Pick: Crozet Winter Brews Festival

Holiday hops: Craft brews and mountain views await at the Crozet Winter Brews Festival, a celebration of dark beers and winter sips from Virginia breweries and cideries. Enjoy toasty stouts, chocolatey browns, crisp ciders, and never-before-seen beers as you relax in a heated lounge. Lord Nelson and Matthew O’Donnell bring the tunes, and a variety […]

A toast to the front line

Blenheim Vineyards is encouraging everyone to raise a glass to our first responders…literally. In a collaboration between the vineyard and renowned chef José Andrés’ international nonprofit World Central Kitchen, Blenheim’s On the Line wines are helping raise money to provide healthy meals for those still fighting the pandemic. Dave Matthews, musician, philanthropist, and owner of […]

Take your pick

By Chris Martin With serious supply shortages and shipping delays slowing everything down, holiday cooking staples from bacon to flour to peppercorns and more have suddenly become hard to come by. But fear not—the humble squash is here to save the day. More than just funky fall porch decor, the squash is an often-overlooked veggie […]

Core focus

It’s well known that our founding fathers brewed beer, distilled whiskey, and, in the case of Thomas Jefferson, worked diligently to make wine in Virginia. But cider, too has been in production since the Colonial era—both Washington and Jefferson also grew apples and brewed cider. The industrial revolution saw a decline in the cider industry, […]

Sweet cycle

By Carrie Meslar A jar of honey seems like a simple thing. One ingredient, most often drizzled or spooned out in those hazy first hours of the day. Yet, to bring that honey to the table is an involved year-long process that offers little rest for those who decide to take up the challenge. For […]

Easy as local, fresh-baked pie

By Chris Martin With the holidays fast approaching, bakeries are sifting through 50-pound bags of flour faster than you can open a can of cranberry sauce, and pie is cooling around every corner. Local pie maker and young entrepreneur Megan Adams is facing down another holiday baking season. Adams sells sumptuous apple hand pies, mini […]

Farm-to-trunk

In the depths of the pandemic lock-down, independent and small-scale farmers suffered deeply as outlets for their goods scaled back or shut down entirely. There were reports of thousands of pounds of unsold produce rotting in fields while grocery store shelves remained empty, and tanks of perfectly drinkable milk being dumped down the drain. Amidst […]

Granular on granola

Brian Nosek is into numbers. He’s also into breakfast. Nosek, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, is a well-known champion of “open science,” a movement to make academic research and its findings accessible to everyone. “A lot of the public perception of psychology is about treatment and management of wellbeing,” Nosek says. “But a […]

Small bites: Provisions, pumpkins, and Peruvian

Proven Peruvian After receiving rave reviews from patrons at two Inka Grill locations in Roanoke, chef Percy Rojas and his partners-in-lime are bringing their famous ceviche and traditional Peruvian dishes to a new location on the UVA Corner. We are especially excited to try the fried-rice chaufa, chef-selected seafood soups, and tuna tartare. Reservations are […]

Drink in color

As summer disappears and temperatures begin to drop, wine drinkers look for more weight, more depth, and more complexity in their glass. This is, in part, to temper the chill in the air, but it also means wines that will better pair with the food of the season. Autumn leads to more roasting, smoking, stews, […]