Ponytail Ag Travels To Charlotte Area
The Ponytail Ag campaign’s next stop is in the Queen City of Charlotte. We will interview farmers, chefs and brewers to learn about the importance of agriculture within the food and beverage industry.
November 7
Kris Reid of Piedmont Culinary Guild
Charlotte, NC
Kris Reid is the co-founder and Executive Director of Piedmont Culinary Guild, a grassroots program that creates an accessible platform of communication within the food industry in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. She attended The New School of Cooking in Los Angeles and received two degrees from Johnson and Wales University before serving on the board for Charlotte Mecklenburg County Fruit and Vegetable Coalition and Slow Food Charlotte. Reid is passionate about bringing local food to institutional food service; her next project is helping launch RAMPS (Risk Analysis Management Planning Systems), a full service HACCP consulting organization.
Ashley Boyd of 300 East Restaurant
Charlotte, NC
Ashley Boyd is the head pastry chef of 300 East in Charlotte. She commonly works with local farmers to curate her beloved desserts, which include a vanilla and miso caramel ice cream sandwich, fennel sorbet and white chocolate cheesecake. We will interview her, along with Kris Reid, about being involved in the culinary industry and why it’s so important for restaurants to utilize local ingredients.
Carol Waggener of Bold Missy Brewery
Charlotte, NC
Carol Waggener is the owner of Bold Missy Brewery, the first female-owned brewery in Charlotte. She previously worked at Tropicana, Anheuser-Busch and Snyder's Lance before realizing that she was meant to be in the craft beer world. She toured over 200 breweries in the country, took a 24-week craft beer program at Portland State University then opened Bold Missy in 2017. Signature beers include Rocket Ride IPA, Solo Flight English brown ale and Git Yer Gun golden ale, each of which are named after an influential female in history.
November 8
Cindy Calhoun of NC Food Innovation Lab
Kannapolis, NC
The NC Food Innovation Lab is a cGMP pilot plant that specializes in plant-based food research, ideation, development and commercialization. They help several food companies and entrepreneurs create plant-based foods and beverages, including baked goods, sauces, cereals, pastas and more. Calhoun is a Senior Food Scientist and leads all product development activities for NCFIL.
Elizabeth Cooper of NC Research Campus
Kannapolis, NC
Dr. Cooper is interested in using big data and high throughput sequencing to identify the genomic changes that lead to species diversification and adaptation. Her past research has covered flowering plants and tropical birds, but her most current work is focused on understanding how sweet varieties of the cereal crop Sorghum evolved their ability to accumulate stalk sugars, and what role structural mutations, such as duplications and rearrangements, have played in this process.
Faythe DiLoreto of Fading D Farm
Salisbury, NC
Fading D Farm is a small family-run farmstead and dairy that sells water buffalo meats and cheeses. Their water buffalo cheeses are higher in calcium, magnesium, and vitamins A and C and lower in sodium and cholesterol than cow’s milk cheese. Additionally, since their water buffalo are pasture raised, Fading D Farm’s buffalo meat is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef and higher in Omega 3 fatty acids, which are known to help lower the risk of heart disease.