The poster art selected by the organizers for this year’s True Nature Country Fair is nationally recognized multi media artist Norma Bradley’s fiber art "Dancing Leaves ." "We knew this piece was a beautiful fit with our mission of working in harmony with the earth," said Program Manager Karen Vizzina. The third annual True Nature Country Fair, a celebration of life in connection with the Earth, will be held this year on September 26 and 27, 2009, at a new location, the Big Ivy Community Center in Barnardsville, North Carolina.

The Organic Growers School has seen a lot of volunteers over our 16 years of growth, and it never stops surprising us how many people turn out to help and have fun doing it at the same time. When it comes to local, organic, and healthy food for our community, you can be active with your shopping choices, but also with your time. We've got great ways for you to get involved this summer.

June 27-28 (Sat/Sun) from 1 to 6 pm: FAMILY FARM TOUR

Join farmers, local businesses, and non profits like OGS in celebrating WNC food and farming. Over 30 farms in 6 counties across Western North Carolina will open their gates on June 27-28 to welcome the public. Visitors can choose any number of farms to visit, provided they purchase a farm tour button (one button gets one carload of visitors in to as many farms as they fancy), or pay $10 per farm to visit only one or two. A variety of  farm products are available for sale, and people young and old will enjoy demonstrations of traditional farming skills, visiting farm animals, learning about renewable energy, or just taking in the awesome rural landscapes that characterize our mountain home. Volunteers will spend one day working on a participating farm, and then get to take the tour themselves on the second day, for free! To get involved, contact us. For more info, visit www.familyfarmtour.org

August 29 (Sat.) 10 am to 1 pm: ASHEVILLE CITY MARKET KIDS TENT

The Organic Growers School is running activities for children at the Asheville City Market Kids Tent. Help us plan fun activities, or just come to work with the kids. To get involved, contact us.

September 26-27 (Sat/Sun): TRUE NATURE COUNTRY FAIR:

A celebration of life in connection with the earth, True Nature welcomes farmers, restaranteurs, social and political activists, alternative healthcare practioners, green building experts, conscious consumers, and others to the Big Ivy Community Center for a weekend of live music, local and organic food, sustainable products and resources, a kids program, and much more. Everything featured at the Fair must be at least 50% produced from sustainable resources, and must be local to the Southern Appalachian region. Volunteers are needed to help with everything from planning to parking cars, in exchange for admission to the Fair, free food, and fabulous other prizes. To get involved,  contact us. For more information, click here.

   September 26 & 27, 2009 • Barnardsville, North Carolina

These are interesting times. Of course, as local businesses offering options for living sustainably on the Earth, we know that these are our times.

The True Nature Country Fair is a celebration of life in connection with the Earth. The Fair is in its third year and in a new home, the Big Ivy Community Center in Barnardsville, North Carolina, a wonderful rural community just north of Asheville.

True Nature provides an opportunity for you to get your business known and for you to share your knowledge. Education is the core of our mission, and our sponsors and vendors are welcomed as teachers. Sponsorship and exhibitor information can be downloaded here. If you can't participate in the Fair this year but support our mission, we encourage you to sponsor as a Friend of the Fair. For more information about this event, visit the True Nature Event Page.

In the words of a Hopi Prophecy,

"We are the ones we have been waiting for."

See you at True Nature!

The Organic Growers School, together with a dedicated group of local farmers, is launching the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training in Western North Carolina (CRAFT-WNC). The program consists of farm tours, workshops and social events for member farms, interns, and other aspiring growers throughout the 2009 season. CRAFT was recently featured in an article in the Mountain XPress called "Cultivating Organic Growers", wherein farmer member and OGS Board President Tom Elmore said, "Our goal is to graduate high-quality organic farmers...This is a real opportunity to enliven our local economy." To read the whole article, click here. To learn more about CRAFT, or to view our workshop schedule for 2009, click here.

Well, the Spring Conference was a terrific success, thanks to the hard work of over 100 volunteers, a dedicated staff and board, and the generosity and knowledge of over 80 wonderful speakers. Throughout the weekend, nearly 1300 people came out to Blue Ridge Community College to take classes, browse exhibits, swap seeds, and connect with friends, both old and new. The energy that buzzes at the event each spring is always refreshing, and always surprising, no matter how many years we come together. It was a delight for me to take tickets at lunch and ask people about their day, or to hear the conversations between friends in the exhibitor hall about the new things that they learned. One woman, a volunteer, told me that she marks the beginning of her spring and growing season by the Organic Growers School Conference, and I think how appropriate it was that the event occurred exactly after the equinox. I think my favorite quote of the weekend came from a woman whom our board president found standing bewildered at the edge of the parking lot, trying to plan her day. When he inquired about her state, she said "Its just like there is this wonderful buffet laid out in front of me, and now I have to choose." 

So, as I come out of my conference stupor, I revel in the spirit of this great community event. I hope that the smiles and sharing and overabundant information and insight was a good to ya'll as it was to me.  Thanks to everyone who came out, had fun, learned and shared, and made the 16th annual event a huge success.

Want to keep the spirit of the spring event alive? Leave a comment here, and subscribe to future comment updates. You'll be able to read other people's thoughts, and you can unsibscribe at any time.

The Organic Growers School is proud to announce two new programs for 2009!

CRAFT-WNC Farmer Training Initiative (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) is a coordinated effort to bring established farmers and students of farming together to work, teach, and learn. Member farmers and their apprentices will attend workshops on area farms, participate in work exchanges, and enjoy social events. The program will give established sustainable farmers in our region a voice in the training of future farmers, as curriculum will be established and taught by the farmer members themselves. Another goal of the program is to attract serious aspiring farmers to farms in our region to provide dependable labor. For more information, or to join as a farmer or a student, click here. Please note: classes are also open to non farming parties, for an additional fee.

NC Apprentice Link is an online database of farms seeking dependable labor, and an apprentice application program. Farmers can create a profile for potential apprentices to view. Apprentices, when searching for farm work in NC, can  view farmer profiles on our site, fill out an application, and list their top five choices. Then, our office will match interns with farmers. This service is designed to provide an initial screening of interested interns so that farmers can save some time and skip to interviews or farm visits, if possible. NC Apprentice Link is also a way to aid serious farm apprentices in their search for solid, educational training on established sustainable farms in NC. Best of all, the service is free to farm members of our CRAFT-WNC Farmer Training Initiative. To learn more, create a farmer profile, or to view an apprentice application, click here.