ASAP Connections

Voice Your Support for Asheville City Market

A multistory hotel proposed for N. Market Street, Create 72 Broadway, poses a threat to Asheville City Market and may force it to close. Let City Council know that you support a farmers market downtown! UPDATE: At the council meeting Sept. 10, the developers for Create 72 Broadway requested that consideration of the proposal be delayed to the next meeting on Sept. 24.  READ MORE

Calling All Photographers and Local Food Enthusiasts!

Each year ASAP prints a calendar showcasing the seasonality of local food and farms in the Appalachian Grown region. We are thrilled to bring back a photo contest for our 2020 calendar! Thirteen winning photos will be printed in the calendar (twelve months + the cover), and will be featured each month in ASAP’s social media and e-newsletter. See contest rules and submission instructions.

Community Story: Preserving Farmland and Passing Down Values (aired 9/16)

George Ivey from Hendersonville, North Carolina stepped right up with his 15-month-old son. His baby is just starting to eat solid foods and is loving the abundance of fruit this time of year.

“Right now he especially loves berries and watermelon,” George says. “Since we’re in Henderson County with all the apple farmers, I think he’s destined to eat a lot of apples and drink a lot of apple juice.”  READ MORE

Growing Local airs on WNCW on Mondays during Morning Edition at 8:45 am, featuring the local food and farm stories we discover through our Local Food Research Center. Past broadcasts are archived on our website and can be heard on SoundCloud or iTunes.

What’s Fresh Sept. 13-19, 2019

It’s that time of year again—break out your canning jars and start preserving the end of the summer season! Mid-September is an ideal time to put  up tomatoes, which are still abundant at markets now, but will start fading out over the next month. Remember, you can ask farmers if they have large volumes of tomatoes (or other produce) that you can purchase in bulk.  READ MORE

2017 UDSA Census of Agriculture: Initial Impressions

The USDA Census of Agriculture, released every five years, is the most comprehensive and consistent source of data available regarding farm businesses, farmland, and farmers, down to the county level, and is a valuable tool for our Local Food Research Center. The 2017 Census was released April 11, and our research team has been hard at work drawing initial impressions from the more than six million data points.

2018 Appalachian Grown Producer Report

This report contains the findings from our annual survey of Appalachian Grown farmers used to assess the impact of the Appalachian Grown program and ASAP’s support