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Growing Minds @ Market caters to kidss
ASHEVILLE — ASAP’s Growing Minds Farm to School Program recently wrapped up its school year program and is turning its focus to tailgate markets. As part of the Growing Minds program, Glen Arden Elementary secondgraders worked this year with Adam Hayes, chef at the Red Stag Grill at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Biltmore Village. In the culmination of their partnership, Glen Arden’s students visited the hotel in a field trip last month, touring the kitchen and laundry room. The trip’s grand finale was a three-course meal, prepared by Hayes and his staff, that used local ingredients from Sunburst Trout Farm, Looking Glass Creamery and Hickory Nut Gap Farm. Now that school is out, ASAP will bring education to tailgate markets, with Growing Minds @ Market. The summer series, formerly known as Kids Corner Market, will take place Saturdays, June-August, at Asheville
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Glen Arden Elementary second-graders try the first of their three courses, a smoked Sunburst trout salad with edible flowers. Other courses included “Super Power” meatloaf, with Hickory Nut Gap Farm’s grass-fed beef and pasture pork, and Looking Glass Pack Square panna cotta. SPECIAL TO WNC PARENT
City Market Downtown. This summer, the series also extends to North Asheville and West Asheville tailgate markets, thanks to support from The Com-
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munity Foundation of Western North Carolina. Growing Minds @ Market is a space at a farmers market set aside for children and families so kids can engage in fun projects focused on local food and farms. Activities include fresh local food tastings, food and farm-based art crafts, and physical activities and games. ASAP has offered the series at Asheville City Market with the help of other community organizations since 2009. “We’ve seen firsthand how the programming not only brings families to a market and helps children connect with the source of their food, but also helps a market successfully engage with the community and a wide variety of community partners,” says ASAP’s Growing Minds Director Emily Jackson. Activities slated for June at Asheville City Market include a garden story reading and activity with Spellbound Children’s Bookshop, hula hooping with Hooping Hearts, edible plant parts edu-