Business renamed to Down to Earth Home and Garden Center

Down to Earth Garden Center has expanded near downtown Tryon and now incorporates food by Chef Richard Ruben, art by Kim Attwooll and home furnishings provided by local interior designer Gillian Drummond.

The store, which has been in Tryon for 19 years and owned by Fran and Gary Garside, reopened to include more services on April 1.

Chef Richard Ruben is a world-renowned chef who has appeared on the Food Network and has also written The Farmer’s Cookbook. He will be selling homemade sauces, spices and oils as well as frozen foods and sauces to go.

“The vinegars are wine-based, so they take about four months’ time to make,” Ruben explained. “The oils are from south Georgia and a small, burgeoning industry and is without a doubt the best olive oil in America. You never would have thought Georgia and olive oil, given that it is the peach state, but that might be usurped.”

Ruben said “seasonally driven” frozen foods are on sale in small batches and that he never makes more than 15 of any of the foods he makes.

“I’m trying to capture the seasons,” Ruben said. “Of all this, I grow mostly everything I put up. Out of the foods that I am doing, they are fully cooked and just grab-and-go to reheat at home. At this point, I’m converting to 90 percent of it being local up into Asheville. If I start in the Foothills and work my way up the mountain, I can have an extended season by about two weeks.”

Spring for Ruben means that more greens and leafy vegetables are used as the backbone for his foods. He said he has about 35 different varieties of herbs he grows in his garden at home.

He also helps the Garsides with the plants on their side of the store, producing what he referred to as a symbiotic relationship that is beneficial for both him and the owners. The Garsides will close the plant side of the business for the season on July 1 and will reopen for September and October.

“We used to have a Christmas shop inside, but we thought it was silly to have a Christmas shop that was only going to generate revenue two months out of the year,” Fran Garside said. “So, we renovated the inside for things that would generate more revenue for us while we could still have the plants outside. Richard is a genius, an expert when it comes to plants.”

Attwooll is an artist who decorates cards and prints using watercolors for sale in one section of the newly renovated store in her “A Small Work of Art” room.

“My husband and I lived on a boatyard in New York for many years,” Atwooll said. “I had watercolors itn my desk and after the payroll was done and the kids were fed, whatever, I could break the watercolors out and paint something small.”

When she gave a small, painted card to her mother, Attwooll’s mom urged her to sell her works. After moving out of the boatyard on Long Island to Florida, Attwooll took her mother’s advice and began producing as many as 10,000 small cards a year.

“These aren’t Hallmark cards and these aren’t cards that sit in warehouses and are produced in China,” Attwooll said. “Every single card you will see I have painted something. Every print is embellished by the artist, making each one unique. I add glitter to them when necessary and try to make the prints look raised using double-sided tape.”

Visitors can also buy the original prints for some of the cards hanging on the walls of her section of the store. Attwooll also sells wood burning pieces and adult coloring book prints at her shop.

Drummond operates out of her section of the store and brings her interior designer intellect to Down to Earth Home and Garden Center. Relocating her services from the Drummond House to the store has helped her become more “accessible” to her clients.

“Aside from decorating jobs, I’m getting people who want decorative items that I can sit down and research on to find,” Drummond said. “I’m going to be getting more furniture from a showroom and we’ll be having a sale for that first week of June on upholstery.”

Aside from upholstery, Drummond also sells dog pillows that come in 152 varieties and said people who have pets or children can have a picture of their pets weaved on to a pillow or tote bag.

Hostess gifts like napkins, candles and planters that are based on an English garden are also available.

“The biggest draw is that people can come and meet me and talk about what their design project is rather than doing it over the telephone, which seems to be disconnected in some way,” Drummond explained. “It’s more accessible and people can find out who I am and what I do, and whether they like me or not before they commit.”

Drummond said she will be available at the shop, unless she has a client elsewhere, Wednesdays through Fridays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and on Tuesdays and Saturdays by appointment.

“Anything is available to me from lamps to accessories to furniture,” Drummond said. “I even work with a company based here in North Carolina so you could have a piece of furniture in as a little as two to three weeks as opposed to six to 12 weeks through a big store like Ashley’s.”

Down to Earth Home and Garden Center is located at 958 Hwy. 176 by the state line. Call 828-859-2283 for information.