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J u l y 2 0 1 9 a s a p c o n n e c t i o n s . o r g
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Join Us for ASAP's Local Food Experience
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ASAP's annual Local Food Experience is a fun and delicious evening celebrating the partnerships between chefs, farms, and other local food producers. Join us Aug. 15, from 6-8:30 pm at New Belgium Brewing. Tickets are $30 and available here. All proceeds from the event benefit ASAP’s programs to help local farms thrive and build healthy communities through connections to local food.
Participating restaurants and producers include Sawhorse, Aux Bar, The Montford, Sugar & Snow Gelato, Shanti Elixirs, Serotonin Ferments, Looking Glass Creamery, Brasstown Beef, and more. Check our website in the coming weeks for a full list of participating chefs and farms, as well as a sneak peak into the dishes they'll prepare.
Thank you to our 2019 Local Food Experience sponsor, Katie Button Restaurants!
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Engage Kids in the Garden This Summer
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Just because school's out, the farm to school fun doesn't have to take a break! Gardening at home is a great way to engage kids throughout the summer, especially as many gardens are hitting their peak productivity right now. Our Growing Minds website has many lessons and activities that work just as well outside the classroom, as well as a great database of children's literature. Here's the curated Growing Minds garden lit list for this month:
*Are you a Farm to School educator in North Carolina? Applications for the Farm to School NC Awards are due July 31. See the Farm to School Coalition of NC website for more information.*
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Another Successful Farm Tour!
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The 2019 Farm Tour saw nearly 4,000 visits to 19 farms. Fifty-eight percent of pass-buyers were participating in the Farm Tour for the first time, and for some this was even their first local food and farm experience. We are so grateful for our sponsors, our volunteers, and especially the farmers, who worked overtime to open their farms and their lives to all of us for the weekend. Thank you for helping to make this fantastic event possible!
Congratulations to our Farm Tour photo contest winners! Pictured above, clockwise from top left, are:
Rooster at Franny’s Farm, J. Brian Buchanan
“The contrast of his black and white feathers with his red comb and the surrounding greenery immediately caught my eye. He seemed none too pleased with the recent rainstorm, balancing on one leg, trying to keep dry. The lush cove at Franny's Farm had lots to admire, but the enthusiasm of the farmers really stood out.”
Poppies at Sideways Farm and Brewery, Claudia Laffin, aka the Traveling Spoon Chef
“I love the approach that Carrieann and Jon Schneider take to brewing their beer and farming their land. I fell in love with the flowers on the farm so much that I joined their summer flower CSA and look forward to a beautiful bouquet every week.”
Goat at Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Theresa Edwards-Capen
"There is something about photographing farm animals that brings me such joy. From cows to chickens, and everything in between, farm animals have always captured my heart!"
Ty Moser, nine months old, at Smoking J’s Fiery Foods and Farm, Carly Moser
“Peppers, anyone? This guy knows there’s nothing better than blue skies, healthy greens, and good-tilled dirt.”
See the full photos in print in The Laurel of Asheville's August issue, available for free at locations throughout the area. Interested in participating in another ASAP photography contest? Read on!
Missed the tour, or looking for more farm fun this summer? ASAP's online Local Food Guide lets you search for farms open for visits, including u-pick, tours, farm stands, and more.
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Announcing the 2020 Calendar Photo Contest
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Each year ASAP produces a printed calendar showcasing the seasonality of local food and farms in the Appalachian Grown region. We are thrilled to bring back a photo contest for our 2020 calendar! Thirteen winning photos will be printed in the calendar (twelve months + the cover), and will be featured each month in ASAP’s social media and e-newsletter.
We're looking for photos that depict your experiences with local food and farms, with particular emphasis on the seasons. Think about capturing images of farmers markets, CSAs, seasonal dishes, farm visits, and farm life. Images will be printed in a 7x10" horizontal format. The contest is open to amateur and professional photographers, and you may submit as many photos as you like. Photos received by Friday, Sept. 20 will be given first consideration.
Find contest rules and conditions and submission information here.
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ASAP is now accepting applications for fall internships in photography, communications, and local food promotions. Interning with ASAP allows students and recent graduates to gain a deeper understanding of how local food systems work and discover how their personal skills and interests can help local farms thrive and build healthier communities through connections to food.
According to 2019 summer intern Annabelle Jones: “As a communications intern, working with ASAP has shown me the importance of connecting the WNC community to their food and understanding where it comes from. I gained a deeper understanding of how ASAP interacts with the local farms in WNC to build healthier communities. I developed strong communication skills, data entry skills, website management techniques, and social media proficiency."
Have questions or want to apply? Visit our website or email [email protected].
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PHOTOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT |
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Our July photo of the month was taken by Gabi Serna, the operations manager at Harvest Table in Meadowview, Virginia. "This little lady is a Rhode Island Red chicken, a heritage breed that is best for laying eggs," says Gabi. "She is lucky to call the Harvest Table Farm her home, where she gets to roam cage-free daily and is free to scratch and peck and whatever she desires!"
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 RECIPE OF THE MONTH |
| Blackberry Vinaigrette Salad
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|  This summertime salad dressing comes from our Growing Minds recipe archive. Any assortment of local, seasonal vegetables works well with this tasty vinaigrette, but we suggest spinach, carrots, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, local feta, and thinly shaved red onion.
Ingredients
- 1 cup local blackberries
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2-3 tablespoons local honey
Instructions
- Wash and prepare all ingredients and assemble the salad.
- Combine blackberries, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a blender. Blend until well combined. With the blender running on low, slowly drizzle in olive oil until it is all combined and emulsified. Serve over salad.
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 FACES OF LOCAL |
| |  ASAP likes to share the stories of people who help us fulfill our mission. This month, we talk with Amy Pickett, owner of Sugar & Snow Gelato, which will be one of the vendors for ASAP's Local Food Experience Aug. 15.
Q: You're using milk from Looking Glass Creamery, right here in Western North Carolina, to make your gelato. Can you talk about how that process works?
LGC makes our gelato base recipe for us, using the milk from their pasture-based herd of cows and their commercial pasteurizer equipment. Fresh milk from the morning milking session is measured into the pasteurizer, along with cream from Maple View Farm (in Carrboro, NC), non-GMO sugar, and other thoughtfully sourced ingredients. This recipe makes 100 gallons of gelato base that Sugar & Snow then churns in our batch freezer to make a few different flavors, like vanilla bean, mint chip, espresso, cookies and cream, caramel swirl, and pralines and cream.
Q: How did that partnership come about?
We wanted to wholesale our dairy gelato to restaurants and specialty food markets. It was really important to us to both: (1) make gelato using our proprietary recipe, and (2) use milk and cream from North Carolina farms. We didn't want to buy a pre-made ice cream mix made by another company. Since the NCDA requires that wholesale dairy products are made using an approved pasteurizer, a piece of equipment we don't own, we contacted with a few farms in our region to see who may be willing to make our recipe for us using their equipment. Jen and Andy at Looking Glass Creamery were enthusiastic about helping us. They really seemed to understand our goals, they have a first class production facility, and they are meticulous in executing our recipe.
Q: What other local farms or foods are featured in seasonal flavors right now?
We often buy berries through Mountain Food Products, such as blueberries from Stepp's Plants in Hendersonville to make a seasonal blueberry lemon sorbet.
Q: Why are local farms important to your business?
Sourcing close to home reduces the environmental impact of transporting food across the country or across the globe, and also ensures we have produce at its peak freshness. We like the connection to the farmers and farms, such as as seeing the cows in the pasture at Looking Glass or seeing folks filling buckets of berries when they stop by Hickory Nut Gap. Plus, we live in such a fertile area, it just makes sense to be using locally grown food.
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 MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS |
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 ASAP’s Growing Local audio series runs on WNCW on Monday mornings during Morning Edition at 8:45 am. Here are a few recent episodes:
You can listen to all Growing Local episodes on SoundCloud, iTunes, or on ASAP's website.
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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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