The tradition of cheese-making reaches back thousands of years, though its appeal has obviously not diminished through the ages — especially not in Western North Carolina, which boasts an abundance of cheese makers.

In modern times, good cheese is often found on a fancy board with a glass of wine. But cheese far predates its foodie reputation.

With no known date of origin, cheese-making is thought to have grown with the rise of animal agriculture, likely having began as a way to preserve milk, and as well as a way to make it more digestible for a largely lactose-intolerant society. It was probably first created by accident, coagulated during travel in a carrying case fashioned out of the stomach of an animal — hardly romantic.

Some of the ancient styles of cheese can be revisited on the WNC Cheese Trail, a self-guided tour that connects cheese-makers such as English Farmstead Cheese, Round Mountain Creamery and Looking Glass Creamery. The cooperative effort by many of the region’s farmstead and artisan cheese producers aims to promote the production and sale of WNC artisan cheeses and encourage tourism to benefit member producers.

Some of the oldest types of cheese, donkey included, are not represented on the trail. But some WNC cheese-makers do follow eons-old recipes, such as Alpine-style cheese made by Looking Glass and Blue Ridge Mountain creameries. “People have been making cheese for a really long time,” said Rachel Brown, of English Farmstead Cheese.

That sort of ancient cheese craft, as well as more modern methods, will be on display at the Carolina Mountain Cheese Festival, April 26 at Highland Brewing Company. It’s a celebration of local cheese that knits together the WNC Cheese Trail in one swift, four-hour expo.

Brown and other organizers expect the festival, which puts the focus squarely on cheese and the art of cheese-making, to draw 500 people, not to mention a handful of farm animals, panel speakers, cheese pullers and vendors.

According to Brown, what sets this festival apart from others is the focus on the cheese itself — its history, role in local agriculture and, of course, the nature and flavor of the product. Milking demos and grilled cheese contests add to the festival a family-friendly element with a dose of agritourism.

“There’s a lot of cheese festivals out there that are really more focused on what you can drink with the cheese rather than the cheese itself,” Brown said. Though naturally, as the festival does take place at Highland Brewing Company, it’s not exactly dry.

The festival will also act as a fundraiser for the Cheese Trail. Brown and other organizers hope the event will raise awareness not just about the trail, but about the depth and variety of local cheese-making.

According to Brown, many people — even locals — aren’t aware of the depth and variety of the local cheese being made in the area.

“I’m just always shocked how many local people don’t know we have cheese-makers here, right in their backyard,” Brown said. But the Cheese Festival, she hopes, will help spread awareness of the industry that’s blooming in our mountains.

“We’re reaching out beyond our backyard,” she said. “But we’re also letting people who are closest to us know that we are here.”

Katie Moore owns the Cheese Store of Asheville and is also a coordinator for the festival. As somewhat of a cheese historian, part of Moore’s work is reminding people that local cheese-makers are preserving ancient foodways.

“I don’t think people understand the history, and that many local cheese-makers are making excellent cheese following these traditional practices, or tweaking heirloom recipes,” she said. “Here in the U.S., we don’t think that much about history of our food. But the U.S. is only 600 years old, while cheese goes back thousands of years.”

Cheese history will be at the basis of some of the panels and talks at the festival. But it’s also alive in the wares of the more than 30 vendors who will be there with plenty of cheese to sell. Moore hopes the $12 ticket price will encourage people to buy from the cheese-makers.

“The goal is that we have this local economy here that we need to support, and part of that is creating awareness and education, but also giving cheese-makers a place to vend,” Moore said. “It’s a good way to do the entire Cheese Trail in one day, in one place.”

Cheese trails have been popular in other places well-known for cheese, such as Vermont, and Brown hopes the local version continues to gain speed. It’s seen a lot of growth this year and, even though cheese is the focus, other cheese-adjacent businesses, like wineries and restaurants, have been added to the roster.

“We’re kind of making it a full circle,” she said. “You can go in the morning and see the animals, and you can watch the cheese being made, and then that night go to a restaurant that uses it. You can see the process full circle, throughout the entire life cycle of the cheese.”

Jennifer Perkins, co-owner of Looking Glass Creamery, thinks a vibrant and thriving local food system starts from the ground up — it’s not just the preparation of the food, but also the provenance of the ingredients in a finished meal.

“Many local restaurants and residents support small cheese-makers year round because they recognize the distinct character local cheese can bring to their dinner plates,” she said. “This helps make WNC a hotbed for small cheese-makers. I am looking forward to the next 10 years of evolution of local cheese, as the bar is continually raised and new producers join the mix.”

More information about the WNC Cheese Trail and local cheese makers at wnccheesetrail.vpweb.com. More about the Carolina Cheese Fest at www.mountaincheesefest.com. More about the Cheese Store of Asheville at www.csasheville.com.

CHEDDAR CHEESE BISCUITS

2 cups self-rising flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) cold butter

4 tablespoons (2 ounces) fromage blanc

1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk, plus more as needed

Extra butter, to grease pan and top biscuits

1/4 cup grated Ashford Cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put a 10-inch cast iron pan into the oven while it is preheating.

Put the flour and salt into a medium size bowl. Cut in the butter and fromage blanc. Make a well in the middle of the ingredients and pour in the buttermilk. Stir until the mix is moistened, adding an extra tablespoon of buttermilk, if needed.

Carefully remove the hot skillet from the oven and put a tablespoon of butter into it. When the butter has melted, drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter into the hot pan. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter.

Bake 14-16 minutes until browned on the top and bottom. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the grated Ashford Cheddar cheese.

FETA AND CHIVE SOUR CREAM SCONES

Yields 12 small scones

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

1 egg beaten

3 tablespoons cold water

3/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup chopped chives

3/4 cup Feta (big crumbles) – Three Graces Dairy Cow-Milk Feta works well

1 egg beaten for egg wash

Coarse sea salt, cracked black pepper, and smoky paprika for topping

Place rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and black pepper. Cut in butter (using your fingers or a pastry cutter) until mixture resembles a coarse meal.

In another bowl, combine egg, sour cream, and water. Beat lightly with a fork.

Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring enough to make a soft and shaggy dough.

Add the chives and feta and dump mixture on a clean counter to knead the dough together. The mixture will come together in about 10 to 15 kneads.

Roll or pat out into a 1-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds using a biscuit cutter or cut into 2×2-inch squares. Reshape and roll dough to create more biscuits with excess scraps.

Place on prepared baking sheet, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and smoky paprika.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve warm. These biscuits are best eaten the day they’re made, but will last up to 2 days.

Adapted from Redwood Hill Farm recipe: http://www.redwoodhill.com/recipes/recipe-sourcream-

feta-chive-scones/

CHEVRE MINI MUFFIN LEMON CAKES

These mini muffins are a good use for extra goat cheese.

8 oz. fresh goat cheese (Chevre)

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

Zest from 2 small lemons

2 eggs separated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix chevre, sugar, flour, zest and egg yolks together with a rubber spatula.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold beaten whites into cheese mixture.

Fill buttered mini-muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake for 15 minutes at 350.

Cool for 10 minutes and then flip out of pans. Cool completely before serving.

Dust with powdered sugar. Excellent topped with fresh berries.

Recipe adapted from Redwood Hill Farm recipe: http://www.redwoodhill.com/recipes/recipe-lemon-

cakes-with-powdered-sugar/

IF YOU GO

What: Asheville Cheesefest.

When: Noon-4 p.m. April 26, rain or shine.

Where: Highland Brewery, 12 Old Charlotte Highway, Asheville. The festival will utilize the indoor and outdoor areas of the brewery so you can get your hands on goats and calves outside and participate in discussions and tastings inside. The first 500 attendees will get a cooler bag, courtesy of Whole Foods, and a coupon for $2 off cheese.

Tickets: Pre-fest prices are $12, for ages 13 and older, and available at hwww.mountaincheesefest.com. Remaining tickets will be sold at the event at $15.

CHEESEFEST EVENTS

There is no fee to participate, but due to limited space preregistration is required online at www.mountain cheesefest.com. Events sold out at press time are not listed here.

•Old World meets New World Practices, 1:15-2 p.m. Cheesemaker Peter Dixon discusses how ingredients, equipment, facilities, and techniques of artisan cheese have changed.

•Panel: Aging Cheese and the Cave Environment, 3:15-4 p.m. Topics will include ideal temperatures and humidity for different styles of cheese, aging environments, aging on wood and more. Panel members include cheese-makers Peter Dixon and Michelle Lamb of Bosky Acres.

No registration required for these events:

•Building a Better cheese plate: 1-3 p.m. Cheese stylist Ashley Ioakimedes shares her tricks and gives tips on selection and accompaniments.

•Outdoor events: Running throughout the festival will be the Gathering of Cheesemakers, the Grilled Cheese Challenge (award ceremony at 3:30 p.m.), mozzarella stretching, goat milking and butter churning demos, a Kid Corral (baby goats), and the History of Cheese display.

Find the full list of events at www.mountaincheesefest.com.

ASHEVILLE – Unequal pay is hurting North Carolina’s most vulnerable citizens.

According to data released Monday by the National Partnership for Women and Families, a nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, women employed full-time in North Carolina are paid just 83 cents for every dollar men make, amounting to a yearly wage gap of nearly $7,230.

The disparity widens for the state’s minority women. African-American females make just 63 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men; Latinas are paid just 46 cents for every dollar.

Collectively, North Carolina women lose more than $9.9 billion every year that could pay for basic goods and services, according to the report, “An Unlevel Playing Field: America’s Gender-Based Wage Gap, Binds of Discrimination, and a Path Forward.”

If the wage gap were eliminated, a full-time working woman in North Carolina could afford food for one more year, mortgage and utilities for six more months, rent for nine more months or some 2,100 more gallons of gas, the analysis states.

In Buncombe County, female-headed households are the largest demographic in poverty by far, as are people of color, said Scott Rogers, executive director of the Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministries, a nonprofit family of more than 275 churches addressing poverty, hunger, homelessness, incarceration and access to health care. ABCCM operates four crisis centers and two shelters.

Some 42,300 people — nearly 12 percent of families — were living below the poverty level in Buncombe County in 2013, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Almost 33 percent of those families were female-headed households with no husband present.

On average a family of three living in poverty, for example a mother and her two children, were earning less than $19,000 a year in 2013.

The median income for men in Buncombe County in 2013 was $40,900; the median income for women was $33,600.

Around 60 percent of minimum wage earners in North Carolina are women, meaning if they have a child they are living in poverty, said Greg Borom, director of advocacy at Children First / Communities in Schools, a local nonprofit committed to advocating for and empowering low-income children and families.

Other data indicates dramatic spikes in poverty rates for single women with children, he said.

Getting rid of the pay gap is a long-term solution tied to reducing the skills gap, Rogers said. Locally, many jobs are tied to either tourism or healthcare. People working in tourism are often underemployed; healthcare jobs require a certain amount of training.

Vulnerable women need to have more confidence in their ability to work jobs traditionally reserved for males, such as trucking, construction and technology, he said.

Family-friendly workplace polices are also essential, given the number of single moms raising children. “They are critical to the health of those families and the health of those workers,” Rogers added. “Everybody has to consider that at some level.”

Nationally, women working full-time are paid 78 cents for every dollar men make, according to the data compiled by the National Partnership for Women and Families. African-American women are paid 64 cents and Latinas are paid 56 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

The country’s wage gap has been closing at a rate of less than half a cent per year since passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the report states. At that rate, it will likely be another 43 years before America’s women are paid equally to men.

The National Partnership for Women and Families released its findings on Monday, one day before Equal Pay Day. Falling this year on April 14, the day marks how far into the year women must work in order to catch up with what men were paid the year before.

Learn More

The National Partnership for Women Families’ state-by-state analysis uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The findings for each state and the report, “An Unlevel Playing Field” is available at www.NationalPartnership.org/Gap.