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MILLS RIVER - The co-owners of Conosur Latin Fusion, a restaurant located at 4195 Haywood Road in Mills River serving Latin cuisine, said they are closing next month due to the N.C. 191 road widening project, but the North Carolina Department of Transportation said that isn't the case.

"We knew for a couple of years that they were going to widen the road. What we heard is that they were going to tear everything down around here and build a new road. Our lease ends in July, and we have to leave in September they told us," Conosur co-owner Patricio Vera told the Times-News on May 30. "We tried talking to people, but we never got a straight answer ... so it was just time to move on to the next thing."

NCDOT anticipates putting the contract for the $112.6 million project out for bidding in July 2024, according to David Uchiyama, the communications officer for the mountain region of the NCDOT. He also said the project doesn't require businesses located in the corner of N.C. 191 and N.C. 280 (Airport Road) to be relocated.

"The businesses at the intersection of NC 280 and NC 191 are not being relocated by the N.C. Department of Transportation or for any work associated with an upcoming project in the area," Uchiyama told the Times-News on May 30. "The right of way necessary for easements are minimal and do not impact the buildings or property necessary to operate a business.”

Vera, who is from Lima, Peru, said he worked at Grove Park Inn for 14 years before opening the restaurant in 2018 with Sergio Castro, who is from Quintero, Chile. The two met while Vera was at Grove Park.

The restaurant has been serving traditional Chilean and Peruvian food with a blend of American dishes for the past five years. Just three years after they opened Conosur, Vera said he and Castro began looking for other locations after learning about the road-widening project.

"We looked for two years for a different place around here and in West Asheville, but we couldn't find anything available. Anything that was available was big money," Vera said. "I never say never, but at the moment, we've both made other plans. I'm going back to Grove Park to work, and (Castro) is going to start a catering business in Asheville."

Vera has lived all over the world, including Peru, Puerto Rico, Italy and Canada and found his most recent home in Arden 23 years ago, he said. Vera said business at the restaurant remains steady, and that customers who have heard about the closing say they are sad to see it go.

"The community has been nothing but great to us," he said. "We are very grateful for the community. Our customers have been fantastic. We have a very loyal community here. They are very sad. They don't want us to leave."

The restaurant is open 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and is closed on Sunday and Monday. For more information or to place an order online, go to https://www.conosur.net/.

Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at [email protected]. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.

MILLS RIVER — Appalachian Mountain Brewery (AMB), Boone’s original brewery dedicated to community, philanthropy, and sustainability, has announced the grand opening of a new Mills River taproom, its first location outside of Boone. The new taproom and restaurant is located at 46 North Mills River Road, minutes from the entrance to Pisgah National Forest and its popular hiking and mountain biking trails. The grand opening celebration will take place Friday, June 23 through Sunday, June 25 and will feature live music, special limited edition pint glasses, and the brewery’s distinctive laidback Southern hospitality.

The new taproom opens at a pivotal time for Appalachian Mountain Brewery, following the recent announcement that the original founders Nathan Kelischek and Chris Zieber had purchased the brewery and cidery back from Anheuser-Busch. The brewers also just returned from the 2023 World Beer Cup, where they won Gold in the Golden or Blonde category (for Boone Creek Blonde Ale) and Silver in the American-Style Lager category (for their Down South Lager).

The new location boasts a full kitchen serving elevated Southern pub fare, a 3,000-square-foot taproom and 4,000-square-foot beer garden, over 100 parking spaces, and is set up to accommodate outdoor, indoor, and to-go orders. The space is dog- and kid-friendly and the AMB team also expects people to come in fresh off the nearby trails. “Our Boone taproom is known for its casual, welcoming atmosphere, and we are excited to bring that to Mills River,” says Jared Edwards, Director of Pubs at AMB.

Beverage options include 32 taps and a full bar, including cocktails, seltzers, wine, and AMB ciders in addition to AMB’s award-winning beer. Diehard AMB fans will appreciate the return of classics like Spoaty Oaty, as well as the new Bojangles Hard Sweet Tea, AMB’s recent collaboration with the Charlotte-based chicken and biscuit maker.

“We are stoked to bring AMB to Mills River,” said Nathan Kelischek, co-founder and brewmaster at AMB. “I was born and raised in Asheville and this feels like bringing AMB home. You can see the love for North Carolina and the outdoors in the taproom’s design elements.”

“This new spot is so close to Pisgah National Forest and really lends itself to building community around outdoor recreation and conservation. In Boone, we host a weekly bike meetup, and we’re planning to do something similar here,” says Chris Zieber, co-founder of AMB. “Beyond that, we’re committed to supporting local non-profits like MountainTrue and the Longleaf Alliance. It’s a tangible way for us to care for the outdoors.”

For the taproom and restaurant’s grand opening weekend June 23-25th, the Mills River and WNC communities are invited to enjoy:

To learn more, visit www.amb.beer/mills-river or follow AMB on social media @ambmillsriver.

About Appalachian Mountain Brewery

AMB proudly lives out its values of community, philanthropy, and sustainability by supporting and revitalizing communities, mountains, and rivers. When AMB’s original taproom opened in 2013, AMB became the first brewery in Boone, NC, and quickly became known for its award-winning beer and laidback Southern hospitality. AMB has won multiple awards at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup for their Boone Creek Blonde Ale, Down South Lager and Hop Rain Drop IPA. Learn more about AMB at www.amb.beer or connect on social @appalachianmountainbrewery.

Flavor 1st Growers & Packers, which grows and packs more than 30 different varieties of produce from its Mills River, NC, location, has recently started harvesting in south Georgia, and is looking forward to a successful Georgia growing season.

“In North Carolina, we have veg plantings in the ground down off of the mountain. Here in our mountain valleys we are prepping the ground, getting plastic pulled and laying the framework to start dropping plants in the ground to get us off and running towards a successful summer,” said Seth Grant, who works in sales for the company.

Business has started off strong, which Grant noted is usually the case in the beginning of the year as people are eating healthier with New Year’s resolutions, and the company typically sees demand go up during the first couple months of every year.

“Veg items have already started in south Georgia, with quality looking good so far,” Grant said. “Tomatoes will start around the end of May/early June. With the warmer spring and full moon on June 3, we are anticipating the South Carolina crops to start a little earlier than normal. We are expecting quality to be good this season once they get going.”

North Carolina is home to the majority of Flavor 1st’s day-to-day team, and the company takes a lot of pride in being strong during its own growing season.

“We have a lot of history here,” Grant said. “Flavor 1st is a family-based company, and we have farmed in these fertile mountain valleys of western North Carolina for eight generations, dating back to the late 1700s. Many of our team members grew up in and around produce and agriculture in this area, so it’s in our blood.”

He credits the summers in the mountains of western North Carolina, with its long, warm days and cooler nights — coupled with the fertile, river bottom valley soils — to help the company produce high quality, great tasting tomatoes and vegetables.

“We will pick here in the mountains until the frost, which is usually around October 10,” Grant said. “After we are done picking here, we can continue to pick down off the mountain as they usually stay warmer for a couple more weeks.”

Working in North Carolina is vital to Flavor 1st, and the company is strategically located on the East Coast, giving it the ability to ship overnight to most everywhere east of the Mississippi River.

“If we can’t get there overnight, we can get there in two days,” Grant said. “This allows us to get very fresh product on the store shelves, giving us a high level of consumer satisfaction.”

Flavor 1st has recently updated some of its equipment lines in the main packinghouse in North Carolina in order to help increase its efficiencies and put out a better end product for its customers.

“This will also increase our ability to produce more packages during the day, leading to more opportunities for growth,” Grant said. “The key to our strong retail partnerships is communication. With all of the uncertainties that we deal with in produce, unexpected issues do happen. The key to maintaining strong partnerships is constant communication from plantings all the way through delivery.”

He noted that people in produce all deal with a lot of the same challenges day-to-day, and competition among all ends up benefitting the customer in the end because everyone is pushing each other to put a better product on the shelves for the customer.

“I’m proud of our strong history of customer service, focusing on today, while also balancing an eye on the future and growth,” Grant said. “I think you have to maintain this balance to be successful and sustainable in the industry today.”

A graduate of the University of Miami, Keith Loria is a D.C.-based award-winning journalist who has been writing for major publications for close to 20 years on topics as diverse as real estate, food and sports. He started his career with the Associated Press and has held high editorial positions at magazines aimed at healthcare, sports and technology. When not busy writing, he can be found enjoying time with his wife, Patricia, and two daughters, Jordan and Cassidy.

MILLS RIVER, N.C. (WLOS) — For WNC brewers pushing to produce an all-local farm-to-tap product, the bitterness in their beer has been a challenge, dating back 15 years.

Brewing innovation: North Carolina's journey to perfect local hops for craft beer industry

"In 2007-2008 there was a shortage of hops among the craft brew industry," explained N.C. State University's Dr. Jeanine Davis. "A number of entrepreneurs in North Carolina tried to grow hops for this emerging industry. They had a lot of difficulties, and they came to us at the University and at Extension to see if we could help them out."

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Davis heads up the New and Emerging Crops Program at the University's Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River, which recently hosted a hop tour for nearly 60 local growers and brewers. She said local hop production was initially just 20 to 25% of crop yields in the beer-producing region of the Pacific Northwest, and one big reason, is shorter daylight hours in southern latitudes. "Our days are only about 14 hours, right before the Summer Solstice, but up in the Pacific Northwest, it's about 15 hours, and that one-hour difference, makes enough of a difference for these plants."

To find hops just right for the WNC climate, the MHCREC began a breeding initiative in 2016, under the watchful eye of Research Specialist Dr. Luping Qu. "Luping would tag plants, looking for specific characteristics. He said, 'I think we have the material here, that we could breed a better hop for North Carolina.'"

The hops Luping has bred so far are not named, designated only with numbers. The NC 1601 is one Jon Schneider is excited about. Schneider runs Etowah’s Sideways Farm and Brewery, and he is one of several local beer makers who have tested out the Center’s hops.

“To me, they have more of a noble character,” Schneider said the local hops are especially suited to lagers and farmhouse beers and have spread the word of the MHCREC's success to other breweries. "Sierra Nevada has used them, as well as Burning Blush in Mills River. And I'm getting them slowly out to other brewers around the area."

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Macon County grower Jeff Lee runs CreekSong Hops, and he became interested in growing hops for fun, an off-shoot to his time spent as a home brewer. "We started growing hops in 2015 as just a kind of out-of-the-blue experiment."

That experiment has led to increasing yields and a relationship with Franklin brewery Lazy Hiker, which produces small batches of CreekSong Fresh Hop IPA annually. Head Brewer Graham Norris took a whiff from a cup full of this year's hop selection. "These are some fresh-picked Cascades, and they smell pretty delicious!" Lazy Hiker brews one to two barrels, 31 to 62 gallons, of CreekSong beer each growing season.

With guidance from the MHCREC, Lee said his production increased dramatically this year, and beer lovers will soon be able to sample both an IPA and a Pale Ale at Lazy Hiker's Franklin and Sylva tap rooms.

Davis said it will take some time for North Carolina to become a hops hotbed, but she is encouraged by the strides the MHCREC program, funded chiefly by USDA grants and gifts, has made. "We have very experienced brewers, who are familiar with the Pacific Northwest, look at our plants and go, 'Yes, this is going to happen in time.'"

July 2023 - 'Funguy' Greg Carter has been cultivating incredible mushrooms since 2006. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he had to morph his Mills River, NC business to agrotourism -- Deep Woods Mushrooms now offers hunt tours and cultivating classes for anyone interested. (Photo credit: WLOS Staff)

MILLS RIVER, N.C. (WLOS) — A man in Mills River is passionate about fungi and he loves to share his mushroom knowledge.

In 1999, Greg Carter - we will call him "Johnny Mushroom Spore' - was looking for unique Christmas gifts for friends and family. A neighbor asked if he'd ever thought about mushroom logs.

She sent him home with fresh shitakes plucked from those logs and after he cooked them up, he went online to order 30 logs as gifts. The next year he did 100 logs, then 300 the following year, then 700!

"By 2006, it mushroomed into a business - pun intended - and there's no turning back," Carter said. "It is so interesting. I realized what I'm doing is one of the oldest forms of mushroom cultivation in the world. They were doing this 1,500 years ago. Hacking into logs, packing the spores in there, wrapping them in banana leaves or whatever to grow mushrooms. We have power tools now to make it easier, but this is not new by any means."

Local chefs in the mountains flocked to Johnny Mushroom Spore to purchase all kinds of mushrooms, then the pandemic hit. With restaurants struggling, he had to morph his business to agrotourism. Deep Woods Mushrooms now offers hunt tours and cultivating classes -- all thanks to “The Funguy.”

"This is the most biodiverse area in the world," Carter said, describing just how unique Western North Carolina is. "There's more species of everything here than anywhere else. Why is that? Millions of years ago the Appalachian Mountain chain was bigger than the Himalayas. The polar ice caps came down and they stopped here. When they receded, they left behind seeds and spores and animals and all sorts of stuff."

When Carter cultivates mushrooms on his farm, he is mimicking Mother Nature. It is labor intensive, but he says you won't find a fresher mushroom anywhere. He takes his to the Transylvania Farmers' Market in Brevard every Saturday.

They have health benefits, like vitamin D and cancer-fighting properties, but the mushrooms Carter grows and hunts can be a tasty treat.

"Most people that say they hate mushrooms grew up with those white, slimy, white button mushrooms in a can or they picked them off a pizza or pulled them out of spaghetti," he said. "If you could taste some of the culinary treats out there such as the Shaggy Stalked Bolete or the Beefsteak Mushroom - they're phenomenal! It's a culinary treat that very few people will ever get to experience because you won't find them in the grocery store and it's very rare unless you're paying top prices for your entrees in local restaurants."

Many people who have taken his classes have gone on to do great work with mushroom cultivation in laboratory settings, like cloning. Others have simply improved their health and put a new, fresh treat on the table.

"To see people who take my classes, and then go far beyond what I'm doing, it's very exciting! But I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing."