2022 Progress - Made in Isle of Wight and Surry Counties by smithfieldtimes

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February 23, 2022 – Page 1

The Smithfield Times February 23, 2022

Page 2 – February 23, 2022

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Made in All across Isle of Wight and Surry counties, there are always people engaged in the business of making. Whether it’s inventing a new item, designing and producing a piece of art, growing a crop, cooking a recipe, quilting a quilt, processing a ham, even simply making their service-based business into something — everyone here is a “maker” in some way. We set out to highlight a few of those folks in Isle of Wight and Surry counties who are making things, and we found a variety of people to talk to. As you peruse the pages, you will find entrepreneurs, artists, businesspeople and more featured. We hope you’ll be inspired to make something of your own after you read about your neighbors’ projects.

February 23, 2022 – Page 3

Guitars...................... 4 Power........................ 7 Quilts......................... 8 Food Market.............11 Cupcakes..................12 Hams.........................15 Liquors......................16

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Smithfield & Isle of Wight Tourism’s customers are NOT meeting planners, NOT event planners, NOT concert promoters, NOT association executives, NOT tour operators, NOT travel writers, NOT bloggers, NOT influencers, or anyone else we traditionally have called our customers. THEY are the SUPPLIERS.

TES + A n E R o i l C l i M Our CUSTOMERS are the L 2 A $ C O L RESIDENTS of OUR COMMUNITY. TESUE A R E + n Our CUSTOMERS supply the raw material a community needs to EN o GEN i V l l E i R M X compete—the needed ingredient to create a vibrant community, to 8 TA 5 $ build a community, to invest in a community. They bring people. And + TESNDING the people are tourists, consumers and talent. And those people bring n A R o i E l l N i E E business, investment and capital. M G CAL SP 7 1 C I $ O L OM N O C S E roll) E T A R GenuineSmithfieldVa.com GENTIEVITY (Pay Visitor Center: 319 Main Street, 757.357.5182 & ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY AC

Page 4 – February 23, 2022

Students build guitars By Stephen Faleski Staff Writer

Top: SHS students Brent Loftin, Matthew Paspar, Jackson Lamm and Car ter Hendrick show their handmade guitar bases. Center: A guitar design on the computer. Above: The four students’ guitars have yet to be assembled. Opposite page: Lamm works on his guitar next to the prototype Shipman created last summer.

There isn’t much room for error when crafting a handmade guitar. “You literally have one go to get it all perfect,” said Jackson Lamm, a senior at Smithfield High School. Lamm is one of four independent study students in Adam Shipman’s engineering course. Throughout the school year, they’ve been working two to three steps ahead of the rest of their classmates to design, build and wire electric guitars. Shipman created a prototype over the summer of 2021, but each student’s guitar will be unique. Jackson’s has a number of curved angles. Carter Hendrick, another senior, made his more rounded. Brent Loftin plans to stain his guitar, allowing the wood grain to show through. Carter plains to paint his gloss black with silver trim. “The great thing with this project is you have a lot of choice, what to do as far as design … every single guitar here has a completely different head-

stock,” Jackson said. Changing the shape of a guitar’s headstock is one of the ways major guitar manufacturers brand their products, he explained. The device, located at the top of the neck, holds each guitar’s tuning pegs. Mistakes made along the way can limit design options. When Carter was drilling holes for his guitar’s wiring, the drill bit went too far and chipped part of the wood body. He fixed it with wood filler, and it won’t be noticeable once he paints it, but had he planned to stain it instead, the filler’s lighter color and lack of wood grain would be noticeable. Jackson also had a near-miss when cutting the 1/8-inch birch top that will cover the custom-designed triangular housing for his guitar’s electronics — cutting perilously close to the edge of the guitar’s body. Painting comes with its own share of challenges. If the wood hasn’t been perfectly sanded, the paint will find and draw attention to any crevice, Jackson said. The four independent study seniors designed their guitars at the start of the school year using a

February 23, 2022 – Page 5

Ayham Deeb, MD

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Expert Physicians. Exceptional Care. computer program called Inkscape, then used a vinyl cutter to trace

their designs onto a thick slab of wood. The project will count as the four independent study seniors’ “capstone,” a year-long project third- and fourth-year engineering students at SHS must complete. The students will also be wiring the guitars themselves using potentiometers to demonstrate their knowledge of electronics. Potentiometers are dials that function similar to dimmable light switches. Turning the dial varies the voltage across the circuit to adjust functions such as volume. Students have the option of keeping their guitars if they pay half of the $200 cost for materials. The end goal, according to Shipman, is to give every student who completes Smithfield High’s firstthrough fourth-year engineering courses the competencies needed to achieve Manufacturing Technician 1 certification. “We’ve had a good record in the past; we get somewhere in the 70-

80% passing rate,” Shipman said. Obtaining the certification entails passing three separate onehour tests — one on mathematics, one on mechanics, and one on business acumen. Students who pass the first two tests become certified Manufacturing Specialists. Students who pass all three obtain the coveted MT1 certification. “All things being equal, usually what happens when someone has an MT1 and someone doesn’t, the person with the MT1 is the person who’s going to get the job,” Shipman said. T h e school also partners with the Federation of Manufacturing Educators, which offers students the opportunity to obtain a two-year degree while apprenticing with a participating company. “Having MT1 definitely gets your foot in the door,” Shipman said. Jackson plans to pursue a career in engineering, but since working in Shipman’s class, has cultivated a new interest as well. He wants to learn to play guitar.

‘Every single guitar here has a completely different headstock.’

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Powering Virginia By Stephen Faleski Staff Writer

About 15% of the electricity Dominion Energy supplies to its Virginia and North Carolina customers comes from Surry County, where a nuclear power plant has been operating since the early 1970s. Reactor No. 1 went online in December 1972. Reactor No. 2 followed in May 1973. Together, they produce enough electricity to power roughly 420,000 homes. The plant is located near the southern bank of the James River, about seven miles outside the town of Surry and 12 miles from Smithfield. It employs about 900 people, and the resulting public service corporation taxes Dominion Energy pays account for more than 50% of the county government’s annual income. The plant, which will reach its 50th anniversary this year, has seen its share of controversy over the decades. In 1979, according to The Smithfield Times’ archives, a jury found two men guilty of intentionally damaging the plant’s nuclear fuel assemblies after they’d argued at their trial that their goal was to shock Dominion — then known as the Virginia Electric & Power Co., or VEPCO — into improving the safety and security of their nuclear plants. As the fuel assemblies were new, and had not yet been activated, no radiation was released. Then, in 1985, Surry’s Board of Supervisors

approved a conditional use permit allowing the plant to store its spent nuclear fuel above ground in dry casks, over the objection of several nearby residents. More recently, in 2021, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved Dominion’s request to continue operating the plant into the 2050s, by which point it will have been operating for double its originally permitted 40-year lifespan. On the flip side of the issue, nuclear power plants don’t emit greenhouse gases. A 2020 state law known as the Virginia Clean Economy Act requires nearly all coal-fired power plants to close by the end of 2024, and for Dominion to be 100% carbon-free by 2045. The power plant, as it stands today, is “not the same” as the one that began operating in the 1970s, according to Dominion spokesman Ken Holt. “Several major components have been replaced or upgraded over the years including the reactor vessel head, heat exchangers, transformers, and the steam generators,” Holt told The Smithfield Times in 2021. “We also have a comprehensive inspection program that monitors equipment performance to look for deficiencies and declining performance so that repairs or replacement can be scheduled. … Our spent fuel is safely stored in the spent fuel pools at the plant. After it’s been in the pool for long enough, it’s moved into enclosed steel and concrete containers that are fortified against extreme events like earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes.”

Top: Thick concrete domes cover the Surry Power Station’s two nuclear reactors. Right: A diagram on display at the power plant illustrates how nuclear reactors work.

Page 8 – February 23, 2022

Quilts made in Smithfield By Tracy Agnew Editor

At top, from left, Nancy Trudeau, Sheri Overton, Elaine Shell, Julie Hopkins and Joan Mars show off some of the quilts made by the Angel Quilters. Above, all quilts made by Angel Quilters get a label. Opposite page at top, a quilt hanging in the Angel Quilters’ meeting place; opposite page at bottom, a craft made from scraps by the Thread Divas.

Quilts made in Smithfield have gone all over the country, but many of them stay right here in the area with children in need. The Angel Quilters group started almost four years ago, when Nancy Trudeau moved to Smithfield and mistakenly sat in Julie Hopkins’ pew at church. The two ladies went to lunch together later on, talked about quilting and decided to start a quilt group. Hopkins found them a place to meet and placed the announcement in the church bulletin. The rest is history — about a dozen people showed up to that first meeting, and there are now almost 100 on the email list for the group, although not everyone shows up every time. All of the Angel Quilters have one thing in common — they are making quilts for children

who are less fortunate. “We wanted to concentrate on local kids,” Trudeau said. “So we got involved with Kiwanis and Ruritan and Rotary and Lions Club, and all those people have been real supportive.” Last year, only two groups of quilts were given outside of the area: one to New Orleans, Louisiana, after it was struck by a hurricane, and one to a Kentucky community struck by a tornado. All of the other quilts — more than 600 — were donated locally. Some quilts go to Edmarc Hospice for Children for the siblings of terminally ill children. Some quilts go to the Genieve Shelter and ForKids. Some go to social services in Isle of Wight and surrounding jurisdictions. Some are given to local law enforcement, firefighters and rescue workers to have when they go to an emergency and see a child in need of comfort. One time, Hopkins said, the Isle of Wight

February 23, 2022 – Page 9 Rescue Squad went out to take care of a boy who had gotten hurt. Later on, they went back to his house to take him a quilt. “I just thought it was really nice of the Isle of Wight Rescue Squad to go back,” Hopkins said. As word has spread about what the Angel Quilters do, they have gotten innumerable donations of material, thread and more. They keep it all neatly arranged in their meeting place, the Academy Building at Trinity United Methodist Church. During meetings, quilters work on piecing together quilts and choosing the backs for them. They send them to longarmers to be quilted, and they are labeled as an Angel Quilters quilt. Scraps go into pillow pets or are used by the Thread Divas, a sister group, in sewing small handbags and other

items. Once there are around 100 quilts ready to be sent out the door, they are blessed in the church before they are picked up by the participating groups that hand them out to children who need some comfort. The quilts and the children they’re made for are a big draw for most of the people in the group, but they also enjoy the people they work with and the people they meet through Angel Quilters. “I’m new to Smithfield, and I’m a new quilter, because after I retired, I wanted to learn,” said Pat Farmin, who moved to Smithfield a year and a half ago. “I think the mission is fabulous and these are great ladies and talented ladies. It’s great for me because we’re trying to meet people, and I have met a lot of people.”

‘We wanted to concentrate on local kids.’

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Authentic Thai food here By Stephen Faleski Staff Writer

For Tim Miller and his wife, Akkhara, bringing authentic Thai cuisine to Smithfield wasn’t so much a choice as a necessity. “I eat this food all my life,” said Akkhara, who emigrated from Thailand to the United States. “I cannot eat American food every day, because I miss my food.” The couple met in Washington, D.C., where Akkhara had been attending college and staying with relatives. She’d initially intended to study English and then return to Thailand, but life — and Tim — had other plans. “We date, and he ask me for marriage,” Akkhara said, “And then I say yes.” Tim, an Isle of Wight County native, then moved back to the area with his wife to raise their daughter. In 2016, Tim and Akkhara founded Chili Hill Farm LLC, and began selling homegrown Asian produce to restaurants and Asian markets on the Peninsula. The name is a nod to the couple’s first crop. “Our first crop was Thai chili peppers,” Tim said. “We started our first large plot on a hill at our family’s farm near Windsor, so the name just kind of made sense.” In 2019, the couple began selling homemade Thai food at the Smithfield Farmers Market. In 2021, they opened Chili Hill Food Market in a brick storefront

at the corner of Main and Institute streets. The building’s owner, John Sanns, was one of their regular customers at the Farmers Market, Tim said. “Akkhara does most of the Thai cooking,” Tim added. She’d taken some culinary classes in Thailand, and began to immerse herself in learning all she could about Thai cooking after they founded Chili Hill. “My background is culinary and foodservice management, so we work together on every aspect of the business,” Tim said. Among Akkhara’s original creations is Chili Hill’s steamed pork buns, which took much experimenting on her part to perfect. Making them takes a certain type of flour that’s readily available in Thailand, but not in the United States. “I had to mix every flour I can find … and then I tell family come and try, and they love it,” Akkhara said. Also unique to Chili Hill are Akkhara’s papaya salad and Chili Hill noodle soup — formerly known as “mistletoe soup.” Sourcing authentic ingredients has continued to be a challenge. Currently, the couple receives monthly shipments from a Baltimore-based distributor that specializes in southeast Asian foods. But, “sometimes you’ve gotta order some stuff online,” Tim said. “We do grow a lot of the stuff, as much as we can,” he added.

Top: Chili Hill sells won ton soup and pork flavor mix, as well as other Asian specialty ingredients. Right: Akkhara Miller prepares Thai cuisine in Chili Hill’s kitchen.

Page 12 – February 23, 2022

The sweet side of Oz By Tracy Agnew Editor

Residents and visitors alike know how to find delicious sweets in Surry County: just follow the yellow brick road. That road, in this case, leads not to Oz but rather to Just for Kicks Cupcakes & More at 11911 Rolfe Highway. The Oz-themed cupcake shop has everything you need to satisfy your sweet tooth and enough “The Wizard of Oz” decor to let any fan geek out while they place their order. Janette Johnson, the owner, started the shop in 2018. She retired as a sergeant from the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office after spending much of her career there, with the first five years in the Surry County Sheriff’s Office. Inspired by her mother, who used to bake and do wedding cakes, Johnson started the business as something to do when she retired. It was something happier, she said. “In law enforcement, when you go to people’s houses, nobody’s happy to see you,” she said. “And when people come here with smiles on their faces, that makes my day.” She was able to gain the use of the building, which is owned by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church next door and has been, at various times in the past, a hairdresser, a coffee shop and an antiques

store. All of the cupcake flavors at the shop follow the “Wizard of Oz” theme. The Dorothy is a carrot cake cupcake; Scarecrow is chocolate and peanut butter-flavored. The Tin Man is an apple cinnamon flavor with cran-raisins and a pecan caramel glaze. The Cowardly Lion has coconut forming his mane on the top of the cupcake. Glinda the Good Witch is a strawberry cupcake. Then there are the Wicked Witch of the East and Wicked Witch of the West, which both contain an amount of chocolate best described as delectable. The rainbow and Toto have their own flavors, as well. There are also other sweet treats like cookies, pies and hot chocolate bombs. There are lunch selections like Jeb’s barbecue, fresh ham biscuits and homemade chicken salad. Johnson also makes cakes to order for special events, including weddings, and takes other special orders. In addition to sweet treats, Johnson gives space in her store for local artisans to display their goods. Some of them include Claremont Candle Company, artist Tina Epps, Kathy’s Kreations and Sterling Designs by Kathy Peebles, artist Emily Morgan, C & A’s Apiary of Sunbury, North Carolina, and more. “When I started this, I wanted to make sure

‘When people come here with smiles on their faces, that makes my day.’

At top, the three witches of Oz are represented by cupcakes made by Just for Kicks Cupcakes & More. From left are the Wicked Witch of the West, the Wicked Witch of the East and Glinda the Good Witch. The Oz-themed cupcakery has plenty more flavors as well. Opposite page from left, a chocolate-covered strawberry cake; Janette Johnson takes a batch of cupcakes out of the oven; a rainbow cupcake; and some of the Ozthemed decor.

February 23, 2022 – Page 13

the local people had a chance to do things,” Johnson said. “It’s basically just community-oriented.” Johnson said she keeps her sweets priced reasonably to keep local folks coming back — especially since they continued to support the business through the pandemic — but also has repeat business from vacationers who are in the area every year. “Surry is doing a really, really good job getting tourism stuff going on,” she said. Johnson dreams of having either a second store or a food truck in the future.

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February 23, 2022 – Page 15

Hams processed in Smithfield By Stephen Faleski Staff Writer

Genuine Smithfield hams can only be marketed as such if they are created by the “long-cure, dry salt method” and aged for a minimum of six months, all “within the corporate limits of the town of Smithfield,” reads a Virginia state law. It’s a distinction shared with Champagne, which can only be labeled as such, and not sparkling wine, if it comes from Champagne, France. The town’s association with meatpacking dates back to the 18th century. According to Helen Haverty-King’s book, “Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County, Virginia,” shipping records of the day list Capt. Samuel Wentworth of Smithfield as shipping bacon and hams as early as 1755. But it’s Mallory Todd, a native of Bermuda who came to Smithfield in 1767, who’s credited with creating the famed Smithfield ham using the technique outlined in state law. After the Civil War, Confederate veteran Pembroke D. Gwaltney Sr., known as Smithfield’s “peanut king,” partnered with his cousin, O.G. Delk, to erect a smokehouse behind their store and warehouse on Commerce Street. But as the moniker implies, P.D. Sr. was more known for producing peanuts than hams. In 1882, according to King’s book, Gwaltney’s 21-year-old son, P.D. Gwaltney Jr., formed a partnership with his father under the name P.D. Gwaltney Jr. & Co., and began expanding the Gwaltney family’s ham curing operations. When P.D. Sr. died in 1915, P.D. Jr. and his brother-in-law, Frank Berryman, sold their holdings in the peanut business to the American Peanut Corporation.

When the Great Fire of 1921 destroyed Smithfield’s peanut industry, “the Gwaltneys lost very little,” King writes. In fact, it left P.D. Jr.’s store and meatpacking buildings relatively untouched. About a year after the fire, P.D. Jr. discovered a smoked ham that had been left hanging, undisturbed, in the rafters of one of his smokehouses for 20 years. He fashioned a brass collar for it, calling it his “pet” ham, and began taking it on tour as a demonstration of the preserving powers of the Smithfield curing method. Enter Joseph W. Luter Sr. and Jr., the founders of what would eventually become the Fortune 500 company known as Smithfield Foods. Luter Sr. and Jr. both initially worked for P.D. Gwaltney Jr.’s company, according to King’s book, before striking out on their own in 1936 to found the Smithfield Packing Co. on empty Commerce Street lots where the old American Peanut Corporation warehouses once stood. The Luters built a packing plant in 1946 on Route 10 and by 1959, their workforce had grown to 650, according to Smithfield Foods’ website. Luter Jr. was Smithfield’s chief executive officer until his death in 1962. His son, Joseph W. Luter III, joined the company that year. Luter III served as CEO from 1975 through 2006. Under his leadership, Smithfield bought the Gwaltney brand in 1983. Luter continued to serve as the company’s chairman until it was sold to the Hong Kong-based WH Group in 2013. According to Jim Monroe, Smithfield Foods’ vice president of corporate affairs, the company continues to produce genuine Smithfield hams at its meatpacking plants in town.

Top: P.D. Gwaltney’s “pet” ham, marked by its brass collar, is now on display at the Isle of Wight County Museum, having earned the distinction of being the world’s oldest ham. Above: Smithfield Foods maintains its corporate headquarters in downtown Smithfield on Commerce Street.

Page 16 – February 23, 2022

Locally made spirits By Stephen Faleski Staff Writer

Alcohol runs in Mark Rangos’ blood. Not literally, of course, but his family has been in the alcohol business for many decades. In the 1950s, his grandfather, Dominic Young, opened a bar in Wellsburg, West Virginia, which was passed down to his mother, Shirley Young, then to his sisters, and is still in operation to this day. Mark’s father, Chuck Rangos, then opened a wineand beer-making supply store in the 1990s, which is now owned by Mark’s nephew, Derek Sliday. Mark’s plunge into the family business came only after he’d spent more than 20 years in various management capacities with construction equipment manufacturers. “We often talked about what we wanted to do after our ‘job’ jobs,” his wife, Kim, said. “We could never figure out what we wanted to do.” That changed after she and Mark visited Ireland in 2015 and toured the famed Jameson whiskey distillery. As Kim tells the story, Mark had been sitting in his recliner later that year, when he threw up his hands and said to her, “I know what I want to do! I want to make vodka!” “Let’s do it,” she agreed. In 2016, Blue Sky Distillery was born. The Isle of Wight County-based micro-distillery

began producing its first original liquors in 2017. Its “Painted Pig” brand smoked bacon maple whiskey is named for the town of Smithfield’s ties to Smithfield Foods and the meatpacking industry, while “Blackbeard’s Point” rum is named for a historical landmark in the present-day city of Hampton, where the 18th-century pirate known as Blackbeard would prey on American ships. “Dog Star” vodka, made from local wheat, is named for a star in the Canis Major constellation, which can be seen in the southern evening sky from winter to mid-spring, and in the eastern sky before dawn in the late summer mornings. Blue Sky donates a portion of the proceeds from each sale of Dog Star vodka to benefit animal welfare. The distillery’s name itself is a nod to the region. “When Mark and I were trying to decide on a name, we wanted to come up with something that, when you heard it, you automatically thought happy thoughts,” Kim said. “We were just getting on the James River Bridge and the sky was clear with small tufts of clouds.” The company has since brought in three new partners: Mike Miller, Yat Reilly and Michael Tan. The distillery shares space with the Spring Lake Bottled Water Co. in the Isle of Wight Industrial Park. “We have a small footprint in their warehouse, and even though we are off the beaten path, we are happy to say visitors find us,” Kim said.

February 23, 2022 – Page 17

Opposite page, top: Bottles of Blue Sky’s whiskey and rum brands line the shelves of the micro distillery’s sales room; bottom: Mark Rangos stands next to his towering distillery equipment. This page, left: A sign for Blue Sky Distillery stands outside the Spring Lake Bottled Water Co., with which the business shares space; right: Kim Rangos works in the sales room; bottom: Merchandise associated with Blue Sky’s “Dog Star” vodka brand is on display in the sales room.

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The Makers Clockwise from right: Akkhara Miller; Nancy Trudeau, Sheri Over ton, Elaine Shell, Julie Hopkins and Joan Mars; Janette Johnson; Smithfield High School students Brent Loftin, Matthew Paspar, Jackson Lamm and Carter Hendrick; and Mark Rangos.

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Page 20 – February 23, 2022

Enhancing the quality of life with advanced Neurology and Sleep solutions

Our physician, Dr. Rajiv Nanavaty along with our Nurse Practitioners, Lacey Lyle, and DeJa Davis, provide exceptional treatment and care for our patients. We place a high level of importance on compassion and integrity - it is what drives our practice and the foundation for our reputation.

ACCEPTING SLEEP PATIENTS

Whether diagnosing sleep apnea, providing CPAP set-ups, conducting a home sleep study, EEG or EMG testing, it is our pleasure to take part in the lives of so many people.

5839 Harbour View Blvd. Suite 201 Suffolk, VA 23435

150 Burnett’s Way, Suite 320 Suffolk, VA 23434

Fax (757) 967-0675

Fax (757) 925-6719

Office (757) 967-0676

Office (757) 934-1900

2022 Progress - Made in Isle of Wight and Surry Counties

Articles inside

Spirits

Guitars

Cupcakes

Food Market

Power

Quilts

Hams