Small bites: Oskar Blues Big Money Chili-onaire cook-off promotes ‘do-goodery’

Oskar Blues’ CAN’d Aid Foundation is seeking competitive talents for its chili cook-off in Brevard. Meanwhile, FEAST and Asheville Middle School team up for a pie fundraiser; MetroWines’ Anita Riley invites two women behind Hi-Wire Brewing’s branding to the shop; Smiling Hara Tempeh’s Hempeh makes its way to grocery shelves; and Lex 18 hosts an Appalachian-themed evening.

Bottled lightning: Appalachia­n moonshinin­g in the 21st century

Western North Carolina is now home to a growing number of craft distillers making legal moonshine. Blending traditional recipes with new technology and methods, these pioneers are bringing Appalachia’s most fabled and misunderstood product into the 21st century, changing cultural perceptions even as they adapt to shifting economic realities.

Moonshine in Marshall, Sunday at the FBI

Charles D. Thompson Jr., the curriculum and education director at the Center for Documentary Studies and a lecturer of cultural anthropology at Duke University, will discuss his latest book, Spirits of Just Men: Mountaineers, Liquor Bosses and Lawmen in the Moonshine Capital of the World, on Sunday, July 17, at the FBI, the “church building across the street from the firehouse” (or 68 N. Main St. in Marshall).

R.I.P. “Popcorn” Sutton

Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, the legendary moonshiner, died March 16 at his home in Cocke County, Tenn. Photo by Michael Stock According to his wife, Sutton took his own life to avoid going to jail for 18 months under a looming incarcerations for moonshining and weapons charges. She found him dead of carbon-monoxide poisoning inside his […]