Curry says his new line of shoes — made using natural hemp fiber — is both practical and environmentally conscious. “It was chosen because it deals well with water. It doesn’t rot; it doesn’t degrade with UV [ultraviolet radiation] compared to cotton or jute or other things. It’s really a strong, amazing material,” Curry says.
Gardeners can shop for conifers, annuals, perennials, herbs and much more, and local farmer Annie Louise Perkinson will offer a talk about growing a cut-flower garden.
In 1925, Babe Ruth and the New York Yankees were scheduled to play an exhibition game in Asheville. A bellyache and subsequent collapse would put a stop to Ruth’s play that day.
“Culture is the closest to my heart,” says Fleming, who plays steel guitar, of activities at the second biennial Get Off the Grid Fest . “The best way to build the culture of a community is through music and dance, and we have an incredibly strong line-up. It’s an empowering and joyful event.”
Last summer, Smith took his love for okra to new heights through his work with the Utopian Seed Project, a organization that aims to create diverse and integrated food systems. He catalogued more than 75 varieties of the vegetable, which he hopes will promote resilience against pests, disease and climate change while providing greater food security.
With wedding season right around the corner, local wedding vendors are ramping up options for local couples.
Eric Bradford, director of operations at local environmental nonprofit Asheville GreenWorks, calls China’s restriction of its recyclables market a wake-up call for domestic recyclers. “We were basically paying China to be our landfill for these ‘recyclables,’ and we felt good about it,” he says.
ASHVILLE, N.C.
Clere calls the effort a “natural outgrowth” from the last of the seven Unitarian Universalist Principles: “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”
Rituals that draw on the traditions of indigenous, non-Western cultures are part of a growing industry at the intersection of health, wellness and spirituality. Some in Western North Carolina have raised concerns about whether it’s appropriate for non-native practitioners to offer and profit from traditional practices and techniques.
“In designing food systems, the foods that need to be freshest when we eat them, the quick-turnaround crops, should be placed close to where we live,” Patel says. “I didn’t really think the farm would be as broad and idealistic as it turned out to be, but I’m pretty idealistic, so it has naturally turned into that.”
The city of Asheville has taken initial steps toward rezoning real estate in four places around town in hopes of encouraging new development that would offer a denser mix of housing, shops and office space, similar to Biltmore Park Town Square or Reynolds Village in Woodfin. “Asheville wants to move in a direction that is more urban, that is more walkable, that has a greater mix of uses,” says city planner Vaidila Satvika.
“After they leave the farm, they can be part of a bee club, a medicinal herb meetup or [play with] other musicians,” says Mahshie about his multifaceted nonprofit. “They are healthy, healing ways for vets to connect with community.”
Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Henderson County Republican, on April 16 introduced a bill in the state House to require the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County to add Fletcher, Mills River and some unincorporated areas of northern Henderson County to its service district if a state board approves. The following day, the Buncombe MSD board voted to oppose the bill.
Free programs from the Buncombe County Master Gardeners offer guidance in sustainable growing practices.
Part Two of the beer industry sustainability series explores the challenges and successes of new breweries entering an established, competitive market.
Since 2010, when Hewitt made the first loan to a friend who needed help expanding her small Greek restaurant, Slow Money NC has catalyzed over 300 loans totaling about $4 million to 125 small farmers and local food businesses.
A few summers ago, Laszlo told his parents, Thomas Stern and Laura Gazzano, that he wanted to set up a stand to sell cucumbers in their driveway. Now 8 years old, Lazlo and his two younger sisters, Mina and Csilla, play a central role in the family business, an online seed store that launched on Thanksgiving 2017.
Local divisions of the N.C. Department of Transportation won recognition in the state’s annual Wildflower Awards, while the city of Asheville studies noise and the Buncombe Partnership for Children deploys a $400,000 grant to train up to 60 new early childhood educators in Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties.
“The youngest generation … they are particularly focused on climate change,” says Ashley McDermott, one of the founding members of Sunrise’s Asheville chapter. “They’re the ones who have this emotional connection to it the most. They’re seeing and experiencing it now.”
Beekeepers in the United States experienced an estimated 40 percent loss in their colonies between April 2017 and April 2018, and last year, North Carolina’s honeybee population experienced a 50 percent loss, no doubt impacting the state’s $84 billion agriculture industry.