The October 2020 Issue

Butternut squash and bright, crisp apples: a sweater-weather classic.

This flavorful Sunday supper is worth waiting all day for.

This delicious dessert is the season in a skillet.

Crispy, caramelized, and loaded with candied bacon.

Heirloom Brewshop’s menu is a marriage of its owners’ Taiwanese and Laotian cultures, built on a foundation laid by past generations.

In North Carolina, like in life, there’s a path for every hiker: generous doubletracks for the ones who prefer company and narrow game trails for those who seek solitude.

On her Poetry Porch in Mebane, North Carolina’s poet laureate welcomes family and friends, encourages rich conversation, and helps us navigate a different kind of world.

We’ll be dreaming of those 11 delicious days in Raleigh until we’re back at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. For now, we’re fondly revisiting the best eats — and the friendliest faces — that only come around once a year.

More than 50 years ago, the Morris family business began with gorilla suits sewn in a basement in Charlotte. Now, they send costumes all over the world, helping customers transform into their spookiest, sweetest, and silliest selves.

Every year, Tim and Matt Nichols create hundreds of different kinds of Japanese maples — in a dizzying array of shapes and colors and sizes — at their mail-order nursery in East Flat Rock. And every one of the trees has roots in their grandmother’s garden.

In Ashe County, a farming family transforms sap into sweet Appalachian maple syrup — and has turned threatened woodlands into a protected forest for future generations.

The rebirth of Canton has been different from that of other small mountain towns: While some have reinvented themselves as tourist destinations, Canton is focused on nurturing a close-knit community.

What’s it like to live in the most meditative homes in the North Carolina mountains? Come inside.

Grassy Creek Vineyard & Winery near Elkin has been many things: a family getaway for a textile dynasty, a dairy farm, a company retreat. Today, it weaves each of those threads into a rich tapestry.

The reds and golds and purples that paint our mountains every fall are a sight to behold. But for some, color is missing from the show.

We’ve picked a bushel of North Carolina apples in every form — from pies to pottery to cider — to enjoy from the first perfect, blue-sky day of October through chilly Halloween. That’s one for each day of the month!

Although slow to desegregate, one college shifts racial sentiments on campus not with court orders or violence — but through the power of music.

How a Fortune 500 company rose from humble beginnings in Burlington.