Happy Thursday, Buncombe County!
💡 Buncombe Fact: The word "bunk" comes from right here. In 1820, Congressman Felix Walker gave a long and rambling speech on the House floor, and when colleagues begged him to stop he explained he was only "speaking for Buncombe," meaning the folks back home. The phrase became bunkum, then bunk, and it has meant nonsense ever since.
In today’s edition:
A fairy-themed second birthday in Black Mountain
The entire history of coffee, over dinner
Free hot dogs and cheaper plants in Weaverville
Ghost stories at a distillery
A slow Sunday on a Candler horse ranch
Two new sections we’re starting today
A butcher who started out of a pickup truck
Let’s get to it.
— Sean Kolina
Two years is the stretch where a lot of small places quietly disappear, so when one makes it, it’s worth a party! Peri Social House turns two on Saturday and is marking it with A Mid-Summer Night, which is exactly the kind of thing you would hope a Black Mountain gathering spot would do with an anniversary. The instruction from the owners is to bring a fairy crown and a pair of wings.
It runs all day and it is built for families rather than around them. Kids’ crafts start in the early afternoon, prosecco is three dollars, margaritas off the tap are eight, and nobody is going to look at you sideways for showing up in wings at two in the afternoon with a toddler on your hip. If you have been meaning to get out to State Street and never found the reason, this is a good one.
📍 Where: Peri Social House, 406 W. State St., Black Mountain
📅 When: Saturday, August 29th | Celebration all day, kids’ crafts 2pm – 3:30pm
💲 Price: Free to attend
🕯 Sufra Time: The Birth of Coffee
The bean was born in Ethiopia. Coffee was born in Yemen. MochaBox Coffeehouse on Haywood Road is spending a Friday evening on the whole story, served at a shared table over Arabian food and coffee. You get dancing goats and an Ethiopian legend, Yemeni Sufis who used qahwa to stay awake through night prayers, a pilgrim who allegedly smuggled seven beans out of the country, and a French officer who shared his water ration with a coffee plant on the way to the Caribbean.
The part that makes it worth writing up is the turn at the end, where the hosts draw the line between two mountain cultures that both built their lives around hospitality, storytelling, and gathering over a warm drink. Seats are limited and it is a seated dinner, so book rather than drop in.
📍 Where: MochaBox Coffeehouse, 1050 Haywood Rd., Asheville
📅 When: Friday, August 28th | 6pm – 8:30pm
💲 Price: Ticketed, booking required
🌱 Customer Appreciation Day at Reems Creek Nursery
Reems Creek Nursery in Weaverville is saying thank you the practical way: 10% off every plant on the property, all day Friday. Complimentary hot dogs from Blu Mtn. Steam’n Dogs run from 3-6pm, there is a veggie option, and drinks and chips are out all day while they last. Live music covers the same three-hour stretch and they draw raffle prizes every hour.
Late August is the smart time to plant perennials anyway, since the ground is still warm and the roots get a head start before frost. Bring the kids, and let them know how many of you are coming so they can plan the food.
📍 Where: Reems Creek Nursery, 76 Monticello Rd., Weaverville
📅 When: Friday, August 28th | 9am – 6pm, food and music 3pm – 6pm
💲 Price: Free
🌑 Haunts & Haints: A Night of Appalachian Storytelling
Modelface Comedy takes over Eda Rhyne Distilling late Friday for a night of cocktails and ghost stories, and the format is the good part: anyone can get up and tell one. Bring a piece of family folklore, a story about a road nobody drives at night, or whatever your grandmother swore she saw. Share one and you get a ticket for a free drink, which is a fair trade for stage fright.
📍 Where: Eda Rhyne Distilling Company, 101 Fairview Rd. Suite A, Asheville
📅 When: Friday, August 28th | Doors 8:30pm, stories 9pm
💲 Price: Sliding scale $5 – $15 | Ages 21+
🛍 Hominy Gatherin’ Market at Ruby Ranch
Fifteen minutes west of downtown, tucked into the mountains outside Candler, Ruby Ranch is a twenty-acre permaculture horse ranch that opens its fields once a month for the Hominy Gatherin’ Market. Local makers and small farms set up with pottery, herbal goods, cut flowers, produce, and farm eggs, and there are food trucks and live music to keep you there longer than you planned.
What makes it worth the drive is that it is not really a shopping trip. There are open fields, a creek, a shaded pavilion, and a bounce house for the kids. Bring a blanket, buy lunch from a truck, and let the afternoon go slow.
📍 Where: Ruby Ranch, 36 Kel County Rd., Candler
📅 When: Sunday, August 30th | 11am – 2pm
💲 Price: Free | Parking on site
Around the County
New this week. Buncombe is a lot bigger than downtown, so this is where the rest of it lives.
🌳 Black Mountain’s tailgate market is officially one of the best in the country. The Black Mountain Tailgate Market was voted the number one farmers market in North Carolina and seventh in the nation. It runs Saturdays from 9am to noon behind First Baptist Church on Montreat Road, and the Hillside Ramblers are playing this weekend. Market info
🌳 Flour has opened on Wall Street. Downtown picks up a new bakery on one of its prettiest and most walkable blocks. Read more
🌳 Ground is moving in Woodfin. Rocky River Apartments, a 120-unit rental development, is under construction as part of a round of affordable housing funding awarded across Western North Carolina. Read more
One to Know
Also new. A quick one every Thursday. Our full small business features run on Tuesdays, so think of this as the short version, and it is never paid and never sponsored.
🥩 Foothills Meats, Black Mountain
It started with a pickup truck. Casey and Amanda McKissick began selling locally raised meat out of the back of one at the Black Mountain Tailgate Market, and more than two decades later that has become a butcher shop on Black Mountain Avenue, a restaurant, and a working example of something most places only put on a chalkboard.
They buy whole animals from small farms in the region. That sounds like a slogan until you think about what it actually requires, which is finding a use for every part of the animal rather than ordering the four cuts customers ask for. It is harder, it is slower, and it is the reason the case looks different week to week.
📣 Know a business that belongs here? Hit reply with a name and we’ll check them out!
Other fun notes…
😋 Weekly Appalachian inspired recipe: Granny’s Chow Chow — the end-of-garden relish. Whatever is left out there when the nights turn cool goes in the jar, which is why no two families make it the same way.
🎵 Who we are listening to: Klingande - Jubel — “A message to the future generation... Don't let this masterpiece die.”
💛 Local Nonprofits. Bounty & Soul — a Black Mountain 501(c)(3) running free produce markets across the Swannanoa Valley, built on the idea that good food should not be the hard option. They distributed more than two million pounds of fresh produce last year.
🙏 Positive News Around the Globe: A woman found out her district’s teachers were among the lowest funded in the state, so she gathered a hundred of them in a room and handed out a million dollars in bonuses. Read Article
✨ Two years, twenty-three years, or two weeks. Somebody has to walk through the door for any of it to work.
🗳️ One quick question, and it genuinely shapes what goes in here:
What actually gets you out of the house on a weekend?
As always, we read every reply and truly appreciate hearing from you. If there’s something you’d like to see more of locally, let us know. Thanks for being part of the Buncombe County Digest community.
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Have an event you want to feature or want to advertise your business to our readers in Buncombe County? Drop us a line here → [email protected]
