The Views are a Little Different in SWVA

We had the opportunity to visit the area of VA that I call home for our July session. Southwest VA is not easy to navigate….mountains and curvy roads, not to mention it typically takes twice as long to get anywhere! We certainly couldn’t stay overnight in the same place either since we had so much ground to cover. Although I live here, I knew I had more to learn about this great part of the state!

We started in Carroll County visiting VA Produce Company and learning about the history of the company from the Beamer family. Mr. Beamer’s sole purpose for starting the company was to provide the community with local, fresh produce and create an outlet for local farmers to sell their product. While the company continues to grow and expand, it is still family owned and operated with over 50% of their partnering farms being local! I admired how important family was to the Beamer’s and their passion for agriculture and supporting their local producers and community.

My home county, Grayson, offered a visit to Summerfield Farm as well as tours of Grayson Natural, Landcrafted Foods, River Ridge Land & Cattle and River Ridge Organics. Knowing all of these producers, owners and operators I was proud to show them off to my cohorts, but what I didn’t expect was the in-depth discussion on how these farms and companies were established. Many valuable suggestions and resources were discussed covering everything from continuing a family farm, getting started in agriculture and sustainability. It’s never too late to follow your dream and always think outside of the box as agriculture continues to evolve.

Moving to Washington and Smyth Counties, we visited Green Valley Farms, the VA State Fish Hatchery, Speyside Bourbon Cooperage and Appalachian Heritage Distillery. I had never visited any of these businesses and was blown away by the passion each presenter had for their business. They had many challenges as they grew and improved, but what helped them succeed was their passion and desire to continually learn.

As we drove further southwest into Scott, Lee and Wise Counties we had the opportunity to visit the Appalachian Sustainable Development project, LMU Vet School and H.W. Meador Coal Museum. Additionally, we visited Mountain Rose Vineyard, which was established on re-claimed mine land and learned about the local Health Wagon program that brought medical services to the remote parts of SWVA….being the only medical services some of these communities have access to. Each of these organizations worked to support their communities by providing outlets for local producers to sell products, bring revenue into the community, providing a basic need or re-purposing land for agriculture. I’m excited to work with the contacts I made to help bring these ideas to life in Grayson.

As we headed from Wise to Wythe County, we made our last visit to Duchess Dairy. The Huffard Family is a prime example of how family farms fought and thought outside of the box to continue their legacy. Duchess Dairy sells milk products all over the region, while continuing to be family owned. They not only added value to their product in order to continue the farm but are bringing a positive economic impact to their community.

Each of the communities we visited stressed the importance of working together to continue being successful and viable. Many of these areas are an hour or more from a main interstate, so shipping of products is a much harder task than most locations. Working together to provide cooperative outlets for products as well as establishing value-added businesses help support these communities and their viability. While the physical views are much different than the rest of the state with the mountains, rivers and terrain….the view on community also takes on an entirely different level of meaning…..survival in many of these counties.

I recently had a friend tell me she was amazed at how much the Ag Community supports each other. Everything from borrowing trailers, tractors, medications and cattle chutes…we all just want to see each other succeed. Being a new producer, she was worried about being successful. Knowing now that she has a large community standing with her and behind her, this new adventure doesn’t seem so daunting. I learned a great deal during our SWVA session on how other communities worked to succeed and am looking forward to utilizing some of those ideas here in Grayson.