Garden Journal

Versus vampires: Garlic growers take note – garlic geek Tom Sherry of Whistlepig Farm in Hominy Valley offers these harvest hints. On average, garlic should be harvested when the outer three or four leaves are brown. Harvest earlier if you plan to store the garlic for months, harvest later if you plan to eat it right away. Late garlic contains more starches and is therefore sweeter but more volatile. Enjoy!

See the world at the Arboretum: Asheville artist Ann Vasilik gets out a lot – out in the country and out of the country – and while pursuing her peripatetic way, she paints. To celebrate the opening of the North Carolina Arboretum’s extraordinary new Baker Exhibit Center, the facility is hosting an exhibit of Vasilik’s work, Around the World: Places, People and Plants. The paintings span 40 years of travel and run from flowers to elephants to sampans to cityscapes, with some as familiar and local as the quilt garden at the Arboretum and others partaking of cultures a world away. The show runs through Oct. 31. The Arboretum grounds are open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Exhibits are open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission’s free; parking is $6 per car but free on Tuesday. For more information, call 665-2492.

Get it fresh: The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association has announced publication of its 2007 Carolinas Guide to Local and Organic Food. The guide includes info about local sustainable farms, farmers’ markets, restaurants that serve local food and grocers who sell it, as well as value-added processors.

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About Cecil Bothwell
A writer for Mountain Xpress since three years before there WAS an MX--back in the days of GreenLine. Former managing editor of the paper, founding editor of the Warren Wilson College environmental journal, Heartstone, member of the national editorial board of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, publisher of Brave Ulysses Books, radio host of "Blows Against the Empire" on WPVM-LP 103.5 FM, co-author of the best selling guide Finding your way in Asheville. Lives with three cats, macs and cacti. His other car is a canoe. Paints, plays music and for the past five years has been researching and soon to publish a critical biography--Billy Graham: Prince of War:

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