Warrenton Lifestyle Magazine October 2023

FROM THE EDITOR

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

It’s October again, and soon it will really feel like autumn. But for me, the month of October will always be somewhat of a milestone for me.

Last year at this time when I was writing my editor’s note, I was also preparing for surgery. I had been diagnosed with DCIS, a non-invasive or possibly pre-invasive stage 0 breast cancer. Two lumpectomy surgeries failed to achieve the necessary margins.

As I wrote last year, I, with my husband and family, decided on mastectomy followed by reconstruction.

This decision, given a stage 0 diagnosis, was an aggressive approach, to be sure, and may not be the decision made by others in the same situation.

A year later, looking back, it was definitely the best decision for me.

It was not easy. At all. So many things I didn’t expect. But I’ve adjusted, and I’m doing really well.

I shared this with you last year, and I wrote that if I just reached one person about the importance of regular screening that it would be the most important thing I’d ever written. I hope I have done so or am doing so now.

It wasn’t easy to share, but I’m glad I did. So many people reached out to offer support and positive vibes and continue to this day to ask how I’m doing. Thank you, it means a lot to me.

As a final thought, I’d like to ask that everyone keep Principal Kraig Kelican’s family and the Fauquier High School community in their thoughts. His passing was a great loss.

PUBLISHER

Dennis Brack dennis@warrentonlifestyle.com

EDITOR Pam Kamphuis pam@warrentonlifestyle.com

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The Warrenton Lifestyle Magazine is published monthly and distributed to over 11,500 selected addresses. While reasonable care is taken with all material submitted to The Warrenton Lifestyle Magazine, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage to any such material. Opinions expressed in articles are strictly those of the authors. While ensuring that all published information is accurate, the publisher cannot be held responsible for any mistakes or omissions. Reproduction in whole or part of any of the text, illustration or photograph is strictly forbidden. ©2023 Rappahannock Media LLC.

EDITOR Pam Kamphuis

GLENDA C. BOOTH

SCOTT ELLIFF

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Hunt

A Warrenton Halloween

A collaborative effort between Warrenton Parks & Rec and the Warrenton Police Department

Halloween safety tips

For drivers

Slow down!

This year, the town celebration will take place on Saturday, October 28 with spooky – and friendly –activities throughout the day.

First thing

The day starts with the Halloween Parade in Old Town, and all kids who would like to participate are welcome. Be sure to wear your costume and bring your pet (they should be dressed festively as well!) Warrenton PD will close Main Street at 8 a.m., and kids should gather at 9:45 a.m. by 5th Street. The procession will begin at 10, led by a police cruiser as the kids march to the Courthouse showing off their costumes while spectators cheer them on. When they reach the courthouse, Parks & Rec

will hold a costume contest with prizes for most original, scariest and funniest, with the prize for each category a free birthday party space at the WARF, and then kids are welcome to trick or treat at old town businesses until 12 p.m.

And then...more candy

It’s time for more candy at Trunk or Treat at the WARF! Many local businesses and organizations, together with Warrenton PD, town officials, the Warrenton Fire Department, and Parks & Rec turn the large parking lot into a safe and friendly trick-or-treating opportunity for the kids. Between 3-6 p.m., kids make the rounds of decorated cars, collecting candy at each one. Be sure to stop by the

Be alert for a lot of pedestrians to be out and about, possibly in places where they are not expected or not easily visible. Stop for pedestrians and trick or treaters and let them pass. Be even more alert than usual and stay off your phone. If you see a possible drunk driver, contact law enforcement.

For kids

Wear reflective clothing and/or carry glowsticks. Walk on the sidewalks and use crosswalks.

Create a “buddy system” to get each other home safely and prevent walking alone.

Have your parents check candy before diving in.

Warrenton PD’s spot where there will be candy for all, and officers’ favorite part: handing out toy badges to children with law enforcement costumes. Warrenton PD expects over 30 participating cars/vehicles and hundreds of kids. You’ll be sure to run into friends and neighbors. “We had such a great turnout last year that we almost ran out of candy. We’ll be prepared this year!” said Rachel Shockey of the Warrenton Police Department.

And after dark…

It’s not really Halloween until it gets dark, is it? That’s the spooky, fun part. In the evening, Parks & Rec and Warrenton PD will hold the Flashlight Candy Hunt for kids 5-10 at Rady Park. Wear your costume, bring your flashlight and glow sticks, and hunt for candy through the park. The event begins at 7 p.m. with crafts and games, and the candy hunt starts at 7:30, separated by age group. How much candy will there be? Enough for everyone! “We put out A LOT,” said Shockey, “But it takes the kids a lot less time to pick up the candy than it takes us to hide it!” There’s also a raffle and a spooky photobooth with the Warrenton PD. Admission to the candy hunt is $5 per child, and registration is required by calling 540-349-2520 or going online.

flashlight , treat bag/bucket and

Law Enforcement Officers from the Warrenton Police Department are instrumental in the parade on Main Street

local heroes

Honoring Heroes

Volunteers needed for “Flags In” project in Warrenton to take place November 4

The John D. Sudduth

American Legion Post 72's "Flags In" project is seeking volunteers to help with the bi-annual project that honors the nation's veterans.

Twice a year (May and November, in honor of Memorial Day and Veterans Day), Post 72 oversees the placement of American flags on the graves of veterans buried in the Warrenton Cemetery. The flags remain for two weeks and then are removed. Between 100 and 200 volunteers are needed to place and then remove over 900 flags in the cemetery.

According to Lulu Baer, coordinator for the project, volunteers frequently include members of local government, law enforcement and fire departments, as well as many community members.

She said, "It's a great way for the community to get together and get to know each other without regard to politics,

Let Flags

In

race, or class. This project has been a source of great joy for me. I pray it continues to attract volunteers and garner the support it always has."

Often, families participate together. Dawn Brown, who has volunteered over the years with her sons, said, “It is an amazing experience that allows us to stop and remember the men and women who have

sacrificed to give us the freedoms I know I often take for granted. It is a beautiful thing to look out over the cemetery and see flags waving.”

John Kuvakas, another frequent volunteer, said “It's a wonderful way to give back … and honor those who served this great country of ours and defended our freedom.”

"Flags In" will take place on November 4, and "Flags Out" will take place on November 18. Volunteers will be needed on both days. L

Coordinating almost 200 volunteers for the placement of almost 1,000 flags on specific graves in a massive cemetery requires an immense amount of organization. It is incredibly helpful to the project organizers to know well in advance how many are planning to attend so tasks and specific, staggered arrival times can be assigned. Please email flagsin72@gmail.com to volunteer.

know you’re coming!

Local Boy Scout Troop 10 scouts, L-R: Charlie Arnold, Chris Scolforo, Caleb Melvin, and Mike Zegarelli.

PD Volunteers-Troye Funkhouser, Josh Gegoski, Taryn Weaver, Stephanie Smith, Rick Pfeiffer and Lois Pfeiffer

BeginsLiteracy at Birth Supporting

early literacy

By Tutt Stapp-McKiernan

“When we think of ‘literacy,’ most people think of reading and writing,” says Ms. Kathryn Mullett, one of two first grade teachers at Wakefield School in The Plains, Virginia. “But there’s more to it than that. There is great empowerment in the ability to communicate your own ideas.”

Decades of research show that a child’s earliest experiences with books and language are predictive of future reading and learning successes. While formally instructing ever-younger children in reading is not developmentally appropriate, Ms. Mullett says the teaching of “early literacy” should begin at birth.

Early literacy can be defined as “what children know about reading and writing before they actually know how to read and write.” Fun-filled sharing of books with family members, page turning (and chewing!), interactions with pictures such as pointing and laughing, anticipating the story in an often-read book, memorizing and joining in on parts of the text, or simply babbling along in imitation of reading—all of these are the signatures of early literacy development. And all of them, Ms. Mullett affirms, begin with a child’s being read to.

“Reading itself is a discrete set of skills,” Ms. Mullett says, and certainly, the

“What we want in the end is for students to, first, develop curiosity; then to know how to find out more on what they want to know about; and then to be able to do something meaningful with what they’ve learned. This is not just for Wakefield--this is for everyone. And what a beautiful world it will be when every kid has that chance!”

—Kathryn Mullett

teaching of those skills begins in the early years of school—kindergarten students learn letter knowledge and phonemic awareness, for example.

“But the actual development of language, understanding that books have titles, even knowing whether a book is upside down or not and being able to differentiate between the pictures and the print—these develop from being read to, preferably every day, from birth!...It is the scaffold that matters,” she says, “and the scaffold is all about communication.”

Ms. Mullett and her fellow first grade teacher, Mrs. Sabrina Finn, have worked together to develop classroom environments, habits, and curriculum that create that

“scaffold” of early literacy. First graders learn to “play with language”—through hearing poetry, chanting, singing, clapping and rhyming games, and more. And of course, their teachers read aloud to them—every day.

Ms. Mullett’s book-filled classroom also allows students to choose for themselves from among both fiction and non-fiction books at a wide range of reading-readiness levels. Non-fiction books and magazines are grouped by subject matter and linked to subject areas.

This is a practice followed throughout Wakefield’s Lower School grades, where the providing of access to rich non-fiction content, as well as fun and engaging fiction, is seen as key to developing one of Wakefield’s foundational educational goals: curiosity.

Wakefield’s curricular approach is wellaligned with the school’s mission: “to foster the character, curiosity, and clear voices the world will always need.”

Wakefield School Wakefieldschool.org

Hunting Down History

The now-unused kennels of the former Casanova Hunt at Historic Weston will be renovated by the Warrenton Antiquarian Society into the Constance and Charlotte Nourse Education Center.

BY JOHN T. TOLER

When the Warrenton Antiquarian Society (WAS) was established in September 1949, the focus of the six original members was on local history, the antiques found in members’ homes, and field trips to historic sites. They could not have imagined that they would one day be involved in the preservation of two of Fauquier County’s 18th century treasures –Neavil’s Mill at Auburn, and Weston, a farmstead outside of Casanova.

Historic Weston

The WAS was incorporated on June 25, 1958, and by 1959 membership had grown to 25 women. The top priority was preservation, first saving Neavil’s Mill, followed soon afterward assuming ownership of the house and ten acres at Weston. Both projects would require fundraising, so the WAS was registered as a Virginia non-profit agency that year.

Weston was owned for over 100 years by the Nourse family, and in the final days, the farm was operated by sisters Constance and Charlotte Nourse. They had no heirs, and following the death of Constance in June 1959, Charlotte sought to pass the ownership of the farmstead to individuals or an organization that would preserve it. Shortly before her death in July 1959, Charlotte reached out to her old friend, Mrs. Virginia Eastham Carter, an early member of the WAS, about assuming ownership of Weston.

TOP: Huntsman Tommy Lee Jones leading the Casanova Hunt on the first day of fox hunting season circa 2008; the annual opening meet in the autumn was traditionally held in the fields near Weston where the hounds’ kennels were located.

BOTTOM: Weston in the spring. Shown on the left is the early 19th century log kitchen, on the right is the main house.

Owning and maintaining a historic property the size of Weston would be difficult, but the WAS rose to the challenge. After an initial clean-up of the property, the first open house and fundraiser was held at Weston in October 1959.

Providing for future needs, Antiquarians Audrey Mars and Gerry Turner started the Friends of Weston, open to everyone who made an annual financial contribution.

In the years since, maintenance and restoration of the main house have continued, as well as preservation of the surviving 19th century farm-related structures on the property.

True to their mission, the WAS continues “…to interpret and share educational resources related to local artistic, agricultural and family histories” at Weston. Recently, they were given a new opportunity to further expand these offerings with yet another well-deserved gift – the building onsite formerly used as the Casanova Hunt kennels.

BY JORDAN KOEPKE

COURTESY OF DIANE AND TOMMY LEE JONES

Mitul Gandhi, MD Jey Maran, MD

Robert Marsh, MD Muhammad Siddiqui, MD (Palliative Care)

Tejas Suresh, MD

Legacy of the Casanova Hunt

The Casanova Hunt was organized in 1909 and has ties to Weston through Constance Nourse, one of the founding members, who served as Master of Foxhounds (MFH) from 1927-32. The Hunt re-established its pack of hounds at Weston in 1937.

The Hunt signed a renewable 25-year lease on property near the main house, and in 1961, a new fireproof facility was built with kennels, a walk-in freezer, office and storage space. It was to be the Hunt’s permanent home.

For many years, the Hunt gathered on the lawn at Weston every October for its Opening Meet Breakfast before heading out into the open countryside. But changing times caught up with the Hunt, and their last hunting season was in 2020.

“Hunting requires open space. Encroaching development and burgeoning traffic have presented many problems which have endangered the hounds, horses and riders,” wrote former MFH Mrs. William G. Fendley III. “Additionally, the influx of coyotes has pushed out the fox … in a time when Casanova’s open space is shrinking. Unfortunately, these trends may well become worse in the future,” she concluded.

“Our saddest endeavor during 2020 has been accepting the loss of the Casanova Hunt and all that it means to Weston and the community at-large,” wrote Antiquarian Mary Ashton, noting the end of “…a long and close partnership between Weston and the Hunt that has contributed to Weston’s sense of place.”

The Casanova Hunt has ceased to exist, but the partnership continues in a different way. With the hounds gone, Mrs. Fendley had the kennels cleaned out, a new metal roof installed, the exterior of the building painted and the old fencing outside the kennels removed.

As a result of this gift, planning for the best reuse of the building began almost immediately. The decision was made to create a venue suitable for gatherings, displays, art shows and workshops – appropriately named the Constance and Charlotte Nourse Education Center.

Careful planning

While the WAS was experienced in the restoration of historic structures, turning the old kennels into a modern facility for cultural and educational programs was new ground. They started carefully, and in 2021 tore out the

TOP, LEFT: Outside the former kennel building with posters and plans in hand, Antiquarians Mary Ashton, Blair Lawrence and ‘Butter’ Strother discuss the next phase of the conversion of the kennels into an education center.

TOP, RIGHT: The inside of the kennel building after the interior walls had been demolished in preparation for the transformation.

BOTTOM:Preliminary plan for the reuse of the kennels at Weston created by Hinckley, Shepherd and Norden AIA shows the building with interior walls removed and the placement of the entry, kitchen, gallery and office/storage.

interior walls and hired the architectural firm of Hinckley, Shepherd and Norden AIA of Warrenton to develop a preliminary plan for the 1,200 square feet of now-open space. Satisfied that the plan could provide the room needed for gatherings, displays, bathrooms, storage and other uses, the WAS hired MEI Engineering Inc., of Harrisonburg to design the plumbing, electrical and HVAC systems.

With construction planning underway, the next step was getting the necessary approvals and permits from Fauquier County. In November 2022, a Special Use Permit recognizing Weston as a “museum and education center” that could host visitors was unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors.

In July 2023, construction began connecting the former kennels with Weston’s recently-upgraded septic system, with completed construction plans submitted to the County. Approval came in late August.

Over the balance of the year, the WAS will be considering cost estimates for the major parts of the renovation, including plumbing, electrical and HVAC, as well as the replacement of doors, windows and flooring. Based on earlier research, the estimated cost to complete the project is approximately $140,000.

“To make these improvements possible, targeted donations will be necessary,” said Ashton. “These donations will enable Weston to make its current programs and events more accessible, more reliable, more effective and enjoyable. Bringing people together in the community is so important to us.” L

A Call to Serve

Christ In Action missionaries Mike and Karen Kilmer

BY ERIKA WILSON

Warrenton residents Mike and Karen Kilmer often meet people at one of the lowest points of their lives, in times of devastation after a natural disaster when they are often without food, shelter, or even water. As missionaries of Elkwood-based disaster relief organization Christ In Action, the Kilmers travel to affected areas to provide assistance. Primarily they help with basic necessities, debris clean up, and getting families back on track. It’s often a lot of hard work, but they have found that emotional support, hugs, hope, and prayer are often their most valuable contributions.

The Kilmers both light up when they speak about the hope they are giving to families. Karen said sometimes people react to their presence with hesitancy because it seems to them that the strong support provided by CIA is almost too good to be true. “They don’t know what to do with that generosity sometimes. But I have never seen anyone turn down prayer.”

The beginning of a life’s work

The Kilmers became involved with CIA in 2010 through Mike’s sister. Mike took his vacation time from his job as a CDL truck driver to assist the organization with the Homes for Haiti Project, a Bealeton-based project that designed and produced small shelters for those affected

by the earthquake in Haiti that year. Mike drove four round trips between Fauquier County and Charleston, SC to transport the shelters made in Bealeton to locations where they could be shipped on to Haiti.

While Karen usually organized the family’s activities, Mike stepped out from the background and took the lead. He wanted to contribute more to CIA. Luckily, Karen is a spontaneous and adventurous sort, and liked the idea. The Kilmers relocated from PA to Warrenton 8 years ago to become full time missionaries for CIA.

Karen said, “I see us as conduits. There are many people who want to do this type of work, but they do not have the time, means, or the ability.” Karen is the bridge, pouring her heart into working for a valuable cause when others aren’t able to.

Dr. Greg Hackett, Lead Pastor at The Bridge where the Kilmers are parishioners, spoke fondly of the family and explained, “Over the years I have grown a great respect for the Kilmers … not everyone has the heart to do this type of work.”

Many missionaries work internationally, but the Kilmers support those in need after disasters take place domestically. They have been involved in support for families after the recent Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers at the

Lake Charles, LA throwing branches off a roof

Karen and co-worker Chaplain Kathy Cunningham praying together for the family who lost their son here at the site of his memorial; 19 perished in the Cookville tornado.

end of September, 2022, staying on site through January, and the Mississippi tornado this year. They were also on site after the Texas Wimberley flood in 2015 and Corpus Christi after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Sometimes they are able to help closer to home, working with the Warrenton community for 2 weeks after a windstorm that caused damage in 2022.

Everyone at Christ in Action has direct responsibilities. Between contributing to corporate and maintenance tasks at the home base and assisting in the field, the Kilmers are full time with CIA. A CDL driver, Mike oversees the vehicle fleet, works with equipment maintenance, and acts as a team leader on site. Karen is the worship leader and heads food services. On site, she helps assess by meeting with homeowners in person to gauge the help that is needed.

Racing the clock

In a disaster situation, time is of the essence. With two million dollars’ worth of equipment ranging in capability from heavy and light construction to cooking to shower and bath facilities, the organization also has the ability to mobilize thousands of people. Incredibly, due to a lot of hard work behind the scenes between disasters, this huge

How To Help

Financial support needed for volunteer staff.

Volunteer opportunities available, ages 18 & up

For information visit christinaction.com

Clockwise from top left: For Karen, preparing 3 meals a day for 40-70 people in the kitchen trailer on site is not unusual. The meals are good and healthy, with a variety of dishes: eggs and pancakes for breakfast, sandwiches, salads, wraps for lunch, Italian, jambalaya, stir fries, or turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner, and tacos on Taco Tuesdays. Cookville, TN tornado in March, 2020 Lake Charles, LA in August 2020 after Hurricane Laura and Delta

operation often is able to get on the road in a week.

Upon arrival, the faith-based organization partners with a local church and sets up a home base on their property. With so many people and so much equipment, it becomes a veritable small town.

Then the team goes to work. Mike said, “In a hurricane, there’s a lot to be done. It’s a variety of tree removal, gutting and mucking out houses (or even tearing them down) in preparation for an eventual rebuild. We do the first stage clean up.”

There for the long haul

As full-time missionaries, the Kilmers remain in an area for much longer than most volunteers, often at least 1 month to as long as 3 months. This can put their personal lives on hold, but as recent empty nesters, this is less of a challenge now.

When they first began with Christ in Action, two of their four children, Kensie and Tyler, were teens. They accompanied their parents on missions, homeschooling out of a camper on disaster sites. There were times when the teens felt they were missing friends and activities, but now they can recognize they had great experiences learning about the cultures and landscapes of the countryside and seeing the good that the family was doing.

The work isn’t done when the team returns home. The Kilmers continue to check in with families after they have completed their missions. Six months to a year later they reach back out to make sure that the community is still doing well, checking to see if anything else is needed. Often in affected areas, available funds are spent on rebuilding homes, leaving nothing for furnishing them. A new CIA program, Furnishing Hope, comes into play at this point. Volunteers collect gently used furniture to be transported and donated to families once their homes are rebuilt.

Mike said, “The most rewarding part is to see the change in the homeowners from when we first meet them to when we finish. A part of the weight has been lifted, and it’s an inexplicable feeling.” L

About Christ In Action

Founded in 1992 by Dr. Denny and Sandy Nissley, the organization’s mission is “Bringing Hope to America’s Families” by providing support during natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes. In 1998 they deployed to their first disaster, a flood in Cuero, Texas, and the nonprofit has since grown significantly.

enough about my buying and selling a Smoot. Angela goes above and our house, she meticulously staged make sure it was in top-showing received multiple offers over listing us to be patient and helped us choose our expectations. When we purchased helped us navigate the fast-paced we were able to visit the houses we t notice. She was our advocate in cess, lessening the stress of xpertise and compassion truly set her "

"I cannot speak highly enough about my buying and selling experience with Angela Smoot. Angela goes above and beyond. When selling our house, she meticulously staged the home and helped make sure it was in top-showing condition. Though we received multiple offers over price, she encouraged us to be patient and helped us choose an offer that exceeded our expectations. When we purchased our new home, Angela helped us navigate the fast-paced market and made sure we were able to visit the houses we wanted to see on short notice. She was our advocate in every stage of the process, lessening the stress of relocating. Angela's expertise and compassion truly set her apart; she is fantastic!"

"I cannot speak highly enough about my buying and selling experience with Angela Smoot. Angela goes above and beyond. When selling our house, she meticulously staged the home and sure it was in condition. multiple price, she us to be patient and an offer that expectations. our new home, Angela helped us navigate the fast-paced market and made sure we were able to visit the houses we wanted to see on short notice. She was our advocate in every stage of the process, lessening the stress of relocating. Angela's expertise and compassion truly set her apart; she is fantastic!"

D.P. - Buyer 8 Seller Client

"I cannot speak highly enough about my buying and selling experience with Angela Smoot. Angela goes above and beyond. When selling our house, she meticulously staged the home and helped make sure it was in top-showing condition. Though we received multiple offers over listing price, she encouraged us to be patient and helped us choose an offer that exceeded our expectations. When we purchased our new home, Angela helped us navigate the fast-paced market and made sure we were able to visit the houses we wanted to see on short notice. She was our advocate in every stage of the process, lessening the stress of relocating. Angela's expertise and compassion truly set her apart; she is fantastic!"

D.P. - Buyer 8 Seller Client

They Crushed It

Thirteen of Haymarket School of Rock’s student musicians from Prince Wiliam and Fauquier gave rockstar performances at the Milwaukee Annual Summerfest Music Festival this summer.

BY JENNIFER WALDERA

From late 2016 until mid-2017, Conner Hitchcock spent his weekends traveling from Florida to Haymarket to prepare the building that would, that summer, become the home to Haymarket’s School of Rock. Since then, he has built a team of over a dozen dedicated teachers who now work with more than 200 passionate musical students in both lesson-oriented sessions as well as in performance groups.

“When we first opened, I ran all of the groups, taught a great portion of lessons, and ran everything behind the scenes with my mother, Mary Hitchcock,” said Hitchcock.

While the music school offers two beginner classes, Rookies and Rock 101, to provide the basis of musical education, Hitchcock says that the premiere group is their Performance Program, which gives students the opportunity to play together on stage in a variety of environments from concerts at local festivals and clubs to national sporting arenas. Learning through performance is one of the bedrocks of the School of Rock method.

Summerfest

One of this year’s most impressive performances was given by 13 of Haymarket’s School of Rock players at Milwaukee’s 55th Annual Summerfest Music Festival, where an impressive number of renowned bands and vocalists like Earth Wind & Fire, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews Band, Zac Brown Band, and Smokey Robinson, also performed. While the young artists from both Fauquier County and Prince William County wowed audiences

Top: Ava Cantarella. Center: Baxter Reed. Bottom: On the way to Milwaukee, Noah Young, Baxter Reed, Ava Cantarella, Luca Devito, and George Brooks stopped in Chicago to perform “Good Kisser” by Lake Street Drive at Fitzgerald’s Nightclub.

together throughout their four days at the festival, they also played separately, some advancing to end-stages in competition.

Haymarket School of Rock’s guitarist Baxter Reed was a choice for participation in an all-star finale, and guitarist Nik Lofstrom, a Battlefield High School graduate, crushed the Shred Competition, and was named champion, after his original shred solo on the last day of the festival.

Get to know some of the stars...

George Brooks

Nearly any student involved with the Summerfest performance lists it as a highlight of their time at the School of Rock while also noting the impressive guidance and support they receive from the performance-based education. George Brooks, a senior at Kettle Run High School in Fauquier, first laid his hands on one of the many guitars in his house at three years old. By the time he was six, he was playing chords, and in 2021, he joined Haymarket School of Rock.

Nik Lofstrom

Now a resident of Fairfax County, Lofstrom began playing guitar at 12 and later started studying and performing via Haymarket School of Rock in 2019 when he was still in Prince William County. He credits Summerfest as his favorite experience while being a part of School of Rock.

“It was a very unique opportunity, and even when it was tiring with the constant traveling and performing, it was still fun. We played on huge stages with big crowds. Everyone in the band was hanging out together essentially every second of the day, and some really good memories were made. Winning the shred contest was very surreal,” Lofstrom said.

Lofstrom also points to others involved with the School of Rock as his source of support throughout the competition.

“At the end of the very first round, I honestly could not believe it when I heard my name among the list of those who would be moving on. With each round that I progressed, I only got more and more nervous until the final, which was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I have ever done. I couldn’t have done it, though, without the rest of [the] house band, Sam, and Conner. They were so supportive of me, and after each round, we would all gather in a circle, and they’d help me piece together my next solo. It was really a team effort.”

“By being at School of Rock, I have learned so many different new techniques, songs, and other information about playing music with other people. I have learned how bands set up and take down their gear before and after shows. I have also learned all about so many different little things that I would have never considered before, like stage presence and even helping younger, less experienced bandmates. Being in School of Rock these last two years has helped me grow so much as a person and as a musician,” said Brooks.

“The experience [at Summerfest] was the adventure of a lifetime, and my bandmates and I are all closer than ever before because of it.”

Ava Cantarella

Meanwhile, 14-year-old Battlefield student Ava Cantarella of Prince William County, who not only plays bass and guitar but is a vocalist as well, credits the school for its ability to foster meaningful character education in a fun environment.

“School of Rock has taught me a greater sense of responsibility for not only myself but others as well. At School of Rock, you form strong bonds with your bandmates. Being in a band means trusting your bandmates to not just learn their parts but to communicate effectively as well. I think the sense of accomplishment and camaraderie you get is like no other,” said Cantarella, who also counted Summerfest, particularly the final experience, as one of her favorites.

Noah Young

Fauquier native Noah Young, 16, plays guitar, drums, and bass and gives kudos to Haymarket School of Rock for its ability to elevate musicians and build friendships as well as skills.

“I have learned so much. I’ve learned how to perform live and to help others and be a better musician overall,” said Young.

On joining the school, Young said he would tell others that “they are in for one of the best experiences you can ever have. School of Rock changed me in the best way possible.”

Tuesday, September 5th our phone system crashed! We have been working every day since trying to get a new system installed. There are a lot of steps to get this accomplished. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our patients. We are no longer using the email.

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Thanks to everyone for your patience as we continue to fix this issue!

They are still working on our system as this is a major install, Thank you for your patience! We hope to have all phones back in working order very soon.

Fauquier HIgh School French teacher Madame (Nicole) Goepper

has been making an impact on Fauquier County students since 1998.

We told her story. Do you have a favorite Fauquier County teacher (past or present)?

...Tell us!

540.349.2951

Haymarket’s School of Rock

The school in Haymarket is one of many that fall under the large umbrella of School of Rock schools across the nation and around the globe, and the students and instructors are able to pull from the knowledge and skills of the other locations.

“The School of Rock community is a passionate and proud community. Any opportunity to work together is one that is always a favorite. We have shared the stage with our School of Rock friends in Vienna, Alexandria, Ashburn, Silver Springs, and more,” said Hitchcock.

Outside of performing at local and national events, Haymarket’s School of Rock also has a mission to give back to the community in any way they can. From local nonprofits and community organizations to performances at business and town events, the School of Rock helps to instill the importance of contributing to the community.

“Most recently, we played at local venue Jammin’ Java with many of our community schools. [At] this event, we had the opportunity to partner with the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide. Whenever we get the opportunity to be a part of our community, we want to take it,” Hitchcock said.

Parents of students are more than pleased with their children’s participation in School of Rock. Xanthe Larsen, parent of Ava Cantarella said, “School of Rock has managed to create a space where all students feel welcome, included, and nurtured. It is evident that the teachers are teaching and sharing something they love, and that they care deeply about their students. The House Band musicians are encouraged to welcome, include, and mentor new students. All students are given the opportunity to perform on professional stages in real music venues. School of Rock creates musical performance and collaboration opportunities for young people in a positive and safe environment.”

Meanwhile, Darold Young, parent of guitarist Noah Young who attends Kettle Run High School in Fauquier, went along to Summerfest as a chaperone. He sings the praises of the school and the bond the performances create amongst students. “All the kids bonded so well, and they still hang out almost daily, even when they’re not at School of Rock. I think this program and all the teachers are bringing a lot of kids out of their shells and opening their worlds to new experiences that their phones/tablets cannot provide.”

When Hitchcock reflects on the meaning of School of Rock to students and what he hopes they’ll gain, he says that he hopes that the space is a place of comfort and camaraderie where young people can come to learn and come meet other incredible people.

“I was a student of this method myself. I made some of my longest-lasting friendships and memories through my experiences at my school. I want the School of Rock to not only be a place of excellent musical education but a place where students can learn and grow to be rockstars both on stage and in life.” L

REMEMBERING

MR. ROOSEVELT’S ARMY

90 Years Ago, the New Deal’s “CCC Boys” Helped America Build Back from the Depression

Living on Mr. Jefferson’s Lawn

Seeing Art in the Countryside

Gambling with the Norton Grape

Something For Everyone

1800’s VICTORIAN ELEGANCE with fantastic porch overlooking your private nine acres with stream and pond in the Town of Washington, VA. Pine floors, large rooms, tall ceilings, three fireplaces. SOLD

MAGIC HAPPENS overlooking The Rush, a mountain river with an impressive cliff opposite. Eagles, ducks, herons and more patrol the rippling waters. Private, convenient and very special. SOLD

ROMANTIC COTTAGE on forty-eight acres in Rappahannock County. Open floor plan is charming with fireplace, separate studio and a barn. Mountain views, private pond and a small orchard. SOLD

1800’s FARMHOUSE overlooks Sperryville, VA from a private hilltop. Much to love with, tall ceilings, pine floors and wide front porch. Mountain views and a couple hundred yards to the coffee shop. SOLD

TIMBERFRAME contemporary built with much love and a variety of wood species. A home for nature lovers and artists on 25 private acres with stream in the foothills of Rappahannock County. SOLD

, restored, in the village of Flint Hill. Fireplace, hardwood floors, large basement with wood stove and a half acre of beautiful native plants and shrubs for the naturalist. SOLD

1969 BRICK COTTAGE

Take a Country Drive and See Some Great Local Art

Rappahannock’s 18th Annual Fall Art Tour will combine the best of the old and new

Rappahannock County's talented artists are busy creating new artwork in a wide range of genres for the Rappahannock Association of Arts and Community (RAAC) annual Fall Art Tour, November 4 and 5, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour artists' working studios and local galleries, talking to the artists about their techniques and inspiration and purchasing favorite pieces. It only happens once a year.

Return of the Main Tour Gallery

The impressive gallery display returns to Little Washington’s Washington School after a 3-year hiatus. Representative artworks from the 28 studios and 8 galleries on the Tour will be displayed together in all their colorful glory.

The Tour Gallery will serve as the ideal place for both first-timers and seasoned Tour-goers to view the skill and creativity of Rappahannock's fine artists before making the rounds of individual studios and galleries. The remarkable breadth and depth of the local artists' work will be on full display with paintings in all genres and mediums, furniture, drawings and engravings, sculpture, stained glass, ceramics, mosaics, photography, printmaking, woodworking, jewelry, bookbinding, and glasswork.

In addition, the collaborative works of talented student artists will be displayed on the walls as in prior years. Art teachers and their students in county schools have produced extraordinary creative works that give pleasure to visitors from near and far. The comprehensive gallery display will serve as a celebration of the importance of the fine arts and the connections they make throughout the entire community and beyond.

Highlights of the Self-guided Tour

Exploring the scenic countryside seeking out individual studios is one of the very special aspects of the Tour. You choose your favorite artists and works of art and find them on the map. Four new artists are joining 24 returning artists in opening their studios to guests. It is a rare treat to be invited into studios to talk with the artists, see where they work and to learn about their creative process. It is also meaningful to have an opportunity to take home a piece of art with an understanding of the artist's inspiration and technique.

ART TOUR WEBSITE AND NEWSLETTER:

Whether you’re a devoted fan or new to this event, you’ll want to acquaint yourself with participating artists and their work at fallartour.org. And to get the latest news and updates emailed to your inbox, sign up for the tour newsletter at: rappnews.link/art.

PLAN YOUR OWN TOUR:

Go to fallarttour.org to plan your weekend in advance. A downloadable tour map will be available online in late October and will also be emailed in the Tour newsletter. Maps will be available at the Main Gallery, the Rappahannock Visitors Center and other local businesses.

TOUR PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST:

Send your images from the weekend to fallarttourva@gmail.com for a chance to have your photo published in the Rappahannock News. Look for details in the Tour newsletter or follow the Tour on social media for more details.

NORA HARRINGTON (TOP); NANCY KEYSER (RIGHT); PATRICIA BRENNAN (LEFT)

Remembering Roosevelt’s Army

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps

BY KIT JOHNSTON

In 1933, the deepening impacts of the Great Depression and FDR’s landslide election as President compelled the 73rd Congress to quickly pass a slew of New Deal programs designed to put Americans back to work, including FDR’s favorite, the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Enrollees in the CCC were known as soldiers in the “Army” — the Tree Army, the Depres-

sion Army, the Dollar a Day Army, and Roosevelt’s Army.

Most often, they were called the CCC “boys” because that is what they mostly were: teenagers and young men under 25, some World War I veterans, usually unemployed, from farms, villages, towns, and cities in 48 states and four territories.

From 1933-1942, 3.4 million CCC enrollees, worked to restore or create national forests

FOR MANY MILLIONS, A LIFELINE

According to Shenandoah National Park Cultural Resource Specialist Reed L. Engle, the economic conditions in America at the time were dire: “By 1932, 52 million workers were jobless. In 1933, those still earning saw their earnings fall by half, 40 percent of banks nationwide had failed, wiping out the uninsured savings of millions of people.” Enrollees who previously had a hard time finding a meal on the street now had three squares a day, a roof over their heads, clean clothes to wear, and supervisors to teach them new skills, from carpentry to nursing tree seedlings. Life was good. Opportunities for the CCC boys at Big Meadows included an education program that had evolved from what was usually offered in other camps. The boys could study for the graduate equivalency degree, for example, as well as sample courses in photography and journalism and gain radio communication skills for the war effort to come.

and national and state parks across America. They worked for $30 a month, $25 of which the feds sent home to support mom and dad and local economies at a time of great economic depression and despair.

According to the CCC Legacy, an organization wholly devoted to documenting the CCC, CCC boys planted 3.5 billion trees and built 97,000 miles of roads, devoted 6.5 million days fighting fires, built 3,470 fire lookout towers, controlled soil erosion on 20 million acres, and constructed or maintained drainage systems to support some 84,400,000 acres of agricultural land.

In sum, they created new recreational infrastructure and restored natural environments for public lands for the working man and his family to access and enjoy for the first time in their lives.

Their mark on this land can be seen clearly in Virginia, especially in the close-in Piedmont and ridges and valleys, where men mostly from Virginia, Maryland, the Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania lived and worked together to restore the once magnificent

stands of hardwood and pine on vast tracts on both sides of the Shenandoah Valley. They built the magnificent Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge, forming sections of the award-winning Virginia State Park system.

Many veterans of the CCC had vivid and fond memories from that time. Long after their service, many would celebrate their lives and work together by returning to their now defunct camps for reunions, about once a year, often in the fall. Given the passage of time, few such reunions are expected this year. Still, perhaps family members will gather to share their fading memories of that time when as a teenager, father left his home in Rappahannock County to enroll in the CCC

and was then sent to live in the Sperryville Camp or perhaps the Pinnacles Camp to work on Skyline Drive. This is a tribute to and an homage to these men.

WELCOME, MR. RICH, TO CAMP ROOSEVELT: THE FIRST ENROLLEE AT AMERICA’S FIRST CCC CAMP

On March 31, 1933, just days after FDR signed the CCC into legislation, it enrolled its first recruit, Henry Rich of Alexandria. He was assigned to America’s first CCC camp, Camp Roosevelt, which was located on a vast tract of U.S. Forest Service land in the remote area west of Luray.

When Rich, with the rest of the first contingent of enroll-

ees, came walking in, April 17, 1933, the camp was not ready to receive them. George Dant of Washington, D.C., recalled that the enrollees had been up at 5:30 that morning to take commercial buses to the camp from an Army post in Maryland. By the time they actually arrived at the place they had been told to go, it was late afternoon. And they were walking, not riding, because their buses couldn’t make it up the steep mountain roads. Plus, the

supply convoy was lost. Somewhere. Back there.

As the enrollees entered a 10acre site that had been cleared for them, they quickly realized “there was no food, water, blankets, tents, or shelter but for what Forest Service personnel had brought with them.” The men eventually got their lunch after the camp’s mess officer and the camp cook went to the nearest town and cleaned it out of bread, lunch meats, canned salmon and the like.

Finally, a large van appeared with tents and blankets. But rain made “a mud lake” of the clearing and “the latrines weren’t covered, so it was a bleak situation,” Dant reported. To the rescue came so-called Locally Employed Men who sought to cheer everyone up, including the boys who had rather “drifted away” but were later found.

Dant paid a concluding homage to these older men, for they soon became, he said, “our new

NP2 (Big Meadows) camp buildings

CCC was one of the best things that’s ever happened. Not only to my life, to many men’s lives. There were a lot of men [all over the country] who couldn’t get a job, didn’t have no money.”

—JOHN SHUDA, NP 12, SERVED FROM OCT. 1937-JUNE 1942.

found brothers, partners, friends and [surrogate] dads.” By mentoring them and teaching invaluable new skills that would serve them well later, they transformed the juniors in front of them “from city boys to the men of the next generation.”

Eventually, the rough initial camp grew to a thriving camp town, consisting of six barracks reported to be “much like any other.” Forty-eight men to a barrack slept head to foot on iron cots with cotton mattresses and wood stoves for heat.

There was a mess hall and kitchen, hospital (more like an infirmary), an officer’s quarters, a foreman’s quarters, an education building, a recreation hall, an Army garage, a separate Army office, a U.S. Forest Service office, and various shops for blacksmithing, repair, and carpentry, and large garages for trucks.

Typically, the men woke up at 6 a.m. to reveille, made up their bunks, straightened the barracks, engaged in some type of physical exercise before roll call and inspection. After breakfast in the mess hall, the recruits donned their work clothes, which at Camp Roosevelt were made of khaki, and reported to the Forest Service Office for their work assignments. The workday lasted until 4 or 4:30, with a 45-min-

ute break for lunch.

After dinner, the men were on their own to read and write letters, listen to the radio or go to the recreation hall to shoot pool, play poker, or just sit and talk. Sports activities and trips into town for movies were also available.

TWO CAMPS, STRADDLING THE JIM CROW DIVIDE

Much less known than Camp Roosevelt were two CCC camps, the latter camp located on the same site as the former, on the west side of the Shenandoah Valley. The first camp was a white camp of about 80 men and 16 supervisors called

Camp Edinburg; the second was an African American camp of about 200 men called Camp Wolfs Gap.

Thanks to an enterprising group of reporters who post their stories online as “Shenandoah Stories,” we do know that the work of the African American camp before it closed in 1937 included improving tree plantings on 16,000 acres, fire protection in 10,000 acres, and responding to several major fire incidents. Then, in the flood of 1936, the CCC boys of Camp Wolfs Gap helped rescue 1,200 local residents cut off from the world by the rising waters.

THE BOYS BUILD SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK

The 180,000 acres of the Blue Ridge Mountains that would ultimately become Shenandoah National Park had been identified in 1925 as having potential to become the latest national park in the Eastern United States, and Congress authorized the establishment of the park in 1926 once the ownership of the necessary land was secured. State funds and donations contributed some of the land, but the rest had to be purchased from existing landowners.

After his inauguration in March 1933, FDR, who loved road trips in an open car, decided to visit Herbert Hoover at his predecessor’s fishing camp. FDR was curious about whether the camp would suit him as a presidential retreat. It didn’t, but he saw that the somewhat level land next to what became Skyline Drive would make good locations for the area’s first CCC camps. Only two months later, the first two of ten CCC camps devoted to building the park had been established: NP (National Park) 1 at the Skyland Resort and NP 2 at Big Meadows.

On May 15, 1933, trucks

DEDICATING A NATIONAL PARK, WITH ‘SCARS’

On July 3, 1936, FDR officially opened the Shenandoah National Park to the public. The dedication had taken longer than anyone had expected due to how difficult the state of Virginia found it to be to acquire deeds to enough parcels of contiguous land to make up the 180,000 acres Congress had authorized. There were legal disputes over state appraisals of land values, challenges to the state’s right to condemn properties, and objections to evictions. Some families refused to move from land that had been in the family for generations, some prosperous farms and orchards.

FDR would not accept the deeds for land parcels acquired by Virginia for the park until the state and eight counties from which taxable property had been acquired built resettlement housing for the mountain people. This housing was built, to mention a few locations, in Flint Hill and Amissville in Rappahannock County, outside of Madison in Madison County and near Stanardsville in Greene County. Eventually, the park service and local law enforcement moved, evicted, and forcibly displaced between 3,000 and 5,000 residents from their homes. The whole process “left scars,” historian Dennis E. Simmons wrote, “not entirely healed to this day.”

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Always interested in conservation, Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” planted 3.5 billion trees overall.

rolled up the Drive with men and supplies needed to house and feed at least 200 men in each camp, as well as at NP 3, Baldface. But what greeted the recruits was, as Reed Engle wrote, “a ragtag group of WWI surplus tents, field kitchens, and latrines up to two decades old erected in muddy cow pastures.”

Instead of barracks, at least at first, Skyland had large pole tents. By mid-summer to everyone’s relief (including mess hall cooks, who had been cooking over open fires), more permanent buildings were under construction.

The CCC men of the NP2 Camp, aided by skilled locals, worked on the Drive until 1935 when their job expanded to making the park ready for visitors. This entailed, among other things, reforesting and building trails, lodges, picnic tables, and water fountains. Too often, there were wildfires to fight, and when they consumed fire towers, more towers to build.

LEISURE TIME IN THE CCC

At night or on weekends at Camp Roosevelt, the boys typically played sports—basketball, volleyball or football—or went swimming in the nearest river or pond. Liquor was not allowed. On Saturday nights, according to recruit Moon Mullins who spent six years at Camp Roosevelt, the young men would dress in civilian clothes and drive trucks into Edinburg to go to movies, bars, or to visit a girlfriend. The trucks returned to camp at 11. “If you missed it,” Mullins recalled, “you had no choice but to walk 9 miles to get back.”

As for sports, NP2 (Big Meadows) was said to have the best baseball field on the mountain. The boys played pick up games and organized competitions with other camps as well as locals from the valley.

Typical CCC Barracks

Painting:JuneDay by Rosa Bonheur, Paris 1861, private collection

HARD WORK — FUELED BY A HEARTY DIET

The food in the CCC camps was the best most of the men had ever had. The CCC was given more money for food than the regular Army, and it was spent by very able cooks who regularly made large breakfasts of oatmeal, bacon, eggs, and potatoes; well-rounded lunches that even included rice pudding and cocoa; and hearty dinners, such as Irish stew topped off again by dessert and iced tea. The average weight gain among the juniors was 12-15 lbs. after only a six-month enrollment. Often, the mess halls sourced perishables from local farms, pumping much-needed cash into local economies.

SPERRYVILLE, THERE ARE STILL SOME STORIES TO TELL

First known as S-68, Camp Sperryville, located in the “town” of Pullen on the outer fringes of Sperryville, was most likely established as a Forest Service camp, perhaps to work on reforestation.

Camp Sperryville was the only camp devoted to the national park constructed on leased property instead of inside the park itself. The property was owned back then by the Swindler family of Beech Spring Farm. It is now owned by Hearthstone School, and Beech Spring Baptist Church nearby still stands today.

Phyllis Swindler, whose husband is a descendant of the original Swindler family, has heard some stories about how the boys liked to swim in the Thornton River and carve their initials in a very old beech tree close to the camp. It is said that that tree provided the inspiration for calling the family farm Beech Spring.

And Camp Sperryville made it a point to support the locals. The camp bought fresh local produce and eggs, and the boys bought extra food, like ham biscuits and fried chicken. The camp bought firewood, too. Lots and lots of it. Mr. Swindler’s Great Uncle Roy Swindler (one of Louella’s sons) was fond of telling the story about how the CCC boys would throw open the barrack doors

Preparing to lay cable

Camp life at NP3, Camp Baldface

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and feed wood into the stove until it burned “red hot” just so the camp would buy more.

AS A NATION MARCHES TO WAR, THE CCC MEETS AN ABRUPT END

From 1933 to 1942, the CCC had engaged 3.4 million men as FDR’s most powerful tool for environment and economic revitalization. In the end, however, the president was reduced to begging Congress not to defund the program. Given Pearl Harbor, it proved an im-

CCC Enrollee on fire watch; forest fires were a constant danger. All told, the CCC built 3,470 fire lookout towers and devoted 6.5-million days fighting fires.

In the end, as Dr. Brinkley notes, the CCC was ‘the single best land rehabilitation ever adopted by a U.S. President,’ and it ‘rescued’ more than natural resources. As the Alaskan CCC newspaper in Juneau put it, the President’s conservation force ‘had taken baffled, furtive, tough city youngsters in and [transformed] them into bronzed, clear-eyed, wellmuscled soldiers in waiting.’”

possible fight for him to win.

The CCC wasn’t the only New Deal relief agency to lose funds in the run up to World War II. The Works in Progress Administration did too. But the CCC’s budget was more of an immediate target. On June 5, 1942, the House voted to defund it but for $500,000 for liquidation.

The dismantling of Camp Roosevelt was nearly immediate. In Shenandoah National Park, CCC barracks and other building structures were razed with the exception of a 1,600

sq. ft. research facility at Camp Pinnacles, which serves today as a meeting workspace and sevenbedroom residence for visiting researchers and scholars.

As for those who had served in the CCC? Some estimate that 60 percent joined the

VISITORS to the Park who like history and hiking (or both!) may wish to visit Hoover’s fishing camp on the Rapidan (which the nation’s 31st president bequeathed to Shenandoah National Park in 1932). Or stroll through the park’s highly informative CCC exhibit in the Byrd Visitors Center at Big Meadows. Or take the Nicholson Hollow trail to Corbin Cabin, a well-preserved example of a mountain family’s homestead. Go in spring, when the wildflowers are in bloom and clusters of day lilies and periwinkles spill out from the foundations of other homes that no longer stand.

U.S. Armed Forces and fought in Europe and the Pacific. Scholars say many held noncommissioned officer ranks — thanks to the discipline and skills they had acquired in the CCC.

Photos courtesy of National Park Service: The Shenandoah National Park Resource Management Records, Series IX

Photographs

On the cover: Propagation and planting Balsam Fir Courtesy of NPS

Living on the Lawn at Mr. Jefferson’s University

An Honor or a Campout?

BY GLENDA C. BOOTH

For University of Virginia students, living in a 19th-century room in Mr. Jefferson’s “Academical Village” is a sought-after, enriching, and prestigious experience. And while it’s an honor, it has a few downsides, like an outdoor trek to the restroom, caddy in tow, in all weather, and nosey people often peering into the ground-floor window.

Students who live in these original rooms are called “lawnies.” An outer row of 52 rooms on both the east and west sides are on “the range,” reserved for graduate students, “rangies.” These 204-year-old rooms have long been sought-after housing.

The university’s lawn, a National Historic Landmark, is the 740-foot terraced grassy expanse that stretches from the Rotunda on the north end to Old Cabell Hall on the south. Thomas Jefferson designed the original complex, including the 106 one-story, student rooms in two rows, ten two-story Palladian and Neoclassical pavilions (five on each side), lined symmetrically on the east and west sides of the lawn. The lawn and its buildings have been considered the university’s symbolic center since the 1819 founding and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

ERIN EDGERTON (TOP); PATRICK DORSEY (BOTTOM)

the only one of four universities designated worldwide and the only one in the United States.

LUMINARIES

Among notable lawnies are Katie Couric, former Today Show host and CBS Evening News anchor; Ralph Sampson, college and National Basketball Association star; Val Ackerman, the first woman president of the Women’s National Basketball Association; and Ron Suskind, Pulitzer-winning journalist and author. Writer Edgar Allan Poe and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson lived on the range. Through a glass door, visitors can view Poe’s room, ominously numbered 13, which is restored to 1826-era design and displays a stuffed raven on the window sill.

“Living on the lawn is an amazing experience,” says Richard Gard. “It puts you at the center of the action and the heart of UVA’s beauty. Your dorm happens to be an open-air, star-lit UNESCO World Heritage Site and your neighbors are a fun and engaging mix of scholars, leaders, organizers, athletes and some of UVA’s most beloved professors.” Gard is the editor of Virginia Magazine

and Vice President, Communications, for the university’s alumni association.

THE ROOM AND HOW TO GET ONE

Each room has one door, one window, a wooden floor, working fireplace, sink, closet, refrigerator, microwave, desk with a chair, rocking chair, hutch, and a loft bed with daybed underneath. Rooms are air conditioned and have wireless connections to the university’s computer network, modern-day amenities that Mr. Jefferson would hopefully accept as they encourage serious scholarship. There are no kitchens or common areas like student lounges.

Typically, 250 to 300 students apply for the 47 lawn rooms. The other seven are assigned based on tradition, for example, for a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society and the Honor Committee. Range rooms have a separate selection process.

A committee of 60 fourth-year students selects lawnies in two or three rounds. “The Committee seeks to select a diverse community of peers, each of whom will bring their own unique contribution to the Lawn and the broader community. Applicants are held to high

ERIN EDGERTON

standards of scholastic and extracurricular achievement,” explains the university’s website.

After reviewing the list, the committee can make adjustments to more broadly reflect the student body and academic fields. The order for students to choose rooms is determined by lottery.

OVERALL, AN HONOR

Muaaz Luqman, a 2023 graduate from South Riding, liked “being right in the middle of everything” and the “sense of community.” He often kept his door open, and since he was president of the Muslim Student Association, his room became a gathering place. He hosted parties for sports events, like a world cup soccer match.

Luqman has a list of people who lived in “his” room going back to 1895, one of whom is Robert Hardie who became the university’s Board of Visitors rector or chair in June. Luqman touted, “You’re becoming part of history.”

Richmonder Raghda Labban, who also graduated in June, liked the “eclectic mix” of people and friendships. She fondly recalls Halloween as a “special experience,” when, by tradition, the lawnies gave candy to Charlottesville trick-or-treaters. Outside lawn events can be noisy and going outside for the bathroom and laundry can be “a hassle,” but it’s worth enduring, she maintained.

While being a lawnie is an honor, “It’s like living in a fishbowl,” said Eva Surovell, 2023 graduate, because of curious tourists and former students who drop by. As for the jaunt to the laundry room, she explained, “108 people share three washing machines. People leave things and dump out your clothes. Sunday is the most popular

day so it’s hard to get a machine.” Nevertheless, “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she believes. She was editor of the Cavalier Daily, the student newspaper and felt the newspaper “deserved to have a space.”

Ann Burnette, a 1985 graduate and now a Texas State University communications professor, recalls, “Being able to open my front door and see all the activity on the lawn made me feel connected to what was going on at the university. Like all the other lawn residents, I gave up some privacy. Everyone, from alumni to tourists, was interested in seeing the rooms and learning more about them. I felt like an ambassador for the university and part of my responsibility as a lawn resident was sharing my experience. I'll always be grateful.”

On living in what some may regard as relics of the past, Luqman’s bottom line: “I have zero regrets.”

ERIN EDGERTON (TOP); GLENDA BOOTH (BOTTOM)

A Vineyard’s Gamble

The Norton grape shines in Virginia Wine

BY SCOTT ELLIFF

One of the first decisions you have to make when starting a vineyard is which varieties to plant. What grows well in our climate? What is frost tolerant? What can handle the range of abundant grapevine diseases? What has reliable crop loads? What is most rot resistant? What makes a good wine? What might be unique and interesting? And more. For me 24 years ago, I asked everyone in the industry at the time, read suitability reports from Virginia Tech and nationally, and tried samples of a wide range of locally grown wines. Wow, an overload of information, much of it contradictory and speculative.

One of our choices was to plant some Virginia Native Norton. A dark red grape, it was thought to be cold hardy and disease resistant, but nobody really knew for sure, as our industry was so young then. And as Virginia’s native grape, it was certainly unique and interesting. It was celebrated for its mysterious and romanticized history, having been discovered in the wild, used for internationally acclaimed wines in the 1800s (Best Wine of All Nations – Vienna World’s Fair 1873), disappearing during Prohibition in the 1920s and then reemerging along the banks of the Missouri River and subsequently being returned to its ancestral home in Virginia during the 1970s. Intriguingly, it’s very high in the compound Resveratrol which is purported to have important health benefits. But oddly, it’s virtually ignored by wine critics or sneeringly derided as ‘bubble gum’ flavored, and almost never found on restaurant menus or in wine stores.

OK, so we’ll plant an acre or two in the far corner of the vineyard – give it a shot, why not.

What kind of wine it would make was an open question. And the first several vintages were, well, a little rough. Too earthy perhaps, too acidic. Rather untamed or overwhelming to put it gently. Promising maybe but with a lot more work and experience needed.

Well, 24 years later I can report that Norton can make a darn good wine. Earthy and rich, super aromatic, low in tannin so lacking that chalky sensation you get with many red wines, great with barbeque and spicy ethnic food and a great grape to use for making a port-style dessert wine. It’s certainly still out of the mainstream, but several great wine books have been written about the grape and the wines it can produce. It’s featured in a film on indigenous, cult wines from around the world that is currently being produced. As a native grape it’s a darling of the industry regarding sustainability and climate change.

And thanks to the OMNI Homestead Resort it has its own blind tasting contest.

SUCCESS

For DuCard, I’m delighted to report that we won the inaugural Homestead Norton Challenge Cup last year for our 2017 Norton. As well, our 2017 C’est Trop port-style wine, using Norton grapes and brandy spirits, aged in Maker’s Mark whiskey barrel, was the first and only port style wine to win a gold medal at the Virginia Governor’s Cup contest.

We have changed so many things since we first started over two decades ago - how we prune the vines, how we manage the canopy, how we deal with diseases and insects, how we produce the wine, and more. And we will continue to evolve –and improve.

But one thing I wouldn’t change is that decision at the turn of the millennium to plant a small block of Virgina Native Norton. It’s been a great ride.

Scott Elliff is the founder and owner of DuCard Vineyards and a periodic contributor to The Piedmont Virginian. He can be reached at scott@ducardvineyards.com

One of Asha Clare’s many talents and services is gorgeous seasonal table designs.

BY RONDA GREGORIO

The Kitchen Fairy works her magic

creating a fairyland

BY JENNIFER WALDERA

ot so many years ago, in her role as an in-home private chef, Asha Clare was deemed a “Kitchen Fairy” by her clients’ trio of daughters, who were astounded by her ability to transform a kitchen full of ingredients in the morning to boundless amounts of soups, stews, or other savory meals, as well as sweet treats, by the time they returned from school. After a few twists and turns since her days as a private chef, Clare is redefining her approach to providing culinary services while holding on to her apropos fairy persona.

Clare’s culinary interests were sparked by her grandmother at a young age, forming tortellini and baking panettone together in the kitchen. However, the self-proclaimed adorer of all things pasta, dim sum, and carpaccio, didn’t make cooking her initial plan as a career. Instead, she earned degrees in anthropology and zoology and initially worked with orangutans and gorillas at the National Zoo with an eye on parlaying that into work with gorillas in Africa. Eventually, though, she transferred to crafting incredible aquarium reef ecosystems, incorporating coral reefs and seahorses in displays throughout the Washington, DC, area.

“I was into sustainability and being mindful about the types of fish, focusing on small fish and crustaceans — things that you could recreate the habitat, and they could

French Apple Cake with Cinnamon-Nutmeg Cream Chantilly is a perfect dish for delicately showcasing the flavor of fall apples season.

be able to act like they do in the wild,” Clare said.

When economically tougher times hit, Clare realized that the demand for the reefs could dwindle and decided to pursue her love of both sustainable practices and crafting food. She dove headfirst into learning the ways of restaurant kitchens in esteemed spots like Charlottesville’s Tavola, Maya, and Inn at Court Square as well as catering art shows. With some serious experience under her proverbial belt, Clare branched out with her own personal chef service, Bella Clair, during which she earned her fairy moniker. But before too long, Covid-19 hit, and families were hesitant to add another person to their households.

With the pandemic in full swing, Clare decided to put cooking as a career on the back burner and entered the world of project management. However, she kept her kitchen dreams alive with a Kitchen Fairy food blog, and just this year, she has come full circle, marrying her knowledge of finances and user experience from project management with her passion for sustainability and her love of cooking. Clare’s newest concept, Kitchen Fairy — her nickname and blog name — is an event-based

business that embraces her love of farm-to-table cooking as well as entertaining.

“I provide artisanal, curated meals that are local, organic, and sustainable and [often] incorporate slow cooking,” Clare said.

When Clare talks about loving local food, she means it. While she now lives in Warrenton (after some brief stints in DC and its suburbs as well as Asheville, NC), she grew up primarily on a farm in Madison County, not far from Early Mountain Vineyards. Clare snacked on the sweet persimmons and paw-paws from the area, all while rolling fresh pasta (half of her family is from Northern Italy) and consistently enjoying the goods from the family’s own garden. When it comes to proteins, Clare can cook your standard chicken or salmon to perfection, but her heart is in the lesser-used options.

“I’m more into langoustine, elk, venison… a different flavor profile. And truly farm to table — this area has such fantastic artisan agriculture and vendors.”

And when it comes to how to prepare those proteins, Clare is clear on her approach to that, too.

“My style is provincial, European… It’s an elegant,

menuitems fall

SWEET

Huckleberry

Scones w/whipped

Sorghum Butter

Plum Carpaccio w/ Lemon Verbena

Cream Chantilly

Maple Fairy Floss

SIP

Pecan White Hot Chocolate

Pink Peppercorn and Thyme

Spritzers

Roasted

Buckwheat and Honey Tisane

SAVORY

Rappahannock

River Oysters on the Half Shell w/ Elderflower, Fennel and Tart Apple

Mignonette

Salt Baked

Rainbow Trout w/ Salsa Verde and Roasted, Smashed

Baby Potatoes

Sizzling Bison

Steaks w/Cipollini

Butter and Crispy

Sunchoke Chips

Individual Cast Iron

Baked Paccheri

Pasta w/Wild

Boar Bolognese

and Parmigiano

Reggiano

Crispy Hen of the Woods w/Late

Summer Marinara and Pecorino

Romano

Hot Chocolate Machica is a warm, rich, chocolaty, complex and comforting beverage spiced with familiar fall flavors. Recipe on the Kitchen Fairy’s blog.

Artisanal Pesto Pasta: Making pesto at home is quick and easy once you get the hang of it and makes such a difference.

HB-1888_Spring 16 Graduation Bounceback

warm citrus-fennel olives

Warm citrus-fennel olives make me happy! They’re a lovely start to a meal, divine as a casual snacking olive, or the star attraction as the main course (paired with vinaigrette-dressed baby greens, artisanal bread, and a glass of light red wine or cool, effervescent Prosecco.)

Castelvetrano olives, also known as Nocellara del Belice, hail from Sicily. They have a magnificent buttery flavor and are mildly briny with a velvety, firm, meaty texture. Their vibrant shade of green presents beautifully with the citrus peel.

Tip: Avoid pitted olives if possible; the flavor is inferior. The flavor of jarred Castelvetranos can be muted but still tasty, so they’ll do if need be. Castelvetranos can be found in many natural or gourmet stores, at many Whole Foods locations, and, in a pinch, online.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Castelvetrano olives

6-10 strips of lemon zest

12-15 strips of orange zest

½ - ¾ teaspoon fennel seeds

3 medium bay leaves

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon water

DIRECTIONS:

1. Drain and rinse the olives of their brine.

2. Combine the olives and the remaining ingredients in a small medium size saute pan or pot.

3. Gently warm the ingredients over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, then lower the heat to low and continue warming for another 3-5 minutes. The liquid should never boil or even simmer.

4. Serve warm or at room temperature and be sure to provide a bowl for discarding the pits.

and I like that it came from my garden.”

And if you’re looking for the best wines to sip while savoring her simple yet crafty creations, Clare has a diverse palate and extensive expertise in wine and is well on her way to certification as a sommelier. Whether you prefer wine from near or far, she can point you in the right direction. But her heart is certainly entrenched in the vineyards of Virginia.

“I’ve always been really enamored with this area’s wine trail — these wines are just as good as wines I’ve had in San Francisco and Napa.”

rustic, chic vibe I have going.”

But don’t think for a second that Clare’s food or style is unapproachable or fussy — it is, in fact, the opposite. While Clare’s goal is to create a unique experience, she’s also all about fun.

“I want elegance, posh, and luxury to meet casual,” Clare said. “I would love for someone to say, can you make this ten-course four-hour meal with florals — and we want it to be a pajama party!”

And that same sort of ease of style translates into Clare’s home cheffing. Delicate simplicity, full of savory flavor, is her key. Her enthusiasm for cooking is so vividly apparent as she describes a simple weekly rice dish she makes that’s seasoned with cardamom, star anise, and an Asian-style sauce with soy and hoisin, served with green beans and salmon. Meanwhile, her voice speeds and rises as she talks about making a bowl of plump mussels cooked in a white wine sauce soaked up with a side of warm, homemade focaccia or fixing a dish of fresh, salty prosciutto alongside creamy burrata, fresh peas, and mint from her garden, served with a crisp white wine.

“I like simple stuff made well. How you plate it matters,

Sweets lovers can rejoice in Clare’s craftiness as well — when at Tavola, she was primarily responsible for the desserts and was given advice to pursue becoming a pastry chef. While she can make any sweet or delicate pastries, she has a personal affinity for preparing one specific type of cake.

“Here’s a favorite odd thing — I love making rolled cakes like roulades. They’re all cool and swirly!”

From surprising her husband by dressing up scrapple with chive oil and quail eggs to treating her friends who drop by to plum carpaccio with lemon verbena, Clare knows how to elevate ingredients with simplicity while she’ll also readily admit that she adores anything that she can “sop up with bread.” She’s a chef that’s excited to utilize any ingredients that clients from DC to Charlottesville — and everywhere in between — will savor after sizzling in the oven on the stovetop.

“Taking a break from cooking let me get back to my roots. This dinner [experience I provide now] feels like a Michelin star experience without the pomp and circumstance [and] you don’t have to travel. It’s the experience, attention to detail, and user experience thought about from every angle. I have so many ideas — I’m ready to go.” L

kitchenfairy.co

Kitchen Fairy Services: Private chef • Event design & management Grazing table curation • Wine appreciation experiences

Spring table designs include in season flowers and bright colors.

We’re committed to finding individuals with the right heart posture. This innate sense and passion for caring for others defines the EverNest team. From personal care services to companionship services and beyond, our home care offerings are tailored to suit each of our client’s lifestyles and needs.

Wild Asana:

Animals, Yoga, and Connecting Our Practice to the Natural World

by Alison Zak

Mind, body, spirit, earth

Author Alison Zak said of her first book Wild Asana: Animals, Yoga, and Connecting Our Practice to the Natural World, published this summer, “All the themes in my book- nature connection, curiosity, compassion, coexistence, unity — are important to me — that's why I wrote it!”

Readers may recognize Zak from The Open Book on Main Street where she currently works, or from her time at The Clifton Institute, a Fauquier County research and educational organization which works to restore habitats and conserve native biodiversity. Her background is in primatology, and she holds two degrees in anthropology.

Zak is also director of the Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund, a nonprofit she started which works with landowners in Fauquier County to help manage beaver problems with nonlethal strategies. (Did you know, beavers and their dam construction are crucial for creating wildlife habitats and maintaining water storage far up in the watershed, so flooding doesn’t occur in the lower elevations?).

She’s also a yoga teacher.

Hence the creation of Wild Asana, a nonfiction combination of personal introspection and stories with intensive scientific research.

Zak responded to some questions from Warrenton Lifestyle

Why did you decide to write this book?

I decided to write this book when I realized that, as yoga students, we practice cobra pose hundreds of times without ever thinking about the animal called a cobra as we do it. With so many poses named after animals, I was intrigued by how we could use our yoga practice to connect more meaningfully with animals and nature.

Synopsis:

Wild Asana is a guide to becoming animal on your yoga mat

From Downward Dog to Cobra, Alison Zak invites the reader into an embodied exploration of the animals that inspire familiar yoga poses.

Drawing on wildlife science, anthropology, Hindu mythology, Eastern philosophy, and personal stories, Zak explores the connections among our bodies, our minds, and the animals that inspire our practice.

Tell me about the illustrations.

The illustrations were done by an artist at the publisher, Jasmine Hromjak. Usually that would be up to the writer, but my editor shared the book with the art team, and they were excited to do it in house. I was thrilled it worked out so well.

What did you enjoy about writing the book? What did you not enjoy/find the most difficult?

I love the research that goes into writing a nonfiction book- it's an opportunity for me to dive deep into learning about all my favorite topics. Writing ultimately helps me think, so I learned a lot about myself throughout the process. Although meeting deadlines is sometimes challenging, and receiving feedback from editors can be scary, there is honestly nothing I dislike about the process of writing a book. I love it all.

Did you have writer’s block at any point?

I struggled with one chapter -the one about camels. After multiple rewrites and conversations with my editor, I finally realized that my challenge connecting with camels was actually what the essay was trying to teach me, so I incorporated those reflections into the final chapter.

What did you learn about yourself from the experience?

I learned that I can write a book! And get published! And that I have a unique and valuable perspective to share with others about how we can relate to other animals.

What is the best advice you’ve received about writing?

Read. A lot. You can't be a writer without also being a reader. Natalie Goldberg said, "If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you." Is there anyone else that was influential in the process that we should mention?

My writing group buddies, the Wordy Birds: Cammie Fuller, Kris Jarvis, Kirsten Dueck. L

EXCERPT: Tadasana— Mountain Pose

Aldo Leopold, environmentalist and author of A Sand County Almanac, published an essay in 1949 titled “Thinking Like a Mountain.”

But I don’t think mountains think. I feel that they feel.

Leopold had to learn that the mountain needed grass and deer and wolves, but the mountain already knew. She could feel the tickle of the fish’s fins, the silent whoosh of the eagle’s wing, the pricking of the bobcat’s claws in her soil, and the warmth from the body of the decomposing dove.

The green fire that Leopold watched fade from the eyes of the wolf mother he shot and killed does not only dwell within the wolf and the mountain, but also burns deep inside our own hearts. The mountain feels our footsteps when we walk and our hearts beat when we lie down upon the earth. She feels that we are all connected, interdependent. From her perspective, we are all animals, and we are all the sacred same despite our celebrated differences.

Leopold also wrote, “Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.”1

But why would she want to? Mountains are not objective beings, and neither are we. I want to listen to the howl of a wolf and feel something. Fear, love, sorrow, joy—all of the holy above. I want to be anything but objective. I want to be alive and complex and ever-changing. I want to feel wild when I listen to wolves because the wild is within me.

If “wildness is the preservation of the world,” as Henry David Thoreau wrote,2 then being and feeling—instead of thinking—like a mountain will better help us discover the wild inside. Our wildness is not lost or gone or forgotten. It is temporarily unrealized.3 Realizing it will be painfully simple and profoundly healing. Like breathing. Or watching the sun rise while watching the sunrise. It will be worth it.

This is not a quaint idea or friendly invitation; it is an urgent plea. Connecting with other animals in mindful and meaningful ways is our responsibility. It doesn’t have to happen out in “pristine wilderness,” in solitude, or under risky conditions like it did for the naturalists of yore. It happens in our homes and backyards and cities, with our families and communities, infused with our cultures. It can happen on our yoga mats, but it doesn’t have to. There is never only one path or practice that leads to this worthy destination. Our goal does have to be Yoga though, in its most universal sense, the yoking of ourselves to other beings and to nature in wild ways so that we can save each other and our earth.

Stand tall in mountain pose, tadasana, simultaneously rooted and rising tall. Ditch your yoga mat and let the grass tickle your skin. Don’t only imagine rooting your feet into the earth . . . do it. Feel the dampness of the dirt. Let mosquitoes buzz around your face. Delight in ants dancing in the grass. Embody the pigeon, the snake, the cat, in form and in thought as you breathe your own animal breath and move your own animal body into shapes that revere your fellow creatures, yourself. Make your green fire fierce. Less thinking, more being and feeling. And more mountains, always more mountains.

Notes:

1 Leopold, A. A Sand County almanac. 1966, New York, NY: Ballantine Books. 137.

2 Thoreau, H.D. Walking. The Atlantic online archives. June 1862; accessed October 19, 2022. www.theatlantic. com/magazine/ archive/1862/06 / walking/304674.

3 Askins, R. Shadow mountain: A memoir of wolves, a woman, and the wild. 2002, New York, NY: Anchor.

Excerpt From Wild Asana by Alison Zak, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 2023 by Alison Zak. Reprinted by permission of North Atlantic Books.

wellread

Meet the Authors

Fauquier Public Library Brings

Best-selling and Award-winning Authors to You

BY JENNIFER SCHULTZ-ANGOLI AND LISA PAVLOCK, FCPL

Have you ever wondered what inspires your favorite author? Or the backstory behind that bestseller everyone is talking about? Fauquier Public Library offers Meet the Author, a series of virtual talks with bestselling authors and thought provoking writers who share their insight, inspiration and the inside story behind their work.

“Meet the Author is a great way to bring bestselling and award-winning authors to our community. Since we launched the series a year ago, over 4,600 views both live or on-demand have been logged,” noted Maria Del Rosso, Fauquier Public Library director.

The selected authors cover a wide range of genres, including historical and contemporary fiction, romance, business, personal growth, social justice, art, and more. Featured authors have included Fredrik Backman, Geraldine Brooks, Bonnie Garmus, Lisa Napoli, Kate Quinn, and Simon Winchester to name only a few. Watch for these speakers, coming in October.

A Lifetime of Writing: A Conversation with International Bestselling Author John

Irving

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 7 P.M.

John Irving is an American-Canadian novelist whose well-known and critically acclaimed works include The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year. He is also the author of The Cider House Rules; in 1999 he won an academy award for The Cider House Rules script. In 2022 he published The Last Chairlift, his self-proclaimed final long novel.

European Travel Tips and Tools with Guidebook Author Rick Steves

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 4 P.M.

Rick Steves self-published his first guidebook in 1980. Since then, he has written many bestselling European travel guidebooks and travel advice books. He is the host of PBS's “Rick Steve’s Europe” and “Travel with Rick Steves”, available on public radio and as a podcast.

Many of Rick Steves's guidebooks are part of Fauquier Public Library’s extensive travel section which also includes DK Eyewitness Travel, Fodor's, Frommer's, Insight Guides, Lonely Planet, Moon Travel and Rough Guide

The Master of Suspense: An Author Talk with Ruth Ware

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2 P.M.

Ruth Ware is a British author well-known for her psychological thriller nail biters. She is often compared to Agatha Christie and has noted her as an inspiration for her work. Her bestselling titles include The Woman in Cabin 10, The IT Girl, and her latest, Zero Days.

Meet the Author is free, but advance registration is required. These live virtual events include interactive Q&A sessions; questions can also be submitted in advance.

All programs are also available on-demand following the event. To learn more, or for the full lineup of upcoming speakers, go to https://bit.ly/fplauthor.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library, Meet the Author is made possible through the Library Speaker’s Consortium, a service that provides speakers to colleges and universities across the country. Each month the series features conversations with two or three of the most influential authors of our time.

the

When readers turn to our pages, they see people they know and others they’d like to know – local heroes, amazing kids, neat neighbors, and rising stars. They see beloved businesses, favorite mail carriers, and long-standing members of the community. They see their family and friends. They see themselves. And when you advertise in Lifestyle, over 65,000* of them see you.

wine&dine

Soup’s On…

Fall’s here. Time for comfy sweaters, long walks in the crisp air and homemade soup. Fresh, hot, yummy homemade soup takes the wrinkles out of the day. It soothes the body, fills the belly and comforts the soul.

Homemade soup is easier to make than you think and you can improvise to your heart’s content using up those pesky odds and ends lurking in the fridge. No sense wasting money these days.

With a side of bread, soup can be an easyon-the-budget meal. But not just any bread – homemade bread.

Homemade bread is easier to make than you think, too, and it won’t cost you a week’s pay like store bought.

Let’s get into the kitchen!

Easy Black Bean and Sausage Chowder

Meat or vegan, this easy on the cook, hearty main dish soup comes together in a flash then bubbles away happily on the stove while I put my feet up and sip a glass of wine. Good the day it’s made. Better the next. For serving, dollop with sour cream or plain yogurt and pair with Olive and White Wine Focaccia. Ole!

And there’s bread in the oven!

BY KARLA JONES SEIDITA, HOME ECONOMIST

Olive & White Wine Focaccia

Everything's better with bread – especially this bread. So easy. So wonderful. So gourmet.

SERVES 4 TO 6

PAN SIZE: 8 INCHES SQUARE

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ cups biscuit mix (like Bisquick)

½ cup orange cheddar cheese (shredded)

½ cup salad olives (drained)

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 egg

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Topping: 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salt to taste

1. Position oven rack so focaccia will bake in center. Preheat to 400 degrees.

2. Grease pan or coat with baking spray.

3. In a medium bowl, combine baking mix, cheddar and olives. Stir in wine, egg and ¼ cup olive oil. Spread dough evenly into prepared pan.

4. Bake till lightly browned and slightly pulled away from sides of pan – 20 to 25 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and immediately drizzle 2 tablespoons of olive oil evenly over focaccia. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Cool in pan.

SERVES 4 TO 6 AS A MAIN DISH

POT SIZE: LARGE SAUCEPAN

INGREDIENTS

4 Tablespoons butter (dairy or vegan)

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 medium onions (diced –about 2 cups)

3 stalks celery (diced –about 1/1/2 cups)

16 oz. sausage (meat or vegan – any kind – cut into rounds if links)

2 (15.5 oz.) cans black beans (undrained)

2 teaspoons cumin

2 large bay leaves

2 medium potatoes (diced - peeled or not – about 2 cups)

2 cups corn (fresh, frozen or canned with liquid)

1 medium sweet potato (peeled and diced –about 2 cups)

½ green or red bell pepper (diced – about ½ cup)

¼ cup fresh parsley leaves (chopped or 2 Tablespoons dried)

1 Tablespoon liquid smoke

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 Tablespoon Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet

8 cups broth (any kind)

DIRECTIONS

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add pepper, onions, celery and sausage. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is cooked. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer, partially covered, until potatoes are soft and liquid is reduced by ¼ – about 40 minutes.

How boldly will you

However you choose to spend your last 6 months, we’re here to help you make it count.

Hospice of the Piedmont: here for more than the end.

WWW.HOPVA.ORG 800-975-5501

Fresh Carrot Bisque

Souper gourmet shop soup for a fraction of the cost. Pair with No Knead Crusty Artisan Bread –recipe follows. Amazing!

SERVES ABOUT 4

POT SIZE: MEDIUM SAUCEPAN

INGREDIENTS

1 pound fresh carrots (peeled and thinly sliced)

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon sugar

5 cups water

Milk or cream to taste (dairy or plant)

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Put carrots, butter, sugar and water in a medium pot. Simmer (uncovered) until carrots are very soft and almost all the water has evaporated - about 40 minutes.

2. Puree carrots along with any small amount of water remaining in the pot. Add milk, cream or a combo to a consistency you like. Add salt to taste. Heat for serving.

Amazing - No Knead Crusty Artisan Bread

Think making homemade bread is too much trouble? Too time consuming? Requires a skill you’ve yet to master? This recipe is a game changer. Serve with Fresh Carrot Bisque and your fav cheese.

MAKES 1 LARGE LOAF

PAN SIZE: A well-seasoned, cast iron Dutch oven (pot with lid) that's 10 inches wide at the top tapering to 8 inches at the bottom X 5 ½ inches deep is ideal. Any similar size, heavy, pot with lid works. Be sure your pot, lid and handles can take the heat of the 450 degree oven.

INGREDIENTS

8 cups unbleached all purpose flour (use 7 cups if your flour is bleached –2 packages active dry yeast (4 ½ teaspoons - not instant or bread ma-

3 cups warm water (99 to 100 degrees)

To measure flour, spoon into a “dry” measuring cup. Scrape off excess. Repeat as needed. Unbleached flour measures lighter than bleached so, for this recipe, you need more volume.

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, mix flour, yeast and salt. Stir in water forming a soft dough. Drape a (dry) paper towel over the bowl to cover. Let dough rest/rise 1 hour. Remove paper towel. Stir dough to deflate. Replace paper towel. Let dough rest/rise a 2nd time – 1 hour more.

2. After 30 minutes into the 2nd rest/ rise, lightly grease the Dutch oven or mist with baking spray. Cover and place into cold oven. Set temperature to 450 degrees and let both oven and pan preheat for 30 minutes.

Remove pan from oven and carefully remove hot lid. Using a rubber spatula, scrape dough into hot pan. Replace cover. Return to oven. Bake, covered, 50 minutes. Remove cover. Bake till golden –about 15 minutes more. Remove pan from oven. Remove bread. Cool at least 20 minutes before cutting.

DIY Onion Soup Mix

I’m a do it myself kind of cook. I like to have things around that I make with ingredients I know. Saves me money too. I like that.

Nice for soup in a hurry. Handy for recipes calling for an envelope of onion soup mix. And don’t forget onion dip! Just stir into sour cream or yogurt.

MAKES 8 TABLESPOONS

(ONE RECIPE SUBS FOR 1 ENVELOPE PURCHASED MIX)

SOUP MIX INGREDIENTS

¼ cup dried onion pieces

1 Tablespoon dried instant bouillon granules (any flavor – not cubes)

2 teaspoons onion powder

Pinch pepper

FOR SOUP

Stir entire recipe into 6 cups water. Simmer (partially covered) 10-15 minutes. Serves 4. L