ZES ST T & Sty t lel
Country
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of NOTE
ZEST & Style for the hummingbird. ZES ST TStytlel & Country
Personalities, Celebrations and Sporting Pursuits © 2023 Country ZEST & Style, LLC. Published six times a year
Distributed and mailed throughout the Virginia countryside and in Washington and at key Sporting Pursuits and Celebrations
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MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 798 Middleburg, Virginia 20118 PHONE: 410-570-8447 Editor: Leonard Shapiro badgerlen@aol.com Art Director Meredith Hancock Hancock Media Contributing Photographers: Doug Gehlsen Crowell Hadden Sarah Huntington Nancy Kleck Douglas Lees Camden Littleton Karen Monroe Tiffany Dillon Keen Donna Strama
Official Fine Artist Linda Volrath Contributing Writers: Drew Babb Emma Boyce Sean Clancy Denis Cotter Philip Dudley Mike du Pont Valerie Archibald Embrey Jimmy Hatcher Denis Cotter M.J. McAteer Joe Motheral Jodi Nash Chip Newcombe Tom Northrup Ali Patusky Melissa Phipps Pat Reilly Linda Roberts John E. Ross Constance Chatfield-Taylor John Sherman Peyton Tochterman John Toler Leslie VanSant Louisa Woodville
For advertising inquiries, contact: Leonard Shapiro at badgerlen@aol.com or 410-570-8447
ON THE COVER
Doug Gehlsen and Karen Monroe of Middleburg Photo
/ Country Zest and Style
We were delighted to welcome Tutti Perricone into the Middleburg Photo Studio. We’ve known Tutti for many years but had to decide the best way to showcase her many talents. Always smiling and fun to chat with, we aimed to highlight her fun side, and Tutti did not disappoint by combining her stage presence as a chef and singer. What could be better than flying vegetables and Tutti’s effervescent smile? / @countryzestandstyle
/ @countryzestand1
www.countryzestandstyle.com 2
ZEST S&T
BE ON THE LOOKOUT through this issue of Country
Country
He appears in two ads and the first two readers to find him (one each) will receive a gift from THE RED TRUCK Rural Bakery, with locations in Warrenton and Marshall. Send your reply to badgerlen@aol.com
“Winning Day for Riverdee” 8 x 10 original oil. © 2024 Linda Volrath, who is the Official Artist for Country ZEST. “Heading onto the course for a brilliant ride with jockey Jamie Bargary up and owned by Sean Clancy’s Riverdee Stable’s “Potus” inspired me to portray his powerful presence,” she said. “The team went on to win The Madison Plate at the 2023 Montpelier Hunt Races.”
SOME FABULOUS FEEDBACK
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By Leonard Shapiro
ccasionally, there are even better than good days—those wondrous, out-ofthis world days when the following message pops up in the laptop. “The purpose of this email is to express my admiration and my compliments for your…good work in publishing ZEST,” a recent email began, then gushed on. “Love your magazine!!! The articles are so well written and interesting. Love how you focus on the rich history of the Upperville and Middleburg areas. When I receive my copy of Zest, I am eager to read it and have spent hours in doing so… It is so difficult to find not only a magazine with very interesting topics, but also to read such well written articles - huge plus.” Many thanks to a dear reader we won’t identify at their request. Not only did it make my day, but that week and well beyond. I’d like to think this edition will evoke the same sort of response. In my humble opinion, there’s plenty more of the same, starting with our cover feature on the force of nature known to one and all as Tutti Perricone. She’s a Middleburg native, chef and caterer extraordinaire who also happens to sing like a songbird. She has plenty of history in this area, and that fits in quite nicely with several other stories to mark February as Black History Month. Read all about Porcha Dodson, who grew up on a farm outside Middleburg, was an academic and stage star from The Hill School through college and now is a development officer for Episcopal school in Alexandria. Pat Reilly has profiled 96-year-old Ethel Rae Stewart, who taught at several segregated black schools in Loudoun County. And Jodi Nash focuses on a new project from the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County helping residents trace their roots back to their enslaved ancestors. We’ve got Part II of John Rolfe Gardiner’s wonderful short story based on Middleburg, the excerpt of a new book on Huntland by Marc Leepson and another fascinating piece from John Toler on the calamitous fire that nearly destroyed The Plains in 1967. And finally, hooray for regular ZEST contributor Sean Clancy, honored with a prestigious Eclipse Award in early January for a memorable story he wrote in August on a tragic horse race at Saratoga. It appeared in the Saratoga Special owned by Sean and his brother Joe and we’re thrilled to reprint the piece that earned racing’s equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize. Who knows, maybe we’ll get a few nice emails after this winter edition hits the streets, hopefully adding even more ZEST to your reading pleasure. Leonard Shapiro badgerlen@aol.com 410-570-8447
MIDDLEBURG SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE| Winter 2024
