ASAP was excited to be asked to attend and blog about last night’s Asheville Wine & Food Festival Chefs Challenge. (We’re also extremely excited and thankful that our Growing Minds Farm to School Program is a festival beneficiary.) Fittingly, the night’s secret ingredient was locally sourced AND coincided with the featured food for April in our Get Local initiative! Keep reading for our recap…
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Wednesday April 4th, 2012 16:46 April 3 Chefs Challenge: Savoring Spring
Tuesday April 3rd, 2012 15:09 CSA Web Exclusive!
Wow…what a great Asheville CSA Fair this year! Thanks to everyone who attended, farmers and farm share shoppers alike. (CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture; click here and select ‘What’s this’ by CSAs for more information.)
We had a great time chatting with many of the exhibiting farmers before the event for our two-part CSA series in Mountain Xpress; click the link to find both articles. The farmers shared with us how providing CSAs has changed and enriched their farms and even friendships. In fact, they had so much to share and so many stories to tell, we couldn’t include all of our favorite quotes in just two articles. Keep reading for more in this web exclusive…
Friday February 17th, 2012 15:43 Do the Culinary Crawl
ASAP is a proud sponsor of next week’s Asheville Small Plate Crawl (February 21-23)! Dozens of independent restaurants, including many Appalachian Grown™ partner restaurants (those committed to sourcing ingredients from local farms), will create special Small Plate Menus featuring their cuisine and chef’s talent. The special plates will be affordably priced between $3 and $8, giving you the chance to “crawl” from restaurant to restaurant and sample all that Asheville’s culinary scene has to offer! Restaurants will be open during lunch and dinner hours, 11:30 am to 9 pm. Wondering if your fave eatery is taking part?
Tuesday January 24th, 2012 15:24 Tips for Cooking With Honey + A Hive of a Deal!
Get Local honey month is winding down. But, don’t worry, ASAP has a sweet sendoff planned for the sweet stuff! Not only is Laurey’s Gourmet Comfort Food hosting A Taste of Honey this Thursday, January 26, from 6-9 pm (click for all the details, including how to snag a ticket), but William Dissen, chef and owner of The Market Place in downtown Asheville, has put together tips for cooking with honey just for you! What’s more, he has given us an amazing Market Place coupon to share with our FromHere e-newsletter subscribers! (More deals will follow in the future, so it’s never too late to subscribe!)
“Local honey has a much deeper richness than its store-bought counterparts,” William says. In other words, it’s a must-have in the kitchen. Here are his top three tips for cooking with the natural sweetener:
Thursday January 19th, 2012 14:30 Bees and Books (A Sneak Peek)!
We’re exactly one week away from A Taste of Honey, our very first Get Local event of 2012 (and an ASAP benefit)! The exciting evening, 6-9 pm, will be hosted by Laurey Masterton of Laurey’s Gourmet Comfort Food; tickets are $35 and can be purchased at the restaurant. Expect tasting stations of local and regional honey with accompanying hors d’oeuvres. Attendees will be asked to record their thoughts about the selected honey and could end up in Laurey’s forthcoming book Every Third Bite. Cool, huh? Even cooler, in honor of the event, Laurey is allowing us to share a first look at the book’s content!
Sunday December 11th, 2011 09:00 *UPDATED* Shop ‘Til You Drop at Holiday Tailgates (Market List)
Late-season veggies, meats, and cheeses? Check! Christmas trees and wreaths? Check! Handcrafted gifts like soaps and jewelry? Check! Area holiday markets have it all. So, bundle up and shop ’til you drop at these tailgates! Of course, we’d love if you shared your finds and photos in the comment section below.
Tuesday November 15th, 2011 09:20 Extra! Extra! ASAP Chats With Red June
Earlier this month, we chatted with Asheville-based Americana band Red June about their Homegrown Tour (which has been spreading the word about WNC’s local food scene far and wide) and coming home (they play Jack of the Wood this Saturday, November 19). Read the full article in Mountain Xpress HERE. And keep reading for the rest of the good stuff that didn’t make it in, including some bean spilling about their upcoming MerleFest gig!
ASAP: What was the best local food meal of your Homegrown Tour? What’s the band’s favorite local food meal in town?
Friday October 21st, 2011 13:25 Win Tickets to Pig and a Pint!
Why is the Thursday, October 27, benefit for Black Mountain Tailgate Market (BMTM) called Pig and a Pint? It’s at Pisgah Brewing Company and will feature a whole-roasted hog + an artisanal pig butchery demonstration, that’s why! Don’t worry, there will be plenty of food for vegetarians, too, including produce, cheese, and sweet treats from market vendors. And, there’ll be live music; it’s a party, after all!
The folks of BMTM hope you can make it. In fact, they’ve generously offered us two tickets to give away! All you have to do is be the first to comment below with the correct answer to one of three market trivia questions. Remember: We’ve got two tickets to give away. If one correct answer has been confirmed, try for another question. The questions are tough, but we know you local food lovers and diehard tailgate shoppers can do it! Here goes:
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Wednesday October 19th, 2011 13:27 Let’s Feast!
Yes, we are going with a zombie theme for our Feast Local event this Sunday, October 23 (Halloween is near, after all!). But, you don’t have to worry. There are no brains involved, only smoked local trout crepes, local butternut squash and apple soup, and more delicious dishes of the not-brain kind!
The event is a local social in parternship with the Asheville Grown Business Alliance (AGBA). Twenty percent of the evening’s proceeds will go to us, ASAP, and AGBA.
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Friday September 16th, 2011 18:40 ASAP Goes to the Fair!
We love hearing your local food and farming stories here at ASAP! After all, that’s why we started this new site. And, it’s why we have been set up at the 2011 North Carolina Mountain State Fair this past week (we’re also proud sponsors).
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