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Katie Hoffman leads a kraut-making class that was part of the Homestead Series. (Photo courtesy Center for Rural Culture)
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A beekeeping class at Rassawek in northern Goochland County, also part of the Homestead Series (Photo courtesy Center for Rural Culture)
About 20 miles outside the city in Goochland, the Center for Rural Culture is reviving its Homestead Series, a quarterly slate of classes that focus on self-sufficiency, living from and preserving the land, and practicing the ideologies of rural culture. The first class of the series kicks off March 8 at Montpelier Feed & Seed, led by Dominic Carpin of Delli Carpini Farm and focusing on regenerative gardening.
“I think a series like this is important because it increases general populace awareness of the importance of regenerative sustainable culture in the coming times,” says Carpin, who operates on 12 acres in Beaverdam and specializes in Italian varietals of produce. “It's a way to build community in our rural locale.”
Carpin says regenerative farming principles and practices rely on enriching soil, increasing biodiversity, creating an ecosystem for beneficial insects and wildlife, and integrating livestock. During the class, Carpin, whose produce can be found on area menus from The Broken Tulip to Caboose Market & Cafe, aspires to raise the consciousness of attendees and discuss approaches to harvest and post-harvest handling of food crops, seed-starting tricks and hacks, cover crops, and heirloom varieties that can thrive in Virginia.
Dominic Carpin at The Montpelier Center Farmers Market (Photo by Jay Paul)
“I got involved because I want to share my knowledge of environmentally friendly gardening techniques with people on the homeowner scale,” says Carpin, who serves as a substitute teacher in Hanover County during the off-season. “It feels wonderful to share my knowledge with my lifelong local community. Education and dissemination of information is part of my mission statement.”
Founded in 2005, the Center for Rural Culture was built on the foundation of preserving farms and rural spaces, supporting local economies and agriculture, and protecting those traditions and practices. Katie Hoffman, director of marketing for the the nonprofit, says “I think that rural culture has a lot to offer urban culture. For example, before canning was a trendy thing, it was how people got through the winter.”
Hoffman, an Appalachian Studies scholar and self-proclaimed culture crusader, says she is drawn to the rural lifestyle because it embraces innovation and people living off of the limited supplies around them.
“I used to kill a steer and butcher it and grown corn for cornmeal and sorghum for molasses, and one of the things I think is really cool, is you begin to have much more appreciation for the people that grow it and for the food itself,” she says. Hoffman is optimistic that the Homesteading Series will have the same impact on attendees, if on a smaller scale.
Aligning with the center's ethos, the classes aim to empower attendees to be self-sufficient and help to grow a local community of rural supporters who may not only gain hands-on skills, but also a deeper understanding of agriculture.
Tanya Cauthen, owner of Belmont Butchery in the Museum District and co-sponsor of the event, says her goal is to aid in organizing a diverse schedule of classes that appeal to a wide range of people, especially those from the city.
“How do we take something we’ve grown to love, meaning Hanover and Montpelier, and show our city family there is more to Richmond than just the city?” she says. “The target audience to me is anybody interested in food and cooking and gardening in Virginia and surrounding areas.
“What’s kind of cool, is [that the Center for Rural Culture provides] a really good sense of community,” Cauthen adds, noting that once she became involved with the organization, she began to recognize familiar faces like Andy Howell, former owner of Camden’s Dogtown Market and Jo Pendergraph, co-owner of Manakintowne Specialty Growers.
The Homestead Series began in 2013, and past classes have included beekeeping basics; growing culinary herbs; and making bitters, tinctures and shrubs.
“We take rural things and scale them down to a backyard level,” Hoffman explains. “My hope is to get people to stop saying Appalachian culture is disappearing or vanishing — it’s changing, and that’s what every culture does.”
During the March 8 class, Fall Line Farms and Local Roots, owned by the Center for Rural Culture, will be showcasing purveyors that are part of the nonprofit online farmers market collective.
Established in 2008, Fall Line is an online platform where farmers can share their weekly offerings — with no minimum supply required — and is geared toward highlighting small farmers. Hoffman says that, apart from direct-to-consumer sales, Fall Line offers producers the highest percentage of their sales in comparison to other area markets.
For consumers, the modernized marketplace of about 50 purveyors connects them with farmers and allows them to shop and peruse at their convenience local products ranging from Agriberry Farm’s oat bars to pork loins from PigCrafters and arugula and organic bread from Broadfork Farm.
“There's a lot of strength and power in their online cooperative approach," Carpin says. "I see farmers market culture waning in the area with a few exceptions. This is a great alternative.”
Deliveries for Fall Line take place on Thursdays, with locations throughout the city as well as in Goochland, Powhatan and Cumberland.
The March 8 event also celebrates the Center for Rural Culture’s first produce pick-up point in Montpelier, which will serve residents there and in Beaverdam. Future classes in the Homestead Series will include fermentation, canning — including a trip to Hanover Cannery led by Cauthen — and collaborations with Courthouse Creek Cider on subjects such as pruning trees or planting grape vines.
Tickets to the regenerative farming class are $25.
