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DANBURY — The Community Foundation of the Dan River Region announced this week eight grant awards totaling $237,500 from the RiverBank Fund, including a $500 grant to the Stokes County Arts Council in support of river activities at the 41st Stokes Stomp Festival on the Dan, scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13 in Danbury. The fund was established last year to gather donations throughout Virginia and North Carolina earmarked for the protection and revitalization of the Dan River.

The grant award to the Stokes County Arts Council will support river education and awareness at the 41st Stokes Stomp, including festival marketing, Dan River Company children and adult canoe/kayak demonstrations, boat and swimming river safety clinics, river conservation information, and stand-up paddle board demonstrations.

“We are honored to have been chosen by The Community Foundation of the Dan River Region for this grant, and for being the only cultural arts organization funded,” said Stokes Arts Director Eddy McGee. “The Dan River is an enormous tourism and economic development asset that Stokes Arts will continue to promote and organize projects and activities around” he added.

The following grants were approved by The Community Foundation’s RiverBank Fund Advisory Committee and Board of Directors:

• Dan River Basin Association – To implement, the “Dan River Water Master Plan,” which combines local master plans, water quality improvement, river access development and regional promotion for the entire Dan River Basin watershed.

• Roanoke River Basin Association – To improve citizen access to the Dan River in Halifax County through a new ramp at Leggett’s Bottom and to expand e-coli testing and benthic macroinvertibrate monitoring and analytical testing of water column and sediments in Halifax and Mecklenburg counties to the entrance of the Dan River into Kerr Lake in coordination with the Dan River Basin Association.

• Pittsylvania County – Parks and Recreation – To provide a “pledge” to help create a river access point along the Dan River west of the City of Danville along the Route 58 bypass if other required funds are raised.

• Halifax County – Department of Tourism – To promote the Southern Virginia Wild Blueway as a safe and protected environment and a tourist destination. Grant funds should be used towards a marketing campaign including a video, and other promotions of the Blueway to a larger market. Regional coordination with other organizations is requested to include information from the entire Dan River Basin where possible

• City of Danville – Parks and Recreation – To assist in development of Sandy Creek Park, a 6.9 acre tract of land located on Riverside Dr. adjacent to the current Dan River Church center.

• Piedmont Land Conservancy – To develop a Lower Mayo River Recreation and Access Plan for the portion of the river extending from the Business 220 crossing downstream to the confluence of the Mayo and Dan Rivers, and including Big Beaver Island Creek through the town of Madison up to Mayodan’s Farris Memorial Park.

• Rockingham County Schools – To help construct and equip an outdoor classroom on Big Beaver Island Creek, an important tributary to the Dan River, so that a minimum 150 students each year can participate in water monitoring programs and other environmental education.

Eligible programs had to address at least one of the five focus areas:

1. Responsibly address water quality for regional residents and companies.

2. Encourage new development that ecologically features the River.

3. Improve the cleanliness of the River and the Basin and help protect it from environmental threats.

4. Increase access to the River for family-friendly sports, recreation and entertainment.

5. Effectively promote the River to build regional pride and encourage tourism.

A regional advisory committee was formed to help guide the development of the fund and the strategic disbursement of grant funds.

Donations to the RiverBank Fund are still being sought from individuals, organizations and businesses that have interest in helping to improve the quality and caliber of life all along the Dan River. Duke Energy has been a major contributor to the fund, with a $250,000 donation in 2014. Donations may be made online at www.RiverBankFund.org.

The Community Foundation of the Dan River Region is a public charity established in September 1996 by a steering committee of civic leaders to improve and enrich area lives through the generosity of donors and has already returned more than $17 million in community grants and scholarships. The office can be reached at 541 Loyal Street, Danville, VA, 24541, (434) 793-0884 or at www.cfdrr.org or www.RiverBankFund.org.

Corn mazes and pumpkin patches provide additional revenue and interest on farms across West Virginia when harvest time has long past.

But other agri-tourism opportunities exist, as a group of West Virginia producers found out during a four month class that culminated on a two-day bus tour to Virginia and North Carolina this spring.

The trip was made possible in part by a grant through West Virginia University. It was a culmination of classes that were available at WVU’s campus in Morgantown, the Erma Byrd Higher Education Center in Beaver and an online course.

“We covered everything about agri-tourism (in the classes),” said Cindy Martel, marketing specialist for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture. “They did a lot before they ever got on a bus.” 

“It became a classroom on wheels.”

Other partners were utilized in the training as well, including the West Virginia Division of Tourism, the WVU College of Agriculture, independent farmers and agri-tourism experts outside the state.

Tour participants were interested in implementing agri-tourism on their own farms.

“Farms can provide an experience that travelers are looking for,” Martel said. “It’s ripe for tourism. People want to learn about where their food comes from.”

There was one stop in Virginia and stops in the Triangle area of northeast North Carolina — Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham.

A research farm in Raleigh that doubles as festival grounds was one of the stops, along with a corn maze, a large produce wholesaler and a farmer’s market that hosts an onsite kitchen. Another stop included Celebrity Dairy, an agri-tourism operation in Silver City, North Carolina, that has an inn with bed and breakfast-style lodging, a goat farm and customized catering.

Brit and Fleming Pfann own Celebrity Dairy and were more than willing to share tips with the folks from the Mountain State.

“They told us that we were one of their favorite stops on the tour,” said Brit Pfann, who has been in business with his wife at the dairy turned tourist stop for 28 years. “We were their last stop, and hosted a lunch for them. 

“There’s a lot available in our area, and we’re one of the old-timers. People love to bring their children up and see the goats. We’ve been a very public place all along.”

Question-and-answer sessions at each stop provided opportunities for gleaning information that could be brought back to the Mountain State. 

“Our folks got to make valuable contacts there,” Martel said. “They were set up with a meeting with the North Carolina agri-tourism contact persons.”

The response was positive, with many participants incorporating ideas in their businesses already, Martel said.

“It was a great partnership and really fits (Agriculture) Commissioner Walt Helmick’s vision, who sees agri-tourism as a real valuable enterprise,” Martel said. 

Doolarie Singh-Knights, a WVU Extension Specialist, was a leader in the classes and also participated in the trip.

“It was one of the highlights of my career thus far,” Singh-Knights said. “We saw the lights come on for a lot of people, in terms of how to work together. There was four months of training and this was sort of a capstone tour.” 

Participants learned to think in terms of “clustering” themselves together when possible, with several attractions in one area being more likely to draw tourists than a singular one.

“As a business, you usually want to stand out,” Singh-Knights explained. “But you also want to harness that power of working in cooperation with similar businesses.

“We want people that are within close proximity to come together and form clusters. If you have people from the same area offering an agri-tourism product on different farms, you will be able to attract more visitors in that area because there are a lot more offerings in that area.” 

More opportunities will be presented in the future for more interested participants, with a November target date to have cluster-type trainings in Greenbrier Valley area and one in the New River Gorge area, according to Singh-Knights. 

Lisa Sickler, owner of Sickler Farm in Barbour County, was one of the participants in the classes who also took the trip south. Her farm regularly hosts hay rides and a pumpkin patch for families, scouts or school field trips each October.

But she is willing to look for even more opportunities year-round, and she said the class encouraged participants to continue opening their farms to the public.

Sickler Farm uses about 10-12 acres of its 140 acres for vegetable production and small fruits such as strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. It also grows flowers, with about 10,000 mums planted.

Building relationships with other farmers was another benefit of the trip for participants.

“It was very neat to listen to other people’s ideas, and what their plans are for agri-tourism,” Sickler said. “We need to work together. We’re not competitors, we’re cooperating. We need to help each other out. 

“I’m not going to take business away from a dairy farm, because we don’t offer that. But people may want to come here and pick pumpkins and mums and go visit their farm. It was great to connect to the others.”

The concept of clustering was definitely one that Sickler caught hold of, she said.

“The tour inspired me to look for other attractions in our area where we could draw people into Barbour County to see all that we have to offer,” Sickler said. “We have some bed and breakfasts in Arden, by the river. Down the road from us, we have a community center that has hostel-type lodging. There is a deer farm in Arden and we have a friend that has a 1,000-acre cattle farm close by. 

“We want to host a farm-to-table dinner in our greenhouse so we can get people to experience what it’s like to have a dinner that is all locally sourced.”

That tourists would be interested in coming to a working farm still seems far-fetched, Sickler said, but it’s something she is growing to accept, she said with a laugh.

“It’s amazing that people want to come to your farm, spend money at your farm and work on it — it just blows your mind,” said Sickler. “They’re willing to spend a weekend on a farm vacation, working for a weekend or during harvest time.”

Food awareness is a growing trend, with consumers wanting to eat local and support local farmers.   

“People like to know where their food is coming from,” Sickler said. “They like that it isn’t traveling 1,500 miles to get to their plate. 

“Local foods are becoming very important to people in our area. When we go to farmer’s market, people are very concerned about what is being sprayed on their produce. They want to make sure it’s organic. And they want to support the local economy and the local farmers. That’s very encouraging, because we are trying to make our living by farming.”

West Virginia is poised to take advantage of a growing trend, Singh-Knights emphasized.

“Agri-tourism is an important value-added agricultural product across the country,” Singh-Knights said. “It is growing faster than any other. With that kind of momentum, we are really poised in West Virginia to take agri-tourism to the next level, where it could be. 

“When one hears the word ‘agri-tourism,’ he thinks of entertainment on the farm, like coming to a barn dance or a corn maze,” she added. “But we are taking it to another level that involves agriculture, tourism, education and economics.  

“We want people to understand the full potential of agri-tourism in West Virginia.” 

Lisa Smith is passionate about food, especially local food. It’s a passion that serves her well as development manager for the Neighborhood Co-op Grocery in Carbondale.

Smith and her husband Rick have had a home in Mitchell County, North Carolina, for many years. Rick is a professor in blacksmithing and metalsmithing in the School of Art and Design at SIU. Earlier in his career, he was a visiting artist for Penland School of Crafts, located in the Black Mountains near Bakersville, North Carolina.

About 10 years ago, Smith began to see a few changes in Mitchell County, and those changes have turned the area into a destination for dining and local food and art.

“They support local in a way that we don’t in Southern Illinois,” Smith said. “And the things they are doing, we could do here.”

Smith said people in Southern Illinois do not feel empowered to affect the local community. She began to ask what everyday citizens could do to draw people to our area.

Lisa Smith invited several people from Neighborhood Co-op and Food Works to join her on July 16 through 18 for a farm tour and visit to restaurants in North Carolina. Lisa was joined by Courtney Smith, owner services and outreach coordinator at Neighborhood Co-op, and second-year farmer; Brandi Pelissier, lead cook at Neighborhood Co-op and farmer; and Reanna Putnam, farmers market program manager at Food Works.

Mitchell County is beautiful. Houses, art studios and small galleries are nestled in the mountains near Penland School. Some of the small gallery spaces, some similar in size to backyard sheds in Illinois, operate like roadside vegetable stands. Visitors come in to see the art. Pick out a purchase and talk to the artist, if he or she is available, and leave payment.

Penland School of Crafts sits near the top of a mountain. Different buildings house different disciplines. Some of the buildings are built of black stone from the mountains, others are constructed logs and stone. A few take a more modern form. A small log cabin near the road houses the dye shop for textiles. The unifying factor is the people in those buildings — instructors, students and staff — are passionate about art. The man who mows the lawn even cuts patterns into the grass.

That passion for art flows into the surrounding communities. Downtown Spruce Pine features upper and lower streets lined with crafts shops, galleries, antique shops, restaurants and other businesses. Bakersville is also home to several cooperative galleries.

Day One

On the first day in North Carolina, the group from Carbondale visited two Bakersville galleries.

Mica showcases the work of 14 artists who work and live in the surrounding mountains. The artists take turns working in the gallery. Most of its artists have a connection to Penland School, including nationally known potter Cynthia Bringle.

MARILYN HALSTEAD, THE SOUTHERN
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Mica is a cooperative gallery in Bakersville, North Carolinam that showcases the work of 14 artists. 

Around the corner from Mica, is Crimson Laurel Gallery. Founded in 2002, Crimson Laurel features one of the largest selections of studio ceramics in the United States. It also offers fine jewelry, eclectic furniture, glass, sculpture, paintings and antiques.

MARILYN HALSTEAD, THE SOUTHERN
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The Crimson Laurel in Bakersville, North Carolina, features a nationally acclaimed collection of pottery. 

The parallel to Southern Illinois is clear to Lisa Smith. Southern Illinois is home to a vibrant arts community, and many of the artists have connections to SIU.

Day Two

The second day of the tour in North Carolina featured local foods.

One stop was to talk to Robin Leonard of Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Program in Asheville. ASAP, as it is commonly known, is a nonprofit organization that helps local farms thrive, links farmers to markets and supporters, and builds healthy communities through connections to local food. ASAP hosts farm tours, provides marketing support and training for farmers, publishes a local food guide, runs a farm-to-school program, coordinates the Mountain Tailgate Market Association and certifies products that are locally grown or raised through Appalachian Grown.

But the Carbondale group wondered how ASAP started building its vision of community.

Leonard answered that they began by hosting grower-buyer meetings and surveying the buyers. The survey provided information to farmers such as the types and quantities of local food they would purchase or could use, how the buyers preferred food to be delivered, and much more.

“Our work is how to maintain the integrity of local in the distribution process,” Leonard said. “We’re trying to work with local foods about how to keep the local brand in stores and with farmers to label products as Appalachian Grown.”

Appalachian Grown is a program that identifies locally grown and raised products. The program does not require site visits, and it is geared to family farms in the region.

“People are seeing that local is meaningful and useful,” Leonard said.

Farmers are required to renew annually and update their listings online. The online listing is free. The cost is $100 to be in a printed Local Food Guide. The food guide includes farms, tailgate markets, plus partner restaurants, artisan foods, grocery stores and other businesses that are committed to sourcing from certified farms.

Leonard also explained their process for farm tours, including choosing farms, training farmers and volunteers, and marketing the tour.

Utilizing locally grown products

The Purple Onion, located in historic Saluda, North Carolina, was the next stop. The cafe offers pizza, pasta, vegetarian, seafood and meat dishes utilizing locally raised trout and organic produce when available, as well as fine wine and beers.

MARILYN HALSTEAD, THE SOUTHERN
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This fresh berry torte was one of the desserts on the menu at The Purple Onion in Saluda, North Carolina.  

The restaurant was conceived in 1998 by sisters, Lynn and Susan Casey. Susan had started a catering business in 1994, but the sisters wanted to create a place for friends and family to come together for good food, good conversation and live music.

Lynn fell in love, married and moved from Saluda. Susan and husband, Stoney Lamar, a sculptor, stayed and continued to run the restaurant.

“I have become very passionate about what’s going on here,” Casey said.

Casey said price is the first thing that stops restaurants from using local food. Food is 38 percent of her restaurant budget. She started slow, not using much local food during the first five years of The Purple Onion. Gradually, she has increased use of local products.

MARILYN HALSTEAD, THE SOUTHERN
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Susan Casey, owner of The Purple Onion in Saluda, North Carolina, talks to a group from Carbondale about the trials and triumphs of using locally-grown and raised foods in a restaurant. 

At the beginning of each shift, the staff goes over the specials and where they come from. It’s something Casey’s customers have come to appreciate.

Saluda has become a tourist destination, in part because of local food. The town’s population is 650 most of the year, but swells to about 1,800 during the summer when vacationers return to the area. The town’s main street features a mix of restaurants, like The Purple Onion, antique and resale shops, small general stores and grocers. The local farmer’s market, called tailgate markets in North Carolina, features about 25 farmers and producers and is very popular.

While talking to the group from Carbondale, Casey stopped several times to talk to farmers dropping off produce and eggs.

“We have a very energetic group of seven committed people who run our tailgate market. It gives me a chance to meet growers and it gives them a reason to come to market,” Casey said.

“I’ve developed a clientele that knows where their food comes from,” Casey said.

Day Three

The group from Carbondale wanted to know about those farms, too. On their third day in North Carolina, the group toured several farms on the High Country Farm Tour sponsored by Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture.

The first was FIG (Farmer Incubator and Grower). The project began with students from Appalachian State University. It is supported by the Heifer Project and Blue Ridge Seeds of Change. The land is in a long-term conservation trust for farmers.

The second farm was an organic community garden behind Mast General Store in Valle Crucis. The gardener, Susan Owen, designed the garden in the shape of a butterfly with closed wings. It is an volunteer-run garden and provides produce for FARM (Feed All Regardless of Means), a café located near the garden.

MARILYN HALSTEAD, THE SOUTHERN
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Susan Owen talks about growing potatoes above ground by creating potato towers from fencing and straw at a community garden in Valle Crucis, North Carolina.

The fertilizer comes from composted coffee grinds, garden debris, beer mash and scraps from the café.

“I do a lot of scavenging that way. We do our own composting,” Owen said.

The café feeds anyone who is hungry for a donation. That donation can be monetary or time.

“One in four kids is food insecure. You cannot tell by what someone has or where they live that they are food insecure,” Owen said. “If you are hungry you can eat at the café. We ask for one hour of time.”

Owen said they are doing good work and changing the world.

The last farm tour stop was at Shipley Farm, near Valle Crucis. The Shipley Farm is primarily a livestock farm. It is 117-acres and has five natural springs and two major sources of water. The beef is primarily grass fed, supplemented with one percent grain based on weight of calves. Current Shipley farmers are the fifth generation of the family to raise cattle at that location.

“We hope the name of R.G. Shipley Signature Beef will be as popular as Omaha Steaks,” R.G. Shipley II said.

The farm’s patriarch, 103-year-old R.G Shipley, talked to visitors at the end of each tour and thanked them for coming.

MARILYN HALSTEAD, THE SOUTHERN
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R.G. Shipley, 103, talks to guest at Shipley Farms during the Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture Farm Tour on July 18. 

The last North Carolina Stop was Spoon. The bar, located on the upper main street (Oak Avenue) in Spruce Pine, is a companion to Knife and Fork, a farm-to-table restaurant on Locust Street (the lower main street) in Spruce Pine.

A tagline is printed on each menu that reads, “All menus change each day just before service based on the availability of seasonal meats and produce.”

Head chef and owner Nathan Allen prepares menus at both the restaurant and bar based on food available locally. He serves many local brews and spirits, and creates cocktails with local ingredients. While head chef/owner sounds like an impressive title, he often is found in the kitchen or tending bar.

Allen started visiting North Carolina in 1998 and decided Spruce Pine was the perfect place to incubate because there was nothing in town. Allen lived in Los Angeles at the time.

“I’ve always been in love with small towns. I wanted to find a place with that small town charm,” he said.

And Spruce Pine is that. Both upper and lower main streets are dotted with restaurants, galleries and shops. But Allen had a little more in mind.

“We really thought we could be the vanguard of change, and we’ve done that,” he said.

MARILYN HALSTEAD, THE SOUTHERN
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Chef Nathan, owner of spoon in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, tends bar and visits with customers on July 18.  

He opened Knife and Fork six years ago. He worked with farmers to help write grants to increase their production and the diversity of products. Six to eight farms doubled their production as a supplier to the restaurant.

“If North Carolina is doing this amazing thing and creating this energy, why can’t we do it,” Lisa Smith said.

Allen sees his businesses as his service to the town.

“I really want things like this to be in the world, so I do it. It would be amazing if, in our sixth year, people see it as necessary,” Allen said.

Making personal connections

Later, members of the Carbondale group seemed a little frustrated.

“It seems like in Illinois we’ve been talking about this forever,” Lisa Smith said.

“We need connectivity. We need to make those personal connections,” Putnam said.

Lisa Smith said the Co-Op needs to figure it out to show people in Carbondale that this kind of model is possible.

“People need to try things until it doesn’t fail,” Courtney Smith said.

And, after returning to Carbondale on July 19, members of the tour group are working on creating a strong local food system.

Food Works sponsored a potluck and mixer for local chefs, restaurateurs and farmers on July 20.

A small group met July 23 to discuss creating a brand similar to Appalachian Grown for Southern Illinois grown and raised food products.

The film series at Neighborhood Co-op and Food Works wraps up Friday at Scratch Brewery in Ava with the film, “Food for Change” at dusk. Watch for details of the Eat Local Challenge, which will be the first two weeks in September.

How can you get involved? Simply ask where the food you are buying at the grocery store or your favorite restaurant is grown.