West Village Market & Deli

West Village Market & Deli
Location: The Bledsoe Building, 771 Haywood Road, West Asheville, NC 28806
(828) 225-4949

Oh West Asheville, how I love thee!

I live up on a mountain just south of Asheville. I’ve been a hermit for nearly a decade being a mommy, spiritual seeker, artist, and book writer. One of the main reasons I began this blog was to get myself back into the world—one groovy Asheville area spot at a time. I’ve been to West Asheville before, long ago, but I haven’t really been back until just recently.

West Asheville is the kind of place that makes me sad that I live up on a mountain, if such a thing is even possible. Understand that I LOVE my mountain; every little pebble, every tree, even the pain-in-the-ass bear that upends our trash on a semi-regular basis. However, that being said… there is absolutely zero “community” on my mountain. This has all been just fine with me… well, until I wandered around West Asheville and became reacquainted with the concept of an actual community neighborhood. *wistful sigh*

Downtown Asheville usually gets all the attention for being the wild, eclectic place to visit—and all that is true. Downtown Asheville IS pretty groovy. I wouldn’t consider downtown to be a “neighborhood” though, not exactly. There are some new condo projects that are attempting to change downtown to be more residential, but so far, it’s still mostly dedicated for shopping, art galleries, museums, and dining. Fun, but most folks go home at the end of the day.

West Asheville has many of the same kinds of resources as downtown, but it is set within a functioning and vibrant neighborhood community that has worked hard in the last 10-15 years to improve the historic district in every way imaginable. The main road for West Asheville is Haywood Road. If you drive down this one street, you will find all sorts of interesting places to shop, browse, and eat.

I had the pleasure of visiting several businesses in West Asheville recently. I will review them as I have time to sit and soak in the distinctive flavors of each in turn. Today, I would like to share my experience with the West Village Market & Deli, formerly called The Grove Corner Market.

West Village Market & Deli is a true neighborhood grocery store that relies heavily on local farms and businesses for their stock. The mission of the store is to be as environmentally responsible as possible. I walked through the store and surveyed the scene before ordering my lunch. The produce looked beautiful and was being carefully tended by one of the employees. The wine and beer section was great and included locally crafted brews as well as organic and regular wines. The cheese section looked like a work of art. There were several rows of other grocery items as well, including natural health supplements and spices. It’s not a huge place, but the selection of items seems quite carefully planned to be filled with the “go to” items that people in the neighborhood have shown they want.

At the far back end of the store is the deli department, which has a menu of vegetarian, vegan, or meat included sandwiches, all served on delicious, locally baked breads. Next to the deli is a juice bar that is called “Farmacy Juice and Tonics”. I came in to do a review, so I asked the Deli Manager, Brandon, to direct me to their most popular sandwich and fresh extracted juice drink. Brandon explained that the “Tempeh’s So Asheville” was their most popular sandwich and he also recommended the Parrot Ginger juice. So I ordered both items up and sat down at one of the tables.

The Parrot Ginger juice came first while my “sammie” was getting a toast from the panini grill. The juice was extracted right in front of me, fresh and beautiful. It had carrot, apple, pear, and ginger in it. It was bright, pungent and warm from the ginger, and simply delicious. Their juice and tonic menu looked fascinating, a range of yummy healthy drinks and more medicinal ones. I was particularly interested in their “Farmacy Cleanse Package” at $25, which included an entire days worth of juices, tonics, and raw energy soup for those who wanted to do a day long detox cleanse. It included a wheatgrass juice cocktail (8 oz), Rejuvelac pro-biotic master cleanser lemonade (2 qts), super yin protein smoothie meal replacement (16oz), green vitality energy soup (32 oz), goddess synergy herbal roots tonic (8oz), with a daily routine/instruction guide. I may just have to hit that up after the holidays, but it occurred to me that some tourists come to Asheville specifically for holistic healing. If so, the “Farmacy Cleanse Package” at WVM may be an excellent resource to tap before other holistic healing sessions.

My sammie came out, all hot and grilled, with potato chips and a pickle on the side. I haven’t had tempeh in a long while, but I figured that I would trust the palate of the West Ashevillites and have what they like to have. (I think, actually, the proper term is “Ashevillian”, but it makes it sound like we wear black masks and rob trains.) The first thing I noticed was the bread, which was the kalamata olive bread from a local bakery. It was dense, crunchy from the grill, delightfully chewy, and had fabulous olive flavor. The next thing I noticed was the creamy and savory smoothness of the dill havarti, avocado, roasted red pepper, and pesto mayo. Next to say howdy were the textural and firmer counterpoints to the creamy elements; the red onion, banana peppers, romaine lettuce, and the local Smiling Hara grilled soy tempeh.

The “Tempeh’s so Asheville” sammie was a symphony of harmony and balance having its little Zen way with my mouth. It was a big sandwich, so I ate half and took the rest with me for later. When I got home hours later, ravenous from too much holiday shopping, I excitedly remembered my half sandwich! It was cold from being in my trunk, but that sandwich was AWESOME cold. I attacked it like a crazy person who you might even believe was an actual vegetarian. I didn’t miss the meat in that sandwich at all.

If you are coming to town, please do yourself a favor and roam beyond downtown. Cross the French Broad River to exit #2 and go to West Asheville. You’ll find that all the personality you expect of Asheville carries over quite nicely, but is expressed through a lovely sense of community. The West Village Market & Deli is a fantastic example of this kind of homey goodness sprinkled with a funky flair that I believe is at the soul of West Asheville. They also deliver for a small fee to areas within Asheville! One word of caution though, you may leave town with a real estate guide and end up coming back to stay. I’m just saying. I nearly did that and I just live 23 minutes away!

This review was written by Stacie Coller, author of “Awake in Angelscape: The Scenic Route to the Sacred Self”, available on Amazon.com.

Amazing Savings Discount Grocery Store

Amazing Savings Discount Grocery Store
Location: 121 Sweeten Creek Rd. Between Biltmore Village and Hwy 40.

I have driven by Amazing Savings without stopping for many years, wondering what might be hiding behind its rough exterior and weird parking. Recently I had reason to go into the building on business, and while I was there, I took a quick look around and was, well… amazed. I returned within days to check it out for myself. The front parking is somewhat odd, but there is a small alley next to the building and extra parking is available in the back.

I do most of the grocery shopping in my household, so I know the prices of items that I use all the time. I typically drive around to 3-5 different stores for my big grocery grab; some “discount” places and some high-end healthy supermarkets. Amazing Savings falls into the category of being a marriage of a discount, slightly out-of-date grocery warehouse with a high-end healthy food market. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that Amazing Savings is what you would get if Go Grocery and Whole Foods had a baby. Gadzooks, right? I could kick myself for driving by this place for a decade without investigating further. I can tell you that it is now going to be a part of my regular rotation.

What distinguishes Amazing Savings from other area discount places—some which do carry an occasional organic, healthy, or special diet item—is that they have a dedicated bulk food section, fresh (instead of nearly rotten) organic produce, and a concise selection of pre-made healthy food goodies to “grab and go”. What distinguishes Amazing Savings from the area healthy food markets is that the stock changes all the time (and may never be back), there are some regular foods among the healthy foods, and you will leave with a whole lot more groceries for the same price. Still, the overall character of the items in the store definitely leans to healthy.

Can you totally replace your healthy food store shopping with Amazing Savings? No, you can’t really depend that an item you really want or need will necessarily be there at any given time. It’s a bit of a crap shoot in that regard. However, Amazing Savings should absolutely be one of your first stops to browse, just in case you can kick out several items from your grocery list before you are compelled to pay top retail dollar elsewhere. If you have no list and just want to buy some things for a party or special dinner, go in with your creative juices flowing and you will surely leave with an armful of something wonderful.

The ‘big wow” sale when I visited the store were bottles of kombucha tea, a selection of the ‘good kind’ and some other I didn’t recognize, for 5 for $5. My shopping trip was mid-December and the date on the bottles expired in late-November. I didn’t think that was such a big deal, and once I tasted them at home, decided I’d better get another 15. I also scored beautiful wild Alaskan smoked salmon in the frozen foods department, 4oz for $2.50! I loaded up on several boxes of chicken stock from the yellow box brand that I know has no MSG added or “naturally occurring”, for $1.50 a box! When I went back for more kombucha, which was luckily still in stock, I snaked another 4 packages of the salmon—but the chicken stock was all gone. The kombucha tea and salmon are items that I usually can’t afford, so I was psyched about getting them. They may be gone next time I go, but it makes me wonder what interesting goodies may be waiting in their place the next time I go shopping.

The store is rough looking, but let’s just say it has a “no frills” character with pitted floors of concrete wisdom. Don’t expect it to look like your regular healthy food market. Don’t expect it to bleed you raw like one either. You have the option to roll a cart around the store, but you have to leave the cart on the landing and take whatever you can grab to your car, one armful at a time. I think that locals who have not visited Amazing Savings yet will get the most out of the rapidly changing, “you-never-know-what-you’re-gonna-get” stock, but tourists have got to eat too, right? If you are staying anywhere near the Biltmore House area, you are close enough to drive down Sweeten Creek Rd. and make a pit stop at Amazing Savings to pad your hotel room with some interesting and cheap goodies to have between meals and for midnight snacks!

This review was written by Stacie Coller, author of “Awake in Angelscape: The Scenic Route to the Sacred Self”, available on Amazon.com.

Book Review for “Psychic or Psychotic: Memoirs of a Happy Medium” by Jonna Rae Bartges

Book: “Psychic or Psychotic: Memoirs of a Happy Medium”
By: Jonna Rae Bartges
Published By: Infinity Publishing, 2010.

I met Jonna Rae Bartges briefly at a WNC Woman magazine “Editor’s Luncheon”. She was asked to present a brief talk to the luncheon participants on the topic of happiness. It was a nice little talk, but there was nothing overtly metaphysical about her—no levitating tables or impromptu readings for the crowd. There was something special about her though, something that prompted me to go up after the end of the lunch and, in the style of a gawky 5th grader, asked her to be my friend. She was instantly likeable; her humor forging the way through discomfort of all kinds, even my own slight embarrassment that I inexplicably became an excited 10-year-old in front of her. I found her both familiar and uplifting. She had, as we say here in Asheville, “good energy”.

She often writes articles for WNC Woman magazine and I found her writing style so clean and effortless (Gemini!) that when I saw she had just recently put a book out, I knew it would be beautifully written. I got my little paws on it this past Friday, and by Saturday night, I had devoured it all. Now I don’t feel so goofy for feeling compelled to meet and know her. Her life is an exquisite model of how to navigate through some incredibly tough stuff as a very sensitive person. You feel by the way she details her intimate personal stories that you can come out on the other side—wiser, happier, and maybe even laughing your ass off. It’s a skill we should all cultivate. Like now.

Jonna retells quite a few “teachable moments” from throughout her life, beginning with being an extremely clairvoyant child with a demeaning father who chastised her abilities through sarcasm and ridicule—a pattern which followed her into her first marriage. She describes, as eloquently as I expected she would, the footsteps she had to make in her life to bring her through and to the person she is today, including the life-changing relationship and death of her beloved second husband, Paul, who “got” her totally and supported her to be the magnificent person that she is, without needing to hide or suppress a single thing about her sparkly uniqueness.

She didn’t express anger at God for taking her husband from her so early, but I managed to feel a little sick for her over it. She has natural healing ability, but as the fates often prove, those gifts are still functioning under a greater plan to which we have no script. Her story reminds me of Nostradamus who was able to cure many people from the plague, but could not save his own family. You get the sense from her writing that although it sucked, and sucked HARD, she maintained her strength from the spiritual connection she felt to God and allowed herself to be carried through the tragedy and pain by never faulting in that primary spiritual relationship. While I was upset for her, I was also inspired by her total surrender to the overall Divine Plan, even when she herself was confused about it. Just because you are psychic doesn’t mean you always have all the answers; sometimes it just means having bigger questions.

Her natural talents and experiences are a bit more over the top than those that most of us have had to enjoy. She seems to have been thrown into the deep end of the pool in a universal “sink or swim” dynamic between a “normal” and spiritual perspective since she was born, which has forged her into a deep and abiding integrity that can only come from complete trust in the Divine as your source of strength, guidance, and protection. It also cultivated the most delightfully wicked sense of humor within her that has served her well to diffuse the intensity, confusion, and fear that some experience when they witness the spiritual hi-jinks and expanded reality that inevitably arise in her company. My favorite example from the book was when she coaxed a dead/dying bird from a lifeless, broken state to flying out the door in front of a nice couple present for a spiritual reading. The first words out of her mouth in front of the astonished and terrified couple were, “I have GOT to raise my rates.” OK, now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are.

This book will be a rich blessing to anyone who has had to ask themselves the question, “Am I psychic or psychotic?” Anyone with sensitivity understands the weight of that question and the unavoidable inner struggle to either suppress one’s natural gifts or explore and express them for the betterment of the world. She chose to be of service, as do many of us after that same struggle… but if you are still in the stage of bemoaning how strange your life is or how your “gifts” are a “curse”, then this will be just the right perceptual shift that will help you move forward. It doesn’t matter how strange your life is, or how alienated you may feel from the “regular world”, Jonna shows by example that it really isn’t about what happens ~to~ you, it’s about how you choose to respond that matters most. She also has some lovely self-help techniques that you can use to develop your own intuitive awareness, which is a nice touch for those who are interested in more personal development. Her website http://www.happymedium.us is a wonderful resource as well. This book was a very good read and will remind me to never forget to wear sunscreen or go to bed without counting my blessings and saying my prayers.

Review by Stacie Coller, author of “Awake in Angelscape: The Scenic Route to the Sacred Self”

Reconnection: The Review

Melissa Fleig, a level III certified Reconnection practitioner, invited me to experience a Reconnection Healing session at her office in Asheville near the Gatehouse on Charlotte Street. My barest notion from the brochure was that the session energies were about reconnecting your energy system to the larger global and universal energy systems, as well as activating latent DNA codes. I’m a fan of energy work in general (Reiki, and so on) and thought it would be an interesting experience. I gratefully accepted the invitation and arrived for my appointment on June 21st, the first day of summer.

Melissa had a non-attachment attitude toward any healing expectations, citing that there are no guarantees. She explained that nobody really knows the exact details about this energy, but that many people have experienced deep and transformative healings or other personal shifts. She suggested that I simply “experience and allow”, which I did. Melissa received her level III training within the last year and is currently exploring the possibility of being a professional Reconnection practitioner, if there is a need for it. She was clear that this type of service makes her happy. I asked what a typical session cost, and she explained that her fees were on a sliding scale from $15 to $60 a session; money not being the point in her desire to share this work with others. I believed her. She also explained that the number of sessions that a person might need could vary from 1 – 3 sessions, depending entirely upon individual dynamics. The modality is not like massage or other “upkeep” practices. Once you are done, you are done. Bada-boom. Bada-bing.

The Reconnective Healing session lasted just under 35 minutes. There were as few background distractions as possible—no music, scents, tools, or props of any kind. I was lying down on a massage table, face up, fully clothed, and in a comfortable position throughout the session. The method for transferring the energy to me was by Melissa gently waving her hands about a foot away from my body. There was no actual contact or touch applied at all. The energy sensation was not at all subtle. It was strong, clear, and quite potent. It was not unlike the sensation I feel when I sense Reiki, or other healing energy, but it had a clear magnetic feel to it. Heat was just a passing sensation, not predominant, as it is with Reiki. I could easily sense a pulsating, sometimes swirling, push and pull in the area of my body over which Melissa had her hands. I saw a play of violet and various shades of emerald to forest green in my inner vision.

The most intense sensation that I experienced was the feel of pressure and movement going on inside of my head. I had a quick inner visual of my brain being spliced down the center and various surgical-like “tinkering” going on in there. (Lord knows, I could probably use it.) It wasn’t unpleasant or alarming. It felt a bit like the sensation I had when I was attuned to Reiki—like re-wiring of some kind. I had already placed Highest Good Limitations on all work initiated before I attended the session, so I felt free to let the experience rip. When she was finished, she tapped me on the collarbone to let me know that we were done.

Melissa was obviously deeply moved by this modality and how it functioned within her own life. I found her enthusiasm contagious. While I consider myself fairly well informed about a wide variety of energy work practices, the session felt like something new. It was similar to energies I have experienced already, but also distinctly different. Melissa let me borrow the book that Dr. Eric Pear had written called, The Reconnection: Heal Others, Heal Yourself. The rest of my review will be a book review because I read the book within two days of my session and have been playing with the energy ever since.

This book, for me, had two distinct parts. The first was an engaging story about how Pearl went from a normal California chiropractor to a world renowned healer and teacher of “Reconnection”. The second part is down to business about the energy and how the Reader can work with it. The way he describes the unfolding events leaves me feeling that his story is authentic. Why? Because I can spot someone who has been “rode hard and put away wet” when I see one. They say, “I don’t know”… a lot.

People who have undergone life-changing, transformative perspective shifts aren’t sent through them with a manual. He described his process much in the same way that I would describe mine. It was often scary and frustrating. It required a strong tolerance for confusion, ambiguity, and high paranormal strangeness—all without trying to tie it all up in a pretty box. Sometimes there are no books, places, or people to look to for answers. Sometimes the only place you can go for any wisdom is Up and In. The learning curve involved isn’t at all graceful either, until you learn to surrender to the process, which takes years. It does eventually settle down into a comfortable acceptance of “not knowing” and having faith you are being directed properly anyway, but those early days when you still want to know (and think it’s possible) are tough. Pearl described this with flare. Not only do I believe him, but I would also wager that it got quite a bit stranger than what he describes in the book.

Pearl’s rapid shifting began with a Jewish “gypsy” (love it—he had me at “Bubbelah”), who charged him $333 to sweep and clear his meridian system. The first session yielded nothing except regret that he wasted his money. The second session blew him open like a firecracker in July. Immediately after the second session, the “energy” came in and began running through him. He began observing rapid, transformational healings happen with his chiropractic clients. Soon after the energy began to come through, he received physical blisters and pinpoint bleeding on his palms. Even though he was baffled, he allowed himself to play with and explore the healing potential of the energies.

The high strangeness didn’t end with the unexplained energy flow and transformative healings either. Many of his clients began going into spontaneous trances while he worked on them—and not just any kind of trance—but ones in which his clients began to channel information from an unseen spiritual source. The clients in trance provided him with the same exact six statements over and over. (If that isn’t strange, I don’t know what is.) The six repeating statements were: 1) We are here to tell you to continue doing what you are doing. 2) What you are doing is bringing light and information to the planet. 3) What you are doing is reconnecting strands. 4) What you are doing is reconnecting strings. 5) You must know that you are a master. 6) We’ve come because of your reputation.

The ‘source’ of the channeled messages never announced itself, but several of his clients also reported seeing, sensing, or feeling what they described as angelic or spiritual beings in the room during the healing sessions. Many of them, who did not have knowledge of the other’s accounts, described the same exact spiritual beings. His answer seeking took him into some odd places by conventional standards, so if you are not open to the idea of other-dimensional beings, “starseeds”, or the 12-strand DNA concept, you probably will have trouble with the book. Fair warning.

The rest of his personal story describes how he sought to make sense of his new world as he maintained forward movement in the best way that he could. The miraculous healings on his clients continued, his reputation began to spread, and he noticed that his clients also began to flow this same energy through their hands after they received their sessions. The energy itself transferred, even without a formal “attunement”, as with Reiki. People wanted to know how to train to do this, and even though Pearl does not believe you can “train” someone to be a healer (because it is God that heals, not the healer), he did decide to write the book as a manual for others.

The second part of the book is about opening up to the energies, playing with them, as well as Pearl imparting the framework that he has settled on to define a spiritual reality. Here, he does communicate what he believes are spiritual “facts”, and tends to go off in a somewhat “I know better” manner, which was the only thing in the whole book that I did not like. It seems clear that his seeking answers in the metaphysical community left him a little jaded, but I feel he may have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. He pooh-poohs several things that I consider to be “responsible practice”. Some of these practices include seeking permission before doing work on someone and the maintenance of sacred space and spiritual protection.

Pearl also has a “no tools or rituals at all” perspective that I think is unnecessarily dismissive of a natural developmental progression. Abstract, autonomous functioning within a spiritual format is a process, not an event. I believe that until you have evolved beyond “duality” that you should still lock your energetic and physical doors and be mindful of what is around you. I would prefer that you honor your process as you are internally guided, using whatever techniques, tools, or rituals you feel are helpful at your current stage of development. When you are ready to rely less on outside tools, helpers, and practices, you will upgrade (hard or easy) to higher functioning as a matter of natural course. That is exactly what Pearl did, but he seems to be looking back on his personal growth with a condescending hindsight that may make others feel inadequate about their own level of development. Wherever Pearl is right now in his development came through a chain of events, courage, hard work, and time-on-task. It’s okay to work it out in your own perfect time. We are in much bigger hands. If you dally too long on any step along the way, the Powers-That-Be are more than capable of kicking your ass off it (that would be the “hard” way). No. It’s not even as fun as it sounds.

The fastest part of the book is the one that deals with activating the Reader to the Reconnection energies. I have a framework for receiving spirit-direct attunements/activations, so when it was time to activate my hands, per the book, I just stuck my hands out in front of me and allowed my own spiritual helpers to initiate the process. Not subtle, very buzzy… and they did my feet as well. Fun. I did the exercises, as recommended, also nice. Pearl does go out of his way to say how different these energies are to whatever is out there already, and I tend to agree. However, it’s similar enough that any energy worker will find it familiar and easy to pick up. Even complete newbies will find it easy to pick up, I think. What I really like is that you are asked to play with the energy by just moving your hands around according to your natural attention and interest. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Pearl also goes into a short description about the way people integrate and experience the Reconnection energies. I didn’t pay much attention to this at first, but it got my attention later. Remember how Pearl reported little blisters and pinpoint bleeding on his palms when he first experienced the flow of the energy? Well, apparently other people also get these little blisters and pinpoint bleeding after opening a flow to the energies. He calls those kinds of folks “manifestors”. Hmm. Well,I got a full body rash within 12 hours of finishing the book and activating the Reconnection energies. Funny enough, I only had one single little blister on my left palm, but I had a multitude of them on my knuckles and the backs of my fingers (of both hands), as well as up my arms. I also had little pinpoint red spots (like tiny “hickies” of blood pooled under the skin), called petechia, which came out mostly on my belly, sides, and upper thigh region. My rash was gone in a week, wasn’t really that uncomfortable, and hasn’t been back since. I can’t chalk it up to suggestion, since the actual suggestion would have been for the rash to be on my palms—which it wasn’t, save one. Maybe it was the Reconnection activation, maybe it wasn’t. It’s certainly worth mentioning, however. So, again…fair warning.

I really liked this book. I really like this energy. I’m having fun playing with it and the fundamental “in your face” simplicity. Does it activate 12 strands of DNA? I don’t know, but it definitely buzzes and crackles. Is it worth the $14.95 to Hay House to find out? Absolutely. If you are already an energy worker with interactive spiritual assistance, the book is probably all you need. If you have healing issues, or are being drawn to energy work for the first time and aren’t sure how to navigate those waters yet, going to a practitioner or seminar is probably your best bet… but you might as well read the book anyway. It’s a good read.

Dr. Eric Pearl has a website, www.TheReconnection.com, which has a certified practitioner directory and information about seminars and events. There are six certified practitioners listed for the Asheville area, including Melissa Fleig. Melissa can be reached at 828-713-5519 to book an appointment. Her office is located next to the Gatehouse in Asheville on Charlotte Street, just down the road from the Jewish Community Center.