Garden Journal

Local eats: Most area farmers’tailgate markets are now open for the season. This is opening week for Saturday markets in Black Mountain, Brevard, Morganton and Rutherfordton, and for the Wednesday markets in Spruce Pine, Asheville and Morganton. Current local produce includes: broccoli, spinach, arugula; lettuces and other spring vegetables; eggs; pastries, specialty breads, croissants and […]

Well, well

Is the rash of development in WNC affecting wells? The answer depends on whom you ask. Over the past three-and-a-half years, Alexander residents Tim and Jeannie Deering have drilled a total of more than 2,100 feet but still haven’t found a reliable source of water for their four-year-old home. “We drilled our first well in […]

Garden Journal

Home grown goods: The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project now sponsors “Appalachian Grown,” a label displayed on food grown in WNC and the surrounding mountains by family farmers. Since the program was launched, nearly 100 farms have become Appalachian Grown-certified. On top of that, nearly 20 businesses, including local grocery stores, food cooperatives and restaurants, have […]

Scapegoat hits a home run

Going into the 2007 season, Director Taryn Strauss had loaded the bases, having previously coached the Scapegoat Theatre Collective productions of Everything in the Garden, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and The Exonerated. Now, like any pinch hitter worth the name, she has blasted one over the fence. The company’s current production of Richard […]

Garden Journal

Year of living locally: Charlie Jackson of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project says, “All trend spotters point to local food as the biggest thing in food, and here in the mountains we have been way ahead of the curve on growing and promoting food for local consumption.” ASAP’s 2007 Local Food Guide is hot off […]

Neighborho­od activists have CAN-do attitude

Over the past two decades, the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods, composed of residents and local business owners, has repeatedly come down in favor of thoughtfully regulated development, simultaneously embracing increased commercialization along corridor roads and decrying lapses in enforcement of the city’s Unified Development Ordinance. Pedestrian friendliness: CAN has been a major mover in slowing […]