Garden & Gun Magazine loves Asheville

Former Xpress food writer Hanna Raskin is living in the northwest and writing about Southern butcher shops — including Asheville’s own Chop Shop Butchery. In the article, “Southern Butchers Have Serious Chops,” she profiles five different “charcuterie-and-chop shops that are doing for sustainably raised meat what farmers’ markets have done for locally grown produce.” From […]

Whole Foods announces decision to stand by Smiling Hara tempeh

Over the weekend, Smiling Hara tempeh, a local company impacted by a salmonella-tainted starter culture from Maryland, announced that Whole Foods Markets has decided to continue carrying Smiling Hara products. Whole Foods announced the decision to carry the tempeh in regional stores earlier this year, also offering the fledgling tempeh company a substantial development grant. […]

Start From Seed volunteer doula programs hosts Mother’s Day fundraiser at Grey Eagle

Start From Seed doula program will host a pancake brunch fundraiser on Mother’s Day at the Grey Eagle Tavern. From the evnt site: “Start from Seed is a 501(c)3 volunteer doula program aimed at providing non-medical, comprehensive support to low income, high risk women and families of Buncombe County and equally focuses on three other […]

Latest on Salmonella outbreak: 68 infected, according to NC Dept. of Health

From the Buncombe County Department of Health: Today Buncombe County Department of Health received final test results from the NC Department of Public Health laboratory confirming that the unopened bag of culture that was added to the tempeh tested positive for the matching strain of Salmonella Paratyphi B linked to the current disease outbreak. The […]

LAB looks for new head brewer, has plenty of beer in the meantime

The founding brewer of the Lexington Avenue Brewery resigned today, the Citizen-Times reports. The brewer, Ben Pierson has been at the LAB since it opened, a left due to contract dispute, the AC-T says. Here’s more: “Pierson, who previously worked at Asheville’s Green Man Brewing Co., said he will ‘immediately’ begin looking for another job. […]

BRFV releases statement on environmental testing following salmonella outbreak

From a press release: In a proactive and cautionary move, Blue Ridge Food Ventures, a shared-use food production facility in Buncombe County, voluntarily halted our normal production schedule on April 26 after learning that one of the businesses that uses our facility, Smiling Hara, was under investigation as a possible link to the Salmonella outbreak […]

Salmonella in Asheville tempeh came from outside source, says Dept. of Agricultur­e (updated)

Today, the Buncombe County Department of Health confirmed that the salmonella discovered in Smiling Hara tempeh matches the Paratyphi B strain that has sickened 46 people. Although all Smiling Hara products have been removed from restaurants and stores, the case number rises every day, mostly from person-to-person contact. UPDATE: The salmonella has been identified as originating from the starter culture used in the tempeh-making process.

Food Republic releases craft-brewer power rankings, places New Belgium at no. 5

From Food Republic, who released their craft-beer power rankings today (New Belgium was listed at no. 5): Thirty years ago, the concept of a craft-beer power ranking system was inconceivable. Back then, there were only a handful of breweries pumping out suds that deviated from the watery-lager norm. Fast-forward to 2012, and there are more […]

Health Department: Help from the public will reduce the spread of salmonella

From a press release from the Buncombe County Health department: As of Wednesday, May 2, Buncombe County Department of Health reports 38 cases of Salmonella Paratyhpi B infection with numbers likely to continue rising. At this point in the outbreak, communicable disease investigations indicate that person-to-person transmission is becoming more prominent as we approach the […]

More than meatloaf

A train, laden with coal, pulls slowly past Knife & Fork restaurant in Spruce Pine, N.C., following the banks of the glistening Toe River. It’s early Sunday morning and, in the kitchen, Nate Allen is punching a biscuit cutter into the dimpled surface of a thick sheet of dough with one hand while answering the […]