Smithwick Communications

06/22/2026

I love this community!

06/22/2026

Mill Spring Monday: You Asked, We Listened

Last week I asked where you shop local — and y'all delivered. Countless comments worth of hidden gems, farm stands, and neighborhood favorites. Here's what your neighbors are loving right now:

Thermal Ridge (Columbus) — The people have spoken. Farm-fresh eggs, quality produce, canned goods, and homemade products. On the left heading into Columbus, just past Avery Creek Nursery.

Three Ridges Farm (Green Creek) — Eggs and lamb shares available now. Farm stand + farm-to-door delivery coming Aug/Sept. Protein subscription boxes this fall. Follow them to stay updated!

Ruffled Feathers Farm Stand — Off Hunting Country Rd toward Landrum. A reader favorite with serious loyalty.

Bensons Produce — On 108 just past Lynn, on the right.

Terra Lingua Growers, LLC — Landrum

Southern Case Care — Dog walking, farm & pet visits, homemade dog treats, baked goods & jams.

The Thrifted Thimble — Local seamstress work + homemade jams & jellies.

This is YOUR list, not mine. Tag someone who needs to know about these. 👇

Mill Spring Monday is a weekly community series spotlighting the people and places that make this corner of NC worth staying for. Read more on my website and save for later.

06/15/2026

Mill Spring Monday!

Mill Spring + Green Creek friends — what's a small business, farm stand, or side hustle around here that more people should know about?

Could be a roadside stand, a home bakery, someone's Etsy shop, a lawn care side gig... if it's local and it's good, we want to hear about it!

Tag them below 👇

06/08/2026

Mill Spring Monday | Cricket’s Kitchen

There's a new spot serving up something special on Hwy 9 N in Sunny View — and it started with a grandmother named Cricket.
Cricket's Kitchen is a family-owned food truck at 6081 Hwy 9 N (across from Red Mountain Hardware), owned and run by Caitlyn Crissone alongside her triplet sisters and parents. Caitlyn, Addison, and Laney are believed to be the first set of triplets born in Polk County — and now they're putting that family bond to work in the kitchen.

Caitlyn named the business after her beloved grandmother and built the menu around the same kind of cooking she grew up doing — made with love, cooked to order, and meant to make people happy.

The menu includes cheeseburgers, Philly cheese steaks, chicken tenders, chicken wraps, fries, and homemade sweets like vanilla pound cake. Meals come with a side and drink — a full, satisfying lunch at a price that makes sense.

📅 Regular hours: 11am–2pm | M-Sat
🌙 Thursday Supper: 4:30–6:30pm

"We are not a fast food restaurant — we cook everything to order. The quality of the food is our priority." — Caitlyn Crissone

Follow them on Facebook to stay up on weekly specials and Thursday supper menus! 👇
🔗Cricket’s Kitchen

Mill Spring Monday is a weekly series spotlighting the businesses, makers, and community members of the Mill Spring and Green Creek area.

Want your business featured in an upcoming Mill Spring Monday? Send me a message!

06/01/2026

Mill Spring Monday: Carolina Foothills Tours

Last Sunday I went on a tour of Polk County in the rain.
It was genuinely one of the best things I've done since moving here.

Carolina Foothills Tours is brand new — founded in 2026 by Sharon, Brian, and Zach, three friends who love this place so much they decided to share it with the world. And I don't mean that in a cheesy way. Their about page literally calls it "a love letter to the place we call home." After spending a rainy afternoon with them I believe every word of it.

My friend was visiting from Boston — 8 days all over Western North Carolina. Carolina Foothills Tours was her second favorite thing she did the entire trip. In the rain. Think about that.

They do winery tours, history tours, Saluda railroad tours, and custom tours. Prices start at $25. If you have visitors coming this summer — or if you've lived here for years and want to see this place through fresh eyes — book something.

👉 carolinafoothillstours dot com
📱 Facebook & Instagram:

05/25/2026

🇺🇸 Memorial Day Monday: House of Flags Museum
(Mill Spring Monday will resume next week)

Did you know the only House of Flags Museum in America is right here in Polk County?

I didn't either until recently. And it kind of blew my mind.

The House of Flags Museum in downtown Columbus opened on September 8, 2001 — three days before the world changed. What started as one local citizen's desire to teach flag respect and etiquette has grown into a collection of over 300 full-size flags, each one a faithful reproduction with its own story to tell.

From the first explorers of the 1500s to present day. Every flag that has ever flown on Continental US soil. One small museum in Columbus, NC.

On a day when we're thinking about the people who served under that flag — it feels right to mention this place exists.

Admission is free. Donations welcome.

📍 Downtown Columbus, NC
🕐 Tues & Thurs 10am–1pm | Sat 10am–4pm | Group tours by appointment

05/18/2026

Mill Spring Monday: Help Me Show Off

I have a friend coming to visit from Boston and I need your help.
She's never been to Western North Carolina. She doesn't know what she's about to experience. And I want her to leave completely ruined for anywhere else.

So tell me — what's your favorite small town in WNC and what's the one thing she absolutely cannot leave without doing, seeing, or eating there?

Drop it below. Let's show Boston what we've got.

05/11/2026

Mill Spring Monday: McGuinns Store

There are some businesses that are so woven into a community that you almost can't imagine the place without them. McGuinn's Store on Hwy 9 in Mill Spring is one of those places.

The story starts in 1920, when Charles McGuinn was born right here in Polk County — one of 12 kids growing up on a farm in Sunny View. He sold produce at a farmer's market booth in Asheville after graduation, weathered World War II, and then came back home to open a retail store in his own community. His vision statement was simple: "Your hometown store that saves you more."

That was decades ago. That motto still stands.

Today McGuinn's is a full hardware and farm supply store carrying everything from tools and building materials to farm supplies, clothing, pet supplies, lawn seed, fertilizer, Case Knives, Georgia Boots, DeWalt, Milwaukee — you name it. They also cut keys and sell gas. It's the kind of store where you go in for one thing and realize you can get twelve other things you needed anyway.

The locals don't lie about a place like this. When a store has been part of a community this long, it earns that loyalty one neighbor at a time.

Charles believed in keeping prices low so everyone could shop there. That's not a marketing strategy. That's a value system. And it's still the heartbeat of this store today.

Shop online or find them on Facebook: McGuinns Store

Mill Spring, NC | mcguinnstore dot com

05/04/2026

☀️ Mill Spring Monday: Summer Planning

Okay Polk County — summer is basically here and I need your help.

I broke my foot a few months ago and I have been watching the world get green and gorgeous from the sidelines like some kind of tragic nature documentary. I am almost healed. I am ready. And I have a list to make.

Where do you go when you need to get outside? The swimming holes, the trails, the overlooks, the "secret" spots you only tell people you actually like.
Drop them below. Bonus points if you tell me:

->Where it is (roughly — I know some of y'all are protective of your spots 😄)
->Best time of day or year to go
->Whether to bring kids, dogs, or just yourself and a good playlist

I'm building a local outdoor guide and I want the real list — not the tourist version.

Now somebody please give me a reason to lace up my hiking boots.

05/01/2026

🐌✨

MILL SPRING—Local entrepreneurs and business owners Cara Smithwick and Gabby Horvath have joined forces to launch the S.L.O.W. Bag, an innovative analog activity kit designed to help individuals reduce screen […]