Collard greens are more than a simple side dish. Michael Twitty shares the African-American cultural history of this leafy green. Gail Taylor a grower with Three Part Harmony Farm, honors her ancestors and nourishes her community by cultivating this nutritious vegetable. Rebecca Lemos-Otero and Lola Bloom of City Blossoms teach youth to get their hands dirty by growing delicious collard greens from seeds.
The Culture of Collards from Aditi Desai on Vimeo.
Tony Newcomb dreamed of farming and his partner Hiu followed him from Ohio to northern Virginia to rent land and start a farm. With Tony’s passing in 1984, Hiu continues to sow the seeds of their collective dream into its fifth decade at Potomac Vegetable Farms with her daughter Hana Newcomb and friend Ellen Polishuk.
50 Years of Farming: For Love & Vegetables from Aditi Desai on Vimeo.
What do you do when the next generation does not want to take over the family farm? How do you keep that land in production? These are the questions at the heart of Cliff Miller’s journey to find stewards to care for the land he loves. He finds those persons in Mike and Molly Peterson of Heritage Hollow Farms and Rachel Bynum and Eric Plaksin of Waterpenny Farm.
Farming for the Future from Aditi Desai on Vimeo.
If you enjoyed the Farming for the Future film series, you may also wish to screen When Mickey Came to Town, a 30-minute film about a campaign, waged more than twenty years ago, to stop The Walt Disney Company from building an American history themed park in the historic countryside of the Virginia Piedmont.
The following email alert was sent out August 2016 regarding Dominion’s plans to rebuild the Cunningham-Dooms line and the upcoming SCC public hearing:
Learn more about the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and Soil & Water Conservation District Ag BMP cost-share programs.
Planting riparian buffers along native trout streams is a priority for the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR). Many of the headwater streams of the Upper Rappahannock watershed support Eastern brook trout, the only trout species native to Virginia.
Riparian buffers are the vegetated areas along rivers, streams, creeks, and other waterways. They provide a number of important benefits for stream health, people and wildlife.
Each spring since 2012, PEC hosts a mountain heritage day in a different location and different county surrounding Shenandoah National Park to recognize the history and heritage of the families that once lived in and around the mountains.
Incorporated in 2013, the Blue Ridge Heritage Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to continue the work of honoring and preserving the culture and traditions of the mountain people. For over three years, the group and its Board of Directors have helped the eight counties where land was acquired to create the Park to plan memorial sites to those displaced in each county and exhibits and demonstrations to tell and show visitors the cultures and traditions of the Blue Ridge.
The Blue Ridge Heritage Project’s Board of Directors includes PEC’s Historic Preservation Coordinator, Kristie Kendall, and PEC Board Member, Roy Dye.