monthly news from ASAP    |   February 2025    |    asapconnections.org

CSA Month Is Feb. 15 to March 15
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Now is the time to sign up for a CSA (or Community Supported Agriculture) program! To celebrate this prelude to the new season, ASAP has declared Feb. 15 to March 15 to be CSA Month. Watch ASAP's social media : [link removed] over the next few weeks as we offer tips and education around CSAs and farmer features; use ASAP's digital tools : [link removed] for finding CSA programs; and come to the in-person CSA Fair on Thursday, March 13 : [link removed] from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. at the YWCA of Asheville.  
The CSA Fair : [link removed] is relaxed setting where attendees chat with farmers about their products, growing practices, payment structure, and more. Attendees can sign up for a CSA during the fair or follow up with farmers later. The fair will also feature local food tastings and activities for kids, as well as produce and food products available for purchase. Participating farms—all offering CSA pickups in Buncombe County—are Blazing Star Flowers, Blue Meadow Farms, Encompass Farm, Good Wheel Farm, Hickory Nut Gap, Oak Holler Farm, Olivette Farm, and Seven Seeds Farm. If you're not able to attend the fair, or are looking for a CSA outside of Buncombe County, ASAP's online tools : [link removed] can help you compare CSAs throughout the Appalachian Grown region. As you're deciding which (or if a) CSA is right for you, consider what pickup times and locations are convenient; what share size (i.e., how much food) you need; the farm's growing practices. Some farms offer variations on the traditional CSA model, such as online selection, shorter commitment, or a market share (members pay upfront, but select their own produce at the farmers market each week). 
 
Hear from CSA farmer Shiloh Avery of Tumbling Shoals Farm on the value of a CSA below in this newsletter's Faces of Local interview.



Business of Farming Conference Is This Saturday!

: [link removed] to the Business of Farming Conference : [link removed]! The conference will take place this Saturday, Feb. 22 at the Blue Ridge Community College Conference Hall, 49 E. Campus Dr., Flat Rock, NC 28731. Check-in and breakfast open at 7:30 a.m., and a welcome address begins at 8:30 a.m. Workshop sessions run throughout the day until 4 p.m.
 
The conference offers so many opportunities for networking, discovering resources, and peer learning. We're excited for the chance to see one another and hear your stories, particularly after the challenges following Helene.
Plan your day using the workshop schedule and descriptions : [link removed]. (Get a sneak peek of one workshop in our Faces of Local interview with presenter Shiloh Avery below.)Want to connect with local food buyers? Check out the list of buyers participating in the Grower-Buyer Meeting : [link removed] in attending the Farmers Market Summit? Email [email protected] : mailto:[email protected] . Market leadership will receive a code to register for free.Thank you to all of our sponsors for the 2025 Business of Farming Conference! In addition to providing support for the conference, many of them offer services for farmers and entrepreneurs. We are so grateful to have these partners in our work.


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Clean Water Lab : [link removed] | Dirtcraft Organics : [link removed] | USDA Farm Service Agency : [link removed] |  : [link removed]
Ward and Smith, P.A. : [link removed] | App State – Frontline to Farm : [link removed]
 

Support for the conference is also provided in part by Dogwood Health Trust : [link removed], NC Tobacco Trust Fund : [link removed]
Commission : [link removed], and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture : [link removed].



Introducing ASAP's Newest Board Members
: [link removed] Francis has worked in school nutrition for 25 years. She has been the School Nutrition Director for Haywood County Schools since 2009. During this time Alison has been an active member of the School Nutrition Association and has served in many roles on the executive board including state president. In addition, she has served on the NCDA Advisory Council, served as the South East Regional Lead for the National Farm to School Network for two years and has served on the NCDA Farm to School Advisory Board since 2010. Alison was recognized as the School Nutrition Director of the
Year for North Carolina in 2021.

 

 

 

 

 

: [link removed] Simuel is the owner of Change Your Palate, a wellness program designed for people who are at high risk for type II diabetes and hypertension. She partners with WLOS's Carolina Kitchen, AmeriHealth Caritas Wellness and Opportunity Center, YMCA of WNC, and Appalachian Mountain Health to perform cooking demonstration. Look for her on "The Rotating Chef" showing on Amazon Prime! Shaniqua is also the Neighborhood Navigator for the historically Black Legacy Neighborhood of Shiloh in Asheville. She co-coordinates the Shiloh Community Garden. She takes after her maternal grandfather, who taught her the importance of community and how to cook delicious comfort meals.



Job Opportunity: Director of Programs and Impact
ASAP is hiring! The Director of Programs and Impact is a senior staff member who both leads ASAP’s Local Food Research Center and supports core programs to ensure effective alignment with the organization’s mission, strategy and goals. Guided by ASAP’s theory of change and food systems approach, this position is responsible for both maintaining a feedback loop to inform ASAP’s work and supporting responsive and impactful program development, implementation, and evaluation. View job qualifications and application instructions here. : [link removed] The application deadline is March 15, 2025.



FACES OF LOCAL
Shiloh Avery
: [link removed] Avery is co-owner, with her partner, Jason Roehrig, of Tumbling Shoals Farm : [link removed] in Wilkes County, NC, where they operate a large CSA. She and Jason will present a workshop at ASAP’s 2025 Business of Farming Conference : [link removed],"You Can’t Do It All: Hiring and Keeping a Productive Team,” which will take a deep dive into employee recruitment, retention, and management.
 

When did Tumbling Shoals begin and how long have you been farming?
 

We (Shiloh and Jason) started farming on this land in 2008—this is our 18th season. Before that, we had a practice farm on borrowed land with borrowed equipment in the triangle area. That is where we grew up in our farming career and we were selling at the Durham Farmers Market. We went to Central Carolina Community College for their farming program and found ourselves surrounded by various small sustainable farms making a living off growing food on a small scale. We have been farming for just over 20 years now!
 

How does having a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture : [link removed]) impact your business? 
 

We really like the CSA model, especially now that we transitioned to a customizable CSA that folks can pay for weekly. From a farmer's perspective, you know how much to grow and you have folks committed upfront. It’s nice to know when I am planting seeds in the greenhouse that there is already someone who will consume that. From the customer’s perspective, it’s really freeing—we are bringing local organic vegetables close to them, but it’s wide open in that they can skip a week if their fridge is still full with veggies from the previous week and know that they will hold well because they are so fresh. They never have to get something they don’t like and they can pick what’s in their box based on season. It’s a great partnership between the farmer and community. In my humble opinion, customizable is the only way to go. These days, having customizable software has made it easier for us—before that came into play, we were going to phase out our CSA program because it was getting too challenging to manage. 
 

Our CSA is about 60% of our production. We are growing, both in terms of space and number of products, in our team and facilities, but also in our CSA. We are hoping to move towards a mostly CSA farm in the next 10 years. We like farmers markets and it’s a good way to connect face to face, but it can be more unpredictable than a CSA. 
 

Can you give us a sneak peak into your Business of Farming Conference workshop: You Can’t Do it All?
 

My role on the farm, mainly, is what I title as Happiness Manager. I will talk about strategies to keep and retain a good, solid, and high performing team along with what I have learned in the behavioral economics world. With an intentional shift in our thinking, we first thought of ourselves as farmers growing produce but really we are farmers growing people—other farmers. As we bring people into this team, we share a passion for feeding people and growing food and we want to keep those people happy, healthy, engaged, and here at the farm. Currently, we have an amazing and high functioning team—we like to think it wasn’t just luck that people have stuck around. Part of that is our intentional shift to focusing on our management skills and making sure our employees are cared for, so I will be sharing some of those strategies and breaking them down. Jason will cover more of the legal, tax, and recruitment elements including where to find information and how to deal with payroll, but really this workshop is focused on retention and employee management.
 

Do you have any tips for new and beginning farmers?
 

Something we love about farming is the learning curve never really goes away. In giving tips to new and beginning farmers, I would say if you are going to grow your farm beyond yourself or immediate family (without employees), think earlier about building your management skills. Even now, there is a lot of business and production support, but you will end up managing people, which is a skill to highly consider developing. I think it made a world of difference for us. We wish we turned to it sooner, but are grateful for the paradigm shift. We wanted to have people stick around and not have to rehire every season, so we had to build our skills in managing people, not just in farming. Yes, we were solving problems with plants, but we need to be able to solve problems with people too. My advice would be to seek out those skills earlier.
 

What are you excited about for this growing season ahead?
 

We have so much going on and so much to be excited about! Today, we were covering a heated greenhouse. We have access to more land this year and to a new growing space so we are growing a wider variety of crops that we usually are able to. Being who I am and what my role is, I am very excited about my team! They just amaze me. They have really stepped up as we have grown, taking on more responsibility and roles to help the farm thrive together.

RECIPE OF THE MONTH

Roasted Radishes
This recipe comes from our Growing Minds "I Tried Local..." Toolkit and is a different take on radishes, which are usually eaten raw or pickled. Radishes are one crop that is available nearly year-round. Try it with different herbs to see what you like best.

 

Ingredients
Approximately 4 cups red radishes, washed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons shallot or onion, finely diced
Fresh herbs of choice, such as rosemary
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.Cut off the tops and ends of radishes and cut them in half.In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, herbs, garlic, and shallot or onion.Add radishes to the bowl and toss to thoroughly coat with herb oil. Spread radishes evenly on a baking sheet.Roast on a sheet pan for about 20 minutes, or until tender and golden brown.
Find more recipes at growing-minds.org : [link removed] and asapconnections.org. : [link removed]

 

"CSAs work like farm subscriptions, allowing customers to pay in advance for weekly shares of produce. They help farmers pay for soil inputs, seeds, equipment or other needs before harvest income is available."
—Sarah Hart, ASAP's Communications and Engagement Director, in The Laurel of Asheville : [link removed] ASAP
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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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