Celebrate fall at these Asheville harvest, beer, cider festivals
ASHEVILLE - October brings in the changing of leaves and relief from the summer heat. It’s also a time of harvesting crops that make hearty meals for cooler days and nights and liven up plates.
This month, celebrate the shift of seasons and agricultural bounty by attending harvest festivals in Asheville and across Western North Carolina.
The WNC Farmers Market Harvest Festival will be from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 14 at 570 Brevard Road.
The WNC Farmers Market, owned and operated by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, is open daily and year-round and serves household customers and wholesale consumers.
At the festival, the 36-acre indoor-outdoor marketplace, with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, will further showcase the array of local and regional growers and producers and their seasonal produce and goods.
“Our vendors love this event to share all of their fall products and locally made food products and produce,” said Western Ag Programs spokesperson Ellerslie McCue. “It’s a family-friendly focused event, and it’s a great opportunity to be outside and enjoy the beautiful things that fall has to offer here in Western North Carolina.”
For the second annual event, special festivities are planned for a communitywide celebration of the fall harvest.
Previously, the market hosted fall commodity days that highlighted select commodities in season, McCue said, but the event was enhanced to celebrate all of what the season has to offer and the growers, makers and vendors at the market surrounded by entertainment and activities for the public.
In the market
On average, the WNC Farmers Market hosts 150-200 vendors throughout the year.
At the Harvest Festival, guests will have access to a wide assortment of fresh late-summer and fall produce and products for retail sale.
Hot meals and snacks will be sold by vendors and food trucks, including Hit the Pit BBQ, Moose Café and DJ's Pickles Deli.
Popcorn, cotton candy, lemonade and other treats will be available, as well as locally sourced sorghum and apples for tasting.
“Henderson County is the seventh largest apple-producing county in the country. That’s a huge industry for us here,” McCue said. “In our market shops, we’ll have tables with six different varieties of apples where people can come and taste and celebrate our apple growers this fall.”
Fall plants and flowers will be in stock, too, for those wanting to spruce up their homes, offices and gardens.
Entertainment and activities
The family-friendly event will have plenty for younger guests to enjoy from free face painting to activities and games, like sand tables with mini tractors, tic-tac-toe, cornhole and pumpkin stem toss.
“It’s a great event for the families to come out and lots of things for the kids to do and enjoy,” McCue said.
A local tractor club will display its collection of antique tractors with a parade through the market to begin at 4 p.m.
Live music will be performed by area musicians playing Americana and bluegrass tunes.
WNC Foodworks
Open-air trams will be lined up to give guests a tour of the expansive market.
Harvest festivalgoers may tour WNC Foodworks, a new, on-site shared-use commercial kitchen, developed by the nonprofit Center for Agricultural and Food Entrepreneurship.
Oct. 14 will be the grand opening of the 5,000-square-foot facility that’s been designed as a production area for food truck operators, caterers, and manufacturers of retail or wholesale foods and natural products, and other individuals and small businesses in the food and beverage industry.
“This kitchen has the potential to have a huge impact in the community and to serve a need. What I love about it is it’s designed to be an incubator and an education kitchen,” McCue said.
In the case of a strawberry grower, they may decide to take their abundance of strawberries to the commissary kitchen and process it to make jam. WNC Foodworks would extend further assistance, such as training the grower on how to use the kitchen equipment and connect them to an entrepreneurial service, like Mountain Bizworks, to make or fine-tune a business plan.
“There’s a lot of hoops and hurdles, especially when you’re making food and food safety, and they’re there to guide you through that and help you avoid those blind spots,” McCue said.
The 15-minute tours of WNC Foodworks will be offered at 11 a.m., 12 p.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
More fall festivals to attend
WNC Fall Harvest Days-Antique Engine & Tractor Show. A two-day event of antique tractors, hit n' miss engines, crafts, antiques, toys, parts, tractor pull and food from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 13-14, WNC Agricultural Center, Boylston Highway, Fletcher. $8, free age 12 and younger. wncagcenter.org/events/2023/fall-harvest-days-2023
Burnpile. Burial Beer Co.’s annual beer tasting and music festival will be from 1-6 p.m. on Oct. 14 at Forestry Camp, 10 Shady Oak Drive, Asheville. Ages 21+. $50-$150.
Carolina CiderFest. North Carolina Cider Association and Shay and Company will present a cider-tasting festival celebrating local, regional and national apple growers and makers of hard cider, mead, apple wine and seltzers. The event will be 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Oct. 21 at McCormick Field, 30 Buchanan Place in Asheville. $45 general admission, $25 for designated drivers, and VIP passes for $75 and $95. carolinaciderfest.com
Eliada Home Fall Festival and Corn Maze. The annual fundraiser for Eliada, a nonprofit that services children, youth and families in need. The event series runs through Oct. 29, 3-7 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday at Eliada Home, 2 Compton Drive, Asheville. $12, $30 season pass, birthday party tent and admission $300. Call 828-772-9734. eliada.org
Hickory Nut Gap Farm. The family-owned and operated farm welcomes families from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. every weekend through Nov. 11 at 57 Sugar Hollow Road, Fairview. Hay rides, pony rides, apples, fresh-pressed cider, creekside play area, cornhole, relax in hammocks while the kids go down culvert slides, food truck, see farm animals, pumpkins and gourds for sale. hickorynutgapfarm.com.
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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Celebrate fall at these Asheville harvest, beer, cider festivals
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