We had another CEFS sponsored field trip this past weekend this time to Asheville and it was awesome! Since we had a three day weekend for our national holiday we thought it would be worth it to go all the way to the mountains and boy were we right! We left on Saturday in a 15 passenger van and arrived in Asheville around early afternoon and went straight to Hickory Nut Gap, which is a small farm that raises their animals on pasture and sells the meats out of a cute little country store. A bunch of us went in on some beef and bacon for the coming days. We then checked in at the cabin near Black Mountain where we were staying at night and unloaded our stuff before heading into Asheville proper for some dinner and exploring. I went with Kristen, Jeremy, Louise and Wendi to an Indian restaurant downtown and had delicious Malai Kofta, which is a vegetarian dish made out of a nut/bean paste. We waited a long time for our food, but it was worth it because it was so tasty :P I also got to swing by Climax (a climbing gym) and see Rob for a couple of minutes. We were all pretty tired from the drive out so we went to bed pretty early.
On Sunday we all had a lazy morning which involved sleeping in, making eggs and bacon for breakfast and eating out on the front porch in rocking chairs. I stayed in bed till nine, but the I heard the 7:00am bugle that rang through camp. After we were all up and moving we gathered our swimsuits and towels and headed to a swimming spot in the Rocky Broad river just off of highway 9 (right past the Hillbilly Car Service store for future reference). This was probably the most awesome experience of the weekend because we all got to jump in and enjoy the cold water and just being in a mountain stream. I think Elena was the happiest out of all of us to be back in her special place (she is from Asheville). I had a little mishap with the rapids and ended up with a banged up and very sore knee. After the hike we went to Earthhaven, a small community outside of Asheville that uses environmentally friendly practices in their building, food production and energy production. It's a pretty intense community and to become a member is a long process that involves being an intern first and proving that you can be a positive member of the community. The next stop of the day was at the Crooked Creek Farm, run by Casey and Meredith Makissik (spelling?) where we grilled the steaks on the bar-b-que and had an informal discussion with them about the problems small scale farms faced. It was a great conversation to have because small scale farming is very often romanticized, but in actuality it takes years before the farmer really starts to see any profit and the hours are long and hard. the best advice they gave us: don't quite your day job. We toured their farm after dinner and saw the mobile chicken processing unit that Casey built with some money from Heifer International. It was a gorgeous setting in the pasture with a small enclosure full of ducks and chickens, beef cows and pigs grazing together before a mountain back drop right as the sun was going down. Heaven. We reluctantly left eventually and made our way to downtown Asheville where we watched the fireworks and hung out at a music bar for a little while.
Monday! Early start to the day as we visited with the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Program which seeks to be the link between the community and local farmers. They have done a lot of work in creating a local food guide with all the farms in the area and restaurants using local foods. They are also responsible for the bumper stickers you see throughout Asheville that say Eat Local- It's thousands of miles fresher! After ASAP we went to a community college that has a processing facilities that it rents out to small food businesses. The organization was called Blue Ridge Food Ventures. To close out our awesome weekend we went and got ice cream at Ultimate Ice Cream (I got Kahlua-Almond-Mocha/Mystic Chai cone) and spent some time at Warren Wilson's campus on the banks of the Swannanoa River. What a perfect weekend!
When asked what I liked best about the weekend, I hesitated to say any of the visits or swimming because while they were all wonderful, informative and fun, I think the best part was getting to know all the other interns so well and hearing all their crazy and awesome stories. There was just such a relaxed and happy feeling amongst everyone that it made this weekend the best of the summer by far.
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