Community News
Farmers Market Serves Up Local Flavors, Art and Entertainment Berryville Style
by Geo Derick
From the BMS newsletter: The Saturday morning seasonal fun of our Clarke County Farmer’s Market (CCFM) will begin on May 3 at 8am till noon, and continue Saturday mornings through October 25th, 2014. Our wonderful area farms will be participating again as usual: MacIntosh Fruit Farm, Shallowbrooke Farms, Chilly Hollow Organic Produce, Smith Meadows Farm, Audley Farm and Life More Abundant Ranch will continue to bless us with the freshest, cleanest produce, eggs, chickens, turkey, quail, pork, lamb and beef, along with some of the finest ready-to-serve and specialty foods available. Geneva is still baking her specialties, and “A Peace of Cake” will return with their amazing array of cookies, sweet breads, granola and more.
Bonadelle will return with a larger selection of gluten free veggie burgers and glutenfree bread! Burwell-Morgan Mill will provide us with locally-milled grains and home-grown music in their tent. Geo’s Joy Herbal Medicine will now feature a line of flower essences, special teas for women, and some new salves, along with surprising seasonal specialties. Grafton School will return with their plants so lovingly grown by their students. And the Master Gardeners will be back with free advice on “growing your own” in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.
New this year will be a strawberry festival in early June; nursery plants, hanging baskets and weekly book sales by local author Betsy Munson, of Greenway Vista Farm and Nursery; shitake mushrooms & specialty pickles by Chilly Hollow Farms. Oliver Acres will return with their goat’s milk soaps, body butter and lip balm, and will be adding fresh lamb and raw local honey to their stand! Hoola Hoop performances, more musical variety, new artists and main street vendors, plus more foods to enjoy by Boyd’s Nest under the café tent. Dogs and children are always welcome! If you are an area artist, musician or a Berryville Main Street member, and would like to enhance your business or share your talent, there are tent spaces available for you at a day use fee of only $20. To schedule your days, please call or e-mail Kimber Herron at least a week in advance: 540-837-2659 ksherr@earthlink.net
Berryville receives Virginia Main Street Milestone Award
Berryville Main Street and the town of Berryville were recently presented with a Virginia Main Street Milestone Achievement Award for the dedication of over 25,000 volunteer hours to the revitalization of the downtown and for creating an environment that has encouraged more than $25 million in private investment in the town’s historic commercial district. The awards were presented at Richmond’s historic Hippodrome Theater.
At the March ceremony that focused on the results of Main Street efforts, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones spoke to the audience of nearly 90 downtown revitalization volunteers and professionals from around the state about the visible results of their hard work.
“This year, you have been thinking outside of the box and using entrepreneurship as a keystone to successful downtown revitalization,” said Secretary Jones. “With entrepreneur development strategies like business boot camps and even an Ideaspace, you are bringing new ventures and amazing growth to your downtowns.”
The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Director Bill Shelton said, “In the last five years, designated Main Street communities have sparked more than $217 million in private investment in their districts.” Shelton continued, “As a result, last year, there was a net collective gain of 453 jobs across the 25 Main Street downtown districts.”
“Entrepreneurship is key to revitalizing our communities. Given the proper support, anybody can pursue their dream of starting a business,” said keynote speaker Toan Nguyen, co-Founder of Impact Investment Consulting, C’ville Central, Community Investment Collaborative and C’ville Coffee. “Communities that are participating in Virginia Main Street are in a unique position to leverage their organizational skills, contacts and methodology to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in their communities.”
