From Our Roots: A Glimpse Inside The Folk Collaborative

Family Ties - From back home to you.

Just outside of town, right across the road from where I grew up and generations of my family in that little corner of McCaysville, sits an orchard that’s been part of my story for as long as I can remember. Back then it was Mountain View Orchards, planted from seed by my cousins Joe and Mary Jo Dickey. Today, it’s grown into the beautiful, bustling Folk Collaborative... but to me, it’s always been more than just an orchard.

As a little girl, I’d beg for one of Mary Jo’s candied apples or her famous hand pies... the kind that fit right in your palm but felt like a hug from the inside out. She always had a hand reaching out with a treat, smiling as I danced across the painted apples on the floor before tearing off through the orchard like the wind. In the summers, it was our “short cut” to and from church, and later it became the place I worked my very first job... bussing tables and then waitressing at the Cider House Café. Mary Jo’s country cooking filled the place with the kind of smells that drew folks in from miles away, and it stayed packed from the time the doors opened until closing.

Now, that same land is in the loving hands of my other cousin Luke and his wife Amanda Dilbeck... or Lu and Mae, as most know them... along with their daughter Isobella (my Beezer). They’ve carried the orchard’s legacy forward, adding their own magic with an apothecary, bakery, coffee shop, and so much more. You can grab a picnic and wander the rows of apple trees, plan a fall day to pick your own apples, or gather for a Fire on the Mountain evening with good food, live music, and fellowship under the stars.

The Folk Collaborative isn’t just a field with trees, a barn, and some apple crates... It’s a place where my roots run deep. It’s where work once felt like play, where community came together without needing a reason, and where some of my best memories are tied up in the scent of apple blossoms, fresh-baked hand pies, and laughter drifting through the hills.

To me... it’s not just an orchard.
It’s home.

Give them a visit and tell them I sent ya! Here is their website!