From Apple Butter to Bone Broth

A Taste of Fall in Culpeper

This week's issue may be best read after breakfast.

We begin with Kim Loescher at Carver, where the conversation runs from apple butter to bone broth and the future of local food. Then it is on to Salubria, a house with nearly three centuries behind it and new plans for welcoming visitors.

The weekend adds its own menu: words and wine on Friday, history and barbecue on Saturday, plus a few nearby places worth settling in for dinner.

Here is a taste of fall in and around Culpeper.

GATHER

Halloween at Ovoka is getting the GATHER treatment.

Ember & Mist on October 31 brings an open-fire dinner featuring Ovoka Wagyu, wine pairings, Latin jazz from Ver Azul and a long-table evening built for lingering after dark.

The setting is part of the experience, with autumn color, firelight, mist and one extraordinary Virginia landscape.

From Apple Butter to Bone Broth: How Carver Is Building a Bigger Future for Local Food

What do surplus apples, imperfect tomatoes, and a food entrepreneur's big idea have in common? At Culpeper's Carver Food Enterprise Center, they represent opportunities worth keeping close to home.

Salubria: History, preservation and what comes next

Salubria has stood since 1757, but its second floor is currently closed to visitors. A new $708,870 federal grant will address moisture, safety and accessibility over three years, with plans that could reopen that part of the house. What will it take to protect the landmark while opening more of it to the public?

Did You Know?

The Carver Food Enterprise Center is a 6,000-square-foot shared-use commercial kitchen and food business incubator based at the George Washington Carver Center in Rapidan. It gives food entrepreneurs access to commercial space, equipment and support without having to build a kitchen of their own.

Four Fall Plans: October 16-17

HQ Pick: Bald Top Brewery

Bald Top Brewing Co. sits on a historic farm in Madison with a scratch kitchen, indoor and outdoor seating, and regular live music. It works especially well when you want the outing itself to be the point, not just one stop on the way somewhere else.

Worth the Drive: Blue Door in Flint Hill

The Blue Door Kitchen & Inn in Flint Hill turns dinner into a small destination trip. Dinner is by reservation only. Chef Andrea Pace serves seasonal, Italian-leaning food on a five-acre country estate, with intimate dining rooms, a bar, a garden patio when weather permits, and four inn rooms upstairs if you decide the drive home can wait.

Pull Up a Chair

Good food is better with a few new faces around the table. Join the Culpeper HQ Dinner Club to hear about upcoming dinners and gatherings around town.

Your Fall Favorites

What is the taste, place or tradition that tells you fall has arrived in Culpeper? Tell us what you look forward to and where neighbors can find it.

What Are We Missing?

Send us the person, event, place, program or local story more people should know about.

One Last Thing

Apple butter does not happen in a hurry. Neither does helping a food business get started or caring for a house built in 1757.

That is something Kim's story and Salubria have in common: people willing to put in the work long before the rest of us arrive for a look, a taste or a visit.

The nice part is that our assignment is much simpler. Pick something good. Go see somebody. Take a little time over a meal or a conversation.

And if Saturday takes you to Hop N Hog, perhaps leave the white shirt at home.

Enjoy the week, Culpeper. There is plenty here worth making time for.

With ❤️ from Culpeper - Malinda & Tim