Flavor: Deftly-handled Appalachian ingredients Ambiance: Rendered irrelevant by the food The Market Place, Asheville’s legendary bastion of locally sourced cuisine, occasionally surfaces on Chowhound.com, the virtual restaurant-advice swap meet that unrepentant foodies obsessively troll for tips on where to eat. Chowhound is the sort of place a user can post a frantic plea at midnight … Read more
Out on the trail, I spend a lot of time working out where I am. It gets even better when I understand what I’m seeing in the woods. And here in the Southern Appalachians, there is so much to see—from huge plutons to Fraser firs. But sometimes, when it’s cold and wet outside—hypothermia weather—I may … Read more
Mother Goose has nothing on Martha K. Gardenhight. As a foster parent who’s worked with many local agencies, including Eliada Homes, Gardenhight and her second husband, Billy, have taken in more than 60 youngsters (almost all boys) over the past 22 years. Though both are now retired from their jobs, the couple has not retired … Read more
Thoughtfully saving their customers the cost of last-minute trips to Germany and Italy, the artisan bakers at City Bakery are offering traditional European holiday breads this December. Bakery co-owner Craig Peters suggests calling ahead to claim your loaf of stollen, a lightly sweetened German fruitcake, or panettone, a fluffy, long-proofing Milanese bread shaped like a … Read more
All downhill from here: Last week’s 70 degree days may have seemed like an inauspicious start to the winter ski season, but area resorts are benefiting from a recent dip in the jet stream and the outfall from a series of storms pummeling the country’s Midwest and Northeast. Sapphire Valley Ski Area, near Highway 64 … Read more
Like a lot of modern Pagans, I grew up celebrating a cultural Christmas that had less to do with baby Jesus than with bits and pieces of family practice that had become ingrained in the midwinter celebration over many generations. The earliest white settlers to this area brought with them a lot of traditions from … Read more
A few weeks ago I was privileged to attend “Our Daily Bread,” a convocation at Duke Divinity School that focused on sustainability. Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson, two of the most insightful and respected thinkers and authors on a proper earth economy, were inspiring both in their presentations and in conversation. Jackson used the word … Read more
This is a response to your interview article of Hey Neighbor [“Come and Knock on Their Door,” Oct. 3]. You referred to Mule Skinner’s Grocery & Grill as a “hole in the wall.” Mule Skinner’s is a special hole in the wall. It was built in the 1940s (a one-room stone building) by Reid Hawkins, … Read more
I guess this problem has replayed itself on much larger scales concerning migration of a mass of people to another land. The problem here in Asheville is on a much smaller scale, but a scale nonetheless. What I see here seems to be a multitude of rich, ultra-conservative and often snobby people infiltrating our artsy … Read more
You printed a letter I wrote [“Another Gated Community?”, Oct. 24] regarding a negative experience I had at the [Asheville] Civic Center. I wanted to write to let you know that Laurie Saxton with the Civic Center contacted me after my letter was printed and apologized on behalf of the Civic Center for the poor … Read more
