monthly news from ASAP    |   APRIL 2024    |    asapconnections.org

Sneak Peek: ASAP's 2024 Local Food Guide
: [link removed] 2024 Local Food Guide, ASAP’s annual free publication for finding local food and farms, will be out next week—but you get an early look at the digital version online now : [link removed]. Look for print copies at farmers markets, visitors centers, libraries, grocery stores, and other local businesses starting around May 1. 

The Local Food Guide offers hundreds of listings for farms, farmers markets, restaurants, groceries, artisan producers, and travel destinations. There are also charts for finding farms offering u-pick, farm stands, lodging, visitor activities, and CSAs.

Stories in this year's edition feature Tierra Fértil Coop, Wild East Farm, and The Liar's Table. (Stay tuned to ASAP's social media as we share these stories online as well.) Also included in the print guide are recipes from Two Trees Farm (Sustainabillies), Two Stones Farm + Mill, Carringer Farm, Terra Linga Growers, and Lee’s One Fortune Farm. See below for the recipe for Chinese Broccoli with Fried Garlic from Lee's One Fortune Farm!
 
In addition to the print publication, ASAP updates the online Local Food Guide at appalachiangrown.org : [link removed] throughout the year. This database, including more than 1,400 listings, is searchable by products, locations, activities, and more.



How Do You Shop for Food?
: [link removed] is conducting research on why people in our community choose the food they do. We want to know where you shop, what you value most when purchasing food, and what factors motivate or discourage you from purchasing locally grown food. Whether you buy locally grown food or not, you can help farmers understand and connect with consumers—which creates a stronger local food system!
 
The survey can be completed online : [link removed] or by calling ASAP at 828-236-1282. It should take 8–12 minutes to complete and will be open until Oct. 31, 2024. You must be over the age of 18 and a resident of Western North Carolina.
 
Please share with families, friends, and co-workers!



Welcome Kimberly Driggers!
: [link removed] Kimberly Driggers, ASAP’s new grants manager! Kimberly has more than 10 years experience in nonprofit arts and culture—plus, she’s a poet! She’s been in Asheville for about four years and grew up in Charleston.



FACES OF LOCAL
Holly Kolarova
: [link removed] Kolarova is an ESL (English as a Second Language) and Special Education teacher at Clear Creek Elementary School in Henderson County. Holly is part of the 2023–24 Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership : [link removed], which connects outstanding educators with mentors, creating opportunities and relationships to help students understand how STEM concepts apply in the real world. Danielle Raucheisen, ASAP’s Growing Minds : [link removed] Program Director, served as Holly’s mentor.
 
What did you learn from your Kenan Fellowship experience? How do you use these lessons within your work now? 
 
Before the Kenan Fellowship, I did not implement farm to school activities with my students nor had I heard of the Growing Minds program, yet alone ASAP.  Through the fellowship, I was able to learn about all of the programs that ASAP promotes and discovered resources for teachers, such as grants, literature, kitchen supplies, lesson plans, and so much more! This new awareness encouraged me to seek out other agencies in the area that could also be utilized that I hadn’t considered before. The Kenan Fellowship gave me the courage and opportunities to try new experiences.  
 
What are some of the ways you are making farm to school part of professional development for teachers at your school?
 
Just recently, Growing Minds staff Danielle Raucheisen and Suzi Pallidino presented their curriculum for “I Tried Local…” : [link removed] to our kindergarten and first grade teachers at Clear Creek Elementary. The teachers were provided with the printed curriculum as well as seeds, and the supporting picture books. The teachers were very excited to have this training! 
 
I plan to give a professional development lecture with teachers throughout the county in August, as the teachers are coming back to school, to promote farm to school activities in their classrooms. Hopefully, this will coincide with a mini farm tour for the teachers as well!
 
What are some of the farm to school projects your students have worked on? 
 
Last fall we placed a carved pumpkin, seeds still intact, in soil and sealed in a plastic jar to watch and learn about decomposition. We are still observing “Pumpkin Jack,” as the seeds are beginning to germinate now. 
 
This spring, my students made gardens in a glove. We put a seed in each finger of a clear glove and watched tomato, lettuce, corn, broccoli, and cucumber seeds germinate. We have planted marigold seeds and placed them under our newly acquired grow lights and warming beds. Hopefully, they will be ready for Mother’s Day.
 
Another project we are working on is making terrariums out of clear milk jugs as milkweed starters. We will transplant them into a newly created pollinator garden that complements our monarch butterfly units. On May 2, Home Depot will come out and build 10 raised beds with soil, as well as 20 pressure-treated picnic tables with umbrellas, so that our pre-K through first grade classrooms will have outdoor experiential learning opportunities. 
 
As I become more familiar with the farm to school curriculum, I hope to introduce more resources and lessons to my students. Perhaps I will be brave enough to try cooking with my students next year!
 
Describe your connection with Bee-utiful Farm and Garden : [link removed]. How are the students working with the farm? 
 
As a volunteer for ASAP’s Farm Tour [last September], I was assigned to Bee-utiful Farm and Garden. I enjoyed getting to know the family and was surprised that the farm is so close to my own home. During the tour, I learned that their eggs were incorporated into the 4-H poultry lessons our second graders participated in. Our fifth graders were able to see Bee-u-tiful Farm do a beekeeping presentation at an Agriculture Awareness Program in April. Hopefully, with support from a Growing Minds grant, our classrooms will do a farm tour with Bee-utiful this fall.
 
Have you noticed any ways a farm to school curriculum has changed your students’ perspectives?
 
When I introduced the students to a lesson plan from Growing Minds, my students hugged me and told me that I was the “best teacher in the world.” Now, before and after each lesson, they want to check on their plants to see their progress. My students are having fun and not really realizing that they are learning.

RECIPE OF THE MONTH

Chinese Broccoli with Fried Garlic : [link removed] Lee from Lee's One Fortune Farm : [link removed] shared this recipe with us for the 2024 : [link removed] Food Guide : [link removed]. "I want to introduce you to Chinese broccoli—gai lan," says Chue. "This is no different than all the other broccoli, but it doesn’t make a big flower head. It’s actually closer to your heirloom variety. This recipe is quick and feeds a bunch of hungry young boys. Everybody knows how boys will eat you out of a house! Because the stalks are very robust, the greens don't wilt down. So this is filling as well as very nutritious."

 

Serves 2–4
 
Ingredients
1–2 bundles of Chinese broccoli (gai lan)3 tablespoons of cooking oil (such as canola, coconut, etc.)SaltPepperOyster sauce to taste (use dark soy sauce for vegan)1 clove of garlicChili pepper (optional)
Directions
Rinse the Chinese broccoli. Cut the stalks in half lengthwise.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Submerse the entire Chinese broccoli in boiling water. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to the water while it’s boiling and stir. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove the broccoli and place it on a platter or paper towel to drain off most of the water. You will see it turn a beautiful deep green due to the oil.

Toss with oyster sauce (about half a teaspoon per serving), salt, and pepper to taste.

Thinly slice a clove of garlic. Heat remaining tablespoon of oil in a pan. Fry garlic until it’s crispy, like a potato chip.

Top the broccoli with the garlic chips. If you want some heat, slice a chili pepper on top as well!

Find more recipes at growing-minds.org : [link removed] and asapconnections.org. : [link removed]
"As local farmers markets reopen after winter or transition to spring and summer hours, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project has announced that nine Buncombe County markets will participate this season in the organization’s Double SNAP for Fruits and Vegetables and Farm Fresh Produce Prescription programs for increasing access to healthy, local foods. Both programs expand access to fresh produce to more people in the community who might not otherwise be able to afford them."
—Mountain Xpress : [link removed]

"These markets are not just havens for locavores; they are also key players in enhancing access to healthy, locally sourced foods for the community. Nine farmers markets in Buncombe County are poised to participate in the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s (ASAP) initiatives to bolster access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Two notable programs, Double SNAP for Fruits and Vegetables and Farm Fresh Produce Prescription, aim to bridge the gap for those in the community who may struggle to afford these nutritious offerings."
—Tribune Papers : [link removed]

"So what can we do to actually eat healthy? Enter ASAP. The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) is a nonprofit based in Asheville that drives public demand for local farm products, builds farmer capacity to access market opportunities, and creates connections within the food system. In other words, they support local farmers and sustainable farming."
—Tribune Papers : [link removed] ASAP
: [link removed] : [link removed] : [link removed] : [link removed] 
asapconnections.org : [link removed] | growing-minds.org : [link removed] | appalachiangrown.org : [link removed]
  
ASAP's mission is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food.
 

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ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) - 306 W. Haywood Street - Asheville - NC - 28801

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