Taste Charlottesville's Growing Local-Food Movement

In Charlottesville, a new generation of farmers and market owners is committed to changing how we eat―and live. Come meet them and try our favorite local food.

Monticello
Charles Walton IV, Scott Martin

Virginia's Bounty

On a warm afternoon in Esmont, Virginia, with clouds streaking across a robin’s-egg blue sky, Gail Hobbs-Page stands in a field surrounded by her 44 goats. Here at Caromont Farm--named to reflect Gail’s childhood on a farm in North Carolina and these mountains she now calls home--Gail makes some of the finest goat cheese in America. Like so many others, Gail has found a certain kind of magic in the land encircling Charlottesville. In this area where Thomas Jefferson elevated farming to an art form--growing everything from figs to artichokes to raspberries--an increasing population of men and women is leading an agrarian renaissance. The players are as varied as the food they’re producing: a former teacher with a flair for design who sells vegetables and zinnias; a one-time Peace Corps volunteer immersed in the world of cattle, chickens, and eggs; a couple selling gourmet local foods from a country market.

NextJefferson's Eden

Goodwin Creek Farm

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Monticello

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