By Kyran Williams
As Spring comes to life along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the first annual Floyd Herb & Plant Festival is scheduled to make its debut April 17-19, 2020. Along with a weekend of immersion into the herbal world through free workshops and exploring over eighty vendors, Herb Fest offers a wide array of activities and fun for the whole family!
Born out of the desire to highlight and share ancestral wisdom, Floyd Herb Fest is a wonderful, co-created event. Brought to life through a grass-roots movement of local individuals who have a deep connection to the ridges and hollers of the region, Floyd Herb Fest is a deep dive into the natural world of Appalachia. A unique gathering, Floyd Herb Fest spotlights the natural world of Southwestern Virginia, encourages healthy interactions with the land, and celebrates small, earth-based businesses.
At the Village Market, visitors can find a wide selection of locally grown plants, natural products, and artisan offerings. Throughout the weekend, visitors may join free, hands-on workshops and classes, enjoy the services at the Healers Oasis, take part in the drum circle, explore alongside their children in the Land of the Little Ones, and much more! Come for the day or stay for the weekend!
Chantilly Farm will be the venue for the event. The Farm is situated on two-hundred acres of woodlands, hiking trails, and streams, providing the perfect backdrop to connect with nature. Dinner and storytelling will kick off Floyd Herb Fest on Friday evening, April 17. Renowned folklorist and naturalist, Doug Elliott, will be on hand for a journey into woods lore, weeds, and wildwoods wisdom, as well as stories, songs, and lore celebrating the natural world and useful wild plants. Known for his lively tales, knowledge of Appalachian plants, and lore of the wildwoods, Doug carries generations of wisdom and has a unique flair for sharing it.
Reservations are required for Friday buffet dinner and storytelling. The weekend Village Market opens Saturday morning at 9:30, and will feature over eighty vendors offering plants, natural products, herbal remedies, and artisan crafts, along with other unique items.
Rain or shine, the Village Market will be a bustling place of quality shopping and learning experiences. In-booth demonstrations, hands-on workshops, and in-depth classes will be taking place throughout the day. Visitors may join a plant walk with Doug Elliott in the morning, or CoreyPine Shane in the afternoon. Folks can learn about Herbal First Aid, discover Native Plants, explore Botanical Farming, and much more are among the thirty-five free classes being offered.
Health and healing come in many forms. The Healers Oasis will be a space to enjoy morning yoga, soak in a woods sounds bath, learn about Reiki, and explore intuitive healing. Featuring local facilitators, massage, therapeutic touch, reflexology, sound healing, reiki, yoni care, herbal consultations, and other services will be offered throughout the weekend.
Connection and community are at the core of the Herb Fest weekend. In generations past, the community fire was a place of gathering, as well as a hub for storytelling. Our Sacred Earth fire will burn throughout the event, and Fire Keepers will hold the space while hosing facilitators. Saturday activities around the fire will include the DragonFly Drum School leading a drum circle and sharing sacred songs. In the evening, visitors will be welcome to join together for a ceremony, fire spinners, and may drum into the night with Cave Man Jones.
The Floyd Herb & Plant Festival invites everyone to gather around the fire on Sunday to get moving with Kyra Aulani, who will be teaching African dance while sharing the history and stories behind the steps. For the youth and those young at heart, the Land of the Little Ones will be filled with opportunities for interactive learning and exploration, all weekend long. Children can plant an herb garden, take part in nature discovery activities, and enjoy eco-friendly crafts.
An intentional Youth Program will be offered Saturday, as well. This program offers interactive classes for each age group. Young ones will explore nature through plant walks, songs, stories, a tea ceremony, and other fun activities. Class size will be limited, so registration is required.
Spring is in the air! Let’s celebrate with a Wagon Parade! Bring your wagon and get ready for the festivities. Ancient Mother’s will have supplies on hand for you to get crafty. For a five-dollar donation to Floyd Herb Fest, visitors may decorate their nature-themed wagons and enter to win prizes. Once the wagons have been decked out, visitors may stop by the Fairy Land tent and get a Fairy makeover. Taking place at noon on Saturday, and led by our Grand Marshals, the Tuxedo Ducks, Plant Fairies from Ferrum College’s theatre group will also be joining the parade.
In addition to the Village Market, the final day of Floyd Herb Fest will offer in-depth immersions and free activities. Visitors may learn about the natural world and how to incorporate herbal medicine into their homes through one of the many hands-on classes being offered. Explore growing mushrooms, or farming and preserving ginseng. Take a tasting tour of Appalachian herbal medicine, or trek into the woods for wild foraging and cooking.
Come enjoy the plant sale, take in a class, or enjoy the services offered in the Healers Oasis. The weekend at Floyd Herb Fest will be a fun and informative way to connect with the herbal community and the natural world.
There will be activities for people of all ages to enjoy at this free family-friendly event, nestled between Buffalo Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
April 17-19th at Chantilly Farm 2697 Franklin Pike SE, Floyd, VA www.floydherbfest.com
https://www.facebook.com/FloydHerbFest
The Massies lived in Floyd for several years, getting to know the community. It wasn’t long, however, till they – as many others have done – fell in love with all the richness Floyd has to offer. Even when they moved to Christiansburg for business, they remained connected to the small town
Rain remembered Shalene and was open to a meeting to discuss partnering in their new venture through Golden Maple Homestays. It’s amazing how even brief meetings can shape our journeys!
Golden Maple Homestays is a lovely and spacious two-bedroom apartment in the heart of the town of Floyd. Many guests have shared how peaceful and clean the space is, and how perfect it is for a quiet retreat. “Running on Floyd time” is the motto in this charming, Blue Ridge Mountain town.
This two-bedroom apartment features one queen bed in in the master bedroom, and two twin beds in the secondary bedroom. The living room contains a sofa bed that sleeps two, and a comfortable twin daybed, for a total sleeping capacity of seven. Every bedspread is covered with a duvet cover that ensures the comforter is clean for a cozy night’s rest.
This is a ground floor apartment that is easily accessible for guests with limited mobility, as well as for bringing in luggage. The kitchen is fully stocked so guests can enjoy cooking all the locally grown food that can be found at the Farmer’s Market, downtown. The apartment is also family friendly, with everything needed for babies and children, such as a highchair, Pack N’ Play, kids dishes and utensils, games, books, and toys!
The Massies have traveled across the world and stayed in many accommodations. They know the value of a peaceful and comfortable place to stay. They love hosting their guests and making them feel welcome while visiting.
Too often we make teenagers the problem. We must have the courage to face, rather than turn away from, the complexity of this challenge. At Springhouse, we are facing this challenge head on by exploring how education can be part of the solution for our teenagers, rather than the problem. We need new designs for how we learn. Using the metaphor of a house in disrepair, we cannot simply rearrange the furniture and make superficial refinements to a structure that is fundamentally problematic. We must experiment with new ways to structure education to better care for our teenagers.
Springhouse is building a strong, passionate, and engaged community of young people, as well as adults, by supporting them as they become more fully who they are. Springhouse is a living laboratory that is designing education in such a way that it’s in alignment with life. The educational design, starting with the pedagogical foundation and rippling through the curriculum and methodologies, supports and fosters vitality. Orienting around life-giving values, and building from the foundation of living systems principles, makes for an educational experience that is alive, creative, and sustainable. Since this educational design is oriented around universal life-giving principles, it can be replicated anywhere. Springhouse has visitors apprenticing regularly to learn more about the school’s example and design, and how it can be applied to their own learning environments. An educational design that cultivates and supports life is contagious. The staff at Springhouse are finding this to be true, as interest in the learning community to be found there continues to grow. Springhouse was recently accepted into a professional education program at Harvard, where they hope to further scale the important work they have begun here in the Blue Ridge mountains.
On July 18, 2019, Springhouse Community School supporters purchased for the school’s use, a well-loved property and building just inside Floyd County. It is situated on vibrant acreage, with a barn and greenhouses. It features a beautifully crafted building with a large, timber-frame hall in which to dance and learn. During last summer, community members helped move the school to the new location at 144 Silver Maple Lane in Pilot. The learning community is settling into the space beautifully. During this school year alone, it held at least four community-wide events, including an Open House potluck and concert with Lobo Marino. Over one hundred people were in attendance.
Little River Poetry Festival founders, Jack Callan and his wife, Judith Stevens, are both poets from Norfolk, Virginia. And for the fifth year in a row, they are bringing a vibrant group of creative writers from the Hampton Roads/Tidewater area to cross-pollinate with the superb, home-grown, mountain poets of the Blue Ridge. Jack and Judith host a quarterly “Poetry at the Chrysler Museum” reading and Open Mic in Norfolk, as well as a bi-monthly “Fairmount Five” poetry reading, and a monthly “Fourth Friday Poetry Salon” at their home in Norfolk. They also conduct poetry readings, workshops, and poetry “happenings” in libraries, schools, and colleges throughout Hampton Roads.
Finding excellent poets in Floyd and the surrounding area has been a continuing adventure. This year’s mountain poets include Colleen Redman from Floyd, Chelsea Adams from Riner, Erin McCarty from Marshall, Jim Best from the Meadows of Dan, Beth Huddleston from Winchester, and Floyd’s “Three Katherines:” Katherine Chantal, Katherine Sowers, and Catherine Pauley. They will be joined by Richmond poet Joanna Lee, Portsmouth poet Edith Blake, Yorktown poet Brian Magill, Virginia Beach poets Evangelina Poggi and Michael Link, Ohio poet/songwriter Kristi Paddock, student poets Coral Kendall from Radford and Cas Horne from Pennsylvania, as well as others.
This year, the 2020 Featured Exhibit, “Wars Hot and Cold, Floyd County 1945-1960,” will look at Floyd County during the fifteen-year period from the end of the Second World War through to the end of the Eisenhower Administration (1945-1960). Among the topics displayed at the museum will be the return of the troops from World War II, as well as service and the county in the immediate aftermath of the war. There will also be displays focusing on the beginnings of the Cold War. These will include a look at the Korean Conflict and the soldiers who served in Korea. There will also be a look at the dynamics of Floyd County in the Fifties.
While visiting the Historical Society Museum, the curious might also learn about the Courthouse Document Conservation Project which is currently in the works. These documents accumulated in the old Floyd County Courthouse for almost a hundred years; from the formation of Floyd County in 1831 until 1906. In the years since, they have been collecting dust in the basement of the current Floyd County Courthouse.
Please feel free to contact the Floyd County Historical Society to find out more about this and other projects adopted by the organization. Also, stop by to visit the Museum and see the 2020 Featured Exhibit. The new exhibit opens Saturday April 18th, 2020.
Derek had grown up helping his grandfather on the farm. He helped with the cattle and with mending fences; all the while creating memories and establishing roots on the property. This was long before he met Allie. After they were married, Derek and Allie lived in the farmhouse originally built by Derek’s great grandfather, B.T. Mannon. Both being sentimental, Derek and Allie loved building their own family memories amongst so much family history. It felt truly special. After Derek’s grandfather passed away, the farm went up for sale. From that moment, the couple knew that owning the farm was a dream they needed to make happen.
Promptly after completing the purchase, renovations began on the farm’s 1946 dairy barn to turn it into a wedding and event venue, serving the New River Valley. The vision was to keep the original bones of the structure, but to add modern touches throughout that would showcase Derek and Allie’s personal style. This meant adding a gorgeous, 3,500 square-foot patio with a retaining wall on the backside of the property. They’ve also added a handcrafted, timber-frame pergola to span the entire retaining wall.
Cafe string lights will drape across the patio to provide a romantic feel as the event’s guests dance the night away. A beautiful deck overlooking the patio provides access to the barn’s loft, and the original silos on the property have been renovated and turned into the venue’s restrooms. With timber frame features throughout, white, crisp walls, and modern industrial light fixtures, the look is timeless and unique to Floyd.
This year, the Seven Springs Farm CSA celebrates thirty years of growing food for local families. Seven Springs Farm adheres to strict organic and regenerative practices of enriching the soil, using cover crops, compost, organic fertilizers, and natural pest management practices, as well as biodynamic techniques and rotational grazing.
There is a big difference between going to a grocery store and grabbing a box or a can of processed food, and biting into a juicy tomato that was picked off the vine this morning at the crack of dawn. There’s no comparison in the quality and amount of life energy in the food. CSA is a relationship with the earth and with the people whose hands are in it every day. CSA participants know that their food is consistently fresh, local, full of vitamins and minerals, and vibrant with sunshine and rain.
Seven Springs CSA also offers a unique cultural experience. The CSA is run by Polly, an experienced organic farmer, and her husband Nii Anang, a professional musician from Ghana. Polly’s love of African music and dance led her to him. Nii Anang came to Floyd with the Kusun Ensemble, a touring West African music and dance group. They performed at the first FloydFest and taught classes, which Polly attended.
Nii Anang immediately noticed what a talented musician and good person Polly was. They married, and now he farms alongside her. Polly is also member of Nii Anang’s African style folk band, Land of Joy. Indeed, Nii Anang’s musical influence brings a special, spiritual joy to the farm. His sweet, soft voice is often heard singing traditional African or gospel songs in the fields and in the food packing barn. Next to Polly’s small, strong frame, Nii Anang is a gentle giant; friendly, outgoing, and always helpful. The members all adore him.
Another unique feature of Seven Springs CSA is a program called Working Shares. Members can pay a discounted price in exchange for coming to the farm to help. Families are encouraged to bring their children. Although the working membership involves coming to the farm just one to three times over the course of the whole growing season, this is a profound experience for CSA members. They get to learn about planting and harvesting. They might help pick green beans, wash lettuce, or transplant seedlings. They may discover fragrant herbs, taste vegetables they have never eaten before, get wet and muddy, and feel the sunshine on their backs.
Children love to help weigh, bag, and distribute the harvest. “We love it too,” says Polly. “It’s wonderful to see a change in how people view their food. They appreciate it more when they’ve seen and experienced where it comes from. Children enjoy it, and can participate in the process. A three-year-old can pick up a sweet potato and put it in the basket, and they are so happy to help.”
“I love the CSA model,” Polly tells us. “It is so gratifying to do this work, get to know my members, and watch their children grow up eating our vegetables. I’ve made many friends.” To bring the wholesome, nourishing bounty of nature’s finest gifts from the fields directly to your kitchen all season long, talk to Polly about joining Seven Springs CSA. (540) 651-3226 or pollyhieser@gmail.com. Or visit 7springscsa.com.
During 2005 and 2006, the house and store, now located at 2167 Webbs Mill Road, N in Floyd, were built. In the years that followed, times were lean, and times were prosperous. The one thing that remained constant was that folks could rely on seeing Missy’s smiling face whenever they visited.
In October of 2015, Kathleen Dougherty joined the staff of the bakery. She caught on fast and quickly grew to enjoy her job. Originally from Hanover, Pennsylvania, Kathleen was the second oldest in a family nine children. She had worked in retail from the time she was sixteen, putting in hours at a bulk food store, a greenhouse, a butcher shop, and a produce market. In May of 2017, she began dating local boy, Ben Yoder, who had gone to New River Community College to be a machinist. After marrying Ben in February of 2018, Kathy dropped to part-time at the Bread Basket. After store-front manager, Nanette West, moved on to pursue health care full time, however, Missy asked Kathy if she would return to full time as Store Manager. After much deliberation, she consented.
From the beginning, they prayed for guidance, hoping that God would send a sign if they should pursue it further. The blessings started pouring forth. When one staff left to pursue other dreams, God sent another seeking a job, and that person fit right in. Then God sent Nicholas Avery Yoder, born on August 15.
And it’s a commitment they don’t take lightly. Ben and Kathy are committed to continuing the quality and the atmosphere made famous by Missy over the years; being a ray of light and hope to all who enter the doors.
But it’s not just atmosphere and joy you’ll find at the Bread Basket! They have some of the best sandwiches in town, along with soft-serve ice cream, homemade breads, pies, and cookies!!! Follow the Bread Basket on Facebook for more information, and to keep up to date on the arrival of all the newest yummies! Drop by and say “Hi”! There is a favorite for all! God willing, the doors will be open for many years to come!
The Bread Basket
The Floyd Radio Show also occurs each month, from September through May. This popular show features three musical acts, skits, interviews, jokes, and more. It harkens back the days before television became popular, when radio was king. On Saturdays and Sundays, the Store hosts free music! And new this year, they have extended the free music fun to Tuesday and Wednesday evenings! But this isn’t just a place for music to be heard, it’s also a place for music to be learned. The Floyd Country Store is home to the Handmade Music School; offering lessons and workshops in traditional music and dance throughout the year.
The Cafe at The Floyd Country Store is well-known to the local community for providing excellent, homemade food for lunch or dinner. The menu offers made-from-scratch soups and stews, quiches, salads, and sandwiches. Other offerings include hearty favorites like the Pinto Bean Platter, which comes with homemade pinto beans, collard greens, skillet-baked cornbread, and chow-chow. Daily specials are also available, such as savory hand-pies, Brunswick stew, grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches, and black bean burgers with homemade pesto mayo.
Also new as of Fall 2019, is the Soda Fountain at The Floyd Country Store. Located right next door, this new space is a trip through time; offering classic sundaes, malts, milkshakes, soda floats, banana splits, and homemade ice cream sandwiches.
Here was a Tuscan beauty, waiting for them to discover her treasures. Nestled on a country road amid farms and native Floyd families, it was distinctly unlike anything in the surrounding area. The juxtaposition inspired the Inn’s catch phrase, “Experience the Unexpected”. They leapt into action, purchased the property, and created a business plan.
Lisal is a published author, poet, and artist with a lifetime of experience in the hospitality and travel industry. Before moving to Floyd, she had the opportunity to work in a variety of settings, both as an innkeeper and an inn-sitter. During that time, both Lisal and Matt took note of all the ways in which each inn was different and all the ways they were the same. They not only learned what guests did and didn’t like, they also learned what they themselves did and didn’t like. They incorporated all these observations into the creation of Bella la Vita.
Matthew is a retired law enforcement officer who has grown into a highly skilled maintenance man. There is nothing he won’t try to tackle on his own. Matt and Lisal are both dedicated to Bella la Vita Inn, and her success, as a team. They skillfully interchange hats as the situation warrants, ready for cleaning, cooking, welcoming guests, keeping the grounds, or troubleshooting a problem.
Each room is dressed in carefully chosen décor touched with whimsical accents. Each bedroom has both a private bath and balcony or deck, affording a space of intimate privacy from the rest of the Inn. Original art adorns both the interior and the grounds. Artists who have stayed at Bella la Vita have even gifted some of their artwork to the Inn!
The grounds are lovingly landscaped, like a small Shangri La; alive with local wildlife and birdsong. Private corners abound, both inside and out, for writing, reflection, savoring a glass of wine, or just relaxing. Bella’s guests can tuck away if they wish or join the camaraderie in the common room and gardens.
Over the last nine years, Bella la Vita has grown more and more beautiful. The Inn is adorned with fountains, flowers, and the peace of her pastoral surroundings. There is now a labyrinth, created from lovingly gathered stones, on the grounds for public and private use. Lisal, a Veriditas certified labyrinth facilitator and builder, has helped educate community members and guests at the Inn on labyrinth history and use. She has helped plan and build several labyrinths in Floyd County. She hopes one day to create a “labyrinth trail” for interested visitors to follow through the Floyd landscape.
Matt and Lisal have a deep and abiding love for the Floyd community, and for the home they have brought to life here. They consider themselves ambassadors for Floyd, both at home and wherever they travel. They are happy to steer their guests to the many amazing resources to be found in Floyd, and they gladly make a point of personally experiencing everything Floyd has to offer so they can give a true picture of what guests can expect. Experience the unexpected… in beautiful Floyd, Virginia!