The Gourmet Trail of Rappahannock
39 Great Reasons To Head West

Walter Nicholls Washington Post Staff Writer  
May 17, 2000; Page F1

WASHINGTON, VA. -- When a recipe calls for gooseberries, residents of rural Rappahannock County know where to turn. In the bramble section of Goat Hill Farm, they will find the fresh berries, as well as juicy jostaberries and white and black currants. They can plan their summer menus around the farm's fingerling potatoes, heirloom tomatoes and exotic eggplant. The rest of the world needs help. So John Burns places placards along Route 211, one of the county's main thoroughfares, announcing his farm, where he sells the specialty foods he raises with organic methods.

That does the trick. Travelers on their way, perhaps, for a hike up Old Rag Mountain, down Skyline Drive, over Thornton Gap at Sperryville or underground at Luray Caverns, follow the signs. After 12 years in business, Burns is one of the most visible farmers in the county.

But he is not alone. Not anymore. Not by a long shot.

Virginia's Rappahannock has cultivated a new identity. This once sleepy, and still laid-back, diamond-shaped county that hugs the Blue Ridge Mountains south of Front Royal has enough specialty farms, orchards, wineries and restaurants to make an all-day, all-weekend culinary itinerary possible. Goat Hill Farm alone raises 16 types of rosemary and 12 types of thyme.

And there is no better time of the year than summer or autumn to visit Rappahannock, and neighboring communities, and take home the bounty.

Consider the possibilities. At Cherries On Top Orchards, 11 varieties of cherries, including the rare white Ranier and Royal Ann, will ripen over the next few weeks. In orchards where apples were harvested for more than 100 years, organic baby leeks, celeriac and radicchio grow. Still, more than 35 varieties of apples are available in the fall.

Drive south off Route 211 for log-grown shiitake mushrooms at Merymede Farm, north one mile for fresh lavender at Country Gardens (see map on pages F6 and F7).

A gourmet shopping trail may lead to Muskrat Haven for a dressed rabbit or to Rucker Farm for fresh herbes de Provence goat cheese. Picnic on a free-range egg salad sandwich and organic cider by a pond at Jordan River Farm. Sample the fresh beer at the Bardo Rodeo brewery. Eat terrific dilly beans or a brandied peach at Sunset Hills. End the day at Smokehouse Winery, a thatch-roofed log cabin on a country lane, where mead (honey wine) is made.

"People are diversifying with more alternative types of agriculture, planting more blueberries, blackberries, asparagus where all you had was beef cattle farms and apples," says Kenner Love, the county's agriculture and natural resources extension agent. According to Love, grapes are the trend to watch. More than 25 farmers have requested vineyard "site assessments" in the past year.

As far as Burns is concerned, the more farmers producing and selling premium food products, the better. With their numbers reaching a critical mass, Burns is able to stay down on the farm. "On-site sales mean I'm not three days a week trucking produce to Sutton [Place Gourmet market] and restaurants," says Burns, who is often asked for directions to other county farms for foods he doesn't sell. (Many ask for goat cheese.) "It's totally changed my marketing strategy."

For farmers, on-site sales translate into more time for chores as well as family. Agriculture advocates believe a network of small, profitable farms slows urban sprawl--a closely monitored issue in the county. A day in the country brings people to farms for a better sense of what agriculture and animals are all about. Says Burns: "When kids see 600-pound Ziggy the pig they're so happy."

The evolution has been gradual. The seed was planted and nurtured by the Inn at Little Washington, the small luxury hotel and award-winning restaurant that draws deep-pocketed patrons from the big city, Washington D.C., and beyond.

The Inn roosts, in all its glory, like a fabulous peacock at the center of the town of Washington, at the center of Rappahannock. Limos wait out front. Helicopters are required to land outside the town limits. Two years ago the Inn celebrated its 20th anniversary with the unveiling of a $5 million kitchen, bar and "living room" addition. Dinner for two can easily cost $250.

Chef and co-owner Patrick O'Connell built his reputation on a keen ability to combine fresh local and fine imported ingredients. He pairs country ham with foie gras on polenta and fresh black currants. He adds the first golden morel mushrooms of the season to the menu seconds after they arrive at the back door, seconds before guests are seated. If it was raised in Rappahannock, O'Connell knows about it.

"We have always had fabulous local eggs. But now, every month someone will come to the back door with a new product--a tiny radish, an unusual herb, Asian pears or edible flowers," says O'Connell, who often hears guests compare Rappahannock to Sonoma County in California. Sonoma, that is, a dozen years ago.

Northern California's Sonoma, a bountiful and temperate agricultural area, produces much of the specialty foods used by top San Francisco restaurants. Rappahannock's time has come.

"The farmers have become more professional. You can actually call and order something," says O'Connell. "They come in fall and winter with lists and ask what they can custom-grow."

The farm with the longest list of what's sprouting, as well as the operation that is generating Rappahannock-mega-buzz, is Sunnyside Farms, an experimental, organic farm, which has grown and now bloomed in Harris Hollow, west of the town of Washington. Free tours began this month.

David C. Cole, a venture capitalist, philanthropist, former president of America Online's Internet Services and now farmer--an agri-visionary whom no one would accuse of having fallen off a turnip truck--purchased the 432-acre property, a well-worn apple orchard and neglected 1720 stone manor house, in 1995.

Fast-forward five years. Click on: www.sunnysidefarms.com.

Now Sunnyside is a showplace of dry-stacked stone walls, herb-lined trails and irrigation ponds that spill one to the next. Farm managers sport about on three-wheel, Honda all-terrain vehicles around and through manicured fields and vegetable gardens. A team of trained, working dogs dutifully patrols the orchards to keep black bears and deer at bay.

Up one path the Dreamtime Center for Herbal Studies offers classes in native plant identification and making natural medicines. Down another free-range Leghorn fowl peck for beetles beside one of 10 "mobile chicken units."

Thus far, including the initial purchase price, Cole has spent about $7.5 million on land, barns and machinery as well as two buildings in nearby Washington. The first, known as Clopton House, will serve as Sunnyside offices. The second, known as the Mercantile, an 1835 general store with original counters and shelves, will become Sunnyside Farms Market. The grand opening is set for July 4.

For sale there: the farm's organically raised products--eggs, seven kinds of berries, more than 100 vegetable varietals and tender Kobe beef from Sunnyside's Wagyu cattle, the largest herd on the East Coast. In addition, production director Michael Randolph plans to stock premium food products from other area farms and "delicacies" such as foie gras and caviar. There will be product demonstrations and a menu of light fare.

Some locals see Sunnyside as a gilded "trophy property," an exquisite piece of land with a beautiful view, a reflection of its successful owner. "Mr. Farmer, down the street, is laughing, saying, 'How is he going to make any money,' " said an area real estate agent.

They may be surprised to learn (they can on the one-hour guided tour) that Sunnyside is a working farm with 21 employees and that Cole's "gold" is manure, tons of the stuff.

Here animals have multiple functions. Chickens produce eggs, fertilize the fields and eat beetles that are harmful to crops. At the "fourbarn," a contemporary-style structure divided into four sections, farm animals--cattle then chickens then sheep then pigs--are rotated from one pen to the next every two days. Each animal adds its own nitrogen-rich droppings to the hay bedding. Pigs play a special role.

"We use the animal as a 'pigerator' to stir the manure and the straw, to root around," says Cole with obvious pride in the process. "By turning and aerating, it goes to a higher level of microbial processing."

Where "it" goes next is to an outdoor "compost pad." Chemical reactions produce heat that kills parasites in the steaming heaps. In a month the mixture is ready to be applied to rows of newly planted and terraced cherry trees, pastures where Wagyu roam and field crops.

It appears Cole has thought of everything, every phase of what organic farmers call biodiversity. But one question remains. That would be how many day-tripping city folk will line up for a fourbarn tour, on a hot summer afternoon, with so many other Rappahannock farms, orchards, wineries and restaurants to visit?