What sets Michael Babin apart from his peers is not the fact that he owns 11 successful restaurants and assorted food-related businesses, collectively known as the Neighborhood Restaurant Group. What makes this Cajun-Italian transplant from Baton Rouge – he grew up with pigs and a vegetable garden out back — stand out is his big-time commitment to sustainable food systems.

“We have a real moral obligation in this business to be engaged in these issues,” he said over a tasting at Vermilion, one of his restaurants in northern Virginia.

The 43-year-old Babin opened his first farm-centric restaurant 14 years ago. Evening Star Café was borne of a business plan he had drawn up as part of a law school project. By the time he finished writing, he had talked himself into starting a restaurant with his then-wife.

Evening Star in the Del Ray section of Alexandria – there before it was hip — “was training wheels for learning how to go into the restaurant business,” he said. “We made every possible mistake. We hired a chef who had too big an ego.

“We didn’t know how to manage costs, the staff, the bar. There were long waits for food. I believe you have to make the mistakes, but there is something scary — and good — about jumping into the deep end of the pool. There are a lot of heroic saves.”

With an early career that covered Capitol Hill, lobbying, and law, why food?

“Life happens in restaurants,” explained Babin last summer, at the small but joyous waterfront farmers market his Neighborhood Restaurant Group founded to make farm food available in Southwest D.C. There is live music, fresh gourmet sausages from NRG’s Red Apron, wine and beer, and fresh produce for sale from the non-profit farm NRG founded just south of the city.

At 11 a.m. on the morning of the 9/11 attacks, Babin recalls, the bar at Evening Star was packed. People wanted to be together; they wanted community, and they found it in his restaurant. That’s why he’s in the business.

But there’s more: Babin – who put himself through Yale on an ROTC scholarship and went to Georgetown Law School at night — has a vision for the way Washington could eat. He dreams about a different kind of Beltway: a circle of suburban farms that can supply restaurants and consumers with real and fresh food.

Babin is the force that created the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture (see the Late Summer edition of Flavor for more). A non-profit foundation, its aim is to get healthier and better tasting food to everyone in Washington, rich and poor, through a network of nearby farms.  On the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation, Arcadia farm is also the new headquarters for the D.C. Farm to School Network.

“The goal of Arcadia is to look at the big picture,” said Babin: “How do we support farmers while making their food available to consumers?”

Arcadia Farms, built on the grounds of Woodlawn Plantation, is the incubator, a training ground for farmers, a farm-to-school program and headquarters for a mobile market. It will also be part of NRG’s non-profit food hub that will give farmers an easy drop-off point for their goods which can then be efficiently distributed and sold to restaurants and markets. In less affluent neighborhoods it will sell at reduced prices.

Babin expects the hub to be up and running by next fall.

The food-farming connection springs from Babin’s background. “Being part of an extended family that raised its own crops, that had pigs out back, that owned a butcher shop and a grocery was getting rarer every day,” he said. “I saw a microcosm of a food system that was untypical of the larger food system.” His Louisiana mother and first generation Italian grandmother on his father’s side were amazing cooks. “Food was very important.”

He cooks, too, but he is a hands-off boss (not so hands off, report employees who say he helps them sweep floors and change light bulbs when he stops by). Like some of the most successful restaurateurs in the country, he turns his best chefs into partners.

“As we’ve grown,” Babin explained, “every general manager and chef is interviewed as a future partner. People who work in this industry carry around a dream of owning a restaurant.”

In addition to Babin’s northern Virginia restaurants, he owns Birch and Barley and Church Key in D.C., plus a wine shop, two sweets shops, a butcher shop, and catering operation. His chefs have won Rammy awards and his restaurants land on critics’ favorite lists time and again.

Babin does not expect to be the richest restaurateur in Washington, but he hopes to be one who makes seemingly entrenched industrial agriculture very uncomfortable: “If your overriding goal is to make money you would not be concerned about land and sustainability,” he said. He’s in this with his eyes open: “Change can happen but it will be very, very hard.”

When every restaurant is farm-to-table, it’s hard to pick just one to talk about – so here’s a guide to the Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s offerings. American is the defining word for NRG restaurants, but each conjures up a different descriptor — gastropub, contemporary, small plate, retro and casual. All are of their neighborhoods, but some places are also worth a detour. There is no dress code but topless men need not apply – they are not admitted. Flip flops? No problem.

All the restaurants have soft lighting, a requirement of the owner, Michael Babin. Most seem to have at least one brick wall. All are in northern Virginia except for Birch and Barley and its upstairs beer hall, Church Key, which are near Logan Circle in D.C.

Most important, all use local, seasonal ingredients, and as much as possible from their own Arcadia Farm. There’s not a single asparagus on any of their fall menus.

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Birch and Barley/Church Key – Logan Circle, Washington

First, order beer if only to get the beer sommelier, Greg Engert, to help you choose and then entertain you with descriptions that rival the work of any good wine sommelier.

The house-made bread is really good, too, in this high-ceilinged, softly lit room with dark corners. If you prefer, sit right where all the action is — on stools at the kitchen counter where Executive Chef Kyle Bailey plies his trade. Bailey won the “Rising Star” award from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington in 2011.

Some favorites: Very tender duck breast, aged two weeks with brandied cherries, wild rice and a honey glaze; perfectly cooked ricotta cavatelli with roasted chicken, heirloom tomato puree and house-made mozzarella; an excellent beet risotto with pumpkin seeds and whipped goat cheese that manages to keep the beets from being too sweet. Dinner is between $30 and $50
Upstairs, Church Key is like a European beer hall with 500 varieties, including 50 on draft, served with small plates by Birch and Barley’s Chef Bailey. Crowded? Not if you go at 5:30!

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Rustico – Ballston

Shinier and slicker than other NRG properties, with a lot of modern design elements, this gastropub also has fireplaces, 150 kinds of beers, lagers, ales, and stouts and hearth-cooked fare over seen by Executive Chef Steve Mannino. He turned out a gorgeous summer version of pizza that will be back before you know it: Hummus, tomato, red onion, feta, cucumber and olive salad, minted yogurt. No matter what’s on top, the crust is for those who like it as thin and crisp as possible. The spinach salad is excellent with Surryano ham from Virginia — as good as any prized Spanish Serrano — plus fried shallots, blue cheese and mustard vinaigrette. Salt roasted beet salad with candied pecans, arugula goat cheese fondue, and blood orange vinaigrette was a stunner and filled with flavor. Some describe Rustico as livelier than other NRG places (there’s a second outpost in Alexandria). $20-$30 for dinner

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Vermilion – Old Town Alexandria

Exposed brick and wine-colored walls are classy but not pretentious. The downstairs lounge is comfortable with overstuffed pillows; the upstairs dining room has downtown sophistication. The menu is contemporary American with a highly regarded wine list. This is a very romantic, special occasion place.

Executive Chef Anthony Chittum prepares, serves, and discusses his tasting menu for a single “farm table dinner party.” It’s available only on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and highlights the best from Arcadia Farm and what his foragers bring in. His porcini-crusted scallops are ethereal. At lunch, Vermilion serves beautifully seasoned, deeply flavored sandwiches: chicken parmesan with smoked mozzarella and pomodoro sauce; rock shrimp po boy with remoulade; and a double cheeseburger with house-made steak sauce Tillamook cheddar and crisp onion. Don’t miss the roasted pepper soup with chive crème fraiche, and potato leek soup with house- smoked cod and cornbread croutons. $30-$50

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Evening Star Café — Del Ray in Alexandria

The place is definitely retro, but it’s about to be redone (the tin ceiling will remain!). It’s a neighborhood hangout and every neighborhood should have one like this. It has a garden down the street, soon to be installed on its new roof. Mac-and-cheese fans should not miss Executive Chef Will Artley’s decadent version with intensely flavored spinach gnocchi (standing in for the lettuce), tomato concasse, applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, and triple truffle cream. You won’t need anything else for at least 24 hours. But if you have room, order the trio of crème brulee or the grasshopper pie $25-$30

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Tallula/Eat Bar — Arlington

This is a great place for a blind date – and you have four different settings from which to choose: the dining room with its trickling fountain; a lounge; the jumping Eat Bar with tapas and a wine list several arms long, and right next door is the wine shop which can be turned into a private dining room. If you eat nothing else have the toasted cornbread with guacamole butter and jalapeno jelly. You’ll never eat ordinary guacamole again. Then choose the beautifully fried oysters. You can’t go wrong with a tender and meaty filet on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes. Lots of bold flavors. $20-$30

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Columbia Firehouse – Old Town Alexandria

This is an American brasserie. One side is an historic fire house; the other a former restaurant that is now covered with vaulted glass domes to form an atrium. There is a very social bar of mahogany that has a gorgeous patina from so many elbows. This place serves comfort food: well-done, lightly spiced Cajun boudin and perfectly fried cornmeal crusted oysters with chipotle tartar sauce. Don’t miss the old fashioned cocktails, including the Moscow Mule, French 75 and Sidecar. A chop house is being planned for upstairs. $20-$30.

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Buzz Coffee Bar – Ballston

With a second shop in Alexandria, this lounge-bakery-espresso bar serves sandwiches and cupcakes. The modern, glass-enclosed space is headquarters for the NRG’s Executive Pastry Chef Tiffany MacIsaac, who was honored by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington as the best pastry chef of 2011. MacIsaac provides desserts to all the restaurants in NRG. But here you can take home some of her winning treats for later in the form of frozen cookie dough.

Marian Burros was on staff at The New York Times for 27 years and still writes for them. She has lived in the Washington area since 1959 and remembers when there were no farmers markets. At one time or other, she worked for The Washington Post and the late lamented Washington Star and Washington Daily News. She was also a consumer reporter for D.C.’s WRC-TV. The author of 13 cookbooks, she has been writing about small farms and the pleasures of local food since the 1980s.

“You’re food Nazis,” wrote the irate customer in her e-mail to our farm.  The accusation stung, but more than that, it exposed a gross ignorance about local foods.

The e-mail outburst followed a dialogue about product availability. She wanted bacon and had been denied three deliveries in a row. In her mind, it was preposterous that we would have ham, tenderloin, spareribs, and sausage but no bacon. She couldn’t believe we didn’t have bacon, and assumed we were hoarding it someplace for some other patron more privileged than she. Hence her diatribe.

In local food circles, quite a bit of discussion centers on seasonal eating. Asparagus does not grow year round in the Mid-Atlantic. It’s a seasonal delicacy; one of the first signs of spring. By summer, it’s gone because not only does it get tougher, the gardener knows that the plant must be allowed to grow to restore energy reserves for next spring. The tender spring shoots depend on stored energy.

Although we can grow pigs year-round, their muscle groups are not perfectly distributed for the marketplace. Most of the hog is ham. The next largest portion is the shoulder, then the loin, then the ribs, and finally the belly. When cured, the belly becomes bacon.

This disparity in volume is why sometimes you’ll see skewed pricing on local meat products. In supermarkets, turkey bacon (amalgamated, reconstituted turkey meat doctored up to resemble cured pork bacon) competes with the real deal and takes pressure off the inventory problem.  But when all we sell is the real deal, the most common way to solve the volume disparity is with price. And when that doesn’t work, we’re just sold out. Sorry.

In Australia recently on a speaking tour, I visited a small diversified farm in New South Wales. Primarily a vegetable and special events operation, it also had a small flock of laying hens that couldn’t keep up with demand for eggs. In a refreshingly alternative pricing approach, their sign said: “Eggs, $4 a dozen. Each additional dozen, $6.” I couldn’t believe what the sign said, so I laughingly asked the farmer if it was a gimmick. “No. It’s to discourage volume buying and spread the eggs around to as many people as possible,” he explained, matter-of-factly.

I thought it was hilarious. What a wonderful way to impress on customers that the supply is precious. How perfectly anti-global.

Our farm does not have a warehouse with thousands of pounds of product waiting to enter our retail pipeline. And if we’re short of something, we don’t call Smithfield and order some bacon to make up the shortfall. If you want bacon more frequently, help us eat through the ham (think pork barbecue or fresh pork roast–mmm) and then we can increase our pork production.

Many small farming ventures have failed due to inventory control. Letting unsold inventory build while selling the other half of the animal will sink even the best-intentioned outfits. Yes, I want to make sales too. No, I don’t like saying “Sold Out.” But no farm can stay in business selling only a portion of its product. And small farms have few cushions. To be called a “Food Nazi” for trying to keep a balance on this most important of business realities shows a profound disregard toward the needs of the local small farmer.

The need of the hour is for patrons to ask their farmers: “How can I help you deal with your inventory? Do you have some blemished tomatoes? Are you long on pork backbone or beef chuck roast?” Patrons who ask these kinds of questions get hugs from us.

If you really want to help a small farmer, don’t call him a Nazi for being temporarily out of stock. Dust off your cookbooks and buy something you’ve never tried. Ask him how you can help adjust his inventory. You’ll endear yourself to that farmer in unimaginable ways, and show your local food team spirit.

Internationally acclaimed farmer, conference speaker, and author Joel Salatin and his family operate Polyface Farms in Augusta County near Staunton, Va., producing and direct-marketing “salad bar” beef, “pigaerator” pork, and pastured poultry. He is also co-owner of T&E Meats in Harrisonburg. His most recent book is “Folks, This Ain’t Normal.”

There are local beer makers, and then there’s the Corcoran Brewing Company — where hops are grown on site and pumpkins for the seasonal ale are picked by hand just up the road. If beer has a terroir, this is it.

“It’s all about making beer people love,” says Corcoran Brewmaster Kevin Bills.

Guests at the Waterford brewery park their cars right next to several long rows of first-year hop plants, the third largest hop planting in the state of Virginia. Within three years, Bills hopes to grow all the hops used in Corcoran beers on site. His malt will be sourced from barley growers in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Bills plans to roast some of the barley himself beyond the “pale malt” form in which it arrives to toastier malts necessary for certain brews. Bills carefully sources ingredients for his brewing, focusing on incorporating local products wherever possible.

Bills began home brewing in college, growing continuously more serious about the hobby over the years. Bills was growing hops at his Purcellville, Va., home and creating original seasonal brew recipes when Jim and Lori Corcoran, owners of Corcoran Vineyards in Waterford, Va., decided to take the plunge and start a brewery, inviting Kevin on board as the brewmaster. The brewery is in a separate building on the same property as the Corcorans’ winery and vineyards, making it the first winery-brewery in the state.

For many, western Loudoun County evokes images of horse country or rolling vineyards, but not microbreweries. As a “nanobrewery” in Loudoun County, there may be limitations in terms of the available audience for boutique beers. “A lot of the crowd that comes in is the wine crowd,” Bills acknowledges. He sees this as an opportunity, though, striving to make “balanced, drinkable, smooth beers” that are accessible not only to beer geeks, but to those who may not have as much experience with the various brews on draft at Corcoran Brewing Company.

The success of that philosophy is evident in the chatter from crowd that fills the “beer barn” at Corcoran. Appreciative choruses are overheard: “I thought I didn’t like stout, but I love this one,” and, “Usually IPA is too hoppy for me, but I could drink a few glasses of this.”

Production at the brewery was kept low initially, with a system that allows brewing of one half-barrel at a time. The brewery is only open one day a week, offering tastings and filling of growlers (half-gallon jugs), but no glasses of beer or bottling for distribution. Even with these limited hours, though, the brewery is so popular it has had to close down on two separate to make more beer to keep up with demand. Expansion of the brewing facilities is already underway, mere months after the brewery’s late July opening. The 500 square feet of extra space and new 3.5-barrel brewing system (as compared to the current one-barrel system) will virtually triple the brewery’s production.

The wee size of the brewery allows visitors to view the entirety of the brewing facility as they taste, an unusual experience for anyone who has visited larger breweries where guided tours are required to see the equipment. The brewery will keep to on-site tastings and growler fills for now, with the possibility of distribution to a few local restaurants.

Bills tries to keep six beers on tap at any time. At press time, the brewery was pouring “Wheatland,” a light American Hefeweizen with subtle malt and hops; the “P’ville Pale,” a moderately hopped pale ale; “LoCo IPA” (Loudoun County India Pale Ale), a darker-than-usual, strongly-hopped ale; “Catoctin Ale,” an English-style pale ale; “Corky’s Irish Red,” an Irish-style red ale; and “Slainte Stout,” a smooth, chocolaty stout.

Look for a seasonal Christmastime brew and an alcoholic fermented root beer in future months. The brewery’s tagline, “great beer with a LoCo [Loudoun County] attitude,” is a tongue-in-cheek but apt encapsulation of the atmosphere: fun and friendly, but with a serious focus on expressing the flavor of the western Loudoun area in the glass.

If you go:
Corcoran Brewing Company is located in Waterford, Virginia
Hours:  12 noon – 5 PM, Saturdays.
corcoranbrewing.com

Sarah Searle is a Virginia native and D.C. resident.  A public health professional, her writing spans food culture and politics, wine, rural economy, and agriculture.  She writes about the life lived around seasonal and garden-driven food at her blog The Yellow House (www.casayellow.com).

Honey, avocado oil, tangerine extract: Sounds like a recipe for a tasty salad dressing, but it turns out that these lip-smacking ingredients are also good for the skin and are the basis for a burgeoning cottage industry in skin care products that focus on locally sourced and organic components.

Former city dweller Cindy De Vore started Valley Green Naturals a few years after she and her husband Art left metro Washington, D.C., to raise chickens and vegetables in the northern Virginia countryside. “Art bought a home soap-making kit,” De Vore recalls, “and we started experimenting with natural soap recipes using our own botanicals and honey from the hives at the neighboring vineyard.”

Many local skin care entrepreneurs – there are more than a dozen — seem to have gotten their start this way: experimenting with cocoa butters and essential oils as a fun hobby, and suddenly finding themselves with a lucrative business as interest grows in natural products hand-crafted by local businesses.

“When my daughter Mia was born I spent a lot of time learning about natural skin care because she was just so perfect,” says Meredith Miller of Little Sugar Naturals, “I just wanted to do what was best for her little body.” Her quest led her to craft her Baby-Topia line of products, starting with body butters whipped to the consistency of marshmallow fluff.  She eventually moved on to try lotion making, “first with beeswax, then with a natural emulsifier derived from olives,” Miller says, while also remembering her rookie mistakes. “You have no idea the mess one can make with beeswax and no experience.”

It’s no surprise that these luscious balms, scrubs, and oils are inspired by nature. “I usually think up the names and combinations while I’m gardening,” confides Amanda Welch, the creative mind behind Grubby Girl, whose products start from seeds in her farm’s herb patch in the Green Springs, Va., national historic landmark district. Some of her popular creations include the invigorating City Slicker Scrub, made with coffee, cloves, and orange, and Horse-a-holic Massage and Bath Oil, which has a “muscle-relaxing combination of ginger and cinnamon and is scented with the essence of newly mown hay.”

Packaging is half the fun of these unique products — even Welch admits Horse-a-holic’s popularity among her customers is partially due to the name and design. However, customers don’t just use the products because they’re pretty or have fun names. Karen Buckley is a devotee of Valley Green Natural’s moisturizers: “Because the products are all natural, and locally made, I have a very high degree of confidence that I am using a quality product that has not sat on a shelf for who knows how long.” A Grubby Girl customer for ten years, Robin Patton finds that the products work even better as the years go by: “Commercial soaps are now too drying for me, especially in the winter. Similarly, I used to constantly apply skin lotions in the winter. Switching exclusively to Grubby Girl has been the fix.”

For consumers seeking natural and organic skin care products there is a seemingly endless supply of moisturizers, bath salts, and soaps available at commercial retailers like Whole Foods Market and The Body Shop, but purveyors of handmade skin care lines are finding a new breed of customers: locavores who want to purchase from the source, whether it’s from their local farmers market or an independent retailer.

“Buy Fresh-Buy Local campaigns have helped to motivate consumers to buy safer foods and know where their products come from. This movement has crossed lines into personal care products as well,” says Valley Green Naturals’ DeVore, who has seen her small company’s revenues increase 300 percent in the past year, despite the recession. Not only can customers meet the makers of these products when they visit the farmers market, they can get a firsthand look at the results: “I’m 49 years old,” notes DeVore, “so I’m at that point in my life where my fine lines and wrinkles serve as great testers for our anti-aging formulas.” Now that’s what we call putting a face on your product.

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The Capital Foodshed abounds with natural skin care options, much of it is handcrafted from farm-based products.
Here are some of our favorite lines:

Mac’s Smack
Hanover, VA
Petroleum and paraben-free lip balms.
www.macssmack.com

Valley Green
Broad Run, VA
Natural skin cleansers and moisturizers, hair care, lip balm, scrubs, natural bug repellant, and more.
www.valleygreennaturals.com

Little Sugar Naturals
Front Royal, VA
Paraben-free lotions, body butters, essential oils, and soaps.
www.littlesugarnaturals.com

Grubby Girl
Charlottesville, VA
Handcrafted soaps, oils, scrubs and lip balms with botanicals and honey from Meeting House Farm.
www.grubbygirl.com

The Bumble Bee Studio
Millwood, VA
Body butter, moisturizers, scrubs, bath products, and more.
www.thebumblebeestudio.com

Simply Pure Products
Bealeton, VA
Natural skin care, deodorant, and eczema products, all free of petroleum, paraben, synthetic preservatives, and aluminum.
www.simplypureproducts.com

Sweet Melissa’s Herbals
Afton, VA
Soaps (including a line using spent grains from Starr Hill Brewery), salves, massage oils, bath salts and more.
www.sweetmelissasherbals.com

Garden of Eve
North Garden, VA
Facial and body care, including lines for men and pregnant women, and custom blends.
www.gardenofeve.com

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Kristen Hartke writes about food, health, education and the arts, both locally and nationally. Her musings about food and family are featured in her blog Cooking on the Fly and she is currently having way too much fun researching her blog, Good Booze.

There’s a crisis in farming: The average age of a farmer in the United States is between 57 and 59. Thirty percent of our farmers are beyond retirement age. And the USDA says we need 100,000 new farmers a year – that’s right, every year – to continue American food production at current levels.

Here, we turn those statistics on their head. Meet the new generation of farmers in the Capital Foodshed. The 29 local farmers under 40 on these pages combine a love for good food and hard work with scientific inquiry, bountiful philosophy, and, in most cases, a finely honed aversion to cubicles.

 * for the full interview from our young farmers and slideshow of the farmer photo shoot, click here *

The Farmer and The Cook
Forrest Pritchard and Nancy Polo, 37 & 38
Smith Meadows  – 490 acres
Berryville, Va.
Free-range cattle, sheep, hogs, chickens and turkeys, and handmade pastas and empanadas

“My one wish: That when people ask ‘Why is organic food so expensive?’ that they are then obligated to first answer the question: ‘Why is all the other food so cheap?’ One question has no meaning without the other, yet it is this first, and more salient question, that rarely gets answered.”  — Forrest

How and why did you become a farmer?
Forrest: “I grew up on our family farm.  I decided to become a farmer around age 19, and double majored in geology once I made that decision.  Every time I came home from college, I saw more and more farms disappearing, being bulldozed into townhouses or strip malls.  I vowed that I wouldn’t let that happen to our farm, or at least go down trying. Fifteen years later, I’ve never felt more optimistic about the future of farming.”

What do you love about being a farmer?
Nancy: “I love being part of a farm that is sustainable for the environment and brings real nutrition to busy families who work away from farms. I love knowing that the food I make in my kitchen makes several meals a week much easier for busy moms to put on the table.

The Cubicle Refugees
James and Holly Hammond, 34 & 29
Whisper Hill Farm – 3 acres
Rapidan, Va.
Vegetables, herbs, cut flowers

How did you become farmers?
Holly: “I left our family farm to attend college at Arizona State University.  When I left, I didn’t want anything to do with it.  I wanted to get away and experience the city life and all it had to offer.  Over time, I realized I missed green spaces and going out and eating food straight from the garden.”

James: “My wife and I started a community garden while living in Tempe, AZ.  My day job consisted of a sales position where I sat in a cubical on the phone all day. The garden became a source of inspiration as we fed ourselves, observed nature, and physically worked. Over time we began dreaming about gardening on a much larger scale.  We eventually decided to quit our city life in Arizona, move back East, and make a go of our own farm and a new way of life.”

The Accidental Farmer
Ethan Berry, 24
Belle Meade Farm – 150 acres
Sperryville, Va.
Rabbits, chickens (for meat and eggs), and produce (a little of everything)

“Most people say ‘Wow, really? You don’t look like a farmer.’”

Why did you become a farmer?:
“I needed to provide for my family and took a job with Belle Meade as a farm hand, and then discovered a passion for farming and the life style it provides for my family.”

What is your favorite time of day and why?
“I don’t really have a favorite time of day, but if I would have to pick it would be lunch time because I am usually pretty hungry by then.”

The Chef
Mike Peterson, 28
Mount Vernon Farm – 830 acres
Sperryville, Va.
Grass-fed, grass-finished beef & lamb, pastured soy-free pork and eggs

How did you become a farmer?
“I came to Mount Vernon two and a half years ago for a six month internship from cooking at The Inn at Little Washington. I felt that it was my responsibility, as a chef, to have a deeper respect and understanding not only for the farmers that were growing the food I was using in restaurants, but also to gain an education on raising animals.”

What’s the hardest part?
“The toughest and the most rewarding are all in the same for me.  It’s a great feeling knowing that we have provided a great life for all of the animals on the farm, but whenever the time comes for each animal, it doesn’t make it any easier.  It’s a humbling experience knowing that an animal is giving its life to feed us.”

The Newlyweds
Jill & Buddy Powers, 25 & 23
Powers Farm (at Grey Gables Farm) – 227 acres
Swoope, Va.
Powersfarm.com
Pastured chickens, eggs and turkey, and a Polyface beef herd.

“I wish people understood about farming is that where they get their food from is a big deal.  Farming can be done in a lot of ways and most people, as of now, are not farming sustainably or healthily.  They should know there more and more people working to raise and grow the best stuff they can, and that is where they should be getting their food from.” — Buddy

How and why did you become farmers?
Jill: “The simplest answer is that I married into it…. We got married in April of this year and started farming right when we got back from our honeymoon. Talk about culture shock–laying on a beach in Jamaica one week and literally butchering chickens the next week! It was quite an adjustment, but I survived my first season as a farmer/farmer’s wife!”

The Environmentalists
Stacey Carlberg, 31
Casey Gustowarow, 30
Potomac Vegetable Farms (West) – 8 acres
Purcellville, Va.

Why did you become farmers?
Casey: “After graduating college with a degree in environmental biology and doing conservation work in the Philippines as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I was not really sure what my next step was going to be…I had always had farming very far in the back of my mind.”

Stacey: “Farming combines my desire to do something worthwhile and meaningful with my body and mind, while meshing with my environmental ideals. I have a short commute to work. I get to teach other young folks (my workers) about farming every day. I get to be physically active. I am able to work with my partner. Together, we get to problem-solve and strategize. It’s never boring. And, at the end of the week, I get to see the fruits of my labor distributed amongst hundreds of customers. It is very tangible and satisfying.“

The Urban Agriculturalist
Meredith Sheperd, 28
Love & Carrots
Private gardens all over D.C. and the surrounding area

“Love & Carrots was created in an attempt to help steer the nation’s capital towards transforming from a ‘food desert’ into a food-productive space where everyone is taking part… I believe there are hundreds, maybe and hopefully thousands, of people in D.C. who have the space and would love to grow their own food but are intimidated, feel unprepared, or don’t have the time.”

What’s the goal of your farm?
“To open the option of a ‘reverse CSA’ with all the gardens I’ve installed. We would organize a weekly collection of extra produce from willing Love & Carrots gardens to deliver to food shelters.”

The City Girls
Lola Bloom and Rebecca Lemos, 32 & 32
City Blooms – Community green spaces all over the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
Herbs , vegetables, annual and flowers.

What’s your goal as a farmer?
Rebecca: “Providing safe spaces and food in areas that are lacking both.”

What do you love about being a farmer?
Lola:  “I love learning things the hard way – there is no Internet site that will tell you the future, and so you have to live through it patiently and figure things out (like why cucumbers kept biting the dust this summer) as you go along.”

What’s your favorite vegetable?
Rebecca: “Arugula. Because 1. I like how unassuming it looks but it carries a punch (fun to taste right out of the ground with kids, it surprises them) 2.It’s other name is rocket, awesome 3. I met my significant other (a farmer) over a bed of arugula he was selling.”

The Boutique Farmer
Joneve Murphy, 31
The Inn at Little Washington, 1/4 acre
Washington, Va.
Vegetables and micro greens

“I would like for people to understand that the food in the grocery store isn’t real.  Vegetables don’t come out all the same size and color and blemish free, they are individuals, and the carrot that’s a little too short or the cucumber that curved a little while growing is just as good.”

What do people say when you tell them you are a farmer?
“Five years ago people would often ask if I got into it as a family business, and when I said no, I was often asked if I went to college, as if I could be doing something better with my education.  These days that all seems to be changing; the position seems to have become much more hip.”

The Ethicist and the Scholar
Andrew and Mary Kathryn Barnet, 25 & 27
Open Book Farm – 25 acres
Myersville, Md.
Pastured chickens, turkeys, and pigs, and vegetables.

“Local sustainable food does not have to be exorbitantly expensive–if you buy in bulk (or through a CSA), direct, you can buy food that is both ethically produced and affordably priced.  Farmers markets, especially in big cities, are often held up as proof that the local food movement is only for the wealthy.  But farmer’s markets are not the only way to buy good food!” — MK

How and why did you become a farmer?
Andrew: “At college, I was thinking hard about ethics, and I realized that I needed to know the effect I was having on the world in order to evaluate my actions. I was also becoming concerned about the pollution of land and water and the mistreatment of farm animals, so agriculture was a natural fit. I can see for myself that my animals are happy and my land healthy.”

MK: “I love living in the country.  I love the fact that I have neighbors who will drive their tractor over to help us pull out rocks; I love the lack of traffic as well as the fact that you occasionally get stuck behind old men driving their hay baler on the road between fields.  I love getting down on my hands and knees and seeing seedlings emerge. I love stopping on sunny days to scratch my dog in between tasks.”

What’s the hardest part about farming?
Andrew: “For me, the hardest part is trying not to worry. There are so many potential disasters beyond my control that I’d go crazy thinking about them all. An older farmer told me recently that worried farmers either quit farming or quit worrying. I’m hoping for the latter.”

The Legacy
Rob Moutoux,31
Moutoux Orchard -70 acres
Purcellville, Va.
Fruit trees, vegetables, dairy, lambs, pigs, chickens, and small grains

“I’ve been farming on my parents land the last 10 years, and just bought a farm of my own right next to theirs. I’m a third-generation farmer and have always loved it since a very young age.  I like spending my days outside.”

The Anthropologist
Maureen “Mo” Moodie, 28
Arcadia Farm – 4 acres
Woodlawn Estate, Alexandria, Va.
Vegetables, herbs and flowers

“I want to reconnect people with where their food comes from and what food actually is. I want to encourage and contribute to a landscape that is dotted with sustainable farmers serving their local economies and supporting themselves and their families. …It’s really hard to survive as a farmer and make a living. The food system is fundamentally broken and, as necessary consumers of food, we have the power to change that. “

Favorite vegetable?
“Beets because you can use the whole plant and I’ve tried really hard to grow great beets. I love thinning the seedlings for microgreens and storing and pickling the roots for the winter. I also love growing and eating green beans as it feels like farmer vindication for the pain they are to harvest!”

The Animal Lover
Donald Edmonds, 40
Edmonds Farm – 200 acres
Ottoman, Virginia
Grass-fed, free range, antibiotic/steroid free bison, hogs, ducks, chickens, rhea, goats.

“When you raise animals it is seven days a week, 24 hours a day. When calves need help you have to be there. When piglets drop in the rain and it is freezing out in the middle of the night you are there warming them up and making sure they are eating. It is not just a 9 to 5.”

Favorite season? 
“The fall, cooler weather. The bison like to play tag and run more in the evenings and you can sit on the porch and feel them through the earth as they run, and feel their breath in the air.”

The Businessman-Farmer
Michael Snow, 33
Willowsford Farm – 2.5 (now) to 250 acres (later)
Aldie, Va.
Veggies, fruit, and in the future eggs and meat

“Don’t wait: start by starting.  Grow some annuals, grow some perennials, take a few business classes, and most important build a grubstake.”

Goal?
“To grow great tasting food, in a way that I can feel good about. And to not have to worry about money.”

Favorite vegetable?
“I do like the daikon radish…”

The Hippie and the Country Boy
Erica Hellen & Joel Slezak, 26 & 27
Free Union Grass Farm – 40-50 acres
Free Union, Va.
Chickens for meat and eggs, ducks for meat, and beef cattle

How did you become farmers?
Erica: “I was a wayward environmentalist at hippie school Warren Wilson College… discovered that food was the big black hole in the environmental movement and derived so much fulfillment and meaning from growing my own food.  Interned at farms in Oklahoma (her motherland), North Carolina, and at Polyface and Caromont Farm in Va., met Joel and made a go of it.”

Joel: “I grew up milking Jersey cows on his family’s land in Free Union.  I wanted to take control of (my) food supply… and decided raising chickens was the way to start.  I met Erica while delivering meat from Polyface, then kindled a farmer-romance while she worked at Caromont.  Decided to jump right in! Also, we both hate bosses.”

What do you love?
“The contrast between being really poor and eating extremely luxurious meals.  Being outside all the time.  Having no guilt about what I did with my day.”

Favorite season?
Erica: “Summer because it’s hot!!!! And you can farm in a bikini.”

The Educator
Sarah Bernardi, 38
The Farm at Walker Jones school – 1 acre
The corner of New Jersey and K Streets NW, D.C.
Vegetables, berries, herbs, bee hives, and a small fig and persimmon orchard.

“A lot of people ask me what I’ll do in the winter, to which I usually respond…rest.”

Goal?
“To inspire the kids at school, their families and the people that live nearby to eat more vegetables by introducing them to new ones, teaching them how to grow them and cooking them up for them! At our farm, we want to create a space where kids not just from our school, but from schools all over the city, can come to connect to the earth, be inspired, and begin to assume some responsibility for their own health and the health of the planet, all while learning about sustainable agriculture.”

The Aesthete
Emily Cook, 36
The Farm at Sunnyside – 40 acres
Washington, Va.
Organic vegetables, organic apples, Asian pears, blackberries.

“Secret organic farmer food fetish: Cheetos.”

Why did you become a farmer?
“I blame a cucumber, and my mother. She had just moved into D.C. and I had just moved home from college.  My mom had a headache so sent me out to buy cucumbers for her taboulleh salad.  She said, ‘You can turn left and go to the Safeway, or turn right and there’s this little farmer’s market.’  I turned right and found New Morning Farm’s farmer’s market at the Sheridan School at 34th and Alton Pl., NW.  I was amazed — I had never seen anything so beautiful.

What do people say when you tell them you are a farmer?
“’Oh, that’s wonderful!’ This often makes me want to kick them in the shins. Come pick tomatoes in 110 degree heat and tell me how wonderful it is.”

The Bee Farmer
Cy Bearer, 29
Bearer Farms – 19 acres
Louisa, Va.
Japanese Maples, figs, and honey

“I’ve always known that being outdoors was the secret to being happy. And I’ve learned that actually producing something and then taking it to market is an extremely rewarding way to make a living. Working on parts of things can be unfulfilling.”

What do you love about being a farmer?
Being a beekeeper forces me into a meditative state at least once a day. And for all the hard work of operating a small farm, it makes a certain portion of my day fairly blissful.

What’s the hardest part about it?
There is always something to do. I feel like I’m never finished. It’s a shiny problem considering I really do love what I do.

The Family Farmers
Shawna DeWitt and Attila Agoston, 36 & 40
Mountain View Farm – 53
Neersville, VA
Certified organic vegetables and pastured raised meats.

“We fell into farming after our first internship.  We didn’t even realize such a lifestyle was possible until we tasted it.”

What don’t people know or understand about farming that you wish they would?
“It’s endless work but there is also an endless amount of arenas you need to research and be knowledgeable in…soil science, meteorology, marketing, politics, business, animal husbandry (vet care!)…that’s the best part about this career.”

Favorite time of day? 
“Dusk…the day is over, we’re all in the garden enjoying the light, harvesting vegetables for dinner. The kids are running around the farm and it all seems right.”

The True Believers
Zachary and Sara Miller, 28
Timbercreek Farm – 300 acres
Charlottesville, Va.
Chicken, eggs (though not necessarily in that order) beef, and pork

“Every time you purchase a product you vote for how your food is produced, so consider closely the criteria that you apply when you buy food.  The example that best illustrates this issue is the one of price.  When you purchase farm produce using the criteria of price you send the farmer one message: ‘Use the cheapest possible production methods to bring me the item that I want at the lowest possible price I don’t care about the collateral damage or the diminished quality.

“If you demand more from your food, farmers will deliver.  And if it costs more it’s because the real cost of quality food production is more.  Believe me, there isn’t a farmer I’ve met yet that’s making a killing being a farmer. “

If you weren’t a farmer what would you be?
Zachary: “Sad and directionless.”

Breakfast choices on the run in Virginia’s capital are either a latte and mass-produced scone from Starbucks or a biscuit and bad cup of coffee from a fast-food joint. Rarely do you see – or get — a hot meal to start the day, and certainly not a quick one.

Enter the Empress, the warm and homey restaurant that threw open its doors on Richmond’s Broad Street just 18 months ago.

“We wanted to provide folks with a decent hot meal in a hurry,” explains Owner/Chef Carly Herring. Her Five-Minute Menu offers a wide variety of from-scratch goodies, from scones and biscuits to eggs and “loaded hash browns”– served with sour cream, manchego cheese, tomatoes and oregano. Wash it down with one of Richmond’s best cups of coffee from the independent family-owned roastery Blanchard’s, a mainstay at some of Richmond’s finest restaurants. Baked goods and coffee are also available for take-out if you can’t fit an extra five minutes into your routine.

It’s not just breakfast. The Empress – distinguished by its red awning – serves lunch and a dinner of small plates and stays open late for dessert. And it caters to some of the tougher palates in the business – vegans, vegetarians, and those who avoid gluten – while satiating omnivores (and locavores) at the same time.

Many restaurants make sourcing decisions based on price and convenience. Herring takes a different road, driven by responsibility and a focus on quality.  “I like to know where my food is coming from- there’s no reason that tomatoes should be tainted with salmonella — I need to be confident with the quality of what I serve.”

Many of The Empress’ ingredients come from Charlottesville’s Cavalier Produce, a locally owned and operated company that prides itself in sourcing the best produce grown in Central Virginia. Cavalier Produce in turn works with the Local Food Hub in Charlottesville, a nonprofit organization that provides over 50 small farms with a distribution network.

Herring also sources from local Richmond growers. Blackberries that made their way into summer desserts came from just a mile down the road, and greens travel just a few miles from Chris Vaughan’s Cabbage Hill Farm. The Empress also maintains a garden and compost operation in the back of the restaurant, providing its customers with the freshest of herbs and local farmers with fresh compost. It’s a perfect circle. Herring is able to source local food and keep her prices reasonable partly because she makes most everything from scratch – even curing her own salmon in-house – and through portion control. It’s refreshing to walk out of The Empress after a multi-course meal, sated but not stuffed.

A Customizable Menu

The Empress makes great effort to accommodate its customers. Menu items are tagged as gluten-free or gluten-free optional, vegetarian or vegan, dairy-free or optional dairy-free. Herring, who has Celiac disease, puts her cooking talents to good use, giving patrons food they can safely eat without compromising the integrity of her dishes.

The Empress’ menu evolves with the changing seasons. This fall Herring added acorn squash stuffed with toasted oats, cranberry chutney, fava beans and grilled homemade paneer cheese; charbroiled scallops with roasted spaghetti squash and spicy pumpkin broth;  grilled petit filet with gorgonzola and port compound butter, spicy red potatoes and smoked baby carrots;  pan-seared rib eye with mashed sweet potatoes, spinach, demi-glace and pink peppercorns and sea salt.

Originally from Hampton, Va., Herring moved to Richmond to attend Virginia Commonwealth University, working her way up in a variety of restaurants to support herself. Before long, her job became an avocation: feeding people had become her passion. She enrolled in the J. Sargeant Reynolds culinary program, and was graduated with a minor in pastry.

While she honed her skills in Richmond’s restaurants, including Europa and The Berkeley Hotel, she dreamed of opening her own restaurant. She knew what she wanted to create, partly from what she didn’t like about the industry. Her premise is simple: casual dining with well prepared, seasonal food from local sources at a reasonable price. Now Herring and Barlow are able to give all their guests the royal treatment.

The Empress
2043 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23220
(804) 592-4000
theempressrva.com

John Haddad is obsessed with food: growing it, cooking it, eating it, and writing about it. Marketing guy by day and writer and photographer by night, he is also the Vice Chair of Slow Food RVA and Chair of Know Your Veggies. Find him at www.epicuriousity.net @Epicuriousity on Twitter.

Three birds perch on the label of the most expensive bottle of wine in the state of Virginia.

“A tribute to my grandfather,” explains Rutger de Vink, vigneron and owner of RdV vineyards. “When we were boys, my brother and I would play in the attic of my grandfather’s Amsterdam home,” de Vink remembers. “We discovered a bookshelf with a lever designed to look like a book; we’d pull it, and the wall would open up, revealing a little room—bunk beds, a metal sink, a toilet—clearly some kind of hideout.”

As de Vink would come to find out, his grandfather housed British pilots who were shot down during WWII. He was discovered, sent to a concentration camp, and eventually escaped.

“He never talked much about his experiences,” de Vink says. “One day I found a leather-bound memoir that he had written, stamped with three finches—vink means finch in Dutch—on the cover. Now they’re on our wine, a gift from him.”

So where did this man, who has the nerve to set a price — and a standard — so precipitously high for a bottle of Virginia wine, come from? Somewhere along a career that began in the Marines, wandered into Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and slogged through four years in the technology sector, de Vink figured out that he wouldn’t be happy until his hands were, quite literally, dirty. “My real passion has always been working outside. Even when I was working in a bank in Manhattan, I would go out and garden in my free time.”

In 2001, de Vink shed the suit and tie and signed on to apprentice under Jim Law at Linden Vineyards. From 2005 to 2007, he worked two harvests in Bordeaux, one each at Cheval Blanc and Chateau La Grange, and another in California at Ramey Wine Cellars. For three years, he’d been searching Virginia soil maps and land records for the perfectly savage hillock on which to establish a vineyard of his own. When he found the ideal plot in Delaplane, Va., the neighbors warned him it was nothing but a pile of rocks, though de Vink puts it more colloquially.  But he knew that while loamy soil may be good for farming, you need granite to make excellent wine. In 2004, he was finally able to buy a 93-acre plot on which to plant his vines; he released his first vintage, a 2008, this past spring.

“I get tons of criticism. People think selling $100 wine in Virginia is impossible,” acknowledges de Vink. “But we don’t want to put it in a bottle unless we can knock it out of the park.” Indeed, skeptics and sommeliers alike have been surprised by what de Vink has managed to put in a bottle. This past summer, internationally renowned wine critic Jancis Robinson awarded an astonishing 18 points to both the ‘09 and ’10 vintages of their signature RdV wine, as well as a 17.5 to the ’08 vintage.

“We’ve done a lot of blind tastings,” reports de Vink, “and it’s not that our wine is better or worse, but we’re in the game. We’ve made a wine that can stand on the same table as a wine from Médoc or Napa.” The vineyard also produces a second-growth wine under the Rendezvous label for $55, as well as a “friends and family” bottle of eminently drinkable table wine for $25.

So if it’s possible to make a premier cru wine in Virginia, why doesn’t everyone do it? “Virginia can make a serviceable red wine on any farm—it’s romantic to be out in the country, drinking in a little tasting room—but that’s not who we are. We aren’t looking to host weddings; we’re not a tourist destination.” To that end, you won’t just stumble upon RdV. There are no signposts, no advertisements, nothing to draw your attention to the property or the product. And while de Vink is protective of his endeavor, he is also truly welcoming to those whose interest is commensurate to his effort: “This is the right place for people who are interested to learn more about winemaking.”

Private tastings, which cost $40 per person and book months in advance, are paired with small plates. “We make a wine that goes with a meal,” opines de Vink. “To drink these at a bar or as a cocktail wine isn’t quite right.” Tastings are conducted around a dining table surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows, giving a distinct connection to the terroir. The main building, designed by local architect Andy Lewis, pays homage to the American farmhouse: Two white barns flank an enormous, luminous silo that acts as an oversized skylight.

“At the end of the day, making wine is really an agricultural endeavor. The silo represents that for us,” he laughs, “although a lot of people who come to visit us from Bordeaux see the silo as they’re driving up and say, ‘Holy @$%, that’s a big tank!’

If the goal is to produce a top-tier, cult-level wine that will put Virginia on the map, de Vink is certainly sparing no expense to make it happen. Samples of wine in various stages of fermentation are shipped overnight to Bordeaux, where oenologist Eric Boissenot evaluates each sample and helps direct the winemaking process remotely. Soil scientists have been brought in from elite universities in both France and the U.S. to analyze and map out RdV’s property as well as monitor its progress throughout the growing season.

De Vink’s right-hand man, Cellar Master Joshua Grainer, is also an alum of Jim Law’s apprenticeship program who has worked harvests on both sides of the Atlantic. A former biologist who can wax poetic about the texture of a grape seed just as easily as he can explain the chemical process and significance of veraison (when the berries turn from green to purple, indicating maturity), Grainer elegantly conveys an entire education on winemaking without a hint of condescension.

There is formidable romance in this vineyard, like a secret you’ve been let in on. RdV’s philosophy is a pastiche of best practices that de Vink has picked up from winemakers he’s met along the way. On Fridays, staff members take turns preparing lunch for each other, which is enjoyed family-style at picnic tables in the property’s red barn. Much of what’s imbibed at those lunches comes from RdV’s wine library, which is stocked with exemplary wines from around the world. “It’s important to understand the world of great wines in order to benchmark our wine. To become a world-class winery, you need to taste outside your area.”

At the entrance to the underground wine caves, the words “semper fidelis” are stamped into the concrete floor. De Vink explains that this is not only a tribute to his military past but also to a favorite Bordelais winery, Château Cos d’Estournel, which carried the motto on its arched entryway.

“So it’s not just about being always faithful to our country, but also to the land”—and, one can’t help but feel, to the experience of the wine. It feels like a privilege to be here, but one that’s offered with so much grace and humility that it also feels like you’ve earned it.

Adrienne Wichard-Edds has roots in New York and California, but first learned to love wine in Virginia. Thank you, Jim Law.

An American resort destination for more than 250 years – and a healing spring for Native Americans for untold years before — Berkeley Springs (the village and the water) is just what the doctor ordered after a holiday season of overindulgence.

But first, some history: Thomas Jefferson’s father mapped the area in 1747, calling it “Medicine Springs,” and later, the young surveyor George Washington helped plot the town (and in ensuing years battled the Native Americans around it. They weren’t too keen on being displaced). The list of landowners and guests at the springs reads like a who’s who of American history – presidents, signers of the Declaration of Independence, and Revolutionary and Civil War heroes (or scoundrels, depending on what side you fell on).

What drew them? The warm mineral waters that flow constantly at 74 degrees, 2,000 gallons per minute. The waters were at one time thought to cure gout, arthritis, and epilepsy (indeed, George Washington brought his stepdaughter here to take the waters. His diary indicates it didn’t seem to work). This is a democratic resort at its best: and you can fill jugs for free from the Lord Fairfax tap or wade in the stone pools in the state park. If you’re looking for a fully immersive experience, there are many options: private spas dot the quaint mountain town, and there is a state-run facility that offers soaks and massages.

To do it up George Washington-style, opt for the steam, massage and bath treatments available at Berkeley Springs State Park – a 60-minute massage plus a soak in the springs and shower is $85 during the week, $95 on the weekends. A 30-minute soak in the 102-degree waters of the Old Roman Bath House is $22, but it costs less per person with additional people (up to eight). Make reservations for both.

Just outside of town is Cacapon State Park, where you can build up an appetite for Berkeley Springs’ increasingly sophisticated – and locavore friendly – dining scene with hiking, biking, guided quail hunts, horseback riding, trout fishing, and cross-country skiing.

West Virginia has moved assertively into the local food movement, and Berkeley Springs is at the forefront with two great places that feature locally raised meats, cheeses, and produce: Lot 12, in town, and Panorama at the Peak, both recently honored with Slow Food’s Snail of Approval.

Lot 12 Public House – housed in a restored Victorian (if the weather is good you can eat on the porch) – serves elegant comfort food that rivals some of the better places in big cities. Deviled quail eggs, anyone? The owners are devoted to local farmers and food artisans, including Glascock’s produce, Pipe Dreams Fromage (it’s from Pennsylvania, but that’s local out that way), and Blue Mountain Farm veggies. End your meal with house-made local paw paw ice cream, if it’s the season. If you can’t make it for dinner, check out the Sunday farmers market that runs between April and September — Lot 12 offers its own soups, salads, and sandwiches.

Panorama at the Peak is open Thursdays through Sunday, with the last seating at 8:30 pm. But you’ll want to get there earlier to see the sunset over the rivers and mountains…the panorama, as it were. You’ll sup on lamb meatballs from animals raised on Border Springs Farm, local peach-glazed Ayrshire Farms chicken, veggies from Blue Mountain Farm, herbs from Quail Hollow, and pan-fried West Virginia trout. Panorama at the Peak has gluten-free and vegan offerings, and offers Sunday brunch – amaretto French toast with pecans, steak eggs benedict with local eggs, and a rotating selection of house-made quiche. It all comes with roasted organic rosemary Yukon Gold potatoes. Wash it down with Panorama’s organic coffee, special ordered from Dark Hollow roasters in Sugar Grove, Va. The restaurant sells the beans to go, too.

Properly fed and watered, hit the Star theater in downtown Berkeley Springs for a first-run movie in a circa 1928 theatre at vintage prices. When’s the last time you paid $3.75 to see a flick? Great popcorn, too.

www.Lot12.com
www.panoramaatthepeak.com
www.berkeleyspringssp.com/
www.berkeleysprings.com/
Pamela Hess is the editor of Flavor.

Waving his arm down the length of a garish orange boundary fence that passes just feet from his home and then disappears into his 250-year-old farm, the anger and frustration in Sam Brown’s face are easy to read.

The fence, erected after the town council of Purcellville, Va., unanimously authorized a “quick take” condemnation of seven acres of his farm, is a constant reminder that a commuter road will run right through his property. If Sam, 63, or his wife Uta, 66, owners of Crooked Run Orchard, cross the line to harvest any of the fruit ripening on the seven acres divorced from their front orchard, they can be arrested for trespassing on what used to be their land.

Sam and Uta have been running Crooked Run Orchard, a 100-acre farm, for the last 29 years.

Sam converted his family farm from a conventional cow and corn operation to a fruit and vegetable pick-your¬own business.  Deeply respectful of the land they cultivate, Sam and Uta play host to over 30,000 visitors a year, some of whom have never visited a working farm. Their customers walk away not just with “ecoganically” grown food, but an appreciation for the way Sam and Uta steward the earth.

Planting canopy trees as well as a wide variety of fruit trees, Sam and Uta have transformed once open fields into lush orchards and natural areas alive with native plants and wildlife.

As Crooked Run Orchard has grown and matured since 1982, so has the town of Purcellville. Like much of the rest of Northern Virginia, Purcellville – first settled in 1764 — has experienced a population explosion, thanks in part to its proximity to the nation’s capital. Surrounded by farmland, but with easy access to major roadways leading to D.C., Fairfax, and Reston, the area has seen a 115 percent increase in population since 2000.

Purcellville and Loudoun County have been grappling with the transformation from farming area to bedroom community since the 1980s. The city and county governments endorsed a growth management plan that expressly supports continued agricultural production “for as long as farmers wish to continue farming.”  However, the growth plan, known as PUGAMP, hedged its bets: “Small scale farms and alternative agricultural operations should continue in the urban growth area to the extent that these activities further economic development goals related to economic diversification, business, and tourism.”

The orchards of Crooked Run, apparently, stand in the way. The farm sits where the city plans to extend the Southern Connector Road, also known as 287. It is the last quarter mile linking 287 with A Street, an area populated by newer residential subdivisions to the south of Crooked Run.

Nationwide, more than 4,080,300 acres of farmland were lost to development between 2002 and 2007, according to the American Farmland Trust. That’s an area the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined.

According to the town council, led by Mayor Robert Lazaro, the link will reduce traffic congestion at the Route 7 interchange, most notably in the morning and afternoon rush hours.

Governments have the power to take private real estate for public use with or without permission of the owner – it’s called eminent domain.

Dubbed the “despotic power” of government by the Supreme Court as early as 1795, eminent domain has been both used and abused by federal, state, and local governments as the United States has struggled to grow.  Eminent domain condemnations rapidly escalated in 2005 following the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. the city of New London. By supporting New London’s use of eminent domain to acquire private land for a private commercial development project that would support the city’s economic development plan, the court set the stage for more “takes” nationwide.

Eminent domain condemnations typically follow two paths: the “slow take,” in which a government entity litigates prior to condemnation, attempting to prove its need to possess the property, or the harsher “quick–take” provision, where the property is taken before the entity proves a legal right of possession. Quick-take condemnations often result in irreparable damages to properties, says Robert McNamara, staff attorney and eminent domain specialist for the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va. As an added insult, should the government be found to have taken the property illegally, it is not required to compensate the rightful owners for damages or for business losses incurred during the illegal possession.

Crooked Run Orchard has been the recipient of two annexations by the town and two quick-take condemnations in the past three years.

In December 2009, town officials offered the Browns $37,000 for the 2 ½ acres they needed to connect the commuter road. The Browns refused. The orchard was at the time jointly owned by Sam and his brother, and they had not seen a comprehensive plan that would allow them safe access to the 45 acres of their farm that would be on the other side of the new road.

In January 2010, the Purcellville Town Council voted unanimously to quick-take the plot, bisecting Crooked Run.  Sam filed for an injunction to prevent construction, and he and Loudoun County have filed separate lawsuits claiming that the town had overstepped its authority in annexing the land. Both cases will be heard in December.

Thwarted – albeit temporarily – in its attempt to take the 2 1/2 acre plot to build its originally planned road, Purcellville redrew the road map and set its sites on a separate piece of Crooked Run Orchard. The town in November 2010 offered the Browns $960,000 for a seven-acre parcel just north of the original plot. The Browns refused. In January 2011, the town again voted to quick-take the land.

In April, a judge lifted a temporary injunction put in place on the seven acres shortly after the second quick take, and the town moved swiftly: it deposited $960,000, filed the required paperwork to take possession of the parcel, and began erecting the fence through the Brown orchard, tearing up the landscape that stood in its way. When the town begins constructing the road as anticipated early next year, 90 mature fruit trees will be destroyed.

The original 2 1/2 acre plot remains protected by the first injunction.

The ordeal has exhausted the Browns; they are spent financially and emotionally. Besides a group of local activists and the Virginia Farm Bureau, they have received little help from outside agencies or advocacy groups in defending their farm.

The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), a regional advocacy organization whose mission includes protecting working farms and historic landscapes in Virginia, has been notably silent on the Crooked Run affair.

Robert Lazaro, the mayor of Purcellville since 2006, was PEC’s director of communications from 2005 to 2010. PEC’s Loudoun Land Use Officer, Ed Gorski, told Flavor the organization has not taken up for Crooked Run because it has been otherwise occupied fighting development around Dulles. “PEC has chosen not to get involved with those ongoing legal disputes,” he said.

In the wake of Kelo and the sharp rise in government condemnations and threats nationwide, 43 states have enacted laws preventing abuse of the power by federal, state, or local governments. The Virginia Assembly is expected to vote again on the Property Rights Amendment (HJ 693) and put the measure to voters in 2012. The state constitutional amendment, championed by Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, would bar governments from taking private property for economic development reasons and require the entity taking the property to prove it is truly for a “public use.” It is likely to come too late to help Crooked Run Orchard.

For more information or to lend your support, go to www.crookedrunorchard.com or email Sam and Uta Brown at CrookedRunOrchard@gmail.com. To donate to the Crooked Run legal defense fund via Paypal, click on the link on the orchard’s website.

I was in Australia a couple of weeks ago doing regenerative food systems seminars and a fellow raised his hand with a question: “I’m a farm consultant working for the government.  What do I tell my clients that have 30,000 acres of wheat?”

It’s the same mentality as the urban foodie who asks:  “We have food deserts in our city.  What do you do with the single mom, unemployed, on public assistance, with four children, living in a run-down apartment in a food desert?”

While these may seem like opposite ends of the local food movement, they are both coming from people who try to force me to deal with the extremes, or what I call the fringes. At the least, these are the hard cases. Usually these queries are posed with a bit of sarcasm, like my local food mantra just won’t work or is not realistic due to these fringe extremes.

These fringe issues used to bother me, but no more.  In a wonderful epiphany during one of these exchanges, I suddenly realized that no solution has to answer every fringe extreme in order to be workable. Can you imagine all the “what ifs” surrounding the Lewis and Clark expedition?  All the “what ifs” surrounding D Day?  All the “what ifs” at the first moon launch?

The truth is that anything worth doing is worth doing partially, first. Can you imagine staring up at an apple tree and refusing to pick any of the fruit until you’ve figured out how to pick the ones in the tip-top of the tree? While low-hanging fruit is banging around your head, within easy grasp, you just stalk around the tree, frustrated, refusing to pick anything, until you know how you’re going to pick the farthest, most precarious fruit. That’s absurd, of course.

But that is similar to the naysayers who use the extreme cases as a platform to launch missiles at the notion of a local food system. The most efficient way to move forward is always with the most obvious, and gradually the fringes adjust.

If it were easy to deal with the extremes, they wouldn’t be the extremes. These hard cases are never the place to start, and I do not apologize for not being able to have a cookie-cutter formula to deal with them. And these cases should not derail any of us in our passionate appeals to defend and promote local food systems.

In reality, if everyone who could plant a garden, connect two chickens to their kitchen, install a vermicomposter, construct a simple solarium on the south side of their house, or plant vegetables in pots on the patio actually would do these things, it would so fundamentally change the food landscape that you and I can’t conceive what it would look like. In fact, such universal action by those who could would so change the extremes that those hard cases may take care of themselves.

Yes, my heart goes out to the extreme cases. A father-son team visited our farm just a couple of days ago. Dad had three Tyson chicken houses. Son wanted to join the family farm, so two years ago he borrowed money to build two of his own. They asked: “Now we know this is the wrong way to raise chickens.  But we owe a lot of money for these concentrated animal feeding operations.  What do we do?” That’s a hard case. It’s an aircraft carrier, and aircraft carriers are much harder to turn around than speed boats. I wish it was easy, but it’s not.

Everyone’s circumstance is a bit different. But if all of us would do with our situations what we could to contribute to the local food production, processing, distribution effort, the momentum would carry clear into the fringes. Indeed, the fringes would move somewhere else and create a new spectrum of hard cases.  But that’s okay; it’s called problem solving.

Rather than losing our emotional and financial inertia on the hard cases, let’s go do what we can do right now where we are. In truth, the number of people who could grow some of their own food, or who could purchase unprocessed local food and prepare it in their kitchen is much larger than current participation. Most of us are too busy carting the kids to far-off soccer games and lounging in front of the TV or climbing the corporate ladder to put attention on local food.

Refusing to think of local food systems as an option until we solve the extremes is a cop out.  Reasonable people all know you pick the low hanging fruit first.  Movement creates movement.  Let’s get moving on what we can do right now where we are with what we have. That will change the goal posts.

Internationally acclaimed farmer, conference speaker, and author Joel Salatin and his family operate Polyface Farms in Augusta County near Staunton, Va., producing and direct-marketing “salad bar” beef, “pigaerator” pork, and pastured poultry. He is also co-owner of T&E Meats in Harrisonburg.  His newest book is “The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer.”