ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) –
Asheville often is exalted as a foodie city, with a collection of boutique eateries serving food with French names and high price tags. Other times it’s dubbed “Beer City, USA,” with craft breweries around every corner.
Some people want Asheville to be celebrated for its vegan food, too.
That’s the idea behind Asheville SpringFest, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 2, at Pack Square Park downtown.
“Asheville is the largest festival, our most popular festival,” said event organizer Helene Greenberg of VegFest Expos. “Asheville is a very vegan-friendly city, so taking over Pack Square Park, people naturally gravitate towards that.”
Greenberg spent decades as a vegetarian — not eating meat — and went further in becoming a vegan — avoiding animal products altogether — in 2011.
She decided to make the switch after visiting North Carolina. The people here weren’t pushy about veganism, she said. They were “good influences” instead, demonstrating the benefits of a vegan lifestyle to Greenberg by example.
That ultimately led Greenberg to found VegFest Expos, a series of vegan festivals that cover the Southeastern United States. Asheville traditionally hosts one every fall, but this weekend marks the debut of an additional spring festival.
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SpringFest will feature all-vegan cuisine and local vegan vendors, but you might not know it at first glance. “Unless you look around, dive deeper, you wouldn’t know it’s vegan,” Greenberg said.
But vegan it is, and the vendors reflect that.
Sweeten Creek Brewery, the beer sponsor of SpringFest, will be serving vegan beer. The brewery, tucked behind a self-storage facility off Sweeten Creek Road, has long been part of Asheville’s vegan community, said manager Kelly Chadwick.
“We have a vegan fair that we have here every year,” Chadwick said. “This will be our fourth year doing it. And I believe the first year we were involved with VegFest, or SpringFest, they had a beer sponsor pull out. We’ve been their beer sponsor ever since.”
Some beers are filtered, or “clarified,” using isinglass, a type of gelatin found in fish. Not so at Sweeten Creek.
“We don’t use isinglass at all. All of our clarifying agents are vegan,” Chadwick said. “I don’t think we have one beer on right now that’s not vegan.”
Chadwick said she sees beer as a major part of Asheville’s culture in every sector of the city, vegans included. In her eyes, the two things are linked. Just as beer follows community here, the community follows veganism.
“I think it’s that we’re so much closer to nature here, so much more involved in animals and farming all the things. So maybe we have a little more empathy towards Mother Nature,” Chadwick said. “I think that probably led to more veganism. Just being surrounded by nature and wanting to take care of nature and the animals in nature.”
Veganism inspired by animals is certainly the trend when it comes to the Presenting Sponsor of SpringFest, Animal Haven of Asheville.
Animal Haven is a farm animal sanctuary and education center located on Lower Grassy Branch Road in East Asheville. The facility is unassuming at first glance, consisting only of a small thrift shop in a gravel parking lot. However, that little thrift shop accomplishes a lot.
“Every bit of money from the thrift shop goes back to the animals,” said volunteer employee Mary Lou Snyder. “Every. Bit.”
Snyder is one of about 50 volunteers that help Animal Haven’s founder, Trina Hudson, keep the space running. Volunteers aren’t only responsible for the thrift store. Animal Haven volunteers do everything from feeding animals to creating QR code guides for guests to learn about the farm’s residents.
The farm itself lays across a field to the store’s left. It’s remarkably open range, giving its goats, pigs, sheep and one singular cow room to roam.
Andrea Cermele, another Animal Haven volunteer, said this is by design.
“Factory farm animals spend their lives in dark pens or cages. Our animals bask in the sun and don’t have to fight for food,” Cermele said. “Animal Haven aims to educate the public about animal welfare and compassionate living in a truthful, un-abrasive way.”
All the open space can occasionally be a little tricky to manage. Judy Masnick has volunteered at Animal Haven with her husband for the last three years.
“Watching these animals is probably like someone running a kindergarten or something,” Masnick joked. “Sometimes these kids fight.”
Masnick is a vegan herself, and she views working at Animal Haven as an essential reason why.
“There’s a disconnect between taking care of rescue dogs and cats and eating cows and chickens,” Masnick said. “Working here is a real good way of carrying veganism beyond just not eating meat.”
According to Cermele, Asheville is the perfect city to raise vegan awareness.
“Asheville is just such a cool place with a really awesome vegan vibe,” Cermele said. “It’s full of open-minded, inclusive people.”
Even the uninitiated to the vegan lifestyle are invited to participate in SpringFest. After all, to Greenberg, that’s the point.
“Do I believe these festivals facilitate change?” Greenberg said. “Yes. This is my activism.”