For local cheesemaker Gail Hobbs-Page, the hills will be alive with the sound of cowbells and milking pails as she embarks on a dream excursion to the Italian Alps this month. She’ll be communing with Italian cheese makers who are making their product the old-fashioned way: by hand. Hobbs-Page, who owns Caromont Farm south of […]
For local cheesemaker Gail Hobbs-Page, the hills will be alive with the sound of cowbells and milking pails as she embarks on a dream excursion to the Italian Alps this month. She’ll be communing with Italian cheese makers who are making their product the old-fashioned way: by hand. Hobbs-Page, who owns Caromont Farm south of […]
Dedicated to a vision of Crozet as a town connected through greenways, the Crozet Trails Crew is all about forging community links. It’s work that makes them happy. “I love that outside my back door there are paths that follow streams, riparian zones, and wildlife,” says Terri Miyamoto, president of the all-volunteer CTC. “Our mission […]
It’s been hard to escape news of the opioid crisis over the past few years. And it’s just as difficult to ignore the complicity of the nation’s health care system in creating it. Opioid medications—drugs similar to morphine and named for the opium poppy plant that produces them—have an important role to play in patient […]
For North American Sake Brewery co-owner Jeremy Goldstein, it wasn’t a trip to Japan but a visit back home to California that inspired his new venture. “I’d never had ‘craft’ sake, but I went to this amazing restaurant with a sake sommelier and had a whole different experience than I’d had before with the heated […]
By Caroline Hockenbury When Gilbert Lopez and his family opened the original downtown Guadalajara, named after Lopez’s hometown in Mexico, he had only 20 years of life under his belt and a pooled savings of $18,000 in his back pocket. The early years were synonymous with sacrifice, meaning 14-plus-hour shifts and tight circumstances. “My son, […]
Belmont’s Junction is delving into the weekend world of bracing bloodies and merciful mimosas with the launch of a brunch service. Executive chef Melissa Close-Hart says the demand was there for it, and the timing right. “We thought about doing brunch from the beginning,” she says. “We tried it out on holidays, like Easter and […]
Today, we’re seeing a wine renaissance in the Shenandoah Valley. But the history of wine growing in this region goes deeper than you might suspect. As early as the late 1700s and early 1800s, Samuel Kercheval described how privacy-seeking neighbors obstructed horse paths by tying grape vines across them. These were likely wild grape vines […]
Tourist trap: It’s such an ugly term. Of course there’s reason to beware of over-hyped destinations. But—especially with kids in tow—there’s also a certain enjoyment in surrendering, now and then, to the spectacle. I don’t know of anyplace in Virginia where that’s a truer statement than at Luray Caverns. The Caverns, as our guide on […]
Soon, you might not need a green thumb to farm continually fresh greens at home. For that matter, you might not need a garden, at least not in the traditional sense. For that, you can thank Alexander Olesen and Graham Smith, two recent UVA graduates who have developed a series of hydroponic micro-farms that are […]
Finding a new dog isn’t trivial, and I’m often faced with questions about the process. There are so many variables to consider. Should you adopt a puppy or rescue an adult? What size dog best fits your lifestyle? Some questions have easier answers than others, and many require a degree of generalization that makes me […]