Community Supported Agriculture brings the best of a local farm to your kitchen. Wondering what to do with the bounty? Many CSA farms include recipes and cooking tips, like Encompass Farm, which shares fun and easy meal ideas that highlight that week’s veggie box.

Cooking Creative Meals with a CSA

When Jona Felts lived in Costa Rica, he was surrounded by hot peppers and banana vinegar—the perfect ingredients for farm-fresh hot sauce. When he came back to the mountains of North Carolina, he figured out how to grow similar ingredients at Open Ridge Farm so he could use a little heat to sustain the farm through winter.

Farm-to-Bottle Hot Sauce in the Mountains

Many farmers work part or full-time jobs off the farm while also growing food and running a farm business. Hear Melissa Harwin from Highgate Farm reflect on her years of being a nurse and farmer, and learn how Hayley Creasman and Colby Buchanan balance multiple jobs while working with their family at Creasman Farms.

Working On and Off the Farm

ASAP’s Local Food Research Center surveyed farmers about their response to COVID-19 and found that overcoming challenges at the beginning of the pandemic gave farmers reason to be optimistic in 2021.

Local Food Research Reflects Challenges and Opportunities of Farming During the Pandemic

Spring vegetables are hitting farmers markets and chefs are using seasonal produce to celebrate. Hear why Chef J Chong is excited for spring markets in this week’s Growing Local.

Chef J Chong Finds Inspiration at Spring Farmers Markets

Agriculture has been a pillar of Cherokee communities for generations and continues to be an important part of indigenous culture today. Visit Kituwah, the Mother Town of the Cherokee people, and hear about the significance of this community farm in this week’s Growing Local.

Kituwah Farm Honors and Sustains Cherokee Agriculture

Farm stands throughout Western North Carolina are opening up for the season and farmers can’t wait to welcome folks back. Hear about the roadside stands at Flying Cloud Farm in Fairview and SMM Farms in Hayesville in this episode of Growing Local.

Farm Stands for Fun and Flavor

A group of Hispanic farmers is coming together in Henderson County to start the Tierra Fertil Coop. Founding member Delia Jovel shares her journey from growing up in El Salvador to farming in Western North Carolina, and explains the coop’s collective vision for fostering social equity through local food.

Tierra Fertil Coop Digs Deep

Swain County, North Carolina has a “dream team” made up of three community leaders who work to bring local food into the lives of the county’s 14,000 residents. 

Swain County "Dream Team"

Last summer farmer Gabriel Noard, owner of Pangaea Plants, poured his heart and soul into a crop of watermelon on his 24-acre farm in Rutherford County, NC.  Despite careful attention, weeds grew up around the watermelon and marred their skin.  

Find out how ASAP helped Gabriel share his watermelon with local students.

One Farmer’s Story: Pangaea Plants

Matt Coffay of Second Spring Market Garden is one of several local growers who farm all year. Find out why the community craves fresh produce at indoor markets and how farmers are stepping up production to meet winter demand. 

ASAP's Local Food Guide: www.appalachiangrown.org
Second Spring Market Garden 4-season CSA: www.secondspringfarm.com

Why I Farm All Winter: Local Farms Respond to Community Demand

Did you know that hogs, turkeys, and ducks walked right through downtown Asheville during the 1820s? Each fall, drovers herded hundreds or even thousands of animals through Asheville on the way to markets further south.

Hear what ASAP executive director and history buff Charlie Jackson says about this riveting time in local agricultural history.

When Hogs Marched Through Asheville: The History of Drover’s Road

Bass Hyatt raises cattle at the Hyatt homeplace in Brasstown, N.C. His multi-generational farm has adapted its farming techniques to meet consumer demand for beef that’s fed grass instead of grain.

About 15 years ago, Hyatt met Jamie and Amy Ager of Hickory Nut Gap Farm. They partner with farmers like Hyatt to meet their wholesale demand for grassfed beef. 

Connecting with the Agers offers Hyatt a market for his beef so he can turn his focus to sustainable production and breeding cattle that thrive on grass. 

Find out more about local partnerships that further the food system at www.asapconnections.org

Local Farmers Join Forces to Raise Grassfed Beef

Eliot Coleman, author of The New Organic Grower, is a pioneer in the field of sustainable agriculture. His countless farming inventions and strategies for four-season farming have inspired growers for generations, including a new crop of farmers.

Coleman spoke with ASAP farmers at the Mother Earth News Fair and offered some advice for young farmers.

Eliot Coleman's Advice for Young Farmers

The Harmon brothers are at a crossroads with their dairy. They’re getting older and don’t have kids to inherit the farm. So they made the owners of Looking Glass Creamery an offer they couldn’t refuse: buy the dairy and we’ll teach you how to run it. For the next year, the cheesemakers are living in an RV outside the Harmons’ home as they build a future together.

The Future of Harmon Dairy

Next time you cozy up with a mug of tea, take a minute to consider where those herbs and leaves came from. Asheville Tea Company could source ingredients from anywhere in the world, but gets many of its herbs from Rayburn Farm just two miles away. 

Listen in as farmer Michael Rayburn drops off a special delivery, and hear Jessie Dean of Asheville Tea Company blend it into loose leaf tea.

Tea Company Infuses Local Flavor

Southern Appalachian families have been pouring sorghum molasses on biscuits for generations. It takes a draft horse, a wood-fired furnace, and a lot of folk knowledge to do it. Hear how two women are keeping the tradition alive.

Sorghum: An Appalachian Tradition

Chefs are catching on to the sweet and savory flavor of sorghum molasses, and farmers are working hard to keep up with demand. Hear chef John Fleer and farmer Cathy Guthrie talk about why sorghum is popping up at Southern Appalachian restaurants.

Bring sorghum molasses into your own kitchen and find farmers who sell it in ASAP’s Local Food Guide: www.appalachiangrown.org

Sorghum in the Kitchen

Appalachian families have harvested ginseng for generations. Find out why this “green gold” is so valuable, and learn about recent efforts to connect ginseng growers with local markets.

Ginseng: A Mountain Tradition

Wendy Painter and Amanda Gentry are trying something new with their farm business, Mountain Popcorn Girls. Find out how neighbors have reacted to seeing popcorn on their fifth generation farm, and why home-grown popcorn brings back memories for their customers.

Meet the Mountain Popcorn Girls

“This is probably going to be the hardest year for us, but we’re going to keep it going for the kids and for the community,” says Alyssa Moreno of SMM Farms in Hayesville. Hear how farmers are recovering from the floods that raged through Western North Carolina this spring, and learn how to support them on ASAP’s Farm Tour.

How to Support Flooded Farms

More than 1,000 people visited local farms on ASAP’s Farm Tour in June, and the sounds of farms at work were heard throughout Western North Carolina. Listen to behind-the-scenes tours of Smoking J’s Fiery Foods, L.O.T.U.S. Urban Farm, and Venezia Dream Farm Alpacas. Then go to Mills River Creamery to hear the reaction from the crowd when a calf is born before their eyes.    
See photos at www.instagram.com/asapconnections

A Farm Tour Audio Adventure

Ever wondered how a tomato gets from the field to a grocery store shelf? Take a behind-the-scenes trip to the Ingles Markets distribution center, then find out why local farmer William Shelton grows summer produce for the grocery chain.

How Grocery Stores Embrace Local Food

Childhood memories of her family’s cows inspired Melissa George to raise livestock on pasture at Mountainside Family Farms.

From a Family Cow to Livestock Farm

NC State Extension fields questions from farmers about everything from field crops to aquaculture. Hear how it expanded its services and adapted its programs in response to COVID-19.

NC State Extension Helps Farmers During COVID-19

Indigenous people have centuries of agricultural knowledge to draw from. Hear how Cherokee communities in Western North Carolina are reviving traditions by growing their own food during COVID-19.

Cherokee Communities Sustain Agricultural Traditions

Tobacco barns hug the curves of many rural roads in Madison County, NC. Hear how these stalwarts of the past are being honored by the Appalachian Barn Alliance and how Root Bottom Farm transformed their old tobacco barn into a beacon of local food. Photo courtesy of Appalachian Barn Alliance.

The Tobacco Barns of Madison County

One of the hardest parts of expanding a business is finding trusted collaborators. Hear why the founder of Well Seasoned Table came to ASAP’s Business of Farming conference last year to connect with new farmers who will supply her seasonings company with local ingredients.

Well Seasoned Table Embraces the Business of Farming

Frances Juhlin’s path to farming took her through the cutthroat world of commodity trading. Hear how this former stock broker’s assistant got back to her roots growing produce at Candy Mountain Farm.

From Stocks and Bonds to Squash and Beets

Many farms offer vegetable and fruit CSAs, but as Community Supported Agriculture becomes more popular, some farms are thinking outside the produce drawer. Hear about CSAs that include flowers, meat, and more, and why Daffodil Spring Farm offers the classic combo of meat and potatoes.

A CSA For Every Craving

Growing Local is a weekly audio series about local food and farms in the Southern Appalachians. It airs during Morning Edition on WNCW 88.7 each Monday at 8:50 a.m. Produced by ASAP, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project.

asapconnections.org

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