Meet local farmers and learn more about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs with pickup locations in Asheville and Buncombe County. The CSA Fair is an opportunity to talk with farmers and learn about the products they offer, their growing practices, any opportunities to get involved on the farm, and when and where they deliver. The fair allows the community to learn about CSAs in a relaxed environment or is a chance to purchase a CSA membership. This free, family-friendly event is presented by ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project).

As spring approaches, farmers in Western North Carolina are busy preparing for the season and selling CSA shares. To help the community learn more about CSAs (or Community Supported Agriculture), ASAP offers several events and resources. ASAP’s 10th annual Asheville CSA Fair will take place Thursday, March 12, from 3 to 6 p.m, at New Belgium Brewing Co. (21 Craven St.). This free, family-friendly event is open to the public. In addition, Full Share, a free printed guide to CSA farms in the Appalachian Grown region, is available now at farmers markets and community centers throughout the region.

Becoming a CSA member connects you directly with local farms. Members buy a “share” of the farm’s harvest upfront and receive a weekly box of fresh produce or other farm goods, such as meat, eggs, or flowers. The CSA Fair is a relaxed setting for attendees to talk to farmers about their products and growing practices, learn more about the CSA process, and see if there is a program that is a good fit. Attendees can purchase a CSA share at the fair or get farmer contact information to follow up later. Farms at the Asheville CSA Fair all offer CSA pickup locations within Buncombe County, and some have a variety of options for size of the share, frequency of delivery, or payment plans.

Participating farms at the Asheville CSA Fair include A Way of Life Farm, Bearwallow Valley Farms, The Bird & The Beasts’ Farmstead, Colfax Creek Farm, Full Sun Farm, Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Highgate Farm, Mighty Gnome Market Garden, Olivette Farm, and Watershed Forest Farm. Check asapconnections.org/events/csa-fair for updates, as more farms may be added.

Symmetry Financial Group and Native Kitchen & Social Pub present a very special evening to benefit Our VOICE, Buncombe County’s sexual assault crisis and prevention center. Amber Tamblyn is an activist, author, actor and director. She is passionate in her fight for women’s rights as an unrelenting voice in the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements. Amber has been nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award for her work in television and film. She is the author of six books, including the most recent critically acclaimed non-fiction memoir, Era of Ignition: Coming of Age During a Time of Rage and Revolution.

5:00pm: Champagne Reception

6:00pm: Doors Open*

6:30pm: Program Begins

*You will be required to print your ticket at home or present the e–ticket that is emailed to you on a mobile device for admittance

Hendersonville Racquet Club is offering a six week series of classes for adult beginner tennis players.  Try Tennis is a tennis instruction program for beginners.  The Wednesday night classes are 7 pm.  The cost is $40 for the six weeks and includes six hours of instruction, a tennis racquet and a Try Tennis t-shirt.  April 8-May 20.

“Try Tennis is a great program we do in partnership with the NC USTA.  Their help allows new players to get from couch to court in six weeks at half the price it would normally cost…plus they get a t-shirt and racquet! We will teach you the right way to play with certified tennis pros.  This is a great program to get into tennis for adults.” stated HRC Owner Chris Bull.

All classes are taught by certified tennis professionals and will be held on HRC’s outdoor or indoor courts.  To register or for more info go to www.hvillerc.com or contact 693-0040 or e-mail [email protected].

Hendersonville Racquet Club is a six acre complex that includes 7 outdoor tennis courts, 3 indoor tennis courts, four racquetball courts, three pickleball courts, an outdoor swimming pool, fitness center, group fitness room and outdoor leisure area by Shaw’s Creek and pond.

Would you like to learn more about how literacy changes our students’ lives?

Please join us for coffee and a one-hour tour of the Literacy Council.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES for 2020

Friday, January 10 – 9am | Monday, February 10 – 4pm | Friday, March 13 – 9am
Monday, April 13 – 4pm | Friday, May 8 – 9am | Monday, June 8 – 4pm

On Sat., March 14, 10 to 11:30 am, the Sowing Circle Series will hold a free workshop on growing all sorts of root vegetables plus horseradish, asparagus, rhubarb, and others.

Experience is a great teacher and we have invited Chris Smith, author and executive director of The Utopian Seed Project, to share tips to get you started on growing a successful harvest of all sorts of root vegetables. Chris will also have his book, The Whole Okra, on sale and autograph it for you.

The seed library has a wide variety of free flower, herb and vegetable seeds for you to take home. The gardening series are held at the Black Mountain Library’s Education Room at 105 N. Dougherty Street. Our presentations are in partnership with Black Mountain Blooms Seed Lending Library and Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers. Come join our gardening community and grow with us!

Are you and your child interested in seeing the Nature Center like never before?  Join us on a Junior Wild Walk:  A Behind the Scenes Tour for Kids!

Junior Wild Walk participants will get to have a close up encounter with an animal, check out how meals are made, and even get to help feed an animal!  There’s no other opportunity like this at the Nature Center.  Don’t miss out on this amazing experience with some of your favorite wildlife!  While this tour is geared towards younger children, adults will still enjoy this experience as well.  All children must be accompanied by at least one parent or guardian.

Tour lasts from 12 pm to 1 pm.

Register online, in person at the Friends office, or by calling 828-259-8091.  Spaces are limited, so sign up soon!  Junior Wild Walk tickets also include admission into the Nature Center for the day.

Have you ever wondered what happens behind the “STAFF ONLY” doors at the Nature Center?

Now’s your chance to find out! Areas visited on the Wild Walk may* include the Small Mammal habitat, the Predator area, and the Animal Kitchen. Don’t miss out on this amazing up-close encounter with some of your favorite wildlife!

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Join us for a celebration of the mind, body, and spirit! Local readers, healers, and vendors offering: astrological readings, intuitive/psychic/medium readings, Reiki/energy healings, art, Reiki-infused jewelry, fairy hair, crystals, sacred tools, apothecary items, and more! 
No entry fees! Come join us for a night of fun!

Hendersonville Racquet Club is offering a six week series of classes for adult beginner tennis players.  Try Tennis is a tennis instruction program for beginners.  The Wednesday night classes are 7 pm.  The cost is $40 for the six weeks and includes six hours of instruction, a tennis racquet and a Try Tennis t-shirt.  April 8-May 20.

“Try Tennis is a great program we do in partnership with the NC USTA.  Their help allows new players to get from couch to court in six weeks at half the price it would normally cost…plus they get a t-shirt and racquet! We will teach you the right way to play with certified tennis pros.  This is a great program to get into tennis for adults.” stated HRC Owner Chris Bull.

All classes are taught by certified tennis professionals and will be held on HRC’s outdoor or indoor courts.  To register or for more info go to www.hvillerc.com or contact 693-0040 or e-mail [email protected].

Hendersonville Racquet Club is a six acre complex that includes 7 outdoor tennis courts, 3 indoor tennis courts, four racquetball courts, three pickleball courts, an outdoor swimming pool, fitness center, group fitness room and outdoor leisure area by Shaw’s Creek and pond.

Hendersonville Racquet Club is offering a six week series of classes for adult beginner tennis players.  Try Tennis is a tennis instruction program for beginners.  The Wednesday night classes are 7 pm.  The cost is $40 for the six weeks and includes six hours of instruction, a tennis racquet and a Try Tennis t-shirt.  April 8-May 20.

“Try Tennis is a great program we do in partnership with the NC USTA.  Their help allows new players to get from couch to court in six weeks at half the price it would normally cost…plus they get a t-shirt and racquet! We will teach you the right way to play with certified tennis pros.  This is a great program to get into tennis for adults.” stated HRC Owner Chris Bull.

All classes are taught by certified tennis professionals and will be held on HRC’s outdoor or indoor courts.  To register or for more info go to www.hvillerc.com or contact 693-0040 or e-mail [email protected].

Hendersonville Racquet Club is a six acre complex that includes 7 outdoor tennis courts, 3 indoor tennis courts, four racquetball courts, three pickleball courts, an outdoor swimming pool, fitness center, group fitness room and outdoor leisure area by Shaw’s Creek and pond.

LEARN

Learn about how our hogs are pasture raised from our farm director Asher

Wright.  He will discuss heritage breeds, health benefits of pasture raised pork and how various inputs on the production side impact the quality of the meat.

EAT

Enjoy a beautiful spread of our in-house made Charcuterie & a locally crafted adult beverage of your choice.

WATCH

Watch head butcher Brian Bermingham demonstrate how to break down each part of a Heritage breed hog, explaining each step of the process along the way.

You’ll learn from our butcher about the differences between each cut, including how they differ in texture, flavor, and cooking requirements.

TAKE

Each participant will take home a portion of different cuts of pork from the class!

Join Dr. Neal Barnard on Mon., Mar. 16, 2020 at The Collider in Asheville to celebrate the release of his new book, Your Body in Balance: The New Science of Food, Hormones, and Health. Guests will hear remarks from Dr. Barnard about food’s effects on hormones and health.

Books will be available for purchase, and Dr. Barnard will be available to sign books.

Space is limited for this free event—reserve your spot now!

Public historians Catherine Amos and Katherine Calhoun Cutshall will present a lecture, “You Have to Start a Thing” – Early Women in N.C. Governance, at noon on Tuesday, March 17, in the Highsmith Student Union Mountain Suites. This event, part of UNC Asheville’s observance of Women’s History Month, is free and open to everyone.

About the lecture

In 1894, Asheville became the birthplace of the women’s suffrage movement in North Carolina when Helen Morris Lewis formed the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina, the first of its kind in the state. This talk will explore how Helen Morris Lewis, Lillian Exum Clement Stafford, and Leah Arcouet Chiles could all be viewed as iterations of an emerging figure that was emblematic of this zeitgeist of women’s advancement–The New Woman.

These women were elected to public offices that previously had been exclusively held by men, before most of the women had even obtained the right to vote. Their political and public success did not exist in a vacuum, however. Through the lens of so-called “New Women” like Helen Morris Lewis, Lillian Exum Clement, and Leah Arcouet Chiles, this presentation will explore the idea of Asheville and Buncombe County as an environment that produced progressive and professional women, and the suffrage movement in North Carolina.

Free event and parking. More Info: HistoryComesAlive.org or 864-244-1499

Join an audience that loves talking back to history to discuss Rosa Parks – with Teresa Cosby, Furman University Associate Professor of Politics & International Affairs.

Sometimes when the status quo needs to be shaken up, it is necessary to take a stand. Other times, one must courageously take a seat. Rosa Parks is best known for being arrested for sitting in the wrong bus seat. But Parks was not an apolitical, middle-aged lady whose fatigue kept her seated. Hers was an act that radically challenged America to reinvent itself.

This event is NOT a costumed performance. Rosa Parks will be performed by Becky Stone in the Chautauqua History Comes Alive Festival (June 12 – 21.)

Public historian Sharon Baggett Withrow will present a lecture, Molasses Catches More Flies Than Vinegar: Woman Suffrage in Western North Carolina, at noon on Thursday, March 19, in the Highsmith Student Union Mountain Suites. This event, part of UNC Asheville’s observance of Women’s History Month, is free and open to everyone.

About the lecture

North Carolina’s woman suffrage movement was born in the mountains. This talk will explore how suffragists and their supporters in Western N.C. used existing preconceptions and power structures to win the right to vote.

About the presenter

A native North Carolinian, Sharon Baggett Withrow has a BA in history from UNC Asheville and an MA in public history from NC State University. She has worked as the education coordinator at the Raleigh City Museum and as director of education at the Smith-McDowell House Museum and Western North Carolina Historical Association. She was the assistant director of International Programs at Warren Wilson College and the department assistant for UNC Asheville’s Office of Graduate Studies and Professional Education before moving to her current role in UNC Asheville’s Chemistry Department. Withrow is an active member of the League of Women Voters of Asheville-Buncombe County.

For more information, please contact Caitlin Manely in UNC Asheville’s Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, [email protected] or 828.251.6634.

Building accessibility information is available here.