Growing Local

Imagine getting a big box of veggies every week, no shopping required. Community Supported Agriculture is a way to simplify eating and cooking so the freshest local produce is at your fingertips each week. ASAP will host a CSA Fair on Thursday March 10, from 3-6 p.m. Stop by the Jubilee! community church on Wall Street in Asheville to meet local farmers and find out which CSA might be right for you. Find out more at www.asapconnections.org

Have you ever wondered why there are so many small family farms here? In other parts of the country larger-scale commercial operations line the highways with hundreds, or even thousands of acres of a single crop. So why not here in the Southern Appalachians? (Photo of East Fork Farm in Marshall, NC by Rich Orris)

Matt Coffay of Second Spring Market Garden is one of several local growers who farm all year. Find out why the community craves fresh produce at indoor markets and how farmers are stepping up production to meet winter demand. ASAP's Local Food Guide: www.appalachiangrown.org Second Spring Market Garden 4-season CSA: www.secondspringfarm.com

Listen in as we trace chevre back to the source, from grass to goat and milk to cheese.

Imagine a place where farmers and buyers join forces. Relationships are forged, connections are made, and a locally-sourced meal joins everyone together. This place is not a figment of our local food-loving imaginations. It happens right here every winter at ASAP’s Business of Farming conference. Stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes peek into the conference. Saturday, February 20, 2016, 8:30-5:00 p.m. UNC Asheville in downtown Asheville, NC. www.asapconnections.org

Last summer farmer Gabriel Noard, owner of Pangaea Plants, poured his heart and soul into a crop of watermelon on his 24-acre farm in Rutherford County, NC. Despite careful attention, weeds grew up around the watermelon and marred their skin. Find out how ASAP helped Gabriel share his watermelon with local students.

Swain County, North Carolina has a “dream team” made up of three community leaders who work to bring local food into the lives of the county’s 14,000 residents.

A crowd of people line up on the street waiting for the doors to open. They huddle with neighbors and friends until the doors are unlocked and everyone rushes in. It’s not a movie premiere. It’s not even concert tickets that they’re after. These people are waiting for local food at the Asheville City Market. Farmers markets went quiet for a few weeks after the holidays, but indoor winter markets are finally here. Piles of kale and towers of turnips are ready for the community to take home to their dinner tables. Though the range of produce is limited during the winter months, there are plenty of greens, root veggies, meat, eggs, and crafts for winter shoppers. These markets are a gathering place for farmers and members of the community who might not otherwise see each other until spring. This past Saturday at the Asheville City Market and the YMCA Indoor Winter Market, the room echoed with vibrant conversations about everything from soil temperature to ways to cook mustard greens. Winter markets are goin

What can we do to support food and farms? Here are five ways to join the local food movement: 1. Buying directly from farmers makes a big difference. Farmers markets are a great place to get to know the people who grow our food and to support their efforts. Winter markets start back up in early January throughout the region, making this an ideal time to connect with local farmers each week. 2. Visiting farms is a tangible way to participate in the local food system. Farm tours, pick-your -owns and other on-farm opportunities let people see local farms in action and better understand what it takes to bring farm-fresh foods to the table. 3. Buying local food at grocery stores and restaurants lets them know that there is demand for food grown locally. If you’re not sure whether produce or farm products are local, just ask! Speaking up encourages food buyers to stock more local foods. 4. Talking to public officials, neighbors, friends, and family about why you care about local food helps build a community o

What does it mean when we say “local?" Local food can be measured in many ways, but the number of miles that food has traveled to get from farm to plate reveals a lot. When a tomato is shipped thousands of miles from California to North Carolina, it not only loses flavor, it also takes local farmers out of the equation - and that has an impact on the local food economy. One way to help build healthy local food systems is to choose farm products grown close to home. Buying food that is part of the local food economy instead of the global food economy generally reduces the carbon emissions it takes to transport and refrigerate food as it travels across the globe. Buying local is an important way to invest in local food systems, but how can you tell how far food has traveled to get here? Food labels help consumers understand the origin of what they eat. Appalachian Grown is a regional branding project started by ASAP that certifies produce and food products that come from the Southern Appalachians. The dist

Eating local may seem as simple as buying fresh greens at the farmers market, but there’s a lot of theory to back up why these small acts add up to a resilient food community. Studying how and why the local food system is evolving gives organizations like ASAP concrete methods to test the most effective ways to create healthy food systems. ASAP’s Local Food Research Center collects and analyzes data to understand how the perceptions and attitudes of local farmers, food system buyers, and consumers are changing as the region’s food system grows and evolves. The research center surveys a wide range of people engaged in the local food system to find out why they eat local, the barriers they face, and how their experiences with local food and farms have changed over the years. The research center is engaged in many projects, including a multi-year survey of southern Appalachian farmers. Annual interviews with a core group of farmers track the economic, social, and environmental factors that play a role in loc

Farm to School taste tests give kids a chance to try new vegetables and learn about local farms. ASAP visited N. Buncombe Elementary school's cafeteria during a bustling lunch hour to give kids a taste of raw sweet potatoes. (Photo courtesy Buncombe County Schools Communications Dept.)

For most of the region, agriculture is in a state of transition. For example, burley tobacco once dominated farming in the Southern Appalachians. It was a major cash crop at the center of the region’s agriculture for over a century. But the economics of tobacco farming changed and by the mid-1990s, it became clear that federal support programs for tobacco farming would eventually end. In many areas in transition, communities turned to local food systems as a means to keep farms and build community resilience. Localized food production allows farms to produce food that is aligned with a community’s needs rather than just global demand. Farms can connect with the community, learn what customers want and produce more the following year. This feedback allows food systems to evolve and grow and serve the communities they are a part of. The loss of tobacco could have been devastating to the Appalachian region’s agricultural base, but the local food movement is helping to build a resilient economy that is anchore

Tomato season has come and gone and summer squash is a distant memory, but local food thrives all year long in the Southern Appalachians. There are many vegetables that stay fresh during the winter months, including giant kohlrabi and other root vegetables that can be stored until early spring, and spinach varieties that can grow in hoop houses nearly all winter. Many communities host farmers markets throughout the year, including Asheville and several rural mountain towns where demand is high. Even if your area doesn’t have a winter market, there are ways to support local food and farms throughout the year. Maintaining relationships with farmers during the winter is a way to stay engaged with the community year round. So before the regular market season ends, ask farmers where to find their products during the winter. Many farms supply local grocery stores and co-ops with meats, cheeses, and other specialty products. Asking restaurants which local foods they use is another way to stay connected. Sever

A stroll through the local farmers market is like walking through a cornucopia of abundance. Sweet potatoes are piled high near yellow onions and fresh greens. But before these ingredients are ready for the soup pot, a transaction must be made. There are often financial barriers that separate people from fresh, healthy food. Several farmers markets in the region now accept SNAP tokens or vouchers. Once known as food stamps, SNAP is a nationwide effort to help low-income people access healthy food. In some North Carolina mountain communities, a USDA pilot project will test innovative ways to better engage all communities with the abundance of fresh local produce available at the markets. A new USDA grant will help the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project connect people in Buncombe, Haywood, and Henderson counties with healthy food. ASAP will foster relationships with local agencies and nonprofits that already help low-income people live healthy lives. Through this new grant, faith-based groups and

East Fork Farm is part of a growing movement of Appalachian farmers who raise free-range turkeys for Thanksgiving.

The way we eat and the way we live are intertwined. Agriculture sustains us and connects us with the farmers who grow our food and the markets, grocers, chefs, and home cooks that bring it to our table. For over 20 years, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project - or ASAP - has helped local farms flourish. The nonprofit organization works to support farmers by creating awareness about the value of local food offering resources to growers, among many other things. Connecting farmers with food buyers, certifying local food as Appalachian Grown, and putting together the Local Food Guide are just a few ways that ASAP supports local food. Building community is also a key piece of ASAP’s work. Organizing and supporting farmers markets across the region encourages the public to learn about local food and to form bonds with the farmers they see each week. Engaging the next generation is also important. ASAP’s Farm-to-School program encourages local schools to incorporate gardening, cooking, and farm fiel