10/26 Family-friendly Mini-Golf for Good Stuff

The first annual West Asheville Open fundraiser is a family-friendly miniature golf tournament to benefit the construction of the Guastavino Dome for the Outdoor Experiential Learning Project at Hall Fletcher Elementary and to benefit North Carolina Masonic Charities.

Hosted by Nichols-West Asheville Masonic Lodge in collaboration with the Asheville Design Center, and sponsored by West Asheville businesses, WAVL Open takes place Saturday, October 26, 2013 September 21, 2013 at Tropical Gardens on Patton Avenue and 100% of profits are shared between recipients.

The WAVL Open purpose is three-fold: to strengthen relationships among neighbors, to support worthwhile non-profit projects, and to highlight the role West Asheville businesses and organizations play in our community.

The WAVL Open offers three round choices: 11:00 a.m. (young family round); 1:00 p.m.  (adult round) and 3:00 p.m. (competitive round)

Your team can include between 1 and 5 members and costs $10/person.  If your team is a 1-2 person team, you may be paired with another 1 to 2 person team.  Registration is first-come, first-served. SIGNING UP in advance is strongly recommended. Doc Brown’s BBQ truck will be on hand to purchase lunch or snacks.

REGISTER YOUR TEAM 

LEARN MORE ABOUT GUASTAVINO AT HALL FLETCHER

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Asheville’s First Hard Cider Company Release at Wedge Brewery

Asheville’s first hard cider company, Noble Cider, hosts a public release of its inaugural small batch at the Wedge Brewing Company, on Wednesday June 5, from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM. The Noble crew will be onsite to meet and greet, answer questions, and enjoy Noble Cider with Asheville. 

Party goers can help Noble Cider raise funds for their fall batch by purchasing t-shirts, pint glasses, and stickers at the event.

“Noble Cider has brought together Western North Carolina’s rich history of agriculture with its exciting craft beverage industry,” said co-founder and cider maker Trevor Baker. “We think Asheville is going to love our product. It’s not too sweet and it’s a great warm weather beverage.”  

The Wedge, Noble Cider’s first “Core Partner”, announced via social media earlier this month that they’ll be putting Noble on tap through the summer.  Both companies are happy to announce that Asheville can enjoy Noble Cider at the Wedge’s dockside serving window starting on Saturday May 25, the first official day of Asheville Beer Week.  

“The Wedge Brewing Company and Noble Cider partnership makes great sense for both businesses,” said Wedge Brewing owner, Tim Schaller. “We’re happy to add another local craft beverage to our lineup.

ABOUT NOBLE CIDER

Noble Cider is a semi-dry hard cider made from local apples and hand-crafted in Asheville, North Carolina.  Founded in the apple country region of our state, Noble is WNC’s first hard cider.  Noble Cider’s inaugural batch starts with local, hand-pressed apple juice that’s fermented like wine. The result is a 7.5% ABV cider that’s crisp, lightly effervescent, and just sweet enough for a balanced, long finish.  Noble Cider is in business because of an Advantage Opportunity Fund loan from AdvantageWest Economic Development Group. “True to the Core” – Noble Cider    www.noblecider.com 

WHERE YOU CAN GET NOBLE 

Noble Cider will be available only on tap at select WNC bars and restaurants.  Noble will enter the market Memorial Day weekend in parallel with Asheville Beer Week, starting with Wedge Brewing Company and BoBo Gallery.  The full list of bars and restaurants that will carry Noble Cider will be available online at http://noblecider.com/on-tap/bars-restaurants/

ABOUT AMERICAN HARD CIDER

Noble Cider enters a market that may only share 1% of the alcoholic beverage market, but the hard cider market saw more than an 75% growth in retail sales in 2012, according to the most recent industry analysis by Neilson.  The Northwest, Northeast, and Michigan areas – which are all known for their apple regions – have seen a boom in hard cider over the last years.  Global beverage conglomerates like Anheuser-Busch InBev and C&C Group have all recently purchased established American hard cider companies.  Vermont Hard Cider Company, which has been crafting the Woodchuck brand since the early ‘90s, announced its sale to C&C Group for $305 Million in October 2012.  

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New Belgium Neighborhood Open House

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A loosely estimated 800 people came out last night to meet New Belgium co-workers and partners who are supporting the process of building the brewery and improving infrastructure in our community.  Partners presented their collaborations with New Belgium around: bicyclist/pedestrian infrastructure, stream best management practices (BMPs), brownfield development, re-purposing deconstructed materials, bus shelters, spent grain re-use to support farmers and innovative technology, as well as the nuts and bolts of brewery design and truck routing.

The room was full to the gills at Isis Restaurant + Music Hall and if you weren’t able to get to the event or had a difficult time accessing information, here is a list of partners and summary of how they are working with New Belgium.  See this story and video from the Asheville Citizen Times as well.

SUSTAINABILITY 

Old World Architectural + Salvage Company

Old World created a thorough inventory of all reusable materials on the site and suggested applications for reuse. The Asheville-based business is responsible for overseeing the deconstruction process, making sure materials are removed and stored in such a manner that they can be reused in the New Belgium Liquid Center, bus shelters and future community projects.

WNC Communities

New Belgium has committed to sell their spent grain to WNC Communities at below market prices in order to enable them to create a Regional Brewers Grain Alliance to collect brewers spent grain, deliver to local small family farmers at below market prices.  Overall goal—to preserve small family farms by subsidizing their feed costs and freeing up land to grow cash crops of greater value than cattle feed, e.g., biomass for biofuels. $10,000 donation

Bent Creek Institute

New Belgium has pledged an investment in their venture to develop proof of concept of technology to extract a high-value cellulose used by neutriceutical and gluten-free industries from spent grain prior to being used for feed.  This investment supports biofuel, neutriceutical, brewing and farming industries in Western North Carolina.

RiverLink

Part of RiverLink’s mission is the reclamation of watersheds and sub watersheds within the French Broad River watershed. The New Belgium project offers RiverLink an opportunity to work with New Belgium to

reclaim a sub watershed that travels right through the brewery site on Craven Street. The funding  RiverLink was awarded from the Clean Water Trust Fund enables the City of Asheville to install a number of stormwaterBMPs (Best Management Practices), permeable pavers, and information kiosks to describe how best to treat storm water and implement a model stream restoration project.

COMMUNITY + BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Asheville on Bikes

In 2009, before New Belgium invested in building a brewery, they invested in advancing our public space and bicycle connectivity by partnering with Asheville on Bikes as a Clips of Faith partner. As New Belgium’s first Asheville partner, the funds AOB generated at that event helped to purchase the Waller Track which has grown to be known as the Hominy Creek Greenway. As a Clips of Faith partner and a member of New Belgium’s Leaders Roundtable, AOB continues to partner with New Belgium to expand and improve bicycle transportation and celebration.

Connect Buncombe

New Belgium has provided funds to assist Connect Buncombe in our outreach with the public of Buncombe County to gather opinions of greenway investment and to provide outreach and education of the benefits of greenways.  They will be working with their planning partners: the municipalities within the County and non-profits that dedicate time and effort towards greenway issues to solidify our efforts for outreach and fundraising in a more unified manner.

Asheville Design Center

ADC is a design nonprofit that will be working with residents and businesses near the New Belgium site to design and build a bus shelter at the corner of Haywood Road and Craven Street. ADC will engage the community to gather research, record oral histories, scan historic photographs and collect stories that reflect the rich history of the Stockyard site and surrounding neighborhood. ADC designers will use this material to inform three draft conceptual designs for the bus shelter. The public will then have an opportunity to vote on their favorite design. This project is supported by New Belgium Brewing and the City of Asheville.

Green Opportunities

GO has been at the table with New Belgium from the beginning finding ways to connect sub-contractors with skilled and under-employed workers through GO. Green Opportunities is also a member of New Belgium’s Leaders Roundtable providing community insight and guidance to the process of moving to Asheville.

Low Elevation Ariel Photo

Ken Abbott is creating a photo document of the former Asheville Stockyards using portraiture, landscape, and low elevation aerial photography. He is developing plans to exhibit the photographs in the River Arts District.

Economic Development Coalition

Throughout the company site search process on the East Coast, the EDC led the marketing and recruitment effort for the greater Asheville Community.  Throughout a 12 month process, the EDC connected New Belgium to necessary expertise and advice, governmental and community resources, local partnerships and regional workforce development initiatives that laid the foundation for selection of the Asheville Community from more than 20 competing cities.

West Asheville Business Association/ Haywood Road Corridor Committee

A member of New Belgium’s Leaders Roundtable, the West Asheville Business Association (WABA) is a collection of small businesses located west of the French Broad River with the common goal of improving our community. Formed in 1950, the organization has helped to shape and support the West Asheville community through numerous safety, beautification, development and marketing projects. The addition of New Belgium Brewing to our community expands the possibilities of these projects.

The Haywood Road Corridor Committee is an inclusive community group dedicated to promoting responsible growth and development along Haywood Road. With extensive community input a Haywood Road Vision Plan has been developed which proposes guidelines for future development along the road. The vision plan will be presented to City Council for approval soon and follow up work towards a form-based code for the corridor is expected to start this year. New Belgium Brewing’s parallel community focus is helpful as West Asheville moves forward in this process.

 Asheville Area Riverfront Redevelopment Coalition

The Asheville Area Riverfront Redevelopment Commission has made land use recommendations to local and state government that have helped New Belgium to locate in Asheville. The purpose of the commission is to support the creation of a vibrant riverfront. The AARRC has collaborated as a leader at the New Belgium Community Leader Roundtable meetings to hear concerns and recommend appropriate actions to our appointing bodies. They support the community’s recommendations which have included: added pedestrian/bike amenities on Haywood Road, the study of alternate truck routes, and prioritizing parts of RAD TIP that will help diversify the vehicle routes to and from West Asheville and the RAD.

The Riverside Drive Strategic Plan will focus on finding the highest and best use for city-owned property directly across the French Broad River from the New Belgium site. The AARRC sees tremendous value in the community process spearheaded by New Belgium’s Leader Roundtable meetings and we will continue to partner with the City of Asheville to create a land use plan that enhances the mission of our regional riverfront.

AB Tech

ABTech introduces their new Craft Beverage Institute of the Southeast.  AB Tech provides progressive workforce solutions to train future and current employees to be a productive, fulfilled and skilled resource within New Belgium’s workforce, as well as the workforces of breweries across the Southeast.

Pollinate Collaborations

Pollinate builds relationships and has been supporting outreach and communications around New Belgium’s transition to Asheville, including: strategizing and nurturing the New Belgium Leaders Roundtable Coalition, event planning, relationship development, and media outreach.

INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERSHIPS

City of Asheville

The City of Asheville will make the following critical public infrastructure enhancements to support New Belgium’s $175 million investment in Asheville:

· Multi-modal roadway Improvements

· Greenway Design and Construction (RiverWay Connector Segment)

· Low Impact Parking Lot and Stormwater Management Area

· Five Points Intersection Improvement

· Waterline Upgrade – Craven Street

· Stormwater Mitigation (West Asheville/Waynesville Avenue watershed)

Adolfson & Peterson Construction 

They are the general contractor working directly with New Belgium to build the facility.

Perkins + Will

They are the design partner of the new East Coast Brewery.  Along with New Belgium, their goal for the project is to provide an innovative, ecologically responsible and beautiful brewery.

Equinox Environmental

Equinox is providing sustainable design services for the site such as the design for the greenway, innovative stormwater treatment, stream restoration, and assistance with some of the landscape architecture aspects of the project.

Hart Hickman

They are providing environmental consulting for beneficial reuse of a brownfields site.

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New Belgium Partner: Old World Architectural + Salvage Co.

 

Bradley Barrett from Old World Architectural + Salvage Co. is supporting deconstruction at the old stockyard and storage site along the French Broad River in West Asheville and River District–the future New Belgium brewery and liquid center site.  He is on-site this week gleaning samples of materials for New Belgium architects to re-purpose materials in the new brewery.

The architects will use the sample materials to model walls and other parts of the liquid center and brewery prior to building them.  Actual site deconstruction is slated to start in mid-late March.  To meet Bradley as well as 15 other New Belgium partners and the site team, attend the New Belgium Neighborhood Open House Thursday, March 7 anytime between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. at Isis Restaurant + Music Hall.

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Shut the Front Door!

Think Milkman, but with produce, cheese, eggs, fish! Aye!

Now that we are all thinking about food this week, and gratitude, and farmers markets are closed for the season, have any of you tried Mother Earth Produce?

They deliver: organic produce (lots from 20 or so local farms), Roots hummus, Wild Salmon Company salmon (wha? yes, yes they do), Copper Pot and Wooden Spoon pickles and other sour yumminess, Balsam Gardens meats and eggs, Ashe County cheese TO YOUR FRONT DOOR in Western North or South Carolina!

Post a comment for a special discount code if you want to try them out–I gotcha! And, yes, they are in line with the cost of organic offerings at the local groceries.  It’s really one of the things I’m so grateful for right now.

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November 30: Eat, Drink + Be Merry while Supporting Neighbors

Listen to jazz, eat, drink and be merry while you support neighbors in need.  Hosted by Mountain Housing Opportunities, The Housewarming Party benefits MHO’s Affordable Housing + Emergency Home Repair programs that serve underprivileged families in Buncombe County. Heavy hors d’oeuvres, beverages from The Merry Wine Market and New Belgium Brewery, and entertainment from the Butch Quisto Jazz Quartet comprise this charitable evening. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, November 30. Tickets cost $55 per person, $100 per couple. For more, visit www.mtnhousing.org or call (828) 254-4030.

IF YOU CAN’T ATTEND (you can still help)–this is clever!

Throughout the holiday season and during the event, an online gift registry lets you donate housewarming gifts, including: as little as $2.50 for a roof shingle and up to as much as you like for appliances, furnaces, and more, that go directly to those in need. It’s just like a wedding registry, and can fit any budget—if we all give a little, it can go a long way.  So, if you can’t make it to this event, please consider a donation of any amount here—there is no amount too small.

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Former AB Tech Culinary Director Takes Skills to a Younger Generation

Courtesy of MACFC

Mountain Area Child & Family Center, offering care and education to children ages 0-5 and their families, welcomes Bronwen McCormick as its new Director of Rainbow in My Tummy®. The healthy eating program for preschoolers, which kicked off in 2008, aims to prevent obesity by exposing children under five to colorful, nutritious foods that will promote lifelong preferences for healthy eating. The one-of-a-kind program is now being implemented in 11 early education centers in Buncombe County, with plans for expansion into surrounding counties and then beyond.

McCormick comes to MACFC from AB Tech’s award-winning Culinary Arts and Hospitality department, where she graduated first in her class to earn an Associates Degree in Culinary Technology, served as lab manager and instructor from 2004 to 2007 and Department Chairperson from 2007 until 2012. During her time at AB Tech, McCormick helped lead multiple culinary competition teams to state and regional acclaim and to a National Championship in 2007.

Under McCormick’s direction, plans for RIMT’s expansion include additional menus and recipes that significantly exceed minimal requirements for food served in early childhood education centers, training and curriculum for centers, teachers, and parents, an interactive website that will complement the current RIMT program, and an accreditation process for centers that have successfully implemented RIMT.

Long-term plans include teacher certification, assisting families to implement RIMT in the home, and partnering with community restaurants to offer healthier kids’ menus. With funding support from The Community Benefit Committee of Mission Hospital and United Way of Asheville & Buncombe County, MACFC is working to implement Rainbow in My Tummy® in additional Western North Carolina counties in 2013, with a push for state and national reach to follow.

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Two Cool for School

Two cool programs are happening in WNC schools: Asheville Community Design Lab (ACDL)  After-School and Mother Earth Produce’s Support Our Schools (SOS) Fundraising program.

Sponsor an ACDL Scholarship for one of 15 Students who need them

“For $130 per month, I’ve been able to sponsor a local student in a meaningful after-school program with artists, design professionals and others who are improving our neighborhoods…and teaching the next generation how to contribute.”

–Local small business owner who lives near a partnering school

Create a custom logo while learning the basics of marketing. Design shoes from concept to creation. Learn first-hand from an architect to design a home or bus shelter. Model a dream playground then bring it to fruition with professional designers, artists and builders.  A project of Roots + Wings School of Art, ACDL is an after-school program that engages students in critical thinking and innovation through principles of art and design for community reinvention.

Asheville Community Design Lab is devoted to programming focused on art and design for community reinvention. ACDL is a project-driven, after-school program that addresses what a typical school curriculum does not.  The ACDL works with students to learn about what’s beyond the walls of their schools, and teaches students how to fail in order to find better collective solutions to community problems. They believe problem-solving starts with listening and understanding.  They create symbiotic relationships with local schools, giving back to school art programs and offering scholarships to create inclusive spaces and collective voice.

Support Our Schools Fundraising Program

Rather than selling cookie dough and candy to raise funds for schools, Support Our Schools (SOS) enables schools to raise funds, while supporting local farms and local businesses, as well as health in our communities.  Schools can sign up with Mother Earth Produce, a farm to front door delivery service of organic produce and local edibles, to raise funds for their schools by selling bins of local produce and edibles. Co-owner Andrea DuVall is a former 6th grade teacher and is passionate about giving back to local schools.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to the School Fundraising page on www.MotherEarthProduce.com (click the purple button)
2. Fill out the SOS Registration Form.
3. Mother Earth Produce assigns your school an SOS code and sends you an outreach packet (with draft emails and outreach materials).
4. Your school reaches out to your networks with the SOS code.
5. The first 100 veggie bins sold with you school SOS code earns your school $4/bin, or $400.
6. Bin Benchmarks: You can continue to earn additional funding throughout the year for selling additional bins. Your school will earn $2 for any number of bins sold over 100 through May 31 of the following year!

Any parents or teachers from participating ACDL schools want to raise some scholarship funds by selling local, organic produce and edibles?

 

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New Belgium Subcontractor Open House Oct. 30

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Marriage is for All who Love

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