Calendar of Events

NOMINATIONS BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE

2021 THOMAS WOLFE MEMORIAL LITERARY AWARD

The Western North Carolina Historical Association is now accepting nominations for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. Originated by the Louis Lipinsky family and now supported by Michael Sartisky, PhD, the Award is a partnership between WNCHA and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Advisory Committee. It has been presented by WNCHA since 1955. The award comes with a $2,500 cash prize.

The deadline for submission of nominated works is July 31, 2021. Anyone with knowledge of an author who meets the qualification criteria may nominate the author for the award. To be considered, an entry must be a published work of fiction, nonfiction, drama or poetry and meet the following criteria:

1. It must be a first edition work; revised editions of published works will not be considered for the Award.
2. The publication date must be between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021.
3. The author must be a native of western North Carolina or a resident of western North Carolina for at least twelve months prior to the closing date for the Award.
4. An author may also qualify if the work submitted has a focus on or setting in western North Carolina.

Western North Carolina includes the Qualla Boundary and the following 25 counties: Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, and Yancey.

The Award Panel this year consists of: Catherine Frank, Chair, Director, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville; Dee James, retired Director of the First-Year Writing Program at UNC Asheville; Tom Muir, Historic Site Manager, Thomas Wolfe Memorial; Gordon McKinney, PhD, former president, Appalachian Studies Association; Terry Roberts, PhD, Director, National Paideia Center; Jim Stokely, President, Wilma Dykeman Legacy.

Nomination letters must specify the following eligibility criteria:

1. date of publication
2. birthplace or residence of author
3. setting of work

Nominators should submit a cover letter along with three copies of the work postmarked no later than July 31, 2021 to:

Wolfe Award Committee

℅ Anne Chesky Smith

WNC Historical Association

283 Victoria Road

Asheville, NC  28801

An awards ceremony and reception, in honor of the finalists and 2021 Award recipient, will be held in early December 2021.

The Association presented the first Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award to Wilma Dykeman in 1955 for The French Broad. The Award has continued to be funded, in part, by Mrs. E. Frank Edwin, a member of the Lipinsky family and for the last three years by WNCHA, and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Advisory Board, both with support from Michael Sartisky, PhD. Other recipients of this prestigious Award include Robert Morgan, Gail Godwin, John Ehle, Robert Brunk, Michael McFee, Lee Smith, Ron Rash, Wayne Caldwell, and Terry Roberts. Sandra Muse Isaacs was the recipient of the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award for her book: Eastern Cherokee Stories: A Living Oral Tradition and Its Cultural Continuance.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

Your vegetable garden is likely approaching peak production time—but when and how to harvest? Even if you are a pro, here’s how to make sure those caring for your precious crops while you’re away know when to pick!

What matters about harvest time?

• Harvest stage affects flavor and yields:
  • Picking too soon not only reduces the amount of food your garden produces but also may mean missing that perfectly ripened taste—although not all vegetables lose flavor after picking.
  • Waiting too long definitely means missing the best flavor—think sweet corn turned starchy—and your produce actually spoils. Crops literally go to seed have accomplished their goal and will stop producing!
• Factors that affect harvest and storage.
  • Warmer temperatures after picking can affect flavor—crops like peas and sweet corn that turn starchy, for example, need immediate cooling. Joseph Masabni of Texas A&M Extension, advises “harvest these vegetables early in the morning or right before you intend to use them.”
  • Not all crops benefit from refrigeration, however! And humidity levels and air circulation are important, too! If you’re not going to use your bounty immediately, some crops, such as garlic, dry onions, potatoes, and tomatoes are best stored only at room temperature, according to UC-Davis Post Harvest Technology specialists (see below). They also recommend that cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers be refrigerated only for 1 to 3 days and then used as soon as you remove them from the cold.
  • Advise those harvesting in your absence how often you check your crops, and which are most time-sensitive!

 Things to look for when you harvest

Harvesting takes more time than you’d expect—look carefully for items to pick amongst all those leaves and vines. This makes harvesting a great time to give your garden plants a quick check-up!

• Size matters!
  • Jokes abound about baseball-bat-size zucchini, but squash aren’t the only crops that can grow out of useful size.
  • If you intend to eat fresh beans rather than saving them to use dry, the beans need to just start to fill out their pods. 
    

    

     

• Color changes are usually important, too.
  • Tomatoes turning red are an obvious example, but how red is the best time for picking? Maybe earlier than you think! Picking at the “breaker” stage rather than fully red means your tomatoes will continue to ripen indoors, taste vine-ripened, but won’t suffer sunscald, or damage from insects or birds. 
    

    

     

  • Cucumbers should still be uniformly green, not starting to yellow. 
    

    

     

  •  Eggplants should be purple (light or dark depending on the variety), but still glossy, not dull 
    

    

     

  • Watermelons, on the other hand, should develop a duller, rougher surface and the spot touching the ground should be yellowing, not white 
    

    

     

  • .Detecting defects may mean removing fruits before they take any more resources from the plant—think blossom-end rot on tomatoes or peppers—or harvesting while part of the crop is still salvageable—such as a nip out of an otherwise healthy tomato.
  • Damage may alert you to insect infestations—minimize or eliminate, by hand-picking the culprits—such as snails or slugs—or treating to prevent further damage—wash away aphids on greens or treating pickleworm infestations of cucumbers and squash with pesticides, for example. Learn which “bugs” you see are pests and which are helpful predators!
  • Harvest “helpers” will be more eager to volunteer if they pick at the right time—and you won’t find all your tomatoes gone despite their size or plants loaded with overripe items bringing production to a halt. Alerting you to any emerging problems is another bonus.

“Harvesting” spent plants?

While picking your crops pick off dead leaves, spent blossoms, and trim errant runners to keep plants looking good and productive. Knowledgeable helpers can perform these tasks.

In WNC, most vegetable garden plants are annuals, or treated as such, so when you harvest, evaluate when it’s time to pull the whole plant—it may be too risky to ask short-term caregivers to make this decision!

• Is the plant diseased? If there are signs of disease, either do what you can to remove diseased portions, treat the problem, or remove the entire plant.
• Is production slowing?
  • Review fertilizing or watering practices to improve yields. Most crops need an inch of rain a week to prosper—water established plants deeply once a week if rains are insufficient. Check your crops’ needs for fertilizer and the application rates recommended for the fertilizers you are using.
  • Extreme temperatures may interfere with fruit set or how your crops ripen. Be patient if better weather will solve the problem! Note, though, that spring crops that fade with high temperatures are long gone; so too, frosts will damage tender crops, so harvest these before freezing temperatures.
  • Once you’ve decided your plants have passed peak production, pull the plants and consider planting a fall crop. See the calendar below for all the crops you can plant in August for a bountiful autumn harvest!

 Article by Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener^SM Volunteers

 For more information:

When to harvest specific crops: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/16-vegetable-gardening#vegetableharvestingguidelines

https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/gardening/harvesting-handling-vegetables-garden/

Ripening after harvest:

https://gardenprofessors.com/ripening/

https://www.johnson.k-state.edu/lawn-garden/agent-articles/vegetables/harvest-ripen-tomatoes.html

Storing produce:

http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/files/230110.pdf

Planting times for WNC:

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/western-north-carolina-planting-calendar-for-annual-vegetables-fruits-and-herbs

Official 2021 Raffle Rules

PROCEEDS

This raffle is a fundraising event, and all net proceeds benefit the Brevard Music Center (BMC). Brevard Music Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN# 56-0729350

DRAWING

The drawing will take place on Monday, November 15, 2021 at 3:00pm EDT. All mail, phone, and internet orders must be received by 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, November 14, 2021.

TICKETS

The cost to purchase a single entry (“Ticket”) for the Raffle is $125 (U.S. Funds only) and is not tax deductible.

Into the Fog makes their Grey Eagle debut on the patio stage on FRI 7/16. A limited number of reserved seating tickets are available now!
– 5:00PM DOORS / 6:00PM SHOW
– ALL AGES
– SOCIALLY DISTANCED, RESERVED SEATING
– MASKS REQUIRED

Into The Fog is a genre-jumping string band located in Raleigh, North Carolina. With its members having various backgrounds ranging from bluegrass, country, rock, to funk, Into The Fog creates a musical melting pot of sounds in an acoustic/newgrass setting. The band is made up of Brian Stephenson on Vocals and Guitar, Winston Mitchell on Vocals, Mandolin and Dobro, Derek Lane on Vocals and Bass, and Michael Malek on Banjo. The original iteration of the band was formed in Wilmington, NC late in 2017 around an opportunity to play in the band competition for the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival. That cross country trip was recorded by friend of the band and videographer Mason Godwin in his documentary Band #7:The Ride to Telluride.
After the Telluride trip, the band’s lineup restructured around the trio of Stephenson, Mitchell, and Lane. In November 2018 the band went to a cabin outside of Waynesville, NC and spent a week recording their debut album Wishin’ It Would Rain, which was released on February 22, 2019.
“The trio crafts a dynamic mix of songs and sounds, from the gypsy feel of “Caawphonation” to the running-from-Johnny-Law feel of instrumental “Cedar Island Rendezvous.”- Brian Tucker(Star News)
The trio went on to play over 175 shows in 2019 making a name for themselves by frequenting breweries and venues throughout North Carolina and Virginia. By August they were looking to round out their sound as they were transitioning to higher profile gigs, so they added Michael Malek as a full time banjo player. Since the addition of Malek, they have gained momentum through festival performances like Shakori Hills, Groove in the Garden, and The Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival, along with opening slots for acts like Jon Stickley Trio and Sam Bush Band. With their 14 track sophomore album Runnin’ Blind and Chasin’ Time due out in April of 2021 they are looking to make a statement about their sound and gear up for the next chapter of their musical journey.
“While purists might label label their sound as Newgrass, those in attendance respond to the gospel they are preaching and seem perfectly content with the foggy genre, since the sound is so clear”- Donna Davis(The Daily Reflector)

https://intothefogmusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Intothefogmusic

https://www.youtube.com/intothefogmusic

NOMINATIONS BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE

2021 THOMAS WOLFE MEMORIAL LITERARY AWARD

The Western North Carolina Historical Association is now accepting nominations for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award. Originated by the Louis Lipinsky family and now supported by Michael Sartisky, PhD, the Award is a partnership between WNCHA and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Advisory Committee. It has been presented by WNCHA since 1955. The award comes with a $2,500 cash prize.

The deadline for submission of nominated works is July 31, 2021. Anyone with knowledge of an author who meets the qualification criteria may nominate the author for the award. To be considered, an entry must be a published work of fiction, nonfiction, drama or poetry and meet the following criteria:

1. It must be a first edition work; revised editions of published works will not be considered for the Award.
2. The publication date must be between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021.
3. The author must be a native of western North Carolina or a resident of western North Carolina for at least twelve months prior to the closing date for the Award.
4. An author may also qualify if the work submitted has a focus on or setting in western North Carolina.

Western North Carolina includes the Qualla Boundary and the following 25 counties: Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yadkin, and Yancey.

The Award Panel this year consists of: Catherine Frank, Chair, Director, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville; Dee James, retired Director of the First-Year Writing Program at UNC Asheville; Tom Muir, Historic Site Manager, Thomas Wolfe Memorial; Gordon McKinney, PhD, former president, Appalachian Studies Association; Terry Roberts, PhD, Director, National Paideia Center; Jim Stokely, President, Wilma Dykeman Legacy.

Nomination letters must specify the following eligibility criteria:

1. date of publication
2. birthplace or residence of author
3. setting of work

Nominators should submit a cover letter along with three copies of the work postmarked no later than July 31, 2021 to:

Wolfe Award Committee

℅ Anne Chesky Smith

WNC Historical Association

283 Victoria Road

Asheville, NC  28801

An awards ceremony and reception, in honor of the finalists and 2021 Award recipient, will be held in early December 2021.

The Association presented the first Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award to Wilma Dykeman in 1955 for The French Broad. The Award has continued to be funded, in part, by Mrs. E. Frank Edwin, a member of the Lipinsky family and for the last three years by WNCHA, and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Advisory Board, both with support from Michael Sartisky, PhD. Other recipients of this prestigious Award include Robert Morgan, Gail Godwin, John Ehle, Robert Brunk, Michael McFee, Lee Smith, Ron Rash, Wayne Caldwell, and Terry Roberts. Sandra Muse Isaacs was the recipient of the 2020 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award for her book: Eastern Cherokee Stories: A Living Oral Tradition and Its Cultural Continuance.

 

(In a Post Pandemic World)

Take Five and Earn a Certificate!
Online “Live” Instruction Offered each Spring and Fall
Each workshop offers 5.5 SHRM Recertification Credits
Certificate: $625
$159 to $199 per Workshop

Everything from managing remote employees to living in a world where the line has become blurred between what happens online and offline, means what worked last year could be ineffective in the coming years. Managers and supervisors need to learn how to adapt to a compromised economy and an up-and-coming workforce that’s progressively challenging the “status quo” for work ethics and work habits.

Guarantee Your Seats for All 9 Shows!

Premium Seating

Peacekeepers may purchase up to TWO Premium subscriptions per $250 donation. Box seating is available with annual gifts starting at $1,500 for upper boxes and $2,500 for lower boxes. Gifts must be renewed annually to retain season tickets in this section. Please note, due to demand, this seating area is limited.

Patron Accessibility

The Peace Center offers a variety of accessibility services including assistive listening, ASL interpreted performances (Saturday matinees), audio described performances, wheelchair accessible seating, and transfer chairs. For the best experience, please discuss your specific need with a Customer Service Representative. Some services require advance notice.

Western North Carolina has a rich assortment of county historical societies, archives, and museums. The Western North Carolina Historical Association seeks to help researchers, historians, genealogists, and the general public take full advantage of these resources.

Get ready to go wild at the library for our annual Summer Learning Program. Join us for Tails & Tales – an exploration of wildlife and fantastical folktales. We’ll have an activity sheet with lots of fun adventures for all ages. You can pick up a sheet at any library starting June 1, or download it HERE. Check our calendar to find our most up to date list of programs all summer long.

The 2021 Summer Learning Program is open to young people, preschool through teen, with books and activities for every age. All library programs are free and open to children of all abilities. Come in and see what the library has for you!

The Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville is proud to announce The Glass Animals’ “Dreamland” Tour in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium on March 28, 2022. Tickets for the event will go on publicly via ONLINE ONLY on Thursday, May 6 at 10:00am via Ticketmaster.com. Adding to an already incredible year, Glass Animals have announced their North American “Dreamland Tour.” The run kicks off August 30th in Lewiston, NY and takes the band across North America well into 2022. The shows add to their already sold out UK tour dates, previously announced Red Rocks shows and confirmed festival performances at Bonnaroo, Life Is Beautiful, and Outside Lands. For more information about this event, please click here.

In addition, last week the band was selected as 2021 Billboard Music Awards finalists for Top Rock Song “Heat Waves” and Top Rock Album Dreamland. This is the first time the band has been recognized by the BBMAs. The Billboard Music Awards LIVE will take place Sunday, May 23rd at 3pm EST/5pm PT on NBC.

Earlier this month, Glass Animals performed “Heat Waves” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where the band took over Margate’s Dreamland Theme Park and brought it back to life with an electrifying performance—watch HERE. In addition, they performed on The Ellen Degeneres Show where they took over a skate rink and used fan submitted footage to fill the television screens behind their performance—watch HERE.

Your vegetable garden is likely approaching peak production time—but when and how to harvest? Even if you are a pro, here’s how to make sure those caring for your precious crops while you’re away know when to pick!

What matters about harvest time?

• Harvest stage affects flavor and yields:
  • Picking too soon not only reduces the amount of food your garden produces but also may mean missing that perfectly ripened taste—although not all vegetables lose flavor after picking.
  • Waiting too long definitely means missing the best flavor—think sweet corn turned starchy—and your produce actually spoils. Crops literally go to seed have accomplished their goal and will stop producing!
• Factors that affect harvest and storage.
  • Warmer temperatures after picking can affect flavor—crops like peas and sweet corn that turn starchy, for example, need immediate cooling. Joseph Masabni of Texas A&M Extension, advises “harvest these vegetables early in the morning or right before you intend to use them.”
  • Not all crops benefit from refrigeration, however! And humidity levels and air circulation are important, too! If you’re not going to use your bounty immediately, some crops, such as garlic, dry onions, potatoes, and tomatoes are best stored only at room temperature, according to UC-Davis Post Harvest Technology specialists (see below). They also recommend that cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers be refrigerated only for 1 to 3 days and then used as soon as you remove them from the cold.
  • Advise those harvesting in your absence how often you check your crops, and which are most time-sensitive!

 Things to look for when you harvest

Harvesting takes more time than you’d expect—look carefully for items to pick amongst all those leaves and vines. This makes harvesting a great time to give your garden plants a quick check-up!

• Size matters!
  • Jokes abound about baseball-bat-size zucchini, but squash aren’t the only crops that can grow out of useful size.
  • If you intend to eat fresh beans rather than saving them to use dry, the beans need to just start to fill out their pods. 
    

    

     

• Color changes are usually important, too.
  • Tomatoes turning red are an obvious example, but how red is the best time for picking? Maybe earlier than you think! Picking at the “breaker” stage rather than fully red means your tomatoes will continue to ripen indoors, taste vine-ripened, but won’t suffer sunscald, or damage from insects or birds. 
    

    

     

  • Cucumbers should still be uniformly green, not starting to yellow. 
    

    

     

  •  Eggplants should be purple (light or dark depending on the variety), but still glossy, not dull 
    

    

     

  • Watermelons, on the other hand, should develop a duller, rougher surface and the spot touching the ground should be yellowing, not white 
    

    

     

  • .Detecting defects may mean removing fruits before they take any more resources from the plant—think blossom-end rot on tomatoes or peppers—or harvesting while part of the crop is still salvageable—such as a nip out of an otherwise healthy tomato.
  • Damage may alert you to insect infestations—minimize or eliminate, by hand-picking the culprits—such as snails or slugs—or treating to prevent further damage—wash away aphids on greens or treating pickleworm infestations of cucumbers and squash with pesticides, for example. Learn which “bugs” you see are pests and which are helpful predators!
  • Harvest “helpers” will be more eager to volunteer if they pick at the right time—and you won’t find all your tomatoes gone despite their size or plants loaded with overripe items bringing production to a halt. Alerting you to any emerging problems is another bonus.

“Harvesting” spent plants?

While picking your crops pick off dead leaves, spent blossoms, and trim errant runners to keep plants looking good and productive. Knowledgeable helpers can perform these tasks.

In WNC, most vegetable garden plants are annuals, or treated as such, so when you harvest, evaluate when it’s time to pull the whole plant—it may be too risky to ask short-term caregivers to make this decision!

• Is the plant diseased? If there are signs of disease, either do what you can to remove diseased portions, treat the problem, or remove the entire plant.
• Is production slowing?
  • Review fertilizing or watering practices to improve yields. Most crops need an inch of rain a week to prosper—water established plants deeply once a week if rains are insufficient. Check your crops’ needs for fertilizer and the application rates recommended for the fertilizers you are using.
  • Extreme temperatures may interfere with fruit set or how your crops ripen. Be patient if better weather will solve the problem! Note, though, that spring crops that fade with high temperatures are long gone; so too, frosts will damage tender crops, so harvest these before freezing temperatures.
  • Once you’ve decided your plants have passed peak production, pull the plants and consider planting a fall crop. See the calendar below for all the crops you can plant in August for a bountiful autumn harvest!

 Article by Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener^SM Volunteers

 For more information:

When to harvest specific crops: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/16-vegetable-gardening#vegetableharvestingguidelines

https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/library/gardening/harvesting-handling-vegetables-garden/

Ripening after harvest:

https://gardenprofessors.com/ripening/

https://www.johnson.k-state.edu/lawn-garden/agent-articles/vegetables/harvest-ripen-tomatoes.html

Storing produce:

http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/files/230110.pdf

Planting times for WNC:

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/western-north-carolina-planting-calendar-for-annual-vegetables-fruits-and-herbs