Linda Giannasso hates to ask for help. When she broke her foot a few months ago, she figured she could handle it on her own. “I’m very independent,” she explains. “So I tried to do everything.” But the retired college professor lives alone in a house full of stairs, and getting around to do simple […]
Author: Micah Wilkins
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Brine and brews: Green River Picklers plans to expand in Weaverville
“Nobody would be alive without pickles and beer,” says Beau Martin, co-owner of Green River Picklers. Alcoholic beverages saved people from water-borne illnesses, and pickled and fermented foods got people through the winter long before water filters and grocery stores provided year-round produce, he explains. Bringing brine and beer together in the form of pickle-and-beer tastings is one of the first things Martin and co-owner Brandi Morrow want to do after their planned expansion to a new space in Weaverville.
Trading the tropics for mountains: Noi’s Thai Kitchen staff hail from the old country
When searching several months ago in Thailand for new staff for his restaurant, DiMaio hoped to offer opportunities enticing enough to convince them to leave Thailand for the United States. His efforts began in 2000, with his wife, Noi.
Whacked!
The store room of downtown’s FRS storefront turned into a hot, crowded kitchen on May 13. With the common phrases “Behind!” “Sharp knife!” “Hot pan!” being thrown out every few minutes, the competition’s participants hurried from the stove to the cutting board to the oven, then back to the cutting board. The dozens of spectators crowding around the work stations saw a blur of checkered pants, chef coats and wisps of hair under chef caps as the competitors hurried to complete their dish in the time allotted.
Green Sage chef leads team to victory in WHACKED! cooking competition
With just one point separating each team’s final results, Team Rational, lead by Green Sage Cafe chef Christopher Cox, came out victorious in the second annual WHACKED! cooking competition on May 13.
Returning to the roots
Kyle Nuccilli spent a lot of time at the former Black Mountain Farmers Market, a small store that sold local, organic produce and other items. “I’ve worked at a lot of health food stores, and it was like nostalgia for me,” he says. “There’s so much character in this place.”
The widening gap
Newly released data pulled from Feeding America’s 2012 Map the Meal Gap study shows a 2 percent increase in food insecurity in Western North Carolina. In that year, the study found, 15.3 percent of the region’s people lacked consistent access to enough food to meet their nutritional needs, up from 14.9 percent in 2011.
All fun and games
Ryan Earls lies on the ground with his legs up in the air to support his partner, Lillian Jacobs. As she attempts to distribute the weight of her body on his feet, she gasps, lets out a few screams, a few laughs, and eventually becomes still. It takes a lot of trust to allow someone else to hold you several feet off the ground. But that’s the goal of Urban Ashram Studio: to build trust and a stronger sense of community.
Spring cleaning
Spring is a time of upward movement as wild edibles begin to push up from the ground: violets, chickweed, ramps, dandelions and other greens. Spring is rising, and the changing of the season, from cold to warm to hot, is the appropriate time for cleansing and renewal of the body, says Uma Sawicki, an Ayurvedic practitioner at Living Alchemy in Weaverville.
And good nutrition for all
It all started with a letter from an 8-year-old to his school principal. “I wish the cafeteria were healthier,” wrote Liam Miller to Gordon Grant, Hall Fletcher Elementary’s principal. As a third-grader, Liam struggles with reading and writing, and his mother, Misty Miller, who knew that “every sentence of that letter was a struggle for […]
Helping hands
Every few minutes, a mallet struck a gong in the gymnasium, followed by cheers and applause. Each sounding of the gong, on loan from the Asheville Symphony, indicated that 5,000 meals had been assembled and packaged for hungry families in Western North Carolina. The sound rang down the halls of the Reuter Family YMCA in […]
Rebuilding Dreams
Roxann Colwell knows the challenges of raising a child with special needs firsthand. Colwell, who has a 30-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, created the Family Support Network of Western North Carolina 15 years ago as a parent-to-parent support and mentoring program for caregivers of children with special needs. The organization offers a community resource guide, hosts support groups for families and establishes support networks for parents whose children have received similar diagnoses. From July 2012 to July 2013 the Family Support Network served 901 families.
Hear the difference
Dr. Juliette Sterkens gave a presentation March 10 at St. Eugene’s Catholic Church on the benefits of the hearing loop technology. The event drew dozens of people, many of them older adults, and some of them audiologists.
Southern Reunion: Mountain people, salt water people and swamp people, together for one show
Charleston-based duo Shovels & Rope and New Orleans’s Hurray for the Riff Raff played a sold out show, March 7, at the Orange Peel.
Actress and transgender activist Laverne Cox speaks at UNCA
Cox discussed the intersections of race, gender and class as a trans woman of color growing up in the South.
Kitchen class
DOUGH’s classroom kitchen was designed to look and feel like a typical home kitchen, says the chef and owner Brian Ross. And it’s probably true that many of us would be familiar with the wooden countertops and spice racks, gas stoves and cast iron skillets at the North Asheville bakery and classroom. It won’t take […]
Firestorm says goodbye to Downtown and hello to West Asheville
The worker-owned radical bookstore and café decided to relocate to a larger space, and on Feb. 19, they met to plan.
The right to pump
About two or three times a day, many women take a break from their jobs to fulfill another duty — not as workers, but as mothers. But working moms who choose to breast-feed their children after returning to work are often challenged with finding time and space to pump in the workplace. Physician Leah Swann […]
Sign of the times
It was one of her first assignments, and Rebecca Poulter was nervous. “When you’re first starting out, it’s like, ‘How can I do this and make this clear?’” she remembers. Poulter was asked to attend a Boy Scout meeting and interpret for a young boy who was deaf. She remembers feeling surprised when one of the Scout leaders made a joke. Everyone was laughing — including the boy — thanks to Poulter’s interpreting. “He got it and laughed along with everybody else,” she says. “He wasn’t left behind.”
Time to steep
In a culture that has become increasingly focused on the “me,” tea enthusiast Sumitra D’Aragon hopes to bring the focus back to the “we.” In November, D’Aragon opened the small Panther Moon Tea Bar in the back of the West Village Market in West Asheville. In a culture of bustling, fast-paced lifestyles, Panther Moon is […]
Korean House
After hiccups with inspections, installations and electrical wiring, Korean House on College Street is finally open after a six-month delay. After “miscommunication” in the inspection process, co-owner Jayson Im says the opening of the restaurant “kept on getting delayed.” But finally, on Jan. 4, co-owners Jayson and his sister Kristina Im hosted a soft opening […]