Tag: Heritage Circle

Neomonde baking demonstrations at Heritage Circle

Fairgoers will notice a new smell wafting from Heritage Circle this weekend. The fresh-baked bread from Neomonde Baking Company joins the smells of warm apple cider and cured tobacco in a demonstration tent beside the old chapel. Artisans from the local bakery will spend four hours each day, starting today, bringing volunteers on stage to create some of the store’s signature recipes. The exhibit also featured artisan breads for sample. Here are some highlights from last Sunday’s demonstration: If you missed the baking demonstrations last weekend, you still have time to see and taste the delicious breads today through Sunday, Oct. 22-25, from 4…

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Accepting the Press Office Challenge: Tobacco tying 101

OK, so I took Firecracker up on her challenge to do something at the Fair that I had never done. As we were talking through this idea, it came to our attention that there were plenty of things to choose from, which seemed crazy since this is the 14th year for both of us. So on Friday after the official tobacco-tying contest was finished, I decided on the spur of the moment to try my hand at stringing tobacco. And I knew exactly who I was going to get to teach me to string tobacco – Sandy Jones of Maple Hill,…

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Loopin’ and stringin’

For the past three years, a new tradition has been taking root at the State Fair. It’s called Tobacco Heritage Day, and it’s on the first Friday of the Fair. On this day, the public is invited to help fill the old log barn in Heritage Circle with tobacco grown at the Oxford Tobacco Research Station. Tobacco is tied to tobacco sticks, then hung in the barn. Depending on where you’re from in North Carolina, the process of tying the tobacco is called looping or stringing. Once the barn is loaded, a wood fire cures it for about a week….

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Sights, Sounds and Smells: Mtn. State Fair, Part II

“Squilling” Earnhardt Jr., “Piggy” Gordon, “Rutter” Martin and “Hoggy” Jarrett of the Circle C Racing Pigs (a company based out of Newton, N.C.) make their laps on the Hog Speedway for their final prizes–cheese puffs! Read a great review of the race from the Times-News. And don’t forget to visit these little fellas when they travel to the State Fair in just a few weeks! The Ferris wheel at the Mtn. State Fair had incredible views of the mountains and, if you timed it just right, airplanes taking off out of the Asheville Regional Airport across the road. A curious…

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