On the road

While on our recent trip to the mountains in Western North Carolina, we took food in a cooler because it is so hard to find food on the road. It is not just that it is hard, but it is very stressful for us. It isn't just that we want to have vegan foods, which we do, but we also would prefer to eat food lower in fat than most prepared foods. So we search and grow increasingly frustrated. This trip we did it right though. We had a cooler and enough food to graze on fat-free vegan foods the entire 11 plus hours drive.

Our wonderful host and hostess actually ate several vegan meals with us. Hostess P had a delicious lentil vegetable soup simmering on the stove when we arrived and kept us supplied with corn chips and salsa, nuts, fruits and excellent veggie-based meals throughout our stay. Host B had enough of the vegan food by the end of our visit however so they enjoyed meat the last night while we continued to enjoy our usual diet.

One day we went into Brevard at lunch time. We checked out Jason's, which had a couple of choices on the menu for us, and then decided on Falls Landing , which actually had the word vegetarian on the menu. I had a fabulous spicy black bean taco salad. Although his black bean burger and fries also looked good, Jerry eyed my salad with envy as he ate. Our host and hostess happily ate salads with lots of fresh greens. We next grocery shopped at Ingles, which emphasizes organic produce and has a large selection of Veggie cheeses.

We drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway and had a surprising meal at the Pisgah Inn. The elevation there is over 5000 feet so the view was spectacular. Sitting at a table at the window soaking in the view, Jerry and I both had penne pasta with an excellent marinara sauce, sliced mushrooms and spinach and a mixed greens salad. Host B had a portobello mushroom sandwich which also looked very tasty.

While in the actual city of Brevard for lunch, we visited the new Transylvania County Public Library. Our host and hostess were justifiably proud of this new facility and the contributions of so many local people that made it possible. Among the many user friendly services was a very large community handouts display. It was there that I found the bumper sticker above, part of a promotional campaign of The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. The food may not have traveled, but we did. We did our best to consume local produce and hope some day to return to do it again. If you want to know more about eating local, check out this page from the Appalachian project and read Barbara Kinsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of Food Life."