On the Blue Ridge

Marielle DeJong is the Donor Engagement Officer for The Pisgah Conservancy, the only nonprofit organization that is solely dedicated to supporting the Pisgah Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest. Pisgah National Forest is one of Western North Carolina’s most treasured public lands. Millions of people come here each year to hike, camp, fish, climb, bike, and chase waterfalls. But maintaining a...

Ty Gilpin is a mandolinist, songwriter and singer for the band Unspoken Tradition, whose sixth studio album, “Heartwood,” is available now. For more than a decade, Unspoken Tradition has built a reputation for bluegrass music that celebrates both the beauty of Western North Carolina and the realities of everyday life here. The band—which also includes Audie McGinnis, Zane McGinnis, Tim Gardner, an...

Loretta Ball is the owner and operator of The Never Ending Flower Farm in Barnardsville, North Carolina, where visitors can wander through rows of flowers to create their own, fresh-picked bouquets. A Western North Carolina native, Loretta transformed family land into The Never Ending Flower Farm. She lives on the property with her husband, Kurt, and their two children. Now in its 10th season of y...

Chris and Jessica Whaley are the owners of Old Fort, North Carolina-based Whaley Farm Brewery, where Appalachian-inspired beers, local ingredients, and a resilient community helped shape the brewery’s long road to recovery after Hurricane Helene. After many years of farming and brewing in Western North Carolina, the Whaleys opened their brewery in 2022 and specialize in Appalachian farm beers, Eng...

Andrew Kota is the executive director of Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina, a land trust that permanently protects land and water in Western North Carolina for the benefit of people and all living things. If you’ve ever hiked at South Mountains State Park, enjoyed a view of Lake James State Park, or visited Catawba Falls, then you’ve benefitted from a fraction of the work by the Morganton-ba...

Taylor and Fran Montgomery are the owners and driving force behind Leicester, North Carolina-based Montgomery Sky Farm, where regenerative agriculture, intimate dining, and an animal rescue are deeply intertwined. Just a few weeks after this conversation was recorded, Taylor was named the 2026 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Southeast. Established in 2018, Montgomery Sky Farm offers farm t...

Aaron Burdett is a Western North Carolina-based singer-songwriter, guitar player, and one of the lead vocalists for Steep Canyon Rangers. A highly acclaimed musician with eight solo albums to his credit, Aaron is also the founder and owner of Solstice Construction Co., a custom homebuilding firm in Saluda, the small mountain town where he grew up. Blurring the lines between Americana, Folk, Countr...

Mike McKearin is the co-owner of Crystal Creek Gear, a Pisgah Forest, North Carolina-based company creating minimalist fishing gear designed to fit in your pocket. Mike and his wife, Susie, started Crystal Creek Gear after years of getting their four kids outside in Western North Carolina. What began as a family project, with early GoReel prototypes built on a 3D printer in their garage and tested...

Marc Hunt is a passionate river steward helping shape the next chapter of the French Broad River, from efforts to remove the Craggy Dam to the creation of Taylor’s Wave, a manmade whitewater wave in Woodfin, North Carolina. Marc is also a whitewater paddler and former Asheville City Council member who has spent decades working to protect and reimagine our local rivers. A former outfitter on Tennes...

Paul Bonesteel is a documentary filmmaker and writer whose latest film explores the life and legacy of George Masa, a Japanese immigrant photographer whose work was instrumental in the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the development of the Appalachian Trail. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Paul is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work explores history,...

Joseph Sabbag runs Terramonga Farm in Fairview, and Andrea DuVall stewards Terramonga Hub—a service that delivers food from Terramonga and a network of local farms—straight to customers’ homes. Terramonga, which means “the earth among us,” began when Joe and Elaina Sabbag moved to Fairview in 2018 with a vision for a farm rooted in both the land and the community around it. Today, the regenerative...

Lisa Bottomley is the executive director of the Blue Ridge Parkway Association, a nonprofit made up of local businesses, communities, and individuals that has been promoting America’s Favorite Drive for 75 years. A native of North Carolina’s Alleghany County, Lisa grew up with the Parkway playing a supporting role in her life. Her father helped build portions of the road, and years later she got e...

Laura Rice is the executive director of Friends of the Ecusta Trail, a nonprofit organization supporting the transformation of a former rail line into a multi-use greenway connecting Hendersonville to Brevard in Western North Carolina. In this episode, Laura shares the story behind the Ecusta Trail, from its earliest days to the stretch that’s open today, and what it will take to complete all 19 m...

Lang Hornthal is the Executive Director of EcoForesters, an Asheville-based nonprofit professional forestry organization dedicated to conserving and restoring Appalachian forests through education and stewardship.  In this episode, Lang discusses the organization’s work and how the aftermath of Hurricane Helene has reshaped the forests around us, and the way EcoForesters approaches its mission. La...

Kevin Westmoreland and Joe Scully are the co-owners of Corner Kitchen, a venerable restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina’s Biltmore Village that reopened this August, nearly a year after Hurricane Helene flooded the entire first floor of the restaurant. Prior to opening Corner Kitchen in 2004, Kevin had a background in corporate operations and management roles, and Joe was a seasoned, classicall...

David Huff is an Asheville-based writer, photographer, and conservationist.  Leading at the intersection of disruption and resilience, he is the founder and chair of the George Masa Foundation, Councilor for Communications for the Carolina Mountain Club, and a trustee for the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation.  A few weeks before the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene’s devastating impact on Wes...

Beth Kellerhals and Dana Amromin are the co-owners of ButterPunk, a bakery and café that opened this May in Asheville’s River Arts District. Beth and Dana have been longtime friends since their days in Los Angeles, and both of their paths eventually brought them to Asheville, where they realized their shared dream of opening a shop together. But just as they were about to get serious about buildin...

Les Love is the president of the Carolina Mountain Club, the oldest and largest hiking and trail maintenance organization in the Southeastern United States. If you’ve ever set foot on the Appalachian Trail or Mountains-to-Sea Trail in Western North Carolina, odds are the Carolina Mountain Club helped clear the way. Now more than a century old, the member-run volunteer organization helped build bot...

Jeff Hunter is the Southern Appalachian Director with National Parks Conservation Association, which is dedicated to enhancing and protecting public lands for present and future generations. Twenty-five years ago, a thru hike on the Appalachian Trail set Jeff—then working in telecommunications in New York—down a new career path focused on conservation. Today, he’s based in Burnsville, North Caroli...

Anna Alsobrook and Hartwell Carson are the incoming and outgoing French Broad Riverkeepers for MountainTrue, an Asheville, North Carolina-based nonprofit advocating for clean waters, resilient forests, and healthy communities across Western North Carolina. Hartwell has been the veteran French Broad Riverkeeper, working to protect and clean up the French Broad River through scientific research, edu...

Aaron Stone is a filmmaker and photographer based in Asheville, and one of the many creative forces behind “The Resonance Sessions,” an upcoming album featuring dozens of regional musicians to benefit the music scene in Marshall, North Carolina, a town devastated by catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene. As director and producer for Parkway Studios—a creative team that includes Bridger Dunna...

Jessie Dean is the founder and CEO of Asheville Tea Company, whose building was swept away by Hurricane Helene’s devastating floodwaters. Despite the unimaginable challenge, Jessie is committed to rebuilding with the support of her community. Jessie grew up in Valle Crucis, North Carolina, just outside of Boone, and later moved to Asheville, where she opened Asheville Tea Company in September of 2...

John Parks is a brewer and co-founder of Woodfin, North Carolina-based Zillicoah Beer Company , which was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene and remains closed indefinitely. Parks and his co-founders, brothers Jonathan and Jeremy Chassner, are childhood friends who grew up in Miami and eventually all landed in the Asheville area. Taking their name from the Cherokee word for the French Br...

Heather Clements is a professional artist and art instructor whose life and work have been profoundly shaped by the forces of nature. Heather is part of Asheville’s River Arts District, which suffered catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Helene. Helene was the second major storm to upend Heather’s life and career. In 2018, while living in Panama City, Florida, Hurricane Michael destroyed her hom...

Elle DeBruhl is the co-founder of Flush AVL, a grassroots organization that stepped up in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to provide non-potable water for flushing toilets to people in Asheville, North Carolina, and surrounding areas. Elle is a recruiter for Ernst & Young, and up until the storm, she had no experience in water distribution. But not long after the storm, she realized that vul...