(Go to the bottom of this article for a listing of local tailgate markets) With springtime and warmer weather finally underway here in the mountains comes the opportunity to head outdoors to our local tailgate markets. While some of them won’t set up their tents until mid-May, most tailgate markets have already begun their season. […]
For the third year, Dobra Tea’s Black Mountain location will partner with local artisans and musicians to raise money for the Dr. John Wilson Community Garden.
The Mother Earth News Fair returned April 9-10 to the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center in Fletcher, bringing to the area a host of workshops, demonstrations, vendors and exhibits related to homesteading, natural health, small-scale livestock production, renewable energy, gardening, green building and more.
The 18th Annual Asheville Orchid Festival is expected to be the biggest ever, thanks to a joint effort among the North Carolina Arboretum, the Western North Carolina Orchid Society (WNCOS) and the American Orchid Society. The festival — which is being held in conjunction with AOS’ 2016 national spring meeting — is expected to attract […]
More than 150 workshops and demonstrations will cover everything from fermenting vegetables to cheesemaking, basketry and soapmaking, living off the grid, getting the most out of a small garden and raising chickens.
Whether you are an experienced or first-time gardener, the fifth annual “Get Growing” gardening series — offered by the Organic Growers School, Fifth Season Asheville Market and the Dr. John Wilson Community Garden — is here to help you step up your gardening skills. The four-part series will focus on the main aspects of organic gardening: […]
It’s a cool, gray morning in Weaverville as we round the bend and pull into Barkley’s Mill on Southern Cross Farm, and its greens, grays and browns, highlighted by the dusting of snow on the mountains, seem to pop out like children’s book illustrations. The long, slow hills that ripple across the farm are where […]
Learn to grow ginseng and goldenseal The Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Plants will host a ginseng and goldenseal workshop at Eagle Feather Organic Farm in Marshall on Sunday, April 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. The workshop will be facilitated by Robert Eidus, who operates Eagle Feather and owns the North Carolina Ginseng […]
Upcoming mushroom log-inoculation workshops A mushroom log-inoculation workshop this month will offer participants the opportunity to learn how to grow mushrooms using proven methods. The outdoor workshop at Trout Lily Deli and Market in Fairview will also cover how to select prime growing locations, preferred equipment for mushroom growing and the best strains of mushrooms. […]
A group of local farmers, gardeners, educators and food enthusiasts recently joined forces to participate in Slow Food Asheville’s first Heritage Food Project, honoring and promoting the Nancy Hall sweet potato.
Elementary school kids in Asheville and Buncombe County will have the opportunity to get their hands dirty and learn some basic gardening skills during the fifth annual Container Garden contest, sponsored by the Men’s Garden Club of Asheville. More than 30 classes participated last year, according to contest organizer Ed Heidel, and the group is […]
French food snob Pierre Geaux (an alter ego of local homesteading authority Bill Whipple) will host Organic Growers School’s upcoming farm-to-table benefit dinner, curated by Meredith Leigh. The event is at UNCA on Saturday, March 12.
Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features Sweet Claudette’s full-length album recording project and Full Circle Farm Sanctuary’s hope to expand to greener (and flatter) pastures.
Few crops have been as central to North Carolina’s economy and culture — or as controversial — as tobacco. Historically, its high market value and the relative ease of growing it made tobacco a staple for many Western North Carolina farmers. As late as 2002, 1,995 mountain farms grew tobacco. The crop’s prevalence, however, was […]
Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features the collaborative project more than 50 mural artists have planned for the River Arts District plus a Burnsville-based family farm’s business expansion.
Carl Sandburg called Chicago the “city of the big shoulders”; if he were alive today, he might describe Asheville as “the city of the big thinkers,” acknowledging the passion so many area residents display in seeking out new solutions to the issues we face. On many fronts, creative new approaches are being hatched and put […]
In the past few months, two major chain retailers have been busy bees. Both The Home Depot and Lowe’s have begun phasing out the sale of flowering plants containing pesticides called neonicotinoids, which have been linked to declining populations of bees and other pollinators. “Right now, 80 percent of our flowering plants are neonic-free, and […]
WNCW and Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project have teamed up to launch a new radio series called Growing Local; Villagers hosts a class on fermenting garden products into alcoholic beverages; Living Web Farms offers a knife skills workshop; plus Asheville Restaurant Week and Asheville Wing War approach.
This is the last week to donate to the Give!Local campaign! So far there have been over 290 donations made, with an average donation of $89. The largest donation so far has been for $2,100 and the campaign has made over $26,000 (as of Monday Dec. 21). Thanks to all those who have donated so […]
Robin Reeves is the sixth generation to grow up on her family’s Madison County farm — a lineage that dates back to before the Civil War. Reeves spent much of her youth helping her parents raise cattle, burley tobacco and tomatoes as well as her extended family in Sandy Mush. As an adolescent, she sold […]
BY HEATHER WOOD BUZZARD November marks the tail end of “’sang” season, but relics of the harvest time remain: hand-scrawled signs declaring “Will Buy Ginseng – No License Needed” and reports of recent poaching on both private and public lands. Ginseng hunters and buyers have been everywhere this autumn, but where’s the ginseng? People reach […]
