Growing Local Radio Series

Take a drive through Western North Carolina and you’ll find farm stands piled high with local food. Some roadside stands have fruit, flowers, jams, pickles, and other farm-fresh products. Every few weeks there are new vegetables at the table that […]Read More ▶▶

Ty Boyd is kneeling in a freshly dug row of potatoes. His knees are in the dirt and his hands are holding two small tubers. Along with his neighbors, he’s cultivating potatoes, curly mustard greens, pumpkins, sweet corn and more […]Read More ▶▶

Spring has sprung in Western North Carolina and farmers markets are going through a transformation. Farmers are bringing their early crops of radishes, lettuce, turnips, and spring onions to market and everyone from shoppers to chefs are excited. “I love […]Read More ▶▶

There are hundreds of farmers and local food producers in the Appalachian region, and while each farm has its own challenges and opportunities, there are some commonalities that can be tracked from year to year.  ASAP’s Local Food Research Center […]Read More ▶▶

Farming is a career where the work is never done, unless it’s time to go to your other job. According to the 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture, more than 60 percent of the 2 million primary producers in the U.S. […]Read More ▶▶

Jona Felts and Gretchen Ferrell grow a little bit of everything at Open Ridge Farm in Yancey County, North Carolina. “As a diversified farm, we grow annual vegetables from A-Z, from asparagus to zucchini,” Jona says. When customers drive up […]Read More ▶▶

As spring gets enticingly closer, it’s tempting to dream of the fruits and vegetables to come. In just a few months, farmers market tables will be heavy with tomatoes. Roadside stands will have squashes galore and u-pick farms will be […]Read More ▶▶

Community Supported Agriculture, or a CSA, makes eating local food a pleasure of daily life. Throwing together a spring salad with local lettuce, radishes, and snap peas is easy when you stock your refrigerator with a weekly CSA.  Community members […]Read More ▶▶

Frances Juhlin from Candy Mountain Farm remembers the tension of her first career. It was the 1980s in Palm Beach, Florida and Frances was an assistant at a high-powered brokerage firm.  “It was so fast moving. Once the markets were […]Read More ▶▶

When Sarah Wickers started Well Seasoned Table in 2014, she did it all. She grew produce, foraged wild greens, blended spices, and marketed her seasonings everywhere from farmers markets to retail locations. She even designed the website and packaging herself. […]Read More ▶▶