Slow Food Asheville is excited to announce our 2016 Heritage Food Project. The votes have been cast in our community effort to select a heirloom bean variety to feature for the project, and the selected variety is the Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean. This bean, an heirloom memorializing the forced relocation of the Cherokee Indians in the mid-nineteenth century, has been recognized by Slow Food’s Ark of Taste for its culinary value as well as its rarity. Read more about the Cherokee Trail of Tears Bean in the Ark of Taste.
Join us in celebrating this bean by growing and learning about it. We are conducting a community-wide variety trial, and we ask you to share your experiences growing and using the bean. This fall, all participants will be invited to a bean celebration, where we will share foods prepared with these beans.
The Heritage Food Project has partnered with local establishments across WNC to make free seed packets available for home gardeners and farmers — anyone interested in growing food with us! Packets contain approximately 50-70 seeds. Find the Slow Food Asheville seed display at one of the locations listed below.
Sign up to participate: in person when you pick up your seed or using the form below. Signing up simply means that you agree to plant seeds, share your experience (such as feedback, photos, recipes, etc), and allow us to invite you to our end-of-season bean celebration!
Grow Food With Us! Participation is Easy!
- Sign up & take a packet of seeds
- Try growing this variety in your garden
- Let us know how it grew for you!
Consider donating to support this project and your local Slow Food chapter!
Where To Get Your Beans
A number of locations have seeds ready for you to pick up and plant! When you go to pick up your seed packets, please sign up so that we know you are part of the project, and consider offering a donation to support this project (donation envelope available or donate online). Or you can simply sign up below, and then go pick up your seeds!
Participating Locations
- OWL Bakery
295 Haywood Rd.
West Asheville - River Arts District Farmers Market
175 Clingman Ave.
Asheville, Wednesdays 2-6pm - Buncombe County Center, NC Cooperative Extension
49 Mt. Carmel, Suite 102 Asheville, NC 28806
828-255-5522 - Hendersonville Community Co-op
60 South Charleston Lane
Hendersonville, NC 28792 - Mill Spring Agricultural Center
Grow Rural Opportunities, Suite 207
156 School Rd
Mill Spring, NC 28756
828-894-8028
