Slice Summer 2022

ISLE OF WIGHT COURTHOUSE COMPLEX

IsleCares.com is a website hosted by Isle of Wight County providing relevant information and up-to-date county news. Sign up on IsleCares.com to receive the monthly “Isle Cares” e-newsletter.

WINDSOR

Want to comment on an experience you’ve had with the county? With the online CARE CARD, citizens can provide feedback on their experiences with county staff and services. Printed cards are also available at county offices. Just fill out the card, drop it off or mail it, and the appropriate staff member will respond to your concerns or questions, or pass along your comments.

REFUSE &

Hours:

258 58 460

NEW TO THE COUNTY?

460

Hours:

REFUSE & RECYCLING CENTERS ISLE

Camptown

Hours: Mon. & Tues.,Thurs. - Sat. 7 am – 7 pm

Sun. 1 pm – 7 pm, closed Wed.

Wrenn’s Mill R&R Center, Smithfield 356.1040

Jones Creek R&R Center, Carrollton 356.1037

Carroll Bridge R&R Center, Windsor 356.1018

Stave Mill R&R Center, Windsor 242.3597

Carrsville R&R Center, 516.2851

Camptown R&R Center, Franklin 516.2850

Crocker R&R Center, Windsor 356.1026

Walters R&R Center, Carrsville 516.2852

REFUSE & RECYCLING CENTERS ISLE OF WIGHT

CENTERS

Wrenn’s Mill R&R Center, Smithfield 356.1040

Jones Creek R&R Center, Carrollton 356.1037

Carroll Bridge R&R Center, Windsor 356.1018

The Isle of Wight County Newcomer’s Guide provides all the information those who are new to the area and residents need on county services, recreational opportunities, elected officials, utilities, emergency services, and much more. The guide is available at the county complex or it can be downloaded from the county’s website.

Stave Mill R&R Center, Windsor 242.3597

Carrsville R&R Center, 516.2851

Camptown R&R Center, Franklin 516.2850

Crocker R&R Center, Windsor 356.1026

757.357.3191

Walters R&R Center, Carrsville 516.2852

ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY PARKS

Hours: Mon. & Tues.,Thurs. - Sat. 7 am – 7 pm

Camptown Park

Sun. 1 pm – 7 pm, closed Wed.

Heritage Park

Wrenn’s Mill R&R Center, Smithfield 356.1040

Jones Creek Boat Ramp

Jones Creek R&R Center, Carrollton 356.1037

Joyner's Bridge Boat Ramp

Carroll Bridge R&R Center, Windsor 356.1018

Nike Park

Stave Mill R&R Center, Windsor 242.3597

Riverview Park

Carrsville R&R Center, 516.2851

Robinson Park

Camptown R&R Center, Franklin 516.2850

Camptown Park

Heritage Park

Jones Creek Boat

Joyner's Bridge Boat

Nike Park

Riverview Park

Robinson Park

Tyler's Beach Boat Ramp, Harbor & Public Beach

Tyler's Beach Boat

Fort Boykin Historic Park

Crocker R&R Center, Windsor 356.1026

Fort Boykin Historic

Historic Fort Huger

Walters R&R Center, Carrsville 516.2852

Historic Fort Huger

JAMES RIVER

SMITHFIELD

NEWPORT DISTRICT William McCarty

WINDSOR DISTRICT Joel Acree Chairman

HARDY DISTRICT Rudolph Jefferson

JAMESRIVERBR.

ISLE OF WIGHT COURTHOUSE COMPLEX

WINDSOR DISTRICT Joel C Acree

HARDY DISTRICT Rudolph Jefferson NEWPORT DISTRICT William M McCarty

DISTRICT 4 (FORMERLY WINDSOR DISTRICT) Joel Acree DISTRICT 5 (FORMERLY CARRSVILLE DISTRICT) Don G. Rosie II

DISTRICT 1 (FORMERLY SMITHFIELD DISTRICT) Richard L. “Dick” Grice

DISTRICT 3 (FORMERLY HARDY DISTRICT)

Rudolph Jefferson Chairman DISTRICT 2 (FORMERLY NEWPORT DISTRICT) William M. McCarty Vice-Chairman

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Faleski Writer

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A baseball story you’ll

We’re big baseball fans here at Slice, so we couldn't resist telling the story of the Smithfield Peaches for our summer edition.

The hybrid coach-pitch/T-ball team is coached by Jared Ulsh, a former high school baseball standout on the Peninsula who moved to Isle of Wight County from Hampton. Like most of the volunteers in area recreational leagues, Ulsh was inspired to coach by his own daughter, Juliette, a member of the Peaches.

Little did he know that he was about to take a walk into the baseball history books courtesy of 5-year-old Wren Joyner and her mom, Danielle. We won’t spoil the fun here, but check out the full story from Slice’s Ste phen Faleski on the pages that follow. Whether or not you’re a baseball fan, you’re going to love the Peaches’ story.

Speaking of inspiration, you’ll surely get some from Faleski’s story on volunteers who’ve teamed up to ensure the health of the community garden at Smithfield’s Windsor Castle Park. Started pre-COVID by Smithfield High School students, the garden has lacked a water source when it doesn’t rain. A prolonged drought can be devastating. But thanks to area Master Naturalists and the local NAACP chapter, a new water source is in place.

In our spring issue, Phyllis Speidell and John H. Sheally II began a mul tipart series on the history of Virginia ham with a feature on Surry’s famed Edwards Hams. They continue it this month with a visit to Darden’s Country Store, where Tommy and DeeDee Darden carry on a tradition begun by Tom my’s father, L. Seward Darden, some 70 decades ago. Despite some national media exposure over the years, mass marketing is not needed or wanted by this mom-and-pop business, which continues to be squarely focused on its local customers.

We’re honored that Slice made your summer reading list. If you like our magazine, be sure to thank the businesses whose advertisements appear on the pages of this issue. We couldn’t publish without them.

Steve Stewart

DIAMOND PEACHES

A Smithfield coach-pitch/T-ball team gets inspiration from a special chapter in baseball history.

Community Garden

Volunteers team up to make sure the garden at Windsor Castle Park is watered even when it doesn’t rain.

Where Am I?

Art Scene

Meet the winners in the inaugural Smithfield Arts Festival

In The News

Smithfield is featured prominently in a new children’s book by a Northern Virginia author.

Can you spot the location of our Where Am I? challenge this edition? You’ll be entered to win a $25 gift card.

Master Naturalists, NAACP bring water to community garden

Story and photos by Stephen Faleski

Last year, Carrollton resident Ariane Williams and a group of volunteers set themselves the task of reviving Windsor Castle Park's community garden.

Smithfield Middle School students had started the site years ago, but were unable to maintain it in 2020 when the CO

VID-19 pandemic began. By last fall, she and her team had turned the overgrown patch of grass and weeds into multiple planting beds filled with growing fruits and vegetables.

But without a source of water, the garden's success or failure is currently

dependent on the weather.

It's a problem Isle of Wight County's NAACP chapter and the Virginia Master Naturalists' Historic Southside chapter are working to solve.

The two groups joined forces the morning of May 21 to build a rainwater

Smithfield Town Councilman Wayne Hall uses a trencher he rented from Home Depot to dig a 150-foot trench from the kayak shed to the community garden.

retention system.

Five 50-gallon barrels donated by the James River Association, a nonprofit organization that monitors and advo cates for the river's health, now sit atop an elevated rack behind the park's kayak rental shed. The NAACP and the Master Naturalists plan to add guttering to the shed's roof in the near future to funnel rainwater into the barrels, at which point a gravity system will carry the water to the garden via the underground pipes the two groups installed that morning.

“Then, it just becomes a matter of turning on the faucet,” said John Bunch, a member of the Master Naturalists.

According to the application the two groups sent to Smithfield's Parks and Recreation Department to secure permission to add the rainwater system to the town-owned park, the $1,250 project will include interpretive signs and a curriculum for community youth on the importance of stormwater and how to mimic the same retention process in their own yards.

“Our chapter had been on the lookout for ways of doing some type of storm water retention project as an educational outreach project,” Bunch said.

Connecting with the NAACP, which had been looking for a means of pro viding an on-site water source for the garden, ended up being the push needed to move both groups' efforts forward.

Master Naturalists volunteer Henry McBurney had already laid out and as sembled the piping that morning. Then came the hard part: digging a 150-foot trench to bury the piping underground on a day that would see 90-degree tem peratures by afternoon.

“We quickly realized what a difficult task was in store for us on this abnor mally hot spring day,” Bunch said.

Town Councilman Wayne Hall, who joined the volunteers for the day, then made a welcome decision.

“In a flash, he was off to rent a tren cher from Home Depot. … Within about 30 minutes or so of hard work he had completed the trench for the project,” Bunch said.

GARDEN, from page

Top, gutters will be added to the kayak shed to funnel rainwater into five barrels and a gravity system that will carry it to the community garden. Middle, Aston Williams clears the trench for the piping from the kayak shed to the garden. Above, Henry McBurney cuts piping for the rainwater system. In back are Aston Williams and Dennis Pytash.

Where am I?

In each edition, the Slice staff provides a challenge of sorts, testing how much of Isle of Wight and Surry counties you really know. We photograph some location that is readily accessible and open to the public, and see if you can tell us where it is. If you know where this photo was taken, submit your answer, along with your name and contact information, to news@smithfieldtimes.com. If you’re right, you will be entered for a chance to win a $25 gift card. So, if you know where this is, let us know. If you’re right, you could be a winner. Go out and enjoy!

As Real as it Gets

Darden’s Country Store hams have tickled tastebuds for 70 years

Second in a series on the history of Virginia ham

Story by Phyllis Speidell Photos by John H. Sheally II

Just seven scenic miles from downtown Smithfield, a small store sits at a country crossroads as it has for 70 years. Surrounded by farm fields and a few outbuildings, the barn-red store radiates rural charm. The real lure of Darden’s Country Store, however, lies within where savvy shoppers know they can find some of the area’s best ham – raw, cooked, whole or sliced by the pound.

Country ham connoisseurs have their favorites and Darden’s customers are no exception. Ham is an integral part of the area’s culinary culture and true ham fans know that flavor evolves with the individual curing process. Southeastern Virginia has a reputation for producing hams with a distinctive tang or “twang,” as some call the salty nuances that set the finely textured hams apart.

Tommy Darden, 75, grew up on the prop erty surrounding the store and, from the time he was a child, worked with his father, L. Seward Darden, in curing hams in their own smokehouse. He knows that the right humidity and the right timing of the seasons in the Smithfield area play into the curing process as well.

The Dardens buy all their raw hams from Smithfield Foods. In the past ham producers have touted lean hogs and peanut-fed hogs but, Darden said, producers are moving away from that and feeding hogs a high-protein

diet of corn and soybeans.

“You need some fat for flavor and to insu late the ham, “ he added. “Too lean makes a dry ham with a crumbly texture.”

The salting and smoking used in the Dardens’ six-month curing process contrib ute to the ham flavor as well. Their hams are cured in their farm smokehouse, directly across from the store. The smokehouse holds about 1,300 hams.

“That’s a good year’s supply,” DeeDee Darden said, adding that their hams are sold exclusively in their store.

About 15 years ago, celebrity chef Tyler Florence picked the Darden ham to star in an episode of his “Tyler’s Ultimate” TV series. Florence arrived at the farm with a camera crew and filmed in the store and in the smokehouse before prepping the ham on camera in Windsor Castle’s colonial kitchen.

”We also have been featured on other shows, including State Plate and Delicious Destinations, and it has all been a bless ing and a curse,” DeeDee Darden said. “The exposure was great and brought calls from Colorado and California asking us to ship hams or send a catalog. But shipping a ham is expensive and difficult, so we don’t encourage shipping and we don’t publish a catalog.”

“We are a mom-and-pop business and not set up for mass marketing,” she added.

Slice of Smithfield • 11

Tyler Florence preps a Darden Country Ham at Windsor Castle.

The Mom and Pop are DeeDee and Tom my, with an assist from other family mem bers. Years ago, Tommy Darden married right out of high school and was only 22 when his father died in 1969. He took over the farm as well as the store his father built and opened in 1952 to sell raw hams. Then his wife, just 37 years old, passed away, leaving him with a young son and daughter to raise.

DeeDee Clements Darden, 66, grew up on a Suffolk farm off Route 460 near Providence Methodist Church. She went to Virginia Tech with hopes of becoming a veterinarian, but Tech was too much fun, she said. She looked for another career in agriculture and became the executive director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, now the Farm Service Agency.

DeeDee and Tommy married in 1985. In 1991, realizing that fewer people were able to use or willing to cook a whole ham, the couple expanded the little store’s product line to include cooked hams and ham by the pound. Ham sandwiches, biscuits, chicken pot pies, pimento cheese, chicken salad, ham salad and more came along shortly after.

“Selling the cooked hams has changed the whole dynamic of the business, “ DeeDee Darden said. “But we still sell a lot of raw hams throughout the year.”

The store has become a destination with the pandemic only increasing their busi ness. People enjoy taking a countryside ride to the store to stock up on ham and other specialties. Sara and Steve Hetzler drove from their home in the Churchland section of Portsmouth for a first visit to the store after a friend brought them some Darden’s ham. From the rounds of cheese to the prepared foods, they were surprised by the variety of goods in the little store.

“It was like stepping back in time to what I always imagined a country store would look like, almost like being in Mayberry, ” Sara Hetzler said. “We will go back for the ham, ham salad and pimento cheese and more.” The Darden store also attracts those whom the Dardens call their legacy families – fami lies where children and grandchildren have grown up on Darden’s ham.

The legacy families count on a Darden ham for their holiday celebrations. When one

DARDEN, from page 10

Tommy and DeeDee Darden have seen many changes in the ham industry, including the rising popularity of cooked hams.

friend called to order a ham for his wed ding, Tommy joked with him: “You cannot have a wedding or a funeral without a Darden ham.”

Several years later, the friend, fondly remembering the comment, called back to order a ham for a family funeral.

Occasionally, the store staff must edu cate visitors new to the store and new to country ham. When customers ask if the ham is salty, can they get it sliced thick, or has the delivery truck come in yet, “We have to tell them there are no delivery trucks; the hams are in our smokehouse but there are no honey-baked hams here, “ DeeDee Darden said.

Always community-minded, the

Dardens, who also raise cattle, celebrate the harvest season each fall as they bring in their crops of peanuts, corn, beans, cotton and pumpkins. During the season, they host a couple thousand visitors, mostly children and their parents, at the farm’s pumpkin patch, corn maze and hayrides. For years they also participated in the Saturday Farmers Market in Smith field.

DeeDee Darden has served on and led numerous agricultural boards, includ ing Virginia Grains Producers and the National Peanut Board, and served on the Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors.

Through all their activities the little store – and the ham – remain close to

their hearts.

“Our hams are something we take a lot of pride in and always will,” Tommy Darden said. “It’s good and we expect our customers to be satisfied.”

The Darden ham business has re mained family-centric with the couple’s three children and seven grandchildren pitching in.

“This is a true family business – we depend on them for help,” DeeDee Darden said. “And they all live close – no one further than Rushmere.”

When complimented on the authen tic aura of their country store, she said, ”That’s us, we’re as real as it gets.”

And that includes their ham as well.

DARDEN, from page 12

Both cooked and raw hams are available at Darden's Country Store, where you're likely to see owners DeeDee and Tommy and their pooch, Penny (above). Renee Merilic (right) proudly shows a cooked version.

SMITHFIELD PEACHES have ties to baseball history

Story by Stephen Faleski Submitted photos

When coach Jared Ulsh dubbed his hybrid coach-pitch/ tee-ball team the “Smithfield Peaches,” he had no idea just how appropriate a name he'd chosen.

The former Bethel High School varsity second baseman, who's since relocated from Hampton to Isle of Wight County, had organized the all-girls team for his daughter, Juliette, not realizing she wasn't the only player with generational ties to the sport.

Five-year-old Wren Joyner and her mother, Danielle, have a particularly unique connection to American baseball history. Danielle's great aunt, Violet Schmidt, was a pitcher for the 1946 Rockford Peaches of Rockford, Illinois — in what would eventually become known as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

According to the AAGPBL Players Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the league's history, a number of minor league men's teams had disbanded by 1942 due to their players being drafted to fight in World War II. Fear ing that baseball parks would shutter teams continued to lose too many quality players to attract crowds, chewing-gum mogul Philip K. Wrigley, who had inherited the major league Chicago Cubs franchise from his father, agreed to provide financial back ing for a women's league.

By May 1943, 60 women and girls from across the United States and Canada, some as young as 15, had signed contracts to become the first to play professional baseball. Schmidt, who later married and took the name Weitzman, had just turned 19 when she joined the Peaches in 1946.

Danielle Joyner has a collection of memorabilia from her great aunt Violet Schmidt's days as a Rockford Peach, including this 1945 advertisement of the Rockford Peaches' third season opener versus Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Smithfield Peaches have created replica AAGPBL baseball cards featuring Danielle's daughter, Wren, and other team members in replica 1940s-style uniforms to honor the connection. In back, Assistant Coach Matt Wright watches Juliette Ulsh hit from a tee.

PEACHES, from page 14

Though the women's teams for the most part operated under major league rules of play, the league's use of the word “baseball” had drawn controversy for its initial use of a 12inch softball, underhand pitching and shorter infield distances. At the end of the 1943 season, the league was renamed the “All-American Girls Pro fessional Ball League.” By the end of the 1945 season, the league had gone back to using the term “baseball,” and had adopted overhand pitching and smaller ball sizes.

The league started with four teams, each with 15 players. In ad dition to the Peaches, there were the Racine, Wisconsin Belles; the Kenosha, Wisconsin Comets and the South Bend, Indiana Blue Sox.

The Rockford Peaches, which played every season from 1943 through the league's end in 1954, won the league championship in

PEACHES, page

Left, Danielle Joyner and her daughter, Wren, don AAGPBL shirts. Right, some of the girls have replica 1940s-style uniforms. Below, Assistant Coach Matt Wright high-fives his daughter, K.C., as she makes it back to home plate. In back is Assistant Coach Erin Thacker.

PEACHES, from page 16

1945, 1948, 1949 and 1950 and became immortalized in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” notes Rockford's tourism website.

Schmidt, known to Danielle as “Aunt Vi,” made a cameo at the end of the film when the team reunites nearly 50 years later at a hall of fame ceremony.

“I have all her sweatshirts, all her pins,” said Danielle, who herself grew up playing softball. “She was always my idol.”

The Rockford Peaches and the other teams were provided short-skirted uniforms, each with a different color scheme and logo. Wrigley further man dated the women and girls adhere to strict behavioral rules on and off the field, including their required atten dance at evening “charm school” classes after their daily practices.

Since Ulsh learned of Wren and her mother's connection, he's been increas

See PEACHES, page 18

Above, the team poses for a group photo. Below, at the start of each practice, the team locks arms in a chain, with Coach Jared Ulsh leading them in the chant: “We are strong. We are Prepared. We are going to do our best. Let's do this!”

ing his efforts to model Smithfield's nascent all-girls team after the original Rockford Peaches — minus the sexism.

“Went on Etsy and got the patches designed,” Ulsh said. “They came all the way from Pakistan.”

They've also made baseball cards featuring the girls in child-sized replica 1940s-style uniforms. The girls wear conventional uniforms for actual games and practices.

“Baseball, to me, is, like they say, 90% a mind game,” Ulsh said, “so I really try to focus on just instilling … just to be confi dent in themselves.”

At the start of each practice, the team locks arms in a chain and repeats, “We are strong. We are prepared. We are going to do our best. Let's do this!”

Ulsh, who shared he'd been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, said he relies on other coaches to help demonstrate the more physical aspects fo the game.

“I pray at the beginning of the year for our team, and for coaches that will help me implement the things that I cannot do physically,” Ulsh said.

In Smithfield's age 6-and-under league rules, the coaches pitch to the girls, giving them three tries to hit a moving ball. If

they miss, they get another two tries us ing a baseball tee before they strike out.

“They're so teeny, but their mechanics are great,” Ulsh said.

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Danielle Joyner has a wall of her home set up as a shrine to her great aunt Violet Schmidt, including her 1940s baseball card and pins from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

Art Scene

Winners of the first Smithfield Arts Festival’s Fine Arts Competition were honored by judge Linda G. Bunch.

3D, Second Place - Kazuko Fuller Award sponsored by Diane Milner

3D, First Place - John Tobin Award sponsored by Priscilla Gutherie

Best in Show, Catherine Minga, oil painting Award sponsored by the Arts Center @ 319

Photography, First Place - Sharon Hardy Award sponsored by the Woman's Club of Smithfield

Photography, Second Place - Mike O'Shell Award sponsored by Hampton Roads Wholesalers

Painting, First Place - Randall Maynard (his supportive spouse Cindee Maynard pictured) Award sponsored by Brenda Joyner

Painting, Second Place - Tammy Burgett Award sponsored by Brenda Joyner

In the News

Author shows Smithfield some LOVE

Story by Lauren McMillen Photos courtesy of Tara Fisher

“Virginia is for Lovers” is a saying that can be found through out Virginia, including on license plates and signs. This saying is why you can find LOVE signs throughout the state, including in front of welcome centers, rest areas and tourist stops, such as Main Street in downtown Smithfield.

Many people make it a priority to find the signs and take pictures in front of them. Tara Fisher went a step further.

An adventurer who lives in north ern Virginia with her family, Fisher set out to find LOVE signs. They de cided on a goal of 100 signs and have surpassed that goal while exploring different regions of Virginia over the past two years.

After talking with a friend, she decided to write a book about her family’s adventures. “Virginia is for Adventurers,” available through Amazon, Apple Books and Barnes & Noble in both pa perback and electronic versions, is based on her family’s quest to find as many LOVE signs as they could. Her family’s adventures were her biggest inspiration, however she also decided to write it as an additional resource for fourth graders to learn about Virginia.

Her book highlights Virginia’s outdoor areas, many of which are historical sites, like Jamestown and the many battlefields. Fisher decided to make it a scavenger hunt for the LOVE signs to make the book more fun for fourth graders to read and learn more about Virginia while doing it.

The fact that the kids can follow the scavenger hunt by visit ing the LOVE sites makes it all the more interesting. If they cannot go visit the sites physically, they can go online and see pictures and videos on her website for the areas they visited: https://virginiaisforadventurers.com/.

Asked what intrigued her about Smithfield, Fisher said she went online to search for small towns to visit and Smithfield popped up. After visiting Smithfield, she decided to add her time here to her book.

“The Isle of Wight Museum with the oldest ham, and the Queen Anne style architecture” was Fisher’s favorite part of Smithfield. She also had a lot to say about how much she appre

ciated the welcoming and friendly the people of Smithfield, espe cially those in the Visitor Center on Main Street. The employees there were extremely helpful and hospitable, she said, making Smithfield a natural choice for inclusion in her book.

Driving through Smithfield, one sees multiple pig statues. The pork industry is why Smithfield’s own LOVE sign, located in front of The Smithfield Times office, has two slices of bacon for the V. What first-time visitors to Smithfield might not know is that those pig statues are a scavenger hunt to find multiple statues with unique themes painted on them. These pigs will lead you through Smithfield to different locations. Fisher thought it would be fun to write a scavenger hunt within a bigger scavenger hunt, so she briefly mentions the pig statues and that you can hunt for them all.

Fisher believed that readers would be interested in learning more about their hometowns and other areas of Virginia that they may not have heard about before. Instead of just giving the information, she does it in a creative way by making it into a scavenger hunt for the LOVE signs. She said she wanted to find a way to get people out exploring Virginia, but outside instead of just reading about it.

A family adventure inspired Tara Fisher's new children's book and brought her to Smithfield.

Last edition’s Where Am I?

The Where Am I? challenge in the Spring 2022 edition of Slice featured a mailbox in front of the Jordan-Parker House at 203 Main Street in downtown Smithfield. Three people were able to identify the location. Jason Witcher was chosen at random and has won a $25 gift certificate to The Christmas Store. Check out page 8 for this edition's challenge.

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In History

Circa 1918, Capt. A.F. Jester's mail boat Onetia, docked at the foot of Wharf Hill, was making a daily round trip from Smithfield to Newport News, via Battery Park. (Photo courtesy of "Smithfield: A Pictorial History" by Segar Cofer Dashiell)