Charlottesville Food (5 page)

Perhaps it's so easy to imagine Jefferson participating in a variety of modern organizations and events because the area has maintained his spirit of enjoyment in and curiosity about the natural world. The more advanced the restoration of Monticello's horticultural beginnings becomes, the more obvious the connections between Jefferson's personal culinary enjoyments and those of modern Charlottesville. Jefferson's adages of manure compost, microclimes and seasonality have increasing relevance for individuals seeking an out from mass-produced, genetically modified food products purchased from cavernous warehouse stores. His insistence on quality and a do-it-yourself mentality can be seen in everyone from local restaurateurs turned homesteaders to young farmers popping up around the region. A Jeffersonian focus on the connections between good food with good beginnings and good health has not gone unnoticed by Charlottesville's farmers, gardeners and food producers.

Chapter 2

Outstanding in Their Field

Farming's New Wave

T
HE
V
IRGINIA
F
ARM AND
F
ARMER
P
ROFILE

The abundant fertility, long growing season and workable terrain of the Charlottesville area and its surrounding counties has not changed much since Jefferson's wildflower days in Shadwell. The kale in local garden beds still sprouts up with thick-leafed aplomb every spring through fall, and olives remain a bad fit for the climate and soil. The rhythmic seasons of planting and harvesting are still relevant markers of time in central Virginia. Intrepid pick-your-own-fruit enthusiasts can go to Carter Mountain in June for fresh peach ice cream or nectarines by the pound; they return in November for still-warm apple pies and a mountaintop full of Albemarle Pippins and Winesap apples. Hot summers aid the growth of heirloom tomatoes and watermelons, whether grown in the backyard or by one of the area's certified organic farmers. The seasons, landscape and soil of central Virginia provide the necessary foundation on which local farmers, growers and food producers can build businesses and feed residents.

According to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), agriculture is the largest industry in Virginia by a considerable margin. Agriculture provides the commonwealth with over $52 billion annually and employs over 300,000 Virginians.
⁴⁷
The Virginia Farm Profile gives both a comprehensive and intimate representation of the kinds of farms—and farmers—in our state. On average, Virginia farmers are fifty-eight years old, with 30 percent of farmers clocking in at over sixty-five.
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These workers own and operate over forty-six thousand individual farms, 90 percent of which are owned by individuals or families rather than major corporations.
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Farms cover over one-third of our state's land area, amassing a total of 7.9 million acres.
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By these numbers, every citizen in Charlottesville could own a farm of 100,000 acres, an area twenty times the size of Thomas Jefferson's original holdings in the region.

Both the farms and farmers of the Charlottesville MSA reflect statewide statistics and local color. As a geographic area, there are limitations to the types of sustenance that the state can produce. Virginia is not known as a grain state, nor have citrus or coffee ever been successfully mass-produced in our area. Sugar cane, rice, cocoa beans, spices and salt may be processed and repackaged in Virginia but are not produced in-state. South Street Brewery and Starr Hill may brew up delicious local beers, but the hops they use are mostly imported. Until recent years, producers of dairy, artisan meats and beef were hard to find in the commonwealth. The state's varied terrain, mild-yet-not-mild-enough weather and humidity prevent Virginia growers from producing many of the food options available in the Midwest or on the West Coast.

However, the list of what the state and central Virginia
can
grow and produce far outnumbers the list of “can nots.” Discounting scores of mountain trout, seafood in Charlottesville comes from the eastern part of the state and provides a crucial element of Virginia's agricultural production. Aquaculture sales in the state exceed $30 million, with Chesapeake Bay– and Atlantic Ocean–caught fresh seafood appearing on plates from Virginia Beach to Winchester.
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Succulent oysters jarred in brine are sold in gas stations along the Rockfish Valley Highway in Afton, culled from the Rappahannock River in the Northern Neck. Blue crabs, flounder and mahi-mahi pulled from the Atlantic and its tributaries nourish both the economy and Virginia diners. Though not exactly twenty-five-mile local, the Virginia aquaculture industry and its economic success serves all citizens of the state and the fine dining hotspots in Charlottesville as well.

Charlottesville-Albemarle's humid sub-tropical climate, with its frequent precipitation and long growing season, acts as a solid foundation for a variety of crops and agricultural products. From balmy April to brisk November, the multitude of options at the City Market on Saturday rivals that of San Francisco's Ferry Plaza or New York City's Union Square. Herb-coated goat cheese, smoked jowl bacon, fig jam, fresh blueberries, whole duck, green-purple field greens, elderflower cordial, corn tortillas and Ezekiel bread are just a fraction of the offerings available from various producers during the different seasons in the area. Farmers' markets in Charlottesville stretch from April to November, though local produce in the form of root vegetables and hardy winter greens can still be unearthed throughout the coldest months. The colors, textures, smells and tastes of local bounty far exceed what one would expect from a region divided by mountains, harnessed by wet summers and marked by high land prices.

Exactly how much farming takes place in the immediate locale of central Virginia? There are no fewer than twenty-five operational farms in the Charlottesville MSA, some of which fit the VDACS profile and many of which don't. Agriculture in central Virginia is a mix of trends and tradition, a mixture of heritage farmers and homesteaders. For every third-generation large-scale farmer, there seems to be an increasing number of smaller operations run by young families interested in wholesome food production. Many of Jefferson's interests in agriculture and horticulture, whether it be his general health-consciousness or desire for local economic solidarity, still factor into the reasons why farmers choose to either enter or stay in the agricultural sector.

For many, the business of farming is as much a career path as a lifestyle choice. The sheer number of hours that farm management requires, not to mention the attempted cooperation with nature and the threats to one's livelihood from circumstances outside of human control, prevents farming from being an easily compartmentalized, low-stress job. Battles with wildlife, land leases, government regulations, poor harvests, broken machinery and finicky customers are merely a handful of the challenges facing modern farmers, many of which are no different than the agricultural problems of Jefferson's time. Vacations for farmers are spare and hard earned, as are sick days or time off. The mountains that so mark the local landscape also create mudslides, road blockages and torrents of snow that can mark or mangle even the most well-run enterprise. To make order out of chaos in the form of a peach orchard, neat rows of peppers or pasture pens for chicken takes not only skill but also strong desire.

Agriculture in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area and its surrounding counties features a cast of characters as varied and flavorful as the crops themselves. There are the young guns, eager to put muscles and enthusiasm to work in place of experience and tradition. The homesteaders are a more ideological, perhaps Jeffersonian offshoot of the young farmers, a group whose interest in backyard pigs and fledgling apple orchards takes on the feel of anti-establishmentarianism. There are family operations both new and old, run by husbands and wives, three generations of men or an entire community. Some local producers have even become household names, showing up in the pages of
Southern Living
or on-screen in
Food, Inc
. Many of these farmers inhabit more than one of these roles, combining aspects of and interests in different trends and traditions. A feeling of camaraderie and inclusiveness makes such variety possible; there is a place for the newcomer in the stall right next to the inheritance farmer at the City Market every Saturday.

The agricultural underpinnings of the commonwealth's economy, coupled with its more than four hundred years of history, result in some long-term farming institutions. Virginia is home to 1,254 Century Farms, operations that have been maintained and family-run for over one hundred years.
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The state government views family farming as a distinctly Virginian heritage, citing sustenance farming at Jamestown as foundational to our success as a state and a nation. Twenty-eight of these farms are located in the Charlottesville MSA, with nearby Augusta County boasting forty-six.
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With the state government recognizing the importance of and achievements of heritage farming, it's no surprise that family-owned farms account for a majority of agricultural operations in Virginia. Yet it often doesn't take a century to establish a well-run farm that can be inherited by future generations.

Ownership of land is the most elemental necessity when preserving the family business, as many farmers have sold off their land to high-paying developers. Though the Virginia General Assembly initiated a farmland preservation effort in 2001, the offers of real estate and commercial developers can be all too alluring for farms not under VDACS's current one-thousand-acre area of protection.
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If the land is there, dedication and interest are the next step toward establishing a generationally inherited enterprise. The willingness to continue in a farming parent's footsteps coincides with firsthand experience of the structure of an agriculturally focused household; before taking up the management of a dairy or an apple orchard, a son or daughter will have witnessed the physical, economic and social effects of a farming career choice on a parent. To continue a family investment in farming is no casual choice; it can be a calculated move to expand a business, a way of preserving property or simply a means of keeping family connections close and consistent.

Successful operations of inheritance farming often seem at ease with recent technological advances of the modern agricultural industry. Perhaps decades and generations of capitalizing on technological advancement and successful weathering of farming hardships have made modern family farms more receptive to using larger equipment and more corporate farming techniques. That's not to say that Virginia's Century Farms or well-established operations are corporatized and bloated. A familiarity with large-scale production methods and the need for a considerable workforce doesn't take the family out of the family farm; rather, successive generations have often proved essential in getting new technology and methods of production in place on aging operations.

K
EEPING
F
ARMS IN THE
F
AMILY

A thriving community of many first-generation farms as well as lineage farms lies in the Shenandoah Valley in an area inhabited by Mennonites. These Mennonite farmers, often less visible to the Charlottesville food scene on account of conservative social practices and religious guidelines, have provided the area with large amounts of produce since establishing a community in Virginia in the eighteenth century.
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Brett Wilson of Horse & Buggy Produce, a local grocery business, cites the Mennonite farmers as some of his major suppliers, responsible for the success of his business. Zach Miller of Timbercreek Organics in Charlottesville names Arlen Beery of Shenandoah Valley Family Farms Co-Op as a major influence on his farm's ethos due to Berry's “dedication to the best biological principles.” In the case of the Mennonite farmers in the Shenandoah Valley, farming is as much a way of life as it a socio-religious occupation.

Outside of both Century Farms and community-wide long-term agricultural structures, family farms of a singular nature continue to act as the building blocks of Virginia agriculture. Donnie Montgomery of Homestead Creamery, an offshoot of his three-generations-old dairy farm in Franklin County, has carved out a niche of delectable, minimally processed dairy products. Running a business capable of selling ice cream in North Carolina and delivering fresh milk to local residents, Montgomery has been able to develop an inherited farm into an interstate business. He notes that a farm must develop and adjust like any business to the demands of the market and available resources. “I have to use more business tactics than I used to when we were smaller,” Montgomery allows of his now-booming business. “The farm makes you a little more open-minded because you have to change and do things differently than you planned on doing.”
⁵⁶

Such changes have occurred in the form of government aid, with Governor McDonnell funding the creamery with the first-ever grant from the Governor's Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development (AFID) in 2012.
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Over a period of three years, this grant “will increase Homestead Creamery's purchases of Virginia-grown agriculture products by almost $1,500,000,” as well as double its staff.
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Montgomery seems most excited about this grant not for the additional revenue it will create but for the increased opportunity to reach more consumers. To Montgomery, the creamery looks forward to further growing the “traditional dairy methods that consumers are embracing as they seek all-natural products for their families.”
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The Virginia government is clearly interested in promoting these methods for both economic and health-conscious reasons.

An interest in protecting and providing for Virginia families underpins most of Montgomery's business ethos, whether it's keeping his own children involved in the farm and creamery or providing nutritious dairy for local families. At Homestead Creamery, grass-fed cows receive no antibiotics or growth hormones. The creamery's milk, contained in old-fashioned, thick glass bottles, has a list of all the additives that are
not
in the product. The creamery's silky, rich ice cream has no corn syrup and is based off a custard recipe so simple that Jefferson would have likely been able to produce it. Though the creamery produces over 500,000 gallons of milk a year, Homestead keeps family first in the midst of a large-scale production method.
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According to Montgomery, the idea to turn his family's dairy business into a creamery stemmed from a desire to avoid a “mega-dairy” production; processing his own milk as well as the dairy of business partner David Bower allowed Montgomery and his two sons to add value to the farm's products and pay for the farm without converting to a larger format.