Calendar of Events

Plein Air Painting

with Erika Busse

Monday, September 1  |  9am – 11am

There is no better way to relax and connect with your creative side and nature than en plein air painting. In this class, artist Erika Busse will teach you how to paint an original Appalachian inspired artwork outside at the beautiful North Carolina Arboretum. She will take you through each step of the painting process, all skill levels are welcomed and all supplies are provided.

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Late Summer Tree ID

with Lauren Lampley

Thursday, September 4  |  1 – 4 pm

Join this class as we discuss how to use different characteristics and field guides to identify common trees of Western North Carolina found here at the NC Arboretum. We will look at using different characteristics including habitat, bark, buds, growth pattern, leaf shape, and fruit/nut shape to identify trees.

This program will take place outside and will follow easy trails and paved walkways. Dress for the weather and prepare to be outside for the entire program time.

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

River Systems of the Blue Ridge

With Anton DuMars

Friday, September 5  |  12 – 4pm

Water is essential to life but is also a powerful agent of change. Rivers, through both daily processes and catastrophic floods, shape Earth’s surface through erosion and sediment transport. In River Systems of the Blue Ridge, we will investigate how the Broad River changes character and shapes the landscape along its course from the headwaters, through the Piedmont, and onto the Atlantic Ocean.

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

As one of today’s premiere stand-up comedians, Jo Koy has come a long way from his modest beginnings performing in a Las Vegas coffee house. Jo’s uniquely relatable comedy pulls inspiration from his colorful family that has reached all kinds of people and has translated into sold-out arenas around the world

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Dig into Bullington Gardens’ Fall Plant Sale! Grab trees, shrubs, perennials, natives, and seasonal plants to spruce up your yard. Don’t let your garden be the only one on the block still growing last year’s weeds—join us this fall September 12-13, 9am-4pm.

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Celebrate the season at Stepp’s Hillcrest Orchard in Hendersonville, NC! Open daily August 15 through the end of October, enjoy u-pick apples, grapes, flowers, and pumpkins. Explore a 5-acre corn maze, take a weekend wagon ride, bounce on the jump pad, and launch apples from the apple cannon. Don’t miss fresh cider donuts, slushies, plus many more sweet treats and local goods from the Apple House. No admission fee—just pay for what you pick or do. Make it a fall tradition your whole family will love!
📍 steppapples.com | 170 Stepp Orchard Dr., Hendersonville, NC

Retreat leader, educator and Jungian psychotherapist Diana McKendree leads a discussion exploring the world of dreamwork and how we might better understand our dreams. Part of Kanuga’s Lunch & Learn series. The Thursday, September 18 event begins with a forest bathing nature walk (weather permitting) at 10 a.m. McKendree’s “What Did You Dream Last Night?” discussion begins at 11 a.m., followed by a buffet lunch in Kanuga’s dining hall. Bring a recent dream, notebook and pen. Registration and more info at kanuga.org/events.

Doors open at 6pm. Come on down for a hilarious night.

Fancy & The Gentlemen- self described as ‘Gothy-Tonk’ and we think that fits! These guys are a lyrical story-telling band with beautiful, haunting and sometimes humorous vocals, songs that stick in your head, and melodies that feel like home. Sit back and soak up the picture they paint, or bop out onto the floor in your good boots- lets git to it!

• HNG will be running a bar with local beers and NA beverage and snack cart.
• Barn Door Ciderworks will provide some sweet and snappy sips of their legendary cider brewed right here in Fairview.
• Root Down Farm food truck brings their signature farm-to-table eats featuring HNG meats and local fresh farmed seasonal veg, often from their home farm! Root Down tastes like hard work paying off, savor it.
• Pro tip: we have picnic tables, benches & patio sets, but always bring a backup folding chair or picnic blanket JUST in case. It can get packed!

Sun Day Asheville, part of a global day of action on September 21, 2025, celebrates the rise of clean energy and the movement to leave fossil fuels behind. We’ll come together to have fun and showcase the power of the sun – the energy source that can power our world without pollution or profiteering!

Clean energy is here: it’s more affordable, healthier, and fairer than the fuels of the past.

Join in the free family fun from 1 – 4pm @ Pack Square Pavilion. For more information, visit:https://actionnetwork.org/events/sun-day-asheville

What to Expect at Sun Day Asheville 2025 – September 21st

Families and kids will be making signs and decorating their bikes to participate in a march and bike ride to advocate for solar and clean energy. Sign in at the Marching Booth for the parade near the Stage.
EV bikes from Asheville Custom E-bikes available to rent for free if you sign up in advance: https://www.theacebikes.com/

Celebrations of Clean Energy:

Participants will create art, rally, sing, and call for climate action to ensure a healthier future.
The free, family friendly event will feature solar installations, Sugar Hollow Solar’s Power House with free sun powered snow cones, a fleet of electric vehicles, Earthshine Nature Programs’ solar powered education POD, booths about saving energy and more. Also, concerts, and educational activities to show the benefits of renewable energy for a healthier planet.

Focus on the Future:

The day is about harnessing the power of the sun to create a cleaner future for children and future generations. Kids will enjoy the parade, the music, and of course the solar oven s’mores and sun powered snow cones – all free!
We will make it known – the era of fossil fuels is ending, and a just, renewable future is within reach!

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.