Appalachian Sustainable Development

Grow Your Own Intermediate Class: Cottage Law
2025-08-25 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Come learn about cottage food laws. This allows people to prepare food in their own homes or small kitchens (rather than commercial facilities) and sell them to the public. It encourages entrepreneurship for those who want to make food as a side business or hobby, such as baking, preserving, or making jams and jellies.

This class is virtual and held through Zoom.

You can register here.

Grow Your Own Beginner Class: Composting
2025-08-26 18:00 - 20:00
This lesson will explain why we compost, how to compost, and the many benefits of using your own compost in your garden.

This is a virtual class and will be held through Zoom.

You can register here.

ASD Veteran Coalition Meeting
2025-09-17 18:00 - 20:00, 2025-10-15 18:00 - 20:00, 2025-11-19 18:00 - 20:00, 2025-12-17 18:00 - 20:00, 2026-01-21 18:00 - 20:00, 2026-02-18 18:00 - 20:00, 2026-03-18 18:00 - 20:00, 2026-04-15 18:00 - 20:00 and 4 more dates | Michael Waltrip Brewing, 221 Moore Street, Bristol, Virginia, 24202
Are you a military veteran? If so, we’d love to have you attend our ASD Veteran Coalition meeting tonight at 6 pm. These recur every 3rd Wednesday – why not be a regular?

Location:

These meetings are generously hosted free of charge by Michael Waltrip Brewing, 221 Moore St, Bristol, VA 24201. Meetings are held in the room upstairs.

Goal:

Strengthen the veteran farming community by fostering meaningful connections, sharing practical knowledge and resources, and identifying collaborative opportunities that support the success and sustainability of veteran-led agricultural operations.

Awesome Extras:

Free appetizers and soft drinks

Great company!

Check out our programs and services for veterans – here

Agroforestry Farm Tour series: SILVOPASTURE AT CANEY FORK FARM
2025-09-25 09:00 - 14:30 | Caney Fork Farm, 7 Gibbs Circle, Carthage, Tennessee, 37030, United States
PLEASE NOTE: THIS TOUR LOCATION IS ON CENTRAL TIME. (9 AM CST = 10 AM EST)

Join us for a tour of a working silvopasture system where sheep rotationally graze a mix of grass species. This system supports soil health, forage growth, and livestock while contributing to carbon sequestration.

Participants will see tree plantings designed for biodiversity, habitat, and forage benefits. The site includes hard and soft mast-producing trees that support wildlife and grazing animals. The majority of the trees are chestnuts, but many more species are included as well. Trees integrated into the pasture provide shade for sheep, improved soil carbon storage, and enhanced forage production.

We will discuss the management of multi-species tree plantings and forage systems, focusing on their effects on soil fertility, pasture resilience, and productivity. This tour is for farmers, land managers, and researchers.

Registration is required. Registration coming soon!

Grow Your Own Intermediate Class: Advanced Season Extension
2025-09-29 18:00 - 20:00
Learn about techniques used to extend the growing season for plants. This allows gardeners to grow crops for a longer period of time, either earlier in the spring or later into the fall.

This class is virtual and held through Zoom,

You can register here.

Grow Your Own Beginner Class: Season Extension
2025-09-30 18:00 - 20:00
Learn about techniques used to extend the growing season for plants. This allows gardeners to grow crops for a longer period of time, either earlier in the spring or later into the fall.

This is a virtual class and will be held through Zoom.

You can register here.

"Barn to Run" 4-Miler for Agriculture
2025-10-12 16:00 - 19:00
Join ASD as we celebrate 30 years of growing a stronger Appalachia through agriculture! This family friendly event will be held at The Meadows Sports Complex, 78 Cook Street, Abingdon, VA. Wear your best fruit or veggie costume or dress like your favorite farmer. The first 100 registrants are guaranteed an udderly radishing event t-shirt!

Wear your favorite fruit/veggie gear or farming coveralls!

All proceeds support ASD programming for agriculture education, workforce development, resource management, and food access.

Early Registration Fee: $35 (register by August 1)

Registration after August 1: $40

Kids Registration (12 & under): $10

Register Here

Bellair Farm Fall Festival
2025-10-25 09:00 - 17:00 | Bellair Farm, 5290 Bellair Farm, Charlottesville, Virginia, 22902, United States
Join Bellair Farm for their annual celebration of local food and agriculture!

This event is FREE to attend, with outdoor activities, talks, vendors, food & music.

What to Expect:–Kid-friendly activities like tractor sitting and farm animal viewing, and barrel train ride!–Live Music from Elderberry Jam–Farm-to-Table plates by local chefs Bud Porter & Chris D’avino–Local Beer from Fine Creek Brewing Co. All beer sales support Appalachian Sustainable Development!–Barn Store stocked with seasonal, local produce, fruit, pasture-based meats, eggs and dairy, grocery items and more

Updates will be added as we confirm vendors and the full lineup of activities!

Grow your Own Intermediate Class: Regenerative Agriculture
2025-10-27 18:00 - 20:00
Come learn about regenerative agriculture, a farming and gardening approach focused on rebuilding and improving the health and biodiversity of the soil, ecosystem, and overall environment.

This class is virtual and held through Zoom,

You can register here.

Grow Your Own Beginner Class: Herbs and Wild Edibles
2025-10-28 18:00 - 20:00
This class provides a comprehensive list of garden and wild medicinal and edible herbs.

This is a virtual class and will be held through Zoom.

You can register here.

AGROFORESTRY FARM TOUR SERIES 2026: DIVERSIFIED SILVOPASTURE WITH CALEB RAE OF SOLACE FARM
2026-05-02 09:00 - 13:00
Multi-Species Silvopasture on a Restored Strip Mine Site!

*Please note that this event location is on central time!

Join us for our first farm tour of the year, as we tour Solace Farm in Coalmont, TN (about an hour northwest of Chattanooga). Solace Farm is a diverse livestock operation – producing meats, garlic, and value-added products as well – all on top of a restored strip mine site! Located in the middle of several thousand acres of formerly strip mined land, Caleb and his wife bought the farm in 2008, with aims to use livestock and good farming practices to help restore the land.

Currently, they graze with a multi-species herd (or “flerd”) that generates income through sales of grass-fed beef, lamb, and goat meat. The animals also generate products (e.g. goat milk, etc.) that form the basis of a body-care product line. They sell these products (as well as garlic and a few other things) through local farmers markets, as well as online through their website. Their body care line is also sold on Etsy.

During recent years, they’ve been working to plant additional trees for foraging, fodder production, and shelter. The trees form the basis of a “savannah” system that provides holistic benefits for their animals and the soil. Come and learn how Caleb and his family have leveraged the power of livestock and soil health principles to repair and renovate this formerly degraded land.

This tour is supported in partnership with the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers Coalition. Thanks to them, childcare during the tour is available, upon request!

This event is Free, but registration is required. (This tour has a limited capacity, so please be considerate; only register if you definitely intend to attend.)

REGISTER HERE.

AGROFORESTRY FARM TOUR SERIES 2026: FOREST FARMING WITH ALYSIA LEON OF BIRD FORK FARM
2026-05-09 09:00 - 13:00
Woodland and Field-Grown Herbs for Value-Added Culinary, Medicinal, and Body Care Products

*Please note that this event location is on central time.

Alysia Leon, archaeologist-turned-farmer, established Bird Fork Farm in 2020, to connect deeper with the land and share that connection with others. Bird Fork Farm is a “Certified Naturally Grown” small seed-to-bottle apothecary herb farm, located in beautiful Dunlap, TN. BFF connects folks with wild, edible and medicinal plants through their diverse array of culinary and value-added products. These include a wide variety of culinary, medicinal, and body care products – all made from ingredients that are certified naturally grown and/or ethically foraged on the farm. Products are sold through their “Herbal Farmacy” CSA, website, farmers’ markets, and wholesale around town. Product offerings are as diverse as Thai Fire Cider, Elderberry Syrup, all-natural insect repellents, soaps, scrubs, dry shampoos, and hair rinses.

BFF utilizes sustainable practices for more intensive management on a few acres, while allowing the remaining 50+ acres to remain in a more natural state, stewarded with ethical foraging and population management practices for the wild edible and medicinal plants that grow there. The tour will look at both intensive and extensively managed areas, including their market garden and orchard, a woodland trail through native medicinal herbs growing under the forest canopy, and even a walk through a prairie restoration site (recently burned with prescribed fire) and a mature persimmon grove. Hands-on activities and a peek inside the value-added operation will be included throughout the tour. Don’t miss what is sure to be an engaging day!

Products will be available for purchase on-site. This tour is supported in partnership with the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers Coalition. Thanks to them, childcare during the tour is available, upon request!

This event is Free, but registration is required. (This tour has a limited capacity, so please be considerate; only register if you definitely intend to attend.)

REGISTER HERE.

AGROFORESTRY FARM TOUR SERIES 2026: CATTLE & SHEEP SILVOPASTURE WITH WILL BOWLING OF OLD HOMEPLACE FARM
2026-05-12 17:00 - 20:30
Integrating Wildlife Biology with Forage-Based Grazing: Cattle and Sheep Silvopasture

Will Bowling is both a farmer and a professional wildlife biologist – not two things you often see together – and the combination has yielded intriguing results at his family’s farm in southeastern KY. Will’s passion for managing plant communities has informed his forage-based livestock operation (and vice versa), as he integrates woodland management principles with silvopastoral livestock operations.

Will and Maggie Bowling purchased the farm in 2013, and since that time, they have provided locally-grown farm products to their community in southeastern Kentucky. Old Homeplace Farm consists of around 55 acres, including 2 acres of intensive vegetable production and 26 acres of pasture. Currently, they produce vegetables, cut flowers, and pasture-based livestock (cattle, sheep, and goats). They market through both direct-to-consumer sales and wholesale accounts, as well as some livestock breeding stock. They conduct educational workshops, farm dinners, and other agritourism events.

Come see how over ten years of hard work and ecologically informed land management have resulted in a thriving farm venture.

This tour is supported in partnership with the Southeastern Kentucky Sheep Producers Association.

This event is Free, but registration is required. (This tour has a limited capacity, so please be considerate; only register if you definitely intend to attend.)

AGROFORESTRY FARM TOUR SERIES 2026: OULTRY & SHEEP SILVOPASTURE WITH KELSEY KEENER OF SEQUATCHIE COVE FARM
2026-05-17 14:00 - 17:00
Two Generations of Ecological Farming: Poultry and Sheep Silvopasture

*Please note that this event location is on central time!

Sequatchie Cove is a multi-generational farm, comprising around 100 acres of pasture and 250 acres of forest. Kelsey Keener and his family have been stewarding this land for over 30 years. They are well-known in the region for their commitment to ecological farming practices and their engagement with their local community.

The farm has tried many different operations over the years, but currently their main product line is pasture-raised eggs, sold through wholesale markets throughout the region, as well as locally at farmer’s markets, through their CSA, and on the farm. They currently keep a flock of over 8,000 laying hens. In addition, they keep a flock of around 100 grass-fed sheep, and they also produce market produce, row crops, fruits, and even stone-milled grits and cornmeal.

Come see how two generations of conscientious farming has resulted in a robust operation, deep community roots, and a beautiful, ecologically balanced agricultural system.

Products will be available for purchase on-site. This tour is supported in partnership with the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers Coalition. Thanks to them, Childcare during the tour is available, upon request!

This event is Free, but registration is required. (This tour has a limited capacity, so please be considerate; only register if you definitely intend to attend.)

Register here.

AGROFORESTRY FARM TOUR SERIES 2026: GOAT SILVOPASTURE WITH KATHRYN HUGHES OF ADAPTIVE LIFE FARM
2026-06-01 09:00 - 13:00
Small Ruminant Land Management as a Path to Native Forest Restoration

Kathryn and Neil Hughes own and operate a 10-acre forest farm in Madison County, VA (between Charlottesville and Culpeper), where they have been reforesting traditional farmland in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains since 2019. Kathryn teaches writing and studies disability rhetoric at James Madison University, and Neil is a neuro-educator and founder of N-SCP, an assessment and training company based on Narrative Medicine.

Their farming system centers on using animals to balance land management needs with small-scale farming imperatives. They grow and sell native plants, and also breed award-winning dairy goats – both of which they sell through their website. Tour topics will cover native plant production, NRCS cost-share projects, management of conservation areas, and lessons learned in management of pastured poultry and small ruminants.

This event will include a walking tour of their high tunnel, native plant nursery (both woody and herbaceous species), their conserved riparian buffer and wetland, an American Chestnut planting, an overview of their grazing paddocks, and an optional hands-on activity after lunch.

This tour is supported in partnership with the Friends of the Rappahannock.

This event is Free, but registration is required. (This tour has a limited capacity, so please be considerate; only register if you definitely intend to attend.)

Register here.
