What we’re about
The Sierra Club is America's oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization. This mission of the Sierra Club is to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet. The Headwaters Group of the Sierra Club serves members of Durham, Vance, Person, and Granville Counties. You do not need to live in one of these counties to join our Meetup, and unless specifically noted, you do not need to be a Sierra Club member to attend attend one of our Meetups, events, and/or outings. We welcome anyone and everyone and would love to see you at one of our events!
Upcoming events (3)
See all- Why should environmentalists support building more housing?Link visible for attendees
Could something as simple as building more houses in town help abate climate change? We know that healthy communities exist within the context of a healthy environment — and right now, both are threatened. There is a housing shortage across the country, with many hard-working families unable to find a place to live. There is also a climate crisis, with greenhouse gas emissions threatening the stability of all our planet’s ecosystems and biodiversity. Susan Bean and Eva Snyder of MountainTrue will explain how their program could be part of the solution to both these urgent problems.
This is the monthly program of the Sierra Club group in Asheville; all these programs are free and open to the public, both in person at the OLLI/Reuter Center on UNCA’s Campus Drive and on Zoom.
The Zoom connection can be found at https://www.sierraclub.org/north-carolina/wnc/blog/2024/05/wnc-sierra-club-monthly-program-june-5-preventing-urban-sprawl.
Speaker Susan Bean is the Housing & Transportation Director for MountainTrue. Their former Community Engagement Director now analyzes and informs their policy priorities for housing and transportation projects across their geographic footprint. She is actively involved in the community serving as a member of CoThinkk and volunteering as a facilitator with the Building Bridges program in Asheville. In her free time, she loves hiking with her dogs Mossy and Walnut, road biking, and gardening.
Eva Snyder grew up in Montford and moved back to town with her husband in 2017. The director of operations at East Fork Pottery, she is a housing policy enthusiast as well as an advocate for building dense housing in town to promote housing affordability and mitigate climate change. Chris Joyell, MountainTrue's Healthy Communities Director, will also be on hand to answer questions.
- Meat-free Monday -- on Saturday!Pure Vegan Cafe, Durham, NC
Once again, we are celebrating on Saturday so we can do the meal in person! We'll meet at Pure Vegan Cafe in Durham to sample their diverse menu.
June Food for Thought: The farmers' markets are back in "full swing" with new crops coming in each week. According to the NC Crop Calendar, we should be starting to get local blueberries and raspberries, not to mentions peas and yellow squash, and there are always greens of some kind at the farmers' markets.
Real Food for June: From the beginning of June to the end of August, a number of different fruits, herbs, and vegetables are in their peak form. So what’s in season. Here’s a quick rundown: apricots, cucumbers, basil, bell peppers, blackberries, blueberries, butter lettuce, cherries, corn, eggplant, tomatoes, green beans, honeydew melons, limes, mint, nectarines, peaches, plums, raspberries, shallots, strawberries, summer squash, watermelon, and zucchini. WHEW!
Whether you’re planning a summertime picnic, poolside cookout, or an afternoon at the beach, there’s plenty of opportunities to create some fresh, summertime cooking. From plant-based cobblers and crisps to cold soups, salads, and sandwiches, there’s no excuse to not eat well this summer. There are lots of seasonal plant-based recipes
The treasure this month is cherries: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry
A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Some named varieties are Commercial Cherries, True Cherries, Bush Cherries, and Bird Cherries; black cherries, a native wild species, can be eaten although there is not much fruit on each cherry and you have to beat the birds to them.In the United States, most sweet cherries are grown in Washington, California, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Native and non-native sweet cherries grow well in Canada's provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Compared to sweet cherries, raw sour cherries contain 50% more vitamin C per 100 g (12% DV) and about 20 times more vitamin A (8% DV), beta-Carotene.
More information: https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/meatless-monday