Tag Archives: charlottesville

Food Heritage: A Central Virginia Gathering

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Guest post from our intrepid friend Cheenius:

Cheenius meandered over to the county office building to check out “Food Heritage:  A Central Virginia Gathering.”  Hosted by the Virginia Food Heritage Project, this was not another symposium about why local food is great (although Cheenius enjoys those as well).  Rather, they attempted a true dialogue with farmers, gardeners, and really everyone in the 5 county area to get to the roots of our food heritage, and figure out what that could mean for our future.  How did they do it?  They had 5 stations with volunteers ready to take down the information from long-time native Virginians who can remember what breed of cattle their grandmother raised, to ideas about job creation for the future, to figuring out the location of long-lost orchards.  This will be an ever-evolving project, so it will be interesting to watch it take shape.  Turns out that Charlottesville is the locavore capitol of the world according to Forbes Magazine, so if any town is going to start this kind of dialogue, it makes sense that it’d be us!

Old cookbooks and random implements:

A sausage mill:

Cheenius, glad you had fun, and thanks for sharing your experience with us!

More random news from the interwebs

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Here’s what I’m reading while working on my next real posts:

  • The latest Edible Blue Ridge, featuring an article about our favorite fancy local-food restaurant, Brookville. Also exciting: a blurb about a new book called Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement Is Changing the Way We Eat, by UVA professor Tanya Denckla Cobb.
  • We’re Eating Less Meat. Why?, a NYT blog post by Mark Bittman, which examines the reasons that Americans are eating less meat, despite federal subsidies, lax environmental regulations, and lack of support for smaller farms in competition with the giant factory farms, all of which aid the meat industry.
  • Five Easy Ways to Eat Local: Tips on finding and incorporating into your diet more local foods, and a nice description of the health and flavor advantages of local, seasonal food.
  • The end of ethanol subsidies? Demand for the corn product will remain high as the government increases the required percentage of ethanol in gasoline.

Kate’s Real Food Bars

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In need of an afternoon snack, I walked over to pick up a CCNO Bar from my local grocery, but the proprietress was concerned about the age of the bars and pulled the box off the shelf (after giving me two for free!). She hasn’t been able to get in touch with the makers of the bars and thinks the company may be kaput.

So I need a new afternoon snack option. I can buy Larabars at another local grocery, but just learned they are now owned by General Mills, and would rather patronize a smaller company. While at the register chatting about the potential staleness of my CCNO Bars, I noticed Kate’s Real Food bars. This could be my answer.

They’re made with real food, with no added soy, and the Caz Bar is gluten free. According to the web site, it’s a small company made of hardworking people who are serious about eating healthy food to fuel their various, and pretty hardcore, athletic exploits.

They’re carried by several stores in Charlottesville. Look up your own location here. I didn’t try one today since I had my freebie ancient CCNO Bar in hand, but can’t wait for the next afternoon snack urge to strike!

Local snack: CCNO Bars

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I am embarrassed by, and sorry for the poor quality of this picture:

I walked around my office trying to find some decent lighting for my old iPhone’s camera, to no avail. Fortunately, this blog has a lovely photo of a CCNO Bar.

I needed an afternoon snack, and my favorite workday food shop doesn’t carry my usual quickie bite, Lara Bars. I like Lara Bars because they’re just fruit and nuts smashed together, without chemicals and additives and preservatives like Clif, etc. So I was very happy to find the box of CCNO Bars by the register. They’re along the same lines as Lara Bars, but made locally, and with an extra kick of flavor from cononut oil. They’re vegan, gluten free, and all-natural. And LOCAL. And REAL FOOD. Give them a try, if you can find them!

New neighborhood grocery in Charlottesville: The Farm

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Saturday was sunny and warm, a perfect day for HPup and me to walk (yes, walk! hooray!) down to Belmont to check out The Farm, a new grocery promoting local products.

The outside area is cute, with gourds and pumpkins for sale, and a picnic table for lunching. The inside is small but beautiful! I didn’t expect it to have such an upscale feel. I ordered a latte (the coffee is local, from Shenandoah Joe) and had a look around.

Local produce, local bread, local wine and beer! Local tofu, local eggs, local hummus and salsa and pesto! Yay.

They get produce from Horse & Buggy and The Farm at Red Hill, which also supplies salsa, pesto, hummus, and other dips. Tofu from Twin Oaks, breads and pastries from Albemarle Baking Co, and The Farm sells sandwiches. I didn’t try one, but they looked delish, and were cheap!

I plan to frequent The Farm, and hope they’re very successful. Two paws up from HPup!

Cheenius and the Mushrooms, Part I

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Today we have a guest post from our resident survivalist, Cheenius, who attended a mushroom-growing workshop and was kind enough to share her experiences with us! Take it away, Cheenius!

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Cheenius signed up for a “Mushroom Workshop” and was excited about the opportunity to share her experience with HP readers.  Offered by Mark Jones of Sharondale Farm in Keswick, the 3 hour course covered the biology, ecology and cultivation of mushrooms.

Eleven intrepid souls showed up in the rainy 38 degree weather to sip on the yummy herbal tea (free with registration of $60) and learn about fungus.   Mark proved to be quite knowledgeable, and provided interesting mushroom facts and insight.  For example, did you know that the largest living organism on the whole planet is a fungus?  It measures six square miles!

After some fungi basics, Mark walked us through his collection of poplar and oak logs in different stages of growing a number of mushroom varietals.  We then moved on to the hands-on part of the workshop, where he showed us how to drill holes in the logs, insert the spawn and cover it with cheese wax (Cheenius was happy to see that cheese wax has multiple uses!).

He had us each try our hand at the different parts of the process, and sent us home with our own starter spawn for oyster mushrooms.

Cheenius also purchased some shitake mushroom spawn as well as a nifty “innoculator” tool to make the insertion process easier.  As soon as she fells some trees she’ll be in business . . . in 8-12 months!

Cheenius recommends:

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Good luck, Cheenius! Keep us posted on your progress!

New local food cafe in Charlottesville

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Can’t wait to visit The Farm in Belmont! I’d seen it from the road, but thought it was just a coffee shop. They do sell (local) coffee, but so much more: local produce, local meat and dairy, local baked goods, as well as sandwiches, wine, and beer. Local, local, local. From The Hook article:

Much of the produce comes via Horse & Buggy Produce, which distributes food gathered from small farms in the area. Coffee comes from local roasters Shenandoah Joe, baked goods from Albermarle [sic] Baking Company on West Main, and milk, yogurt and other dairy from Organic Valley, Seven Stars Farm and Grass Point Farms. There’s tofu from Twin Oaks in Louisa, hummus, dips, salsas, pesto and fresh produce from The Farm at Red Hill, just down the road in North Garden.

I’ll try to get there this weekend and will let you know how it is!

Greenwood Gourmet Grocery

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I am a little late this year since I’ve been in Asia, but yesterday I took my annual pumpkin-buying trip to Greenwood Gourmet, just west of Charlottesville. I love that place.

It was hard to choose! I ended up with a regular orange pumpkin, a funky gray pumpkinoid, and a pretty two-tone green and yellow gourd.

While there, I checked out their local food offerings–they carry local meats, cheese, produce, and wine. In the middle of the store was a big display with local Henley’s Orchard apples.

According to their web site, Henley’s sells pasture-raised beef, in addition to 38 varieties of apples, and 28 types of peaches. And speaking of happy meat…

…a whole case of it, from Wolf Creek Farm, Polyface Farms, and Free Union Grass Farm, all farms that raise animals on pasture with kindness and respect, and without pumping them full of antibiotics, hormones, and corn.

I made one last stop at the cheese counter.

Meadow Creek Dairy makes several kinds of cheese from its herd of healthy, happy cows. (Note to veggies: they use rennet in their cheese production.)

Fall is the perfect time to visit Greenwood Gourmet! While you’re stocking up on gourds, pick up some local, natural foods.

Local apples and grape juice

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Today’s breakfast was courtesy of Uncle Jim, who brought apples from Catoctin Mountain Orchard to a family gathering last week. So delicious; they didn’t even need the sprinkling of cinnamon I gave them.

Later in the afternoon, Mr. HP, Mr. Cheenius, and I (poor Cheenius wasn’t feeling well) visited some of our wonderful local vineyards. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful, bountiful area.

First stop: Flying Fox Vineyard, where we learned about the new Nelson 151 Trail, home to 7 wineries and 2 breweries.

Some very fancy people were chauffeured to Flying Fox to taste wines. We were not those fancy people.

Cadillac at Flying Fox Vineyard

We stopped at Cardinal Point Winery, home to possibly our favorite local wines, and finished the day enjoying the fabulous views at King Family Vineyards.

King Family Vineyards

It was a lovely afternoon! Missed you, Cheenius!

Charlottesville Community Food Awards

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How do I score an invite to the Local Food Hub’s Community Food Awards next year?

The Local Food Hub is a Charlottesville non-profit that helps connect consumers with locally produced food. They run a warehouse where they purchase food directly from farmers, then sell it to local restaurants, markets, hospitals, and schools. In three years, the organization has purchased $750,000 worth of produce from local farms. They also operate an educational farm to teach community members how to grow their own food, and donate 25% of the food grown there to local food banks.

Congrats to the award winners:
Agricultural Endurance Award: Whitney Critzer, Critzer Family Farm
Community Mentor Award: Richard Bean, Double H Farm
Partner Producer of the Year: Jose and Adolfo Calixto, Singing Earth Produce
Institutional Leader Award: UVA Health System
Small Business Big Impact Award: Integral Yoga Natural Foods
Trailblazer Award: Alicia Cost and Sandra Vasquez, Nutrition Services Charlottesville City Schools

Maybe next year they’ll have a blog award! 🙂