Now in its 27th year, the Organic Growers School Spring Conference welcomes growers and sustainability-minded folks of all types for a weekend of region-specific educational offerings, a trade show, seed exchange, guest speakers and opportunities for socializing and networking. This year’s conference takes place Friday-Sunday, March 6-8, at Mars Hill University.
Experimentation with cultivation of the prized subterranean fungus began in earnest in WNC nearly 10 years ago with a test orchard in Waynesville. But the handful of local truffles farmers are still patiently waiting to see the fruits of their labors.
Despite WNC’s history of agricultural knowledge and abundance, the legacy of Jewish farming — and its deep wisdom surrounding food security, land ownership and community building — has remained shrouded in relative obscurity. The Fairview-based Yesod Farm + Kitchen is working to change that narrative.
Not everyone is reaping the benefits of the booming industrial hemp sector. Although hard numbers are in short supply, a 2017 survey by the Marijuana Business Daily, a Colorado-based website, found that 81% of cannabis-related business owners nationwide were white. A Thursday, Jan. 9, panel will explore the lack of representation of people of color in the growing industry and some possible solutions.
Winter is the ideal time to begin planting and planning to create a hospitable wild bird habitat.
Queen and Doc recently relocated from an Amish community in Ohio to serve as the horsepower behind the college’s sustainable agriculture program.
Bulbs are generally fun and simple, and the time to get them in the ground is now.
Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard and other area U-pick farms celebrate harvest season.
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.
“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.
ASHEVILLE, .NC.
The Sept. 28 event will offer a milkweed plant sale, children’s educational activities and a monarch gardening workshop for adults.
Hickory Nut Gap Farm will join forces with the National Young Farmers Coalition to host a free dinner and networking evening for new and future farmers on Thursday, Sept. 26.
Both local and corporate retailers are committing to reduce or eliminate use of the popular but harmful insecticide.
Fall-blooming perennials, shrubs, trees, gently used gardening items and more will be available at the two-day annual event.
The two-day conference features workshops from area experts on forest farming, medicinal herbs, wild edibles and hemp growing.
The new program will work with local farmers and landowners in an effort to develop hemp as viable crop for Western North Carolina.
Recognizing the importance of crop diversity in a changing climate, local farmers are working to develop new crops for Western North Carolina.
The drop-in event will offer information on everything from basic poultry care to homegrown food sources and keeping chickens for pest control.
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.
The proposed two-story pavilion would provide cold storage, processing space, a value-added kitchen and more for local community gardens.