Sunday, Sept. 27 marks the second annual Taste of Our Carolina Foothills, a food and wine event. Tickets are still available for this culinary feast, which will feature about 45 food and beverage artisans from the Foothills and surrounding areas.

Held at Overmountain Vineyards and Winery in Tryon from 1-5 p.m., this beautiful vineyard setting provides the perfect backdrop for a community gathering.  Guests will meander throughout three main areas that will each host an assortment of tastes and sips while listening to two live music acts.

Last year’s attendees, many from outside the area, raved about the quality and the quantity of foods and beverages offered. This year, in addition to a diverse and abundant amount of beverages from wine, beer and hard cider to distilled spirits, one can experience dishes such as smoked salmon nachos from Bright’s Creek Resort, six different flavors of wings and BBQ pork sliders from Mountain View BBQ, she crab soup and shepherd’s pie from Stone Soup.

Sarah McClure from Southside Smokehouse is making mini fried green tomato pimento cheeseburgers, and pulled pork and apple slaw sliders. Melanie from Green River BBQ in Saluda will share her famous tomato pie (that Bon Appetit has requested the recipe for) as well as a smoked beef bologna served with various mustards.

In addition to all these hearty tastes, there will be an abundance of fresh, local produce from places such as Twisted Fork Catering, Sunny Creek Farms, Manna Cabanna and the Mill Spring Farm Store. Southern Delights will be one of many to satisfy our sweet tooth with their house specialty, lemon-berry mascarpone cake, chocolate truffles with pecans and a few other goodies. Java Up will also be on site with some coffee treats.

Sponsored by Edible Upcountry Magazine, this annual event is the largest fundraiser that will allow Our Carolina Foothills, a 501(c)3, to continue to promote tourism and agri-tourism to the Foothills region. Monies earned will go to back into funding the current advertising campaign of “Eat, Play and Stay.”

Building recognition of Our Carolina Foothills, our tagline “ 4 Towns, 2 States, 1 Great Experience” will continue to brand our area. Another project this event supports is our “One Minute Ambassador” classes that are offered to all Foothills business owners and employees through a partnership with Isothermal Community College’s Hospitality program. The concept behind this one-day, two-hour class is to highlight many ways to provide excellent customer service to visitors and enable businesses to speak of the Foothills region in a cohesive and informed manner.

For more information on the event, visit ourcarolinafoothills.com or the Facebook page. Tickets are available through Eventbrite, at OMV or at Stone Soup. Transportation is being provided by Limo-Zen with overflow off-site parking courtesy of Tryon International Equestrian Center. This is a rain or shine event. Contact Suzanne Strickland for any other questions at 828-817-1079.

– Submitted by Mindy Wiener

 

Photos by Cindy Kunst