Southern Reinvention Weekend Celebrates Today's South and New Belle Chevre Creamery

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Sept. 6, 2013 - PRLog -- As part of Belle Chevre’s new creamery opening, the award-winning goat cheese artisans are hosting a Southern Reinvention weekend.  The celebration will gather Southern artisans at the forefront of the movement to reinvent the South’s future, focusing on tradition and handicraft. It will include a pop-up shop by Billy Reid, a seminar by designer Natalie Chanin, chats and classes by historians, soapmakers 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 online at www.southernreinvention.com or at the door.

After nearly 25 years in the same humble building down a rural road, Belle Chevre has outgrown its home and will be moving into 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 will reinvent itself to house another bright white product - fresh chevre. “This opening is a story of revitalization,” 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.”

Grand opening will take place on October 12, 2013. Special attendees will include national and statewide officials, the editor of Southern Living, cheese experts, and other exciting guests.  The Southern Reinvention is from 11-4, with music by Donika Knight at 3pm.

Belle Chevre’s new creamery will be located behind their recently opened first-ever retail space in historic downtown Elkmont, Alabama, at 18849 Upper Fort Hampton Road. 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.