Sprouting Global Economies
byThough by midwinter most Appalachian gardeners are snug by their fires and spring-seed catalogs have not yet slipped into mailboxes, one local nonprofit is…
Outdoor Living
Sourcing the Secret Ingredient
byThe sturdy rural road that leads to Rayburn Farm in Barnardsville is like the purposeful, if serendipitous, path that led to Lauren and Michael…
Pawpaws Have Their Day in the Sun
byPawpaws do funny things to people. So says Kim Bailey, a local pawpaw farmer and environmental educator. Bailey, who owns Milkweed Meadows farm in…
Sniffing for Innovation
byOn his bucolic orchard in rural Fletcher, Brian Upchurch is about as far away from the Mafioso scene of New York City as one…
Bouquets For Days (and Months)
byIf wedding ceremonies are the bread and butter of Western North Carolina’s budding cut-flower industry, then a monthly subscription service is the scrumptious, locally-sourced…
Spores of Knowledge
byChris Parker was barely a teenager — 14 — when he took a course on cultivating Shiitake mushrooms. “I was amazed that you could…
In the Zone
byBrian Killingsworth grew up in Charleston, SC, where his mother and father pruned Golden Celebration roses and potted Parrot Tulip bulbs. They were master…
Wild at Heart
byLady Luck Flower Farm is dazzling and remote. It looks something like The Sound of Music, but the land is full of exhilarating quiet:…
More Than Tomato-Skin Deep
byGrowers liken the Cherokee Purple to a leg bruise, and it’s an apt (if not particularly appetizing) description of the popular tomato. “They’ve got…
Thyme for a Change
byIt’s only natural that the Asheville Herb Festival blossomed into the biggest event of its kind on the continent — because the land that…