Slice of Western North Carolina’s artisan food scene

Editor’s note: The following story from our new Asheville bureau was filed and scheduled prior to the arrival of Hurricane Helene. We’re running it as planned because it’s testament to the vibrant culinary community that the historic flooding ravaged, and a reminder of how much help is needed. To that end, Blue Ridge Public Radio is maintaining a list of WNC-based relief efforts, and World Central Kitchen is serving meals on Coxe Avenue.

When you hold a piece of local cheese in your hand, you are holding a bite-sized representation of the very grass eaten by the cows or goats whose milk was used to make the cheese. You’re on the cusp of sampling the season during which they ate that grass, and tasting the highly-specific microbiomes and flora that populated the air around them. The idea that soil, sunlight, and climate influence flavor—termed “terroir” when the ingredient is a wine grape—is very much applicable to dairy and cheese.