Visitors at The 39th Annual Mountain Heritage Festival. Photo by Tyana Johnson
This past weekend Western Carolina University celebrated the areas music, crafts, tradition and of course food, at the 39th Annual Mountain Heritage Day.
Every year area restaurants and catering businesses come to the festival to share their food with the thousands of visitors who come to the festival each year. There was an array of foods and drinks that represented the regions mountain culture from Cherokee fry bread, giant turkey legs, pies, to funnel cakes and even peach sweet tea.
Food vendor Frank McCloud has been participating in Mountain Heritage Day for 26 years. McCloud’s Concessions serves turkey legs, fried green tomatoes and chicken on a stick just to name a few. “We’ve been selling the same items for years, our pork chops are very popular, inch and a half thick,” said McCloud.
For food vendors like Blue Ridge BBQ Company, it was their first time at the Mountain Heritage Festival, but that didn’t stop them from having equally delicious food. I enjoyed their pulled pork with vinegar barbeque sauce. Owner Wendy Rector says they make all of their items from scratch.
“We hope people will get a taste of mountain home cooked sides,” said Rector. Fortunately Blue Ridge BBQ Company has a restaurant in Waynesville to satisfy your barbeque cravings.
Mama Moody’s Fried Pies also had their debut at the festival this year. Owner, Deborah Anderson, has been making fried pies all of her adult life.
“Our pies are made traditionally, like the old timers used to do with dried fruits and biscuit dough,” says Anderson. Mama Moody aka Deborah Anderson was excited to share her long time recipes with the visitors to the Mountain Heritage Festival.
With food vendors like Mama Moody, Blue Ridge BBQ and McClouds Concession, the annual Mountain Heritage Festival will continue to be an area event that Western Carolina residents look forward to each year.
