Well hello blogosphere world! My name is E.B. Watson and beyond the honor of being named a Class III fellow to the VALOR program, I am a fifth generation farmer from Bedford, VA and am the manager for our local soil and water conservation district, Peaks of Otter. I've spent the majority of my life… Continue reading A Clashing of Worlds…..
In Washington, D.C, there are 58 community gardens. I'm lucky to have one of the 1,800 plots available. The National Cathedral is visible from my plot.More songs about buildings and food is what my husband says to me periodically when some new agriculture + urban design discovery brightens my day. Finding ornamental kale planted… Continue reading More Songs About Buildings and Food
The third time's a charm! I'm a VALOR Class III Fellow! I'm also the third (and favorite) child born of my darling parents. It's a real possibility that I'm not actually the favorite child, but my parents are so awesome that they just let me believe it anyways. That's real love, y'all. My Dirt Road… Continue reading Hello, Fellow!
I did not grow up on a farm. At the time, I didn't even know if I was near one. As a child, I always thought a large parking lot was about as wide open a space as anybody needed (for skateboarding, of course), and when we'd drive past large tracts of pasture or hay fields on… Continue reading Nate Walsh – Introduction to VALOR
Hello! First, let me explain my name....my real name is Frank Albert Johnson, Jr., from Warsaw, VA, located on Virginia's Northern Neck Peninsula. During the first VALOR session on September 30, 2016, we all were trying to recite names of the newly met class members. Well, I was called "Kevin"! So, I figured as an… Continue reading The Guy Called Kevin
To borrow from American Revolutionary War hero, Nathan Hale, “I only regret that I have but 55 days to learn more about Virginia’s vast agriculture industry.” These are the words that echoed in my head as I headed back east down Rt. 460 from my three days with my 12 other VALOR Class III fellows in… Continue reading Musings on My First VALOR Session…The Clock Starts Ticking on My 55-Day Adventure
Service has always been a part of my life. My family has always set an example for me of the importance to serve others beyond yourself. Sometimes this comes as sacrifice, but at the end of the day the lasting legacy of service will live beyond your years. I feel that growing up in a… Continue reading Why I Serve
Virginia, roughly shaped like a triangle (per my fantastic drawing above), is home to two distinct population curves. The more common one, called the Golden Crescent, is home to approximately 6.1 million people, and if it were a state, it would be second in the nation for college degrees, wealth, etc. It stretches from the… Continue reading I Expect MORE
If there is one thing I learned from our last VALOR seminar in Southside Virginia, it's that I can't grow tobacco. We were fortunate enough to visit a nice family tobacco farm. I was one of the lucky ones that left with a few tobacco plants. We had eight plants in a cut off Coke… Continue reading I’m not a tobacco farmer.
Production agriculture is largely a low margin, high volume business. The pressure on producers is ratcheted up even greater when the product is a global commodity such as milk, which is influenced by global agricultural trends. Farms like the Vanderhyde Dairy are competing in the global marketplace by embracing technology to increase efficiency and lower… Continue reading Never Seen a Lazy Susan like This!
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