- Haywood room tax hike deep-sixed
- Courthouse lawn to get spruced up in time for tourists
- Hospital for sale? All options on the table as MedWest hospitals contemplate future
- WNC duo star on reality TV show
- With lawsuit in the rearview, Canton plans to step up its game for public recreation
- Social workers say student homelessness on the rise
- The sticky wicket of downtown sandwich boards
- Haywood commissioners win political game with school board
Supported by the Golden LEAF Foundation since 2007, Buy Haywood has enjoyed success promoting the county’s farms.
Its first project targeted grocery store chains and successfully enlisted Whole Foods, Ingles, Food Lion, Bi-Lo, Lowes Food and others into carrying tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers grown in Haywood.
Next, it tackled the limitations of a short growing season and encouraged farmers to create “value-added products,” like salsa, jams and sauces to keep their products on the shelves year-round.
The group has also published a handy farm map to point tourists and locals alike to scores of Haywood’s farms, farm stands and farmer’s markets.
Now, the project’s organizers are tackling the challenge of connecting farmers with local restaurateurs.
Here they are, books yammering for review: a hillock of books on the floor by the desk; more books stacked on the desk itself, squeezed between a basket of spectacles and a coffee cup filled with pens and pencils, the cup itself bearing Jefferson’s remark, “I cannot live without books;” two more books for review keeping company in the trunk of my car; a lone rider of a book on the arm of the sofa by the porch door.