Green Roundup: ASAP’s Farm Tour spotlights local growers

For anyone wanting to learn more about how their food is grown and raised, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) has just the ticket – and it’s only $35-$45 for a car pass.

Twenty-one farms will participate in ASAP’s 2024 Farm Tour on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21–22, noon-5 p.m. Attendees will visit working farms where they’ll have guided and self-guided opportunities to experience vineyards, vegetables, orchards, u-pick fruit, local food and drink tastings and farm animals, says ASAP’s press release. 

“The primary goal is to get folks engaged and acquainted with the diversity of local farms and just have some fun,” says Oakley Brewer, ASAP’s communications and engagement coordinator. 

This year, the tour, which launched in 2009, features five geographic clusters to help visitors maximize their time at farms. Tourgoers are encouraged to select two to four farms per cluster to visit each day, spending around an hour at each. All farms are within an hour’s drive of Asheville, and each cluster offers diverse farm options.

The Candler/Canton Cluster, for example, is about a 20-minute drive from downtown Asheville and features everything from bees to herbs. “There’s an orchard and apiary called KT’s, where [tourgoers] can pick apples and [buy] local honey,” Brewer says. “There’s Smoking J’s Fiery Foods that makes hot sauce — they’re going to do a pepper-roasting demonstration. Herb Mama will be doing demonstrations around making your own fertilizers and harvesting and drying herbs.”

ASAP’s Appalachian Grown region radiates from the market center of Asheville, comprising 60 North Carolina counties in the foothills and central and western mountains, as well as parts of  Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. As of 2023, there are around 800 Appalachian Grown farms.  

Within the region, ASAP’s Appalachian Grown logo identifies local food and farm products to help consumers make informed buying choices. Every year ASAP also publishes a print and online local food guide, a definitive resource for finding local food and farms throughout the Appalachian Grown region, says Brewer.

“We estimated around 1,800 to 2,000 people attended last year’s tour,” Brewer says. “It would be good to meet a similar goal, but mostly [we] just want a way to engage the community with local farms. We hope folks have experiences that make them feel more connected to where their food comes from and see the value of farmers in our region.” 

More information at avl.mx/bt9.

Homecoming

Members of Asheville-based Carolina Mountain Club (CMC), the oldest and largest hiking trail control maintenance organization in the Southeast, has returned from a landmark journey to Japan.

The CMC delegation, composed of President Les Love, Appalachian Trail supervisor Paul Curtin, and councilor for communications David Huff, arrived in Japan on July 18. While Love and Curtain returned to Asheville on July 28, Huff stayed until Aug. 8.

The delegation focused on fostering global collaboration in trail conservation and management, and engaged with the teams managing the Shin-Etsu Trail and the Michinoku Coastal Trail. The Shin-Etsu Trail, inspired by the Appalachian Trail, offers a blend of mountain beauty and hiking challenges, while the Michinoku Coastal Trail features stunning coastal landscapes.

“It was wonderful experiencing the Japanese people and the countryside, and we’ll continue furthering this relationship between our trail clubs,” says Huff. “The [Japanese] mountains are similar to ours, but they’re also shaped by volcanoes and by earthquakes. [They’re] different terrains, but very lush, very green and quite the workout.” More information at avl.mx/pryc.

Good to know

• Historic Johnson Farm in Hendersonville is one of only two North Carolina grantees among 154 national applicants selected for a 2024 U.S. Department of Agriculture Patrick Leahy Farm to School grant. The $50,000 grant will fund RootEd in Food and Farm, a new training program for Henderson County Public Schools teachers. For the next two years, groups of eighth-grade teachers will spend time at Historic Johnson Farm and other farm sites, redesigning their classroom lesson plans so they can be taught as hands-on projects. During the yearlong experience, eighth-grade students will also come to Historic Johnson Farm to test-drive the lesson plans their teachers have developed. Historic Johnson Farm, at 3346 Haywood Road, Hendersonville, features 15 acres of forest, fields and streams and 10 historic structures. More information at avl.mx/9av.
• In partnership with the N.C. Clean Energy Fund, Sugar Hollow Solar has launched a groundbreaking solar lending program. The program, designed to help homeowners and landlords overcome financial barriers to adopting solar energy, will enable more families and businesses to install solar panels and battery backups, reducing their carbon footprint and utility bills. “Now our customers can lock in fixed monthly payments, stabilize their household expenses against rising utility rates, make a smart financial investment, and do good for the environment,” says Clary Franko, COO of Sugar Hollow Solar. More information at avl.mx/dgd.
• Construction continues on eight new river gauges in Haywood County. The project will enhance Haywood County Emergency Services’ ability to monitor upstream river levels and help with earlier and more accurate river level monitoring. Contractor Distinctive AFWS Designs Inc. is installing the gauges on N.C. Department of Transportation-owned bridges in areas that will provide the earliest possible warning of increasing river levels in critical areas. These new gauges will tie into the N.C. Flood Inundation and Mapping & Alert Network (FIMAN). Residents can use the tools on FIMAN to track flooding in near real time. More information at avl.mx/e1i.

Save the date

• The WNC Sierra Club will host a free and open-to-the-public meeting on balancing the needs of labor unions, lithium mining and electric vehicles at the Mannheimer Auditorium at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center, 300 Campus View Road, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4. Randy Francisco of the United Steelworkers Union will discuss ways that environmentalists and labor can work together to ensure that workers and their communities are protected from harm from lithium mining and that those communities are left with a better place even after the closure of their mine. More information at avl.mx/e1f.
• The West Asheville Garden Stroll, featuring 15 diverse gardens in the Horney Heights neighborhood, is Saturday, Sept.14, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The stroll is free with a family-friendly kickoff program at 10:30 a.m. This year’s gardens showcase many alternatives to conventional lawns as well as edibles, ornamentals, medicinal plants, permaculture designs and a wide variety of native plants. Water features, eclectic art, trellises and quirky garden sheds provide focal points. More information at avl.mx/e1g.
• Learn more about the monarch butterfly and how humans can help this species on Monarch Butterfly Day, Saturday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at The N.C. Arboretum. The event includes lectures, crafts and special nature play activities celebrating the launch of the arboretum’s new outdoor nature playscape, the Playing Woods. Wild-caught and tagged butterflies will be released into the gardens to continue winging their way to Mexico. More information at avl.mx/e1j.