​This sketch note created by our wonderful Board Chair Ameena Batada highlights the ways Bountiful Cities touched lives and grew food, community, and knowledge this year. Please consider supporting this work as we close out 2022! You can contribute HERE. 

Here are more details about our impact this year:
Free Community Garden Workshops- topics ranged from mushroom cultivation to seed saving to tool repair - 10 workshops with over 300 attendees.

FEAST Programming - 1175 students at 11 schools and afterschool programs. Maintaining school gardens at 5 schools.

Seed Libraries - now in 5 locations, providing free seeds for community members.

Collaborative Apprenticeship Program - graduated 3 apprentices (paid a living wage) in pilot year with instruction from 30+ agriculture and food based organizations. 

Events, Celebrations, Plant Sales, Fundraisers and Friendraisers - over 2000 people attended or participated in our events in 2022. 

​Photo Credit: Katherine Brooks PhotographyIt's gonna be freezing cold and it's a great time to give your rosemary bush a little attention. Rosemary bushes can handle temps that drop below freezing but sometimes they will not survive when temps drop below the teens. You can trim a few stalks as you cover it with a sheet while the polar vortex is with us! This is a great appetizer or side dish that can go with your fancy holiday meal.

2 pounds small fresh potatoes
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
10-15 (4 inch long) sturdy rosemary stalks


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss potatoes with olive oil and salt on a sheet pan. Roast Potatoes 30-35 minutes until they are tender. Let potatoes cool for a few minutes, then use a metal skewer or chopstick to put a hole all the way through the center of each potato. String the potatoes on the rosemary skewers. Serve warm or at room temperature as an appetizer,

Join us to support FEAST!Our FEAST program reaches over 1,150 students a year in Asheville, Buncombe County, and Madison County with hands-on cooking and gardening classes in schools and afterschool programs. Help us fully fund this important program this fall! 
Bountiful Cities FEAST teachers work within Asheville City and Buncombe County schools, Hot Springs Elementary and Francine Delany New School to give students  hands on experience. We are not funded by the school systems, and yet we integrate with the grade level curriculum to provide history, science, reading, math, and art education in addition to gardening and cooking. Our goal is to give students tools that will last a lifetime. If they have seeds they will know how to have food.

Thank you to the WNC Bridge Foundation for contributing to our important Long-Term food security work! Bountiful Cities goal is for Everyone to have access to fresh food and food sovereignty in this community, and we are so glad to have support from our funding partners. ​

The garden grant received from the WNC Food Justice Planning Initiative covered about 40% of the cost of materials for the build which was a really amazing contribution toward this much-needed construction to establish our program.
The shed has been CRITICAL for tool storage and expansion of lesson supplies! ​

In FEAST cooking classes with kids we start with a framework of a recipe, then use what we have on hand and make substitutions. We try to teach them how to be creative when cooking with the ultimate goal of reducing food waste and eating delicious fresh food. A traditional Panzanella salad is made with torn bread, tomatoes, basil, parmesan cheese and cannellini beans. At the Community Garden Network event (in true FEAST style) we didn’t have a lot of these ingredients, so we made some delicious substitutions. Use this recipe as a framework and use some of the substitutions suggested below or make up your own!
 Ingredients
6-8 cups torn bread (older bread is ideal for this)
1 cup finely chopped cheese (parmesan is traditional but any kind of cheese works)
2-3 cups chopped tomatoes (substitute roasted peppers, roasted carrots, roasted eggplant, cucumbers or squash)
2 cups fresh spinach leaves ( substitute any leafy green)
1 cup fresh basil leaves (substitute ¼ cup oregano, thyme, cilantro, or chopped rosemary)
1 ½ cups cannellini beans (substitute any kind of bean or field pea)
¼ cup chopped olives, or onions (optional)
Italian style salad dressing or pesto dressing to taste
 Pesto Salad Dressing
¼ cup prepared pesto 
¼ cup cider vinegar
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
 Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. If making your own pesto dressing combine salad dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well. Drizzle about ½ cup dressing on salad and toss well. Taste and add more dressing if desired. ​

​Cultivating Abundance Year Round Gardening Workshop w/ Lynx
Wednesday, August 24⋅4:00 – 7:00pm
Location:
Tempie Avery Montford Community Center
34 Pearson Dr, Asheville, NC 28801, USA
Contact Lynx@BountifulCities.Org for more info.

Fruit Harvesting Workshop
Saturday, August 27⋅1:30 – 3:00pm
Location:
Deaverview Apts. Orchard 
Refreshments will be provided. All ages welcome. For more information please contact Isa Whitaker at isa@bountifulcities.org.
Register HERE
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/3177985952453660

Workshops provided in conjunction with The City of Asheville

Beautiful photographs from Allison Ward, Ashlen Smith, and Jessica Merchant
Thank you to everyone who made the Urban Garden Tour and Tasting a success!! We raised over $15,000 and we were able to give 25% of proceeds back to the participating gardens.  If you were not able to come, many of these gardens have events, volunteer opportunities, or open hours. Check out our EVENTS page on our website and click this link to sign up to get info about volunteering.

Scroll down to see Bre Emmons recipes with lavender - maybe you tasted her delicious beverages at the Elder and Sage Community Garden....??

The Urban Garden Tour and Tasting is FREE event open to everyone! Seven local food producing gardens will open their gates for visitors, educational activities and tours. There is no cost to visit the gardens. Local chefs will be preparing small bites for sampling and local (nonalcoholic) drinks will be available. Find out more and register below to join the tour and to purchase food and beverage tickets. To sample at every garden tickets are $25 in advance. You will receive a punch card at the first garden site you go to.
Register for Urban Garden Tour with Bountiful Cities

​Join us at Herb Fest this weekend!
Bountiful Cities Windfall Collective Nursery will be selling at Asheville Herb Fest April 29th -May 1st. We will have a wide selection of edible, medicinal, native and pollinator plants. If you can't make it out to Herb Fest we have plants available to the community throughout the season. Feel free to reach out to Lynx at lynx@bountifulcities.org with any questions or direct requests.

See below for more plant sales coming up on May 5th and 6th! Find more info. on our EVENTS page. 

FEAST students at FDNSC are studying spices. Each student in the program chooses a spice, creates a powerpoint to present, and finds a recipe that utilizes that spice to make a dish for the class! Here 5th and 8th graders are making banana pancakes with Spicewalla cinnamon and Mother Earth Food bananas! ​

​The Lucy S Herring Elementary Peace Garden will have a plant sale to support FEAST programming on May 5th 8-4pm. After the sale concludes, we will continue to sell any remaining homegrown herb and veggie starts through self-service and honor system payment. All proceeds go directly to the school garden, which is managed in partnership with Bountiful Cities. Visit the Facebook Event for more information.
The Hall Fletcher Elementary FEAST Garden will also hold a plant sale on Thursday May 5th AND Friday May 6th 2:30-5pm AND we need volunteers! Sign up HERE!
Want more details? Reach out to Jacob@BountifulCities.org

Hot Springs Elementary School Garden ROCK-a-thon
How many pounds of rocks can each grade remove from the garden area in a five minute period? Students will take on the challenge May 13th and 20th. We know they’re going to ROCK at it! 
100% of the proceeds will go directly to supporting next year’s garden classes at HSES. Here children learn: 

• How to grow their own food
• Math and science concepts using hands-on learning
• Pollinators and their importance
• Garden and soil ecology…and more!

All donors will be entered to win a free mineral tub soak at the Hot Springs Resort and Spa!

Sponsor Name
Sponsor email address and phone number
Grade You'll Sponsor
$ Per Pound of Rocks

Example: Jane Doe
janedoe@gmail.com (828) 206-1111
First Grade
$0.50

*No donor will be charged for more than 40 pounds of rocks. For example if you pledge $0.50/pound, the most you will be asked to donate is $20. 

How to Donate
Email us the above chart information to HSESgarden@gmail.com or text Natalie Hesed, the Garden Coordinator, at (828) 206-1487. We will contact you with final rock tallies and donation amounts after the event is completed! You can then donate online or by check.
You can also choose to donate a flat amount instead of pledging. You can donate any time now through May 20 using the online method or a check.
All donations will go through Bountiful Cities, the nonprofit sponsor for the garden program. 
All contributions are tax deductible.


Online donations can be made April 26-May 20, 2022 at the following link: https://www.paypal.com/fundraiser/charity/173226. 
Credit cards accepted. No fees are charged to you or us!

Checks can be made out to “Bountiful Cities”. Be sure to write “HSES” in the memo! They can be mailed to
Bountiful Cities
PO Box 898 
Asheville, NC 28802
Thank you for your generous support of the HSES garden program!

This garden is supported by the Community Foundation of WNC Human Services Grant

​To RSVP for this kid friendly event click HERE.
The Bountiful Cities Community Garden Network is pleased to present free workshops each month  in conjunction with The City of Asheville. For more information about this workshop go to our Facebook Page or check out our events on our Bountiful Cities Website. You can also contact our Community Garden Network Coordinators Isa Whitaker Isa@BountifulCities.org or Lydia George Lydia@BountifulCities.Org
Workshops Presented in Collaboration with The City of Asheville
​

Do you have skills? Or do you want to learn more about Greenhouses and Construction? Please contact Cathy@BountifulCities.Org if you have experience building or would like to learn! In the coming months we will be constructing a donated greenhouse at our Pearson Garden and this is an opportunity to learn and share. 
​​

​Spring is upon us, and Windfall Collective Nursery has a wide selection of edible, medicinal, native and pollinator plants getting up to size! We'll have plants available to the community starting mid-April, here is a list of our inventory for the spring as well as upcoming perennials. We'll also have the webstore updated with our current inventory soon, including an option to pre-order.  Feel free to reach out to Lynx at lynx@bountifulcities.org with any questions or direct requests.

  If you're part of the community gardens and haven't gotten a chance to use your gift card yet, be sure to visit our donation inventory here and fill out this form to put in an order with us.  We'll continue to have new varieties throughout the season, and are happy to take specific requests of plants not currently in our inventory.  We look forward to growing with you this season!
FEAST School Plant Sales
Save the Date for the Herring Elementary Peace Garden Plant Sale! We will have a big plant sale on May 5 from 8-4, followed by a donation-based self-service sale with any remaining plants until all are gone. This year we are partnering with First Step Farms, as well as selling home-grown veggie and herb starts. All proceeds will go towards the FEAST Program and Peace Garden at Lucy S Herring Elementary School. 
​