They inhabit just about every corner of the food production and distribution infrastructure—51ąŮÍř alums are feeding their passions while feeding their communities.
We checked in with a handful of farmers, bakers, baristas, chefs and specialty food mavens on their efforts to cultivate the earth and their creative entrepreneurial endeavors.
Beth Gerken Hooten ’84
Glen Oaks Farm
Growing up on her father’s beef cattle farm, Beth Gerken Hooten ’84 never imagined she would someday follow in his footsteps. When his health began to decline, she and her husband, Jim ’83, took over day-to-day operations at Glen Oaks Farm, caring for their small herd on 40 acres of farmland outside of Carrboro, North Carolina. A typical day’s work for the Hootens includes feeding and watering each cow and, with the help of a veterinarian, helping to deliver 70-pound calves, many of which will be sold to other cattle farmers as breeding stock or beef. Her work gives Hooten a way to honor her father’s legacy while forging intimate connections with her animals and the land.
“It’s important to learn from the folks who were here before us,” she says. “We are simply stewards of this land, and we try to always look seven generations back and seven generations forward. I’m only here for a short while, and I must do what I can to make sure these resources are here for the people who come after me.”
Harry Hamil ’69
Morning Chorus Farm
The first farmer in his family in over 150 years, Harry Hamil ’69 first ventured into agriculture with the help of his wife, Elaine, who passed away in 2017. For over a decade, they co-owned and operated the Black Mountain Farmers Market, a store run in conjunction with the local tailgate market to sell fresh produce and plant starts. Eager to escape the rapid growth of the Asheville area, Hamil purchased a house, several properties and a 7-acre farm in Rural Retreat, Virginia, enough land to house and support 2–3 farmers at a time. In 2021, he met Helen Beamer, a local cattle farmer who has lived and worked on her late husband’s Eona Farms since 1960. The two were married last summer. With his farmland and her 45-acre cow-calf operation, they’re working to build a flourishing farm that will pass on to the next generation.
“Agriculture has been dominated by a get big or get out mentality,” he says. “Lack of access to farmland is the single biggest stopping point preventing people from becoming successful farmers. Part of my mission is helping those people get access to land so they can thrive.”
Karis Stucker ’18
Karisbakes.com
When Karis Stucker ’18 first took up baking in 2019, watching the Great British Baking Show helped her refine her technique. That year, she set a goal to sell 10 cakes and launched her home baking business. When a friend contacted Stucker about a call for contestants for season six of the Great American Baking Show, she couldn’t resist. An application, a couple of interviews and a casting audition later, she was on her way to London to face judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith in the big white tent. Her experience on the show brought new skills and exposure, and she continues to craft cakes and pastries on her blog Karisbakes.com.
“What I enjoy most about baking is how therapeutic it is,” Stucker says. “Mixing ingredients together, artfully decorating the bakes and working with my hands, it all brings me an inner calm that is hard to describe.”
Mark Overbay ’98
Big Spoon Roasters
Working as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Zimbabwe, Mark Overbay ’98 missed the taste of good, natural peanut butter–so he made his own. With hand-crushed local ground nuts, salt, honey and coconut oil, it was one of the best things he’d ever tasted. Back in Durham, North Carolina, he and his wife, Megan, saw an opportunity to bring their love of the rising craft food movement to the world of nut butters. In 2010, their Peanut Pecan Butter caught the attention of Bon Appetit and Food and Wine magazines, and the demand for their products began to climb. In 2012, Overbay quit his day job to focus full-time on Big Spoon Roasters.
“We set out to make incredible products, but also to create the kind of business that represents the values we want to see in the world,” Overbay says. “I’m especially proud of our intentional approach and our focus on sustainable growth, one customer relationship and team member at a time.”
Ashley Mincey ’11
Envie by Mincey
Before launching her own brand, private chef and freelance culinary artist Ashley Mincey ’11 did it all–working back of house in restaurants, bartending, cooking for celebrity clients as a corporate chef, even competing on season nine of MasterChef. Now, Envie by Mincey gives her the creative freedom to experiment with new recipes (Thai green curry mussels and rigatoni pasta from scratch are two current favorites) and share them with her growing online community. When she isn’t making video content for her audience, Mincey also caters for small groups, speaks at cooking events and hosts virtual classes for a variety of clients.
“Educating others is one of the most beautiful things about having my own culinary brand,” Mincey says. “Envie by Mincey allows me to use my culinary skills and my degrees in education. It brings me so much fulfillment and joy to help people gain confidence in the kitchen.”
Brian Helfrich ’07
Summit Coffee
With 13 locations throughout North Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, and six more expected to be open by the end of the calendar year, Summit Coffee is no longer just the little spot on the corner of Main Street 51ąŮÍř–though it is still that, too. Underway now is Summit Farms, also located in 51ąŮÍř, which will serve as the permanent home for the company and is anchored by a new roasting and baking headquarters. It also will include a brewery, a farm-to-table restaurant and a three-acre organic farm. While Helfrich and his team considered various locations, Helfrich says a 51ąŮÍř location is most true to the brand’s core and authentically who they are.
“Being part of a community that I’ve now lived in for more than half my life and that we have such an affinity for is not something I take lightly. It’s a culture, and that’s because of the people,” Helfrich says. “If I’ve done one thing well in 12 years of running Summit, I’ve managed to recruit and retain people who are just as excited about Summit as I am.”
Virgil ’80 and Carolyn Fludd
Revival Wine & Dessert Bar
March 21, 2024, marked the soft opening of Revival Wine & Dessert Bar in Fayetteville, Georgia. Business partner spouses Virgil ’80 and Carolyn Fludd were most nervous about working the point-of-sale system. With more than a 100 wines and desserts made by executive pastry chef Carolyn, they hope the space brings to their downtown a gathering point that will stay open late and build community, set in a 170-year-old home on the historical registry. Carolyn’s parents owned a bar when she was growing up, and she saw how it created community. As the couple became empty nesters, she decided to give it a whirl and found the perfect business partner in her husband.
“We’ve been in this community for so long, and it’s no longer a sleepy town,” Carolyn says. “There are breweries popping up everywhere, and a friend mentioned that we didn’t have a wine spot. Pairing it with desserts was just the perfect idea. The outpouring of support has been overwhelming.
Ian Sheridan ’07
Bangbelly
Ian Sheridan ’07 has come a long way from cooking pork low and slow for his 51ąŮÍř fraternity brothers, but the Canada native held onto the North Carolina connection when he returned home after college. Following a few years in sales and marketing, Sheridan decided he either wanted to go to culinary school or become a golf pro. Food won. He worked his way up at the exclusive Fogo Island Inn, where he met his partner, and together they opened Bangbelly Bistro in Newfoundland, Canada. Often featured on the menu is a rack of ribs with a smoky, sweet Carolina-inspired sauce. Recently, the pair opened Punch Buggy Pizza & Coffee Co., Bangbelly’s “Lil’ Sis,” as the website explains.
“It is a seasonal business, so we’re open from the end of April until late October, and we’ve afforded ourselves the privilege of time,” Sheridan says. “The restaurant business is cut-throat, and margins are razor thin, so choosing to invest in our own time and happiness is important. One off-season we went to India. Another year, we drove around Morocco and Egypt. This year, it’s Panama. This is contentment.”
Lita Dwight ’89
Brytlife Foods and the Flying Goose Tavern
Lita Dwight ’89 worked as an investment management attorney in NYC for many years and continues her legal work as in-house general counsel for a company in the Hudson Valley. Outside of her day job, Dwight learned about healing with food; the itch to create and her interest in health and nutrition led to a new endeavor: Brytlife Foods, featuring dairy-free yogurts and cheeses–cashew-based bleu chyz, xtra sharp chedyr, moxyrella and tofu-based to’feta. Just this year, she and a few business partners also opened the Flying Goose Tavern, a bar that will soon feature cheese plates from Brytlife. But don’t worry–there are “regular” cheeses on the menu, too.
“It’s funny,” Dwight says. “No one in my family is entrepreneurial at all, and all I want to do is create businesses. I’m still very interested in health and naturopathic medicine. Maybe my next thing will be a juice bar or a wellness clinic.”
Eric ’03 and Rebekah Rush McKay ’03
Hardywood
Eric McKay ’03 and his childhood best friend operate two Richmond, Virginia, locations of Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. In 2022, a pizza kitchen was added to the downtown taproom. Like their beer, the pizza showcases local ingredients with seasonally appropriate special releases. Eric’s favorite? The one featuring local sweet corn and Virginia blue crab. Back in 2011, Hardywood introduced the first commercially brewed Gingerbread Stout, which has earned a World Beer Cup award and a perfect 100 rating by BeerAdvocate–it remains one of the top consumer rated milk stouts in the world. This year, Hardywood’s Holiday Gift Pack of four different variations of the Original Gingerbread Stout will be distributed in over a dozen states, from coast to coast.
“Our industry faced a challenging few years of pandemic-induced macroeconomic headwinds, which was tough for Hardywood,” McKay says. “But our team has done a great job adapting to new normals, and we’re back in growth mode.”
This article was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2024 print issue of the 51ąŮÍř Journal Magazine; for more, please see the 51ąŮÍř Journal section of our website.
