Food & Farm Stories

  • Gary Steiner

    Gary Steiner

    Gary Steiner is the co-owner and operator, alongside his wife, Abigail, of Bee-utiful Farm & Garden, nestled in Hendersonville, NC. The couple offers a CSA (or Community Supported Agriculture) program year round, as well as guided farm tours and school field trip opportunities.   What are the main benefits of participating in a CSA? A couple…

  • Holly Whitesides

    Holly Whitesides

    Farmer Holly Whitesides will give a welcome address as part of the 2024 Business of Farming Conference on February 24 at A-B Tech in Asheville. Holly has been farming at Against the Grain Farm in Watauga County, North Carolina, since 2012, alongside Andy Bryant and their three daughters, Beatrice, Corva, and Linnea. Can you tell…

  • Cooperativa Tierra Fértil

    Cooperativa Tierra Fértil

    Tierra Fértil Coop is an Hispanic, worker-owned farm cooperative in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Members Delia and Maria talk about how this project stemmed from personal and collective dreams of promoting access to resources and the capacity to produce food and stimulate food justice and racial equity in the local food and agricultural system. The video…

  • Blake Hart

    Blake Hart

    Blake Hart is the executive director of Haywood Christian Ministry, a nonprofit organization providing a food pantry as well as heating and housing assistance. The food pantry serves 800 to 850 families each month, offering fresh, local produce in addition to frozen meat, bread, and shelf-stable pantry goods. When did Haywood Christian Ministry first begin…

  • Alison Francis

    Alison Francis

    Alison Francis is the Director of Nutrition of Haywood County Schools, and has worked with ASAP for many years to source from local farms. In September she volunteered for ASAP’s Farm Tour at Pilot Mountain Pears, which sold Asian pears to Haywood County Schools this year. For our Faces of Local interview this month, we…

  • Mighty Gnome Market Garden

    Mighty Gnome Market Garden

    Farmers Danielle Keeter and Mark McDonagh are co-owners of Mighty Gnome Market Garden in Waynesville, NC. Danielle: We really wanted to emphasize how a small market garden can have a big impact on the local food community.  Mark: Mighty Gnome is the name we came up with. Our belief is that a small market garden…


Story Archive

The Appalachian Grown region is rich with local food and farm stories—from farmers, educators, chefs, community advocates, and many more. ASAP tries to share as many of these as possible, including in our annual Local Food Guide, in our newsletters, and on social media.

From 2015 to 2021, ASAP presented Growing Local Radio, a weekly broadcast on WNCW. Stories were based on research from ASAP’s Local Food Research Center. More than 200 audio stories and transcripts from Growing Local Radio are included in the archive below.

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Recent Stories

Gary Steiner February 19th, 2024 in Faces of Local

Holly Whitesides January 25th, 2024 in Faces of Local

Cooperativa Tierra Fértil December 18th, 2023 in Meet Your Farmer

Blake Hart November 20th, 2023 in Faces of Local

Alison Francis October 18th, 2023 in Faces of Local

Mighty Gnome Market Garden September 26th, 2023 in Meet Your Farmer

Malcolm Banks, Delia Jovel, and Eric Morris September 15th, 2023 in Faces of Local

Southside Community Farm August 28th, 2023 in Meet Your Farmer

Greg Garrison August 10th, 2023 in Faces of Local

The Liar’s Table August 1st, 2023 in Meet Your Farmer


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