June
Trashy Ribs & Blues Festival
Downtown Orange
June 15th, 5-10pm
Grand Caverns Heritage Day
Grand Caverns Regional Park: Grand Cavern Road, Grottes VA 24441
June 15th, all day starting at 10am
Day time activities free, craft demonstrations, candle light tour and ball in the cave at night. Tickets to the ball limited to 100 and cost $25.
Whole Hog Pig Pickin’ at First Colony Winery
June 22nd, 12-5pm
Delicious whole pig roast for $25, including entertainment and winergy souvenir, lawn games. Click here to buy tickets!
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BBQ, Bands, & Brews
June 22nd, 10am-6pm
Family event including barbeque competitions, entertainment, and local vendors.
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St. Jude Summerfest
St. Jude Catholic Church, 1937 Davis Hwy, Mineral 23117
June 22nd 10am
Crafts and entertainment for both children and adults. Food provided by the Women’s Guild, along with milkshakes and icecream.
Summer Solstice Wine Festival
Lazy Days Winery, 1351 N. Amherst Hwy, Amherst VA 24521
June 22nd 11am-7pm & June 23rd 11am-5pm
Local wine, live music, festival food, local growers, and arts and crafts. More Info!
July
Peaches and Veggies Day
Saunders Brothers Farm, 2717 Tye Brook Highway, Piney River, VA 22964
July 6th, 9am-5pm
Mineral Bluegrass Festival
628 Louisa Ave, Waltons Park, Mineral, VA 23117
July 18th-20th 12pm
Albemarle Cider Works Anniversay Party
July 20th-21st
Albemarle Ciderworks, 2545 Rural Ridge Lane, North Garden VA 22959
August
August 1st-3rd
August 1st 4-10pm, 2nd-3rd 10am-10pm
Ash Lawn-Highlands Fair Grounds
Virginia Mountain Peach Festival
August 2nd
Downtown Roanoke
August 4 9am – 5pm
2800 Berry Hill Road
Albemarle County
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Edible Food Fest
Celebrating Food From Earth To Table
August 10, 2013, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Stay tuned for more information!
August 24th
Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company, Nelson County
September
Heritage Harvest Festival
September 6-7, 2013
September 28 11am-5pm
Lee Park, Charlottesville
October
Saturday October 5
Pleasant Grove, 1330 Thomas Jefferson Parkway, Palmyra VA
October 12 11am-5pm
Walton Park, 301 E. Sixth Street, Mineral VA
Discovery Virginia Chili Cook-Off
October 26
Ruckersville, Greene County, VA
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Clifford Sorghum Festival
October 5th 10am
Clifford Ruritan Club, 755 Fletchers Level Road, Amherst VA 24533
November
Vintage Virginia Apples Harvest Festival
November 2nd, 10am-5pm
Albemarle Ciderworks, 2545 Rural Ridge Lane, North Garden VA 22959
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PAST EVENTS
Tom Yum Festival
April 13, 2013 8 a.m. to 1 pm.
Charlottesville Farmer’s Market
Featuring local food tastings, chef demonstrations, food hub pioneers, DIY gardening, crafts, and live music.
Film Premiere – 18 short films on Central Virginia Food Heritage
Wednesday May 2, 2012 at 7pm
Campbell Hall Room 153, University of Virginia
Free parking available in the Culbreth Garage
Food Heritage Innovation – Ideas for Advancing Food Heritage and Economic Development in Central Virginia
Thursday May 3, 2012 at 5pm
Water Street Center at 407 E. Water Street, Charlottesville
5pm: Screening of 18 short films on Central Virginia food traditions
6pm: Ideas for advancing food heritage in our own community
These films and presentations are the final product of a graduate-level course on Food Heritage Planning in Central Virginia, taught by Tanya Denckla Cobb at the University of Virginia. The 3-minute films are based on short interviews conducted with community members from around our region.
On Thursday, May 3rd, teams of students will also present ideas for food heritage-based economic development, a distillation of months of work investing cases from across the country. We have prepared this special presentation to highlight the ideas that are most relevant to our five-county region.
No RSVP is required, but we’d love to know if you plan to join us. Click here to let us know if you might be coming.
A Central Virginia Food Heritage Gathering
You are invited to join the first “Food Heritage: A Central Virginia Gathering” where people will learn and share knowledge about the special food heritage of our Virginia Piedmont region. Bring your knowledge and adventure to this exciting and innovative project.
When and where:
- Monday, March 26, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
- Lane Auditorium, Albemarle County building in Charlottesville—401 McIntire Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22902
- A sampling of heritage foods will be provided
(Download a PDF of our flyer)
What is “food heritage?”
Broadly defined, it is the history and culture of foods produced and processed in our region – old-fashioned varieties of fruits and vegetables, family recipes, heirloom seeds, former grain mills, cideries, and much more. This project intends to use our local food heritage to create jobs and economic development. We want you to help us identify ways to preserve and revitalize our food heritage, and ways this effort could support economic development.
With your participation, this free community event will help us re-discover and identify our food heritage as well as reconnect with each other. By knowing our past, we can grow our future!
Who’s invited?
Anyone who knows something about our food heritage is invited: gardeners, farmers (young and old!), local chefs, market vendors, senior citizens, 4-H Clubs, historical societies, local food purveyors, dieticians, farm bureaus, area churches, culinary students, conservationists, area businesses, elected officials. Please bring friends, family, and other guests who may be interested in learning or contributing!
There’ll be something for everyone! After a brief introduction to the project, participants will be able to visit different “booths” where you can learn and share information. You might want to tell us about an old-time apple you don’t see anymore, or vegetables that are unique to this area, or a heritage chicken breed you’re now raising. You can share old-time recipes and food traditions. You can swap stories about how food used to be grown, processed, or sold. Help us locate old farms, orchards and other food heritage sites on maps. You can even tell a story while being interviewed on video. And we hope everyone will offer ideas for how we can integrate our food heritage into our future community development.
Who’s hosting?
The Virginia Food Heritage Project is a collaboration of community organizations and passionate individuals who seek to build understanding and documentation of our food heritage, and who aspire to use this knowledge to advance our local food, agriculture and economy.
What to bring:
- Old recipes, menus or historic cookbooks
- Locations or pictures of old food sites (mills, farms, orchards, etc.)
- Pictures and names of heritage foods
- Stories of how you or your elders planted, grew, harvested or cooked food
- Heritage or heirloom seeds for an old-fashioned seed swap (bring in labeled packets)
Please join us! Feel free to bring guests, and walk-ins are welcome too.
Help us honor our local food heritage and lay the groundwork for growing a strong, healthy future for Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa, and Nelson Counties and the City of Charlottesville!
