APP Angels- Quilt Trails, Poor Man's Suppers and More- THE COVE AT CELO MOUNTAIN

SPRING HAS SPRUNG  

Backyard of an estate home within THE COVE AT CELO MOUNTAIN

Trout pond within THE COVE AT CELO MOUNTAIN

One of our favorite breakfast spots in Burnsville, NC

Blue Ridge Regional Fitness Center in Burnsville, NC

Mary Jane's Organic Cafe - you'll never see these empty tables!

view from the cabin porch

Mayland Continuing Eduacation - MassageTherapy

Parkway Playhouse - NC's oldest continuously operating summer theater

Historic Yancey Movie Theater

Poor Man's Supper - Ramps and Streaked Meat

and like our mountains - there are beauties to behold everywhere you look.
I am going to call this APP Angels - Appalachian Angels  - the people and places that make this place so special and unique.

When you get here, one of the things that will tug at you the most, is to get deeper back into the mountains.  The All-American small towns around are our roots, the mountains are our souls - the places and people expressions of our spirits.

Let me see if I can express this a little better.  At the break of dawn, I head to Appalachian Java for specialty organic coffees and homemade breakfast delights that include local sausage.  Then, I move on to the  Blue Ridge Fitness Center with  Bradford Pear and blooming cherry trees beckoning me out-of-doors for the cardio part of my workout.  For lunch, I stop by Mary Jane's organic cafe for salads, homemade specials and baked good - often with live blue grass music as the backdrop.  Work?  OK, at least I can sit on the porch with my laptop and listen to the birds, the sound of the rushing creek, and watch the antics of the wild turkeys. Then, I head to any of the following for a drive through the mountains and a homemade dinner - unless, of course, I prefer to stay on the porch and move from the work table to the hammock and a great book.  The evenings offer courses in Continuing Education at Mayland Community College (ranked #4 in America by Washington Monthly and free for the over-60 crowd) for classes in everything from basket-weaving (according to the Fibonacci method), to foreign languages for travel, to welding for use on-the-job or in Trashformation Art.  Theater?  Sure - world-premiere stage theater at our Parkway Playhouse - North Carolina's oldest continuously operating summer theater - or the latest movie at our historic Yancey Theater ($5 a ticket and free soft drink refills).

One of my absolute favorite things, though, are community suppers.  These include:
*Empty Bowl Suppers (we are the hometown of the founders of this non-profit that has raised millions for the relief of local and world hunger.)  Homemade soup and bread anyone?  Take home the handcrafted bowl in which your soup was served.  Every time you look at it in your cabinet, remember those who go without and embrace the power of one to change that.
*Then there are the Monday night free homemade suppers for the community at Higgins Memorial Methodist, as well as the constant fundraiser suppers for the firemen, Lion's Club, various churches, ad infinitum.
*You will want to go to at least one Poor Man's Supper.  Now this is not to feed just poor people but to raise money for those in need.  Here in the mountains those translate into Streaked Meat ("streaked" is pronounced as 2 syllables - not 1- a local favorite.)  My tiny church with about 30 in attendance will have 100 at these fundraisers- IF we serve the Streak-ed Meat, pinto beans, ham, corn bread, coleslaw and dessert - menu does not vary.)
*Ramp Suppers - only in the spring when the wild ramps are harvested.  Every group tries to out-cook the other with a new recipe.  Knife and Fork used ramps to help them win the WNC Chef Challenge in 2011 against Grove Park Inn, Biltmore Estates, etc.

We have food for your soul as well as your stomach.  This is another local non-profit that is spreading through the nation - our Quilt Trails.  Everyone knows that handmade quilts are one of our Appalachian cultural treasures.   THE COVE AT CELO MOUNTAIN helped this established non-profit when it was first emerging by being its Corporate Sponsor for over 2 years.  Enjoy the heritage and beauty of this ancient art on our historic barns (many old tobacco barns), cabins, homes, and public buildings.  The names of the Quilt Blocks give a hint of the stories that are written on each and available for purchase. (My humble abode and quilt block is included in these!)

LIVE THE MOUNTAINS; BREATHE THE DREAM

Interview with Knife and Fork's Chef Nate Allen - Final Four WNC Chef Challenge 2011 (so far!)

Clockwise: Chef Nate Allen of Knife and Fork; preparing the dish;

"made from scratch" ingredients; the #1 dish - Tempura ramps topped andouille sausage and a savory waffle;

preparing the Knife & Fork dessert; Team Knife and Fork wins! (All photos from WNC Chef Challenge - WNC magazine.)

Tour THE COVE AT CELO MOUNTAIN during June (866-378-4769), and be our guest at this award-winning ten-table restaurant that serves gourmet farm-to-table cuisine. Chef Nate Allen and his wife, Wendy Gardner, opened up Knife and Fork in historic, small town Spruce Pine, NC, two years ago. This hometown favorite is rapidly gaining kudos from all over Western North Carolina. Nate kindly took a moment for an email interview with us.

(The Cove at Celo Mountain is located between the two historic "small-town America" communities of Burnsville and Spruce Pine. We office in Burnsville but consider both towns "home.")

We hear rumors that you were chef for high-profile clients like Reese Witherspoon, Toby Maguire, maybe Leonardo DiCaprio before you “came back home.” Is this true, and is this home? Someone told us Wendy is from Burnsville. Why did you go to Spruce Pine instead of Burnsville?

I am aware of rumours regarding my past employers. Something that has made me a commodity in the private cooking world is my respect for confidentiality. For five years before moving here I had the great opportunity to work/live/and travel with many of the hollywood elite. Thats as specific as I am willing to get. North Carolina has to me always been my home. My parents were both born in NC. I was born in the nations capitol. But never lived there. Then my list of addresses after birth reads like I was on the run. My father was transferred as often as every 3-5 years to a new state. Wendy and her family moved to Burnsville from Sarasota FL when she was three. I would say that she is from here but that really depends on who you ask around these parts.We moved back to Burnsville in June of 09. Initially we had not planned on opening a restaurant so soon. Instead, I planned to get a decent garden going, meet some other growers and begin a slow planning phase. As you know, Yancey was still a dry county in 09 and Spruce Pine was newly wet as of that previous April. I would not have a business were it not for the ability to have alcohol sales. Some one brought our attention to our current location a few days after our arrival. We met with the landlord and saw the trains (I love trains) and three days later we had our space. We also had a lot of work to do.

We understand you are on the Spruce Pine Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. We have had clients ask if Spruce Pine plans a Riverwalk with restaurants and shops like in San Antonio, TX – or do they plan to do some “sprucing up” with the railroad depot and maybe have train excursions similar to the one in Bryson City?

i am not on the board of the chamber in Mitchell. I am on the board of the Downtown Spruce Pine Mainstreet Assoc.. We have created a master plan for the town and have hopes for implementation. Our Director, Bryan Freeborn, is working diligently to help us chip away at small projects as we attempt to find the funding to reach our goals. I know that we are not using the river walk in TX as a model. The depot is unfortunately the property of CSX and they are not concerned with its appearance. I would like to paint it guerilla style in the middle of the night because it is an eyesore. A passenger train came through for the initial heritage festival here in Spruce Pine a number of years ago. It would be dreamy to have that be a regularity but CSX finds much more profit in the transit of our mountain tops than in half full passenger cars.

Where did you study the culinary arts? What is your approach/philosophy to your menu selection and presentation? We hear you prefer local, organic ingredients but know that you highlight special cheeses and beers from out-of-state as well. Will you try to stay almost exclusively with local, farm-to-table gourmet cuisine? By the way, you got huge kudos from one of our clients, who has a second home in Switzerland, with your tempura ramps (or so she called them.)

I trained at Johnson & Wales in Providence RI. My approach and philosophy are based on the idea of how we might be able to operate 100 years ago. No global economy or mass transit. We source our ingredients locally because it turns the changing seasons and their offerings into a celebration and a ritual of appreciation. I do not believe that I should be buying foreign tomatoes or any other vegetable just because the modern palate has come to expect everything and anything to be available at anytime. Real responsible living and the health and joy that they bring are anything but convenient. Wine and cheese and beer are fantastic and need to be sourced from outside of this specific region because no one is really doing that here. This tends to be an extremely acceptable exception to my general rule.

Would you be willing to share a recipe with us to put in the blog?

sure I would share a recipe. Any request? (This will appear in a future blog.)

We would love to hear your comments about the Chef’s Challenge. We are taking a lot of pride in your success and are so thankful you are here and that we as a local business can be the recipients of your talent.

The challenge has been fantastic. I love getting a chance to meet and work with other creative kitchen artists. i have made some great friends and i cannot wait to compete again on June 6th.

Is there anything you would like us to know in regards to your restaurant or plans for the future – like opening a second location in Burnsville!?

I have one plan for the future. I want to fill my restaurant and feed people great food while continuing to uplift the local agricultural community. i will not open another restaurant unless some benevolent human being pays for my dream space and my dream crew and acts only as a silent partner and I retain ownership and complete creative control.

We so hope you will attend the next round of the WNC Chef Challenge and support Nate and Wendy and Knife & Fork. "They do us proud!"

To order tickets for the Final Four WNC Chef Challenge on June 6

Video by Downtown Spruce Pine

Photos: http://www.wncmagazine.com/photogallery/wnc_chefs_challenge_2011_week_7

Photo/ WNC Interviewhttp://www.wncmagazine.com/wineandfood/allen