ASAP’s annual Local Food Guide is the definitive resource for finding local food and farms in the Southern Appalachians. In addition to updated listing information for farms, markets, and businesses, each issue features stories from farmers and the local food movement. Find some of those stories below or look for the current print edition at farmers markets, local food businesses, and community centers.
It’s no secret that Asheville and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountain region draws visitors from all over. Travelers flock for the sweeping mountain views, vibrant food culture, and the opportunity to slow down and experience the landscape in a deeper way. Visiting farms, whether from out of town or in one’s own backyard, has become
By Analisa Sorrells Archer, EdNC.orgThis article is excerpted from the original. Find the full text at ednc.org/schools-want-to-serve-more-local-food-in-cafeterias-but-challenges-remain This year, students across North Carolina will eat locally grown products in school meals, engage in educational activities about agriculture and nutrition, and take part in school gardening experiences. According to the 2023 USDA Farm to School Census,
Food informs our identities—it holds our history, our present time, and our future. It’s no secret that the Southern Appalachian region has a long and rich history of traditional foods with strong ties to the land. Appalachian people are known for using what they have. Characterized by food preservation, game meat, and foraging, Appalachian food
For over a decade now, Southside Community Farm has been sowing seeds, building soil, and deepening roots in Southside, a historically segregated Black neighborhood in Asheville, North Carolina. Its primary plot, an urban greenspace behind a community center, teems with stories and life—including maturing apple trees, excitable children, and rows of produce being grown by
Visit a farmers market in Southern Appalachia and you might be delightfully surprised to find that market accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and offering incentive programs that double those benefits for shoppers. Access to fresh, healthy, and locally grown food is a cornerstone of a thriving community, but there are still a multitude of
“We were standing on our front porch—my daughter, my husband, and I—and there was a landslide,” recalls Sara Martin, co-owner of Two Trees Farm and Sustainabillies, a small farm, metalworking, and homestead education business nestled on a mountainside in Haywood County, North Carolina. “We watched all of our hard work get buried by a tidal
“The farm is just something that we started doing as a hobby, something we wanted to do for ourselves—and it kind of grew into this bigger, wider thing we could share with the community,” says farmer Kaci Nidiffer, who co-owns The Liar’s Table in Elk Park, NC, with her husband, Amos. Back in 2010, when
“Many Hispanics have a painful relationship with agriculture,” acknowledges Delia Jovel Dubón, co-founder of Tierra Fértil Coop in Henderson County. “A lot of effort has been put into production and profits, with less interest in the protection and care of humans and the environment. We have chosen to farm, but for many Hispanic people, it’s
For farmers Lyric and Noah, the name Wild East came before the farm. “We were on a hike near Mount Mitchell, this really rocky, ragged ridgetop, and there were wildflowers, animals everywhere,” describes Noah. “It was a moment of pure, Appalachian wildness, and we had this revelation: Why does the west get all the credit
Gwen Englebach will tell you that she and her farming partner and husband, Jay, are both shy. But talking to customers each week at farmers markets is a vital piece of their business, Black Trumpet Farm, which produces culinary and medicinal mushrooms in Leicester, North Carolina. “Connecting with community is part of our mission, the