By working with the seasons, riffing off familiar recipes and being creative with embellishments, the regular contents of your kitchen can be infused with new life in 2020.
Lay leaders tie faith and environmental action
For the first time, the Creation Care Alliance’s annual retreat, taking place at the Montreat Conference Center on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 7-8, will include both clergy and lay leaders. While the first day remains focused on ordained ministers , its second day will offer “learning, grieving, inspiration and training” for all who connect their faith with creation care.
WNC shops share tips for turning your yard into a bird-watching haven
Winter is the ideal time to begin planting and planning to create a hospitable wild bird habitat.
Green in brief: Asheville coal ash landfill hearing on Dec. 19, bear concerns escalate
At 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 19, a public hearing will take place in Room B of the Mission Health/A-B Tech Conference Center at 340 Victoria Road in Asheville regarding Duke Energy’s plans to build a 12.5-acre landfill on its property beside Lake Julian.
Appetite for Life: The secret life of squash
The accompanying recipe for baked butternut squash with sage and sausage uses leftovers to create an easy and satisfying option for the upcoming holiday season.
New draft horses join Warren Wilson College’s sustainable farming program
Queen and Doc recently relocated from an Amish community in Ohio to serve as the horsepower behind the college’s sustainable agriculture program.
Symposium renews call for urban tree protections
Climate Change and Asheville’s Urban Forest, a symposium organized by Asheville GreenWorks for Thursday, Nov. 14, 5-7:30 p.m., brings together a broad coalition around the results of the city’s recently released canopy study. Urban forest advocates emphasize that trees are critical to help Asheville avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Smallholder Access Program certifies WNC forests
Less than 0.1% of all small woodlands are currently certified as responsibly managed, despite making up over 75% of all privately owned Southeast forests. The SAP pilot, a collaboration of forest product companies, the Forest Stewardship Council and Rainforest Alliance, is exploring how to bring those previously overlooked parcels into certified status.
Nonprofit launches hemp testing services for WNC farmers, processors
The U.S. Botanical Safety Laboratory’s new gas chromatography equipment and a specially developed testing methodology are poised to bring stability and convenience to Western North Carolina’s burgeoning industrial hemp industry.
Mark Cohen presents a workshop on regenerative agriculture
“Healthy soil and the biodiversity that generates and maintains it is key in simultaneously improving food security, watershed health, preventive medicine and climate mitigation,” says farmer, ethnobotanist and educator Mark Cohen.
Inaugural Chow Chow culinary festival sets the table for growth
Organizers reflect on the highs and lows as they consider planning for future events.
Monarch Butterfly Day at The N.C. Arboretum
The Sept. 28 event will offer a milkweed plant sale, children’s educational activities and a monarch gardening workshop for adults.
Environmental groups unite for Climate Justice Rally
Taking place at the Vance Monument from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 20, the rally brings together 15 area organizations in a call for change. The speaker lineup includes Anita Simha with the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, Lucia Ibarra of Dogwood Alliance, the Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri from the Creation Care Alliance, UNC Asheville Assistant Professor Evan Couzo and Sunrise Movement member Shane McCarthy.
Pollinator advocates rally against neonics-treated plants
Both local and corporate retailers are committing to reduce or eliminate use of the popular but harmful insecticide.
Appetite for Life: Heirloom apples are rich in flavor and history
A simple apple crisp can be an easy, creative way to highlight locally grown fruit.
Organic Growers School 2019 Harvest Conference offers in-depth workshops
The two-day conference features workshops from area experts on forest farming, medicinal herbs, wild edibles and hemp growing.
Asheville seeks new approach to water treatment sludge
Last October, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality placed stricter controls on what outside materials MSD could accept, thus barring the plant from taking Asheville’s treatment residuals. The city’s current plan is to landfill the sludge in Buncombe County and Concord, N.C. — at over 2 1/2 times the cost of its previous disposal arrangement.
Get Off the Grid Fest workshops explore sustainable gardening and farming
More than 30 bands on three stages plus classes covering everything from aquaponics to regenerative agriculture practices are on the schedule for the three-day festival.
Bountiful Cities plans Buncombe County’s first food hub
The proposed two-story pavilion would provide cold storage, processing space, a value-added kitchen and more for local community gardens.
Of mountains and men: New anthology surveys Appalachian nature writing
“We have to start looking at what is nature at this point? What is the nonhuman world?” maintains “Mountains Piled Upon Mountains” editor Jessica Cory. “We’ve affected the air, which affects everything else. We’re really getting to the point where we have to look at things a little differently.”
Green in brief: Asheville releases guide to climate resilience, RiverLink plans sale of French Broad land for restaurant
“Building a Climate-Resilient Asheville,” debuted during a June 19 meeting of the city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment at The Collider, focuses on practical steps individuals can take to reduce their vulnerability to extreme weather.