A healthy volunteer squash. photo by Cecil Bothwell I am not a fastidious gardener. Looking over my backyard jumble as I compose these words, I can well imagine a reader peering over my shoulder and sneering, “You write about this stuff?” I easily retort: “This is the garden I have always dreamed of growing, exactly […]
Search Results for: food connection
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Letters to the editor
This is our moment We are at that “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” place in regards to mountainside development in Buncombe County, when decency and honesty are all that can save the day. And hundreds of citizens are using their power of free speech to let our government officials know that approving steep-slope development plans […]
Tiny helpers
A single tablespoon of garden soil contains billions of bacteria, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. That’s right: billions. Furthermore, research conducted in the last two decades has revealed that bacteria inhabit every stratum of rock as deep as drills have penetrated. These hypersuccessful, single-celled beings are critically involved in all other life on earth: The […]
Shrimp trawls and smokehouses
At its heart, Southern food is a tapestry of flavors, the result of a complex weaving together of the various cultural and regional cuisines that developed throughout the South’s elaborate history. Consider, for example, the food of the Southeastern Lowcountry, a region of lush estuaries and marshes and generous expanses of coastline. The distinctive cuisine […]
Becoming biorational
If gardening and farming involved nothing more than sticking plants in the ground, watering them now and again, and pulling some weeds, no one would ever spend a dime on what might be called Stupid Chemical Tricks. Farmers didn’t adopt DDT in hopes of thinning raptor eggshells and nearly decimating the American bald eagle, the […]
Letters to the editor
Reality pales by Hanke’s comparison I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for the work of Ken Hanke, and to make sure you understand what a treasure you have in this man. I am not a rabid movie fan. At least, not of current films, although like most cinema buffs, I have […]
The (non)enforcers
“The Planning and Development Department staff respects the Unified Development Ordinance and makes reasonable interpretations within the authority entrusted in them.” – Planning & Development Director Scott Shuford Looming problem: Use of the Greenlife loading dock requires large trucks to park illegally within a UDO-mandated sight-visibility triangle. photo by Jodi Ford A review of three […]
Letters to the editor
Here’s to The Peel, and to Jack and Lesley If there is one thing that Jack and Lesley Groetsch know how to do, it’s run a music club. You don’t spend years at the helm of the legendary Howling Wolf in New Orleans unless you can get the job done. Their vision of contributing to […]
Thousands of Miles Fresher
Fresh as it gets: James Harrelsom (at left), a chef at Over Easy Cafe, purchases fresh vittles for the eatery from a local farmer at a tailgate market in Asheville. photo by Jodi Ford Peter Marks is, in effect, in the matchmaking business. He’s the program coordinator for an Asheville-based organization that catalyzes fruitful relationships […]
Letters to the editor
Guess who’s paying the price Let’s set the record straight. Wally Bowen and [your] article [“Cable vs. Community,” May 17] would have your readers believe that Buncombe County and the city of Asheville have negotiated franchise agreements which make only Charter Communications pay for the start-up costs and the ongoing support of public, education and […]
Asheville City Council
The Saturday breakfasts for the homeless are gone from Pritchard Park, but public sentiment has been simmering at low boil since Asheville’s Parks and Recreation Department evicted the do-gooders in early May. “This is what you have done. You haven’t brought this community together; you have divided us.” — Mayor Terry Bellamy to Adam Ripley, […]
Mulch madness
When I first began converting my lawn into gardens for fruit, vegetables and herbs, a neighbor told me about a free resource that rocked my world: the city of Asheville’s leaf-mulch pile. The massive, steaming mound at the corner of Broadway and Catawba quickly became a much-loved part of my life. I dumped wheelbarrow loads […]
Buzzworm news briefs
Campaign Calendar • Rutherford is rallying: The Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce has invited all four candidates for Congress from the 11th District (two Republicans and two Democrats) to a “Meet the Candidates” forum on Monday, April 17 April, at 6 p.m. in the County Annex Building. After speeches and rebuttals by the candidates, questions […]
Buzzworm news briefs
For the birds and others There will be a number of special homes for sale this weekend, when the Bountiful Cities Project hosts its Fourth Annual Birdhouse Auction. Donated by some 50 local artists and craftspeople, the creative and/or functionally crafted abodes for feathered friends will be up for bid, with local auctioneer Noel Cost […]
Buzzworm news briefs
Madison Commissioners green-light Wolf Laurel development The Madison County Board of Commissioners narrowly approved zoning changes March 13 that pave the way for Wolf Laurel Ski Resort to develop about 300 acres in the Laurel Valley for vacation homes and retail businesses. Siding with the evident sentiments of most county residents in attendance, Commissioners Dyatt […]
The learning community
Among the wide-ranging skills on offer are how to make a cardboard mountain dulcimer, cook New Orleans style, lower yourself gently into a shamanic trance, or design your own home. The name Blue Mountain Schoolhouse conjures images of potbellied stoves and Laura Ingalls Wilder types doodling on slates; the BMS catalog exploits that idea with […]
To bee or not to bee?
Hamlet was right, that really is the question, and it is far more crucial than most average folks realize. Honeybees are on the wane in North America, and that’s extremely bad news for those of us who depend on food as a regular part of our diet. Honeybees are crucial pollinators for a wide range […]
Buzzworm news briefs
Everything’s coming up dollars Farmers and gardeners eager to wring a little more green from their agricultural endeavors might consider attending the Marketing Opportunities for Farmers Conference planned for Saturday, Feb. 25, at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa. The daylong event will bring attendees face to face with some of the region’s (and the state’s) […]
Go tell it on the mountain
The very same day that President Bush, in his State of the Union address, told us we are addicted to oil, North Carolina’s attorney general sued the Tennessee Valley Authority in U.S. District Court in Asheville, alleging that TVA is creating a “common-law public nuisance.” But there’s more to this tale than spin and political […]
Letters to the editor
Dog’s shooting raises questions Animal control in Asheville is enforced unequally. A friend of mine who lived on Cranford Road was bitten by a dog that had bitten two other neighbors. The dog was impounded for 10 days and returned to the owner with instructions to keep the dog inside the fence and put up […]
Close encounters of the Asheville kind
Our story begins in a McDonald’s. I don’t usually patronize fast-food places — at least not since I read a hard-hitting expose of the meat-packing industry — but in a moment of weakness I was willing to overlook the reports of feces-ridden meat. So I parked, walked in the door, saw who was working behind […]