The Brandy Bar + Cocktails

Wed 6/7 – 4-9:00 PM – Red sangria $5 special – cabernet wine, brandy, strawberries, blackberries, & plums, and orange, pineapple, & apple juices.

Thurs 68 – 4-9:00 PM – If you weren’t lucky enough to know Kermit Edney, then that is definitely your loss – owner, and founder of our local WHKP radio station…7^th son of a 7^th son…a highly creative, community-oriented, statesman of the first order…and the list goes on but maybe more of Kermit later. He wrote a book on Henderson County in a conversational tone on the many folks who have made Henderson County great. One of those folks was Evelyn Haynes, founder, and owner of “Huckleberry Mountain Artists’ Colony (1940-1959).” Huckleberry Mountain, located in the Edneyville Township, was turned by Evelyn into what LIFE Magazine called “one of the top 5 cultural centers in the entire United States.” The NEW YORK TIMES identified Huckleberry as one of two writers’ colonies in the South at the time, the other being Black Mountain College which had opened a couple of years earlier in 1938.  A.M. Mathieu, editor of Writer’s Digest, visited in 1941 and called it an ideal place for writers. “You can write all day, in peace,” he said, “and ideas, aborning, go straight to the typewriter.”  Evelyn built the colony with log cabins named “Logs of Contentment,” which was a two-story plain old log cabin.  The “Hideaway” was a cabin so small that double doors formed the entire wall. “Meditation Walk” was a small mountain path and “Meditation Bench” was a rough-hewn board resting on two stumps. “The Dining Hall” was a large room in the main log cabin with a tree growing right through the roof.  Ahead of her time, Evelyn believed in a healthy vegetarian diet with a typical breakfast starting with a spoonful of sulfur and molasses to ward off chiggers and ticks, and every dinner was served with a dish of stewed prunes to promote regularity. Some of the faculty were Dr. Edwin Grover VP of Rollings College, Dr. Harold Blodgett from Cornell University, Vivian Laramore, poet laureate of Florida, nationally known playwright Carola Bell Williams, to name a few and some of the students included the Southwestern artist, George Catlin, and others seeking a space for quiet and creativity such as Clyde A. Tolson, Assistant Director of FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. Lunch was served in small, recycled paper bags which contained a peanut butter sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a tea bag. The program included a regular schedule of classes with individual instruction and personal criticism. Afternoons allowed time for relaxation or recreation and opportunities for creative work in the student’s chosen field. Courses included poetry, fiction, journalistic writing, radio script writing, musical composition, handicrafts, and nature study. Students came from all parts of the United States. There was special consideration given to NC writers through inclusion in a weekly broadcast under the direction of Alice Keith, Director of the National Academy of Broadcasting. The school closed in 1959 and Evelyn spent her last years as one of the first residents at the newly formed Carolina Village where she continued to exert her creative flare.

Huckleberry Artist Colony specials: Evelyn Haynes – Courvoisier, lemon juice, simple syrup, topped with Champagne; Huckleberry Mountain – Laird’s applejack, mulled mint, simple syrup, topped with club soda; Logs of Contentment – Courvoisier, Trader Vic’s chocolate liqueur, heavy cream; Hideaway – Applejack, Southern Star Bourbon Crème Coffee, served with ice; Catoctin Creek Peach Brandy (new to our list of brandies)

Upcoming event: Wed 6/14 – “In the Company of Writers” series, co-sponsored with the NC Writers Network, will present guest author Bruce Holliday, who has been publishing his weekly digital newsletter Flat Rock Together about the people, places, and events in and around Flat Rock, NC since the summer of 2019. Without any formal affiliation with the Village, Bruce offers it every Sunday as a service to the community.  Flat Rock Together also serves as a personal online-journaling project cataloging Bruce’s thoughts each week. This will be followed by an open mic. 

Wed. 5/31 – 4-9 PM – $5 sangria special – A version of the Pina Colada – fresh pineapple, coconut milk, brandy, pineapple-orange-lime juices. Who doesn’t like a Pina Colada?

Thurs 6/1 -4-9  PM – Apple cocktails — A few things you may or may not know about this taken-for-granted-fruit: 1.Malus sieversii is the wild ancestor of the domestic apple that originated in Central Asia where it is still found today. 2. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in 328 BCE. 3.The apple has about 57,000 genes, the highest number of any plant genome studied to date & more genes than the human genome (about 30,000). 4. The first apple orchard on the North American continent was planted in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton in 1625. 5. The only apples native to North America are crab apples which were once called common apples. 6.  There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples. 7.Christian tradition holds that it was an apple that Eve used to coax Adam to share with her. Since the fruit known as apple was unknown in the Middle East in biblical times it seems there is a little confusion between the Latin words mālum (an apple) and mălum (an evil), each of which is normally written malum. The tree of the forbidden fruit is called “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” in Genesis 2:17 and the Latin for “good and evil” is bonum et malum. 8. The larynx in the human throat has been called the “Adam’s apple” because of a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit remaining in the throat of Adam. 9. Yes there really was a Johnny Appleseed, named John Chapman, who was a nurseryman. He planted apple trees, fenced in as a nursery, and it is questionable whether he wandered the countryside to plant apple trees or to preach the gospel after his conversion to the Christian faith. 

Apple Crisp – Brandy, spiced Apple brandy, maple syrup, apple juice; Apple Sour – C & K brandy, apple juice, Cointreau, lemon juice, orange bitters ; Apple Martini – brandy, green apple schnapps, lemon juice; Jolly Rancher – Brandy, green apple schnapps, cranberry; juice;  Old Fashioned Spiced – Brandy, apple cider, sage, turmeric, brown sugar, orange zest; Clear Creek Apple Brandy (aged 6 yrs)