Growing Local

Looking forward to an abundance of fruits and veggies this year? Community Supported Agriculture brings that bounty to your kitchen each week. Find out how to sign up for a CSA, and why CSAs support farmers and healthy eating.

Tobacco barns hug the curves of most rural roads in Madison County, NC. Hear how these stalwarts of the past are being honored by the Appalachian Barn Alliance and how Root Bottom Farm transformed its old tobacco barn into a beacon of local food.

Tobacco farming was once the backbone of agriculture in many parts of Western North Carolina. We look back at the culture that grew alongside tobacco and how communities are changing as farming moves to new crops.

Photo courtesy of Appalachian Barn Alliance

How does food travel from farm to plate? One route is local wholesale distributor Mountain Food Products, which has connected farmers with chefs and home cooks since 1984. We visited its headquarters in Asheville to hear how the business has grown and learn about its CSA.

Aaron and Nicole Bradley of Colfax Creek Farm have generations of farming experience in their families. While they don’t work the same soil as Aaron’s great-great-grandparents, they carry on the family’s commitment to raising pastured livestock at the farm’s new location in Bostic, NC.

Photo credit: Bright Planning

Hear how ASAP’s Growing Minds @ University program teaches dietetic interns ways to integrate local food and farms into their future careers.

Hear how the Wehr family turned a beekeeping hobby into a thriving business that provides honey and mead to Graham County, NC and beyond.

Local employers are encouraging staff to eat healthier and support local farms through workplace CSAs. Hear how the Community Supported Agriculture model works at Appalachian Regional Healthcare System in Boone, NC.

Kids love kale when it's prepared with care. Join Biltmore chef Kirk Fiore for a local food taste test at North Buncombe Elementary.

When Bobby and Elsie Deal founded Deal Farms in 1951, there was no way to know if the fruit stand would weather the next 70 years. Now their grandson, Joe Deal, maintains this thriving farm in Franklin, NC, along with his wife, five kids, and extended family.