Cedar Grove Pig Pickin: Cake, Music, and Homemade Love.

This is Keri. Keri and I were freshman college roommates at the University of Georgia. 17 years later, we are still best friends, and our children are like cousins to each other. Last year, due to a long, complicated, and of course very serendipitous turn of events, I met the Cake Lady Betty Compton through Keri and friends at the Anatoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove, NC.

Last night, I returned to Cedar Grove, for a book signing I had scheduled to take place at the garden. I got to reconnect with old friends, like Meghan (pictured below) and I sold and signed copies of the book, both of which I expected.

What I didn't expect, however, is what an amazing event the community would come together to create. Completely unbeknownst to me, Betty's family and community was so excited that she was featured in the book, that they took my little book signing in the garden and turned it into a full-blown, country-style Pig-Pickin', Cake-Walkin', dance party. Betty brought her famous pound cake:

And eight other people brought cake for the cake walk, like this one, which was later won (and eaten) by Keri's son, who graciously shared it with the rest of his family, me, and Jasper.

The music group that Betty has been playing and singing with for the last 10 years, "Pickin' and Grinnin,'" not only provided the musical accompaniment to the cake walk, but they delighted everyone with their renditions of songs by Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and other traditional country and bluegrass artists. Betty herself, even though she was the guest of honor, managed to find time to sit in on a few songs.

And then there was the pig.

Betty's husband, Dwight, bought a whole pig, and her son roasted it, starting at 5am yesterday morning. Betty's sisters made the two hour drive from Nash County to be there. Friends and family brought side dishes: all manner of baked beans, breads, banana pudding, green beans, mashed potatoes, macaroni salad, green salad. It was nothing short of an extravagant feast, and it was delicious. I was absolutely blown away by the generosity of each and every individual that gave to this event, and it reminded me of some of the wisdom I had learned from Betty: "when you are in a community, you know each other's gifts, you wrap around each other's gifts." From the set-up, to the eating, dancing, celebrating, cake-walking, and clean-up, there was a natural and spontaneous sense of that wrapping around each other's gifts, and the responsibility was shared, and therefore lightened, by everybody. In this time of social and political uncertainty, dare i say, upheaval, I was struck by how the simple act of creating fun and celebration with your own head and heart, and the things and the relationships you have available to you, can create a richness that money can never buy. I think this is sustainability in its highest sense, and I think it is healing. The garden has a history of this healing; as Anathoth's website explains: "The story of Anathoth Community Garden began in 2005 after a murder occurred down the road from the Garden site. Cedar Grove United Methodist Church held a prayer vigil for healing and peace at the site of the murder. Mrs. Scenobia Taylor was present at the vigil and had a vision that she was to donate 5 acres of her land to the church for the healing of the community." This has become what Anathoth is today, and I experienced a little bit of that healing last night. Thank you to keri, Betty, Dwight, Anathoth, and the community of Cedar Grove, for wrapping around each others gifts. I am grateful to be a part of it.

And later that night, Keri and I enjoyed some cake:

The next morning, Jasper and I enjoyed that distant cousin of cake, the Pancake, and meandered around Hillsborough until we found the local bookstore, The Purple Crow. The proprietress, Sharon Wheeler, was happy to learn about the book, and ordered some for her store. So here's a footnote about buying local: most any bookstore you walk into will order a title if their customers ask for it, so asking for Cake Ladies in a store that doesn't carry it is a great thing to do. And if you want the convenience of online ordering while still supporting your local bookshop, you can order on indiebound.org and have it shipped to you through your local bookstore.

The end. xo

An Invitation.

For the last few months, I've been really excited to be working with some folks in the community towards forming a food policy council for our city and county. This is the continuation of work that I've been doing in the community gardening realm for over 12 years now, and it feels like a culmination of many years of work among many people and groups. I feel really grateful about the critical mass of individuals in our community who realize that a true foodtopia (as the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau calls us) is one in which ALL people have access to affordable, nutritious, culturally appropriate food, not just those that can afford dinner at a farm-to-table restaurant. A true foodtopia is also one in which the food supply is local and sustainable, which makes us more self-reliant as a community. (this is referred to by the term Food Sovereignty).

The process we went through this summer led to the creation of a White Paper that makes a recommendation for a Food Policy Council. I and City Councilman Gordon Smith will be presenting this paper at two different venues in September: on the 16th as a part of the Eat Smart, Move More conference on the campus of UNCA, and at the Burton Street Agricultural Fair taking place on September 24th. We hope you will join in the conversation, and lend your voice to help form a cohesive way forward in regards to poverty, public health, local commerce, and sustainability through food security.

Check out the Press Release here, and read the entire White Paper here.
I think it will work, if we work together.

The Big Crafty! this Sunday, July 10, Noon-6

We will be there, and we will have CUPCAKES.



And... we'll be sharing our booth with none other than Hannah Dansie of Sugar Two Shoes and Two of Hearts fame.



There will be literally hundreds of awesome, handmade vendors, and many of them are new to The Big Crafty. This is my 3rd (or 4th?) Summer Crafty, and I'm proud to be a part of it.
See you there, lovelies!
xoxo

Homestyle

Some of our first wedding cakes of the season:


Vegan Raspberry Almond Cake for 100


Cake wonderland at Brahma Ridge

Spring wedding season is here! We are busier than ever, and we are so excited to bust out the most beautiful, delicious cakes for the wedding feasts taking place all over these mountains. But, at the moment, as I am wont to do, I am feeling pensive, and want to share with you some reflections on my life as it relates to working hard. Here goes:

Spring is a time of year that, in recent years, has typically brought chaos. As a business owner, I've had to adopt the "make hay while the sun shines" approach to my work, and work 16 hour days for weeks in a row to meet the increased demand for wedding cakes, festival cupcakes, and birthday parties. I enjoy working hard, and have learned a tremendous amount about the value of hard work in my life. Money has been tight in these early years of the business, as every business owner knows, but I have been determined to make the shop work. I am happy to work hard, because I am glad and grateful to have work to do, a place to do it, and people I enjoy working with. But working full-tilt can take its toll, and I've continued to remind myself that work, while it has a value in itself, is also a means to an end: having a stable and sustainable life. I've tried all along to remember my original intentions for Short Street Cakes: I wanted to stay home with my son, and my cake business was going to be my cottage industry that would allow me to do that, along with gardening, spending time with friends and family, and the other things that make life worth living. I wanted to have a business that created a simple, just, and generous abundance for myself and my family, and when other people came on to join me in that endeavor, my intentions towards a healthy, happy home and business extended to include them.




I've kept those goals in mind while working on growing the business, meeting my obligations to my clients and my community, and going through the process of writing and publishing a book, knowing that, at some point, those wishes towards my own personal sustainability would take root.

Now, I am really happy to say, I am beginning to see the fruits: these past several months my home life has been so sweet, the Cake Shop has been flourishing, and the staff at work have stepped in as the most competent, talented, self-directed individuals I have ever had the pleasure to work with. So, in addition to my usual one day off a week to stay home with my son, I've been taking Sundays off too. Spending Sundays at home with my family is a revolution. I have worked through the weekend almost every week for the last 5 years, and now, I work with a team of bakers that not only CAN handle anything that comes their way, they actually WANT TO. So I've stepped back, a little. I'm taking time away from the shop to write. I've stepped more fully into my role as a board member of Bountiful Cities. And I am so grateful. I have come to appreciate brunch and cleaning days at home, together with my husband and son, as the magical gift they are. There were times that I didn't think that those kinds of days could happen for me, and times that I wouldn't allow them to happen because I couldn't slow my pace long enough to enjoy them.



But something that I am learning as a business owner, as well as in my personal life, is that blessings of support and love are all around us, if we have the ability to recognize them and receive them. This has been a hard lesson in my life. For some reason, I have often operated under the assumption that I have to do everything myself- and have over-burdened myself in the past with other people's problems, the world's problems, and feeling that I had to solve my own problems without any help. But that is not the way the world works. None of us can survive without leaning on each other, and giving is a natural human tendency that wants to be received. Those of us who are natural "givers" sometimes deprive those around us from the pleasure of giving to us, and we deprive ourselves of the pleasure of receiving, without conditions, expectations, or control.

This year, in my personal as well as my professional life, I have chosen to focus on the concept of receiving- allowing those in my life, at home, at work, and in the community to bring love and support to my life, if and when they choose, and to gratefully and gracefully receive it.

This, too, has been a revolution.

Learning to trust the bakers at the Cake Shop, that they can do it, that they want to do it, and that they take pride in their work and they feel supported by me in doing their jobs right, fills me with such gratitude. It makes me want to work that much harder to support all of our well-being: continuing to grow the business so that we can move towards a more democratic, empowering, economically sustainable and supportive workplace for all of us has become my immediate and long-term goal for the shop.

But in order to do that, we all have to be whole people. And being a whole person means that I spend my time doing more than just working. I need to garden, I need to take long baths, and I need to engage in this ritual of spending mornings in my pajamas writing. I need to take walks and ride bikes and go to the woods. I need to travel and visit family and friends, and I need to have time to commit to community work, because those are the things that feed my soul. And if my soul is not healthy, then I cannot work from a place of love. And that is what we are all here to do.
And so, I want to say thanks.

(thank you cake by Emilou)

So... I'm setting a goal: I want to have a garden this year. It seems obvious that I would have a garden, considering the amount of time and energy I spend thinking and writing about food security, community gardening, and urban agriculture, but the truth is that I have not had a home garden for years. In the early days of Short Street Cakes I had a flower garden where I grew all the flowers for the cakes. As the business has grown, I have had to streamline and cast aside almost everything in my life besides work and mothering. And I don't regret it: hard work can be a refuge when things seem uncertain, and busting ass to build and create something beautiful is one of the most rewarding things one can do. But now, thanks to the help and support of the community that supports the Cake Shop, the superhero crew at the Cake Shop, and the love of my family and friends, (and my new-found ability to receive that help and support rather than feeling guilty about it) I can now set about having a more balanced life. And I'm going to put my money where my mouth is towards sustainability, family, and community food security, and I'm going to start with a garden.

So this week, on my day off, I hung laundry on the line:


Jasper and I ate eggs from the chickens at our friends Braden and Mindy's homestead:


And I bought this basil plant that I'm going to put in the ground, dammit.


It doesn't mean that I'm not going to continue to work hard at the shop most days (I would miss the thrill of successful heavy production days at the Cake Shop if I didn't), or that I can afford to go on weeks-long yoga retreats or pay someone to do my job. It just means that the future is now, and we all have the power to create for ourselves, right now, what we want for ourselves, despite the chaos that might seem to be around us. And that we have to be able to gratefully receive the blessings of the people around us who want to give us love and support.

Happy Spring!

Welcome to the Neighborhood, Anam Cara Theatre Collective!

The Cake Shop is so excited to welcome our new neighbors, the Anam Cara Theatre Collective, to the neigborhood! In just the past week or so, we've watched the hardworking women of the collective move, paint, clean, and shine up the former Beach Bingo space just a couple of doors down the hill from us, as they prepare for their February 5th (this saturday) Grand Opening!

The space is awesome, with the front end being occupied by a small and adorable local art/craft consignment area, the middle area consisting of a stage/showspace, and the back area housing rent-able studio space, a small kitchen, and the bathroom. I'm so excited to see what can happen with such a welcoming space for creative work and celebration, and to see all the awesome performance art that can thrive with a space to showcase it.

Saturday's Grand Opening starts at 7:30, with free admission, Live Music by Nikki Talley, refreshments, and door prizes! (and afterwards, you can go see Hooray for the Riffraff at the Get Down). From their flyer: "Come see what Asheville's newest indie theatre company is all about! We are joining forces (performers, musicians and artists alike) to create the ultimate creative space on Haywood Road! Interested in selling YOUR creative, crafty wares at our shoppe? Looking to volunteer or want to get involved in the arts? Need a space for YOUR class or workshop? Shoot us a line or give us a call! We'd love to have YOU be a part of it all!"

Call:
828.545.3861

Or Email;
anamcaratc@gmail.com

Short Street Cakes + Dripolator = Love!

Hey Friends!
I just wanted to let you know that I will be bringing two dozen cupcakes over to the Dripolator today, thus inaugurating our relationship with Dripolator as the exclusive downtown location for procuring Short Street Cakes Cupcakes! We will be bringing in fresh cupcakes daily, in a variety of flavors, meaning you can enjoy a Short Street Cupcake from 7am to 9pm every day!

Also, don't forget that Short Street Cakes by the slice are available at these fine local Asheville establishments: Marco's Pizzeria, 444 Gallery Cafe, and Carmel's!
Thanks and love!

Happy 5th Birthday, Jasper!

This week, we celebrated Jasper's 5th birthday! We started the day with birthday pancakes:

And made birthday decorations with his friends.

We had birthday dinner:

Consisting of Jasper's preferred menu of cheeseburgers, oatmeal, and "soft carrots with honey." And cake.
The next day, we went to the FAIR!

And had a party, with many of Jasper's besties (and their moms and dads) in attendance.

We had more cake! (Jasper chose Strawberry Cake with a Ganache Topping)

And there were presents (with a definite Star Wars theme).


We rode rides and ate fair food. I was giddy... I love the fair. And this birthday seemed so much to me to be a milestone- for Jasper and for me. I feel like I'm catching my breath and marveling at the beautiful child he has become in just 5 short years. At the same time, I'm marveling at the fact that 5 years seems so LONG- sometimes it feels like just months ago that he was born. In keeping with that theme- that five years is a long time- I'm realizing that the past is over, as much as I keep trying to go back and make sense of the whirlwind of the last couple of decades. I'm ready to make some changes in my life- to get more grounded in the here and now, and to grow my business and my relationships. I feel so psyched about Jasper and the adventures we have ahead of us! And I'm grateful to our family, and family of friends, for giving him such a web of love in which to grow.

So Happy Birthday to the coolest, sweetest, loveliest 5-year-old Jedi Knight in the universe. So much love!

Introducing: Community Coupons!

We're really excited to launch a new community endeavor here at the Cake Shop: "Community Coupons!" Here's the deal: every couple of months, we will chose a different non-profit group in the community as our Community Coupon recipient. The non-profit will distribute Short Street Cakes coupons, and, when you bring one in to the shop, we will donate 10% of your purchase price to that organization! WE love it when YOU come in and buy stuff from Short Street Cakes. YOU love supporting local non-profits while eating delicious cake! Win/Win, right? From now until October 31st, Our VOICE will be the recipient. Be on the lookout for community coupons starting next week. And, hey, if you are a business owner, you can do it too!

Grassroots Revival this Sunday!

This Sunday, from 4-8 pm at the Pearson Garden in Montford, Bountiful Cities will be hosting our annual Grassroots Revival- a chance for people and groups working for social change and sustainability to get together, socialize, and foment creativity and change in our communities! Bring a dish to share, beverages, and your own eating utensils. Rain or shine... see you there and spread the word!

Family, Love and Community

Friends, you may have noticed the conspicuous absence of my husband from these pages in the past year, and you may have read in the very excellent recent article by Barbara Blake about my history that my son's father and I are no longer together. I am choosing to acknowledge the end of my marriage here because, as the story of my life in cake unfolds, I cannot totally separate my work from my life (it is something I learned at summer camp)- so much of my inspiration in my work with the Cake Shop is rooted in my home and family that it would be disingenuous not to briefly and respectfully address it here.
My son's father and I separated this past July. We shared a beautiful and successful thirteen-year relationship that culminated in the birth of our son, and we have now chosen to let go of each other and our relationship in order to continue on the divergent paths that we have forged. Obviously, this loss has been deeply, profoundly, and cataclysmically painful, and that has taught me a lot: so many people around us every day are experiencing exactly the same kinds of grief and loss, and we may not know it, and we have to be tender with each other, and the things we think we know we might shouldn't be too sure of. Life can get very surreal when your foundation unravels, but I know that we will all be OK and that many good things are to come.
What is to come for me? I'm getting to know myself. I'm loving my home and my son, and I am kicking ass (along with my totally excellent employees) at the Cake Shop. This summer I am writing a book that involves travelling the South to meet Southern Cake Ladies, my 4-year old in tow (more on that to come). I'm thinking of it as my soul journey. My definitions of community and family have changed. I feel a greater sense of aloneness in some ways, but at the same time, a greater sense of togetherness within myself and with others. I am grateful to my son and to Short Street Cakes for grounding me. My apologies to those friends and family members who might just be hearing the news in this venue, and my thanks to the many friends who have loved and supported me through this process. And my deepest love, respect, and gratitude to my friend Duncan- for the time we shared and the things I have learned.

Footnote: as I was contemplating publishing this post, I browsed into the My Life in Cake history, which I never do, and I found this little interesting gem from a year and a half ago.
Love.

Thank you, Citizen Times, for profiling "The Woman Behind Short Street Cakes!"

This article appeared in the living section of Sunday's Asheville Citizen-Times. I feel honored to share my story, and I know that we each have a beautiful story to tell.

Click to view the full article:

"From scratch, with love: The woman behind Asheville's Short Street Cakes cooks up community with her creations" by Barbara Blake

A Bevy of Blogs, a Plethora of People, and a Plenitude of Pleasurable Places-to-Go.

A Compendium of People, Places, Things and Events that are inspiring me right now:

1) Asheville Grown

This now-ubiquitous image is the work of the Asheville Grown Business alliance, an organization directed by Franzi Cheren (co-owner of Hip Replacements on Lexington) whose mission is to increase awareness of the positive impact on communities when we choose to spend our dollars at locally-owned businesses. From their FaceBook page:

Asheville Grown Business Alliance is a grassroots organization whose mission is to support independently owned businesses in the community, to continue growing a vibrant local economy while preserving the unique character of Asheville and to educate consumers on the critical importance of thinking locally first when considering the impact of national and global chains.

You can learn more, and buy the t-shirts, here.

2) The Sloppy Joe Circus

Many of the performers in the Sloppy Joe Circus are artists who have been honing their funny craft in a very serious way for many years now; from trapeze to accordion, clowning and miming and vaudeville and juggling and more. It's nothing short of DIY magic, and it reminds me that one of the best things about being in my 30s is getting to watch as my friends, each in different ways, get REALLY, authentically, magically good at what they do.

Also from FaceBook:

Asheville’s own Runaway Circus will be presenting their 4th annual winter circus at the W.C. Reid Center for Creative Arts. This year, Runaway Circus is drawing on memories most everyone will understand….Middle School. Dubbed The Sloppy Joe Circus, the event will use acrobatics, juggling, clowning/slapstick, hula hooping, trapeze, a live band, and many other talents to explore the various cliques, eccentric teachers, and awkward social exchanges that define those wondrous years.

Dates and Times:
Fri. March 19th at 8pm
Sat. March 20th at 8pm
Sun. March 21st at 2pm
Fri. March 26th at 8pm
Sat. March 27th at 8pm
Sun. March 28th - 1pm parade starting at French Broad Food Co-op and 2pm show

Tickets are available at the door for a $10 suggested donation, but in line with the troupe’s belief of providing affordable, quality entertainment to the community, nobody will be turned away for lack of funds. Additionally, half of all proceeds from the March 21st show will go to support other local, non-profit organizations.

The Runaway Circus & the Loose Cabooses is a not-for-profit group based in Asheville, NC. Their mission is to entertain and inspire the community with their breathtaking performances. With extraordinary feats of acrobatics, juggling, slapstick, and musical talent, they are sure to leave any spectator with their jaw dropped and their stomach aching from laughter.

This is the last weekend, so check it out if you can. Also, tonight's (Saturday's) and tomorrow's shows feature "The Fascinating World of Mammalian Lactation," a pre-show by Julie and Nathanael!

3) Congratulations to Chef Shannon Ginn!



This Spring, Shannon (who has been a part of the Cake Shop since she interned here last summer) graduates with a degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. Thursday's Capstone was a showcase of the skills that the students acquired over the course of their studies. Shannon's Dr. Seuss themed display featured the many talents she has cultivated: breads, tortes, occasion cakes, truffles, petit fours, and many more. Congratulations, Shannon! We love you and we're so proud of you!

4) The Paraplegic Chef and Tattoos and Cupcakes

A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak about my experience in starting my business at the YWCA Tribute to Women of Influence Reception, due to the fact that the free drop-in childcare for women in transition was a critical stepping stone for me to be able to finish my Mountain Bizworks class, and consequently my business plan. I will be forever grateful to the YWCA for helping me on my path to being economically independent, and am always happy and proud to be their poster child. The event was an amazing and humbling opportunity for me to stand before a group of incredibly accomplished women, and many of the recipients of the award are women I already know and respect in the community, and many were new to me. One of the recipients, Megan McCauley,


and her partner, Shannon,
were particularly inspiring. Megan is a chef who broke her back in an accident at age 22, and is now in a wheelchair. She has continued to hone her culinary craft and her love of sports, and is now helping newly paraplegic people to learn how to cook adaptively, has an awesome food blog, The Paraplegic Chef, and is seeking donations and sponsors for her 3-day, 180-mile hand cycling ride from Charlotte, NC to Myrtle Beach, SC. The fundraiser benefits the Adaptive Sports and Adventure Program of Carolina's Rehabilitation- offering low-cost programs for youth and adults with physical challenges. Megan's partner Shannon's blog, Tattoos and Cupcakes, is a visual feast of photography, craftiness, cakeyness, wittiness, and love. These girls are young, fierce and BADASS. I was glad to have met them and can't wait to see what they'll do next! Rock on, Shannon and Megan!


5) Build a Birdhouse for the Bountiful Cities Project!

May 1st is the deadline for entries of birdhouses, birdbaths, bat-houses, and yard art for BCP's 8th annual Birdhouse Auction. The event this year takes place on May 15th at Christopher's Garden in East-West Asheville (the beautiful garden on the corner behind the Rocket Club) and will be emceed by Jen Lauzon of LaZoom Tours! This is a super-fun fundraiser that helps us pay for the community garden spaces that the organization owns and holds in trust for the community, and supports the work of Urban Agriculture in Asheville, our Strong Roots Youth Programs, and the creation of new and exciting Food Security initiatives.
Birdhouses can be dropped off at the Cake Shop or at Honeypot on Lexington Avenue, Downtown.

6) Pilgrim!

Sweet friend Jaye Bartell releases his new EP, Dog's Dinner, tonight in Buffalo, NY, is having a show at Static Age records on April 1st, along with Tartufi and Judas Horse, and will be having the Asheville Dog's Dinner EP Release on April 15th at LAB. Jaye makes beautiful music, sometimes alone, often with others. His music breaks my heart, in a good way. And he's another friend who I've been lucky enough to see develop artistically through the years- totally inspiring.

7) Edible Books!


8) Cupcakes for Cures!

Cupcakes for Cures is Asheville’s Cupcake Faceoff created a group of cupcake loving, cancer fighting Ashevilleans.
Professional bakers, amateur bakers and youth bakers compete for bragging rights and fantastic prizes all while raising funds to find cures for cancer. Bakers can enter multiple culinary creations in true Asheville categories like Best Beer Cupcake, Best Gluten-Free Cupcake, Best Holiday and Special Occasion Cupcake, Best Birthday Cupcake and Best Local Foods Cupcake.

Oh, Yes.
BRING IT.

OK, thus concludes the whirlwind. We've got lots to look forward to and lots to be grateful for! Thank you, Asheville! Thank you, Friends! Thank you, especially, SPRING! Stay tuned for next week's big news: The New Short Street Cakes Menu! drops on April 7th. Hell Yes.
Love,
Jodi