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Monthly Farm to School News from Growing Minds
February 2025
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Black History Month In The Garden
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While in North Carolina only 2% of farms are owned by Black farmers, there is a rich history surrounding Black farmer heritage and cultural impacts. One of our favorite agricultural trailblazers is Dr. George Washington Carver. Known as the “Peanut Man,” he thrived in the fields of agriculture, agronomy, botany, and chemistry, with a focus on crops and soil depletion. Learn more about his contributions here. Read In the Garden with Dr. Carver, by Susan Grigsby or listen to a read aloud on YouTube here.
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Soil health is vital to a healthy garden. As mentioned in the George Washington Carver video linked above, adding nutrients, specifically nitrogen, to your soil during the off season can have many benefits and lay the groundwork for a thriving garden in the spring, summer, and fall. Nitrogen is one of the three nutrients that plants need in the highest amount, along with potassium and phosphorus. Carter discovered that growing peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans helped bring nitrogen to the soil, but there are many things that can be done to build soil health in a garden! This month, Growing Minds recommends the following educational and garden-based activities and resources for learning more about soil health.
- Tend to your mulch! Mulching insulates the soil from repeated freeze-thaw cycles that cause soil to expand and contract, which can lift or “heave” the plants out of the soil, damaging roots.
- Build your garden toolbox! Make sure your tools are ready for the spring growing season.
- Plan for which soil-building crops you’ll plant throughout the growing season! Some examples include legumes, radishes, and grasses.
- K-5: Soil in Winter: What’s Happening Underfoot (source: KidsGardening.org)
- Middle School: The Soil Story Curriculum (source: Kiss the Ground): The five-lesson curriculum, written to serve as supplemental material for the Next Generation Science Standards, teaches about the carbon cycle, photosynthesis, soil science, various agricultural practices, and concludes with a regenerative soil-based project.
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Southside Community Farm is an urban food space in the historically Black neighborhood in Asheville, NC. There’s a big diversity of people racially, a lot of low-income public housing, a lot of elders, and a lot of families. “We’re really focused on community food, a lot of free food, our community farmers market, and things like that that are really focused on the neighborhood,” said farm manager Chloe Moore. Find out more about Chloe and Southside's farming practices here. After viewing Southside’s Meet Your Farmer video, you can discuss comprehension questions with your students or give your students the journal prompt provided.
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Emily Bowles is a dietetic intern from Appalachian State University. She fulfilled her food systems rotation with Growing Minds in January and February. This is her reflection on what she learned.
I didn’t know much about how important local food systems were. I’ve been at ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) for a few weeks now, and I have learned so much about local food, farming, and how to shop seasonally. During my first visit to the Asheville City Market, I was able to see the variety of products offered by a variety of vendors - from sweets to savory, from honey to mushrooms, and even body care and craft products. I especially loved to see all the seasonal vegetables, such as mustard greens, sweet potatoes, rutabagas, lettuce, microgreens, and more!
I think one of the benefits of shopping at a farmers market is that it allows you to try new fruits and vegetables that you would never have thought to try before. For example, one of my favorite winter vegetables is a sweet potato. Lee’s One Fortune Farm sells Japanese sweet potatoes, which are purple in color and are a good source of fiber, vitamins A and C, and antioxidants! They are also low in fat and have a low glycemic index, which makes them all the more nutritious. This is definitely something I will try the next time I go to the market!
Overall, my experience at the market was everything I could have hoped it would be. All the vendors were so kind and welcoming. Once you start shopping at the farmers market, you’ll see it’s definitely worth adding the stop into your weekly grocery shopping. I know I will!
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Growing Minds Farm to School Training
February 19th, 2025 from 3:30-4:45 pm
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! Register here to reserve your spot. Help us spread the word with this flier!
If you attend the training and are an educator in North Carolina, we will send you a print copy of our "I Tried Local..." Toolkit for FREE!
ASAP’s 2025 Business of Farming Conference
February 22, 2025 from 8:30am-4 pm.
The 22nd annual Business of Farming Conference, presented by ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) will take place at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, NC. The conference focuses on the business side of farming, offering beginning and established farmers financial, legal, operational, and marketing tools to improve farm businesses and make professional connections. This year's conference will also have a strong emphasis on resilience planning and resources for post-Helene recovery.
Learn more here.
Growing Minds Farm to School Mini-Grant
Deadline: March 31, 2025
ASAP’s Growing Minds mini-grants help early childhood education (ECE) centers and K-12 schools throughout the 23 westernmost counties of North Carolina provide children positive
experiences with healthy local foods through these components of farm to school: school gardens, farm field trips and farmer classroom visits, and local foods served in meals, snacks, and/or taste tests. Learn more and apply here!
Kids Gardening Webinar Series: Culturally Inclusive Teaching in the Garden
Join Kids Gardening as they explore ways to celebrate and center culture through garden based learning. Watch recordings about the significance of culture as it relates to food and gardens.
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Our office is located at 306 West Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801. We are open to the public Tuesday through Thursday from 9am to 5 pm. Call 828-236-1282 or email
Growing Minds is a program of ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project). ASAP's mission is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food.
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