photo credit: Just chaos

Come One Come All!!! The Fifth Annual Farm Food Voices Virginia will be August 2, from 2-7:30 pm in Charlottesville, Virginia.  It will  feature a showing of the movie FRESH, exciting speakers, scrumptilicious food, and lots of fellowship. Go to www.VICFA.org or call 760-5514 to learn more and register. Here is a recent interview with one of the organizers of this event!

Interview with Kathryn Russell of Majesty Farm

Q:  Kathryn,  tell us about your experiences of Farm Food Voices events in the past, and what we can expect for this year.

A:  Now, I milk cows and wrestle sheep, so event planning is not my thing.   This year we are pulling in from sourcing that normally we do not, as we are trying to reach a bigger audience to get them into the fold. Chiplotle’s, for example, is bring 600 tastings of Joel’s pork that they use.

Q:  Why should people come?

A:  Our theme this year is Eating Local – Creating a Dynamic Economic Community: where to go, how to help

We will be featuring a special screening of the new movie FRESH!

This exciting annual event brings the spotlight to current agricultural and local foods issues.  Visitors can bid on the many silent auction items donated by local businesses and producers; browse information booths and book tables; enter to win one of several amazing grand prizes; chat with local producers and business owners; and listen to dynamic speakers, including Tom Perriello, Richard Morris and Richard Bean. Senator Creigh Deeds will be at the early part of the event to say a few words about his fight for farmers and smallholders.

Culinary tastings from local restaurants and producers will highlight the availability, affordability, and flavor of local food offerings. Childcare provided.

We have inside and outside features. Local musicians will be playing, business that support local smallholders will be represented, and groups, such as Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and The Local Food Hub will have information booths to educate. A panel of great folks will be available after the movie for questions and inputs.

Q:  What will people get out of this event?

Great local farm fresh food, lots of fun, a chance to tell legislators at a state and national level their thoughts, and wonderful opportunities to learn more about our food system.

Q:  Will farm fresh foods be for sale, or will their be tastings?

A:  There will no sales at the event, except for the VICFA book table, New Trends Publishing (Sally Fallon’s book publishing company), and WAPF/VICFA/FTCLDF memberships. This event is to expose the wonder and availability of local foods, and give the opportunity for the public to network and learn.

Q:  How many people do you hope to have?

We expect around 1000 people to attend

Q:  What is the goal of the event?

A:  We want to expose the general public to current agricultural and local foods issues and show the availability, affordability, and flavor of local food offerings. It will spotlight VICFA and WAPF to try and bring more people into the fold.

Q:  How many farmers will be exhibiting?

A:  There will be only 1 farmer I believe actually having a tent—the farmers will be represented by the food that is prepared. We have many farmers donating food, and they are featured in our program. We want the farmers to come and have fun, and have people eat their food without them having to do another day of work.

Q:  What time is the screening of Fresh?

A:  The event offers the screening of FRESH as a part of the event, not the focus. towards the end. The panel discussion will be after the screening, with a coffee and dessert reception, featuring my famous local Baklava, with local walnuts, honey, butter and lemon juice (I raise hardy lemons too) We are not stating a time, because we do not have a very specific time—If thing are going on time, fine, if we are having productive fun, it may be later. Tickets for FRESH will be distributed at registration. A ticket will be required to enter the theatre, and when capacity is reached, there will be no more tickets available. What we do not want is what happened last year w/ Sally coming—we posted the time, and people showed up, brought no food, ate, listened to Sally and ran off—-not being participatory. It was quite the shock!

Q:  What is the cost?

A:  There is no admission cost. We want people to be educated and learn, and bring into the fold those that are curious but have not been really understanding. We depend on the support of the community, and each year step out in faith that the community will support us by donating to our silent auction, bidding on the auction, buying raffle tickets and books, and making donations in general. We have not yet been let down. The purpose here is not really a fund-raiser, although that is nice when we have extra money to work with-the purpose is to bring VICFA and WAPF message out to people.

Q:  Do folks have to pre-register?

A:  We prefer that people pre-register so we can see how many are coming and what food is being brought. In addition, all pre-registrants will be offered an exclusive free ticket to a special producer’s basket raffle for pre-registering. Pre-registrants will have name tags pre-printed and allowed through a special registration line.

Kathryn Russell is a farmer, wife  and mother of 8.  The family’s Majesty Farm raises eggs, poultry, lamb, chevon (goat meat) beef, herbs and specialty produce. They offer herd shares (the only legal way to obtain raw milk in Virginia is to own a share of the animal) and, like John Coles, give away their cheese (due to overly restrictive regulations in our state). Last year, the family experienced the devastating loss of a fire which burned their barn down. The cheese giveaway by their son, Caleb, is helping to raise funds to help them rebuild. She is active in the Weston A. Price Foundation, and the Virginia Independent Consumers and Farmers Association. She is also the founder of the Virginia Dairy Agisters Coalition and Shareholder Association, a fledging group designed to educate and support agister run  micro dairies in Virginia. (www.VDACS.org)

Here is an article about Kathryn in a Charlottesville newspaper.

Please visit the Majesty Farm website.