This week's issue may be best read after breakfast.
We begin with Kim Loescher at Carver, where the conversation runs from apple butter to bone broth and the future of local food. Then it is on to Salubria, a house with nearly three centuries behind it and new plans for welcoming visitors.
The weekend adds its own menu: words and wine on Friday, history and barbecue on Saturday, plus a few nearby places worth settling in for dinner.
Here is a taste of fall in and around Culpeper.
Partner Spotlight
GATHER
Halloween at Ovoka is getting the GATHER treatment.
Ember & Mist on October 31 brings an open-fire dinner featuring Ovoka Wagyu, wine pairings, Latin jazz from Ver Azul and a long-table evening built for lingering after dark.
The setting is part of the experience, with autumn color, firelight, mist and one extraordinary Virginia landscape.
From Apple Butter to Bone Broth: How Carver Is Building a Bigger Future for Local Food
Photo provided by Kim Loescher.
What do surplus apples, imperfect tomatoes, and a food entrepreneur's big idea have in common? At Culpeper's Carver Food Enterprise Center, they represent opportunities worth keeping close to home.
Salubria: History, preservation and what comes next
Salubria, Culpeper County. Photo: Malinda Walker.
Salubria has stood since 1757, but its second floor is currently closed to visitors. A new $708,870 federal grant will address moisture, safety and accessibility over three years, with plans that could reopen that part of the house. What will it take to protect the landmark while opening more of it to the public?
Bald Top Brewing Co. sits on a historic farm in Madison with a scratch kitchen, indoor and outdoor seating, and regular live music. It works especially well when you want the outing itself to be the point, not just one stop on the way somewhere else.
The Blue Door Kitchen & Inn in Flint Hill turns dinner into a small destination trip. Dinner is by reservation only. Chef Andrea Pace serves seasonal, Italian-leaning food on a five-acre country estate, with intimate dining rooms, a bar, a garden patio when weather permits, and four inn rooms upstairs if you decide the drive home can wait.
Apple butter from Bloom & Berry. Photo: Tim Suggs.
Apple butter does not happen in a hurry. Neither does helping a food business get started or caring for a house built in 1757.
That is something Kim's story and Salubria have in common: people willing to put in the work long before the rest of us arrive for a look, a taste or a visit.
The nice part is that our assignment is much simpler. Pick something good. Go see somebody. Take a little time over a meal or a conversation.
And if Saturday takes you to Hop N Hog, perhaps leave the white shirt at home.
Enjoy the week, Culpeper. There is plenty here worth making time for.
