I enjoy spending as much time as possible trying new recipes.  I spend my spare time
looking  out over Couch and Baldwin mountains from Stoney Mountain with my husband. 
I am developing Maribelle the Clown for children's birthday parties and hope to walk in the
Apple Festival parade this year.

Good book recommendation:  OUTLANDER, Diana Gabaldon
     Gabaldon's series of six novels center on an 18th-century Scottish Highlander
     and his time-traveling wife. 

What is something you cannot live without?

Besides my family, I need daily doses of coffee and good books.  My customers
are fun and important to me.  I enjoy camaraderie with them each day.

Best advice: The best advice I ever received was that I could think with my heart, my head
or my emotions and any one of them would be in the wrong direction.
Journeys require a balance of all three.

Favorite childhood memory:

Coming home from school on a winter afternoon with my mother in the kitchen cooking a
pot roast dinner in the pressure cooker and baking spice cake.  Oh, and those Sundays
when we walked home from church and dinner was ready, greeted by dinner's scents and
accompanied with hot bread pudding.

Favorite place in the Hendersonville:

The Sweetery of course, eating blackberry spice cake from my grandmother's recipe on the
Front Porch. I am a homebody but we enjoy camping at Chimney Rock at Hickory Nut
Gorge in the summertime.

Describe yourself in one word: Dedicated

When you think of home you think of:

Northern Michigan, Mackinaw Island, the shores of the Great Lakes, trout streams and cedar swamps.

Biggest challenge: Breast Cancer, enough said.

First job: A summer job at Henstra's restaurant in Michigan, age twelve.

Biggest pet peeve: Dishonesty.

Proudest moment: Surviving cancer and hearing the words, "Cancer Free."

What is something you think that Henderson County needs and has accomplished well?

I believe that Henderson County business greatly benefits from the Henderson County Visitor's Center.  It is the most innovative organization I have seen in the states I have lived and conducted business in.  The extensive fingers of this county are initiating an  influx of new residents from states and countries all over the world.  I feel that the residents via the hospitality and education invited me here about the area through this  Visitor's center. Residents must be proud of the consistent response to the populace needs and growth through this organization.

As to what the county needs, With the widening of US 25, I feel that traffic in and approaching Mountain Home north of the city is out of control. One woman died while crossing US 25 from an auction to her car and two elderly life time residents died after an accident on US 25 at the  post office.  These deaths were within forty-five days.  Crossing this highway north of Brookside Camp Road is extremely dangerous.  Beware.

Compiled by Merri Tyndall, Mountain Pie Company formerly the Front Porch Sweetery, 3400 Asheville Highway, Hendersonville, NC, 28791. Do you have a suggestion for "Knowing Me"? A person to recommend? Perhaps you'd like to offer some recipes for the web site?
                                                                  Call 828-693-0501 or e-mail frontporchsweetery@hotmail.com.

  Each month we will feature a woman from Hendersonville, NC. Through these monthly features we hope that you will learn a little more about your friends and neighbors. 
Knowing Me
Merri, owns the Mountain Pie Company formerly the Front Porch Sweetery in Hendersonville, NC, a business that sells baked goods and breakfast.  Merri lives in the area with her husband who owns Carolina Home Repair.  Bill and Merri purchased and remodeled a commercial building at 3400 Asheville Highway in 2005. Merri has owned numerous businesses among them, Manor Shop Antiques in MI, Firesides Attitudes and Flowers by Merri Margaret in IL.  While living in Fort Myers, Florida she operated, Gardens of the Tropics and South Florida Publishing Group. She is the holder of five copyrights for geo-data research in SW FL and published books for twenty years.
What inspired you to do what you do?

I am a former publisher, past owner of gift, antique and floral shops.  I have always loved creating anything.  I love food too, lots of it, comfort food. People are hungry today for many things and are time-constrained at home.  Why not offer things that remind them of hearth
and home?  Most of all, it is learning to believe in your skills and believe that you can achieve almost anything.  Then you must be willing to carry the plan through to completion.

What is one of your exciting memories?

I had the privilege of traveling in Europe on several occasions.  The beauty, the age and  the architecture are breath taking.  I went there a small town girl and was transported to another time.  My vision was expanded and became a revelation that I view through a stained glass window which applying to thought in many aspects of everyday living in this country.

What do you do for fun?

Merri Tyndall