beeswax and butter is Jess, Crawford, and Yocum. We commute between our bakery in Woodfin, NC and our home in West Asheville, NC. We pour all of ourselves into it, and it is our sole source of income.

More than anything else right now we feel fortunate…exhausted, but profoundly grateful for our communities. Our neighbors banded together last weekend, and, when outside communication slowly returned, we heard from nearly everyone we know. We saw first-hand the flooding two blocks away, but for days were unaware of the scope of destruction in our region.

2 of our wholesale partners were completely destroyed, and the rest will be without water for weeks. RAD Farmers Market lost its home at Smoky Park Supper Club under 20 feet of water and is working hard to find a new location. North Asheville Tailgate Market has been displaced indefinitely as UNCA is closed to the public, hosting FEMA. Only West Asheville Tailgate Market remained unchanged in its location and timing. Last Tuesday, we took everything we had and sold, traded, and gave it away amidst a beautiful display of community support. We go this week to markets with whatever possible.

At first, we focused on the immediate needs: sourcing drinking water and rationing food. While gas was unavailable for the first few days, we ran a generator on the 4 gallons already in it for an hour each morning and night for neighbors to run fridges and lights. It soon became apparent that the gas we had wouldn’t keep the fridges cold enough, so we fed our neighbors from our freezer in order to put the food to use. We took the generator to the bakery to run for a few hours each day to run the chest freezer holding the hundreds of pounds of fruit we buy from our farmer neighbors. Friends brought us gas and ice to help with the effort, and now, 11 days later, we have been able to move the rest of our ingredients off-site to safety. Our bakery sits empty, without power, water, and with all the fridges and freezers open. There is no estimate from Woodfin on water, and until this morning Duke Energy didn’t acknowledge that our power hadn’t yet been returned. Without being able to power our oven, we have no idea when we can resume our work in earnest.

Schools are closed, yet Yocum learns a lot. We meet at his school daily and all the adults look OK, but I wonder if they’re ‘OK’ like I am, or… I hope they’re doing better. It’s hard to admit we need help. We recognize so many are in need right now and encourage you to directly support those in our region, especially the food community who suffered some of the greatest losses and are working harder than ever to continue to feed people above all else.

Not wanting to take away from others in great need, we’ve taken our time to make the most accurate calculations possible given what remains unknown. The money we’re asking for is a conservative estimate of lost income for the last 11 days and next several weeks. October is historically our busiest month, and like many in our industry we depend on that to get by through slower times. To give an idea of how helpful even small amounts would be, our average retail sale is $14.14, and we average $725 weekly in wholesale. Anything helps.

In addition, beginning this week, we will be selling gift cards in person, or you can email [email redacted]. If you plan to get something from us in the future, this would be an equally helpful way to support us.

It continues to be difficult for all of us here, but through mutual community support we will survive and succeed.