is shaping the history of the Windsor chair using hand tools of the trade. BY JO HARRIS
BY ANNA OAKES
PAGE
44
PAGE
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Contents MOUNTAIN VOICES
DEPA RTME N TS
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Michael Twitty explores the role of African Americans in Appalachian culture.
MOUNTAIN MUSIC
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Grey Eagle in Asheville, N.C., is known for its eclectic line-up.
OUT & ABOUT
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Go back in time with the Cradle of Forestry.
OUTDOORS
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The American Chestnut makes a comeback.
MOUNTAIN LETTERS
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Learn about moonshine’s economic and social role in the mountains.
ON THE COVER
ARTS
Gregory Peck, Kevin Spacey, and Ned Beatty are among the famous actors who once graced the stage at The Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va.
CUISINE
PHOTO BY JASON BARNETTE JASONBARNETTEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Good Living
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Weaverville, N.C.’s, Art Safari offers a chance to explore area galleries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chef Daniel Wright of Tomato Jam Café is named best in the west.
MOUNTAIN VIEWS
26 28 30
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An orchid-seller makes a deal—for better or worse.
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Eastern Tennessee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Waynesville, N.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Crossword Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Select Lodging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
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To have a trade is to be a worker with skills. To barter is to exchange goods. To make a trade off is to give up one thing in order to gain another. This issue of Smoky Mountain Living focuses on these themes, and here we explore them through our readers’ eyes.
Bob Joralemon • Mingus Mill, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, N.C. Diana Gates • Baseball Cards
Sherry Shook • Henderson County, N.C.
Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich today and poor tomorrow they may have something tangible to fall back upon. This provision might save many persons from misery, who by some unexpected turn of fortune have lost all their means. — P. T. Barnum
Beverly Slone • Plott Hound Festival, Maggie Valley, N.C.
Yvette McClure • Barbershop, Bryson City, N.C.
Diana Gates • Maters
I’ve been accused of being old before my time more than once. It’s true that I’ve always felt an affinity for, and been comfortable around, older people. I attribute this to a childhood spent around my grandparents—and even a great-grandparent or two. I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. — Jon Meacham
Beverly Slone • Appalachian Heritage Festival, Waynesville, N.C.
Ed Kelly • Waterrock Knob, Blue Ridge Parkway, N.C.
The next edition of Smoky Mountain Living is dedicated to yarns—storytelling, things that go on and on, and, of course, the fibers that weave things together. Submit your images of yarns to photos@smliv.com by Oct. 14, 2013. For more information, visit smliv.com or connect with us at facebook.com/smliv.
Yvette McClure Fortune Teller Tallulah Gorge, Ga.
Sherry Shook Old Cider Mill, Bat Cave, N.C.
d e p a r t m e n t :
MOUNTAIN VOICES
Afri-lachia? How Africa came to Appalachia B Y M I C H A E L W. T W I T T Y
P
oet Frank X. Walker coined the term “Afrilachian,” to refer to a unique part of the Appalachian and African American experience. Enslaved Africans and free people of color and their descendants were sparsely located in the cultural region known as Appalachia, but don’t let the seeming invisibility fool you. The African cultural heritage is alive and well in Appalachia, you just need to know where to look. The story of Afrilachia is not just told in coal mines, small farms, and small African American hillside hamlets, it’s also told in food, music, spirituality, and many other forms of Appalachian culture that bear the influence of West and Central Africa. Go to Western Maryland and Virginia and you will find places like “Negro Mountain,” and “Mulatto Run.” Place markers like these speak to the earliest American frontier—the Southern backcountry. Much of that Backcountry was owned by Virginia until the late 18th century and settled by people looking for more tobacco lands from across the Chesapeake and Tidewater. Although we know well that Appalachia was settled by Ulster Scots, Germans and others who did not depend on racial slavery as part of their economy, Tidewater plantation owners used their human capital in the slave trade to expand and increase their influence across the mountains. Enslaved Africans, like a group of 18 men brought from what is now Ghana to the area around Roanoke and Blacksburg, were brought explicitly to mine, given their experience in West Africa where deep mining for gold and other minerals went into the medieval past. Those early Afrilachians mined for gold and coal, and grew tobacco, corn and truck crops, and served as soldiers, guards, and construction workers, forging new paths into the new frontier. Appalachia became a haven for some early Southerners of mixed origins like the Melungeons, whom recent DNA studies have shown mostly descend from West and Central African men and European
African and Native American witnessed
cultural trade offs early on in the Southern highlands—black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, watermelon came to be grown in Native American communities as a result of African dietary influences.
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The East Riverside Collection features turn-of-the-century and later photographs of residents of the East Riverside area. Most subjects are unidentified, but the collection is an exquisite representation of the large African American community in Asheville, N.C., at the turn of the century. The collection contains more than 230 photographs, documents, and postcards donated by individuals and families associated with the East Riverside urban redevelopment project. COURTESY OF EAST RIVERSIDE PHOTOGRAPHS, D.H. RAMSEY LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNC-ASHEVILLE, ASHEVILLE, N.C.
women who met and married early in the days before anti-miscegenation laws came to the Virginia and Maryland colonies. The word Melungeon in fact is a corruption of the Mbundu (a people from Angola) word “Mulungu,” which means “shipmate,” as in the Middle Passage that brought millions of Africans across the Atlantic to slavery in the Americas. Mbundu and Kongo Africans were well represented in 17th century Virginia, where other words from their languages became established including “tota,” to carry (tote), “nkuda,” a turtle (cooter), “nguba,” for peanut (goober) and “mbanza,” the original form of the word banjo. Other Afrilachian people came west by way of Edenton, Wilmington and Charleston, major slave ports of the lower South. Much like the Virginians and Marylanders both, North and South Carolinian planters set their sights on expanding west. It was not uncommon to find early Afrilachians who “spoke the Scots Irish
SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
dialect,” or Scot Gaelic or even German since they lived in close proximity to slaveholders and neighbors who gave them work orders in their own native languages. Africans coming to Appalachia had very complex identities. Some were the descendants of Central African and Northern European unions in the 17th century before the entrenchment of slavery. During the 18th century, others were from the wave of West Africans coming from what are now the countries of Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria, eventually mixing culturally and genetically with Europeans and Native Americans. The Southern backcountry held a lot of promise for freedom seekers. In some cases, Native Americans harbored enslaved blacks, and they married into indigenous communities. In other cases they lived side by side with marooned or runaway communities in small bands in the mountains. In others, Native Americans actively returned enslaved people for bounties or enslaved them themselves. What we do know is that African and Native American witnessed cultural trade-offs early on in the Southern highlands—black eyed peas, sweet potatoes, watermelon came to be grown in Native American communities as a result of African dietary influences. It is likely that gourd craft, the uses for river cane, basketry, standing wooden mortars and pestles and spoken folklore and language were also exchanged along with food crops. Although most enslaved blacks would leave their cultural mark, cross the mountains and come to settle Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas, some would remain in Appalachia. Slavery was not absent in Appalachia. Mining companies owned enslaved miners, woodsmen, construction workers and craftsmen. Some Blacks came by way of the crews that brought trade items up the rivers into the highlands. Others worked on small farms; according to Wilma Dunaway, one out of every three Appalachian whites with substantial farms held enslaved people, and one in ten of the region’s antebellum workforce was enslaved. Slavery in Appalachia was colloquial and discretionary. That is to say, it was as anywhere else, a mixed bag. Living in smaller communi-
ties meant greater isolation and yet tighter-knit family units. There was a great fear of being sold into the flood of enslaved blacks leaving the Upper South for the cotton plantations of the Black Belt and lower Mississippi Delta. Those fears were not unfounded as many Afrilachian families were permanently split apart by slavery. For those that remained, they imparted a lasting rich cultural influence. Food remains one of the more powerful emblems of this exchange of culture. Whites in the Upper South were well known for being drawn to the cornshucking gatherings where the banjo and bones, fiddle and gumbo boxes—early substitutes for drums—would play late into the night as enslaved communities gathered to bring in shuck the corn crop. Along with the
people shipped to the South from Africa via the Caribbean. Even the name “yam” speaks to the African influence in spreading this essential staple crop. Red peppers, popularized by the African taste for spice also came into the mountains after first being grown in the Chesapeake and Low Country by enslaved gardeners. Okra, from the word “okwuru,” of Igbo origin (a Nigerian group that dominated captives brought to Virginia), was another cross over crop originally domesticated in Africa, as were field peas, watermelons, muskmelons and sorghum. Although not originally African, peanuts grown in Africa would cross as food for enslaved captives on slave ships and would arrive in early Virginia; those original goobers marched with enslaved people into the moun-
COURTESY OF EAST RIVERSIDE PHOTOGRAPHS, D.H. RAMSEY LIBRARY, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNC-ASHEVILLE, ASHEVILLE, N.C.
fascination surrounding music and dance, inevitably new foods found a role as well. Sorghum cane, introduced early from Africa, graced many a biscuit baked for those gatherings. “Cane” has been mistakenly identified as a Native American contribution to Appalachian cookery—instead it is another marker of the Afrilachian influence. The Foxfire and other Appalachian foodlore works reveal that the African influenced food presence goes beyond sorghum. Sweet potatoes of various varieties and textures were introduced from the West Indies as food for enslaved
Enslaved Africans, like a group of 18 men brought from what is now Ghana to the area around Roanoke and Blacksburg, were brought explicitly to mine given their experience in West Africa where deep mining for gold and other minerals went into the medieval past. WWW.SMLIV.COM
tains where goober patches can still be found even in heavy clay soils. For every guinea hen on an Appalachian farm or guinea hog that ever rooted among ancient chestnut groves, for every banjo that was ever played and every sorghum mill that crushed cane in early autumn, the Afrilachian heritage moved well beyond the coal mines, cornfields and tobacco patches. There are still Afrilachian communities to this day, although many long ago moved north to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit or relocated to Nashville, Louisville, Charleston and Roanoke. Whether at home or “off,” their cultural influence endures. In chickens fried and possums served with sweet potatoes, to red pepper dressed barbecue to gourd birdhouses and words with origins only now showing roots in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the movement of culture in Appalachia can be seen as a rich and interesting moment in Southern and American history when a minority had a powerful impact on the majority. 13
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michaeljohnmonson@gmail.com SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
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d e p a r t m e n t :
MOUNTAIN MUSIC
Jeff Whitworth (left) with the late musician Vic Chesnutt, who performed at the Grey Eagle numerous times. DONATED PHOTO
Grey Eagle sets a place for variety BY JOE HOOTEN
D
escend down Clingman Avenue away from the urban clamor of Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville and immediately one enters into another world. Just a short few years ago, even the most adventurous soul would have avoided Asheville’s riverside warehouse district, yet now it’s teeming with arts, music, eats, and drinks, which collectively give the once derelict place an appealing new name — Asheville’s River Arts District. At the eastern entrance of the RAD, The Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall is a blue-grey brick building, where some of Asheville’s most memorable music shows have been held over the past 13 years. Despite the upscale Orange Peel or the gentrified Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, the unassuming Grey Eagle consistently draws prominent acts and recording artists, and Western North Carolina’s own local talent also shares the venue’s stage, helping the Grey Eagle earn a reputation as one of the finest listening rooms in the Southeast. The modest décor and unpretentious atmosphere invite even the casual concert-goer to feel at home. Signed tour posters and some exquisite photos of live performances taken by local photographer Sandlin Gaither and others make for a welcoming entrance. There’s a kitchen that Taqueria Con Cuida currently occupies, and The King’s portrait hangs behind the bar where local brews flow and
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PBR always is available. Inside the listening room, the wooden stage and exposed rafters add to the charm and elegance, but moreover it’s a musician’s paradise—an open room with superb acoustics that begs to be filled with crowds nearly every night of the week. Local entrepreneur, musician, father, and all-around self-made man, Jeff Whitworth has been with the Grey Eagle since shortly after the business moved from Black Mountain in 1999. Whitworth’s involvement in the Asheville arts scene has earned him a highly respected and much appreciated place among music fans and community leaders. An experienced musician, he has been a longtime member of the local rock group Wayne Robbins and the Hellsayers and has toured America and Europe extensively. Whitworth is the man nearly impossible to miss when one walks into the Grey Eagle. A formidable figure, he’s always smiling, friendly, and exerting his brand of Southern hospitality. He’s orchestrated many of the enhancements to the venue over the years and has recently overseen both structural and cosmetic adjustments without compromising the Grey Eagle’s impeccable sound system, but his real job is in arranging the club’s performance schedule. “Diversifying the monthly calendar is something I take great pride in, and I like to fill the calendar with as many different shows as possible,” Whitworth said. “I think that if you stick to a certain genre or scene it severally limits your scope and dictates exactly who your crowd will be each night.” The Grey Eagle, on any given night, could be home to the sounds of bluegrass, indie-rock, funk, hip-hop, and everything in between. Over the years, musical greats like Ralph Stanley, Tim O’Brien, Band of Horses, Avett Brothers, Superchunk, and Frank Black— just to name a few—have graced the stage while other nights the venue is home to benefits for local causes, album release parties for local bands, and even church services held on Sunday mornings.
SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
Q&A with Jeff Whitworth SML: Tell me about your role at the Grey Eagle. Jeff Whitworth: I started working at The Grey Eagle in 2000, right as I moved to Asheville. I originally came on as a door guy, graduated to a bartender, then learned how to be a sound engineer. It was a natural progression and it gave me the tools I’d later need to successfully run the club. I bought the club along with a good friend & business partner, Brian Landrum, in 2004. I’ve been the sole proprietor and talent buyer—an industry term for the one that books shows—of the club since Brian left in 2010. While not nearly as often since I’ve been sole proprietor, I also still run sound, bartend and work the door from time to time.
some of the best local music. Is that still an important aspect for booking? Absolutely—and we’re extremely lucky to live in an area with so much great local talent. I’m confident in saying that Asheville’s local music scene is one of the best in the country per capita. That, coupled with amazing local comedians, artists and dance troupes make it not only easy, but necessary, to pull from the local community to round out our calendar. Lastly, let’s stroll down memory lane. Share some amazing nights you’ve witnessed at the Grey Eagle. Some of my personal favorite shows that have happened at the club are Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (twice), Band of Horses, Nickel Creek (several times), Magnolia Electric Company (RIP Jason Molina), Avett Brothers, The Lumineers (played here several times before they blew up), Fleet Do bands/managers reach out to the Foxes, Ralph Stanley, Tim O’Brien and GE, or have you actively sought out Darrell Scott (two of my personal favorite bands to bring to town? musicians who also recorded a live record In order to run a successful venue, I at the club which was just released last think it’s important to not always rest on year), and more recently Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel), Frank Black (Pixies), Grandmothers of Invention (Zappa’s original band) and the countless times Vic Chesnutt performed at the club; he’s y Crystal Bowersox, Oct. 25 tops in my book. y Reverend Horton Heat, Oct. 29 But probably my all-time y Brett Dennen, Oct. 30 favorite memory from The y Southern Culture on the Skids Grey Eagle is John Hartford & Los Straitjackets, Nov. 1 playing two of his last shows y David Wilcox, Nov. 29 ever here. In 2001 he played a Visit thegreyeagle.com for more sold out show on a Saturday information. night, while nearing the end of his battle with cancer. I was your laurels and let the good shows fall in working the door that night, and about your lap. While I do have the luxury of midway through the second set he looked running a long-standing club that down the hallway towards me at the front musicians love to play, I think it’s still door and asked from the stage, “How important to seek out bands that I many people didn’t get in to see the show personally think will have a positive tonight?” I responded “Quite a few!” impact on the market—and sell tickets. He then asked Tyler, the former owner While the Grey Eagle definitely has who was mixing the show, “Tyler, can we “regulars,” I also love seeing different come back tomorrow afternoon and play faces night in and night out. I really enjoy another show for the folks that couldn’t being able to book a rock show, a get in?” We didn’t have anything booked bluegrass show, a hip hop show, a the next day and Tyler responded “Sure!” comedy show, a burlesque show, and a It was a beautifully spontaneous reggae show all in the same week. And I moment where everyone in attendance find a lot of personal satisfaction in witnessed a man who’d rather do nothing knowing that those shows are bookended more than spend his limited number of by our weekly contra dance every Monday remaining days performing for his fans. night and church every Sunday morning He and the band came back the next (Highland Christian Church). afternoon. Hartford, clearly exhausted, played another set of entirely different Not only does the Grey Eagle bring in tunes and proceeded to call square excellent talent, you continue to put on dances for nearly three hours. DONATED PHOTO
The history of the Grey Eagle is very interesting. Tell me how the idea came about to start the club.
scared to come down to the RAD—poor street lighting, there was literally nothing else opened after dark other than the Grey Eagle, a slew of street characters that migrated to this area. As the RAD has continued to grow, these hesitations should now be a distant memory, and it’s refreshing to see the volume of foot traffic through the RAD picking up more and more each passing week. The RAD artists and studios, such as Pattiy Torno at Curve Studios, along with the RAD Studio Stroll have been instrumental catalysts in making this such a desirable area, and that desirability continues to grow each month with the new additions going into the Wedge space and surrounding studios. John Payne, one of the early RAD pioneers, is sorely missed but I think he’d be proud of what Asheville’s RAD is becoming.
Since I’m not the original owner, I can’t take full credit for the storied past of The Grey Eagle. The venue was originally in Black Mountain and moved to its current location in 1999, shortly before I moved to town. Working here for several years prior to taking over ownership gave me valuable insight into where I thought needed improvements could be made as well as diversifying the acts that played the club. While the previous owners, still dear friends of mine, did a great job of filling a much needed niche in the Asheville music scene, I saw a lot of opportunities that weren’t necessarily being maximized. Running a listening room in the earlier days of the River Arts District must have been challenging. What were some obstacles you overcame? In the early days, a lot of folks were
upcoming:
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d e p a r t m e n t :
OUT & ABOUT
Dollywood invests in the future, families Dolly Parton, a country music classic, announces the $300 millioninvestment in Dollywood and a new resort over the next 10 years during a press conference in August. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO
TAKE A CIVIL WAR TOUR ABOARD THE RIVER GORGE EXPLORER This fall Tennessee continues with its commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Battles for Chattanooga. The Tennessee Aquarium’s River Gorge Explorer cruises through the Tennessee River Gorge daily, highlighting historic points of interest and fall color, and several special cruises have been scheduled to focus on specific Civil War events. “A Civil War cruise on the River Gorge Explorer is a great way to get a deeper appreciation of the Chattanooga area’s complex terrain,” said Civil War historian Jim Ogden. “Terrain that made the area such a crossroads and gateway over
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olly Parton recently announced a $300 million investment in her Dollywood empire that will expand the country singer’s Pigeon Forge, Tenn., theme park to include new rides, shows, and, most notably, a 300-room resort. The DreamMore resort is scheduled to open in 2015. Designed to be a place where families can come together, DreamMore is a continuation of Parton’s dedication to imagination. The property will include restaurants, meeting rooms, pools, a spa, firepits, and front porches—a throwback to Parton’s time spent on her family’s front porch as a child. “That’s where we laughed together; that’s where we cried together,” Parton said during a press conference at Dollywood in August. The new resort will be within walking distance of Dollywood’s Splash Country, a complete water park that is part of the Dollywood enterprise. The $300 million investment will be distributed over 10 years; however, visitors to Dollywood will see immediate results with the opening of the FireChaser Express rollercoaster with the 2014 season. The rollercoaster is the first of its kind in the country with a dual launch, forward and backward motion, and a low height restriction so that even young children may ride. The ride’s slogan, “from zero to hero in 1.1 seconds,” is a nod to the coaster’s theme—saving the Great Smoky Mountains from forest fires. The coaster follows the 2013 addition of WildEagle, the first of its kind, which gives riders the sensation of flying 21 stories high. Despite Dollywood’s trend of rollercoaster innovation, Parton leaves enjoying the rides to others. “I never ride the rides, you know,” she said. Parton, born in Sevierville, Tenn., is responsible for much of the East Tennessee region’s tourist draw, adding significant dollars to the state’s economy. The state saw $15.36 billion in tourism expenditures last year. This year Gov. Bill Haslam has added $8 million to the state’s tourism marketing budget to reach new, international markets. Parton’s involvement in the tourism industry is spread across several destinations in the Pigeon Forge area, including the perennially popular and routinely sold out dinner theater show, Dixie Stampede, which brings in 3,000 visitors a day. The family-friendly show features talented horseback riders competing against one another for bragging rights in an ageold battle between the North and South. In addition, young cast members sing and dance as native Cherokee, determined settlers, and antebellum ladies. A few lucky audience members are chosen to participate in the show, which the crowd of 1,000 enjoys over a finger-licking—one’s hands are the only utensils—meal. For more information, visit dollywood.com or call 800.365.5996; dixiestampede.com or 865.243.4400.
time, which resulted in some of the most significant fighting in our nation’s Civil War.” Join Ogden, Chief Historian of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, on Oct. 27, the day of the 150th Anniversary of the Federal Strike against Brown’s Ferry. The raid successfully established the “Cracker Line” and was the major turning point in the Battles for Chattanooga. On Nov. 23, venture upstream from downtown Chattanooga to where The Army of the Tennessee and General William T. Sherman crossed the Tennessee River at Chickamauga Creek. Learn how the subsequent Battle of Missionary Ridge ended the Battles for Chattanooga in 1863. Visit tnaqua.org or call 800.262.0695.
SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
OCTOBER
Visit our Wineries
1-27 • 43rd Annual Oktoberfest, Festhalle. Helen’s biggest celebration! Oktoberfest is open daily and will continue through October 27. 706-878-1908 or 706-878-2181. www.helenchamber.com 5, 12, 19, 26 • Hiking in Helen, every Saturday in October, 1 PM, Unicoi State Park Lodge. Pre-registration required. 1-800-573-9659 www.GeorgiaStateParks.org 19 • Art-Oberfest, Helen Riverside Park. Helen Arts & Heritage Center, 706-878-3933 www.helenarts.org 25-26 • Hillbilly Hog BBQ Throwdown. Babyland General Hospital. Event Benefits United Way of White County. www.hillbillyhogbbq.com 28 • Hallowine Fest 12-6, Sautee Nacoochee Vineyards. 706-878-1056. www.sauteenacoocheevineyards.com 31 • Halloween Trunk or Treat, SNCA, 706-878-3300, www.snca.org
27–Dec. 14 • Festival of Trees, Unicoi State Park. This event is sponsored by United Way of White County. 706-892-4779 29 • Annual Lighting of the Village, 6PM, Downtown Helen, 706-878-2181 www.helenga.org
DECEMBER
1-14 • Festival of Trees, Unicoi State Park. This event is sponsored by United Way of White County. 706-892-4779 7-8 • Annual Christkindlmarkt – Downtown Helen, Traditional German event. 706-878-1908, www.helenchamber.com 7, 14, 21 • Kinderfest – Downtown Helen. Helen Chamber of Commerce 706-878-1908, www.helenchamber.com 7 • Deck the Halls, Unicoi State Park. 1-800-573-9659 www.GeorgiaStateParks.org 7 • Annual Christmas Parade, Downtown Helen, 2PM, 706-878-2181. www.helenga.org OVEMBER 7 • Annual Christmas in the Mountains 2 • Unicoi Wine Festival. Hardman Festival, 3PM-8PM, Annual Farm, Sautee. Enjoy wine tastings and more! For more information, call Christmas in the Mountains Lighted Parade, 7PM Downtown Cleveland 706-865-5356. 706-865-5356, 8-10 • Georgia 2013 Winter Arts Tour. www.whitecountychamber.org www.artstour.org
®
Adopt Hand-Stitched Originals
Bavarian Shops, Historical Landmarks, State Parks & Local Artists
Celebrate Oktoberfest
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29-Dec. 1 • Annual Christkindlmarkt – Downtown Helen, Traditional German event. 706-878-1908, www.helenchamber.com
All events subject to change. Call the White County Chamber for new or changed information.
THE ART & SOUL OF THE NORTHEAST GEORGIA MOUNTAINS From waterfalls to beautiful mountains, our natural surroundings are breathtaking!
1-800-392-8279
whitecountychamber.org
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Support America’s Favorite Scenic Drive by Joining FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway Today
Become a member of FRIENDS for only $30! Join today at www.FriendsBRP.org Use the code SMOKY in the comments section. ———————————————————————————————————————————————
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36TH ANNUAL
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WOOLLY WORM
FESTIVAL Beautiful Downtown Banner Elk, NC
Saturday, October 19, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, October 20, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
WORM RACES (CASH PRIZES)
CRAFTS, FOOD & RIDES CO-SPONSORED BY THE AVERY COUNTY CHAMBER AND BANNER ELK KIWANIS ORGANIZATION.
FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!
For more information contact the Avery County Chamber of Commerce
(828) 898-5605 ¡ (800) 972-2183 www.WoollyWorm.com ¡ www.AveryCounty.com All proceeds are given back to our community to enhance our schools, children’s programs, and to promote businesses and tourism in Avery County.
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Foxfire
Museum
& Heritage Center
Experience Southern Appalachia as recorded and documented by the students of Rabun County, GA—and shared with the world through The Foxfire Magazine and The Foxfire Book volumes. Visit the legacy they created in honor of their families and neighbors over 45+ years.
Home of the Foxfire books– our newest:
45th Anniv.
1SR ÂŻ7EX EQÂŻ TQ
Museum gift shop offers regional folk pottery, home-made soaps, knitted & woven textile crafts, Foxfire books and related titles on history, plant lore, skills & trades, more! Take US 441 to Mountain City, GA. Turn onto Black Rock Mtn. Parkway. One mile up, follow the brown signs. [[[ JS\½VI SVK ˆ - SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
d e p a r t m e n t :
OUT & ABOUT
Expo celebrates all things fly fishing The 5th Annual WNC Fly Fishing Expo will be held Dec. 6 and 7 at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher. This two-day flyfishing extravaganza provides anglers a forum to sharpen their skills and learn about the latest innovations in their sport. What’s become the Southeast’s largest event for fly-fishers will feature local fly shops, angling organizations and fly-fishing art, while companies such as Simms, Orvis, Scientific Anglers,
Fishpond, Nautilus Reels, Montana Fly Company and Sage will showcase the newest gear for 2014. Featured speakers will be regional experts addressing the distinctive tactics from trout fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains to casting for redfish in the Low Country to angling for musky in the Southeast. Certified casting instructors will coach attendees of all skill levels on technical casts. There will also be fly-tying demonstrations and instruction from area certified FFF fly-tying experts. Tickets are $15 for adults and free for children 15 years of age and younger. For more information, visitwncflyfishingexpo.com.
Cradle of Forestry shows old-style camp life, natural history in action The Cradle of Forestry, a historic and educational site dedicated to forest management, will hold two events in October exploring natural history. On Oct. 12, Camping in the Old Style will feature a small group of re-enactors in a reconstructed campsite of the early 1900’s. In this era, the Pisgah National Forest was in its infancy, and camping meant sleeping under canvas and cooking over an open fire. Here in the wood smoke, surrounded by the outdoor gear of a bygone day, visitors will see fire by friction, campfire cookery, period shelters, and traditional camp tools in use. Each camper has expertise in woodcraft, history, and nature study, and will welcome questions from visitors.
“The Legend of Tommy Hodges” Outdoor Drama recreates the Halloween tale of 1906, when a student from the Biltmore Forest School named Tommy Hodges mysteriously disappeared. Visitors walk from scene to scene along a paved, one-mile trail meeting characters from the historic Pink Beds community and listening to stories, some based on diaries of students like Tommy who attended Biltmore Forest School from 1903-1907. Tours depart at 6:30, 7:45, and 9 p.m. on Oct. 25 and 26. The Cradle of Forestry dates back to the construction of the Biltmore Estate and the reforestation of abused and farmed over land that once ailed the surrounding landscape. Estate owner George Vanderbilt hired renowned landWWW.SMLIV.COM
scape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to oversee the design and construction of the estate’s gardens and grounds. Olmstead recommended that the estate required a “Forest Manager,” so Vanderbilt hired Gifford Pinchot who developed and implemented a forest management plan for his lands. Pinchot later served as the first Chief of the USDA Forest Service. German forester Dr. Carl A. Schenck succeeded Pinchot as Vanderbilt’s forest manager in 1895. For the next 14 years, Schenck focused his skills on transforming the woodlands now known as Pisgah National Forest into a restored image of what was once a flourishing forest. Congress set aside 6,500 acres for The Cradle of Forestry in America to commemorate the beginning of forestry conservation in the United States. For more information visit cradleofforestry.com or call 828.877.3130. 21
d e p a r t m e n t :
Five years on the trail
OUTDOORS
Biltmore does its part for the American Chestnut Volunteers from the Carolinas Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) recently planted 100 potentially blight and root-rot resistant American chestnut seeds on the grounds of Biltmore in Asheville, N.C. The chestnut seeds are part of a unique breeding program to restore the American chestnut to the eastern forests of America. “After screening for blight and Phytophthora resistance, and American traits, the selected trees will ultimately be used in the Carolinas Chapter of TACF breeding program to breed more healthy trees for restoration,” said Tom Saielli, Southeast Regional Science Coordinator for TACF. A previous breeding orchard planted in 1997 at Biltmore eventually failed due to the trees’ susceptibility to Phytophthora cinnamomi, a pathogen that thrives in parts the southern range of the American chestnut and is lethal to most American chestnuts. Throughout the forest, American chestnuts stood up to 100 feet tall, numbered in the billions, and once were common on the Biltmore estate as well. Chestnuts were a vital part of the forest ecology, a key food source for wildlife and an essential component of the human economy. In 1904 the fungal pathogen responsible for chestnut blight, accidentally imported from Asia, spread rapidly through the American chestnut population. Several attempts to breed blight resistant trees in the mid-1900s were unsuccessful. In 1983, a dedicated group of scientists formed The American Chestnut Foundation and began a special breeding process, which produced the first potentially blight-resistant trees. The organization is planting these trees in select locations throughout the eastern U.S. as part of the Foundation’s early restoration efforts.
The Smokies Trails Forever program, now in its fifth year of operation, continues needed trail improvements in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Volunteers work one-on-one with experienced trail building staff to reconstruct trails using sustainable materials in order to preserve the trail and protect the trail corridor. Smokies Trails Forever volunteers include people who have donated their time and skills with trail work in previous years, who volunteer with the Park in other ways, and still others who are volunteering for the first time. The program receives support from Recreational Equipment Inc. Generous trail users are relied upon to (REI), which has perform work on trails in the Great Smoky funded trail Mountains National Park. DONATED PHOTO reconstruction along Forney Ridge and Chimney Tops Trails, as well as provided a Trails Forever equipment trailer. More information about how individuals and groups can help is available at friendsofthesmokies.org or 828.452.0720.
WILL WELL-WATERED TREES DAMPEN FALL’S FOLIAGE DISPLAY? Abundant rainfall during one of the wettest summers in Western North Carolina history may portend a dampening of the intensity of the fall color show this year unless autumn brings vastly drier conditions, predicts Kathy Mathews, Western Carolina University’s fearless fall foliage forecaster. “With record rainfall during July, the trees in the mountains look healthy and green at the moment, and that’s a good thing for the trees,” said Mathews. An associate professor of biology at WCU who specializes in plant systematics, Mathews bases her annual prediction in part on weather conditions, including rainfall, during the spring and summer growing season. “There always will be plenty of color in the yellow and orange hues,” Mathews
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Kathy Matthews posits that cooler summer temperatures could counterbalance the effect of a rainy year. WCU PHOTO
said. Yellow and orange hues result from pigments that the leaves make yearround, hiding under the green color of chlorophyll, she said. As days get shorter and nights get colder, the chlorophyll will break down to reveal the pigments underneath.
SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
On the other hand, the red pigments— anthocyanins—are manufactured by leaves mainly in the fall in response to cooling temperatures and excess sugar production caused by lots of sun, Mathews said. Another factor in the annual fall color show is temperature. “Cool nights in September, with temperatures dropping into the low 40s, release the yellow, orange and red colors because chlorophyll degrades faster at lower temperatures,” Mathews said. “Temperature may work in our favor this year, as we have seen relatively cool summer months. If this trend continues, colors may be more vivid despite the rainfall.” And there is an upside to all the rainfall—the leaves should hang around longer. “With healthy, well-watered trees, we should not see much early leaf drop,” Mathews said. Leaves’ peak color intensity will occur about five days after a frost, Mathews said.
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Concord: 888-605-1994 23
Oct. 26-27 5TH ANNUAL
811 SETTAWIG RD. • BRASSTOWN, NC
Food • Arts & Crafts Music & Entertainment Beer & Wine Tent Activities • Face Painting Exhibits & Games for All Ages Airplane Rides $
1 Parking $3 Admission
Clay
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Chamber of Commerce Contact us for event details & lodging information: 24
388 Business, Hwy. 64 | Hayesville, NC | 877.389.3704 | www.NCMtnChamber.com SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
d e p a r t m e n t :
OUTDOORS
wild. Griffin was blind in his right eye, is believed to be deaf in his right ear, and suffered neurological damage. Isis had suffered lead poisoning and was blind in her left eye. Despite the staff’s attempts to put up dark “privacy” sheets along enclosure’s fence to help her cope, Isis remained agitated and continued flying into the fence, causing her more trauma and injury. Sending her back to a rehab center would have only been a temporary solution because those centers are unable to offer a permanent home. Habitat managers and veterinarians finally decided it was unfair and inhumane to keep an animal medicated just for the sake of having it on display for the public, and Isis was humanely euthanized. “Griffin wasn’t with Isis long enough to become a bonded pair,” said Christie Tipton, Animal Habitat Curator at Grandfather Mountain. Christie Tipton, Animal Habitat Curator at Grandfather Mountain, works with Griffin the bald eagle who soon will be welcoming a new eagle to the exhibit. DONATED PHOTO “He’s doing awesome. He’s very calm and he’s settled in so well.” The gender of Griffin’s new eagle friend is unknown at this point, but Tipton says she suspects it’s a female based on its size of 10 to 11 pounds. But even if it turns out to be male, it will still be an appropriate habitat mate for Griffin. “We’re not technically allowed to breed them,” said Tipton. “Eagles are a fairly social bird so two males would still get along well. I need to do some more research about how to find out what sex it is.” The new eagle from Alaska is completely non-flighted. “It ruptured a tendon on one wing and can never fly again,” said Tipton. Since the new bird won’t be able to reach the higher perches that Griffin uses, maintenance workers are building lower perches in the habitat. There are caves where it BY MARLA HARDEE MILLING can retreat in bad weather. Griffin prefers to stay new addition is expected to arrive soon at Grandfather Mounhigher and doesn’t use the grandfather.com or 800.468.7325. tain’s new eagle habitat in the High Country of N.C. An adult caves, so they are also makbald eagle currently housed at the Alaska Raptor Center is exing him a shelter that’s pected to move east where it will join Griffin, an adult male. higher off the ground that he can use. Griffin has been at Grandfather Mountain since March. He arrived In the wild, eagles eat a lot of fish. At Grandfather Mountain, they are with a female eagle, named Isis, from the Nebraska Raptor Center. They fed fish, rabbit and quail. “We also fast them one day a week so they don’t were quarantined until a brand new eagle habitat opened in May. Grandget overweight,” said Tipton. Eagles in captivity can live 40 to 50 years father Mountain previously had two separate enclosures for a bald eagle and precautions are taken to ensure their health. They receive check-ups and a golden eagle. When those two birds passed away from old age, the every three months—from beaks to eyes to tendons. staff combined the two areas into one big habitat. The expanded space is When Isis and Griffin first arrived at Grandfather Mountain, contest approximately 3,000 square feet. participants donated a dollar to suggest names. Proceeds from this contest Both Isis and Griffin were brought to Grandfather Mountain because went toward the animal habitats. It’s not known yet if another contest will their injuries made it impossible to survive if they were released in the be held to name the new bird.
Changes coming to Grandfather Mountain eagle habitat
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d e p a r t m e n t :
MOUNTAIN LETTERS
Storied past gets a scholarly glance BY REBECCA TOLLEY-STOKES
B
esides being a fantastic introduction to the process of making moonshine, Dan Pierce’s Corn From a Jar is the first covering the Great Smoky Mountains as a whole. Thus for audiences keen on gleaning more about the history, economics, social, and legal aspects of the trade in North Carolina and Tennessee, this is the perfect book. Pierce, a professor of history and department chair at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, draws from primary sources, dropping slices of life into his narrative to demonstrate the ubiquity of alcohol in the region’s social activities. In the book’s introduction, he promises a balanced accounting of men and women involved in the industry. “I hope the reader will come to understand that while the story of moonshine in the Smokies contains much that is sensational, downright demonic, and even romantic, it is most often a story of imperfect human beings trying their best to survive and even thrive in difficult circumstance in a challenging environment,” he writes. Pierce’s previous book, Real NASCAR (2010), focused on the racing sports’ origins—running illegal liquors, thus generating his interest in research and writing Corn From a Jar. The Great Smoky Mountains were excellent for making moonshine because of the prevalence of soft water needed for the distillation process. The rainfall the region receives—more than 80 inches per year—helped as well. Places like Cades Cove were prime moonshine making spots. Pierce explores how the social acceptance of drinking changes in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. In the 1800s, mothers thought nothing of giving their suckling infant a nip of liquor to calm their fretting and “indeed the pastor of the church would not draw stares if he Corn from a Jar: had a flask of whiskey at his hip,” Moonshining in the Pierce writes. Primitive Baptist Great Smoky congregations were especially forMountains by Dan giving of moonshiners who worPierce. Gatlinburg, Tenn.: shipped amongst them. Charles Great Smoky Mountains Lanman, visiting Buncombe Association, 2013 County, N.C., in 1848, arrived at a barn-raising and commented “an abundance of whiskey had already been imbibed.” Distillers in the Great Smoky Mountains during the nineteenth century also produced brandies from a variety of local fruits that appealed to a different class of buyers due to its high price—judges and lawyers. Making spirits allowed farmers to raise enough cash to pay taxes on their land—making corn into corn liquor meant a farmer could “increase the value of his corn by 150 percent,” Pierce writes. An excise tax of fifty cents per gallon went into effect in 1862, though moonshiners in the Great Smoky Mountains didn’t feel its effects
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until enforcement began in 1868. After the Civil War, moonshiners united against the tax: “the Confederacy saw the excise tax as another example of Yankee meddling. The many Unionists in the mountains chafed at the fact that a government they had fought to save was now making it more difficult for them to make a living,” Pierce writes. Pierce deconstructs moonshiner stereotypes. Evidence he produces throughout Corn From a Jar supports his argument that making, selling, and distributing corn liquor was “no different than making a jar of apple butter, and no less of a need.” Moonshiners were socially mobile, church-going people with a sharp eye for problem solving, uncommon resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit we’d envy today. With prohibition, moonshining exploded. Prices increased as demand grew, and some moonshiners altered their recipe by substituting sugar for corn. Pierce describes the variety of ways moonshiners “hacked” the process to meet market demand. Recently there’s been a moonshining renaissance thanks at least in part to a few notable figures, a History Channel documentary, and the State of Tennessee’s 200-mile auto tour replicating a bootlegging route. Changes in liquor laws also have made it legal to produce moonshine and other spirits as shown by the rise of companies such as Ole Smoky Distillery in Tennessee and Troy & Sons Distillers in North Carolina. The Great Smoky Mountains Association, a non-profit that supports Great Smoky Mountains National Park, published Corn From a Jar. GSMA’s publications, including this selection, are designed to enhance greater public understanding, enjoyment and appreciation of the national park. To purchase the book, visit shop.smokiesinformation.org.
SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
Whimsical folklore gets its due
“I thoroughly enjoyed the manuscript and said, ‘absolutely’,” NewhamCobb said. The book may not be as traditionally useful as the encyclopedia or dictionary, but it has its own purposes. “Maybe this is one of those books where you can look for your ‘totem animal’,” Carden said. “Pick one, say, like ‘Puke Buzzard’ and have it reproduced on a tee-shirt, complete with the definition of what a ‘Puke Buzzard’ is…. and does. Much of it is a projection of the whimsical theme in Appalachian folklore.” Carden’s introduction chronicles the existence of imagined creatures throughout history. “Wondrous monsters that are the imaginative embodiment of disparate parts and talents,” he writes. “There are fish with golden eyes that prophesy, men
Get a copy
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toryteller Gary Carden and illustrator Mandy Newham-Cobb have collaborated to bring Appalachia’s imaginary beasts to life in a humorous and creative book published this fall. “When I sent the book out the first time, a publisher promptly returned it with the comment, ‘You’ve got to be kidding’,” Carden said. “Eventually, I put in on the shelf. A year ago, I had a feeling that the world had changed and that I should try again.” Carden worked with the print shop at Western Carolina University—the university awarded Carden, an alumnus, with an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2008. Carden has been an advocate, promoter and presenter of traditional Southern Appalachian culture for more than 40 years through his critically acclaimed written and spoken performances. His body of work includes Mason Jars in the Flood and Other Stories, which won the 2001 Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year award. “Gary’s text and my illustrations met before we did,” Newham-Cobb said. The two connected with one another through Smoky Mountain Living when Newham-Cobb illustrated a piece for one of Carden’s articles. They began corresponding online, and Carden shared his Bestiary with Newham-Cobb and asked if she’d have an interest in illustrating the work.
challenges was to try to depict the best amalgam of each creature,” NewhamCobb said. Carden and Newham-Cobb worked together in a very modern way—emailing one another back and forth from North Carolina to Pennsylvania. “Gary’s a great writer so even his emails are fun to read and creatively crafted,” Newham-Cobb said. “I think we benefited from very complimentary working hours. I wake up, meditate, eat, then start drawing in the early morning hours. Gary is much more of a night owl. He’d email along feedback that I would read and respond to early the next morning.” The result is a work for those able to see the world as a place of wonder. “The Appalachian Bestiary can be used as a field guide of the silly and the strange and quite possibly could save your life,” Newham-Cobb said. “Should you happen across a massive nest of mystifying square eggs you might want to be on the lookout for the giant Galoopus eyeing you from above.”
The Appalachian Bestiary is available for purchase at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva—citylightsnc.com, 828.586.9499.
with the bodies of horses that instruct young heroes, and birds that pursue and punish the guilty. Such beings are undoubtedly immortal, for they are still with us, passing from Parnassus to Appalachia; from the forests of Germany to the Ozark hills.” Though imaginary, these creatures have a history. “It was fascinating following the folkevolution and variations of the beasts and seeing how the descriptions and accounts of these creatures have morphed over time and place, so one of the
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Michael Stinnett with the restored 1901 Lester Upright Piano.
d e p a r t m e n t :
MOUNTAIN ARTS
DONATED PHOTO
A SMALL SAMPLING OF LOCAL CREATIVITY Miya Gallery in Weaverville, N.C., is home to more than 80 artists from around the region working in a variety of media including leather, photography, glass, and fiber. Though somewhat small, the gallery is filled with truly unique works displaying artists’ senses of creativity and whimsy. Look particularly for the jewelry work of Laura Cardwell and Elizabeth Hake, pottery by Mary Mikkelsen and Henry Pope, and woodcuts by Nancy Darrell among other artists. The gallery is one stop along the Weaverville Art Safari, held Nov. 2-3. The Art Safari is a free, selfguided tour of artists’ home studios in the scenic area surrounding the villages of Weaverville and Barnardsville that has been held each spring and fall since 2001. For more information about the Art Safari, visit weavervilleartsafari.com.
Miya Gallery is one stop on the upcoming Weaverville Art Safari. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO
A VAGABOND THEATER GROUP TAKES ROOT IN A MAJOR WAY The Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theater of North Carolina, draws patrons to the tiny village and historic downtown Hendersonville with two theater stages featuring plays large and small. The barn-like appearance of the Mainstage facility is reminiscent of the theater group’s summer stock beginning
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Antique piano finds a higher calling Former Dollywood employee Michael Stinnett, now the owner of Antique Piano Shop in Friendsville, Tenn., has donated a 1901 Lester Victorian Upright Piano to replace the aging piano currently in use at the Dollywood chapel. Stinnett handpicked the piano specifically for use in the Robert F. Thomas Chapel. Antique Piano Shop restores and preserves antique pianos, organs and related musical instruments. The company’s staff includes technicians, historians, wood workers, artisans and pianists who have spent many years in the field of piano restoration, making it their lives’ work. Stinnett, along with his parents, once operated the Vintage Piano Works store inside Dollywood. The family maintained the store for several years, while regularly attending Dollywood’s church services every Sunday. Joey Buck, Dollywood Chaplain, began looking for an inexpensive replacement for the chapel’s old piano that was in need of much repair. After an extensive search, Buck’s options seemed to be exhausted. “I was at the end of the road, so I started searching on Google,” Buck said. “Michael’s webpage came up, and I found out he was a former Dollywood employee. He called me back and was elated to donate this piano.” Stinnet just knew donating the piano was the right thing to do. “I told him I had a perfect antique upright piano, one that would be historically correct for the period and décor of the chapel. I said Antique Piano Shop would restore and donate the piano to the chapel.” To keep the piano in working condition, it is has a climate control system installed inside to help preserve it.
but hosts productions throughout the year. October-November brings “Hank Williams: Lost Highway,” a musical biography of the legendary singersongwriter followed by “The Three Musketeers,” an adaptation of Alexander Dumas’ novel by the same name. Downtown, Disney’s “Mulan Jr.” comes to life through YouTheatre performers, followed by the holiday product “O Holy Night,” a musical adaptation of the classic Nativity Story.
SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
The Flat Rock Playhouse’s history began in 1937 when a group of struggling performers organized themselves as the Vagabond Players. The players were a roaming group that was forced to disband during World War II. After the war was over, they reorganized, grew, and by 1952 purchased the property on which the Flat Rock Playhouse was built. For more information, visit flatrockplayhouse.org or call 866.732.8008.
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d e p a r t m e n t :
MOUNTAIN CUISINE
Spreading the gospel of barbecue
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Tony Gore, a gospel singer turned restaurateur, has made a name for himself with barbecue—a half rack of ribs at his Smoky Mountain BBQ & Grill hangs off the plate, but don’t forget to leave room for cake. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTOS
ony Gore is a man who knows food. Raised on Southern cooking, Gore learned from his mother and grandmothers, opening his first restaurant in 2006—Tony Gore’s Smoky Mountain BBQ and Grill in Sevierville, Tenn. In an area where fast food and chain restaurants abound, Gore’s is a standout. The smell from the smoker in the restaurant’s wide, gravel parking lot, entices travelers along the four-lane highway bound for Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, but locals make this place a stop of their own. Baby back and St. Louis-style ribs are the specialty of the house. Even a half rack is a belt buster—though there’s a whole menu category dedicated to belt busting that features a choice of two, three, or four meats among St. Louis ribs, pork, brisket, smoked sausage, grilled or fried chicken tenders, and catfish, served with coleslaw and a side item. Here even the corn on the cob is fried and the baked beans loaded with smoked pork. All of the sauces, applied at the table and at will, are made in house.
But just inside the front door, a refrigerated, illuminated glass case is an instant attraction for even the most carnivorous, as long as he or she has got at least one sweet tooth in amongst the rest of the requisite gnashers and grinders. Cakes three layers high, veritable parthenons of buttercream, mandate saving room for dessert—or at the very least getting a piece to go for later. The recipes are said to be from Gore’s grandmother, bless her. Gore may have made a name for himself in the kitchen, but he had already gained fame as a gospel singer. He took up singing at age 14 and went on to form the group Tony Gore & Majesty. The first song the group released, “Thank God,” was a hit and “Meanwhile In The Garden” that followed went to No. 1 on the southern gospel charts. Gore went solo in 2002 and recently released “God’s Been Good.” He performs at his restaurant regularly during Dinner on the Grounds evenings, held most Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Nov. 1 brings Lulu Roman of Hee Haw fame, and Nov. 4 is the monthly Music Meal & Memories “featuring a full concert with Tony Gore along with his bountiful lunch buffet” for $20. Admission includes the concert, meal, drink, and tax. Tony Gore’s is located at 1818 Winfield Dunn Parkway (Highway 66), 865.429.7771.
CULINARY COMPETITION CROWNS ‘BEST CHEF’ The Asheville Food and Wine Festival, sponsored this year by EDISON—The Grove Park Inn’s newest bar and restaurant venue—crowned Tomato Jam Café’s Chef Daniel Wright the Best Chef in Western North Carolina this August. Wright earned the title by besting his competition beginning in February, first going to battle with Chef April Moon of Sunny Point Café, moving on to beat Chef Dan Moore of DoubleTree Catering, and capturing the semi-final win against Zambra’s Chef Steven Goff. The Food and Wine Festival’s finals pitted Wright against Chef Anthony Cerrato of Strada. The two chefs were tasked with using Sunburst Trout Farm’s smoked trout, trout fillets, and trout caviar in a three-course meal. Much like his win in the semi-finals, Wright clinched the competition with dessert—a Polenta shortcake with tart berry compote and caviar whipped cream that was named the judges’ favorite dish overall. Diners looking to get a taste of something great will find Wright at the tiny, tucked away Tomato Jam Café from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday at 379 Biltmore Ave. For more information, visit tomatojamcafe.com or call 828.253.0570.
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Chef Daniel Wright’s semi-final winning Creamed Corn Pudding with Roasted Corn Shortbread Cookie and Butterscotch Whipped Cream. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO
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Spicy Hummus 1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans (chick peas) 1 clove garlic 1 Serrano pepper, minced Juice of 1 lemon 2 tbsp parsley, chopped 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup good olive oil Salt, pepper
info:
To learn more, visit easttennesseepbs.org.
In food processor, chop the garlic. Add beans and Serrano pepper. Continue blending to a pulp, adding lemon juice as you go. Drizzle oil in a little at a time, allowing the bean paste to absorb the oil. Season with salt, pepper and the fresh herbs. Serve with pita chips, carrot and celery sticks.
Savory Corn Cakes 4 ears fresh yellow corn, kernels removed (or 8 oz frozen corn kernels) 1 large egg 3 tbsp self-rising flour 1 tbsp milk 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt Pinch each of black pepper, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder.
International flavor in East Tennessee
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ood-lovers’ travelogue, “A Fork in the Road with Chef Garrett,” features the charismatic Irishman exploring East Tennessee’s culinary landscape. A production of East Tennessee PBS based in Knoxville, the program made its broadcast debut in April 2013. The show’s first six episodes, made with support from Visit Knoxville, document Tennessee’s thriving and inventive food culture as Chef Garrett Scanlan chats with restaurant chefs while they prepare their signature dishes. Each episode concludes with Garrett returning to his home kitchen to whip up a dish that his travels have inspired. Scanlan has more than 30 years of experience cooking in some of the world’s finest kitchens. Born in Dublin into a family of restaurateurs, Scanlan began working in his father’s restaurant while still in grade school. This early taste of the chef’s life led to a formal apprenticeship in the culinary arts in Ireland, England, Spain, Switzerland and France. He has lived in the United States since 1978. Highlights from “A Fork in the Road” include downtown Knoxville’s historic Bistro at the Bijou, South Knoxville’s legendary Ye Olde Steakhouse, new farm-totable eateries The Plaid Apron and Knox Mason, Farragut fixture The Irish Times, Sevierville’s catch-your-own English Mountain Trout Farm and Townsend’s gourmet Dancing Bear Lodge. An episode featuring Bristol, Tennessee, and Virginia is in production. The show airs at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays on East Tennessee PBS and at 6 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays on the Tennessee Channel. WWW.SMLIV.COM
Place half the corn kernels in a food processor and blend to a pulp. Add flour, egg, milk, baking powder and seasonings. Pulse until a thick batter forms. Fold in the remaining whole kernels. Allow batter to sit at least one hour. Stir to reincorporate all ingredients before cooking. If batter is too thin, add a touch more flour to reach a pourable but not runny consistency. Use a soup spoon to portion batter into tiny, appetizer size pancakes on a lightly oiled skillet heated to medium-high. Cook 2-3 minutes on first side; flip and cook another minute. Cool cakes 2-3 minutes before topping with sour cream and pico de gallo. Optional: top with grilled shrimp.
Pico de Gallo Finely dice 1/3 cup each red onion, green and red bell pepper, ripe tomato. Stir in one small, diced Serrano pepper, 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, juice of 1 lime. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Get Real! Cocke County, Tennessee
For your next “Real” Smoky Mountain adventure, give us a holler! 78-09
yallvisitthesmokies.com 423.625.9675
41st Annual National Storytelling Festival OCT. 4 - 6 Jonesborough Chili Cook Off OCT. 13 Jonesborough Theatre presents Rapunzel/Rumpelstiltskin OCT. 25 - NOV. 3 Bluegrass Series Concert OCT. 19 Fine Art in the Park OCT. 19 & 20 Journeys of Women Art Exhibit OCT. 19 - NOV. 2 Halloween Haunts & Happenings NOV. 1 32nd Annual Holiday Craft Show & Sale NOV. 8 & 9 * LIVE STORYTELLING CONCERTS WEEKLY
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VISIT
Eastern Tennessee
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SEQUOYAH BIRTHPLACE MUSEUM Highway 360 • Vonore, TN 423-884-6246 Located in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennesseeon the shores of beautiful Tellico Lake, 37 miles south of downtown Knoxville.
Open Year-Round Mon-Sat 9-5 Sun Noon-5 Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day
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Troy Powell Artistic Director Ailey II. Photo Eduardo Patino, NYC.
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Trading on its Name
The Barter Theatre Still Makes Room for Community B Y PA U L C L A R K
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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
JASON BARNETTE PHOTO
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uring the Depression, actor Robert Porterfield compared the lack of work in New York City theaters with the abundance of produce in his southwestern Virginia home and thus made history. Porterfield gathered up 22 other unemployed New York actors, returned to Abingdon, and opened a theater of his own. Admission was 35 cents or its comparable value in vegetables—or meat, or milk, or whatever farmers had more of than they had opportunity to sell. “With vegetables you cannot sell, you can buy a good laugh,” was the saying. Actors often had to recite lines over bellowing livestock tied in the back of the theater. “A pig was worth ten tickets, while two quarts of milk bought one ticket,” the online Encyclopedia of Virginia states. For years, the town jail was beneath the stage—another distraction, no doubt. But Barter Theatre’s ability to adapt to the economic times made it unique. “…bartering was more than just a gimmick; it was essential to the theater’s initial success,” the Virginia encyclopedia states. “During the depression years, regional and local theater groups around the country struggled to survive and many failed. Outside funding and grants were largely nonexistent, and the rights to many popular plays were prohibitively expensive for small companies. The Barter was able to survive and eventually even thrive by making its productions accessible to audiences.” At the end of its first season, its “ham for Hamlet” campaign netted the theatre $4.25 and two barrels of jelly. Actors had gained a collective 300 pounds. Richard Rose, Barter’s longtime artistic director, is a repository of Barter history. “There were a few seasons at the beginning of the theater’s history when they weighed its success—and I mean this literally—by one actor,” he said. This actor weighed about 110 pounds at the beginning of each season, but depending on the season’s success, he’d weigh about 180 pounds by the end. The theater’s success has earned it the title of Virginia’s State Theater, and over the years the theater has provided work for actors including Hume Cronyn, Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, Ernest Borgnine, Kevin Spacey, Ned Beatty, Larry Linville and Wayne Knight. Playwrights Noel Coward, Tennessee Williams, and Thornton Wilder accepted Virginia hams as payment for their work (playwright George Bernard Shaw, a vegetarian, held out for spinach). The Barter, is to American theater what AAA baseball is to the major leagues—one step away from the big time. Among theater professionals and aficionados like Jimmie and Roy Harris, 36
Barter is as heavy a hitter as the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. The Harrises live in Hendersonville, N.C., but think nothing of driving the two hours to catch a play at Barter Theatre. They make a point of supporting local theater productions and live near North Carolina’s own state theater, the Flat Rock Playhouse. The couple holds Barter’s productions as among the best they’ve seen. “I would stack it up against anything we saw at The Old Globe (theater) in San Diego or the Utah Shakespeare Festival,” Jimmie said. Or particular appeal is the Barter’s integration into the Abingdon community. One morning, Jimmie spotted actor Rick McVey in Zazzy’z, a coffee house downtown. McVey, a Barter resident actor since 2004, played the character Javert in the company’s production of “Les Miserables” that the Harrises had seen the night before. Mrs. Harris walked over to his table. “I said ‘we thought you were wonderful,’
“I would stack it up against anything we saw at The Old Globe (theater) in San Diego or the Utah Shakespeare Festival.” — Jimmie Harris
and he stopped what he was doing and engaged in conversation with us,” she said. “It was very exciting.” “All you have to do is express a little interest in the actors, and they love to talk about what they do,” her husband, Roy, said. The theater building itself was erected in 1830 and is one of many that line Abingdon’s Main Street alongside antebellum-era houses in shades of brick red, orange, and gold. Much of Abingdon’s downtown was built before the Civil War, and the town wears its history proudly. Built in 1770, The Tavern, a bar and restaurant crowned with a heavy thatch of emerald green moss, welcomed Kentucky’s acclaimed politician and lawyer Henry Clay, the United States’ seventh president Andrew Jackson, and Louis-Philippe, Duke d’Orléans, king of the French, among others. Among the most notable buildings in AbingSMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
don’s 20-block historic district is The Martha, the local name for The Martha Washington Inn and Spa. Gen. Francis Preston, a hero of the War of 1812, built the inn as a home for his family in 1832. The home’s great size led to its repurposing, including as a women’s college and a residence hall for Barter actors. Before the Civil War, the Sons of Temperance, an exclusive men’s club, owned the Barter building. During the war, The Martha was pressed into service as a hospital for wounded soldiers; a tunnel beneath the street connected it to the Sons of Temperance building. The tunnel was used for many things in its day—a soldier caught smuggling ammunition out of the inn’s basement was executed inside the tunnel. It’s been said that an eerie presence troubled theater employees who later used the tunnel to walk from the inn to the theater. Big, burly tech guys who wrestled theater lights and other heavy equipment refused to go down there. As a result, the door in the basement of The Barter that leads to the tunnel has remained closed since the 1940s—not just shut but boarded up. The story is one of many in The Barter’s repertoire. “Throughout the theater industry over the last four or five years, there’s been lots of conversation about storytelling—theater is really about telling stories,” said Rose, the theater’s artistic director. “We discovered that 15 years ago, because that’s what our region is into. The culture of this region is that, if you sit on anyone’s porch, they’ll tell you stories for hours. We must engage our audience in the story.” The Barter has indeed proven its ability to engage the audience—it is one of Abingdon’s largest employers and a key player in the town’s $160-million, tourist economy. The Barter is as much a part of Abingdon as the town is a part of the theater. Abingdon wouldn’t be the same without Barter, said Lindsey Holderfield, education director for the William King Museum located about a mile from the theater. “People come for a show and spend the weekend,” she said. The draw benefits other attractions like the museum, Virginia’s only accredited museum west of Roanoke, which attracts world-class shows with works by Degas, Monet, and Delacroix among others, as well as regional artists. Barter visitors also go to places like the Arts Depot, a gallery inside the town’s old train station and support restaurants like Zazzy’z, 128 Pecan, Babycakes Cupcakery, and Wild Flower Bakery and Gourmet Restaurant. There’s the Tastes of the Town Tour, a progressive food tour, and the Virginia Creeper Trail, an old railroad line turned into a 34-mile path between Abingdon and Damascus, Va. Every
Thursday night, the Abingdon Music Experience brings bands to Abingdon Market Pavilion, which holds the acclaimed Abingdon Farmers Market on Saturdays and Tuesdays. Barter patrons comprise half of the people who visit Hidden Memories Antiques on Main Street, owner Daniel Shew said. He makes frames for the headshots of actors in the theater’s lobby and sees many of the plays there with his wife. He proposed to her by the fountain across from the theater. “When I’m out of town and people ask me where I’m from, all I have to say is The Barter, and they know exactly where I’m from,” he said. “Because of The Barter, people associate Abingdon with creatively and class.” Theater founder Robert Porterfield, who died in 1971, kept extensive records of the theater. In his memoirs, he wrote, “The impossible came and went. Barter Theatre took root, survived the first season, the second season, the Depression, the tornado, the Board of Education. It survived the people who have given the southern Mountains the name of the Bible Belt. … I’m hanging on to ... the hope that Barter Theatre will prove to be more than bricks and mortar, and that what it is will outlast me and my generation, perhaps even the next generation and the one after that. I don’t know what new directions the theatre will take.” The Barter’s mission has evolved to include community outreach and working to undo the notion of Appalachia as just a bunch of hillbillies and moonshiners. The theater has developed shows around the work of musicians Ralph Stanley, Jimmy Rogers and the Carter family. Its Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, a series of free readings of new plays, gives voice to the stories and playwrights of the Appalachia region, and the annual Young Playwrights Festival attracts more than 120 plays high school students in northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and West Virginia have written. The Barter Players, a group of young theater professionals that tours the East Coast, travel to some of the poorest parts of the country, such as inner-city Washington, D.C., to perform for free or at reduced rates. During student matinees, there is no admission charge for children on schools’ free lunch programs, an economic decision that underscores The Barter’s historic commitment to making theater accessible to everyone.
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Located on nine pastoral acres and designed for privacy and relaxation, we’re less than five minutes from the Barter Theatre, Virginia Creeper Trail, shopping, dining and most everything else that historic Abingdon, Virginia has to offer.
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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
The town's historic district dates back to its founding in 1778 when Daniel Boone first named it Wolf Hills. PAUL CLARK PHOTO Known simply as “The Martha,” Abingdon's famous inn was used as a hospital during the Civil War. SARAH E. KUCHARSKI PHOTO
The Barter Theatre holds a prominent place on Abingdon’s Main Street. PAUL CLARK PHOTO
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Resident actor Michael Poisson (above left) has been with The Barter since 2001, and Erin Parker (above right) hails from southern Illinois. Resident actress Hannah Ingram and Pat McRoberts (right) starred in The Barter Theatre production of “Les Misérables.” THE BARTER THEATRE PHOTOS Richard Rose (below) is The Barter Theatre’s artistic director and a repository of theater history. PAUL CLARK PHOTO
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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
4HE CURTAIN RISES ON ANOTHER DAY
IN HISTORIC ABINGDON. (/7 7),, 9/5 30%.$ )4 #ATCH A PERFORMANCE AT
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The Barter has its own residential group of actors, theater professionals who are eager to stay in a city for more than the run of a single play or season. “We call ourselves the farm team for the big leagues; although these days, the resident company members come here and want to stay here forever,” Rose said. “I literally had a New York agent tell me they’re not sending anyone to my auditions any more because when they get down here, they don’t want to leave.” Some actors have been at Barter for more than 20 years. As a result, loyal Barter patrons get to see actors grow as professionals. The Harrises mentioned one actress, Mary Lucy Bivins, who they’d seen in “The Gin Game.” “She played this very mousy character, a frumpy old lady,” Jimmie Harris said, and then, marveling at Bivins’ versatility, Harris lit up as she described the brash self-importance that Bivins brought to her role as the busybody family friend in the hilarious Southern send-up “Southern Fried Funeral.” “A good actor can make acting look easy, but when you see an actor over and over in different plays, as you can at Barter, you realize what a skill it is,” Jimmie said. “I look at acting very differently now than before I got involved with
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the actors themselves.” “I hate to say it this way, because it’s a terrible way to describe it, but it does describe it. (We represent) the best of community theater in terms of the audience watching actors grow and caring about that,” Rose said. “We’ve really branded that for us—(the audience’s) being surprised by an actor that’s been here for 20 years doing something that they think, ‘I never even knew she could do that or even thought he could do that’.” While a resident actor stays with a theater and takes on various parts, a journeyman actor travels the country, moves wherever the part moves. As a journeyman, Paris Bradstreet, an ensemble player in The Bartner’s summer production of “Les Miserables,” constantly is on the move with her trusty Toyota Matrix that she can pack “like a Tetris puzzle,” she said. To be at Barter, in one place, doing what she loved, for several months running, was fabulous—and had made Bradstreet hope to sign on with Barter. “It’s a beautiful place to live and work. They treat you well,” she said. She looked off into the trees that surrounded the former nurses quarters that The Barter had turned into actors’ quarters. “It’s an amazing
SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
idea to think that there’s a place interested in cultivating a resident company,” she said. “Audiences have a relationship with the actors, having seen them in a multitude of shows. Whether they know them or not, they feel like they know them. And there’s something very proprietarily family about audience members returning to see actors they know.” Living up to its name and origins, The Barter still trades. On “Barter Nights,” done at least three times a year, a ticket’s worth of canned goods for the local food bank is as good as money to get in. Every year someone or some group brings something other than cash. Rose remembers the season three or four years ago when each member of a church group from a poor region of West Virginia brought honey from their hives. Another group brought cakes. The theater’s complete leather-bound collection of Shakespeare works came to it through trade. “You’re talking about a region of the country that, overall, is a way poorer than lots of regions of the country,” Rose said of southwest Virginia. “Our goal is to never lock anyone out of the theater for any reason.”
Upturn. Downturn. Your Turn.
Some things never change. You watched while frenzied buyers purchased elsewhere at historic highs. You waited while the market inevitably made corrections. Through it all, the mountains never changed. And the things that drew over 500 families to Echota remained the same. Timeless mountain views. Exceptional value. Debt-free, resort-style amenities in the heart of the High Country. You watched. You waited. And now it’s your turn to enjoy Echota. Beautiful today. Beautiful tomorrow.
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133 Echota Parkway, Boone, NC 800.333.7601
EchotaNC.com Call or stop in today to arrange a tour.
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Rob “Hound Dog” Baskerville of blues outfit The King Bees says his professions as musician and bus driver are a good fit: “Working musicians have to love to drive, first of all, because it comes with the territory.” ANNA OAKES PHOTO
Balancing Life’s Checkbook The tradeoffs of doing what you love and doing what you must BY ANNA OAKES
Some folks do what they love and just happen to get paid for it—like that guy whose full-time job is to guide students on outdoor recreation excursions for the university, and that couple that runs a bed and breakfast in Maui. We all know a few…they’re those people. And some of us harbor an unbridled resentment toward them. There are those who believe that if they do what they love, the universe will provide, while for others, it’s not that simple, and finding their life’s path has been a matter of negotiating the tradeoffs of necessity and desire, work and play, and duty and freedom. 44
THE JOURNEY TO SELF-SUPPORTING ARTIST “I finally—at the age of forty-eight—said, ‘It’s now or never’,” said folk artist Amy Campbell of Maryville, Tenn., moments after placing a cobbler in the oven, explaining her decision to leave her job as a college fine art professor to pursue art full time. “It’s only been the last four years, really the last year and a half, that I’ve solely supported myself on my art,” Campbell said. “I’m not making a great living, and it’s really hard, and not nearly the money. It’s been definitely a lot of sacrifice in order to do what I love. I’ve been at this for about 25 years.” Although Campbell’s primary tool of her trade is a paintbrush, she views her role as one of a storyteller. Her artist statement best describes her work: “Pulling mainly from musicians, authors, and politicians of the Southeast, her folk portraits revisit and preserve the memories of lives colorfully lived.” Earlier this year, Berea College in Kentucky
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festivals, such as Merlefest— the bluegrass festival in Wilkesboro, N.C., that Doc Watson started—where her warm personality and artworks that showcase her talent, sass, and whimsy draw in customers. Some choose Campbell’s ready-made works, others place custom orders, and others still just get a kick reading her small-handpainted signs with slogans such as, “Lard, help!” But it wasn’t help Campbell needed when she left a decadelong teaching career to become a full-time artist, as much as it was grit, which she’s got. “It was a scary decision, but I was pretty confident in it,” Amy reflects. “I just had to do it.”
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featured Campbell’s “The Nerve of Her,” an exhibit of women’s portraits—women who were pioneers is country, rock, bluegrass, and traditional music, from Mother Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton. The works were gritty, made of paint, and wood, and recycled materials. “I don’t want it to look fancy,” Campbell said. “It’s not a pretty thing behind glass—it’s something really approachable.” Campbell, who also hosts a radio show of bluegrass and old-time music on WDVX, says it’s important to recognize artists’ historic achievements that paved the way for others. “I’m real interested, when people cover those tunes, to remember the people who initially did it [so they can be] given their just reward for having such nerve,” she said. Campbell’s journey to doing the work she truly loves rarely ventured outside of the artistic realm, but the tasks didn’t always suit her. The child of an art teacher, she grew up drawing and studied at an art college, originally aiming to be a fashion illustrator. In her first job at a department store, Campbell says, “I found out that the world of advertising was shallow, and I wasn’t like that. I don’t really want to push things on people.” Campbell made ends meet through freelance gigs illustrating books, CD covers, and posters, eventually obtaining a master’s degree in graphic design and picking up skills in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, “a great, great blessing to me,” she noted. Campbell’s folk portraits reach patrons across the country with the aid of social media, her website tennesseefolkart.com, and visits to area
A RETURN TO YOUTH’S LOVE TO RETIRE HAPPY Over the phone, it’s easy to mistake Pat Gleeson for a thirty-something thrill-seeking adventure fiend, working at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City, N.C. Pat, however, is pushing sixty—an energetic and enthusiastic sixty that revels in his new gig. It helps, of course, that Pat’s office is on the Nantahala River, a recreation destination for whitewater rafting, fishing, kayaking, and other activities. Since January he has been vice president for sales for the NOC, a guide and outfitter business, after leaving a sales position with Comcast in Atlanta. “I’ve been in the media business for a long, long time,” Gleeson said. “A unique set of circumstances…allowed me to transition.” Early in his life, Gleeson worked as a fishing guide in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota. “Then I had to get serious, so I went in the restaurant business,” he said. He ended up in the advertising field—where he has remained since 1980—first in billboards, then starting his own billboard company, then selling that billboard company to a larger group in Atlanta and going to work for them. Next came sales positions in the radio business, followed by the job with Comcast, where he spent the past 10 years running the cable company’s sales division. “But the one thing that never sort of left me was a belief system and passion around the outdoors,” Gleeson said. “Every non-working moment that I could, I tried to develop that, and I became a real avid fly-fisherman.” He fished the waters of north Georgia, North Carolina, and Montana, and each year led the company trip to Colorado. “I just kept coming back to North Carolina,” he said. One day in church, Gleeson, who traveled 42 weeks a year, was battling severe jet lag when a man approached him. The man remembered Gleeson was a fly-fisherman and asked him to visit an operation in Western North Carolina—the NOC. “Last October 4, [2012,] I took the red eye back from Salt Lake City, ran home, took a shower, got in my Subaru, and drove up here,” Gleeson said. “Christmas night they offered me a job.” Now, instead of hawking commercial space, Gleeson’s offerings include rafting operations on East Tennessee folk artist Amy Campbell poses with a portrait of William Scott, the first black mayor of Maryville, Tenn. Campbell not long ago left her job as a college art professor to pursue art full time. DONATED
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“Like any other business, there are problems and challenges, but they’re all fun problems, and they’re all fun challenges.” — Pat Gleeson, sales VP at Nantahala Outdoor Center
Pat Gleeson recently traded the cable airwaves for the rapids of the Smoky Mountains, joining the Nantahala Outdoor Center as director of sales after 10 years with Comcast in Atlanta. DONATED
seven different rivers, the largest paddling school in the United States, two large aerial adventures, camping, hiking, biking, and training in orienteering, wilderness survival, and swift water rescue. “If you think about all those products that I get to represent now, I’m just amped up,” Gleeson said. But he readily admits he never hated any of his previous jobs. “I’ve always been really, really blessed to never have to sell anything that I really didn’t like or that I really didn’t believe in,” he said. “What did I trade? Not being in traffic for two hours. Not being able to go to the gym to some goofball class—instead I just take a hike with my job, or on lunch break, I get on the river and get my fly rod out.” Gleeson, who says this post will take him through the rest of his life, also plans to become a raft guide and obtain his CDL license. “I’ve never been a guy that worries about money; money will take care of itself,” he said. “Like any other business, there are problems and challenges, but they’re all fun problems, and they’re all fun challenges.” 46
ON THE ROAD TO PERFECT BALANCE Entertainment write-ups on Rob “Hound Dog” Baskerville and wife Penny “Queen Bee” Zamagni’s band, The King Bees, rarely fail to mention the anomaly of a blues band in the North Carolina High Country, where bluegrass and old-time reign supreme. It can’t be easy eking out a living as a blues musician in Doc Watson’s backyard, but Baskerville feels he’s found the perfect combo in his dual persona: bus driver by day, rocker by night. The King Bees are no amateur act, and to Baskerville, playing the blues is no hobby. After forming in 1987, The King Bees hit the road to apprentice under the world’s greatest blues musicians, sitting in and backing up such titans as Bo Diddley, Tinsley Ellis, Billy Branch, Mojo Buford, Big Jack Johnson and Ronnie Earl. They spent years on the road with legends such as Jerry McCain and Chicago Bob Nelson. In the process of honing their own sound, they hit the road on countless tours, from American juke joints to SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
European festivals to prestigious concert halls. Baskerville is recognized as a Blue Ridge National Heritage Area artist, and each September he and Zamagi produce their labor of love, the New River Blues Festival in Jefferson, N.C., showcasing the region’s smokin’ singers and musicians. And since he was a college student, Baskerville has driven for AppalCART, the Boone, N.C., area public transit authority. “My bosses have always been supportive and flexible,” he said, on the phone from the Charlotte airport en route to a recording session. In the past, Baskerville has twice quit his job to go on extended tours and was rehired upon his return. “I’m sober, relatively dependable, and don’t crash buses,” he said with a laugh. Baskerville, in fact, finds his two chosen professions to be each other’s ideal complement: “Working musicians have to love to drive, first of all, because it comes with the territory,” he said. In mid-August, Baskerville had just finished up two gigs in Connecticut, with the Blues Fest to follow the next weekend, a date in Georgia the next week and a trip to England planned this fall. “Blues musicians— you go where the work is,” he noted. “It’s always thinking weeks ahead.” Years ago, The King Bees played more than 200 dates a year, but these days, the band has pared the annual schedule down to about 100 gigs, which suits Baskerville just fine. “I was younger then,” he said. “I just turned 50. I’m at the point of finding that balance. There’s only so much Waffle House you want to eat.” But Baskerville, who earned a degree in anthropology, said he would never trade in his career as a working blues musician for a more stable 9-to-5. “No, that would drive me completely crazy,” he said. “I could have done probably something different, but I would not be happy. I would much rather work long hours and have some independence and some control over what my life is.”
“I’m at the point of finding that balance. There’s only so much Waffle House you want to eat.” — Rob “Hound Dog” Baskerville, blues musician
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MAPPING OUT A NEW COURSE Coleen Miller’s career as a travel agent carried her all over the planet to new and exotic corners of the world. Her love of travel was nurtured at a young age, when her grandparents toured the Caribbean and South America. On school vacations, she would ship out to whichever tropical locale her grandparents happened to be visiting. “When I got to high school and the guidance counselor said, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up,’ I knew,” Miller said. But being in the travel industry, Miller grew weary of spending so much time away from home. “I always had a suitcase packed,” she explains. “I probably worked 50, sometimes 60 hours a week, every week. If I was escorting a group, I had to be the first one up in the morning and the last one to bed at night.” And then, several years ago, an earth-shaking family event triggered a shift in Miller’s worklife paradigm. “My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s while she was still working at the age of 65,” Miller said. “My mother never got to enjoy retirement. She was robbed of what could have been a much longer life. It scared me into quitting my 9-to-5 job and concentrating more on making each day more precious.” Miller doesn’t regret her years in the travel biz, but she said, “I’d rather stay home now. Life is too short to work until you’re dead.” Around the same time, Miller and her husband Ross found it increasingly difficult to afford to live in New York state, home to their families for generations. One week’s worth of Miller’s monthly salary went solely to gas expenses. The couple decided to move to the South and four years ago relocated to Powell, Tenn., northwest of Knoxville. Ross kept his job as an auto glass technician while Miller began her retirement, though she still books trips from time to time. But Ross also has a secondary career— carving wood sculptures, typically of bears and other animals, fashioned by chainsaws and other tools. The passion began as a hobby 20 years ago when, as a carpenter often laid off during New York winters, he couldn’t afford to buy Christmas gifts for family members. He started carving small wooden crafts for presents. Seven years ago he picked up the craft again. The first few of these larger sculptures
Ross and Coleen Miller create a Christmas card photo from their home and studio in East Tennessee, highlighting Ross’ wood sculptures and Coleen’s barn quilt squares. DONATED
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again were destined to be gifts, but then, after moving to Tennessee, Ross sold a piece of his art for the first time. “It felt awesome. Really great. I couldn’t believe that I had found something that people valued enough to be willing to pay for it, to purchase it, and that I actually liked doing it,” Ross said. “I never had a job that I loved. I did jobs that I had to do because I had to make a living. Ross spends an hour or two each day and most Saturdays carving. In addition, he volunteers for a “10 and 2” furlough program at work, which gives him two months off in the summer to dedicate to his craft and work his home garden. A lust for detail precludes him from making great profits on his works, each of which take between 20 and upwards of 80 hours to complete. Most of the money made from sales of his sculptures is reinvested in his equipment and tools. “Eventually I am going to retire and go full time with carving,” he said.
While looking for ways to promote Ross’ work, Miller discovered the Appalachian Quilt Trail, a program that supports heritage arts and agritourism through self-guided trails of old barns and other buildings that display colorful quilt squares. She endeavored to paint her own quilt square for display, which would earn her husband’s studio (and their home) a stop on the trail map. But there was only one problem: “We say in our family that we didn’t get the painting gene,” Miller said, with a laugh. Nevertheless, Miller was inspired to recreate a pattern from a tattered quilt her grandmother made her in the ‘70s: “I felt terrible that it was just packed away in a box.” Now, the piece of art gives Miller a “double pleasure:” “Not only do people come here to see the barn quilt, but every time I pull in my driveway now, I think of my grandmother.” Today, she paints custom quilt squares for sale at any size. No barn? No problem. She’s even created a square small enough for a doghouse.
“Life is too short to work until you’re dead.”
— Coleen Miller, travel agent-turned-barn quilt artist
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Sitting Pretty WINDSOR CHAIR MAKER CARVES HIS NICHE BY JO HARRIS
Curtis Buchanan sits astride a shaving horse as he shapes stock with a drawknife, his favorite tool. JO HARRIS PHOTO
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T
ucked away in a backyard in the heart of Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town, sits a 16x20foot timber-framed cabin. On the porch, a weathered hammock sways like a lullaby in the mellow breeze. A spotted skipper flutters amber wings as it darts through a patch of black-eyed Susans then flits off toward the side yard where two curious goats eyeball visitors.
do from home. It wouldn’t require a lot of expensive tools— he wasn’t broke, but close to it—and if he was going to produce something, he needed a ready source of relatively inexpensive materials, as was wood in the Southern Appalachian mountains. In the coming months, long before e-mails and nationwide calling plans, Buchanan and Sawyer, who lived in Vermont, corresponded by letter and infrequent phone calls. At one point Sawyer wrote, “Your questions are becoming too complex. You need to come to Vermont!” Buchanan scraped together the money and went to Vermort for one week—his only formal training to date. Buchanan heads to the workshop around 7 a.m. and calls it a day eleven hours later, though he readily admits to two-hour lunch breaks, with a nap if he’s lucky, and he takes off weekends. His chairs, barstools, rockers, and settees are in high
This little slice of country in the middle of downtown could be the perfect guest quarters, writer’s retreat, or artist’s studio, but it is neither. This is the workshop of a talented artisan. It’s where Curtis Buchanan has spent nearly three decades handcrafting Windsor chairs from high-quality logs he personally selects. As a testament to Buchanan’s expertise, his classic, heirloom-quality chairs have found homes in the permanent collection at the Tennessee State Museum and the Governor’s Mansion in Nashville, Tenn., the Southern Highlands Craft Guild in Asheville, N.C., and in Virginia at Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. Most of the tools Buchanan uses—a remarkably small number—as well as the skills he applies, are rooted in centuries-old cultures. Even the Bible speaks of woodworking tools like the ones Buchanan handles as deftly as if another appendage. Buchanan’s tools of the trade (clockwise top, left to right) adze, drawknife, plane, spoke His smooth, confident strokes plane a block of shave, mallet, brace, froe, scorp (center). Below: a Contemporary Windsor chair created by Curtis Buchanan. JO HARRIS PHOTO (ABOVE) • PHOTO COURTESY OF DOUG THOMPSON (BELOW) Eastern white pine. With each pass of the hand tool, there’s a protracted skritch as paper-thin strips of wood peel away and drop to the floor, forming a nest of coils. Buchanan’s chairs take from one to four weeks, depending on the design’s complexity. “I never keep up with the time invested in any project. I know that’s contrary to good business practices, but it’s not the paperwork I like, it’s the craft,” he said. Buchanan was a history major, but his calling was altogether different. “All I knew when I finished college, was that I didn’t want a real job,” Buchanan said. “I grew up around hardware stores and people who fixed whatever was broken. I picked up some basic carpentry jobs here and there, but this, I don’t know, maybe it was destiny that put me here.” In the early 1980s, two things happened that changed Buchanan’s life and inspired his passion for all things Windsor: he met Windsor chair maker Dave Sawyer at a — Curtis Buchanan country workshop in Western North Carolina, and he saw his first drawknife, still his favorite tool. Making chairs was something Buchanan realized he could
“I make chairs for
others, but they’re a byproduct of my passion; the traditional way I make them is for no one but me.”
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Windsor Chairs: taking a seat in history
A continuous arm chair (left) and a Bird Cage Windsor (top) created by Curtis Buchanan. PHOTOS COURTESY OF DOUG THOMPSON
demand—so much so that he’s got an eightmonth backlog. From splitting logs with wedge and sledge, insuring straight wood fibers and exceptional strength, to the controlled split called riving—using adze, froe, and mallet—to the detailed finishing, the work is often physically taxing and always labor-intensive, but shortcuts are not an option. “I make chairs for others, but they’re a by-product of my passion; the traditional way I make them is for no one but me,” Buchanan said. Buchanan hardly is a man to rest on his Windsor. He’s active in the farmer’s market 52
As early as the 16th century, wheelwrights were making chair spindles along with spokes for buggies and spinning wheels, but It is unclear when the first Windsor chairs were made. Some historians believe the first chairs were shipped to London from the market town of Windsor, Berkshire, in the early 1700s. By the 18th century, steam-bending was being used to produce the Windsor’s most distinguishing element—its characteristic “bow.” A popular legend maintains that Britain’s King George III spotted a Windsor chair in a subject’s home and later ordered his carpenters to duplicate it for the Windsor Castle. The style likely was introduced in America when Patrick Gordon, who left London in 1726 to assume the lieutenant governorship of Pennsylvania, brought five Windsors with him. Regardless of its genesis, most agree the classic, delicate-looking but sturdy Windsor, with its spindles, crests and bows, and its back and legs pushed into drilled holes, is more about style than origin.
that he co-founded in 2006. He writes articles on woodworking, makes instructional videos, and is an avid gardener. He’s also responsible for converting the family Christmas tree farm into the first in the nation to be USDA Certified Organic. Buchanan also teaches his craft through seven classes of three students each per year. Each student pays $1,500 for the chance to learn from one of the best, a role Buchanan takes seriously, guiding the students through the entire chair-making process over the course of a week. “Classes start at 8 a.m. and last until
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6 p.m. Sometimes I’ll even keep the shop open later if a student wants to continue working,” he said. The specialized skill required for turning the chair’s decorative legs on a lathe, plus time constraints, demands that Buchanan also provide pre-formed legs. “No two pieces of wood are alike,” Buchanan said. “There are great variations in color, density, stability, drying capacity, and hardness. I teach the students what woods work best, how to select a log, lay it out and split it, using all traditional tools.” Buchanan uses woods’ natural properties for each chair, choosing among
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“All I knew when I finished college was that I didn’t want a real job.” — Curtis Buchanan
Curtis Buchanan (above) uses steady hands as he works on his unique, personal design—a contemporary Windsor. Windsor Castle: Curtis Buchanan’s workshop is tucked away in his Jonesborough, Tenn., backyard (below). JO HARRIS PHOTOS
hickory, oak or ash, which split easily and become pliable enough to bend after steaming, along with maple for legs and pine for seats. To work on a chair is to become intimately acquainted with it. Students sit astride shaving horses in which wood is held in place by a foot-operated vise thus freeing both hands to use a drawknife, a two-handled knife that cuts away excess wood, on a spindle for example, as it is pulled toward the user. Students learn the steaming process and how to bend damp wood around forms to achieve a permanent curve when the wood dries. Additional hand tools further shape and define individual pieces. “And that’s just day two!” Buchanan said. 54
By mid-week, students finally get to take a seat—or at least make one. Again in the interest of time, Buchanan offers pre-flattened pine boards, but he always demonstrates
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proper technique during class. After the initial shaping, spindle and leg holes are bored into the seat with a brace and auger bit, and the seats are carved—often into a saddle-like design for exceptional comfort. Buchanan tries to instill in each student a life-long love of traditional woodworking, though many already are highly skilled. He encourages them to use their four senses—five if they want to taste the wood—to guide their work. “There’s nothing like the aroma of a fresh cut piece of hickory, the stink of red oak, or the pungency of pine, and when your hand glides across the velvety surface you’ve created, well, now that’s pure joy,” Buchanan said.
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One of the things clerk Nancy Brooks, left, and store manager Catie Coulthard love about Meadowview Farmers’ Guild General Store is the old building it’s in. PAUL CLARK PHOTO
A place at the table A not-so-traditional business bucks the trend in a small Virginia village B Y PA U L C L A R K
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dward Reames makes Cousins Handmade Soaps at his family homeplace, a brick house built in the 1840s in the Cherokee National Forest. Reames started the business with his cousin (hence the name), and likes working in the kitchen there, thinking about all the other people who over the decades made soap in the same spot. They, however, probably didn’t have his mischievous sense of humor when it came to picking names.
There’s “New Chick in Cousinville,” scented with coconut lemongrass and made in honor of his cousin’s new daughter. “Lawnmower Cotillion,” which smells like freshly cut grass, reflects his love for trimming the yard. The sandalwood and teak “Fairhaired Shadow” is named for the cat who is never far from his side. And “Suds Junkie Vacation” speaks directly to the job at hand—an enjoyable bathing experience. “I’m very poor, so I can always use the extra money,” said Reames, a loquacious man whose devilment is apparent in
his voice. If it weren’t for the Meadowview Farmers’ Guild General Store, he likely wouldn’t be in the soap business. He’s not much for marketing. “Not only am I poor and honest, but I’m very lazy,” he said, laughing at himself. Before the shop opened, he and his cousin tried selling their soap at a festival in town. Not much happened. They tried online, but their site on Etsy was so obscure, even Reames had a hard time finding it. “Salesmanship is not my strong suit at all,” he said. “There would be no Cousins brand of soap if it were not for Catie Coulthard and her crew doing the marketing.” Coulthard, a bubbly brunette with long curls, bright eyes, and a warm smile, is manager of Meadowview Farmers’ Guild General Store thus a driving force in the community’s microeconomics. She’s a tour guide and spokeswoman. “There’s so much talent and skill in this area,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because we were so geographically isolated for so many years that we developed skills that people with access to shops didn’t have to have. We’ve kept a lot of the tradition of hand-making things. Now we can do it with a little more creativity than we did when we did it for survival, but the skills are still here, still being passed down.” In the far back corner of the general store is a collection of books in which one famous name appears repeatedly— Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The book about Kingsolver’s family and their yearlong effort to subsist on food they themselves raised or procured locally is credited with helping introduce America to the locavore movement. “Many of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners still have some element of farm nostalgia in our family past, real or imagined: a secret longing for some connection to a life where a rooster crows in the yard,” Kingsolver wrote. Kingsolver, her husband, Steven Hopp, and the couple’s two daughters were living in Arizona—where the food her family ate was trucked hundreds of miles from irrigated land, much of it not meant to grow crops—when they decided to seek out a better life. “We wanted to live in a place that could feed us: where rain falls, crops grow, and drinking water bubbles right up out of the ground,” she wrote.
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Located where the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains pinch Virginia to its narrowest point, Meadowview once was an agricultural center. The railroad’s arrival in 1856 opened the remote part of the state to commerce. Drovers moved livestock from stockyards onto trains’ cattle cars, supplying much of the East Coast with beef, produce, and other goods. Life was prosperous for more than a century. The trains quit the town in the 1950s, but the Eisenhower Interstate System carved a freeway just outside of town, bringing in factories in search of cheap labor. Reames remembers the 1960s when the town square was full of people spending the wages they earned at area factories and tobacco and dairy farms. They got their hair cut at the barbershop and shopped at Maiden’s Variety Store. They used the local post office, where Reames’ grandfather sorted mail. People didn’t need—or want—to travel to nearby Abingdon, much less the big city of Bristol. “It was a thriving little town,” said Reames, who lives in the house his people built before the Civil War. But in the 1970s and the 1980s, Meadowview’s sense of community slowly died out, and emptiness was left behind. Kingsolver and Hopp moved to Meadowview in 2005, making their home on a farm Hopp had long owned. Kingsolver published Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in 2007. It went on to become a bestseller, and subsequently she and her husband sought an extension of the book’s major principle—food and goods made and sold locally can have a big impact on a small place. Drawing from the family’s experiences chronicled in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and his work as an environmental studies professor at Emory and Henry College, Hopp began to
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resurrect two 100-year-old buildings in the center of town. He and his fellow investors envisioned a community gathering place—a restaurant that served meats community members raised and vegetables they grew, as well as a shop that celebrated their craft work. As work progressed, crews used recycled and salvaged materials, including American chestnut trim from an old barn and bricks from an unusable chimney on site to build a restaurant oven. A woodstove that sat unused in somebody’s barn for years was brought in to heat what would become the general store. Meadowview Farmers’ Guild General Store and Harvest Table Restaurant opened in 2008. The operation bucked the cheap, easy, and mass-produced economic trend, and in a town desperate for jobs, some residents were angry when the county nixed plans for a truck stop out by the interstate the following year. But people like store manager Catie Coulthard believed in bringing the sense of community back to Meadowview—and thus the community grew. “You can open a little gift shop and import your gifts from China and employ three people, and you’ll have a very small impact on the community,” Coulthard said. “Or you can have a place like this, with 170 craftspeople, 25 full-time employees, 80
Rich wood tones complement the carefully prepared, locally sourced food that comes out of the kitchen at Harvest Table Restaurant. PAUL CLARK PHOTO
“Many of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners still have some element of farm nostalgia in our family past, real or imagined: a secret longing for some connection to a life where a rooster crows in the yard.” — Barbara Kingsolver
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Samantha Eubanks oversees the farm that supplies Harvest Table Restaurant with much of its produce. PAUL CLARK PHOTO
farmers and a full-time farm manager, and have a major impact. That’s what’s going on with this place.” Indeed, the restaurant’s demands are such that it has its own Harvest Table Farm now, and the farmer-artistcommerce collective depends on one another much like a three-legged stool, Coulthard said. Each would have a hard time standing without the others, but together, they created something solid. “It has helped local people so much, both emotionally and economically,” Reames said. “It’s kind of a good feeling to know that stuff you make or grow, those are valid, wonderful skills.” Reames has earned a few notable customers including one famous local politician—he won’t name names—who bought a couple of his bars of soap at the general store. “Things like that, it’s a big old ego booster,” he said. “Huge.” Local quilter Eleanor Thayer creates quilted purses that are better made than the Vera Bradley quilted purses so popular as of late, Coulthard said. Factory-made purses aren’t stitched by hand, she said, but Eleanor Thayer’s are. Even the nut butters are better here. Tim and Heather Henderson live in Meadowview and make creamy spreads including Organic Cashew, Dark Almond Moca, Hazelnut Buttercup 62
and Virginia Honey Peanut, made with local honey and Virginia peanuts. “He went to culinary school, and he still works in a local factory, but he is getting to the point where he can do this full time,” Coultard said. “We’re really proud of him. He sells here, and he also ships worldwide.” The shop strives to ensure that all its offerings are from Virginia. It’s even better if the artists and businesses share the shop’s ethos, Coulthard said. Route 11 Potato Chips is a good example. Creating Everything in a splashy display in the shop, the crisp Meadowview bags of chips are made in a waste-free Farmers' Guild kitchen in Mount Jackson that uses the General Store, including honey, heat of the fryers to warm the building in is local—or at winter. Scrap goes to feed local cattle that least from may later find their way onto a dinner Virginia. PAUL plate at the Harvest Table Restaurant. CLARK PHOTO Server Ashley Gardner bustled out of the kitchen with a smile as she readied for the lunch crowd. She grew up in Meadowview, playing with her brothers and other kids in the town square. Now 27, she likes working at Harvest Table so much she bought a house right next door. She and her husband live there with her 4-year-old son. “I’m very proud to be here,” she said. “We do a lot for the community, and it’s my community.”
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In winter, when life slows to a crawl in Meadowview, servers like her could probably make more money at mainstream restaurants in the cities of Abingdon and Bristol, Coulthard said. But, like Ashley, Harvest Table’s servers stick around—servers make more than minimum wage, and everyone carries his or her load. Asked what she would be doing if the restaurant didn’t exist, Gardner was stumped. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “Waiting tables someplace else, I guess. But I don’t think I’d be as happy.” Harvest Table Restaurant is the epitome of the seasonal farm-totable culinary movement. Head chef Philip Newton creates specials from food he receives from Harvest Table Farm and more than 50 area farmers, gardeners and ranchers. One pizza of the day featured chicken sausage, leeks, kale and goat cheese—all local—and the locallysourced hamburger was topped with homemade pimento cheese. Nothing in the restaurant is deep-fried. All meats are from animals raised or “finished” in pastures. The seafood is wild and sustainably harvested from the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. The beer, wine, cider and mead are all made regionally. By committing itself to local and sustainable foods, the restaurant reduces its carbon footprint, protects local land and helps preserve family farms. It has on-demand hot water heaters and uses compact fluorescent bulbs. It recycles packaging, uses environmentally friendly cleaning products and composts food wastes at a local farm. Its takeout containers are compostable. It buys so much meat and produce that farmers have had to hire help, which sends local dollars out in concentric rings throughout the community. Abingdon Organics has supplied Harvest Table with
lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squashes, leeks and other vegetables for years. “They don’t try to lowball on price,” Laurel Flaccavento, who runs Abingdon Organics with her husband, said. “There are plenty of restaurants around here that say they’d love to buy from you as long as you can match Sysco’s price. We can’t do that. Organic methods are harder.” The difference — Edward Reames, between Abingdon Organic Cousins Handmade Soaps and Sysco’s produce is the difference between a storebought tomato and a homegrown one, Flaccavento said. The produce her farm sells is picked the day or day before it’s delivered. “You should see the chefs’ faces when they open a crate (of our vegetables) and gasp,” she said. “It’s delightful. Good chefs appreciate good food.” Laughing Waters Farm in nearby Marion, Va., is a big supplier. The attention and care they give their cattle is apparent in the taste of the hamburgers the restaurant serves. It may seem odd that you can taste
“It has helped
local people so much, both emotionally and economically. It’s kind of a good feeling to know that stuff you make or grow, those are valid, wonderful skills.”
These happy hens at Harvest Table Restaurant's farm in Meadowview are as curious about visitors as visitors are about them. PAUL CLARK PHOTO
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A man full of grits is a man full of peace. Grown, harvested, and milled in North Carolina using slow grind traditional methods. t All natural t No chemicals t No preservatives t Gluten-Free Available at stores throughout North Carolina and www.bearbranchmilling.com.
In nearby Abingdon, Va., brewer Drake Scott incorporates local ingredients in some of the Wolf Hill Brewery beers available at Harvest Table Restaurant. PAUL CLARK PHOTO
the love in your lunch, but it’s true. “I can say to anyone who comes in that I know a happy cow makes great hamburgers,” Coulthard said. Wolf Hills Brewery, a seven-barrel system in Abingdon, supplies some of the local beer on tap. Occupying a 1880s icehouse conveniently near the Virginia Creeper Trail, the brewery subscribes to the restaurant’s commitment to freshness, head brewer Drake Scott said. Fresh means as much to beer as it does to food, and Harvest Table’s emphasis on freshness means it needs local growers and brewers. Wolf Hills has a similar philosophy, having bought bacon, honey and peanut butter from area providers to flavor its beer. “It’s satisfying to have a more personable relationship with the people you buy from and sell to,” Scott said. “People want to be in touch with the person making what they drink and eat.” The Harvest Table restaurant and farm along with the Meadowview Farmers’ Guild has given community members an opportunity to reconnect with one another and make a living not by giving up their history but by reclaiming it—a miracle in and of its own right. “I really didn’t think this would happen in my lifetime,” Reames said.
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Decorative painted squares from Bear Creek Lodge Container for tomato sauce Equipment Type of seafood used in 21 across (it's not farmed) Where natural produce is grown Tree that produces soft black fruits Pea holder Patriotic letters Edible product that you will find at a farmer’s market ____ Table Restaurant in Meadowview, epitome of the seasonal farm-to-table culinary movement Timeworn Or best offer, abbr. Natural and containing no chemicals Knitted together 18th century Pennsylvania lieutenant governor who brought five Windsor chairs from London Aromatic lemon-like fruit “America—Land of the ___”.... Historic Abingdon theatre, founded by Robert Porterfield Laughing ____s, a farm supplying 21 across with great beef for hamburgers
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d i re cto r y :
SELECT LODGING
THE WAYNESVILLE INN GOLF RESORT & SPA This resort has been welcoming visitors to the mountains with southern hospitality since the 1920s. Traditional resort amenities include historic and mountain view lodging, 27 holes of championship golf, restaurant and tavern, plus outdoor event space and pro shop. The location provides convenience to shopping, skiing, fishing, hiking and more. 176 Country Club Dr. • Waynesville, NC 800.627.6250 • thewaynesvilleinn.com
HEMLOCK INN This historic inn, set just off Main Street in downtown Blowing Rock, is only steps from shopping, restaurants and event activities. Eighteen unique rooms, including suites with fully-equipped kitchens. All rooms are non-smoking. Rooms feature private baths, cable TV, air conditioning, phone services, microwave ovens, refrigerators and WiFi. Take away the unnecessary stress and time spent planning your vacation by taking advantage of a variety of packages offered throughout the year. Downtown Blowing Rock, N.C. 828.295.7987 • hemlockinn.net
SMOKETREE LODGE Smoketree’s cozy atmosphere and prime location allows its visitors the choice of enjoying the peace and solitude of the Blue Ridge Mountains or the opportunity of partaking in the many activities available in the High Country! 11914 NC Hwy. 105 S. • Banner Elk, NC 800.422.1880 • smoketree-lodge.com
BLACK’S FORT INN BED & BREAKFAST Black’s Fort Inn Bed & Breakfast - designed for privacy, relaxation and convenience. Located on a little over nine acres and looks as though we are out in the country with mountains and hills surrounding us, but we are less than five minutes from the Barter Theatre, Virginia Creeper Trail, shopping areas, local attractions, and some of the best restaurants in the country. Decorated with beautiful antiques originally purchased in the 1940s. Some of our rooms having been decorated with the French Country style or with a Victorian style. Abingdon, VA 276.628.6263 • blacksfortinn.com
MOUNTAIN HIGH LODGE
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Mountain High Lodge in Highlands, N.C., offers a variety of accommodations, featuring fireplaces, balconies & complimentary breakfast. Pet rooms available. Visit our website for special deals. Highlands, N.C. 877.553.4821 • mountainhighlodge.com
Featured in 2011 Southern Living Best Weekend Getaways . Enjoy a peaceful country setting in charming authentic log cabins, 1—4 bedrooms, located on 130 beautiful acres. Full kitchens, wood burning fireplaces, Wifi, & A/C. The cabins overlook the Smoky Mountains, our Fraser
Fir Christmas tree farm, 3 stocked fishing ponds ,flower and vegetable gardens. Hiking trails to the top of Boyd Mountain, volleyball, basketball and badminton, swimming hole in the creek, sledding in the winter. Open every season. Waynesville, N.C. 828-926-1575 • boydmountain.com
CABINS AT SEVEN FOXES Five beautifully appointed cabins nestled in the Land of Waterfalls in Lake Toxaway, NC. Guests rated 5 stars on TripAdvisor. Open year ‘round; pet friendly. Lake Toxaway, N.C. 828.877.6333 • sevenfoxes.com
THE SWAG COUNTRY INN Chosen by readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine as the #2 Best Small Hotel in the Unites States, the secluded hideaway itself consists of 250 private acres. The main lodge and cabins, consisting of 15 rooms, are built of 17th and 18th century hand hewn logs and local field stone. Join us for our 30th season to experience just how remote, rustic, refined and remarkable it can be at 5,000 feet. 3 gourmet meals are served daily, with turn down service each evening. Waynesville, N.C. 800.789.7672 • theswag.com
NANTAHALA VILLAGE Nantahala Village offers a variety of lodging, restaurants, and activities within minutes of Bryson City, the Nantahala Gorge, Fontana Lake and other area attractions. 828-488-9000 • nantahalavillage.com
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ca le n d a r :
UPCOMING
OCTOBER Celebrate Appalachian heritage and craftsmanship at the John C. Campbell Folk School Festival. The school is a well-known bastion of traditional Appalachian culture, and this festival marks its 40th year this fall, with demonstrations of handicrafts such as pottery, wood turning and wool spinning, as well as mountain life exhibitions where you can watch a blacksmith at work or witness basket weaving first hand. It’s a fun, hands-on look into what life in our mountains was like in years past, as well as a gathering of many talented artisans still keeping the old ways alive. Plus, there’s two stages of live music and dance, and a range of food and drink to keep you sated and entertained all weekend long. Oct. 5-6, John C. Campbell Folk School, Clay County, N.C. For more information, visit www.folkschool.org or call 828.837.2775.
Currahee Military Weekend
In the 1940s, an experiment began in Georgia called Camp Toccoa. The idea was to take men straight out of civilian life and train them to be paratroopers, intended to drop into the burgeoning conflict zones of the Second World War. Its most famous sons, the Band of Brothers, have been memorialized in book, film and television, and every year the city of Toccoa gets together to look back and remember the thousands of men who came through the camp. The Currahee Military Weekend features World War II military reenactments in a staged military camp, weapons demonstrations, book signings by veterans, a parade through the downtown historic district, a hangar dance at the airport, drill team demonstrations, displays of vintage planes and military vehicles, and the return of the paratroopers who trained at Camp Toccoa. For the sportier among you, there’s also a six-mile race along the same trail used by the paratroopers as part of their training for combat. Oct. 4-6, Downtown Toccoa, Toccoa, Ga. For more information, visit www.cityoftoccoa.com or call 706.886.8451.
Indian Cultural Festival
In this part of the world, the phrase ‘Indian culture’ often implies homage to Native American roots, but this fall you can also get a taste of Indian culture from the other side of the globe at a day-long festival celebrating the ancient Vedic culture of India. There will be the unique sound of Indian music all day along with dancing, activities for the
DONATED PHOTO
John C. Campbell Folk School Festival
GOLD RUSH DAYS You may think the ‘49ers marked the original American gold rush, but don’t be fooled; persistent prospectors had already started mining the shiny stuff in north Georgia way back in 1828, and it’s still flowing from the hills today. The folks of Dahlonega welcome you for Gold Rush Days, an annual fête to celebrate their forebears striking it somewhat rich. You can come and pan for your own treasure (and compete against others!) or just enjoy the food, music, parade, dancing and crafts that make up the festival. And if you’re a hog caller or wheelbarrow racer, you can show your prowess at those events, too. Oct. 19-20, Downtown Dahlonega, Ga. For more information, visit www.dahlonegajaycees.com.
kids, face painting, Indian clothing and crafts, and of course, a wide sampling of vegetarian culinary delights from the southeast of a different continent. If Bollywood on Netflix just isn’t enough for you, this glimpse into a culture thousands of years in the making is sure to please. Oct. 12, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Riverside Park Pavilion, Helen, Ga. For more information, please contact Stefanie Schumacher at shu2stef1@gmail.com or 706.809.9051.
Witches Wynd
The Witches Wynd is an annual event that combines expert storytellers with a rustic, 19th century farmstead for a fantastically creepy evening of ghost
STECOAH ARTISANS DRIVE ABOUT TOUR Combine a driving tour through the fall foliage and an artisan studio tour on the Stecoah Artisans Drive About Tour. Bee Global Studio, Stecoah Valley Artisans Gallery, Yellow Branch Pottery and others are all stops on this driving tour, where you can see real artisans at work and sample their wares. You can get a list of participants and turn-byturn directions to each studio or gallery, then set off on this interactive tour of local artistry. Nov. 29-20, Stecoah Valley N.C. For more information, visit www.StecoahValleyCenter.com or call 828.49.3364.
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stories. Exchange Place is a living history farm that sticks to traditions and techniques of the 1850s. Each night of this two-day event, storytellers wait in shadowy corners of ancient log buildings to relate chilling tales of the past, and they’re right when they say the farm needs no props after dark for a spooky atmosphere. Guests assemble at the barn, divide into five groups, each of which is led by a lanternbearing host to hear all of the five stories wind and through scenes relating to the story just heard. It’s a long-standing event that’s pretty popular, so make sure you get your tickets early. Oct. 25-26, 8 p.m., Exchange Place, Kingston, Tenn. For more information, visit www.exchangeplace.info or call 423.288.6071.
Punkin’ Chunkin’ For a fall festival that mixes fun for both kids and adults, look in on the charmingly named Punkin’ Chunkin’ in Brasstown, N.C. In its fifth incarnation this year, the festival is hosted by the Clay County Chamber of Commerce, and will offer the requisite autumnal festival fair: food, crafts, live bands. But there will also be airplane rides (which, let’s be honest, that’s a thrill for the kid in all of us), and a beer and wine garden for some more grown up enjoyment. And, as the name would suggest, a pumpkin or two is sure to get chunked at some point during the two-day affair. Oct. 26-27, 811 Settawig Road, Brasstown, N.C. For more information, visit www.ncmtnchamber.com or call 828.389.3704.
NOVEMBER Southern Rough Stock Association Rodeo Finals If you want to see some top-class rodeo action without the headache of a trip to Texas, the Southern Rough Stock Association Rodeo Finals are for you. This regional rodeo association is hosting the granddaddy of its fall competitions over two days in east Tennessee. Cowboys and cowgirls will compete for the crown in bareback and saddle bronc riding, calf roping, breakaway roping, barrel racing, team roping and naturally, what the crowds come to see: bull riding. So strap on your boots, dust off your hat, and go
get in touch with your cowboy (or girl) side. Nov. 15-16, Roane State Expo Center, Harriman, Tenn. For more information, visit srsarodeo.vpweb.com or call 865.882.4590.
Fantasy of Trees The Fantasy of Trees is heaven for budding decorators relegated to a house with only one tree. At this festival, you can feast your eyes on dozens of Christmas trees decorated in a spectrum of themes, from the staunchly traditional to completely outlandish. Professional decorators, community volunteers and even church youth groups get in on the action, so there’s no shortage of interesting décor choices on display. There’s also gingerbread and wreath decorating categories and some choice activities for the kids, plus the proceeds go toward purchasing much-needed equipment for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Nov. 27-Dec.1, Knoxville Convention Center, Knoxville, Tenn. For more information, visit www.fantasyoftrees.org or call 865.541.8385.
DECEMBER Knoxville’s Nativity Pageant Whatever your religious leanings, Knoxville’s annual nativity pageant is surely a sight to behold. This massive undertaking is made up of three shows in the Knoxville Civic Coliseum (yes, it’s that big) and boasts a $61,000 budget, a 120-person cast with members
starting at age eight, a 150-voice choir, and live animals on loan from local farmers to add to the air of authenticity. It’s got a storied history in the town, as well: this year marks the pageant’s 45th year, from humble beginnings in 1969. The show runs for an hour and it’s free (and bonus, if you’re a Spanish speaker all shows are translated) but get there early as seats fill fast, and we’re sure the livestock wouldn’t appreciate it if you were tardy for their stage debut. Dec. 14-16, Knoxville Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, Tenn. For more information, visit www.knoxvillenativity.com or call 865.579.5323.
2014 Asheville Restaurant Week For foodies in the Smokies, Asheville is certainly the destination. The city is home to nearly 250 independent restaurants, 20 regional tailgate markets and a growing number of craft breweries. The restaurant scene has garnered high-praise by the likes of Anthony Bourdain, Rachel Ray, and G. Garvin, and now it’s your turn to get in on the delectable culinary action. Following in the footsteps of larger cities, this year marks the inaugural Asheville Restaurant Week, where some of the city’s tastiest gustatory hot spots will offer up their best on fixed menus ranging from $15 to $30 per person. If you want to rub elbows with other food lovers and treat your palate to high class food at fast food prices, now’s your chance. Jan. 21-27, Asheville, N.C. For more information, visit www.ashevillerestaurantweek.com.
DONATED PHOTO
Wilderness Wildlife Week If Mother Nature seems a little wooly and wild for your tastes, dip your toe in the outdoorsy waters with Wilderness Wildlife Week. The weeklong festival is a series of free activities over eight days designed to connect Pigeon Forge visitors with the great outdoors. Throughout the week, you’ll learn from experts on a range of outdoor topics in dozens of seminars, lectures and hands-on workshops. There are also guided walks and hikes designed for all levels of expertise. So whether you’re a seasoned backpacker or total nature novice, there’s something to get you into the woods. For families, there are also kid-friendly activities, so no need to leave the little ones behind. Jan. 25-Feb. 1, LeConte Center At Pigeon Forge, Pigeon Forge, Tenn. For more information, visit www.mypigeonforge.com or e-mail lecontecenter@mypigeonforge.com.
Crossword answers Puzzle is on page 67.
WNC FLY FISHING EXPO The WNC Fly Fishing Expo is an extravaganza of fishing expertise where anglers from novice to pro can come and learn from local outfitters and national suppliers, as well as experts on the sport from around the southeast. Speakers will enlighten fellow fishermen on techniques for fishing in the region, and the latest and greatest in gear will be on display from major equipment suppliers like Simms, Orvis, Scientific Anglers, Fishpond, Nautilus Reels, Montana Fly Company and Sage. If that’s not enough to entice out your inner angler, perhaps the 3,200 square-foot indoor casting pond will sweeten the deal. You can perfect your technique with the aid of certified instructors and learn the ins and outs of fly tying at expert demonstrations. Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without some barbecue and a beer tasting as well. Dec. 6-7, WNC Agricultural Center, Asheville, N.C. For more information, visit www.wncflyfishingexpo.com or call 828.989.3503.
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d e p a r t m e n t :
MOUNTAIN VIEWS
The art of the deal B Y M O L LY D U G G E R B R E N N A N
MANDY NEWHAM-COBB ILLUSTRATION
I
grow orchids. For many years, I traveled the East Coast hawking my plants at flower shows. Now that I’m older, I’ve slowed down. Being a show vendor is quite aerobic, what with the hauling, set-up, break-down, and all. When one’s BenGay expenditures start to cut into one’s profits, it’s time to quit. When I was in the thick of it though, any show east of the Mississippi river was likely to see me in a vendor’s booth surrounded by pretty flowers for sale. The best part of being a traveling flower show vendor was that I made lots of dear friends. I earned a decent amount of money. I saw pockets of the country I’d not visited before. But the best part of being a vendor was the mad bartering between vendors done at the shows held below the Mason-Dixon line. Perhaps the Yankees were just more discreet about their trading practices, but not the Southerners. If there was one phrase I heard at Southern shows, it was, “So, would you be interested in trading?” As soon as one has one’s sales booth all assembled, stocked, and ready for business, one does a quick tour of everyone else’s goodies. Some people won’t trade until they’ve sold enough to cover their expenses, which is simply good business sense. Not me. I’ve never been one to let sound business practices stand in my way. I’m more of an instant gratification girl. If I want it at all, I want it now. I’ve learned that if I wait, it’ll be gone—sold out just like that. I’m a pretty seasoned consumer, so if I’m impressed by a product, it’s guaranteed to be popular. Sometimes even the show organizers get in on the fun. There’s a show administrator in North Carolina that makes green tomato mincemeat cookies that are to die for. That’s right, the mincemeat is not made with beef and suet, but with green tomatoes. They are smack-your-mama good I tell you, and I’m usually not a cookie person. This woman is a gifted baker, and it’s lucky that I’m only in her area a couple times a year. I could eat her bar cookies until I popped. She knows this. She plans for this. She brings pounds of cookies to the show to trade for orchids, and I happily let her ravage my sales table in exchange. Trading is not all fun and games and scrumptious cookies, though. Sometimes trading makes for awkward moments. For example, when someone is intensely interested in trading but there is not one thing in their entire booth that one wants. Therein lies the problem. Does one hurt someone’s feelings by declining
the offer or does one make the mercy trade? I recommend the mercy trade. When standing in a convention hall alongside this eager trader for the next four days, it’s best to get along. I learned that the hard way. I declined to trade with a vendor once and then found myself trapped in a ladies’ room stall, waiting for her to leave. I knew it was her because she was regaling another girl about that “stuck up orchid chick” that wouldn’t trade for her sculpture. Really, sculpture is too generous a word. Cub Scout whittled critters is closer to the truth. I appreciate true folk art, but a chipped wooden skunk decorated with glitter is just not it. That’s how I came to have a mercy shelf in my closet. On it sits evidence of the weird trades I’ve made. There’s a gargoyle rain spout, lawn ornaments painted Richard Petty blue, questionable tapestries, hand painted (pre-art class) ceramic tiles, country-cute refrigerator magnets, and sickly strong smelling soaps. I’m not saying these products don’t have any merit or charm—they’re just not for me. Okay, I am saying that the person painting those ceramic tiles should stop. Really. I mean it. So we trade, we barter, we haggle with each other. It’s a Southern thing. I’ve traded orchids for a variety of riches with customers—a tray of Turkish pastries, rare vintage violets from a private collection, a ham, a dog leash, and my best score ever, five pounds of some of the finest pulled pork barbecue I have ever put in my mouth. You know, I think I’ll add that to our company show banner. “Accepts Visa, Mastercard, and barbecue.”
Therein lies the
problem. Does one hurt someone’s feelings by declining the offer or does one make the mercy trade? I recommend the mercy trade. When standing in a convention hall alongside this eager trader for the next four days, it’s best to get along.
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SMOKY MOUNTAIN LIVING VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 5
E XPLORE M ORE THAN W ESTERN N ORTH C AROLINA C OMMUNITIES I N O NE L OCATION
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Th e Pinnacle Ach ievem ent. The Virginian, an acclaimed 538-acre private country club community in the rolling hills of Southwestern Virginia, is about to unveil its newest neighborhood. Named Grandview, it consists of 30 carefully contoured homesites overlooking the 9th and 18th holes of the Tom Fazio championship golf course. The name is apt because each homesite provides spectacular view corridors of meadows, forests, fairways and the faraway Appalachian Mountains. This mature, successful community, named as one of the ďŹ nest and best planned in America, is already home to more than 100 families residing in charming estate homes. Talented architects and planners have been working on Grandview for several years, assuring its homes will be the pinnacle achievements in this distinguished community. Outside the gates of The Virginian are the historic towns of Abingdon and Bristol, the scenic Appalachian Trail and an unhurried, uncrowded and unparalleled living environment. We invite your inquiry.
A private golf club community of 250 homesites on 538 acres of some of the most breathtaking highlands in North America. Homesites from $70,000, resale homes from $500,000. Void where prohibited by law, including New York and New Jersey.
thevirginian.com 22512 Clubhouse Ridge Bristol, Virginia 24202 276.645.7050