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monthly news from ASAP | AUGUST 2024 | asapconnections.org
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Volunteer for ASAP's Farm Tour!
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 Want to get an insider's view of a local farm—and have a great time and support ASAP? Consider volunteering for the Farm Tour!
We need volunteers on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21-22, 11:30-5. You'll help welcome visitors at a farm—then, on the day you aren't volunteering, you get to tour for free! You can bring along however many friends or family you can pack into your car. It's a fun and rewarding way to connect with your community and get a behind-the-scenes look into the operations of working family farms in Western North Carolina. All participating farms are located within one hour of Asheville. Find out more and sign up here.
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Growing Minds Opportunities for ECE Sites
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As the school year gets underway, our Growing Minds Farm to School program has some exciting opportunities for early care and education (ECE) sites in Western North Carolina to start or expand their Farm to ECE programs.
Farm to ECE Academy with Growing Minds:
Our vision is that children learn about and have positive experiences with local food and farms in the classroom, cafeteria, and community. To help make this happen, we are hosting a Farm to ECE Academy for the 2024–25 school year! We will work closely with up to 15 ECE sites across the Western North Carolina region to help them build and sustain a thriving Farm to ECE program. Learn more and complete our interest form by Friday, August 30.
Growing Minds Mini-Grant:
We are offering mini-grants up to $500 to ECE sites throughout the 18 westernmost counties in North Carolina to help them provide fresh, local food to their students. Funds can be used to purchase fresh, local food from a farm, farm stand, and/or farmers market in your community. Funds can also be used to purchase equipment that will be used to prepare and cook local food for students, or to engage students in cooking activities involving local food. We are accepting applications through Monday, September 9.
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 FACES OF LOCAL |
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 Lucy Wetzel (pictured on the right) and her two-year-old son Wiley are avid farmers market goers, shopping at multiple markets per week. Lucy participates in both ASAP’s Double SNAP for Fruits and Vegetables program and Farm Fresh Produce Prescription.
How has the Farm Fresh Produce Prescription made an impact on your life and household?
We are so thankful. I have been going to market for 12 plus years. We are pretty devoted to markets. It’s just the way we eat, from our local farms. If there is produce and vegetables available in our area, why wouldn’t we buy it? About 12 years ago I had a lifestyle shift and wanted to be eating healthier and more local. I used to go to the market at the French Broad Coop and I would walk from Montford there to see Chris Parker [of The Forest Farmacy] and B&L Organic—that’s where I would get my veggies for the week. [Double SNAP for Fruits and Vegetables] is already great, then the Produce Prescription on top of it is super great. It really helps us to feel more at ease, to be able to get what we need to eat, and to eat the way we want to.
How did you find out about the prescription and why did you want to sign up?
I found out about the Farm Fresh Produce Prescription through the Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP) program, and love that it means more money can be poured into farmers at markets. We have gotten good at stretching our food stamps and I am really resourceful as a single mom, but the produce prescription really helps boost our food budget.
What are you buying this time of year and what do you like to do with it? What does Wiley like to pick out?
We love blueberries, or 20-pound boxes of sweet potatoes. We try to get a box for two of those at the end of the season so we can have sweet potatoes through the winter. Wiley, my two-year-old son, loves juice from Amber at Immortal Juice, any type of berries, sweet potatoes, meat—he’s a good meat eater! We love chicken from Good Wheel or Wild East, or beef from Wendy at Dry Ridge, even lamb. Wiley loves cheese too, including mozzarella from Lane in the Woods that we’re going to make into a little tomato salad. We got some melons this past week, too.
Why do you want to shop at farmers markets? What pulls you out of Madison County multiple times a week on a long drive to go to farmers markets?
It’s been really meaningful to be a part of the market community in general and now even more to be able to have access to more food while supporting both our farmers, our health, and our bodies including my son Wiley’s.
The driving to markets multiple times a week from Madison County is so worth it, and it’s perfect because Wiley gets car naps. Another program through HOP (through Land-of Sky Regional Council) is a gas mileage reimbursement that really helps our commute to fresh food. I’ve lived outside of Asheville most of my time here and have gotten used to the drive. It’s so worth it for fresh food grown here.
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 RECIPE OF THE MONTH |
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Old Fashioned Green Bean Casserole
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|  This recipe comes from Sara Martin and Dustin Cornelison of Two Trees Farm (Sustainabillies), which they shared in ASAP's 2024 Local Food Guide. "As farmers, we’re constantly busy and running all over the place," they told us. "We don’t necessarily have a lot of time on our hands, so the simplicity of just cooking our green beans with chicken broth and salt does wonders. This recipe is how folks fixed casseroles before canned soups were added for convenience. It’s a nice, hearty, and creamy side dish that encapsulates the fresh tastes of summer without working too hard. Folks can be adventurous and use any seasoning blend they choose. It’s also lovely with thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, and garlic."
Ingredients
- 1 pound green beans, trimmed and snapped
- 3 medium onions, chopped
- 3 medium peppers, such as bell or poblano, seeded and chopped
- 1–2 carrots, shredded
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2–3 cloves garlic, chopped (or add 1 teaspoon garlic powder with the spices)
- 1/8 cup (or more) chicken, vegetable, or other broth
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup (or more) grated cheese, such as sharp cheddar, Munster, or Gouda
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Layer vegetables in a baking dish. You can be as creative as you want with your veggie mix and leave out what you don’t have! Pour in 1/8 cup broth of your choice. Add a bit more if you want your dish to be extra saucy. Add spices. Dot with half a tablespoon of cut up butter. Cover with lid or foil and bake for about 1 hour, until tender.
- Remove the lid and cover with a layer of bread crumbs, grated cheese, and a few more dots of butter. If you like things cheesy, feel free to shove some chunks of cheese into the veggie mix before topping. I like sharp cheddar for this recipe, but a soft cheese like Muenster or Gouda makes a saucier casserole.
- Place the dish in the oven, uncovered, until the cheese melts. Turn on the broiler for 1 to 3 minutes, just until the top layer browns.
Find more recipes at growing-minds.org and asapconnections.org.
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 MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS |
| | "We estimated around 1,800 to 2,000 people attended last year’s [Farm Tour]. It would be good to meet a similar goal, but mostly [we] just want a way to engage the community with local farms. We hope folks have experiences that make them feel more connected to where their food comes from and see the value of farmers in our region."
— Oakley Brewer, ASAP's Communications and Engagement Coordinator, in the Mountain Xpress
“We learned that by volunteering [for ASAP's Farm Tour], we could help the community meet the farmers and introduce them to the operation of the farm. It’s fun and you can visit a lot of farms that offer animal experiences, wine tasting and pick-your-own fruit or vegetables. It’s a good way for locals and tourists alike to visit all the wonderful areas of WNC.”
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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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