Fire on the Mountain

In this week’s Small Bites, Xpress profiles “Mountain Fire,” a September 18 fundraiser to help Slow Food Asheville send delegates to Terra Madre, the international Slow Food conference in Italy, this October. In the article, we likened Terra Madre to a food-centric TED event. The delegates, WNC food producers, hope to gather knowledge at the conference to help them improve their own businesses and preserve local food cultures.

“Mountain Fire” will feature a silent auction, a farm tour and fresh-pressed cider. One of the highlights of the event is a dinner of locally grown and raised foods, featured on a menu developed by Mark Rosenstein. Xpress reported that most everything served at the dinner will come from the farm where the event takes place, Sunswept Farm.

Vanessa Razzano Harbin, the coordinator of the Mountain Fire fundraiser, wrote to thank us for the article. She also wrote to set us straight: Several farms are involved in the dinner, as a matter of fact, and each of the proposed delegates has donated their time and goods from their businesses, listed below.

Indeed, all of the meat served at Mountain Fire is donated by John and Dory Brown of Sunswept Farm, including an entire pig stuffed with whole chickens and slow-roasted for what will likely seem an eternity for the chef charged with the task. The couple is also donating the venue for the dinner and taking on the associated equipment rental costs. Dory Brown is also a metalsmith, and is donating five of her jewelry pieces for the auction.

Julie Mansfield and husband Carl Evans of Mountain Harvest Organics will donate all of the vegetables used in the dinner, as well as flowers for decor. They’re also donating four weeks of a CSA share for their farm for the silent auction.

Elk Knob Farm and Gardens is donating their own fruits and vegetables to the event. David Kendall and his family, says Harbin, “are donating literally a truck-load of apples, plus a variety of wild berries for dipping sauces.” They are also donating two nights at their inn (Kana’ti Lodge) as an auction item.

David Bauer of Farm and Sparrow Bakery is making and donating all of the bread, as well as some tarts for dessert. He’s also donating a certificate for 12 loaves of his wood-oven-baked bread as an auction item.

Bee Healing Apiary’s Lady Cerelli is donating honey for the ice cream dessert, honey to be auctioned, as well as doing scratch-made cannoli for dessert at the dinner.

Chuck and Jeannie Blethen of Jewel of the Blue Ridge are donating an antique carousel horse as well as a wine seminar for up to eight people as auction items.

Several area restaurants are contributing side-items for the dinner:
Sunny Point Cafe, Zambra, Roots Cafe, Laurey’s Catering and Gourmet to Go, West End Bakery, Early Girl Eatery, French Broad Chocolate Lounge, Annie’s Naturally, Jack of the Wood, Mountain Magnolia Inn, Rosetta’s Kitchen, Curras Nuevo Cuisine and MyHolisticWater.com is donating all the drinking water.

Tickets to “Mountain Fire” are $45 per person. For more information, visit Sunswept Farm’s website. http://www.slowfoodasheville.org/Events.htm

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