Beef, Produce and So Much More

Beef, Produce and So Much More

By Marcia Woolman

The Middleburg area’s very own The Store at Locust Hill is providing locally grown and raised products including their own beef, eggs, sweet corn, and produce in the summer and pumpkins in the fall.

That just scratches the surface of what’s available, with one thing in common throughout the store—it’s all very local. Village Cheese Works’ gourmet cheeses, fresh baked pretzels from The Preppy Pretzel, yummy baked goods from Countryside Confections, duck eggs, and in season fruit comes from neighboring farms.

There’s honey from Loudoun, a carrousel of spices from Shenandoah County, and Poppi’s hot sauces and rubs from Warrenton. They also carry Lone Oak Coffee products.

Locust Hill has been a keystone farm in the Orange County Hunt country for many years, and a model of land preservation in northern Fauquier. It sprawled over 1,000 acres, owned by a stalwart of the community, the late Maggie Bryant, and is now divided into five parcels shared by her family.

The farm store is the idea of family members Michael and Rebecca Webert. It’s right off Zulla, about a mile from Middleburg, and easy to find. The same parcel of land will also be the core of its beef operation, with well over 100 head of cattle grazing in the surrounding fields.

The small wooden farm store is designed for year-round use, with a cozy interior and a covered area outside for the display of seasonal products, including countless pumpkins available last fall not long after the store opened.

When Rebecca Webert was asked about the goals for the project, she said, “to offer everything as local as possible, educate the public about where and what creates good food, and also the hard labor and love that produces it. We can have conversations with the customers that they can’t have in a grocery store.”

“On today’s media you can get mixed messages about health and food,” said Michael Webert, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. “So farm decisions are made using good science. This is true in the breeding program, and land use decisions.

“In past years we’ve fenced 11,000 feet of stream riparian buffers to keep cattle out of our section of Cromwell’s Run, and we installed mechanical water systems for them. The science on stream health is critical to the vitality of our watershed and to the health of the Chesapeake Bay.”

And so, while it’s a farm store with the flair of a gourmet shop, there’s a big dollop of conservation in the mix, as well.

For more information on the store, go to: storeatlocusthill.com which is just south of Route 50 and open Wednesday through Saturday with varied hours to accommodate customer’s schedules.