WNC Fermenting Festival
Fermenti presents the 9th Annual WNC Fermentation Festival on Sunday, November 2nd, from 11am–5pm at Olivette Farm in Alexander, NC. This free, family-friendly celebration brings together local and regional fermenters, farmers, artists, and food lovers to “ferment it all.” Guests can enjoy live demonstrations, taste probiotic-rich foods and drinks, explore farm tours, shop local vendors, and enjoy live music from Our Friends Band. Proceeds benefit the Beacon of Hope Food Bank, supporting food security across WNC.
CFSA Sustainable Agriculture Conference
Now in its 40th year, CFSA’s Sustainable Agriculture Conference is a weekend of learning and community focused on advancing local, sustainable, and organic agriculture in the Carolinas.
This year’s conference, to be held November 14th-16th in Columbia, South Carolina, will feature practical breakout sessions, networking and discussion groups, an expansive trade show, locally sourced meals, and on-farm intensive workshops at farms across the Midlands.
NRCS Practices and Pathways Field Day
Producers, landowners, and youth interested in conservation careers are invited to join us for an excellent educational event exploring NRCS conservation practices in action.
Morning Welcome (9:00 AM): Registration, farm overview, and orientation in the education building
Guided Conservation Tour (10:30 AM): Visit 5-6 demonstration sites showcasing NRCS practices with expert guides at each location
Refreshments & Networking (12:30 PM): Light refreshments and meet and greet opportunity with fellow producers, youth, and conservation professionals
"Real Talk" Panel (1:30 PM): Hear honest insights from farm manager Chris, an NRCS technician, and a contractor about real-world challenges and successes
Breakout Sessions (2:30 PM):
Producers: Hands-on application assistance and next steps
Youth: Career exploration and Q&A with industry professionals
Take-home Resources: Practice factsheets, contractor contacts, application guides, and career pathway information
Wild-Simulated Native Understory Herbs
Join Ben Kitchen to see a successful, sustainably-managed forest farm in a rich cove forest in Cherokee County. With decades of experience growing wild-simulated native herbs, Ben will share his techniques and wisdom as we wind through diverse multi-aged understory plantings. Seeds and planting stock may be available for purchase.
Woodland Botanicals
Join longtime forest farmer Robert Eidus for a look at how to cultivate and sell woodland botanicals, including wild-simulated ginseng and goldenseal, as well as other popular and abundant understory botanicals. Robert will showcase his woodland botanical plantings and share insights on site selection, propagation, harvesting, and sustainability.
About Robert Eidus: Robert Eidus is an avid American ginseng grower, educator, and owner of Eagle Feather Organic Farm and NC Ginseng & Goldenseal Company, with over 30 years of experience growing woodland plants. He is also the president of the North Carolina Ginseng Association (NCGA), which supports sustainable ginseng growing and harvesting and advocates for state-level policies that incentivize organic ginseng growing and preserve wild populations. Learn more at https://ncgoldenseal.com/.
Trial to Table
Our September event will be hosted at Addison Vineyard in Leicester NC on September 27th, an auspicious day for those local to the region. This is our first time hosting a Trial to Table at this beautiful location, but Chris (Executive Director) and Terri (Culinary Director) know it well. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Addison Vineyard was an informal meeting ground offering a respite amidst the chaos.
We’ll be joined by an incredible group of chefs and food creators to offer you some delicious and creative dishes. At each event, we aim to include a range of vegetable-forward offerings.
These events are casual and relaxed with a strong focus on food that supports regional sustainability and resilience. Your ticket is an admission ticket which allows you to sample all the amazing dishes listed below. We generally have a short presentation part way through to highlight our work and allow the chefs to share their passions!
WNC Seed & Plant Swap
Join us for the WNC Seed & Plant Swap on Thursday, September 25 from 3–6 PM at the Stephens-Lee Community Center in Asheville! This free, community-building event is the perfect place to connect with fellow gardeners, farmers, and plant lovers. Find seeds, plants, and related products for swap or purchase, and enjoy demonstrations and workshops, inspiring story shares, and plenty of opportunities to learn. Take a tour of the beautiful George Washington Carver Edible Park with Bountiful Cities at 4:30pm, and see a live seed cleaning demonstration from the Utopian Seed Project.
Growing Pawpaws in WNC
The native pawpaw tree is being “rediscovered” by growing enthusiasts across the southeast. An understory tree with a delightful fruit described as “creamy blend of banana, mango, and a subtle hint of vanilla custard,” it is a wonderful addition to an actively stewarded property or a forest farm. Join Seren Petrichor as we explore his pawpaw nursery and delve into the details of seed care, grafting, pollination, record keeping, and maintenance to ensure you can successfully cultivate pawpaws for yourself or others. Planting stock may be available for purchase after the tour.
About Petrichor Pawpaws: Seren Petrichor is the owner and operator of Petrichor Pawpaws, a native plant nursery in Bat Cave, NC. Seren has been cultivating pawpaws since 2012 and sells a wide variety of pawpaws, including four distinct varieties he has bred to be regionally adapted to WNC. Seren also teaches pawpaw classes at the annual Firefly Gathering. Learn more at www.petrichorpawpaws.com.
ASAP's Farm Tour
ASAP’s 2025 Farm Tour will take place Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20-21, noon to 5 p.m. Participating farms will be announced in late June or early July. One pass is good for all passengers in a single vehicle at all farms, both days. Passes are $35 before Sept. 20 and $45 on Sept 20-21.
ASAP’s annual Farm Tour is a chance to experience how food is grown and raised through guided tours, demonstrations, and tastings. The Farm Tour showcases the diversity of working farms in Western North Carolina, including vegetables, livestock, vineyards, orchards, flowers, fiber, and more! This is a family-friendly event and a great outing for visitors of all ages, abilities, and interests. All are welcome.
ASAP’s 2025 Farm Tour is a critical prices of hurricane recovery as it helps the local food economy rebound, strengthens the relationships between farmers and consumers, and encourages tourism from outside of Asheville. Join ASAP in sustaining our farming community.
2025 Community Food Gathering -
Transformational Community: A Way Forward
The Community Food Gathering is Community Food Strategies’ signature statewide event which brings together various food system change makers to explore solutions, learn skills, and strategize around how to create a food system built by us and for us.
Appalachian Harvest Dinner
Join CCFA for a delicious evening feast and wonderful stories as we celebrate our Appalachian heritage.
Tickets include a four-course dinner prepared by local professional chefs, and entertainment including live music, cultural storytelling, and food history.
Proceeds will be put toward a mobile refrigeration unit that will allow the Cherokee Clay Food Alliance to transport temperature sensitive food to markets and events.
CCFA's 3rd Annual TomatoFEST
Tomatoes are a popular and versatile local veggie and we want to celebrate it, so we invite you to join us for our 3rd annual TomatoFest. Alongside Murphy’s weekly farmers market, CCFA will highlight all things tomato with cooking demos, family activities, food, a Bloody Mary contest, music, and more. Join the fun on the Riverwalk behind the L&N Depot in downtown Murphy.
National Food Systems Conference
The first national food systems conference since the pandemic will take place in Portland, Oregon June 22-24 2025. Entitled “Resilience and Resistance: Cross-Pollinating Food Movements,” this event is hosted by the Institute for Social and Economic Development Solutions’ Community Food Projects technical assistance program. Be a part of this historic event! Submit a proposal to hold a workshop, poster session, affinity group, mobilization session, or lightning talk.
Take Root Festival - Root Cause Farm
A Free, Family-Friendly Celebration of Community, Creativity, and Cultivation
Join us on June 21st from 11-3 as the farm comes alive with live music, ice cream, local beer, and hands-on activities for all ages. Whether you're creating art, harvesting flowers, or just soaking up the sunshine—there's something for everyone at Take Root.
Growing & Selling Herbal Products
Join CFSA and Clemson Extension for an on-farm workshop at The CoffeeLady 31 to learn about food safety and regulatory considerations for growing, processing, and selling herbal products. The focus will be on food products like teas, spices, and syrups. This interactive workshop will include a tour of the farm’s growing and processing areas.
Up to ten participants will receive a $100 cost-share voucher for process authority review for an herbal product of their choice.
Registration Deadline: May 8th
Integrating Enterprises
Tour Wild East Farm, including their no-till vegetable gardens and integrated livestock operations, with about 12 acres of fruit & nut tree plantings designed for silvopasture. The farm uses 100% organic practices.
We will discuss whole farm systems planning and development over time, as well as the unique benefits and challenges of working an integrated-enterprise farm.
Farm Employment Basic Laws - Lunch & Learn
This webinar will present the basics of farm employment law and how it affects minimum wage, overtime, employee classification and other essentials for every farm business. This presentation will help you understand whether your operation is on the right track and where you may need additional guidance to improve your legal resilience.
ASAP's Appalachian Grown Gathering
ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) invites you to join us at the table in support of local food and farms. For more than 20 years, ASAP has been creating connections between our region’s farmers, restaurants, and community. Now, we’re celebrating the ways our community has come together to rebuild, grow, and discover our resilience.
Enjoy a tapas-style dinner of four small plates and a plated dessert. Plus, chat with the chefs and farmers that created each dish!
Get your tickets here and contact Nora Scheff (nshceff@asapconnections.org) with any questions regarding this event.
ASAP's Appalachian Grown Gathering
ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) invites you to join us at the table in support of local food and farms. For more than 20 years, ASAP has been creating connections between our region’s farmers, restaurants, and community. Now, we’re celebrating the ways our community has come together to rebuild, grow, and discover our resilience.
Enjoy a tapas-style dinner of four small plates and a plated dessert. Plus, chat with the chefs and farmers that created each dish!
Friday, April 25Yesterday Spaces, 305 Sluder Branch Road, Leicester, NC
5 p.m. - cocktail hour and silent auction
6:30-8:30 p.m. - dinner and program
Contact Nora Scheff (nshceff@asapconnections.org) with any questions regarding this event.
Western NC Farm Succession School
Farmers and farm families across Western North Carolina are invited to take part in the NC Farm Succession School, a full-day workshop focused on helping farm families plan for the future. With over half of North Carolina’s farmers over the age of 65 and the USDA estimating that nearly 70% of farmland will change ownership over the next two decades, many farm families will be facing transition issues in the upcoming years.
The NC Farm Succession School is designed to address key issues in farm transitions, including family communication, retirement planning, long-term care, and estate planning. Offered by NC State Extension, the workshop provides participants with practical tools and guidance to ensure their farm’s legacy is preserved and successfully passed on to the next generation.
Western NC Session
Date: March 27, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Location: WNC Regional Livestock Center, 474 Stock Dr, Canton, NC 28716
Registration: $25 (Includes lunch)
Register Here: go.ncsu.edu/farmlegacy
Space is limited. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insights and strategies for securing your farm’s future. For additional details, visit the registration links above or contact Stephen Bishop, Western Director of NC FarmLink, at (704) 472-4365.
Seeds for Success! A Lecture on Seed Sovereignty
Preservation of heirloom seeds helps to ensure future generations maintain a reliable food supply, supports financial self-reliance, preserves agricultural heritage, and reflects cultural traditions. This half-day workshop on the practice of seed saving will be led by Chris Smith from the Utopian Seed Project and Mary Thompson from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Attendees will hear an introduction to Seed Saving and how to increase income from seed sales and will experience a demonstration of Utopian Seed Project’s Mobile Seed Processing Unit. Mary Thompson will share her seed-saving experience, related pottery, and issues surrounding tribal food security and sovereignty. Presenters will also cover Technical Aspects and Considerations of Seed Saving, Implications of Climate Change on Seed Saving, and Enterprise Budget Development for Profitable Seed Saving. This half day workshop is open to any interested gardeners and farmers hoping to learn more about the significance of seed saving and how they can get involved.
OGS Spring Conference 2025
Join the Southeast’s largest gathering of farmers, gardeners, and sustainability advocates at Organic Growers School's (OGS) 2025 Spring Conference! This year’s theme, Resilience, Recovery, and Renewal, focuses on building stronger, more sustainable communities. Highlights include: 🌱 32+ workshops across 8 tracks (Gardening, Soils, Mushrooms, and more) 🌱 New tracks on off-grid systems, mutual aid, and resilience practices 🌱 Inspiring expert speakers like Dan Brisebois, Pam Dawling, and Chris Smith Special Features: Community Room, exhibitor hall, Southeastern Seed & Plant Exchange, and delicious local meals. 🎟️ Early Bird Deal: 50% off weekend and single-day passes! Register now: organicgrowersschool.org/spring-conference
Food Truck Boot Camp!
March 10-13 Food Truck Boot Camp What: Food Truck Boot Camp. Four days of Food Truck how-to's, including budgeting, menu design, fire safety, how to work with the Health Department, social media marketing, and field trips to see food trucks and commissaries in action. Who: The Street Food Institute and EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems, and Eastern Band of Cherokee Division of Commerce When March 10-13 Cost: $150-200, including lunch and dinner, hotel block has been booked Registration- Space is limited to 40 participants, Registration Food Truck Boot Camp, Registration includes three lunches and two dinners
Register at https://sequoyahfund.wufoo.com/forms/q65xv1c0re55sr
or call Laura: 919-444-4245
Farm Soil Recovery, Post Helene
An information session on understanding the ways in which to recover and improve your agricultural soil after the flooding from Helene
Forest Farming Tour
Join us for this rescheduled agroforestry tour at Banks Mountain Forest Farm in Hendersonville. Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc at the 37-acre property last September, with some stands losing 70%. Hear from the intrepid farmers who are rewriting their forest management plan, and working with their logging horse team to salvage merchantable timber.
Bob and Stuart Richens will lead a 1-mile walk through their diversified operation, where they raise goats, hogs, chickens, mushrooms, Fraser fir and Norway spruce Christmas trees, boutique timber, and two rare breeds of farm dogs. Learn from their adaptive approach at this unique and beautiful mountaintop farm.
Registration is free but required. Please cancel your reservation if you are unable to attend to allow space for others.
Please contact Mary_Bulan@ncsu.edu with inquiries.
This is part of a series of Agroforestry Tours supported by NC State Extension, the Edwards Mother Earth Foundation, and the ARK Exchange network.
This tour is organized by Jeanine Davis’s NC Alternative Crops and Organics Program, Department of Horticultural Science, NC State University, based at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River, NC.
Find our more about our research and extension program: www.NCHerb.org
ASAP Business of Farming Conference
The annual Business of Farming Conference brings together professional farmers from across the Southeast region to network and share resources to grow their farm businesses. Farmers learn about marketing, business planning, and financial management from regional experts and innovative peers. The conference is designed for beginning and established farmers as well as those seriously considering farming as a profession.
Growing Minds Farm to School Training
Growing Minds Farm to School Training
February 19, 2025 from 3:30-4:45pm join the Growing Minds program for an introduction to Farm to School. In this virtual training you will learn about the different components of farm to school, hear how you can use our toolkits and resources to support your farm to school goals, glean insights from farm to school champions in our region, and brainstorm activities to get you started. All are welcome no matter what age you teach or what your experience with farm to school is!
How to Start a Co-op & Buy Land as a Community
Many people dream of community, but it feels like an impossible task. Either they wonder how they can get from not owning land to being able to afford it, or perhaps have a group but aren’t sure how to move their project forward, or may be own land have have tenants but struggle with the dynamics of being a landlord in a community.
Learn what you need to know about how to go about it, and get a list of 10 practical steps to making it happen!
In this class we’ll have a brief review of legal structures for land stewardship and community-owned community projects, and then dive into a practical overview of how to bring a collective land project from vision to reality. We’ll also have space to discuss some of the challenges and developmental edges of the changing space of collective ownership and management.
Catholic Charities MANNA Express Market
A free food and personal hygiene product distribution event scheduled in the twelve western counties (1Xmonth) in partnership with MANNA and local volunteers/agencies/churches. April 18, June 13, July 11, Aug 8, Sept 12, Oct 10, Nov 14 from 3p-6p. Sylva, Robbinsville, Hendersonville, Candler, Asheville, Candler, Hendersonville. Email jdboeckermann@ccdoc.org for more info!
39th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference
CFSA’s Sustainable Agriculture Conference, 39 years strong, brings together farmers, food systems changemakers, and community leaders from across the Carolinas for a weekend of learning and community focused on advancing local, sustainable, and organic agriculture.
The conference features practical workshops, an expansive trade show, and plenty of networking opportunities, all curated with the rich, diverse food systems landscape of the Carolinas in mind. Connect with our community of farmers, foodies, educators, activists, and community leaders through this unique, authentic celebration of innovation in local, sustainable agriculture – you’ll walk away inspired, with new farming and food systems tools in your toolbelt, and maybe even some new best friends.
Cheesemaking and Fermentation Weekend
Join Soirée-Leone to explore how fermented foods are important to our health and wellness, both on a personal and community-wide scale. The workshops are designed to help you integrate these skills into your everyday life with a deep knowledge of the process and ingredients. Saturday’s “Introduction to Cheesemaking” will cover cheesemaking in the home kitchen and participants will take home a small feta cheese to finish and enjoy. Sunday’s “Introduction to Vegetable Fermentation” will cover a variety of fermented foods and participants will start sauerkraut to take home and enjoy!
NC Center for NonProfits Conference
The 2024 Conference for North Carolina’s Nonprofits is designed to offer strategies, experiences, and connections that are valuable for every nonprofit staff member, board member, volunteer, and supporter.
Join the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits on October 22-23 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center in Research Triangle Park to connect with nonprofit colleagues, learn from experts and practitioners, and share insights that will recharge our work and our sector.