ASAP Connections

Grassroots Farm and Dairy Produces Milk and More

When Andrea Vangunst from Grassroots Farm and Dairy was a child, she was eager to help her father raise cattle near their home in Virginia.

“My dad also worked full time so his farming hours were the shoulder times of the day, but I definitely got to skip school to build fences and go to cattle sales with my dad. I remember those times really, really clearly,” she says. “I grew up riding horses and have always been out doing manual labor and really loving that kind of work. I went through graduate school and got into the nonprofit world and just really missed kind of being out there, being my own boss, working with my hands.”  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. 18-24, 2020

Fall begins officially next week and we’re definitely starting to feel the temperature drop. Mornings have us wanting to stay wrapped up in a blanket with a hot cup of tea. Happily, September has brought an excellent tea-making crop to area farmers tailgate markets—red Thai roselles. You can get them from Sleight Family Farm at North Asheville Tailgate Market and New Roots Market Garden at ASAP Farmers Market and West Asheville Tailgate Market.  READ MORE

2019 Appalachian Grown Producer Survey Report

June 2020: In ASAP’s mission to support Southern Appalachian farms and build a local food system, we developed the Appalachian Grown (AG) branding program in 2007 with the goal of expanding local market opportunities for farmers by providing a way for the public to easily identify products from local farms. We send a survey to all AG farms annually to assess the impact of program services and support and gather feedback to shape the program’s future direction. This report contains the findings from the survey sent to 800 Appalachian Grown farmers in November of 2019.

COVID-19: Impact on Southern Appalachian Farmers and Vendors Selling to Direct Markets

March 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of restaurants, schools, events, and in some places, disruption of farmers markets, is having an immediate and potentially devastating impact on farmers and vendors selling to local markets in the Southern Appalachians. In order to better understand these experiences and how to best support these farm and food businesses, ASAP surveyed the farmers and vendors in their network. Read the press release about the report.

EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems Food and Farm Assessment

November 2019: ASAP’s Local Food Research Center completed a Food and Farm Assessment in the seven western counties of North Carolina and on the Qualla Boundary to guide the work of the EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems Project.