Country Zest & Style | Autumn 2020 Edition

AUTUMN 2020

JULIA & KEN

FALKE:

HEROES HELPING HEROES AT BOULDER CREST RETREAT

INSIDE: SAVING THE CHILDREN PRESERVING COUNTRY ROADS A PREMIER POSTMASTER

PRSRT MKTG U.S. PoStaGe

PAID

PERMIT NO. 82 WoodStoCK, Va

RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMER

Personalities, Celebrations and Sporting Pursuits

110 E. Washington St. | P.O. Box 1380 | Middleburg, VA 20118 | 540.687.5588 | sheridanmacmahon.com

WIND FIELD FARM

CATESBY FARM

MIDDLEBURG, VIRGInIA

MIDDLEBURG, VIRGInIA

circa 1853 colonial of stone and frame construction | House and property have been meticulously restored and maintained | 8 BR, 9 full BA and 3 half BA | 9 FP, antique pine floors, high ceilings, detailed millwork, gourmet kitchen | 466 rolling acres with mountain views | Long frontage on Goose Creek | Guest house, office, 8 stall center aisle barn with apt, 4 additional stalls, lighted sand ring, numerous tenant houses, greenhouse, circa 1800 lime kiln cottage | Property is fenced and cross fenced, ponds, creeks and mature woods with trails

Gracious Georgian Manor home, 11,000 sf, built in 1930 | Updated and suitable for large scale entertaining | 7 BR, 7 1/2 BA, 7 FP | High ceilings, formal gardens & private setting | Belmont style stable w/30 stalls and 2 apartments | 4 BR guest house/entertainment complex, 4-car garage w/office | 4 restored tenant houses, skeet range, pool & tennis court | 241 acres recorded in 3 parcels | Land mostly open & rolling with bold mountain views, numerous ponds and vineyard

DEERFIELD UPPERVILLE, VIRGInIA

221 acres | Stately brick manor house c. 1844 has manicured lawn and garden s | 4 BR, lovely kitchen, multiple porches, beautiful pine floors, 7 FP, original mantels, large windows, detailed millwork throughout | Additional outbuildings include c. 1810 log cabin used as pool house, converted barn now serves as a guest house, 2 tenant houses in the village and an equestrian complex on separate 40 acre parcel, 24 stall stable, indoor arena, outdoor ring, jump field and 3 BR Farm Manager’s house, paddocks and sizable pond | 6 Parcels - some of the land is protected by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation

ARLINGTON FARM MARShALL, VIRGInIA 296 acres of beautiful farmland off Atoka Road | A working farm in crops and hay, improved with multiple large farm buildings and 3 cottages | Beautiful building site for a main house if desired | Property is in conservation easement which allows for 1 division and permits construction of an indoor area and additional equestrian and farm buildings | Beautiful mix of open land, creeks, pond, woods, pasture, crops and rolling topography - western views of the Blue Ridge Mountains

$14,500,000

$9,950,000

$5,800,000

$4,950,000

Paul MacMaHon 703.609.1905

Paul MacMaHon 703.609.1905

Helen MacMaHon 540.454.1930

Helen MacMaHon 540.454.1930

SPRING GLADE

PHEASANT’S EYE

STONE BRIDGE FARM

TROUGH HILL

MIDDLEBURG, VIRGInIA

MIDDLEBURG, VIRGInIA

LEESBURG, VIRGInIA

MIDDLEBURG, VIRGInIA

French Country home, recent renovations | 4 BR, 5 full & 2 half BA, 5 FP, hardwood floors, flagstone terrace | Beautiful drive to hilltop setting overlooking lake & mountains | Improvements include pool, 2-car garage, 2 BR guest house & apartment | Lovely boxwood gardens | 79.89 acres

Classic solid stone home circa 1790 has been meticulously restored, maintained and expanded to include 5 BR | First floor master suite and large family room have been seamlessly incorporated into the traditional home | 10 FP, antique floors and millwork | Extensive outdoor living spaces, large pool and terrace with lovely gardens, multiple outbuildings including 2 desirable car barns | Flexible space currently used to garage 20+ cars | Accommodates large scale entertaining

Main house c 1890 with total renovation & expansion 2003-2004 | Stone and stucco exterior | 4+ BR, 5 1/2 BA, 3 FP, exposed beams, vaulted ceilings, recording studio | Beautiful gardens, in-ground pool with spa | Terrace overlooking spring fed pond, 72.1 acres, 2 barns, totaling 14 stalls | Fenced and cross fenced, mature woods with riding trails | Close to Leesburg and Middleburg

Prime Middleburg location | c 1830 farmhouse expanded over the years | 5 BR, 5 full BA, 2 half BA, 9 FP, original floors | House has been gutted, some interior work done | Grand stone entertainment complex includes greenhouse, studio, party room and guest suite | Old barn complex, outbuildings on 103.54 rolling acres | Mountain views, stone walls and 2 ponds

$3,200,000

$2,725,000

Helen MacMaHon 540.454.1930

Paul MacMaHon 703.609.1905

Paul MacMaHon 703.609.1905

4 CHINN LANE

BUST HEAD ROAD

$3,900,000 Paul MacMaHon 703.609.1905 Helen MacMaHon 540.454.1930

HILLCREST

$2,400,000

RECTOR CROSSING

UPPERVILLE, VIRGInIA

MIDDLEBURG, VIRGInIA

thE PLAInS, VIRGInIA

DELAPLAnE, VIRGInIA

Spectacular hilltop setting, bold mountain views and Paris valley views | Home updated in 2017 | 4 BRs, 4 BA, 3 FP, gourmet kitchen, vaulted ceilings, skylights, lovely gardens, walkways and terrace | Improvements include in ground pool with spa | 2 stall barn with tack room, room for horses, spring fed pond | 13.37 acres next to parkland surrounded by large estates

Impressive and elegant home | Main level master suite opens to large blue stone terrace and garden with exceptional privacy | Gorgeous finishes through out the home | Large library off master bedroom can easily serve as a home office | Stunning living room opens to the dining room and a wall of windows and french doors with ample natural light and thoughtfully designed | 2 wood burning fireplaces, new roof, new siding and updated kitchen and baths, lots of storage | Absolutely turn key | 2 car garage and greenhouse

82.69 acres | Mostly wooded, mountain views, bold stream in very protected area | Conservation easement | Can not be subdivided | Prime Orange County hunt location | Halfway between Middleburg and the Plains

Absolutely turn key charming cottage in Rectortown on 7.6 acres | Completely restored cottage with open kitchen - living room | Upstairs bedroom has massive walk in closet and room for guest or office in the loft area | Lovely setting and wonderful wrap around porch | Must love trains because Southern Railroad is in your back yard | Land is all open and about 500’ of creek frontage

$1,425,000 Paul MacMaHon 703.609.1905

$1,100,000 Paul MacMaHon 703.609.1905

$1,295,000

$559,000

Helen MacMaHon 540.454.1930

Helen MacMaHon 540.454.1930

25879 Country Zest [Recovered].ai

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5/13/20

10:43 AM

Marching for Justice in Purcellville

By Lizzy Catherwood

W

hen Middleburg resident and Hill School graduate Josh Fox and four of his friends organized and led a “Black Lives Matter” event through the streets of Purcellville in June, they had no idea more than 1,500 would join the march.

Fox, a senior at the University of Mary Purcellville Police Chief Cynthia McAlister Josh Fox shared an Washington in Fredericksburg, and and march co-organizer emotional hug. brothers Noah and Zach Franco, Rasheem Thornton and Ushindi Namegabe, were teammates on the Loudoun Valley High School track squad and have remained close even after they all attended different colleges. What began as a loose plan first formulated by the Franco brothers, who wanted to do more for the local black community, turned into one of the largest events in Purcellville history.

The young men, all in their early 20s, had originally thought the march would attract about 300. But as it drew closer, their Facebook “reservations” skyrocketed.

More than1,500 came out to On the first day when they posted march in Purcellville details, a hundred people committed to attend. A week later, Noah Franco received a call from his dad, who heard the protest receive a mention on a local radio station. The night before the march, Noah Franco said, “We literally made the jump from five hundred to eight hundred to one thousand to 1,400 followers or people who said that they were going.”

Fox, born and raised in Middleburg and a member of Hill’s Class of 2012, felt it was important to join the demonstration protesting the May 25th death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

As protests have spread across the country and the globe to demand change and an end to race-based police brutality, Fox said he wanted to promote policies that “have a governing system for police.” That would include judicial input and abolishing police unions, citing a need for checks and balances that would ensure justice for victims and not blindly protect officers.

Once the June 7 crowd reached Purcellville’s town hall, many government officials stood alongside Fox and his fellow organizers and promised change and advocacy for Black lives. They included Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton, Purcellville Police Chief Cynthia McAlister, Loudoun County Board Supervisor Phyllis Randal and Pastor Michelle Thomas, who heads the Loudoun NAACP. Additional speakers included Wood-grove High School student Peyton Arnett, all five organizers, and several other community members. Both Fox and Noah Franco praised the local police department for being extremely helpful in organizing the march.

In her speech, Chief McAlister asked the community for a seat at the table moving forward in discussions on community safety and valuing black lives.

Fox focused on the history of the black experience in America and told the crowd, “The excuse is often used that slavery was over a hundred years ago, to which I ask, how do you expect to fix four hundred years of pain in just over one hundred years? We are constantly told that we are making America great again, but when was America ever great for black people?” He also asked white members of the crowd to hold themselves accountable, that “you need to love and care about black people out loud.”

Fox and his friends know their work is far from over.

They intend to take part in conversations with the Purcellville Police Department as policing policies evolve to continue to develop and evolve. And they urged the crowd to “care out loud” that black lives matter.

DEL WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.* MARY WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.* * Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist

DEL WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.* American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties DEL WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.* MARY WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.* * Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist

DEL WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.* American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties MARY WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.*

MARY P.T., O.C.S.* 204 WILSON, E. FEDERAL ST.

* Board Certified Orthopedic ClinicalST. Specialist 204 E. FEDERAL American BoardP.O. of Physical Therapy BOX 893 Specialties

MIDDLEBURG, VA 20118

204 E. FEDERAL ST. P.O. BOX 893 WILSON, DEL MIDDLEBURG, VA 20118 www.middleburg-pt.com

540-687-6565

P.O. BOX 893 MIDDLEBURG, VA 20118

* Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties

204 E. FEDERAL ST. 540-687-6565 P.O. BOX 893

MIDDLEBURG, VA 20118 www.middleburg-pt.com P.T.,540-687-6565 O.C.S.*

www.middleburg-pt.com

MARY 2020 WILSON, P.T., O.C.S.* Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 540-687-6565

* Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist www.middleburg-pt.com American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties

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of NOTE

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BE ON THE LOOKOUT through this issue of

ZEST & Style for the hummingbird.

ZES ST TStytlel & Country

Personalities, Celebrations and Sporting Pursuits © 2020 Country ZEST & Style, LLC. Published six times a year

Distributed and mailed throughout the Virginia countryside and in Washington and at key Sporting Pursuits and Celebrations

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MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 798 Middleburg, Virginia 20118

Editor: Leonard Shapiro, badgerlen@aol.com Wine Editor: Peter Leonard-Morgan Food Editor: Daniela Anderson Art Director Meredith Hancock/Hancock Media @mhancockmedia Contributing Photographers: Crowell Hadden, Sarah Huntington, Doug Gehlsen, Douglas Lees, Karen Monroe and Tiffany Dillon Keen Contributing Writers: Anita Sherman, Carina Elgin, Caroline Fout, Childs Burden, Emma Boyce, Jimmy Hatcher, Jimmy Wofford, Jodi Nash, John Sherman, John Toler, Justin Haefner, Kevin Ramundo, Leslie VanSant, Linda Roberts, Louisa Woodville, M.J. McAteer, Mara Seaforest, Melissa Phipps, Mike du Pont, Sean Clancy, Sebastian Langenberg, Sophie Scheps Langenberg, Tom Northrup, Tom Wiseman For advertising inquiries, contact: Leonard Shapiro at badgerlen@aol.com or 410-570-8447

ON THE COVER For this month’s cover of Ken and Julia Falke, I used a Nikon D850 and a Nikon 24-120 lens. I always shoot with the camera tethered so we can get instant feedback as to how the image looks Doug Gehlsen of Middleburg and with an overlay of the cover Photo for proper framing. Lighting was slightly different which included a Profoto B1 with a 36-inch umbrella on camera right and the usual Alien Bee Einstein strobe with a beauty dish to the left of the camera. The umbrella helped to fill the shadows and soften the light. An additional Profoto B2 with a grid was used to light the white paper backdrop. / @countryzestandstyle

/ @countryzestand1

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/ Country Zest and Style

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Country

H

ow the world has changed since we launched the first edition of Country ZEST & Style a year ago. In these challenging times, it remains a joy to produce a magazine readers tell us gets better with each issue. The response in the form of your emails, phone calls and conversations on the street and post office have truly been humbling.

Over our first six issues, we’ve focused on the real side of life in the country, with a wide variety of stories and photos that illuminate our unique and often enchanting portion of the planet. A small sampling might include a Civil War soldier’s grave a few feet off Route PHOTO ©dillonkeenphotography.com 50, a local firm helping re-forest America, a former Navy SEAL raising funds for Vietnam orphans, a mushroom maven who grows them in a cave and a beloved police chief.

Many stories come from our ever-expanding list of talented and often awardwinning photographers and writers. We begin with Doug Gehlsen, who works spectacular magic shooting all of our covers. Add to this list our other fabulous photographers: Crowell Hadden, Douglas Lees, Karen Monroe, Tiffany Dillon Keen and Sarah Huntington.

Our scribes include Eclipse award-winning (the Pulitzer for racing writers) columnist Sean Clancy; Anita Sherman, Linda Roberts and John Toler, all long-time local journalists with multiple citations for excellence: M.J. McAteer, a fellow and gifted Washington Post alum, Childs Burden, a widely-regarded Civil War historian; John Sherman, co-founder of the Ashby Inn and a veteran Congressional staffer and speech writer and Kevin Ramundo, a former corporate communications executive and passionate local preservationist.

Mike du Pont and Jimmy Hatcher offer lively local history. Carina Elgin always contributes enjoyable stories, Daniela Anderson cooks up a storm and versatile Louisa Woodville is an art historian, journalist, and talented rider. Tom Northrup is a nationally-respected educator and head of school emeritus at The Hill School. Leslie VanSant does wonderful work for the Rainforest Trust. Tom Wiseman is a financial whiz and multi-talented wine columnist Peter LeonardMorgan serves as a Middleburg Town Councilman.

We’re also proud of our fabulous young talent. There’s Emma Boyce, a Tulane graduate with a Masters in creative writing from UC-Davis with an exquisite writing touch. Sophie Langenberg is a UVa grad and wonderful wordsmith. Her husband, Sebastian, is our only contributor who reads and writes ancient Greek (though not for us). James Jarvis is completing a Masters in journalism at Georgetown and is producing stories and pertinent podcasts for the magazine. Meredith Hancock folds it all into a beautiful “book” and elegant website and so much more.

I’d be remiss not mentioning my wife, Vicky Moon, who has a zillion ideas, writes stories, takes photos, lays out the magazine and guides her tech-moron husband on the digital side. Oh yes, she also has a snappy, newsy, website: middleburgmystique.com, writes a countryside column for Washington Life and just finished her 10th book. Talk about ZEST. Whew!

Leonard Shapiro Badgerlen@aol.com

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

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MIDDLEBURG COMMON GROUNDS

Orchid is a stunning watercolor

W

Photos courtesy of the artist.

alking through Gayle Isabelle Ford’s farm house in Brightwood, Virginia, illuminates the passions that drive her spirit—animals and art.

Pictures of horses, dogs, donkeys, cats, birds, and even Highland cattle capture the irresistible appeal of these two- and four-legged creatures, which Gayle renders in soft charcoal, graphite, watercolor, and oil paint.

Texture and precision are two hallmarks of her tactile style. “Ophelia,” a blueeyed ginger tabby rendered in pastels on a two-dimensional surface, has fur so soft that you want to reach out and touch it.

“Truth be known, my real love is drawing,” said the Virginia artist, holding up a detailed pencil-on-paper drawing of a beetle. A beetle? Turns out a friend-of-afriend, Elsie Freshner, was married to an entomologist at the Smithsonian. Elsie prodded Gayle to draw bugs.

“She wanted me to go into scientific illustration, and her husband gave me a moth and a beetle to draw,” Gayle said. “This was the beetle.”

The work, called “Richard’s Friend,” is so lifelike that the pad of your finger can almost feel the grooves and lumps of a hard, scaly skin that covers the coleoptera’s back and six appendages— details you’d probably overlook were an actual live beetle to scuttle across the floor. Nor would you take in the symmetric pattern of organic shapes that decorate its back, or details like the claws at the tip of its spindly legs.

But it’s horses that have always been a large part of Gayle’s life. In one drawing, a gray horse jumps over cross-poles set high, and the rider’s eyes look up as she firmly roots her heels down.

“Gotcha was a bucker. He was hot,” said Gayle of the thoroughbred depicted. “I can remember riding him and the wind was so strong it lifted me off the saddle.

But we clicked, and my two daughters and I loved him to pieces. We all rode him and all had our injuries with him.”

Breakfast & Lunch Served All Day

Coffee, Tea, Beer & Wine

114 W. Washington Street • Middleburg, VA • 540.687.7065 6

Portraits of her children, animals, and landscapes of Colorado chronicle Gayle’s life. “Morning Sunlight,” a watercolor, snapshots the Colorado hills which surrounded her for 23 years. Wind flutters green and golden leaves from a copse of Aspen trees.

“Misty’s Stall” is reminiscent of Brandywine artist Andrew Wyeth’s dramatic use of light in its study of contrasts. Seven vertical planks lie shadowed beneath

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

Discovery is a 18 X 16 oil the blinding light from an open window, a stark contrast to the painstaking detail of eleven horizontal planks in bright sunlight right-angled to them.

Gayle grew up in New Orleans. “My high school art teacher, unbeknownst to me, signed me up for this contest and got me this scholarship at the John McCrady art school, and I really had fun,” she said.

Marriage relocated her to Burke, Va., where evenings meant classes in illustration, photography and fine art at Northern Virginia Community College.

“Then I got a Misty’s Stall is a watercolor nasty divorce, and I had to break away,” she said, explaining her move to Loveland, Colorado. For 23 years, she was a staff illustrator at Interweave Press, where she perfected the careful detail that characterize her works.

“Orchid,” a watercolor, is one such example. Reminiscent of a Georgia O’Keefe, petals of an exotic flower unfurl, advancing into the viewer’s space. Unlike O’Keefe, however, Gayle’s details reveal every vein and nuance of the flower’s skin.

In addition to rendering still-lives, botanicals, land- and cityscapes, Gayle also fulfills individual commissions of people’s animals and, of course, people themselves. “Discovery,” an oil-on-linen of a raven-haired five-year-old examining a blade of golden sea grass, is poignant in the child’s nonchalance and beauty. “That is the grand-daughter of [dressage rider] Sylvia Loch. I saw her picture on the internet and I asked Sylvia if I could paint her, and she said yes.”

Gayle continues to paint portraits and fulfill commissions. “I could never give up creating—painting or drawing. My art and my horses are in my heart and soul.”

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

7

Perspectives on Childhood, Education and Parenting Recess Required for Enhanced Thinking

I

By Tom Northrup

don’t think it’s widely known or embraced that multiple daily recesses in schools contribute significantly to the academic achievement of children.

In fact, a country leading in educational achievement is also one with frequent recesses. Finland is renowned for having one of the most successful school systems in the world, despite a shorter school day, less homework, and more recess time than most other countries.

Tom Northrup In reflecting on this seemingly paradoxical finding, I recently re-read two of my favorite books, Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman and The Power of Full Engagement, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

The benefits of frequent respites is conveyed by both of these books. Kahneman, a Nobel prize-winning psychologist, explains that all of our behavior—our decisions, our actions, our learning—are generated by two modes of thinking.

He calls them System 1 (Fast), which operates quickly, intuitively, and requires little thought, and System 2 (Slow), which calls for effort, concentration and time.

To succeed in negotiating the daily demands of adult life, most of us are primarily accessing System 1. Driving a car, shopping, paying bills, performing routine tasks at home or work are examples.

We only activate System 2—slower thinking—when a problem or situation requires more thought, attention, and mental energy. We generally prefer to operate on System 1’s automatic pilot mode. It’s less work, and less tiring.

Now let’s consider a child’s school day. Which thinking system—1 or 2—has more demands placed on it? Which system is busier during the academic day?

Kahneman asserts that a “well-established proposition (is) that both self control (attention) and cognitive effort are forms of mental work” and that

paying attention and concentrating steadily deplete the states of mental energy a student needs to expend.

Before any new material can be learned, the child must concentrate and focus.

Both tasks—attending and learning new material— draw on System 2, which drains mental energy.

Fortunately, the amount of mental energy anyone has can be replenished throughout the day.

Loehr and Schwartz, who coach elite athletes and business executives, explain in The Power of Full Engagement how to do this. One of their most important principles is that, “Sustained high performance is best served by assuming the mind-set of a sprinter, not a marathoner— optimized by scheduling work into (shorter periods) of intensive effort, followed by recovery and renewal.”

Such rejuvenating activities would include rest, meditation, physical activity, a healthy snack, relaxed social interaction, listening to music, quiet reflection time.

For children in school, multiple recesses each day are indispensable. Otherwise by day’s end, they may feel the fatigue as if they had run a marathon.

Before non-virtual schooling restarts in this country, educators would serve themselves and their students well to reconsider how to structure and schedule a balanced school day for their children. It should place a priority on mental energy restorative activities. Undoubtedly, this will promote student engagement and achievement.

And for families? Establishing a regular bedtime routine for the children provides the conditions for that most essential recess—a good night’s sleep, the ultimate physical and mental refresher.

“Recess–a suspension of business… often for rest.”

Tom Northrup, a long-time educator, is Head of School Emeritus at The Hill School in Middleburg.

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Matt Foosaner: Parents Must Be Cyber Vigilant

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By Leonard Shapiro

n 2005, Matt Foosaner was running a tactical communications team for the Sprint Nextel Corporation when the team received a call from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) while it was deployed to New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina hit. In its wake, there were 5,000 missing children separated from their parents before, during and after the storm.

Foosaner set up an Emergency Response Team that allowed law enforcement and emergency service providers to communicate with each other and help find all those children. It was no easy task.

“They were all over the place,” he said. “Houston, Denver, Southern California. There were kids less than two years old, some weren’t even old enough talk, to tell us their last names. Some had no birth certificates.

But one year after Katrina, the last child was reunited with their families. It was very rewarding.”

So much so that Foosaner was soon asked by the nonprofit NCMEC to serve on its law enforcement committee, and he is now is a member of its board of directors.

Over the years, that response team has been involved with a number of other high profile situations, including the Virginia Tech shootings, the D.C. Sniper threat, the space shuttle Columbia catastrophe and 27 presidential declared disasters, seven national special security events, 115 field training exercises plus joint terrorism and drug enforcement task force operations.

As a volunteer with NCMEC, Foosaner has helped the organization founded by John and Revé Walsh become aware of new, constantly evolving technology and how to use it during their own investigations.

Foosaner, his wife Terri and their three children live in the Middleburg area. A University of Maryland graduate who says, “I just love deploying technology in support of mission critical operation,” he spent 15 years at Sprint/Nextel and now has his own consulting firm, Critical Communications Solutions, based in Middleburg. He’s also very much involved in spreading the word both locally and nationally on facilitating the safe use of technology between parents and their children.

“Every year, there are 800,000 children targeted by sexual predators in the United States,” he said. “That includes runaways who get lured by sex traffickers.

These kids are all races, from all different economic strata. There really is no single demographic, and the current state of technology makes it possible for a lot of bad things to happen.”

As a result, he also has developed a cyber safety

PHOTO BY SARAH HUNTINGTON

seminar called “Parenting the Digital Child.” He’s conducted the seminar at a number of local schools, including The Hill School in Middleburg where his own children have been enrolled.

Foosaner cites research that has shown that over 80 percent of online sex crimes against children begin with predators using a child’s online social networking sites to gather information and eventually make contact.

He recommends installing parenting software that monitors internet usage, including texting, emails and social media sites. He also emphasizes the importance of parents having full knowledge and access, including passwords, for any of their children’s on-line activities.

“Let’s say your child gets solicited on-line,” Foosaner said. “You should immediately go to the CyberTipline that is managed by NCMEC, which you can reach online (https://report.cybertip.org/) or by phone (1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). They will log it, investigate it and get the information to local law enforcement. Last year, we had 19 million

reports of child pornography, solicitation and missing children.”

And the Middleburg area is no exception.

“I’ve had parents come up to me after a seminar with real issues,” he said. “‘My child has been solicited, what should I do?’ No one is immune from this and you are dealing with people who know what they’re doing. Allowing an unsupervised child to get on the information highway is like putting a six-year-old on a tricycle on I-66.”

Foosaner said his soon-to-be 16-year-old son did not get any devices until he was in the eighth grade and “he was the only person in his class who didn’t have a smart phone.

“The best advice I can give parents is to develop open communication with their children. There should be no consequences if a child reports an issue, and it has to be mitigated right now. Give your child a hug, and take the information to law enforcement and NCMEC. Don’t wait.”.

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

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Another Important Property Permanently Protected

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Virtual Fundraiser ~ 2020 •

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TO CELEBRATE THAT ART IS ESSENTIAL

Please Join Us for Our

Barnstorming Celebration Presented on Facebook and YouTube

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Saturday, September 5, 2020 5:30 P.M. •

Online reception featuring musicians, artists, and other special guests •

P ONLINE AUCTION N August 5 through September 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Auction preview in the Barns of Rose Hill Upper Gallery beginning August 5.

Visit Barnsofrosehill.org/barnstorming/ or call 540-955-2004 to learn more.

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THANK YOU TO OUR BARNSTORMING CELEBRATION SPONSORS: Berryville Auto Parts | Berryville Dental | Broy and Son Pump Service Dilzer Eye Care Associates | Enders & Shirley Funeral Homes & Crematory, Inc. Gold Land Farms, LLC | Jim Barb Realty | Loudoun Mutual Insurance Company Mountainside Home Improvement | Oak Hart Farm Shepherd’s Ford Productions | Thomas and Talbot Real Estate

ENRICHING LIVES THROUGH THE ARTS, EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY

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The Thompson Family, working with the Land Trust of Virginia in conjunction with the Mosby Heritage Area Association, has recently ensured that their 60.9 acre property near Upperville is forever protected.

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he Thompson Family of Upperville, working with the Land Trust of Virginia (LTV) in conjunction with the Mosby Heritage Area Association (MHAA), has recently ensured that their 60.9 acre property is forever protected.

This property, a portion of the historic “Corotoman” farm, is the most recent conservation easement donated to LTV. When looking for ways to safeguard that the stunning scenic views and history of the property would be here for future generations, siblings Ann and Mark Thompson concluded that the best way to accomplish this goal was to enter into a protective conservation easement agreement.

“Everyone in the community benefits from open space and the preservation of our history,” Mark said. “Hopefully, this will inspire others in our community to put their properties into easement.”

The Thompson Property is in Loudoun County, located 2.2 miles northeast of the village of Upperville. One of the most significant public benefits of the agreement will be the permanent protection of scenic open space. The property is highly visible with road frontage on three public roads, including Millville, Greengarden and Piney Swamp Roads. The property features rolling topography with several ponds and stunning views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The agreement with the Thompsons will also protect the property’s significant resources by maintaining historic landscapes. Because of its topography, the property is entirely visible from three public roads. There are no buildings on the property, and none will be permitted in the future, which will maintain the property in its historic condition.

Regarding the Civil War context of the property, as explained by Dulany Morison, chairman of Mosby Area Association (MHAA), “this property is an important contributor to the rural landscape of the Northern Piedmont, and is the site of significant cavalry maneuvers in the Battle of Unison (1862) and the Battle of Upperville (1863), in addition to a skirmish between Col. John Mosby and Maj. Henry Cole (1864).”

The Mosby Heritage Area Association’s Bondi Family Land Conservation and Battlefield Preservation Fund assisted with the transaction costs of placing this property under conservation easement because it is located within the Unison Battlefield Study Area. Morison added, “the Bondi Family Fund has proven to be a convincing resource in discussions with landowners considering the feasibility of protecting their property with a conservation easement.”

According to Mark Thompson, “LTV and MHAA were great to work with throughout the process. Removing all possible future divisions of the property simplified the process too.”

The Land Trust of Virginia is a nonprofit organization that partners with private landowners who voluntarily protect and preserve properties with significant historic, scenic, or ecological value. With the addition of this easement, LTV now holds 194 easements protecting a total of 21,541 acres in 17 counties in Virginia.

MHAA’s mission is to educate and advocate for the preservation of the extraordinary historic landscape and culture of the Mosby Heritage Area for future generations.

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

Postmaster Ken Quinn: He’s Got Mail

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By Leonard Shapiro

en Quinn’s journey to one of the most important jobs in Middleburg began on Long Island, growing up in the suburban town of Hicksville, the same place that produced The Piano Man, iconic singer Billy Joel. Quinn has been Middleburg’s postmaster since 2012, and he’s in charge of making the bustling local post office hum.

Clearly he’s into the rhythm of the place, if only because he’s what he likes to describe as a “working postmaster….My hands get dirty. I work the window, I break down the mail and I put it in the boxes.”

Photo by Leonard Shapiro If necessary, he’ll fill in for a sick, tardy or vacationing carrier and drive around one Middleburg Postmaster Ken Quinn of a series of Middleburg’s rural routes that total 52 miles to make sure the mail is delivered all around. And always, there’s the tedious paperwork.

“I’m here at 7 a.m.,” he added, “I stick my hand in wherever I’m needed.”

He also gives great credit to his co-workers for making his job that much easier. Peggy Simmons, Trish Hahn, Jackie Montgomery, Maria Angel and Antoine Montfield are all postal veterans, several with many years of experience.

“Some of them have worked together for years,” Quinn said. “When you have the camaraderie and when you have people who really know what they’re doing, it makes it that much easier. Nobody here has to be told what to do. They know.”

Simmons and Hahn are on the job at 4 a.m. to start the sorting process.

Carriers arrive at 7 a.m., as does Quinn. Often loaded down with packages,

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those carriers are out in their trucks by 9 a.m. and the mail is always stuffed into the 1,800 post office boxes by 10:30 a.m.

“In today’s world, the sole job of this post office is to make sure the money comes in and the mail goes out,” Quinn said. “We want to make the experience in here as pleasant as possible for the customers and make sure the mail is delivered to the post office boxes and the rural routes.”

Quinn, 61, has been with the postal service working all around Northern Virginia for nearly four decades, and he’s seen major changes along the way. In the era of e-mail and Amazon, the number of cards and letters has decreased dramatically, accompanied by an equally dramatic rise in the number of packages that must be delivered, courtesy of the continually increasing amount of on-line shopping.

“I’ve had days where one of my carriers couldn’t see the back of his truck from the front of his truck,” he said. “It was filled up six feet high with boxes and packages.”

But Quinn has no complaints and clearly loves what he’s done most of his life. He and his wife live in Sterling, they have two adult sons and he credits the postal service with allowing his family to enjoy a comfortable existence.

“I wouldn’t trade my life with the post office for anything,” he said. “It gave us a house, we raised two great kids, and we never wanted for anything. And they gave me the opportunity to go in different directions. I’m glad to call myself a postal worker.”

He can call himself a few other things, as well.

A fine high school athlete himself, Quinn played softball into his 50s and now stays busy in the fall and spring by umpiring girls high school fast-pitch softball.

He also handles slow pitch leagues for girls and mixed teams.

His favorite sporting pursuit is golf. He got his first set of clubs at age ten in a Hicksville yard sale and he’s been swinging away ever since. He’s also not all that far from retirement, but he has another job he’d love to try.

“I’d like to be a starter at a golf course,” he said. “That’s the dream.”

And don’t you know, he’ll keep that place humming, too.

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Area country roads will be protected, hopefully in perpetuity.

Photo by Vicky Moon

Taking Us Home, Country Roads

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By Emma Boyce

ome of the more unique features often taken for granted in western Loudoun are the unpaved rural roads in a network spanning nearly 300 miles and encompassing more than 300 years of complicated history.

As eastern Loudoun continues to boom and development continues to wipe out the past, America’s Routes, a dedicated group of journalists and preservationists led by Jane Covington of Middleburg, has ensured that these scenic routes remain a part of everyday life.

After years of advocating for the roads, America’s Routes has done the near impossible. In June, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources declared the roads eligible for the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places, a distinction normally reserved for battlefields and buildings.

That unprecedented move came only a few months after Preservation Virginia added the road network to its 2020 list of “Most Endangered Historic Sites” as a “living museum.”

“We wanted the roads to be recognized for their history,” Covington said. “It’s not just a road that hasn’t yet been paved.”

Covington’s extensive background in historic preservation has taken her across the globe from London to Tanzania to Loudoun County.

Her award-winning restoration firm has also had another project, Rock Hill, placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s no surprise she’s had another great success in saving thee roads.

Next, Covington plans to focus on proper rural road maintenance, working with VDOT to find a gravel that maintains the integrity of the roads and functions safely.

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“These roads are an asset we must treasure and steward and bring forward for the next generation,” she said.

Since the 1990s, citizen groups have been working to preserve the roads. In 2015, Covington and fellow preservationist Mitch Diamond attempted to protect all of western Loudoun from development, a herculean task.

In 2017, they narrowed their focus to the roads of western Loudoun. After meeting with acclaimed photojournalist Douglas Graham and local writer Danielle Nadler in the basement of the Leesburgbased Loudoun Now newspaper, America’s Routes was born. The organization, which later included Horse Times editor Emily Houston and author Rich Gillespie, aims to preserve the physical roads and way of life attached to this slower pace, while also preserving their history.

“Our goal,” said Covington, “is educating the public as to how fabulous the roads are in terms of their history and stories. We want to document all these wonderful stories of the roads and the characters who use them, and then we also want dive into the archives which are now closed and bring those stories forward.”

Many of these roads appear on Loudoun’s first map, the Yardley-Taylor map of 1853, but their history dates to before the American Revolution, with the roads playing a significant role in transporting food from mill to market.

“This is not your average historic area,” Graham said. “This is where the rural economy was born.

The whole country grew from these roads. It’s something that is very special and unique to have that vast a road network still intact.”

Graham knows the network well. In fact, he spends a lot of time winding through its bucolic twists and turns, camera in hand, using photographs to educate people on the importance of preserving something as deceptively ordinary

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

ODE TO THE GRAVEL ROAD

By John B. Denegre Written for the “America’s Routes” rural roads preservation effort, with heartfelt apologies to Robert Frost.

Whose road this is I think I know.

It’s owned by all who cherish slow; They will know I’m stopping here To honor with steps the stones below.

Once a deer and Indian track Now mottled gravel, not asphalt black.

Toil of commerce, blood of war, Have flowed across its noble back.

Its rural strengths with us will stay: Connection, reflection, nature’s way.

Lacking oil and tar, this road will give Things much needed in lives today.

The name of progress gets roads covered, And who we were, and are, is smothered.

Some say these paths are too much trouble; They thrive through time when gently mothered.

This road is lovely, warm and sweet, But needs our promises to keep The miles of joy we wish to meet, The miles of joy we have to keep. as a gravel road. Along the road, Graham captures aging red barns, solitary stone walls, fog settling across the Blue Ridge Mountains, angus cows, cyclists.

He might see Allen Cochran marching his sheep up the road in Lincoln, Virginia when it’s time to rotate fields; or any given hunt on a fall morning thundering across the gravel in hot pursuit; or even visitors from Washington, D.C. escaping the city, admiring the stone walls along the roads.

“Doug Graham’s photographs will make anyone swoon,” said Covington. “He’s done so much to render their beauty visible to the public. Too often we’re looking through a dirty windshield, and a dust cloud. We don’t understand what’s there.”

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Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

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The Sound of Sweet Music Fills the Barns The view from outside The Barns at Rose Hill.

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

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By John Sherman

ears ago, when my wife, Roma, and I opened the Ashby Inn, we were warned we’d never see any customers “from over the mountain.”

For whatever reason, people from Clarke and Frederick counties were reluctant to head east. I remember sending a note to our small customer base that the dragons that once roamed the Blue Ridges were extinct. “No reason to fear coming through Ashby Gap.” Today, that reluctance is ironically reversed. Few of my friends had ever stopped short of Costco in Winchester. They never heard of Millwood, with its working mill. Never mind White Post, where Washington, the surveyor, left behind a pivotal marker.

Sad that so few have even heard of the Barns of Rose Hill, arguably the finest music venue between its home in Berryville and Wolf Trap. “Barns of what?”

The Barns was the concept of a small group who raised funds to convert two cow barns into a cultural center.

performances almost since its opening in 2011.

She calls venues like the Barns “listening rooms,” as opposed to concert halls and bar rooms. She has performed in many countries and considers the Barns “among the very best.

“What sets us apart from most venues is not only the quality of the music, but the casual and welcoming atmosphere,” she said. “The wonderful acoustics belie the rustic barn timbers.” Performers use a step-up stage which faces an audience of up to 175.

The Barns went dark when the pandemic gained intensity in March. Since then, she’s had to cancel 28 scheduled performances. “We’re still picking up the pieces,” she said. “The worst is the uncertainty. We just hope we can rescue part of the season.”

Morrison’s challenge is to integrate popular tastes with first-rate performers from around the world. A costumed band from Mongolia. An ensemble from Estonia. Scheduled to perform, but cancelled, was a West African who plays the n’goni, a lute covered with animal skins.

“Some of our artists have played Carnegie Hall and Prairie Home Companion,” she added.

“We wanted to salvage as much of the original structures as we could to preserve the integrity of their agricultural history. It’s more beautiful than we imagined,” said Diana Kincannon, one of the original “barn raisers” and former board chair.

Most performances reflect what she calls “root music”—-bluegrass, folk, jazz, blues, Celtic. Performers have included “Blind Boy” Paxton, Corey Harris Band, Bumper Jackson, Dom Flemons. The annual tribute to Patsy Cline is scheduled for September.

Morgan Morrison, who plays Appalachian music on her mandolin, has been booking music

The Barns is home of the Rose Hill Chamber Orchestra, whose next performance, “Harpsichord

Celebration,” is scheduled for October. Recent performers include pianists Brian Ganz and Marika Bournaki and eight-time Grammy winner Mark O’Connor.

The center also has two art exhibit galleries, featuring national and international artists and regional favorites. A film series features funky to high brow.

Thursday nights are reserved for local musicians to jam on bluegrass, old-time and Celtic. Workshops include water color, fiddle playing and poetry.

“Our biggest obstacle is also our biggest asset,” Morrison said. Clarke County, which sits on top of Fauquier, is one of the state’s smallest counties and quite content with its rurality. The Barns is referred to as a “best kept secret.”

That’s the Barns’ challenge—how to introduce its programs to the rest of the region.

“Our sell-outs tend to belong to fans of a particular artist like Celtic fiddler, Martin Hayes,” Morrison said. “We have people who drive from as far away as Ohio and North Carolina. Once people come, we know we’ll get them back.”

The Barns’ annual gala—its major source of support--- will stream September 5 on their website (barnsofrosehill.org). The evening will bring live music, interviews and tributes from artists. An on-line auction will run from August 1 to the gala evening.

“This is the evening that keeps us alive,” Morrison said. “The pandemic has crippled so many of the arts. All we can do is hope that music lovers will go on line and up the bids.”

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

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No Troubled Waters at Last Resort Farm

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By Anita L. Sherman

illian Waters has created her own nirvana.

Not only does it offer her a slice of serenity, but visitors will enjoy its relaxing ambiance and peaceful setting.

Located on 10 acres minutes west from Middleburg on John Mosby Highway, The Last Resort Farm has been parceled into sections reflecting her vision of a happy place she wants to share.

Waters purchased the property in 2016 and has transformed the neglected piece of land into something very special.

“I kept passing it,” said Waters who lives in Middleburg and is a realtor with Washington Fine Properties. “It was so run down. I bought it and Lillian Waters at started working on the house first.”

The Last Resort.

Waters has created a fanciful and artfully decorated Photos by Anita Sherman Airbnb from the 1924 Quaker farmhouse, complete with high-end touches like radiant floor heating and a large soaking tub in one of the two bathrooms that are handicap accessible.

“It stays pretty booked,” said Waters, a native of Albuquerque, New Mexico who has called Virginia home for decades.

“My kids call me an organized hoarder,” she said, referring to the extensive collection of world-wide antiques she’s assembled for more than 40 years.

Many are housed in her shop – Middleburg Barn Antiques – a renovated two-story barn emblazoned on the front with a large painting of a sunflower.

Inside, there are hidden gems large and small.

Prized for its marbleized texture and tasty meat, part of the property also is dedicated to Waters’ operational farm where she raises Japanese Wagyu beef.

Her small herd will leave their shelter and shade and venture across the field when they hear her whistle.

At The Last Resort a tranquil pond with a truck embellishment.

into the pond from its radiator cap.

The star of the pond is the Teak wood water warrior Buddha that sits amidst the flora and fauna that surround the aqua-colored water. For Waters, this large bold statue is a guardian of sorts for her property and a cherished part of her collection.

Adjacent to the pond are the berry fields. Rows and rows of pick-your-own blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and gooseberries offer an enticing garden of edible delights. “The berries are free,” said Waters, as is quiet strolling, fishing and berry-picking.

Waters clearly adores Virginia and the town she’s called home for eight years.

“I found my dream home in Middleburg,” she said. “To me, it’s like a beach town without the beach. It’s a wonderful community. I saw this place in such turmoil and wanted to turn it into something everyone can enjoy.”

Waters smiles broadly when talking about her dedicated sunflower garden.

“They are the large variety and about to bloom,” she said. “The sunflower is my logo…you’ve probably seen it pictured around the farm. “Like this place, it just makes me happy.”

Open on weekends and by appointment, The Last Resort Farm is located at 35748 John Mosby Highway in Middleburg. Visit www.middleburgwagyu.com or phone 540-687-4021. Visit www.middleburgbarnantiques.com or phone 540-336-7539 to schedule a visit.

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Another popular feature is a spring-fed pond filled with bass, blue gill and catfish. A comfortable dock overlooks one section where guests can cast their fishing lines. An antique 1926 Chevy truck framed in bright patches of yellow daisies anchors another end, with water spewing gaily

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

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We’re Looking After You Things have changed, but not everything is different.

Our customers still want the healthiest water possible, and we’re making sure they get it.

Our WaterCare branded products offer the right solution for your home and family’s water quality needs. Protect your home and your family by calling us for your FREE in-home water test.

And know that we’re taking extra steps to clean and disinfect all equipment.

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Tap Into A Healthier Life.

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All Aboard for Claire’s At The Depot

Claire Lamborne, as in Claire’s at the Depot in Warrenton.

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By Jodi Nash

ood idioms are ubiquitous in American language. So if you’re in a pickle and want to live high on the hog, go bananas and make it easy as pie by treating yourself to a memorable meal at Claire’s at the Depot in Warrenton.

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

Claire Lamborne, the creative genius behind this charming dining destination, didn’t start out with culinary aspirations. The second of eight children and born in Alexandria, discussions in her home were about local and national politics, not food.

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Claire’s famous she-crab soup remains a favorite, and in summer, her fresh sea bass is served with a “slightly southern flair,” with creamed corn, mustard greens, and light crispy hushpuppies. In winter, try the stuffed pork chop with a maple glaze, sweet potatoes, and braised red cabbage.

When her father died at 43, her mother, Nora, became the sole supporter, and Claire stepped up to cook for the family and help raise her younger siblings. Nora, then director of the Retail Merchants Association, ran successfully for Alexandria’s City Council, the first female council person and vice mayor. She broke glass ceilings and was a champion of underdogs, serving as a vivid example of independence and self-reliance for Claire.

A graduate of Washington’s Trinity College, Claire taught school for 14 years in Charlottesville and Fairfax. Married, with two young sons, she made a fortuitous visit one summer to the Caribbean island of Tortolla, helping a friend run an intimate eatery on Jost Van Dyke, discovering the tandem joys of cooking and island life. After a short time back in the States, she returned to the Caribbean and started fresh.

Arriving in St. Thomas at age 36, Claire, a talented seamstress, brought along her commercial sewing machine, purchased a sailboat to live on, and launched into the “canvas business,” doing sail repairs, and making boat awnings. She stayed for three seasons, gravitating into restaurant work at a big island party bar and patio restaurant, with a small kitchen.

“I knew then it was my next career” she recalled.

Returning to Virginia, she took an intensive summer course at L’Academy de Cuisine in Bethesda, then made an entrepreneurial jump with the purchase of a small restaurant in Charlottesville “where I made every mistake a first-time owner makes.”

From there it was on to San Francisco, where she helped friends open a new café, then headed back east to work for several Northern Virginia restaurants. With true culinary chops now, she returned to Charlottesville to become chef at the “Ivy Inn,” then an upscale fine dining destination.

Destiny intervened again, when Claire answered a Washington Post ad for a restaurant consultant. She came to Warrenton to help open “Legends,” where she designed the menu, was the first chef and trained the staff. Then it was on to Marshall Manor, an assisted living facility, where she worked with a dietician to prepare nutritious meals for elderly residents.

When the facility closed, management let her use their large commercial kitchen, so she started a catering business? Claire’s Catering operated for over ten years, developing a sterling reputation and clientele. She eventually bought a house on

Winchester Street in Warrenton, installing a commercial kitchen in the basement and living on the top floor.

At age 61, Claire decided “I had one more adventure left in me.”

With financing from a local bank, she bought the old train depot, opening Claire’s on Feb. 3, 2004. Her attention to detail, and years of eclectic restaurant adventure have led to sweet success.

The adrenaline rush she got as a young line chef has given way to her innovative role in design of the seasonally focused menu, changing the way food is “plated,” and keeping a watchful eye over the staff and servers.

Claire’s famous she-crab soup remains a favorite, and in summer, her fresh sea bass is served with a “slightly southern flair,” with creamed corn, mustard greens, and light crispy hushpuppies. In winter, try the stuffed pork chop with a maple glaze, sweet potatoes, and braised red cabbage.

Claire remains a spring chicken at heart, not to mention a treasured friend to her patrons One last foodie idiom: Claire’s at the Depot is clearly the cream of the crop.

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19

Farm-Fresh at Your Front Door

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By Lizzy Catherwood

ounded by Tom McDougall in 2014, 4P Foods based in Warrenton delivers local farm-fresh goods right to front doors all around the Washington area.

The 4Ps? Purpose, People, Planet, Profit.

After growing up in the Hudson Valley region of New York State and seeing suburban sprawl take over much of the pastureland, McDougall wanted to investigate humans’ relationship to the land and how we can be responsible stewards.

Shortly after graduating college, he moved to Washington and decided to begin his own journey in the world of food. McDougall connects a network of regional farms with nearby communities, including Loudoun and Fauquier counties, to ensure that everyone has access to healthy, local, and ethically-produced food.

“We aggregate food from lots of small, good, sustainable farmers in the Mid-Atlantic region, and then we created a marketplace where we then deliver that food to people all over D.C. metro region,” McDougall said in a recent radio interview.

“If we get it right, we want to make sure that the food that those farmers are producing is accessible to everybody, regardless of income or race or class or zip code.”

It all begins on Saturdays, when 4P sends subscribers a weekly newsletter listing available products, along with recipes. There are three bags, each including either produce, dairy, and protein.

Subscribers can get just one or all three, in sizes from small, medium to large. They’re priced in the $60 per bag range.

After a bag is customized, 4P alerts its network of 200 "small and mid-sized family farms" in the region as to what they need. Farmers harvest and prepare, then send the goods to 4P warehouses, including one in Warrenton. It’s then packaged and sent out for delivery on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

4P operates on a network of trust. They only partner with farms that share a vision for food that is "healthy for our environment, farmworkers, animals, and community," said Brand Manager Abbey Gleason. Each farm has its own profile on the 4P website (4PFoods.com) so clients know where those beets are coming from.

4P Foods defines Good Food as food that is transparently sourced, dense in nutrients, ethically raised, and produced with regenerative agricultural practices.

It also operates on a system that ensures farmers are fairly compensated.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently reported that American farmers only get about 12 cents of every dollar spent on food. All participating

farms get paid at a much higher rate than they would receive from a supermarket wholesaler. Recall that profit is one of the four Ps. Since the beginning, for every ten bags purchased, one bag goes to a local food pantry. 4P wants to make sure that everyone has access to good food, "no matter your zip code or economic means," said Gleason.

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, 4P partnered with Mid-Atlantic Food Resilience and Access Coalition to provide free lunches to families on SNAP/reduced lunch, or pay-what you can, at Vint Hill Dog Park in Warrenton, CK Home & Hardware in Bealeton, and Oak View National Bank in Warrenton.

For Delaplane resident Janie Banse, it was "becoming increasingly important to our family to buy our groceries locally and eat what is in season.

But it's hard to find the time to go directly to the farms to purchase our food.”

When she realized that 4P delivered right to her workplace, she was excited to give it a try.

“The food is fresh and delicious,” she said, “and the packaging is minimal and largely re-usable.”

With 4P, it’s also a 2W proposition. As in WinWin for all concerned.

For more information, email community@4pfoods.com or call 571-293-8628.

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Purchasing and consigning quality antique arms ofmedals, all types swords, knives, bayonets, uniforms, flags, belts, since 1957. Appraisers and other collectable militaria.We to the Smithsonian, thebuckles National Park Service and also thepurchase National Firearms Museum. gun and military related books, gun related Recipient of the U.S. sporting Department of the Interior’s Citation for Public Service. tools, vintage ammunition, etc. If you have any antique or collectable you want Address: to Visit our shop!military or gun items thatMailing sell please contact us for more information our Box 7 109 E. Washington St (Rt. 50) Post on Office appraisal services, consignment rates or outright sale.VA 20118 Middleburg, VA 20117 Middleburg,

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

Emmanuel Rector Recommends Putting Others First

By Emma Boyce

O

n a sweltering Sunday in July, Reverend Gene LeCouteur gathered his parishioners outside the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Middleburg to hold the first in-person church service since the rise of COVID-19.

It was a different atmosphere, one without handshakes or hugging; even Holy Communion was held for another day. Though not your usual service, nothing demonstrated the Biblical adage “love thy neighbor as thyself ” more than donning masks and maintaining a careful distance.

Since 2007

Reverend Gene LeCouteur at a recent Blessing of the Animals.

“In a lot of ways we think about going to church for healing, at least in a spiritual sense, and certainly getting COVID-19 would not be a very healing experience,” said Rev. LeCouteur, who has been experimenting with virtual services, usually shot from his phone, since the church shut its physical doors at the start of quarantine.

“Like anyone, we want to give hugs and shake hands and get close to people that we care about and we can’t. It will be hard, but we’re going to be in this for a while, so we need to cultivate patience.

“It’s about thinking of others before ourselves and our selfish wants and desires. Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself, which today translates into, I don’t want to get sick so I’m going to do whatever I can to not make you sick.”

Rev. LeCouteur hasn’t always been a man of the cloth. He’s worked in gourmet food service, made electric guitars, attended business school. Even in seminary school, he never envisioned himself as a priest until his professors, noticing his penchant for academia, urged him to obtain a Masters of Divinity.

With the help of his parishioners, Rev. LeCouteur established “First Fridays.”In a pre-COVID world, a group of parishioners would gather the first Friday of each month to make food and write cards for the homebound, ill or the others in need, both in and outside the church.

Problematic pockets of isolation that existed before COVID have only been made worse by quarantine. Rev LeCouteur encourages people to find safe ways to keep in touch with friends and family, from face-time to the antiquated written letter.

“Maybe it’s like that television show, Home Improvement,” he said. “Sit in your backyard and talk to your neighbor through the fence. Check in with people. If you know someone who is really isolated give them a call, stick a note on their door, let people know you’re thinking about them. Stop thinking about COVID, and start enjoying the breeze or the flowers in your backyard. Or take a walk with your mask on.”

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“I was really impressed by the quality of the people here and how dedicated they were to the community that surrounds the church,” he said. “This isn’t just a chapel of convenience for them.”

7-Eleven and their brands are a big part of the American culture and are recognized worldwide. The Marshall 7-Eleven is your go-to convenience store for food, beverages, money related items, fuel, general grocery items and so much more!

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In 2017, after serving nine years at St. Stephens, Rev. LeCouteur moved to Emmanuel on All Saints Day. Downsizing from a congregation of 4,500 to about 120, the change has allowed him not only to be more creative in his work, but also to form closer relationships with his parishioners.

—Joe C. Thompson Jr., 7-Eleven Founder

BEVERAGES

“It was a great place for me to stretch myself and learn from a lot of smart people,” said. Rev LeCouteur, one of six priests at St. Stephens. “I was able to take this experience to Middleburg and see what works in a smaller setting.”

YOUR HOMETOWN GO-TO CONVENIENCE STORE “Give the customers what they want, when and where they want it.”

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Before graduating, he completed a non-parish teaching internship at Virginia Commonwealth University and a parish internship at St. Stephens Episcopal Church in Richmond, one of the largest parishes in the Episcopal Church. That soon turned into the job that would eventually lead him to the priesthood.

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As a franchise owner and an active member of my community, I’m proud to be a part of the 7-Eleven and Marshall, VA story. Stop by and see us!

— Bernice Simpson

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

21

Fried Dough Is Fairly (County) Fair DIRECTIONS:

By Daniela Anderson Food Editor All around the countryside this time of year it’s “County Fair” time.

And while the annual marathons of food and fun in Fauquier, Loudoun and Clarke counties have been canceled, how about creating one in the backyard? Here’s a classic.

FRIED DOUGH INGREDIENTS:

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3 cups all purpose flour Dumbo | Photo ©Vicky Moon 1 cup of water 2.5 tsp of instant or active dry yeast 2 tsp sugar 1 tbsp salt 3 tbsp vegetable oil Powdered sugar to taste for sprinkling over the fried dough Vegetable oil for frying

Place 2 tsp sugar and 2.5 tsp instant or active dry yeast in one cup of warm water (about 110-120F). Stir and let sit for a few minutes until you see bubbles indicating the yeast is viable and active. While it’s activating, place the flour, salt and 3 tbsp vegetable oil in a mixing bowl and whisk together to incorporate.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with the handle of a wooden spoon until incorporated. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5-8 minutes so the gluten begins to develop an elastic structure within the dough. Add just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your hands while kneading. The dough should be very soft and pliable so when it hits the oil, the yeast can form large air pockets and puff up the fried dough.

Cover bowl and let rest in a warm place for 30-60 minutes or until dough has doubled. I like to place my dough in an oven with the pilot light on.

Heat 1.5 to 2 inches of vegetable oil in a skillet until it reaches 375F. You can check the temperature using a candy thermometer. Or add a small piece of dough to the hot oil and see if it fries correctly. The outside is crispy, the inside isl be chewy. The dough will not be greasy.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll out each piece so it’s just under 1/2 inch in thickness. .

Carefully place in the hot oil. The dough will puff up on top immediately.

Cook for 1-2 minutes and flip. Cook for an additional minute on the other side, remove from heat and place on plate with paper towels. Make sure the dough doesn’t become overly brown while cooking or it will be too crunchy. Adjust length of time you fry it accordingly to achieve a light golden brown color.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, syrup or any other favorite topping. Makes a dozen pieces of fried dough.

You also can use canned biscuit dough instead of making your own to make food prep even easier. Flatten each biscuit according to the recipe above and fry in the oil. Enjoy!

ReStore YOUR COMMUNITY Moving? Remodeling? Down-sizing? Before hiring a service to collect your unwanted goods, call the Fauquier Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Not only will our staff pick up large, gently used furniture, appliances, and building materials free of charge, your donation helps build a better future for local families and reduces tons of landfill waste.

Where Home Goods, Do Good.

fauquierhabitat.org 540.216.3447 • 617 Frost Avenue, Warrenton, VA 20186

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

5/11/20 5:29 PM

New Owners, Same Venerable Locke Store

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By Linda Roberts

ong a destination for locals and out-of-towners alike, the Locke Store in Clarke County may have changed hands, but its offerings and staff of 24 haven’t missed a beat. Not even the COVID crisis has managed to deter business as call-ahead orders and curbside service filled in until this Millwood foodie paradise could reopen to the public.

Known fondly as Locke’s, the little mercantile has delighted customers for the past 18 years with its made-on-the-premises menus, tasty side items, and comprehensive wine selections.

“Like everybody else, I fell in love with it and I knew I would buy it when I first saw it,” Photo by Linda Robertson said Max Emma, who with his wife, Ruth, Ruth and Max Emma, took over the business in mid-May from new owners of the former owners Juliet Mackay-Smith and Locke Store in Millwood Brian and Shauna Volmrich.

Emma, in the food industry in Northern Virginia, knew he had made the right decision when day-to-day operations were supported by the store’s customer base even when other food businesses were left floundering in the wake of the pandemic.

To understand the Locke Store’s unfailing connection within the community, take a look back at its history. In 1836, James H. Clarke built a brick store with large bay windows across the street from the Burwell-Morgan Mill in the heart of Millwood in southern Clarke County.

He started a tradition of service to the surrounding community that today remains at the core of the Locke Store’s business philosophy. In keeping with that dedication, the Locke Store operates a community board where patrons may post a monetary donation and those in need may redeem the posting for a lunch or grocery item.

A succession of owners followed Clarke until brothers Phil and Oppie Cunningham purchased the store in 1956, running a dry goods and grocery until 2002 when local resident Mackay-Smith bought the property. Word spread outside the community of Mackay-Smith’s passion for sustainable agriculture and quality, locally-sourced foods. The small store gradually became a draw for area locavores and wine lovers and a destination point for weekend travelers.

Awaiting its hungry customers is a variety of local and regional products that include eggs, meats, dairy products, fruits, vegetables and coffee. Emma estimates that half their offerings come from local providers. Meanwhile, wines from award-winning Virginia vintners and interesting international wineries fill the shelves, all excellent values.

Five chefs, Brian Volmrich, Ellie McMillen, Adam Steudler, Mindy Biddle and Susan Schade, turn out delicious lunch and dinner options, prepare catering orders, and provide the savory dinner choices available at the Locke Store’s newest addition, a small restaurant. Volmrich, formerly a chef at the Inn in Little Washington, is supplying some of the Locke Store’s produce offerings with fare from his garden.

Emma, who said local meats may be on the menu in the future, added, “you know the quality if you’re growing it.”

Adjacent to the store, The Buttery restaurant opened last year to rave reviews from customers who enjoy its prix fixe menu of farm-to-table libations served on a large, private patio. Winter months brought patrons inside to enjoy the fireplace, old log beams and handsome wooden tables.

Housed in a circa-1804 log cabin, The Buttery, whose name derives from the cabin’s former use as a place where provisions were stored for guests and travelers, has now reopened outside under guidelines for safety. The Buttery sees customers on Thursday and Friday evenings and for Sunday brunch, as well as one Saturday a month when it opens for the store’s wine club members. Emma said additional Saturday seatings also may be possible in the future.

Emma’s background includes extensive catering experience. He wants to expand that portion of the store’s business, enlarging the offerings the store already provides the community.

“Ultimately,” he added, “we want to keep things as they are; we want to preserve what is here. This is a brilliant place and it is so special.”

that run 300 years deep 1500 Crenshaw Road • Upperville, VA 20184

540.878.1476

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

23

A Retreat With Major Advances in Trauma Treatment

By Leonard Shapiro

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t began when Navy veteran and businessman Ken Falke and his wife, Julia, began inviting wounded warriors being treated for their injuries in Washington to spend a day or two at their home in Bluemont, the better to breathe some clean air and enjoy the countryside.

One day, the Falkes, now married for 35 years, happened to be hiking on a hilly ridge overlooking their property when their thoughts coalesced into a creative new idea to help America’s heroic veterans.

“We looked down and we thought we have this land and we could put some cabins down there and maybe bring their families out with them,” Julia Falke recalled. “It all went from there.”

It went from a few cabins into The Boulder Crest Retreat, a magnificent facility nestled near Mt. Weather that opened in 2013 and has grown exponentially ever since. And in 2017, after another round of fundraising and major giving by a number of donors, they opened another facility 45 minutes south of Tucson, Arizona to serve veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars living west of the Mississippi River.

In the beginning, the Bluemont facility was dealing with soldiers trying to recover from their physical injuries. A triple amputee and Houston native named Tim Brown played a critical role in helping consult in the designing of cabins that would be easy to negotiate no matter the injury.

These days, there is also an emphasis on dealing with mental health, as more is known about the effects of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on combat veterans. Both Virginia and Arizona locations offer free, short duration, high impact programs based on the science of post-traumatic growth.

“It’s all so much bigger and better than our original plan,” Julia Falke said. “We have such a great team and there are so many wonderful things happening.”

And so many wonderful people contributing.

Ken Faulke is a 21-year combat veteran of the U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) community and retired Master Chief Petty Officer. He’s also a widely respected innovative and forward thinking leader on the subjects of wounded warrior care, military and veteran transition, counterterrorism, military training, and innovative technology development.

Ken Falke’s passion involves taking care of his fellow combat veterans and their family members, and all services provided at Boulder Crest are free of charge to the 750 people a year who come out to Bluemont. He’s chairman of Boulder Crest, which remains focused on the teachings of post-traumatic growth. He’s also the co-author with Boulder Crest executive director Josh Goldberg of a

book called “Struggle Well: Thriving in the Aftermath of Trauma.”

A serial entrepreneur. Ken Falke was founder and CEO of A-T Solutions, a recognized international expert and in combating the war on terrorism. At the forefront of providing training and consulting services in the Anti- and Counter-Terrorism industry, A-T Solutions was named four consecutive years to the annual Inc. 500 fastest growing privately held companies in the U.S. He also founded Shoulder 2 Shoulder, Inc. a multimedia technology company and, before selling his share of the firm, he served as its CEO for six years.

These days, he’s also a serial fundraiser. The facilities in Bluemont and Arizona each cost between $8 and $9 million to start, with a total budget of $7 million a year to run both.

One of Boulder Crest’s main donors has been the James and Alice B. Clarke Foundation, an offshoot of the Clarke Construction company based in the Washington area.

“They asked us what we’d have to do to grow Boulder Crest,” Ken Falke said. “We said we’d love to go out west and have a facility out there. They have been very generous.”

Just like Ken and Julia Falke.

Julia and Ken Falke, Boulder Crest Retreat Founders.

Photo by Doug Gehlsen/Middleburg Photo

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

Struggle Well: Dealing With PTSD

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By Ken Falke

hen we opened Boulder Crest Retreat Virginia, we recognized that the families we were serving needed something beyond a comfortable place to stay.

There were plenty of nonprofit organizations out there with programs helping veterans so we started inviting the organizations to use our retreat center for free, hoping they would be able to offer needed help to the families we were hosting.

The programs were a mixed bag. Some were good, but some were terrible. Most were somewhere in the middle of the road. For the most part, none of what they were doing was documented in a curriculum that could scale and solve the problem.

They had some evidence to prove why it worked and how it worked, but I didn’t see a clear path on how it could solve the mental health crisis in our combat veterans. That bothered me.

I had spent two of my Navy tours as an instructor and curriculums developer. My company had trained 50,000 soldiers a year to do one of the most sophisticated tasks on the battlefield —finding and disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs)—so I had some experience in taking a program to scale.

I knew we needed to create a standardized curriculum for PTSD. It can’t be all about one person who thinks he can magically cure another in the process of searching for a program that would work.

I met (co-author) Josh Goldberg when he showed up at one of our retreats in December, 2013. We had our first extended discussion on the topic of PTSD and struggle.

We were not interested in helping one veteran, or 30, or even 300. We were willing to dedicate the remainder of our lives and every ounce of effort and energy we had if, and only if, we could work toward fundamentally solving the problems of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and suicide. To accomplish that we had to create a transformational and scalable solution.

Excerpted from “Struggle Well: Thriving in the Aftermath of Trauma” by Ken Falke and Josh Goldberg.

THOMAS & TALBOT REAL ESTATE Opening the door to Hunt Country for generations

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Rock Ridge Farm Hathaway The Plains ~ Sweeping panoramic views and grand trees surround this recently renovated, turn-key residence set on a private 90-acre estate. The home has been finished to the highest standards and features three meticulously finished levels with a modern floor plan, which includes a first-floor master bedroom suite. The location is in prime Orange County Hunt Territory. $4,350,000

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The Plains ~ Hilltop custom French Country stone manor house with magnificent views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 94+ acres. 5 BR / 6 BA. 5 fireplaces. 1st floor luxury Master Suite. Great Room opens to terrace with views, formal Living and Dining Rooms, gourmet Kitchen and paneled Library. Lower Level with Rec Room/Office and Fitness Room. 2 guest/rental houses.

22-stall center aisle barn, fenced paddocks and riding ring. Income producing farm. Easy access to I-66 & Dulles International Airport. $3,750,000

The Grange The Plains ~ Extraordinary addition and complete renovation create a classic and elegant Virginia Manor house with exquisite details throughout. 4 bedrooms and 3 ½ baths. Extensively landscaped with many places to entertain, including around the gorgeous pool with a waterfall. Outdoor kitchen with pizza oven. Attached 2-car garage, 1 BR guest house, 4-stall barn, kennel, equipment shed and paddocks on 18+ acres. Easy access to I-66, Rt. 50 and Dulles International Airport. $2,675,000

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Four Chimneys

The Plains ~ Stunning renovation offers a masterpiece of old-world charm with a sophisticated, contemporary design. The house is made up of thoughtful additions anchored by a 1700’s log cabin on 25+ rolling acres. 3 bedrooms and 3 ½ baths. Extensive landscaping created by famed garden designer Jane MacLeish. Mature trees, pool with pool house, 2-car garage, 1 BR guest house, 5-stall barn, paddocks and riding ring. Easy access to I-66, Rt. 50 and Dulles International Airport. $2,350,000

Middleburg ~ Luxurious, custom home just minutes from town. Over 6,000 sq. ft. sited on 6+ acres. 3 finished levels boast 4 BR’s & 4 full BAs. Gourmet kitchen, Breakfast area and Family Room. 2-story foyer and large Living Room, multiple fireplaces. Formal Dining Room, Library, Mudroom/Laundry complete the main level. The upstairs Master BR Suite has luxury Master BA and large walk-in closet. 2-car garage, fully fenced back yard, and 2-stall barn with 3 paddocks. High speed internet. $1,250,000

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Cannon Ridge Middleburg ~ Beautiful modified Southern Living low-country style home on 10 acres. Open floor plan, gourmet kitchen, breakfast area, family room w/fireplace, dining room. Covered rear deck. 3 BRs on the main level each have separate baths. Features Brazilian teak floors, quartz counter tops, a built-in sound system. Basement offers space for a BR, rec room, workout room, home office and/or storage. Pastoral views from every window.

Property is bound on one side by a creek and large mature trees. A fenced yard and attached 2-car garage complete the property. FIOS internet. $925,000

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201 W. Washington Middleburg ~ Rare main street commercial location in the heart of historic downtown. Two large picture windows and large glass doors shed light into 2,400 square feet of space with 10’+ ceilings. This rectangular brick front and stucco sided building offers an open interior space ready for a new owners design. Features separate Men’s & Women’s bathrooms, a utility room, and a small store room. Side access provided by a garage type door.

Plenty of parking and a large paved side lot. Zoned C2 Town Commercial for a wide variety of uses and is within the Historic District. $1,190,000

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Madison & Federal Middleburg ~ Excellent commercial investment. One commercial building that appears like two buildings which are adjoined on the corner of Madison & Federal Streets. 4 separate entrances. Zoned for mixed use with Retail & Office spaces. Parking is limited within the town for most businesses, but this building includes 7 rare parking spaces off Federal Street! Long time, active retail business in one building. Seller desires to rent back. Four other small offices are currently rented. Priced well below appraised value. Zoned C-2. $699,000

Upperville House Upperville ~ Fully renovated c. 1843 Greek Revival style home in the historic village of Upperville. 4 BR, 3 BA, Front and rear covered porches. Fully fenced yard behind with professionally landscaped gardens. 2-car detached garage and potting shed. Can be Commercial or Residential. $699,000

Cricket Bedford 540-229- 3201 Licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia

2 South Madison Street | PO Box 500 | Middleburg, VA 20118 | Office: 540-687-6500 | Fax: 540-687-8899 | thomasandtalbot.com Offers subject to errors, omissions, change of price or withdrawal without notice. Information contained herein is deemed reliable, but is not so warranted nor is it otherwise guaranteed.

BOULDER CREST PHOTOS Šdillonkeenphotography.com

Lisa Catlett and Donna Hackman

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onna Hackman and Lisa Catlett arrive at the Boulder Crest Retreat for Wounded Warriors in Bluemont just as the sun rises.

For the past five years, they have traveled from their homes in Middleburg one morning a week for nine months of the year. They often each have an assistant in tow in order to plant and maintain a distinctive secret garden on the 37acre compound.

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

The garden benches represent the five branches of the military: Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and Air Force.

The rear gate is drenched in white clematis.

A sixty-foot cutting garden, bursting with alliums, peonies and more, provides seasonal flowers for the guest cabins.

A table with umbrella offers a peaceful place.

This gazebo purposely does not contain a table that might restrict mobility. All areas are close to a nearby ramp.

Mrs. Hackman is a highly respected garden designer with dozens of completed projects that reflect her signature style of abundant hues and shades in intoxicating fragrances. Each garden is established against a creative backdrop of hardscape walls and pergolas with accents of textured trees and shrubs.

This garden incorporates low walls, broad walkways and ramps to accommodate an extraordinary group of visitors.

Mrs. Catlett is a friend and fellow horticultural devotee. The concept of their effort, which changes from year to year, is to offer a “park-like sanctuary.” It can be described as the characteristic British elegance of “never enough.”

“This is important and I’m lucky Lisa feels the same way,” Mrs. Hackman said. “Everything we do is donated.” Their work is totally volunteer and let’s just say, they are… horticultural heroines.

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

27

Carry Me BACK

A Grand National Recollection

By Jimmy Hatcher

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’m gonna’ carry you back to the 1949 Berryville Horse Show at the fairgrounds. (Yes, I was 14.)

Betty Beryl Schenk and I were at the Culpeper bicentennial celebration and we persuaded Betty’s mother to drive us to the show.

When we arrived, Dot Smithwick approached me about catch riding for a neighbor of hers—Mrs. John Hopewell nee Mrs. Crompton Smith. If that has a ring to it, she was the mother of Crompton Tommy Smith Jr., the winner of the 1965 Grand National in England as well as a bunch of Maryland Hunt Cups.

I was champion in the small hunter class that year at Berryville on a little mare named Bonte owned by Mrs. Hopewell. Bonte later became the dam of one of Olympic gold medalist Joe Fargis‘s first Grand Prix horses, Bonte II. Anyway, the next year (1950), I came back to Berryville and Mrs. Hopewell was there with her 13-year-old son, Tommy. He was showing in the big jumper division on his 13.2 pony, Golden Jane. As I remember, he was second to Cappy Smith in the knockdown-and-out class.

Well, the years went by and I moved to Middleburg from Richmond and became close friends with Tommy‘s big sister, Kitty Smith.

In a tragic riding accident, Tommy became a paraplegic, which sadly led to his early death. When Tommy was chosen to be honored by the Virginia Steeplechase Association, Kitty asked me to go with her to accept the award.

She gave the following as part of her acceptance speech.

“After winning the Grand National in 1965,” she began, “Tommy and his new wife, Frances, were heading home through Heathrow Airport when an American couple passed them. The husband stopped Tommy and said ‘aren’t you the American who won the Grand National?’ To which Tommy said ‘yes I am.’

“As the couple walked on, Tommy and Frances heard the American’s wife say, ‘That’s ridiculous. You know Elizabeth Taylor won the Grand National.’“ You can read about Tommy Smith’s Grand National triumph in the late Jane McIlvaine‘s (McLary) very fine book, “The Will to Win.” If the library is all out, you can borrow my copy!

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

A Place for Members to Call Their Own

The Middleburg Tennis Club is a full service, private, member owned club. We host members, their families, and guests in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. A wide range of services and amenities are offered to help provide optimum enjoyment of our club.

Opened in 1969, the club resides on a 10+ acre site nestled in the heart of Virginia Hunt Country, just outside historic Middleburg, Virginia. With nearly 400 memberships, MTC has a warm and friendly environment with a country casual feel.

A FAMILY FRIENDLY CLUB

NEW Social Memberships:

Full Memberships:

Reduced Initiation & Dues: Dining, Special Events, Fitness, Pool

Dining, Club House, Special Events Tennis, Fitness & Pool

TENNIS FACILITY

TENNIS PROGRAMS

6 Outdoor Har-Tru Clay Courts

USPTA Certified Tennis Director

5 U. S. Open Supreme Court Surface

USPTA Certified Head Professional

Indoor Courts with

Year-round Adult & Junior Programs & Clinics

Professional Level Lighting

USTA League Play & Inter-Club Matches

2 Outdoor Hard Courts with a Hitting Wall

Tournaments, Socials & Pro Exhibition Matches

Awarded United States Tennis Association Mid-Atlantic Section 2018 Outstanding Tennis Facility Contact: Kevin Brundle, General Manager, Middleburg Tennis Club, (540) 687-6388 ext. 101 Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

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HorseSense Feeds a Better Idea

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By Leslie VanSant

ou are what you eat is an expression that can be understood in both the literal and figurative sense.

For the last 50 years it’s become synonymous with healthy eating, natural and organic foods, less processed, foodie, gourmet and farm to table. It suggests that you will enjoy greater and better health benefits if you eat better foods made with natural and whole ingredients.

The sentiment, and larger food movement applies equally to man or beast.

It also could be the motto for HorseSense, located at the train tracks in Belvoir, near Marshall on Zulla Road. In its cozy building, perhaps once white, now cream-colored by age and dust from the nearby tracks, HorseSense offers optimum nutritional feed for horses, cats, dogs and chickens.

Step inside and meet affable Andrea Weyer Donaghy behind the counter. Sit a moment in the tidy directors chairs across from the register and she’ll share the passion for animals that underpins the feed business she started with her late husband, Karl, in 1998.

Karl was a horseman who trained and owned racehorses. Much has been written about Karl and his collaboration with Dr. Marion Jones, a premier animal nutritionist. Jones was an expert in nutrition balancing, a science that applied to commercial livestock including

hogs, sheep and cattle for 75 years with much success and science.

Donaghy convinced him to apply the science to horses, and the result was Optima.

“In commercial livestock, the feed companies can be held accountable, because you can measure the Photo by Vicky Moon results of the feed in Andrea Weyer Donaghy at the food produced by HorseSense. the animal,” Andrea explained. “Horsemen (and women) have been left out of the loop on this information because horses are not producers of commercial meat and milk, where the benefits of grain-roasting and nutrition balancing give obvious proven results.”

Andrea and Karl met more than 30 years ago in Upperville. He worked with the thoroughbreds at Blue Ridge Farm, and she rented a barn at Oakley.

“I had an older mare that I used for therapeutic riding,” Andrea began as she told the story of the day they met. The mare was hard to keep and on many supplements and “Karl suggested I try Optima because it had all of the nutrition the mare needed without trying to feed so many supplements.”

They say the way to a woman’s heart is through

her horses.

The mare thrived. A shared passion for equine nutrition and a romance started that lasted until Karl’s death in 2017. The business carries on under Andrea’s guidance today.

HorseSense grew, you might say, from a wheelbarrow where they would mix the nutrition balancer for their own horses at a mill, exponentially increasing their production capacity. The couple started selling the original HorseSense product and since have developed a line of products for horses, dogs, cats, chickens and even people. Product lines include HorseSense A and B, Safe and Sound, and MiraChrome.

HorseSense has been built on the concept that by meeting the nutritional needs of the horse you can improve performance and health. Good nutrition boosts the immune system and positively impacts soundness.

HorseSense has countless loyal customers, “converts” from traditional feeds who swear by the products.

“If you know and understand your horses,” Andrea said, “you can see the difference within three days of starting to feed HorseSense.”

HorseSense is on a modified schedule due to COVID-19.

It’s open Monday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 4294 Belvoir Road, The Plains. For more information go to horsesensenutrition.com or call 540-253-9987.

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

News and Notes From The Horse World

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arrenton Horse Show: The Warrenton Horse Show Board announced “with a heavy heart” the cancellation of the September, 2020 show. In light of the current pandemic, the board decided the prudent option would be to cancel this year’s 121st edition and channel energies into continuing to improve the show grounds in preparation for the 2021 competition.

The Labor Day tradition is a major social and sporting event and the board indicated its first priority is for the safety and well being of exhibitors, horses, staff and spectators.

Colonial Downs: Country ZEST has received word from officials at Colonial Downs in New Kent, Virginia that its 2020 Thoroughbred meeting will go on as scheduled, with provisions for a limited number of spectators in attendance for the 18-day schedule.

This year’s meeting, which opened on July 27, will be conducted on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, with first post time at 5:30 p.m.

The meeting will conclude on Wednesday, Sept. 2. All races will be televised on the TVG Network, with wagering through TVG.com and other platforms.

Under conditions established in Virginia, Colonial Downs will plan for up to 1,000 spectators to the outdoor areas of the grandstand and the track apron.

All patrons will receive temperature checks upon arrival at the facility and a six-foot social distancing policy will be enforced. Guests also are required to wear masks indoors and they are encouraged outdoors.

The daily purse distribution for this year’s meeting will be approximately $340,000 per program. “Under these difficult circumstances, we couldn’t be happier with the enthusiastic response from our horsemen in the number of stall applications received,” said Jill Byrne, Colonial Downs’ Vice President of Racing Operations.

Featuring the West Virginia Breeders Classic and the breeders classics races Marsha Hudgins is the new commissioner of the Virginia Racing Commission. Shown here at her farm in Suffolk, she was appointed by Governor Ralph Northam on May 19.

New Racing Commissioner: Marsha Hudgins, owner and CEO of Hudgins Contracting Corporation in Hampton, has been appointed commissioner of the five-person Virginia Racing Commission (VRC), joining Chairman D.G. Van Clief Jr., Vice-Chairman Stuart Siegel, J. Sargeant Reynolds, Jr., and Stephanie Nixon.

The VRC’s mission is to “promote, sustain, grow and control a native horse racing industry with pari-mutuel wagering by prescribing regulations and conditions that command and promote excellence and complete honesty and integrity in racing and wagering.”

Hudgins’ horse farm is in Suffolk and she has attended many horse shows and competitions over the years in Middleburg, Charlottesville and The Plains, among other Virginia locations. In addition to the Hampton-based business she runs — her late husband Lester started the contracting company 40 years ago — Hudgins has a degree in physical therapy and has practiced for 35 years.

Sat., October 10, 2020 Post Time 7:00 pm West Virginia Breeders Classics, Ltd. P.O. Box 1251 | Charles Town, WV 25414 www.wvbc.com | 304-725-0709 Carol Holden, President | Theresa Bitner, Exec. Sec. | Sam Huff, Chairman Emeritus

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

31

Women and the West Virginia Breeders Classic

By Vicky Moon

I

Part One

n the fall of 1986, Carol Holden and Sam Huff were riding back to Middleburg following an afternoon of racing at Laurel Park Racecourse for the first ever Maryland Million. That event was founded by broadcaster Jim McKay, a horse lover, as was Sam, at the time announcing Washington NFL games on the radio.

Photo courtesy

Susan Cooney trained Leva Mae in the 22nd running of the $125,000 West Virginia Triple Crown Nutrition Breeders Classic in 2008. Based in Boyce, her career earnings are now close to $7 million.

“On the way home, Sam asked why we couldn’t do the same in West Virginia,” recalled Carol, a lifelong horsewoman and partner of the West Virginia native and NFL Hall of Famer.

“I told him we didn’t have enough horses to do the same program,” she added. “The Maryland Million, like the Breeders Cup, is based on nominated stallions and their nominated offspring.”

At the time Carol was the administrator of the West Virginia Thoroughbred Development Fund and familiar with the horse population. Sam wanted to promote the thoroughbred industry in his home state. “ And, as you probably know, “ Carol said, “‘Can’t Do’ is not in Sam’s vocabulary.”

One year later in the fall of 1987, The West

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Virginia Breeders’ Classics (WVBC) races based in Charles Town were established. Since then, it has grown into a spectacular annual event awarding more than $28 million in purses over the years.

The 34th edition of the WVBC will take place on Saturday, October 10 at the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. Post time is 7 p.m.

Carol, now president of the West Virginia Breeders, recalled the process of launching this racing venture 34 years ago.

“We discussed opening the races to all West Virginia bred and sired horses, along with a group called “raisers”, which were horses brought into the state as weanlings and stabled there for one year,” she said. “Even including those three groups, we only had 154 horses nominated to the first year of the Classics in 1987.

As president, Carol has demonstrated how women in racing play a significant role in the sport of Thoroughbred racing. Through the years, 26 women are credited with victories as trainer. This includes Susan Cooney, who trained Leva Mae in the 22nd running of the $125,000 West Virginia Triple Crown Nutrition Breeders Classic in 2008.

For more information on the races: www.wvbc.com

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Rinsing and Gargling Can Only Help

By Leonard Shapiro

W

hile the whole wide world waits for researchers around the globe to develop a vaccine with potential to combat the current COVID-19 pandemic, a longtime and now retired local physician has some plain-spoken advice as a possible stop-gap measure.

2020

It’s called Listerine, the antiseptic mouthwash that also has a bit of local history, as well, including a tie to the late Bunny Mellon. More on that later.

Dr. Ed MacMahon, who lives near The Plains, was one of the Washington area’s pre-eminent orthopedic specialists for many years. In retirement, he’s never stopped studying science, reading medical journals and perusing the internet for information on a wide variety of medical subjects.

RACE SCHEDULE Dr. Ed MacMahon Photo by Leonard Shapiro

In recent years, he’s become an expert on scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, and in recent months, this still inquisitive 91-year-old has tried to find out as much as he can about COVID. Among a myriad of sources, he’s spent a lot of time looking at a new online medical journal website called Function that is associated with Oxford University, Dr. MacMahon has read several medical papers that make perfect sense to him. They involve the benefit of both rinsing and gargling with Listerine, first developed nearly 150 years ago.

“Any virus starts in the mouth,” Dr. MacMahon said in a recent interview.

“People who are asymptomatic are generally functioning normally. When the virus gets into the lungs, that’s where the real problem is, especially for older people. Then it becomes a tug of war between the virus and the lungs, and usually the lungs lose out.

“Some of the (Oxford) research indicates that early intervention can be critical.

You get it in the early stages and it holds up the virus and helps keep it from getting into the lungs.”

And so, Dr. MacMahon (and others) recommends an early intervention that includes first rinsing with Listerine, swishing it throughout mouth and between the teeth. After spitting out the rinse, it’s on to another mouthful, this time for gargling to help protect the upper throat, as well. And, of course, he added, it remains imperative to wear a mask, constantly wash your hands and keep socially distancing.

“I think what we’ve learned from the first wave is a cheap way of treating the second wave,” Dr. MacMahon said, emphasizing that Listerine is by no means a blanket COVID cure, but simply an effective way to help kill off some of the virus before it gets to dangerous locations in the body.

As for the local Listerine connection, Bunny Mellon’s father, pharmaceutical magnate Gerard Barnes Lambert, also was a driving force behind the advertising agency of Lambert and Feasley, which was extremely effective in promoting Listerine into a still widely-used product. Lambert purchased the Carter Hall estate in Millwood in 1930, and that’s where Bunny Mellon once lived.

Gerard Lambert later became president of Gillette Safety Razor Company and was instrumental in developing the popular Gillette Blue Blade razor. In recent years, Carter Hall also was the home of Project Hope, the nonprofit, international health and humanitarian organization that was based there from 1978 to 2018, when it was put up for sale.

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y uncle Alfred, like so many combat veterans, spoke little of his wartime experiences and left no diary. This account was written from research and family verbal history and covers his military service before and during World War II.

John Alfred Austin (Warrenton High School, 1927) and his younger brother, my father Jim (WHS, ’31), joined the Warrenton Rifles shortly when it was reformed early in 1941 in anticipation of America’s possible involvement in World War II. The Rifles were placed under the command of their uncle-in-law, Captain Lawrence Bartenstein.

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Alfred Austin, a Warrenton sailor

Part of the Virginia National Guard, the Warrenton Rifles were the local militia, with a long history dating back to the French and Indian War. In addition to providing local defense functions, it provided military training for many local citizens and was a stepping stone before moving on to join U.S. fighting forces.

Alfred and Jim quickly rose in the ranks as they demonstrated their leadership skills, eventually leaving to join the Navy and Army, respectively.

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

PT263, Alfred’s ship in World War II. Alfred resigned from the Warrenton Rifles in the fall of 1942 after being accepted into the U.S Navy’s Officer Candidate School at Dartmouth College.

Newly-commissioned Lt. (jg) Austin was assigned to the newly-launched LST263.

LSTs (Landing Ship Tanks) were general-purpose Navy cargo vessels, designed to handle large vehicles such as trucks, tanks and artillery, as well as troops and supplies. Long and narrow with a flat bottom and shallow draft, LSTs were able to run up on to the beach where their cargo could be directly offloaded.

Launched in February 1943, LST263 embarked downriver from Pittsburgh and headed for New Orleans. Training for the officers and enlisted men was on-the-job: reading the ship manuals and working under the guidance of on-board trainers.

They ferried her on the two-week voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where she was commissioned and turned over to the Navy. Following her shakedown cruise, she reported for training at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Hampton Rhodes, Virginia.

Shortly before Christmas, they left Hampton Rhodes in a convoy consisting of over 200 merchant ships, escorts, and other military vessels. Halfway through the Mediterranean, LST 263 left the convoy and departed to Naples, Italy where she spent the next few months preparing for the D-Day invasion of Southern France.

In June, Alfred was promoted to full lieutenant and took over as the commanding officer of his LST with 13 officers and over 120 enlisted men under his command. In September, they were assigned to transport the 214th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion from Corsica to Delta beach near St. Tropez, France – troops, trucks, jeeps, guns, ammunition, and supplies.

Alfred then transferred to the USS Chilton where she was refitting in the Boston Navy Yard. The Chilton was an armored transport vessel used to transfer troops, supplies, and equipment directly to the active combat beaches.

She sailed to Norfolk where Alfred took leave home to see wife Mary and young daughters Mary Sue, Pat, and Turner. The Chilton eventually hopped from one Pacific island to another. Their convey continued on throughout the South Pacific – stopping at Eniwetok, bypassing Japanese-occupied Truk, stopping at Ulithi and Palau – before arriving in Leyte in the Philippine islands.

In Leyte, as the flagship of their transport squadron, the Chilton picked up a famous passenger – war correspondent Ernie Pyle. He was a foxhole combat reporter who, in the European Theater, was embedded with combat foot-soldiers on the front lines. He lived with them, frequently in foxholes and often under fire as he interviewed the soldiers and wrote of their experiences.

Pyle was extremely popular and well-known by the troops, writing of their trials and tribulations with their names and hometowns in his articles published in newspapers and magazines throughout the U.S. Though Pyle preferred to mix with the enlisted men, VIPs were usually invited into the officer’s mess where Alfred undoubtedly had the opportunity to meet him.

Once in the Okinawan war zone, the Chilton dropped Pyle off at the island of Ie Shima and proceeded on its mission of taking out Japanese fortifications on many of the islands in the Kerama Island group.

They were strategically located southwest of the main landing zones on the west side of the island of Okinawa. In addition to having enemy artillery, there were hundreds of Japanese suicide boats hidden in caves that posed a threat to Allied ships.

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Joanne Swift Transforms Houses Into Homes

B

By Leslie VanSant

usiness proprietor. Designer.

Home-maker. Horse-woman.

Badger.

All aptly describe Joanne Swift.

Let’s start with badger. Swift was born and raised in Wisconsin.

She attended the University of Wisconsin, whose mascot is Bucky Badger, and graduated with a degree Photo by Leslie VanSant in art and design. Once a Badger, Shaggy Ram proprietor Joanne Swift. always a Badger.

Upon graduating, she set out for Europe, where she traveled and soaked up centuries of design, art and architecture. For four years, she spent her days visiting country houses, chateaux and museums. Refining her style, tastes and ideas on how to put it all together. She fell in love with the English countryside.

After a brief stint teaching art in Florida, she found her way to Vail, Colorado, about the time this sleepy hamlet in the high country was becoming “The” place to ski. There’s no place like a booming resort town to open an interior design shop. Or three.

“I had three shops,” she said, “and we did the design work for all of the original homes.”

From Vail, she moved to northern California, where she opened a design shop in wine country. And from there, it was on to Middleburg in 1988, where she opened The Shaggy Ram. Along the way, she’s helped hundreds of people turn a house into a home.

Listening to her speak about her clients, it’s clear she is a home “maker” in her design approach. She doesn’t follow trends or insist that her clients buy “this” or “that.”

“People should buy what they love,” she said.” And buy good quality items and use them.”

The Shaggy Ram offers many fine quality items for sale. Swift sources her antiques and furniture from Europe, and complements them with local artists. She recently began offering classically tailored children’s clothing (“a friend had wanted to start a small shop, so we put it together.”).

But the real magic happens in the back room of the shop, where the myriad books of fabric samples and color swatches are stacked and organized. From here, Swift helps transform spaces with color and texture. This is a full service design studio —design, installation, re-covering furniture, window treatments.

On a recent afternoon, Swift shared stories of her design work and the people she meets at the shop. She described one customer who commented about her hated every-day dishes. “I asked her why she had kept the dishes that she hated for so long,” Swift said. “She didn’t know. But she soon got rid of the dishes and replaced them with ones she loved and was happy.

“I believe everyone should love going home. You should love what you live with. I can design in any style, but my goal is to make your home comfy, cozy and warm for you.”

As an animal lover, horses in particular, Middleburg offered Swift exquisite countryside and horses beyond comparison. She splits her time between the shop and her French/English country house nestled in the rolling hills near The Plains. On her farm, she hosts equine layups, quarantines and other horse needs.

Comfy and cozy for them, too, you might say.

The Shaggy Ram and Lambkins located in Middleburg at 3 East Washington Street, Middleburg. The shop is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and on Sundays from 1-5 p.m.

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

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Grace Food Bank Also Feeds the Soul

S

By Carina Elgin

ince his arrival in 2017, the Rev. Weston Matthews, through actions and attitude, has worked to make Grace Church, the beautiful stone building on Main Street in The Plains, a true community center that is “Open to All.” Sadly, because of the current pandemic, the big red doors mostly have been closed, and the many community programs offered have been interrupted. But as hungry Photo by Carina Elgin families and the recently unemployed Volunteer Hope Laingen at Peas needed food to get through, the people of and Grace Food Bank Grace and nearby communities made sure the Peas and Grace food pantry outreach ministry was prepared to help.

Volunteer Hope Laingen moved to Marshall in early 2020, discovered Grace Church and jumped into its programs with enthusiasm, including helping with the food bank on Tuesdays.

“Nobody leaves just giving or just receiving,” she said. “Everyone feels good and passes on that sense of peace, dignity and acceptance, whether they were volunteering or picking up food.”

The public health crisis has increased the number of people in need, and has also changed the way the pantry operates. To protect volunteers, staff and visitors, the pantry is now open Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers prepare shopping bags with food in advance and bring them outside to clients.

Rick and Darlene Miller, from The Plains, give up their Saturdays to help out, feeling strongly the pantry had to be available on the weekend.

While socially distanced and masked, volunteers and pantry recipients have gotten to know each other. One appreciative regular patron said, “it’s sad that this is needed, but it’s a blessing they’re here.”

According to Micah Earle, director of the Grace Montessori School and a pantry volunteer, “As with all we do at Grace, all are always welcome. People feel it’s a safe place to come.”

Laingen added that asking for help is hard, but that people benefit from giving and receiving.

“One lady was very uncomfortable asking for help because she said she had never needed it before,” Laingen said. “She asked if we could use eggs, so now when she comes to get her food, she brings us eggs to distribute to others.”

Several patrons also pick up food for other needy recipients. One woman was delivering food to a single mother friend with three children, so that the chain of giving continues.

Earle said some pantry supporters randomly stop by to give money or donate a carload of groceries. As volunteers learn what people request, they compile a list of suggested staples. They also shop with donated money to be sure needs are met, often including more paper products and child-friendly snacks.

Fresh produce often comes from nearby Roland Farm. C and S Farmsteads, a small commercial grower new to The Plains, also brings seasonal vegetables.

Recent offerings included kale, micro greens, salads and carrots.

Peas and Grace also offers cat and dog food. Laingen knew there was a need, but said she felt awkward asking for donations for pets when humans were going hungry.

“The very next day, Middleburg Humane contacted us to see if we could use pet food, because they get so many donations,” she said. “They are very faithful in checking with us every week to see if we need more.”

As Rev. Matthews has watched the growing need for food in the community, he also has seen generosity expand. People have sent in money, specifically for the food bank, gifts are being brought to the church, and some large outreach donations have come in online.

One donor said that many years ago, his children had received scholarships from Grace, and he was now able to give back this way. In giving and in receiving, everyone benefits.

The Peas & Grace outreach ministry welcomes donations of food or money.

Mail checks to Grace (PO Box 32, The Plains VA 20198) or go online at www. gracetheplains.org.

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

Get on the Red Bus, with Gusto “W

By M.J. McAteer

e have the distinction of not being attempted before,” Brian Lichorowic says about his unique Marshall eatery, Johnny Monarch’s.

Few would dispute him.

For starters, Johnny Monarch’s is located in a red double-decker bus that looks like it could have come from London, but actually was shipped from Krakow, Poland.

Johnny’s and a second bus that dispenses wine, dubbed “the Bubble Decker,” both sit on Marshall’s main drag, near the now-defunct IGA, making for an incongruous sight in the country town.

The oddity of Johnny’s physical space is zestfully matched by its menu, also unlikely to have been attempted before, at least around here. It’s a yingyang affair and not for the timid.

Leaning down from the balcony-like window in the bus kitchen, Lichorowic likes to tell customers, “We have stuff that’s really, really good for you, and we have stuff that is really, really bad for you. No grey area.”

He explains to the uninitiated they can blow the doors off the diet by ordering say, American Pie, a concoction of ground beef, fresh herbs and spices topped by a “massive” layer of homemade mac-ncheese. Accompanied by a side of double mashed potatoes and a whoopie pie for dessert, the damage comes to a whopping 3,100 calories.

A lot of first responders, police officers and equine exercise riders go that route, he says. Or, customers

Photo by M.J. McAteer

Johnny Monarch’s co-owner Brian Lichorowic is on board as he helps a recent patron. can eat what’s good for them and order a “veetball” sub or the nut loaf.

What customers can’t have are fries, sodas, or chips. Lichorowic is against junk food; his offerings are all organic and local to the point that he keeps a small greenhouse on one corner of Johnny’s lawn. He also has commandeered part of the old IGA where he grows hydroponic vegetables for the restaurant and his associated business, Feed Bag Foods, “I can grow better than I can buy,” he says. “Our goal is to grow 70 percent of what we serve here.”

By “our,” he means he and his partner, Lorrie Addison, who designed the bus kitchen and often works as “the window passer.”

Pre-pandemic, customers could eat on the bus

upper deck, but the choice now is to eat outside at a picnic or stand-up table or do take-away.

Recent patrons Sue Lubkowski and Kerry Cornwell, both from Warrenton, were a Johnny’s first-timer and a veteran, respectively. They opted for a picnic table, and the first-timer said she was favorably impressed.

“Awesome. Delicious. Very fresh.”

“Never had a bad meal,” said Cornwell, the veteran.

Lichorowic says that’s because he’s a food “thoroughbred.”

“I’ve got six generations in me of some type of food,” he says, explaining that he grew up helping in a family restaurant in upstate New York that could seat 1,500. “I thought it was normal to clean and debone 500 chickens every Wednesday.”

Lichorowic has added to the Johnny’s fun quotient by offering entertainment on Wednesdays and Saturdasy and has installed a small wooden stage on the lawn. All musical genres--from reggae to rock to classical--are welcome.

“I don’t care if it is a kid with a bassoon, as long as there is noise.”

Lichorowic believes Marshall has the potential to become a gastronomic destination. Already, there’s his own eclectic restaurant, Red Truck Rural Bakery, The Whole Ox butcher shop and Field & Main restaurant. If they all worked together, he thinks it could happen.

Meanwhile, he’ll be serving up the Hillbilly Beans, if you’re indulging, or JM’s power salad with quinoa, if you’re not.

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Punkin’s Passionate About Middleburg

P

By James Jarvis

unkin Lee wears many hats.

First, she’s the owner of Journeymen Saddlers on West Federal Street.

Now in its 43rd year, Journeymen has taken care of the equestrian needs of casual riders, adult and child, polo players, foxhunters and horse show amateurs and professionals from all over.

“Punkin has treated every request that I’ve brought her for more than 25 years with great professionalism and Photo by Vicky Moon seriousness,” equestrienne Shannon Davis recalled. Her most recent request Punkin Lee was no different, after she found an antique brass ornament. “I wanted to do something with it, but wasn’t certain how it was meant to be used.”

Shannon and her husband, Jim Davis, renovated a barn on their property, which included a new small wood paneled bathroom. “I decided to use the ornament here and in homage to Edward Ewbank, my trainer from New Zealand.”

“With great seriousness and no change of expression, Punkin selected the perfect brass plate and font for easy readership… ‘the loo’, ” Shannon said.

Several Journeymen employees have been working there almost from the beginning. The shop includes custom riding chaps, belts with finished needlepoint, and repairs to saddles, boots, tack and strap goods. Clients have included actor Tom Selleck and actress Kate Capshaw, married to movie mogul Steven Spielberg.

Punkin grew up in Middleburg. Her grandmother, Dorothy Lee, had show horses at a barn not far from the Middleburg Community Center and later, she trained racehorses at the family farm near town. Her father, Peaches Lee, was a beloved postmaster. Her mother, Nancy, had an advertising business.

And Punkin began riding at an early age. She gathered trophies and many blue ribbons on the horse show circuit. Beyond horses, her knowledge of local history is encyclopedic.

“When I tell her about a property I might be listing for sale in the area, she’ll likely know the many owners over the years,” said Cricket Bedford, a real estate agent with Thomas and Talbot. The two women and several others run the country roads together frequently.

“She’s also one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met,” Cricket added.

“Once she finishes work at Journeyman, you’ll see her pickup truck still at the office working after hours likely on something for the town.”

Punkin is the long-time president of the Middleburg Business and Professional Association (MBPA).

“We have so many events here that bring people into town that you can always kind of hang your hat on because that will be a good weekend,” she said, adding that MBPA is using social media and word of mouth to attract people to the village. She’s encouraged that more people are starting to feel more comfortable going out.

As a business owner and third generation lifetime resident of Middleburg, Punkin remains committed to helping business owners any way possible.

She also serves as race chairman of The Virginia Fall Races, currently scheduled for October 10 at Glenwood Park. After years as the secretary of the Upperville Horse Show, she’s now on the board. And…at the National Sporting Library & Museum, she’s on the Honorary Advisory Board.

Cricket Bedford may have put it best.

“There’s not a person who cares more about our small slice of heaven we have here in Middleburg than Punkin.”

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

VIRGINIA GOLD CUP 2020 PHOTOS BY DOUG GEHLSEN MIDDLEBURG PHOTO Elizabeth Scully won her first race over fences on the Irish bred Elucidation in the $25,000 Ratings Hurdle at 2 1/8 miles over National Fences. The six-year-old gelding is trained by Cyril Murphy and owned by Irv Naylor.

Horses and jockeys take a splash during the $40,000 Steeplethon race . The three- mile contest was won

by Thomas Garner on the French bred Mercoeur owned

by Ballybristol Farm LLC and trained by Leslie Young.

The dynamic duo of co-chairmen Al Griffin and Will Allison put on a historic Gold Cup.

The $40,000 Virginia Gold Cup Timber Stakes at four miles was won by Michael Mitchell on the ten-year-old gelding Doc Cebu for trainer Jack Fisher and owners Charlie Fenwick, Michael Hankin and Charles Noell.

The winning margin was 12 ¼ lengths

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41

Country MATTERS

Prime Rural Land Slip Slidin’ Away

P

By Kevin Ramundo erhaps you remember the 1982 Simon and Garfunkel song “Slip Slidin’ Away.”

That could well describe what’s happening to farmland in Loudoun County. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Loudoun lost 20 percent of its farmland between 2002-2017. By 2040, Save Rural Loudoun estimates it will reach an alarming 50 percent based on its projection of newly-built residences in western Loudoun.

According to the Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition, over 160 rural housing subdivisions were approved since 2005 under current zoning ordinances.

When it comes to development and land use, zoning is critical. A comprehensive plan, including one Loudoun approved last year, provides general guidance on how land should be used; however, the zoning determines what developers can actually do.

A case in point is cluster zoning, perhaps the single largest future threat to Loudoun’s countryside.

About 15 years ago, the county decided to provide a cluster zoning option with the intention of protecting open space and prime farmland.

It allows developers to “cluster” homes on small lots provided 70 percent of the entire tract is kept in open space. It was a good deal for developers because they could build up to four times more homes in the rural north and 2.6 times more homes

in the rural south than base zoning allows.

Unfortunately, the goals of open space and farmland preservation were undermined by vague or lenient cluster zoning rules. It was intended but not required that subdivisions leave prime agricultural land undeveloped as part of the 70 percent openspace requirement.

Instead, houses were built on the richest agricultural lands. The steep slope and wetland areas, not easily farmed, were left undeveloped. Case in point is Miller’s Reserve near Purcellville, where 17 homes are being built on 50 percent of the tract’s prime agricultural soils.

It gets worse. Cluster zoning allows land used for roads and septic fields to count toward the open space requirement along with at least one 15-acre or larger “rural economy lot” that could be used for a single home, winery, brewery or even an event center.

Banbury Cross Reserve, a current cluster subdivision application to build 38 homes on 579 acres on the eastern edge of Middleburg, is the poster child for everything wrong with cluster developments.

With strong encouragement by preservation advocates, the county’s Board of Supervisors acted in mid-June to reduce the loss of farmland by unanimously adopting a Board Member Initiative (BMI) to tighten cluster zoning rules.

While the board deserves much credit for this action, how long it will take to implement the BMI, and what the revised zoning will actually include

remains to be seen.

Some believe the BMI should have reduced the number of houses that can be built, noting that Loudoun allows up to 2 1/2 times more houses under its clustering option than the average allowed by three neighboring counties. By itself, the current BMI is unlikely to solve the dwindling farmland problem.

Concerned citizens would be wise to write the supervisors at (BOS@loudoun.gov.) to encourage them to prioritize action on the BMI and to reduce the number of houses allowed. It’s important to pay attention to the current county zoning rewrite (https://www.loudoun.gov/5274/Zoning-OrdinanceRewrite.). Developers will be working tirelessly for favorable rules to go along with the cluster zoning.

Organizations like SRL (saveruralloudounnow. org), LCPCC (loudouncoalition.org), Piedmont Environmental Council (pecva.org) and other nonprofits are providing significant help on the zoning rewrite process.

It’s critical to let elected Loudoun officials know that open space and farmland are irreplaceable.

Not only do they contribute $1.8 billion in annual economic benefits, according to the Coalition of Loudoun Towns, they make the county so special.

Kevin Ramundo is a former communications executive who serves on the boards of Citizens for Fauquier County and Land Trust of Virginia and is active in local preservation and conservation efforts.

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

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Vineyard VIEW

Three Creeks Run Through It

By Peter Leonard-Morgan

Helping Families and Friends Honor Their Loved One The Tasting Room at Three Creeks

I

The view from the outside.

t’s always a treat to discover and review a brand new winery, and Three Creeks Winery, two miles south of Hamilton, is no exception.

Owners P.J. and John Lawrence discovered their dream property on 28 acres off Harmony Church Road in late 2017. After finalizing its purchase, they set about renovating and remodeling, planting their initial vineyard on an eight-acre section of prime south-facing slope. The land, and working farms which surround it, are in conservation easements, ensuring the local countryside will remain undeveloped and unspoiled in perpetuity.

The Lawrences met Ashton Lough, their winemaker, while studying winemaking at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Warrenton, With a Masters degree in biochemistry and molecular biology, Lough is a former head winemaker at the respected Pearmund Cellars in Broad Run and brings his skill and experience to Three Creeks to produce an excellent selection of reds and whites, plus a rosé.

The original bank barn was extensively restored and enlarged, and forms the center of customer operations, as a tasting barn full of rustic character and warmth. Reclaimed wood is everywhere, with bar tops fabricated from an ash tree on the property, as well as local oak. The tasting room tables are handcrafted from a 54-inch diameter maple tree, also from the property.

The lower level of the tasting barn includes abundant Catoctin Greenstone pulled from the vineyard, creatively used to produce an earthy setting in this working area of the building.

A delightful new deck off the tasting room provides guests with a tranquil location overlooking the three creeks to the northeast, which provided the inspiration for the winery name.. The owners set about cleaning up the creeks when they originally acquired the property, and today, bass, trout and creek chub thrive in these fresh waters.

Plantings include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Viognier and Chardonnay, which will eventually be used for estate wine production.

Meanwhile, 80 percent of the wines currently offered come from Virginia grapes purchased and custom crushed off site by Three Creeks to produce some really excellent wines.

Additionally, a state-of-the-art wine production building is currently being built, which will enable Three Creeks to expand its existing 1,500- to 2,000-case production.

The Three Creeks Wine Club offers an excellent way to enjoy its wines both at the winery and at home. To join, members simply commit to four shipments or pickups annually, each consisting of three winemaker selected bottles. In return, members enjoy access to events, post COVID, and discounts on purchases.

The property is currently open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and guests are welcome to bring their own food to enjoy with wines either in the tasting barn or a number of locations around the property, including socially distancing by the banks of the creeks.

The staff is passionately keeping customers and themselves safe during the pandemic by requiring guests to social distance, limiting groups to no more than 10 people and requiring face coverings whenever inside the tasting barn. All surfaces are sanitized following each use, as are restrooms every hour. If you’re looking to enjoy truly nice wine in an intimate local setting, take a drive to Hamilton and Three Creeks; you will not be disappointed.

Three Creeks Winery is located at 18548 Harmony Church Road in Hamilton. For more information, call 540-369-4655.

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Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

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Photo/artwork by Leonard Shapiro

Hallowed Ground at Goose Creek Bridge

By Childs Burden

“From June 9th until the 21st, 1863, there were continuous cavalry engagements of immense magnitude and with the most bloody consequences. The names of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville were raised from obscurity and made historic. These fields, especially the latter named, will figure in all times to come as the scenes of desperate cavalry fighting as the world has ever seen”.

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hose words were written by Confederate Colonel Charles O’Ferrall, who, after the Civil War, became a U.S. Congressman and later the governor of Virginia.

Some of the most famous leaders and units that served in that war fought in the fields overlooking Goose Creek and the four-arched stone bridge spanning that waterway still visible from Route 50 halfway between Middleburg and Upperville.

Among them were J.E.B. Stuart, Alfred Pleasonton, Wade Hampton, Beverly Robertson, Judson Kilpatrick, David Gregg, Hart’s Battery, Moorman’s Battery, Fuller’s Battery, Calif ’s Battery and Strong Vincent’s Brigade consisting of over 1,200 infantrymen from the Union Fifth Corps – the famed 20th Maine, 44th New York, 16th Michigan and the 83rd Pennsylvania.

believed to be marching down the Shenandoah Valley to make a second invasion of the North.

shrapnel shot exploded over one of our guns and killed all six horses, dropping them all in a heap.”

Facing Pleasonton’s cavalry was the cavalry force under Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, whose job was to delay the Union Army and ultimately prevent it from crossing into the Shenandoah Valley.

General Stuart’s stand here held the Federals at bay for over two hours and gave him time to consolidate his cavalry just east of Upperville where he again delayed the Federal advance.

The battle continued with the Federals and Confederates coming into mortal combat along the turnpike, through Upperville and along Trappe Road.

Dismounted Confederate cavalrymen from two brigades and two batteries of artillery held the hill west of the bridge. Two Federal artillery batteries, along with cavalry and infantry, held the high ground to the east of the bridge. An artillery duel raged for nearly two hours, with dreadful effect.

Those four infantry units would soon meet again atop Little Round Top at Gettysburg where they fought valiantly on July 2 while taking terrible casualties. Their heroism helped save the day for the Union Army.

Finally, a combined assault by the Federal infantry and cavalry troopers was ordered. The Federal troopers came across the bridge while the infantry attacked down the steep embankment to cross Goose Creek. The coordinated attack forced the Confederates to retire to the next high ground to the west. One of the Confederate artillerymen from Hart’s Battery recorded his thoughts after the war:

The Goose Creek stone bridge became a major choke point during the opening phase of the Battle of Upperville fought on June 21. Union General Alfred Pleasonton had been assigned the task of taking his 7,000 cavalrymen west along the Ashby Gap Turnpike to the Shenandoah Valley to report on the whereabouts of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Lee’s army was

“We crossed over Goose Creek and a fine position for artillery was occupied on the west side,” he wrote. “Our artillery practice of a converging fire was never employed with better effect. Shell after shell crashed through the enemy’s lines. For two hours the batteries on either side did their best work with the accuracy of the enemy’s fire eventually forcing us back. One

Stuart’s skilled delaying tactics produced hard-fought battles at Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville. He ultimately succeeded in preventing Pleasonton’s troopers from gaining any fruitful intelligence about Lee’s movement north toward the Potomac River. The three battles along the Ashby Gap Turnpike were both bloody and costly, producing an estimated 1,400 casualties in men and a like number in horses.

The Battle of Gettysburg would erupt just ten days after the clash at Goose Creek Bridge. Take the time and read the Civil War trail markers that have been erected along the path of these three battles.

Up until forty years ago, very little research had been made into what happened here. That has changed, due in large part to the Mosby Heritage Area Association in Atoka, a great storehouse of materials and maps that tell this remarkable history.

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NATURE OFFERS US the chance to stretch our legs and take a deep breath. Its beauty surrounds us and renews our soul. The Land Trust of Virginia is committed to working with families who want to permanently conserve their open spaces. For information and/or to support our work, go to www.landtrustva.org or call 540-687-8441.

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Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

Recalling Warrenton’s Nordix Farm

Martha Rountree, co-founder and producer of Meet the Press (1957).

W

Main house at Nordix Farm had a spacious living room, dining room, large study, kitchen and pantry on the first floor, and four bedrooms, dressing rooms and bathrooms on the second floor.

By John Toler

hen properly named, roads and streets in the Virginia Piedmont not only provide locations, but also historical perspective. One example is Nordix Drive, the main road into the Warrenton Lakes subdivision east of town.

Originally part of a royal land grant, the property was acquired in 1759 by the Edmonds family, whose holdings stretched from Warrenton to New Baltimore. Col. William Edmonds, hero of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, built the first house on his part of the tract, which he called White House Farm.

During the 1800s, there was a succession of owners, and in 1899 the farm was purchased

by Thomas Thyson (1845-1935). A group of Northern Virginia sportsmen leased the property and remodeled and enlarged the house, which they operated as the Nordix Club. Notable members included Robert C. Winmill, Reginald Vanderbilt and Samuel Willetts.

advertising executive, and his wife, Martha Rountree (1911-1999), was a pioneering newswoman. She got her start while in college in South Carolina, working for the Columbia Record, and later at the Tampa Tribune.

Rountree moved to New York in 1938 with her sister Ann, where they founded a production company that prepared radio commercials and transcribed programs. In 1945, they produced Leave it to the Girls, a call-in radio show on the Mutual Broadcasting System, and Rountree worked as a freelance editor for Lawrence Spivak’s The American Mercury magazine.

While at the Mercury, Rountree created an original radio program on the MBS called The American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press, which she co-founded with Spivak. Their new format had public figures respond to reporters’ questions about important issues - without prior preparation.

In 1947, the program moved to television on the National Broadcasting Corporation, and its name was shortened to Meet the Press, as it is still known today.

Local events were often held at the Nordix Club, including hunt meets, hunt breakfasts and horse shows. At a show in 1905, top prize winners were Mrs. F.A. B. Portman and Mrs. Richard Rice Barrett.

Rountree was a popular and frequent visitor to Warrenton, where she was the maid of honor at the 1946 wedding of Austine McDonnell and William Randolph Hearst Jr.

In 1912, Samuel Willetts bought the property, which passed to his daughter, Betty Willetts Gibb.

Subsequent owners were Cdr. and Mrs. Gregory McIntosh, Charles T. Grant and Riley Gwynn. But the last and perhaps best-remembered owners of Nordix Farm were Mr. and Mrs. Oliver M. Presbrey.

In 1953, Rountree sold her interest in Meet the Press to Spivak, but remained involved in other public affairs programs and covered major political events. She won a Peabody Award for her role as co-founder and producer of Meet the Press.

Oliver Presbrey (1908-1988) was a successful

The Presbreys lived in Maryland, and after Rountree’s departure from Meet the Press, they

wanted a country home. They purchased 226-acre Nordix Farm from Riley Gwynn in October 1953, and started renovations.

By early February, 1954, the Presbreys began furnishing the house, which included their library of 10,000 books. Another load of furniture was scheduled to be delivered, but was delayed by snow.

Disaster struck on February 12, 1954. Nordix caretaker Hermann Bragg, who lived nearby, was awakened at 3 a.m. by his wife, who had noticed a red glow coming from a basement window of the main house. Bragg tried to enter the burning house to call in the alarm, but by then the telephone lines had cut. He trekked across Lee Highway to the Warrenton Motor Lodge to use their phone, but 40 precious minutes were lost.

Fighting wind and bitter cold, firemen had to stretch 1,800 feet of hose across Lee Highway to a pond, but it was too late. They saved adjacent buildings, but the main house burned to the ground.

Determined to live in Warrenton, in June 1954 the Presbreys purchased a 285-acre farm north of town from James O. Denby. In November 1955, they received FCC authorization to build and operate WKTF-AM, a 5,000-watt radio station in Warrenton. The station was sold, and in 1960 became WKCW-AM. In April 1956, the Presbreys sold Nordix Farm to the Friendship Land and Cattle Company, which then sold the property to Warrenton Lakes Inc. Following approvals, development of Warrenton Lakes subdivision began in 1958 with the construction of new roads, including Nordix Drive.

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

47

PROPERTY Writes

“Come on in, my door is

This stunning French inspired stone and brick custom-built home has five- bedrooms

ROCK RIDGE

M

iddleburg native Cricket Bedford, a licensed realtor with Thomas & Talbot Real Estate, was the No. 1 residential sales agent in the area for total sales last year and was among the elite Top 200 Producers in all of Northern Virginia.

Her tag line is “Come on in, my door is always open.” So, for this issue of Country ZEST and Style, we’re sharing two stunning properties Ms. Bedford has listed…both with open doors.

Rock Ridge Farm at 6375 Forster Lane in The Plains is set on a hilltop with glorious vistas anchored by a 7,300 square-foot French inspired custom-built, stone and brick home. The house includes formal rooms and comfortable, open living spaces, a gourmet kitchen, and a sprawling central great room with a wall of windows framing the striking Blue Ridge Mountains.

Add to this a butler’s pantry, formal living room, and a paneled library with wet bar. This 94-plus-acre gem is in conservation easement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and features a 22-stall barn, nine paddocks and expansive training facilities. There are two additional three-bedroom homes, each located with privacy in mind for guests, staff and/or as rentals. $3.750,000.

The oversize riding and training area also includes nine paddocks

The views of the mountains beyond offer a respite

48

The kitchen includes a breakfast area

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

always open.” – Cricket Bedford

West Riding has been meticulously renovated

WEST RIDING

The kitchen incorporates high-end appliances, reclaimed pine floors, a rebuilt original double-sided fieldstone fireplace, custom cabinetry and more

This property is nestled down a secluded gravel road on 25-plus open rolling acres and includes horse facilities

West Riding at 6224 Rock Hill Mill Road in The Plains is a renovated country home with old-world charm coupled with sophisticated, contemporary design. A 1700s log cabin, with fireplace, anchors the house which includes thoughtful additions.

The stucco home offers three/four bedrooms, with a recently re-designed gourmet kitchen. The kitchen incorporates high-end appliances, reclaimed pine floors, a rebuilt original fieldstone double-sided fireplace, custom cabinetry, soapstone countertops, and a spacious work island. A large butler’s pantry off the kitchen has an additional sink, wine cooler and rear access to the pool and handsome grounds behind.

Other formal rooms include: dining room, living room and a pine-paneled library with a fireplace.

This property is nestled down a private gravel road on 25-plus open rolling acres. It includes a five-stall barn, tack room and wash stall, six paddocks with run-in sheds, an enclosed riding arena and a large equipment shed all served by a separate driveway.

West Riding is a distinctive getaway from it all in a serene setting with extensive landscaping

The setting is serene

and mature trees by the late renowned landscape designer Jane MacLeish, who also is credited for her work in Washington, D.C. at Dumbarton Oaks and at One Observatory Circle. The gardens define this property as timeless. A separate one-bedroom, onebath guest house has a full kitchen and front deck.

All listed for $ 2,350,000.

Both listings are within minutes of Middleburg, The Plains and Marshall, with easy access to Dulles airport and many other important points. Come on in and step into your new private retreat in hunt country. Cricket Bedford’s door is always open.

Since 2001, Cricket Bedford has been a licensed realtor with an annual sales record of over $10 million since 2012.

Cricket Bedford THOMAS & TALBOT REAL ESTATE 2 South Madison Street Post Office Box 500 Middleburg, Virginia 20118 THOMASANDTALBOT.COM cricket@thomasandtalbot.com 540-229-3201

Country ZEST & Style | Autumn 2020

49

Up, Up and Away With a Perfect Pilot D

By Anita Sherman

From the air | Photo by Anita Sherman

avid Brown has called Fauquier County home for more than five decades. A 50-acre family farm on Vint Hill Road has kept him rooted to the soil and love of the land. At 16, he was gifted a ride in a glider and by 17 Brown was hooked, taking lessons and earning his pilot’s license. His second home is the sky.

Retired from a 30-year career with the Virginia Department of Transportation, today Brown is living his dream, owning and operating his own company. Best of all, he gets to share his passion with others, and he gets to keep flying.

Built by Boeing in 1941, Brown’s World War II Stearman-03 biplane is 79 years young. Painted a brilliant blue with wings of yellow, the open cockpit ride is thrilling. Strap yourself in for an unforgettable ride cruising at up to 80 miles an hour.

Brown is a U.S. Air Force veteran and retired officially in July as a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Flying for more than 43 years, he has more than 30 years of flight experience in Stearman aircraft and has logged nearly 3,000 pilot-in-command hours in Stearman aircraft and approximately 10,000 take-offs and landings.

You’re definitely in good hands if you go flying with pilot David Brown and his Stearman.

“I’m very comfortable with this plane,” said Brown who, for the more adventurous, will take a few nose dives and loops for an extra thrill. Holding a commercial pilot’s license with single and multiengine aircraft ratings, Brown has an FAA Statement of Acrobatic Competency to fly low-level aerobatics in the Stearman for air shows.

Brown also is a Certified Flight Instructor and specializes in flight instruction and check-outs in Stearman aircraft as well as other tail-wheel type aircraft and warbirds.

And speaking of warbirds, in September, 2019, Brown realized a goal that had been in the planning for several years – the purchase of a T-6 Texan.

When a hangar next to his at Warrenton-Fauquier airport became available, he leased it even though he wouldn’t have the actual plane to fill it for several months after that.

“There was no way this plane was going to sit outside,” Brown said of the impressive shiny silver plane built in 1943 in Dallas and used to train pilots for air combat. “This is a flying piece of history.”

50

Pilot David Brown and his T-6 Texan.

Photo by Anita Sherman

Fewer than 1,000 of the Texans are still in use. And like the Stearman, it’s part of aviation history. Unlike the Stearman, passengers don a parachute for this ride and speeds can climb over 200 miles an hour.

The cockpit is closed, and be prepared to experience significant G force as the plane accelerates for a barrel roll.

The young cadets training as pilots not only had to learn how to navigate and fly the plane but to shoot down enemy aircraft or evade them to avoid being shot down themselves.

Brown sees a lot of former pilots climb aboard his T-6.

“These were made to teach pilots and I want for folks to have the whole experience,” said Brown.

“This is a faster plane, more complex.”

While both planes are great for sightseeing, Brown sees the Texan as more of a teaching plane for lessons.

And the vistas from above are dazzling. Fauquier County is laid out like a large tapestry of greens, yellows, browns and golds dotted with farms, houses, country bridges, waterways and hills.

Brown considers himself an ambassador for the

Go Green Middleburg | Autumn 2020

Country ZEST writer Anita Sherman gets up close and personal for her story. county. While in flight, he shares information about what’s down below, from buildings in the town, to quarries nearby, to historic farms, the railroad, lakes and beyond. From the air, on a clear day, you can see to Fairfax and Fredericksburg.

When the flight is over, it’s hard to know who is more excited, the rider or the pilot.

“I enjoy what I’m doing so much,” said Brown. “I get to share this experience with so many people…One guy comes here every month to ride in the Texan.”

For most, the experience of flying in a historic aircraft, whether you choose the Stearman or T-6 Texan, is beyond exhilarating.

“Today I’m looking up at the clouds … yesterday I was with them,” said one of Brown’s recent passengers. “And the beauty of this county is breathtaking from the air.”

To book your flight or learn more, visit www. brownsbiplanerides.com or phone David Brown at 540-219-3259. You can reach him via email at david@ brownsbiplanerides.com.

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Heronwood Upperville ~ This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to own 501 acres of breathtakingly beautiful property in the heart of Virginia’s Hunt Country. Its stunning setting with a private 18-hole golf course, world-class horse facilities, main house and tenant houses is located on renowned Rokeby Road. This property is an incomparable treasure with easy access to Washington DC and Dulles International Airport. $19,500,000

Muster Lane The Plains ~ 108 gorgeous acres, This Stately and Historic Estate with its grand rooms is in prime Orange County Hunt Territory, minutes to Middleburg. It also features a pool and pool house, 5 bay garage with office, 2 tenant houses, newly remodeled 11 stall center aisle stable with apt. & office, riding arena and exceptional ride-out to wooded trails and open pastures. $6,950,000

Deerfield Upperville ~ The farm and it’s brick manor house, ca. 1844 is a gracious Hunt Country Estate listed on both the Virginia and the National Register of Historic Places. The home has been beautifully restored and features 11 elegant and inviting rooms. Additional homes feature 2 guest houses, 2 tenant houses and a farm manager’s residence. Separate 40 acre parcel with direct access to Rt. 50 features an impressive horse facility with an indoor arena. $5,800,000

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White Oak Level Front Royal ~ Beautiful land-Great location & Incredible mountain views!!! Close to the Clarke County/Warren County Line this property features large open fields beautifully maintained in an area of large estates. Fenced paddocks with run-in sheds provide a home to 70+ horses.

Residences include the historic 3 bedroom/2 bath stone residence which dates from 1792 and a 2 bedroom tenant house. This property offers a great location, convenient to Interstate 66, Interstate 81, Route 50 and within 15 minutes of the Winchester Regional Airport. $4,589,000

Spring Hill The Plains ~ 20 acres in a charming setting, with stone walls, gardens, pastures, pond and pool. Below the guesthouse is a four stall stable with it’s own parking area and driveway. The original 1870 log cabin was expanded several times creating a very welcoming home featuring a first floor master suite, vaulted ceiling kitchen and family room each with large picture windows. This farm and its prime location, halfway between Middleburg and The Plains, provides the perfect way to social distance while being able to keep family and friends close. $2,250,000

Chilly Bleak Marshall ~ This 152 acre horse farm features beautiful open gently rolling pastures and fields in prime Orange County Hunt Territory. The historic fieldstone home dates to 1820 with later additions creating a 5 BR / 5 BA home with stone terrace and pool. Two Stables - 15 stalls and 6 stalls, Kraft Walker, 8 paddocks, 6 fields, 3 cottages. The home is perfectly sited for privacy with easy access to I-66 and Rt. 50. VOF Easement. Shared listing with Sotheby’s. $3,750,000

Stone Haven Woodville ~ Nestled on 158 acres in pristine Rappahannock County, Stonehaven offers a picturesque and tranquil retreat. Sited at the end of the private drive is the historic Stone residence, c.1791 with additional stone cottage for guests or office and tucked into the woods, beyond the home, is a charming and beautifully restored 2 bedroom log cabin. Gardens, lawn, barns, paddocks and tremendous ride out potential provide an outdoor haven. $1,695,000

Holly Hill Middleburg ~ A gracious and elegant stone manor conveniently located on 37 private acres just 2 miles from Middleburg. Historic property has been meticulously renovated with luxury finishes and tasteful upgrades throughout. Four bedrooms, 4 and a half bathrooms.

Formal dining room, large garden/family room, Ballroom, Chef’s kitchen, library, 6 fireplaces. Charming guest house, pool, 2 barns. Large exercise/art studio. Dressage arena and grass jumping arena. Beautiful gardens, ponds and views. $3,299,000 OCH hunt territory.

Zulla Road The Plains ~ Bordered by large estates, this charming country home features 5 bedrooms, 3 full and 2 half baths. Wonderful gourmet kitchen with DCS-Professional Propane Stove and breakfast bar which opens into the spacious family room. Often requested, this home features a spacious main level bedroom and second level master suite. A divided lower level provides a bedroom on one side and game room on the other. This 7.2 acre parcel also has a 4 stall barn, 2 fenced paddocks and tremendous ride out potential, OCH hunt territory. $995,000

Offers subject to errors, omissions, change of price or withdrawal without notice. Information contained herein is deemed reliable, but is not so warranted nor is it otherwise guaranteed.

During this difficult time, Thomas & Talbot Real Estate’s virtual doors remain open and we continue to show properties with social distancing in mind. Being familiar with working remotely, given the nature of our business, we will continue to provide the highest service and support in Hunt Country. This rural life has never been more desirable.

2 South Madison Street | PO Box 500 | Middleburg, VA 20118 | Office: 540-687-6500 | Fax: 540-687-8899 | thomasandtalbot.com