The 280,000-square-foot structure will produce over 2 million pounds of leafy salad greens a year to be shipped daily to local retailers.
Tailgate markets use 2020 hindsight to roll out fresh plans for 2021
After a mad scramble to reinvent themselves last spring, WNC’s neighborhood tailgate markets look ahead to the 2021 growing seaso
What’s new in food: Healthy eats, tasty treats, riverside dining
In this week’s local food news, chefs Eric Morris and Daniel Rider bring farm-fresh breakfast to the ASAP Farmers Market, Asheville Beauty Academy hosts Queen Mum High Tea, Summit Coffee opens a new location in the Grove Arcade and more.
Commercial kitchens help food entrepreneurs realize their visions
Blue Ridge Food Ventures is the largest facility in the region offering rented kitchen, production and storage space. But several others have launched in recent years to help meet the needs and realize the dreams of Western North Carolina’s food and beverage visionaries.
What’s new in food: Veggie tales, ungraped wine, Nani’s flies the coop and more
Handmade skirts highlighting locally grown foods, a new homegrown delivery service from Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken, a class on country winemaking, local nonprofit news and more.
SNAP incentives boost market sales for local farmers
Market managers and vendors at the markets participating in the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s Double SNAP initiative, which matches Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits dollar-for-dollar on edible items, saw SNAP transactions nearly triple from 2019 to 2020, and 80% of responding vendors said they’d experienced sales growth due to the program.
Local produce distributor steers its business over rough roads
Making tough choices and trying out a variety of business models allowed Mountain Food Products to keep its trucks rolling through the pandemic.
Food is the universal language at Asheville specialty markets
Asheville chefs discuss local specialty markets that bring globally sourced products close to home.
Food roundup: Cúrate at Earth Fare, a new lunch option and leadership change at Benne on Eagle
Asheville’s December food news includes Spanish specialties, fried fish and a kitchen leadership changeover .
Chef J. Chong toasts camaraderie
“Launching my own business during a global pandemic was one of the best things I have done. It has taught me a great deal about who I am and ignited my admiration and passion for Cantonese food all over again. I am most grateful for the camaraderie and meaningful relationships among our Asheville restaurant industry […]
Aaron Grier is thankful for new bonds
“It’s been a rough and scary year with the normal avenues for selling our produce turned on their ear. But the meaningful relationships we had with some of our chefs before the pandemic have grown unbreakably stronger. To quote chef Kikkoman Shaw at Southside Kitchen, ‘It has brought a lot of us together who might […]
Grocery stores give more during the holiday season
Food Lion and Ingles are increasing their support of WNC food banks as food insecurity grows and the holidays approach.
WNC food banks gear up for winter
The directors of MANNA FoodBank, Bounty & Soul and Beacon of Hope say their organizations are persevering to meet the community’s ongoing need in an ever-shifting landscape.
Women steer local online grocery concepts
Mother Earth Food and Zadie’s Market have navigated the challenge of coordinating product sourcing, order fulfillment and delivery processes to create online grocery businesses that support local farms and producers.
Warren Wilson College Farm expands its meat sales outlets
A partnership with the ASAP Farmers Market and a recently launched online sales platform are making the college’s pasture-raised meats more accessible to consumers.
MANNA FoodBank needs help to help others
While the community’s need continues to grow, the nonprofit’s pool of volunteers has declined.
Fire up the grill for Labor Day weekend
WNC meat and seafood purveyors bid farewell to summer with grilling tips and ideas.
ASAP expands Double SNAP program at weekly tailgate markets
The program, explains communications coordinator Sarah Hart, allows the market to make a 100 percent match on dollars spent through SNAP. “People swipe their SNAP card for $5 and get $10 in tokens to shop the market,” she says.
COVID-19 yanks WNC’s local meat supply chain
Roughly 10 small processors are available for all of North Carolina’s local livestock farmers. With higher overall demand due to COVID-19 and commodity beef producers leaning on the local supply chain in their transition to direct-market sales, some farmers can’t get meat processed until the spring of 2021.
Charlie Hodge turns his downtown bar into Bodega on Broadway
“I never thought I’d be selling candy bars,” restaurateur Charlie Hodge admits with a laugh. Yet PayDays and KitKats are among the hundreds of sundries for sale in Hodge’s newest enterprise, Bodega on Broadway.
Earth Fare reopens in West Asheville
The Westgate store is the first of eight Earth Fare supermarkets to reopen.