Southern Reinvention Weekend Celebrates Today’s South and Elkmont, Alabama

Elkmont, AL, October 04, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Belle Chevre is celebrating Southern artists, craftspeople and artisans again this year with their second annual Southern ReInvention event. As part of Belle Chevre’s new creamery opening last year, the award-winning goat cheese artisans hosted a Southern Reinvention weekend. The celebration will again gather Southern artisans, who are at the forefront of the movement to reinvent the South’s future, in their home-town of Elkmont, Alabama. It will include a pop-up shop by Billy Reid, delicious and creative food from a host of celebrated chefs and artisans, music, chats and classes by historians, and cotton farmers, as well as cheesemaking by Tasia Malakasis. The event is open to the general public, and tickets are $5, to be purchased at the door.

Southern ReInvention began in 2013 as a celebration of their new creamery space. After nearly 25 years in the same humble building down a rural road, Belle Chevre outgrew its home and renovated an 8,000 square foot historic-building which was a former cotton warehouse. Bails of cotton were stored in this old warehouse, where they were weighed before being loaded on the train that ran adjacent to the building. The train tracks have now been reinvented as a Rails to Trails initiative and the cotton warehouse was reinvented to house another bright white product - fresh chevre. “Our story in Elkmont is a story of revitalization and reinvention of space and craft,” says Tasia Malakasis, President of Belle Chevre. “It’s no small achievement that a tiny Southern town once devoted to cotton is now home to one of the nation’s most well-known artisan, healthy food brands.”

Belle Chevre’s second annual Southern ReInvention event will take place on October 18 2014. Special attendees will include national and internationally celebrated artisans, the editors of Cooking Light magazine, cheese experts, authors, and other exciting guests. The Southern Reinvention is from 11-4.

Belle Chevre has produced a variety of internationally acclaimed chevres since 1989 using time-tested European farmstead techniques. The company is purposefully small, and each chevre is hand made in Alabama by its passionate cheese makers. Belle Chèvre cheeses have received numerous national awards from the American Cheese Society and the American Dairy Goat Association, and have been featured by Martha Stewart, Oprah, and everyone in between.