Chef Ian Rynecki and gardener Diane Burns modestly refer to their creation at Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards as a kitchen garden, but the result of their collaboration is nothing less than the ideal template for farm-to-table cooking. Before making his way to Albemarle County in 2017, Rynecki had climbed a ladder with a basket […]
The Charlottesville woman grew up in California wine country—St. Helena, to be precise. Her home, where she lived until she was 16, had a farmhouse feel: open, airy, and not fussy in the least. It was a place for family and friends to gather and literally see one another, without too many walls getting in […]
Ever wonder where those Yodels-like rolls of grass come from that you’ve seen stacked on pallets or laid out in front of a newly built home? From a sod farm, of course. Growing and harvesting sod is a practice that thrives mainly out of sight (and out of mind). But in Orange County, Andy and […]
There’s an air of mystery about the renovated third-floor apartment on the Downtown Mall. A wall of rough-sawn reclaimed white oak treated with bleaching oil runs nearly the entire length of the main room, interrupted only by the rectangular opening that accommodates the black-glass stovetop, kitchen sink, and counter space for food prep. It’s a […]
Leslie and Rich Hock, a real estate agent and commercial pilot, respectively, live the way many of us can only dream of. In the garage beside their home at Eagle’s Nest Airpark, in Waynesboro, they stow their Beechcraft Bonanza, a single-engine four-seater. When they want to visit their daughter, they wing down to Austin, Texas. […]
Compost isn’t a glamorous business, but then again—if it helps you hang onto a big, beautiful piece of land in Albemarle County—maybe it is. The 20-or-so acres that Steve Murray uses to produce compost and mulch at Panorama Paydirt, near Earlysville, have been one way to keep the 850-acre farm in the family. “I raised […]
An interesting housing experiment called Lochlyn Hill is taking shape about two miles east of the Downtown Mall, on the Charlottesville-Albemarle line by Pen Park. Five custom builders currently have a stake in the development, which the promotional material is careful to describe as a neighborhood or community. The architectural portfolio includes country-style homes with […]
When we asked Shawn Tevendale, owner of Blue Ridge Cyclery, to recommend a killer trail bike to feature, he emailed a link back within a minute to the mechanical wonder you see here. “It’s like a monster truck,” Tevendale says. “It’ll go anywhere you want it to, and crush it.” Tevendale also gives the Slash […]
When Sweethaus abruptly closed last December, the year ended on a sour note for fans of the bakery’s cheerful confections. But the new year turned out sweetly for Charlottesville, as former manager Billy Koenig and his team opened Vivi’s Cakes and Candy in the former Sweethaus space on Ivy Road, with the same recipes and […]
Jason Lavallee would like to thank everyone for being so nice. It’s not what a guy expects when he parachutes into town and opens a winery with his wife, and they’re total newbies to the industry, and he starts knocking on doors and asking established winemakers a lot of questions. “I was pretty open, like, […]