Exploring the Valley
Discover the hidden gems, local legends, and can’t-miss experiences in Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley as we dive into the perks of Chamber membership and uncover what makes this mountain town a must-visit destination. Whether you're a local business or just passing through, there's something cool waiting for you!
Exploring the Valley
Merry Wine and Holy Mustard: A Sommelier, a Choir Guy, and a Town That Talks
Some places find you before you realize you’re looking. That’s how Scott Kelts tells it—a Mississippi native who came to the Blue Ridge for a summer camp job, fell for a chef named Catherine, and never quite left. We share how a picnic turned into a partnership, how a storefront on State Street became a living room for locals and visitors, and why Black Mountain still feels like a town that looks you in the eye at the grocery and adds five minutes for conversation.
We dig into the layers that make a community resilient and warm. Scott talks about honoring public schools while building an a la carte path through homeschool cooperatives, letting each child stretch—one into early college writing, the other through advanced math and a self-taught engineering statics course supported by a brilliant local tutor. Education here is a network, not a silo. So are the trails: Montreat’s Greybeard and Rainbow, Ridgecrest’s Rattlesnake and Kitsuma, the glide of Point Lookout, and the transformed access at Catawba Falls. Whether you’re porch-sipping or pushing to a vista, there’s always a route that fits your pace.
Inside Merry Wine Market, the details tell a bigger story. An old luggage cart from the New Ray Inn anchors the locals’ picks, while travelers get a curated walk-through—price point, pairing, purpose. The shelves mix global bottles with regional gems like Lusty Monk mustard and locally born snacks that went national, proving that small towns can launch big flavors. Dogs are welcome, stories are free, and the best souvenirs might be the names you learn while browsing.
If you’re curious about how to choose a town that chooses you back, or how to make a business double as a bridge between people, this conversation offers a clear, grounded view. Subscribe for more Valley stories, share this with a friend who loves mountain towns, and leave a review with your favorite Black Mountain hike or sip—what should we explore next?
Welcome to Exploring the Valley. This is Cheryl Hyde. I'm the director of the Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce and the Black Mountain Visitor Center. On this podcast, I'll be your guide to the people, places, and stories that make our community special. Each episode will share the heart of the Swannanoa Valley. From local businesses and hidden trails to festivals, history, and the voices of our neighbors. Whether you're a longtime resident or a first-time visitor, you'll find the pride of our community and the magic of the mountains right here. You're listening to Exploring the Valley, where local pride meets lasting magic. You're in for a ride, so buckle up. Good morning, morning. I am so glad to see you this morning.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's fun. Isn't this a great place? Man, I can't believe we've got something like this in our zip code. I've never been on a podcast.
SPEAKER_01:PC Productions. Until you man, they take good care of us too.
SPEAKER_00:Feel downright fancy.
SPEAKER_01:I know you should. Well, listen, what I know about you, which is very little, but is that you and Catherine, your wife, own the Marywine Market.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, 21 years. 21 years. And a half.
SPEAKER_01:And you're still married.
SPEAKER_00:We are.
SPEAKER_01:And you like each other.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:That's what's really cool.
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But y'all also have two children.
SPEAKER_00:We do.
SPEAKER_01:Children, not children.
SPEAKER_00:Four if you count the dogs.
SPEAKER_01:I don't.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Then two.
SPEAKER_01:Then two. Yes. Okay. You don't have to pay for the dog's education after they get that basic training.
SPEAKER_00:No, but they are expensive.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's true. Anyway. All right. So I also know that you raised those children here in Black Mountain.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:And that you go to the Presbyterian church and you sing in the choir.
SPEAKER_00:I do.
SPEAKER_01:Are you impressed that I know that?
SPEAKER_00:I am very impressed that you know that.
SPEAKER_01:I talked to my parents last night about you and they said, Oh, he sings in the choir. I said, Oh, I didn't know that. So at their church.
SPEAKER_00:I sing in the choir when I'm not away at a football game.
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:In the fall.
SPEAKER_01:In the fall. Where would you go for a football game?
SPEAKER_00:Ole Miss, Hottie Toddy.
SPEAKER_01:I just thought I'd ask. I didn't I wasn't sure with that shirt you've got on that says old miss all over it. So I wasn't sure. Tell me anything else about you, like where are you from? What's your story?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm originally from a very small town in Northeast Mississippi, Corinth, Mississippi, and most people have never heard of it. But if you are a student of history and you know anything about the Civil War, the Battle of Shiloh, which is often credited with being the bloodiest battle in the war, it was fought over my little hometown. Because my hometown had a railroad crossing and it had the north-south-east-west crossroads. It's called the Crossroads City. So whoever during that war controlled Corinth controlled munitions, men, and supplies for a big swath of the southern region. So we were um a strategic point. So that's what Corinth is known for. Then it became uh known as Little Chicago.
SPEAKER_01:Oh dear.
SPEAKER_00:Because we were halfway between New Orleans and Chicago. And the opium trade started coming through. Well, that's proud. That's going to be proud of it. We're so proud of that. And so yeah, that's I'm from Corinth. So I went to OMIS, the University of Mississippi.
SPEAKER_01:I've heard of it.
SPEAKER_00:Very proud of that. And studied journalism and other things. I kind of took a tour of all their majors and spent a lot of time there and a lot of my parents' money. And then I had a professor who said, you need to work on your resume. Go get a great one. Go get a leadership strike. And I came to work at a summer camp in Ridgecrest, Camp Ridgecrest for Boys. And I was going to be here for one summer, do a great job. And I met a little girl when they came over to the Crest Ridge girls camp, came over for a picnic. She was from Tampa, but had grown up at Camp Crestridge for Girls. And she was on staff the same year I was. And we met and we didn't go home. She took a side tour and went off and she went to Converse College in South Carolina and then the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and became a chef and studied wines, became an expert in wines, and worked in Europe and several places in the U.S., including Manhattan, worked for Charlie Palmer, who's a somewhat famous chef in the culinary world, and he loved what she did. She was really good at what she did. But she came back for a reunion and we remet. I didn't go home and we married and have had our family here.
SPEAKER_01:I was really hoping it was going to be Catherine you're telling this story about.
SPEAKER_00:It was Catherine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because I was a little bit worried that.
SPEAKER_00:It was Catherine.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:It would have been fun if it had been somebody else.
SPEAKER_01:No, it would not. No, it would not. She might actually listen to this.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe so.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, so y'all and so y'all settled here immediately.
SPEAKER_00:We did. Well, she moved, she when she moved back from Europe after a stand in New York, she thought she might want to stay in Asheville. It was a little bit more cosmopolitan back in the mid-90s. Black Mountain was still coming along. And uh and when we dated, I'm old-fashioned, I'm from Mississippi. I went to her. I went from Black Mountain to Asheville. So our social life while we were dating was Asheville. So she didn't really know a whole lot about Black Mountain. It was the little town adjacent to where she came to camp in Ridgecrest, um at Camp Crestridge, but it's where they went for ice cream, you know. Right. So she didn't really know a whole lot about Black Mountain because our our social sphere was Asheville. So I started bringing her out to Black Mountain because I really wanted to live here and I knew she'd love it if she really saw what Black Mountain was. And even back then, when it was still very small, much smaller than it is now, and and not nearly as much going on downtown, she realized how many young people were out here even then. And and it's so easy to get anywhere else you want to go, but it's nice to come home to Black Mountain. So yeah, we married and we've lived here.
SPEAKER_01:That's cool. Yeah. So your children went to high school here?
SPEAKER_00:So our children went to, I taught briefly at Black Mountain primary. So I was I'm a big proponent for public school, love public school, love our private schools. Sure. But I'm a product of public school in North Mississippi, and I went to an excellent school in North Mississippi. A lot of people will be might be surprised by that, but it's wonderful there. And so our children started out in the public school system, but we realized our children needed something a little different than what the public schools offered. And so we started taking part in the homeschool cooperatives. And a lot of people hear homeschool and they think that we're sitting at our table and that Catherine and I are teaching. And that's not what it is at all. Now, I mean, worldwide, I think people hear homeschool and they immediately go to Prairie Skirts, stop piling, you know, food and water and applying for our own zip code. And that's just so far from the truth.
SPEAKER_01:Have you ever been to a homeschool fair? I have not seen those people.
SPEAKER_00:I have not. Telling you they're there. But they're everywhere. They're they're in public schools, they're even in private schools. I've seen them. But we started taking part in the cooperative systems, so we didn't really teach anything at home. It I tell people we participated in private school a la carte because we could pick and choose. And our daughter was, she doesn't like it when I talk about her, but she was accelerated in her reading and her writing capabilities. So she needed something to challenge her and really kind of foster that. So we were able to do that with her. She went into old mess, she's a junior now, she went in as a freshman with almost 36 hours of college work that she'd started doing when she was in seventh and eighth grade through some of the colleges that actually will allow children who have those capabilities to do that. Our son came along, and I honestly don't know where he gets this. He did not get it from me. I don't know where he gets his math skills. I stopped doing math when they put the alphabet in it. But my son has this ability to do math on a level that no one understood. In fact, there were some people within the public school system who told us back when he was in fourth and fifth grade that we might need to look at something alternative for him because of how bored he was with what they were able to do with a classroom full of twenty-eight kids. And so he, you know, because of the the the path we chose, he was able to finish algebra one, algebra two, calculus one, and calculus two by ninth grade. He did not theory proof theory, abstract algebra.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my. And then I don't even know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00:I don't either. I'm just regurgitating titles I've seen on things. And then he did a self-study his last year of what we call Ole Miss's School of Engineering and got the curriculum for their statics course. And so he did a self-taught statics curriculum, and we hired a math tutor that is in Asheville who teaches within the homeschool network, who his Dr. Jonas Swan, just a a a ridiculous resource we have here for put for people in that community. He I think it's called Brain Builder. It's a math program in Asheville. And he he can take you through all of those things. But he he said Rip had really done all of the work he could do. So he just checked in with Rip every so often while Rip did a college statics course as a senior in high school. So now he's Rip is in an engineering school and doing really well. He's in a little manufacturing program. So yeah, I'm bragging a lot on my children. But for those people who um and I love the public school system, uh Black Mountain primary, Black Mountain Elementary, Owen Middle, Owen High School, I can't say enough for those schools. The kids who are coming out of there, the, the, their abilities, what they're doing in colleges when they go, I can't say enough about those schools. But I know a lot of people have a fairly negative view of homeschool, and it was really good for us. I think it's changing.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's changing. I did homeschool my children too. So I do think that is changing, though. And I think that's for the better. I do. All right. So you raise these two children and you even homeschooled them here in Black Mountain. What would you tell a family that wanted to move to Black Mountain are the extra benefits to being in an area like Black Mountain?
SPEAKER_00:Well, first of all, I'd say welcome home. It's we've been waiting. It's there are so many advantages to raising a family in a town like this. It's I'm old, older than I look. I I tell people I participate in God's Botox. I ate as much mayonnaise and butter as humanly possible, and it keeps me real puffy and smooth. And so you don't know how old I am because my wrinkles are all puffed out. But I was raised in North Mississippi in a very traditional town where everyone knew everyone. And so when you went into downtown Corinth, you ran into people and they were friends. They either lived on your street or you went to church with them, or you worked with them, or they were all three. And everybody knew each other, everybody looked out for each other. And that's what you find here. Um, certainly when in the early 90s, when I moved here, I started coming here in the late 80s, moved here in the 90s, and it was like that. It's it's getting a little different. We're growing, but it it's still a wonderful place where where we we watch out for each other, we're aware of each other in town and kind of help take care of everybody.
SPEAKER_01:It's one of those towns that when you go to the grocery store, you need to add in a little extra time because you're gonna see 13 people you know.
SPEAKER_00:100%. My wife won't let me go with her.
SPEAKER_01:I bet not. You and I would be in trouble.
SPEAKER_00:Awful. I she goes lickety split. Being a chef, she knows exactly where what she's looking for is. And she it for her, it's an inner race. Can I get home and beat my time from the last visit? And I go from aisle to aisle to see who I miss.
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:Me too.
SPEAKER_01:That's what I do. I saw seven people last night.
SPEAKER_00:There you go.
SPEAKER_01:Like 13 the other day. That's great.
SPEAKER_00:It's a party, and there's food there.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. So they have food there, yes. They do have food. Okay. So when the kids are here in town, what do y'all like to do when you're here? I mean, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, Ridgecrest, Mon Tree, anywhere in the Swannanoa Valley. What do y'all like to do when you're here?
SPEAKER_00:Well, keeping in mind that we are a somewhat boring family. We our favorite place to be is where each other happens to be. So we like to stay home, but home's wonderful because it's Black Mountain. So we will have a nice morning where we sit and we talk about all the breakfast options in town. And so we'll run and eat somewhere. And we do have some good breakfast places in town. And then we will we like to hike. So I mean, there are trails everywhere. Right. I mean, r there's the Ridgecrest trails, there are the Montreat trails, there are trails over up above up above Christmount, up above Blue Ridge. I mean, just in any direction you want to go, go find a trail. And I always tell people, they will come in our shop, the Mary Wine Market, on historic State Street in downtown Black Mountain. And they'll say, Well, I'm so worried about hiking in Montreat. Last time I was up there, I saw this big sign warning me that if I went beyond that sign, I would no longer be on their trail systems. I said, Well, that's correct. You would be leaving the Presbyterians, but you would be joining the Baptists because as soon as you go on the other side of that sign, you're on the Ridgecrest system. And and beautiful hikes up there. You know, you've got the overlook in Montreal, you've got Greybeard, you've got Rainbow Trail, which isn't known for its views, but it's such a nice meandering hike, and it's for anybody, all ages. But you go over to Ridgecrest, you've got Rattlesnake, you've got Kizuma. Rattlesnake Mountain is wonderful. You get up to the top.
SPEAKER_01:I want to hear about snakes.
SPEAKER_00:Oh no, it's not a snake, it's a mountain. It's a mountaintop. I know. And you can see almost into Asheville from it. It's beautiful up there. Gorgeous.
SPEAKER_01:One of my favorites is the point lookout.
SPEAKER_00:It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:I do like going on that. I like the flat, big fan. And I just got an e-bike. So I'm like excited about riding it down and then e-biking it back.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, that's really nice. That's a wonderful sense. And now what they've done with uh the state's done with Katawba. Yes, that's Catawba waterfall. Because I went to Catawba with camps when no one was there. No one. It was surrounded by private property, and camp had been given permission to use it. So we would hike our campers down there and camp and let them swim around in the falls, and we'd, you know, cook out and and spend the night under tarps and then hike back up. And now, I mean, you go down there and it's a crowd of people. They've built that tower where you you climb and climb and climb, and the view is insane. So yeah, there's just a lot to do. So when our kids are home, a lot of the stuff we do, it's centered around outdoor activities, you know, walking around downtown, seeing who we see. Because it's that type of place, you know. You're gonna run into all sorts of people you had forgotten that you really wanted to see. And uh so that that's fun.
SPEAKER_01:It is fun.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so back to the Mary Wine Market. I have a question. I know that you and I have talked about locals coming in there versus visitors. I don't call them tourists, we call them visitors on this show. But what is the difference? I mean, do who browses? Is it more the visitors who browse or my dad loves wine and I could see him walking in there and going, here's my list, order it for me, and I want a case of it. And you saying, sure, I'll get it for you. Because you can do that, right?
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah. You can order pretty much anything easily as long as it comes into the state.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Okay. Okay. So what's the difference between locals and visitors?
SPEAKER_00:It it's funny because I actually have an answer for this. Okay. And it's a fun answer. We we have a big uh it's a wagon. A lot of people may not know that there's a big that thing that you walk right into when you walk in our shop past the the counter and you walk into a table. It's actually a wagon and it's an old, it's an old luggage cart from the New Ray Inn up in Burnswell, the old historic inn. And we found it in an antique store. We were opening our shop and thought it'd be perfect because it had our our sort of aqua blue paint on the wheels, and it's a beautiful old cart. So we have that set up, and that's kind of our locals grab-and-go because over the years we figured out what the majority of the folks who come in regularly want, and so you'll find there the really I think well-priced wines, and that's a relative term because some people their everyday drinking is a$12 wine, their everyday drinking price is a$20 wine. So it's you just you have to know your customer base, and and we feel like we do that. So they're they're gonna come in and they're gonna grab something off of that for the most part, but they're also gonna linger because we're gonna talk. And we don't we don't talk. There are too many churches in town, they're all prayer requests. And so we'll sit there and share with each other just about everybody in town and talk about all sorts of things and just catch up, visit. It's it's we visit, you know, it's such a throwback to like where I grew up, where you went downtown to visit with people. And then when the tourists or the visitors come in, I always love to ask, you know, where they're from, because there's always a connection. And I love talking to people. If you if you can get a conversation going, then you're gonna make some connections with somebody. You're gonna connect. And they'll stay and visit with us, but that's fun because then we get to walk them around the shop because they're looking for something, but they might not know exactly what it is. So we get to go around and show them you know how we have our shop categorized. It's a little different than your typical wine shop. So we get to go around and show them where everything is and and talk about what what's their price point, what do they like to drink, what's are they gonna be sipping it on a porch? Are they gonna have it with a meal? Is this something they want to put back and save for a little while?
SPEAKER_01:So very cool.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:My favorite thing in there other than the wine. What is it?
SPEAKER_00:Me.
SPEAKER_01:Of course it's you. Yes. No, uh probably funny that you say that because it's lusty monk mustard.
SPEAKER_00:The lusty monk mustards.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's kind of funny. And I love that because people do come in and I'll hear it over and over. Oh, they've got that mustard we had at that restaurant. And I say, well, the which restaurant? Because all the restaurants use lusty monk mustards. It's made in downtown Ashville. Right. It's very local. Most of our gourmet little we call it sort of a charcuterie gourmet area. We've got some things like that. Most of the most all of it is local.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But that's my favorite part, just to tell you.
SPEAKER_00:And that's fun too, because we then we get to tell the stories of it. That's right. People come in and they can't believe, oh, you've got that popcorn. I get that when I'm in Dallas. Oh, you've got that popcorn. I get that when I'm in, you know, Tampa.
SPEAKER_01:Guess where it started?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, right down the street. The kitchen was three blocks from us for for a while and they outgrew that. So yeah, I always tell them that's our local popcorn.
SPEAKER_01:That's why I love your store.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You can find things from around the world, but you also can find things from right down the street.
SPEAKER_00:And that's what's fun about being in a shop our size is I can have those conversations and I can tell people that. You know, you get into a bigger place, you may not be able to have those conversations. So but we get to have conversations.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And they're free.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, they are. And so you'll know when I'm in a hurry because I don't stop. I knock on the window and wave and keep going. Because if you and I start talking, it's always it's always an owl.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You know, another fun way I can tell when someone's a visitor?
SPEAKER_01:How?
SPEAKER_00:When it's a couple and they have a dog and one will come in the shop and they'll leave the other out with the dog. And I have to go and tell them, hi, I've got treats. Bring your dog in. Bring your dog in. What I can do. Yeah, I was like, I've raised two children in this shop. Yeah, that dog cannot do nearly as much damage as I've done myself. I've made more mistakes in there and broken more bottles than even my children did.
SPEAKER_01:Well, when I first got here, one of the first people, you were one of the first people I met when I first started this job, I guess I should say. And it never fails that when I'm trying to make a connection with somebody in town, I usually start with your name. I'm like Scott Kelts. Oh, of course I know him. And so that's the way that if I can't break through with somebody, that's what I do. I use you all the time.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm so glad that so far that's been mostly positive.
SPEAKER_01:It has. I haven't heard anything. Wait, is there something I need to learn?
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay. We won't ask that here. Anyway, well, I appreciate you coming today. Is there anything else you want to talk about? How awesome the valley is?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's it's home. You know, I'm proud to be from Corinth, Mississippi. I love that I'm from seven generations from North Mississippi. So I'm fiercely loyal and proud of that. But Black Mountain is home. And and my wife would say the same. She's multi-generations from Tampa, Florida. And even though Tampa is a large city, the area of Tampa where she grew up, South Tampa, is a very small town. And you hear very southern accents down there. But her her her family heritage is Spanish. So even though with southern accents they've got, you know, the Spanish last names. But uh this is our home. This is where we chose to raise our children. Our children think of this as home. And so I could talk forever just about what makes Black Mountain special. It's just it's the people. And they're all walks of life here. They're gigantic nobodies in Northeast Mississippi like Scott Counts here. But you know, I can marry an incredibly talented chef who's lived all over the world and and cooked with some of the most famous people in the world, and she loves me. And we can have neighbors who were executives with Coca-Cola, executives with Exxon, executives with with everyday companies that people know of. And they might not necessarily know that those people that started those companies or ran those companies have decided to come here and take a little bit of a breather, relax, and put on comfortable shoes and walk around and shop and visit with everybody downtown. And they don't like the rest of us. And look like the rest of us. And they don't necessarily want to be known for that. They like their life now. You know, I remember when Jan Karen moved here, the the Mitford series, and and she loved it here. The the her museum, though, ended up being in in her hometown. So she's there now, but she had so many wonderful. We would talk uh about how, you know, Mitford could have been Black Mountain. And just, you know, th those types of people live here. And because they recognize what a special place it is, and it is a very special place. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Mom and dad almost named their house. You know, in Montreat, everybody names their house. And they I mean, we've had the house for 88 years and they've never named it. And so we went through a series of names, and one was Little Mitford. That was the idea was hmm, let's call it Little Mitford. That was one we've still never settled on a name. So that's okay. But anyway, well, thank you so much for coming today. Absolutely, you being here, and I probably will see you another time or three this week.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful. We look forward to it.
SPEAKER_01:All right, thank you. Thanks for joining us on Exploring the Valley. Until next time, keep celebrating the pride of our community and discovering the magic of the mountains. In the meantime, you're free to move about the valley.