Growing the Local Food Movement in Greater Richmond
Welcome to Real Local RVA’s blog! Here you will find entries from the Executive Director, Leadership Board and guest bloggers. This blog will focus on farms, farmer’s markets, restaurants, groceries, food vendors and producers. We will work to keep you informed on all the local food events and news in our community.
If you have any questions, comments or possible topics please email us . We would love to hear from you!
Real Local RVA’s September Meeting
Marketing on a Shoestring
with The Apple Cart
Monday’s meeting was full of great marketing information for small businesses on a limited budget. Barb Upchurch and Stephanie Ganz of The Apple Cart are experts in the local food world and have helped many small start-ups get off the ground. Their best advice when thinking about your marketing plan? HAVE ONE. The biggest hurdle for most small businesses to jump is to actually commit to making a marketing plan, but they stressed this is an invaluable resource for the success of a company.
[Read more…] about Real Local RVA’s September Meeting
Real Local RVA’s August Meeting
UVA’s Sustainable Food Strategy Task Force
with Dr. Kristina Weaver
In August we welcomed Dr. Kristina Weaver, Associate Director of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation at UVA. Dr. Weaver provided an overview of the work of the Sustainable Food Strategy Task Force by walking us through their brand new Annual Report. The Task Force was created in 2016, and meet on a monthly basis to work through the tough challenges of sustainability at a larger institution.
Monday’s meeting at Hardywood Richmond was full of insightful information into how land conservation works, and what our local land conservation organization is doing to protect both our lands and waterways for future generations. Parker Agelasto joined the CRLC in 2015 as their Executive Director and has made a huge impact in just three short years.
Real Local RVA’s June Meeting
RVA Women in Food
with the B side Collective
June’s meeting was one of our favorites to date. For those of you who missed it, we welcomed Courtney Mailey of Blue Bee Cider, Hannah Pollack of Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, Erin Powell of Ginger Juice, and Amy Hicks of Amy’s Garden. These ladies, along with many other women entrepreneurs from the RVA food community, were featured in the new B side Collective issue. A beautifully crafted publication, the B side did an amazing job of highlighting women in our buzzing local food scene. [Read more…] about Real Local RVA’s June Meeting
On a raining evening in early May we partnered with The Savory Grain and Fine Creek Brewing Company to serve a locally sourced beer paring dinner out at the beautiful Fine Creek taproom. The talented chefs from The Savory Grain did all of our local ingredients more than justice and the beer pairings from Fine Creek Brewing with each course were delicious. The meal highlighted food from many local producers and Real Local RVA members paired with locally crafted beer. The dinner also included a special beer brewed with AR’s Hot Honey. Ingredient sources included a variety of local producers including: Adelaide Hills Farm, Broadfork Farm, Casselmonte Farm, Westover Farm, Shalom Farms, Harlow Ridge Farm, Goat’s R Us cheese, Urban Choice Mushroom Farm, Rudy’s Mushrooms, and and more! [Read more…] about Local Collaboration Dinner @ Fine Creek Brewing with The Savory Grain
This month we were excited to hear from Slow Money Central VA. This chapter of Slow Money was formed in 2018 by Michael Reilly and Hunter Hopcroft with a mission to support the financial needs of small farms and other food entrepreneurs in the region surrounding the cities of Richmond and Charlottesville. Slow money works to gather the financial resources of citizens who want to make an impact on their local food system and turns those resources into loans for farmers who need capital. Farms are small businesses, and small businesses need capital to grow and thrive. Co-founder Michael Reilly provided such great insight into the challenges small farms face and the importance of supporting them. We also enjoyed delicious vegan/gluten free strawberry cupcakes from PastryBase, and coffee from the Cafe @ St. Stephens.
[Read more…] about May Membership Meeting
