We know many of you want to eat as local and seasonal as possible. Like us, however, you may open your weekly CSA box with a bit of dread, thinking you couldn’t possibly eat another zucchini or bunch of greens that week. Or maybe you just stare into the box in puzzlement, thinking to yourself, […]
Many of us pick up boxes of vegetables from our CSA shares every week, but how many pick up bottles of milk? If CSAs are all the rage, then herd share operations, giving shareholders a cut of weekly fresh milk production, are a whole different animal. A rising tide of market demand for raw milk […]
We might be swimming in tomatoes, but Virginia-grown rice is consigned to the realm of the imagination. Kathryn Faulkner explains why certain foods just don’t come from here. Dairy. As the milk industry grows more consolidated (Dean Foods now owns Shenandoah’s Pride), only a couple of local retailers sell dairy products straight from local farms: […]
They look so cute, right? Those local farmers at the market with their little trucks and fresh tomatoes and healthy, sun-kissed complexions. Makes you want quit your desk job, right? Well, before you leave the safety of your regular paycheck to get back to the land, you better love, love, love to seed and hoe. […]
Americans just don’t understand sparkling wine. First there’s the annoying habit of always calling it “Champagne,” and second the unforgivable sin of only drinking it on special occasions. Sparkling wine should be drunk anytime or all the time. It’s perfect with food, it’s beautiful in the glass, and it automatically raises your status by, like, […]
Considering how much coffee they were ingesting that noon, the five panelists were surprisingly sedate. Indeed, watching them smell each of 10 cups, swirl, sip and then press their pencils into the grading sheet, an image of study hall came to mind. Not exactly the caffeinated showdown we had envisioned when we set up the […]
Darden Towe Park is still dark and will remain so until county and city officials sit down to discuss the future of the softball fields at McIntire Park.
At its retreat last month, City Council identified affordable housing as the priority that needed the most attention. The city has $1.4 million set aside for this year, and has committed to spending at least $1 million for the next four years on the issues. Yet at a work session last week, some councilors questioned […]
After postponing discussion last month to give residents another chance to weigh in, City Council agreed at its October 6 meeting to sell two lots on the corner of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue to Southern Development if the developer meets certain requirements. At the September 15 public hearing, no Fifeville residents spoke, but a […]
Outside the financial limelight, nonprofits, ever vulnerable to the ebb and flow of donor funding, are battening down the hatches for an economic squeeze. As a result, they have less money to spend on fundraising. “Because of budget cuts…nonprofits have to focus their money on serving the community,” says Serena Gruia of Alloy Workshop design […]