“We are here before the break of dawn,” Reed said. “I come in between 3 and 4 a.m. and I don’t usually leave until 5 o’clock. It’s a long day, but I’m having fun.”

Reed will be the first to admit that he has no plan to get rich from his business venture. It is labor intensive to make so many products from scratch on a daily basis, but the decision to prepare food from fresh ingredients was not a hard one.

“We are a flour, sugar and eggs bakery. We make fresh food; it is what we are about,” Reed said. “Just today, we made old-fashioned pound cake with butter, eggs, flour and sugar. That is how I learned and that is how I’ll die trying.”

For fresh-made bakery products, the prices at Father’s Table are competitive. Reed promises his customers ingredients he refers to as “the real thing:” real butter, almond paste and fruit fillings to make his products original and as fresh as possible.

“We try to keep our prices low to keep things affordable,” Reed said. “The price of food is escalating. To provide quality, food from scratch is growing expensive. The food profitability is a very small margin. It would be worth it financially to have processed food, but for me—ethically and emotionally—it is not worth it.”

Reed’s philosophy is to pursue excellence at any cost. He is looking to reduce his carbon footprint by baking from fresh ingredients and buying as much from local farmers and vendors as practically possible to avoid having products shipped.

“I just met with a salesman who suggested I start getting frozen cinnamon buns and what have you, but it just goes against my nature. I specifically ask if we can buy the closest local products available,” Reed said. “Flour might be impossible, but produce we can do. So much is shipped such long distances these days that it can be difficult, but whatever we can get our hands on, we will.”

Father’s Table bought local tomatoes through the fall and fresh Halifax melons while they were in season. Keeping up with what is available at local farms can be tedious, Reed admits, but his dedication to quality has not faltered.

Father’s Table has extended beyond the bakery since its opening. Reed and his staff serve a daily lunch buffet, a Saturday morning breakfast buffet and cater on and off-site events.

“I made the decision to start my own bakery with the equipment I had in storage and started scouting out locations about a year and a half ago. The catering side has always been,” Reed said. “We have diversified ourselves in our business. If it was just the bakery by itself, we would be out of business.”

Father’s Table Catering operated out of an off-site kitchen in Altavista for five years. Traveling from the kitchen to location and back again for each event proved wearisome for business. Opening the bakery in a centralized location has minimized the amount of travel time and maximized opportunities for the catering side of Father’s Table. Currently, they cater more than 100 events a year in addition to the demands of the bakery. Twenty-five employees, including most of his children, cover every aspect of the business.

“We have a fun time here and great people that we work with,” Reed said. “I am trying to create a team that has the same mindset and the same philosophy in pursuing excellence. I want everyone to have a sense of ownership.”

The friendly and attentive staff anticipates the needs of their customers and help to create the inviting atmosphere. As each batch of scratch-made delicacies rise in the oven, it appears that Father’s Table is well on its way on that pursuit towards excellence.

Chatham-based First Piedmont Waste Removal and Disposal is fielding roughly 200 participants for a six-month trial, as part of the company’s first foray into curbside collection, Carabae Hasson, First Piedmont’s sales and marketing manager, said. First Piedmont, which also operates a landfill and handles several other commercial recycling operations throughout Virginia, is charging $60 to cover the cost of the collection bin, but will conduct pick-ups for free.

First Piedmont’s offer has grabbed the attention of Recycle Easy, a Lynchburg-based curbside recycling business that began in 2008. Recycle Easy is currently collecting from close to 600 residences and businesses in Lynchburg, co-owner Dave Roberts said.

Like Recycle Easy, First Piedmont knows the lion’s share of the curbside pick-up interest is in the affluent 24503 area. Recycle Easy’s largest collection area is in this zip code, but they also have customers throughout the city and in Forest. First Piedmont is planning their first pick up by mid-December.

The two companies also diverge on the kinds of recyclables collected. Both companies acknowledge that glass is a financial loser to gather and, arguably, environmentally neutral. Recycle Easy, however, continues to collect glass because customers “expect it,” Roberts said.

First Piedmont said it will establish a post-pilot fee after figuring out costs in the coming months, while Recycle Easy costs $20 a month. Both companies schedule pick-ups twice monthly. For their part, Lynchburg officials have proposed curbside pick-up three times in the last 20 years but council has allocated the money. Instead, the city puts up $220,000 annually to maintain unmanned recycling centers that collected close to 15 million pounds of paper products, metal and plastic from 2008 to 2010.

Recycle Easy and the city sell recyclables to a facility in Madison Heights. First Piedmont plans to do the same. The city recoups between $50,000 and $70,000 annually, mainly from sales of metal cans and cardboard. This year, the city had to pull one set of bins from collecting after property managers at Fort Hill Village requested the move. A new spot is being negotiated with several nearby businesses, said Dave Owen, director of Lynchburg’s Public Works.

Of the 23,500 city households, the addition of First Piedmont’s numbers to Recycle Easy’s collections would account for roughly 800 households collected by January 2012. The percentage of waste recycled statewide hit an all-time high of 40 percent this year, according to a recent report from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Of the eight regional recycling rates characterized by the study, the Lynchburg area lies at the bottom with an average of 33 percent in 2010. The Richmond area finished at the top with 55 percent.

For more on First Piedmont’s pilot program, email bmcgregor@fpcwaste.com. For more on Recycle Easy, visit www.recycleeasy.com.

Located off of Lawyers Road in Lynchburg, Cycle Systems is “reshaping, recycling and renewing” ferrous (which refers to materials that have a lot of iron in them) and non-ferrous materials. Their mission states they are “committed to serving customers … to reduce waste in our communities and protect the environment for future generations.”

In 1916, Roanoke Scrap Iron was established to process renewable products. By the early 70s, the company name changed to Cycle Systems because the push to recycle was coming into vogue. Understanding the developing need to have some place to process these types of materials, the company began expanding. By 1980, this fourth generation family-owned business opened a second site in Lynchburg with just three employees. Today, Cycle Systems of Lynchburg has 55 workers. On a corporate level, there are 225 workers total among nine Virginia-based locations.

Richard Lerner, Vice President of Commercial Sales, was brought in to the Lynchburg expansion in 1972. At the time, he was working for Sun Oil in downtown Philadelphia, but when given the opportunity, he joined this environmentally conscientious company and has been with them for nearly four decades.

What comes to mind with recyclable products is often paper and plastic, but there are so many other materials often overlooked that can be converted into new products. Cycle Systems is committed to focusing on the other recyclables. Items such as metallic, automobiles, aluminum cans, copper, brass, stainless steel and lead, to name a few. When a consumer has old appliances, such as a water heater that breaks or an automobile that dies, Cycle Systems will pay the consumer to help keep it out of the city landfill. All products purchased are based upon weight.

“We do something to most everything,” Lerner said.

There is a process to recycling that typically takes between one to two weeks to complete. Approximately 12,000 tons of ferrous material is processed per month and approximately 3.5 million tons of non-ferrous material is processed through Cycle Systems on a monthly basis. Impressively, Cycle Systems completely overturns all inventory every two months. Each item is either sorted, bailed, sheered or shredded. From there, the material is loaded onto trucks or rail cars and sent to consumers. When there is no alternative, Cycle Systems will ship material overseas, but they focus domestically as much as they can to help support the U.S. economy and jobs.

When receiving new materials, it can become a variety of new products. For example, appliances get shredded. The shred can then go into soil pipe, structural steel, reinforcing re-bar, new aluminum cans, new copper pipe and wire or copper tubing. The auto industry can even use it for parts. A few notable accounts that use these recycled materials are Anheuser-Busch and Griffin Pipe.

Cycle Systems has had a steady flow of business through a difficult economy, but it is becoming more difficult to find obsolete scrap, which would be found in places such as in piles on a farmers’ land. Interestingly, theft, pawning and selling are all problems within the scrap industry. When people come to Cycle Systems, they will find a plethora of cameras and will be asked to show a driver’s license in order to sell so that the company can know  who is bringing in items.

“Law enforcement appreciates that. We are not the problem, but part of the solution and that is how we approach that,” Lerner explained. “As regulations become more strict, we have to stay on top of all those. We pride ourselves in that we try to minimize people selling stolen materials here so we get identification on everybody bringing material to us.”

Cycle Systems services the general public but their focus is primarily on industrial accounts. The optimum area to obtain material is within a 60- to 100-mile radius of each site. Cycle Systems has five buyers on the road that look for new business among industrial and commercial accounts. If they have a commercial client that has a pile of material, they have a mobile crane to assist in gathering. They will buy parts from companies going out of business and then sell those items. There is also an entire division within the company that deals in surplus industrial parts.

Cycle Systems is environmentally conscientious, which is why they do not accept liquids of any kind nor anything hazardous.

“We pride ourselves in doing what’s environmentally correct, very professionally,” Lerner said.

So, the next time you have a large appliance breakdown, toss a soft drink can into the trash or clean scrap metal from your land, rather than hopping into a pick-up truck to head to the city landfill, think about what these products can become. That newly constructed steel building down the street may just have been the automobile you once drove down that same paved r

In addition to their booth at the Community Market, the Master Gardeners run a hotline, work with five Lynchburg elementary schools, the Detention Center, Jubilee, the Boys and Girls Club and make personal visits to people’s homes to help answer questions and solve problems they have with their land.

The Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) is an educational outreach program of Virginia’s land-grant universities: Virginia Tech and Virginia State University and an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture. It exists to bring knowledge to the residents of Virginia about how to cultivate and take care of their land and contribute to the health of the environment and benefit them through many community-based programs. The Lynchburg unit of VCE was founded in the early 1970s through the federally funded Consumer Health Project. Shortly thereafter, the City of Lynchburg began contributing to the funding of the Lynchburg VCE and moved the unit to its current location in the Miller Building on Grove Street.

Earlier this year, the Lynchburg VCE partnered with Hill City Master Gardeners Association (HCMGA) to create the Home Visit Committee in an effort to better serve the community. Kevin Camm, an Extension Agent at the Lynchburg Unit, recognizes the way this committee is benefiting Lynchburg.

“[The committee] has completed almost 50 house calls and put in over 400 hours,” Camm said.

The VCE and HCMGA receive many calls weekly on a variety of topics including trees, insects, fruits, vegetables, invasive plants and turf management. In addition to these calls, which can be answered over the phone, “we get several calls weekly about certain plant problems, low production, dying off, etcetera, and it is hard to come up with what the cause could be or what a possible solution would be without seeing it. The Home Visit Committee goes out to answer those calls in person and speak with the homeowner about the situation and give them information about what to do,” Camm explained.

The Master Gardeners are very knowledgeable in all areas of horticultural and desire to educate Lynchburg residents while working to solve their problems. When making house calls, they are able to educate individuals in the community about how to properly take a soil test and send it to the Virginia Tech Soil Testing Laboratory. Camm says that soil tests can be highly beneficial to gardeners and landscapers because they provide valuable information on the content of the soil and can reveal how much lime and fertilizer needs to be added.

“When the soil test results are received back to the homeowner with information about how much lime and fertilizer is necessary to apply and at the appropriate time, nutrient run-off into surface or ground water is minimized, money is saved and plant health is optimized,” Camm said.

This is just one example of how the Master Gardeners can not only help resolve problems faced by landscapers and gardeners in the Hilly City, but can also help them be better stewards of their land and resources.

The services of the Master Gardeners are available to all Lynchburg City, Campbell and Amherst County residents and are completely free (although the Hill City Master Gardeners Association does accept donations). For any horticultural, 4-H, Agriculture, Nutrition, Training, issue, concern or question, call the Lynchburg VCE at (434) 455-3740.

But today, with energy costs only headed in one direction for the foreseeable future, officials at the college decided to give solar a second chance. Which isn’t to say that saving money was the only reason they went back.

Plenty of campuses nationwide are making a push toward “greening” buildings and student life, not only to save money, but because more students are weighing schools, in part, on how institutions address sustainability. Lynchburg College’s (LC) is currently wrapping up what has been a $4.6 million, 18-month run of green-vamping of their facilities. As part of the 21-point plan, the college focused on saving water (5.8 million toilets flushes a year saved!), installed energy-saving light bulbs and put electricity and water meters on each dorm to separately monitor usage.

LC’s solar system will service hot water for the more than 250 students. And, it should annually satisfy, in theory, 70 percent of the dorm’s hot water needs, Dave Fisher, LC’s physical plant director, said.

“If this works, we’ll do it on another building,” Fisher said.

The new system is backed up by the old electric water heaters, which will carry the hot-water-making load should the solar heater not be able to produce enough in cloudy weather.

“Those things work just as well in January as they do in July,” Ronnie Unrue, Affordable Energy Concepts’ project manager, said. “What we’re looking for is sunshine.”

The college estimates the new system should pay for itself in nine years and was financed halfway by a grant from the DuPont Foundation. LC picked up the rest of the $90,000 tab. Fisher said the system could last 30 years before it needs replacing.

Local builder David Wall’s (Wall Construction) Madison Heights-based Affordable Energy Concepts did the solar install—the company’s largest solar heater project to date. Unrue says the systems are finding a market, which is a good business to be in with the construction market still recovering sluggishly.

“One reason we got into the solar was to ring the cash register,” Unrue said. Although, he added of Wall, “He wants to do all these things and he wants to make them affordable.”

You may not remember the first solar water heating panels on Montgomery Hall because they were laid along a flat roof. But a couple of years ago, when the dorm needed roof repairs, the college decided to pitch the roof and now the system is visible, perched along the new incline.

Fisher says the system will garner attention but will not take away from the nearby aesthetics of LC’s chapel or The Dell, the college’s outdoor common ground.

“We don’t want it to be invisible,” Fisher said. “We want people to know what we’re doing.”

How the Solar Water Heater Works

Basically, the evacuated tube solar thermal water heating system works within a closed-loop like this: There are sun-ray-catching tubes mounted on the roof. The tubes have a heat pipe inside them, containing a gas that reacts to sunlight, not temperature, so the system works year-round. Those tubes magnify the sunlight roughly 1,000 times and when the gas hits its boiling point, it rises to heat a corn glycol/water mixture passing by in copper pipes. From there, the system travels to the dorm’s basement where cold city water is heated by the thermal radiation of the glycol-filled pipes. Finally, the heated water flows into a 1,000-gallon tank where it waits for somebody in the dorm to turn on the water.

When our schedules are full and we don’t have time to run to the grocery store for dinner ingredients, we often turn to food that comes in a cardboard box and is delivered within 30 minutes or less. But what if you had the option to have fresh, healthy ingredients that were hand-picked just for you? The creative minds behind Lynchburg Grows, a nonprofit urban farm located in Fort Hill, realized the advantages of readily-available, local produce and decided to turn that idea into a reality.

“Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a great way to re-invigorate the focus on buying food that is locally grown,” Aaron Lee, Operations Manager at Lynchburg Grows, explained. “Plus, it’s a great way to generate revenue that supports our mission of helping the disadvantaged in the community, while putting money directly in the pockets of the farmers that help make our CSA robust and varied. It’s also a great way to outreach into the community with, at current count, 116 people signed up to participate in our summer CSA.”

So what is a CSA, exactly? Each week, Lynchburg Grows compiles local produce, all grown within a 60-mile radius, and distributes it to the community. This keeps local fridges stocked with fresh ingredients at all times—and waistlines away from greasy takeout.

“Our CSA is truly a seasonal effort,” Lee said. “Throughout the summer, we flesh out the weekly bags with whatever we, and the other farmers we work with, are picking at the moment. Of course, each week has its share of veggies, but we also include fruits. Most weeks, customers can also count on getting one of the following: a dozen eggs, a chunk of cheese, butter or maybe even jam.”

Subscribers of the Lynchburg Grows CSA have the option of picking up their weekly lot directly at Lynchburg Grows—but they also have a partnership with AREVA and Genworth Financial where they drop off CSA shares at their offices each week to its employees.

“We do this because those businesses want to offer their employees fresh, local veggies and fruits and were able to find at least 10 employees willing to participate in the CSA,” Lee elaborated.

CSA bags can be picked up beginning Tuesday at 11 a.m. until Friday at 3 p.m., during Lynchburg Grows’ regular business hours.

But what happens to the food that doesn’t get picked up? Lynchburg Grows has a solution to that, too.

“The items not picked up are donated at the end of the week to Daily Bread or the Salvation Army,” Lee said.

This generous donation, coupled with Lynchburg Grows’ mission to aid and support those in the community with special needs, is one reason why the CSA has been so successful so far. As if that weren’t incentive enough, the CSA is also putting money back into the community.

“Last year, we put more than $15,000 in the pockets of area farmers by including their produce in our CSA. That’s the money side,” Lee said. “But, more importantly, the quality of the produce is logistically fresher when you buy it from the folks producing it in your backyard. There are a myriad of other reasons, but just knowing that, in whatever small way we are helping to keep our local agricultural heritage alive and meaningful for future generations gives the idea purpose enough.”

And it’s a purpose that Lee and Lynchburg Grows hope to maintain for years to come.

Lynchburg Grows is a nonprofit urban farm whose mission is to create job opportunities for disadvantaged and disabled people in the community. The summer CSA began in June and will last for 21 weeks. Subscriptions are $315. For more information, visit www.lynchburggrows.org

Handling over 300 tons of waste per day, the Newman family owns the largest compost facility in the Commonwealth. Ken Newman, primary owner of the farm and vice president of the company, said they did not start out as a composting business.

“We raised free range chickens but then all the chickens died so we moved onto cows but that didn’t work out either. We naturally migrated into the compost business,” Newman explained. “Getting the hogs and feeding them the old fashioned way, with bread and milk, created a turnaround of manure and sawdust. Ten years ago, we started composting that for agricultural purposes and then changed over to a solid waste composting operation.”

Three main products are produced from this operation: garden compost, top soil—a mix of compost and soil—and turf rootzone mix, a sports turf growing agent. Also made at Royal Oak Farm are an aesthetic field mix, a rain garden mix, an animal feed and other specialties. If you need a customized soil blend, they can make that for you too. Any of these products can be purchased and delivered to your business or home.

The method of making the compost is not simple.

“Everything that comes into our facility is lab tested and under contract. We then use a computer program to balance the recipe so we get the right carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of 25 to 30 carbon to one nitrogen,” Newman said of the lengthy process. “We build the wind row like a layer cake with each ingredient and, when finished, mix it with the compost turner. The rows are then monitored for temperature every day and records kept. The rows have to reach a minimum of 130 degrees for a minimum of 15 consecutive days and be turned a minimum of five times.”

At this point in the process, the compost is close to being created, but it is still far from ready to be sold to the public. In fact, the next steps are perhaps the most crucial.

“After [the rows have reached their requirements], they are tested for pathogens and heavy metals and stability. If they pass this, they then are screened at one and a half and that goes to curling where it will stay for a minimum of six months to a year, at which time it is screened again to the final size for use on its own or part of a blend,” Newman concluded.

Hoping to accomplish more than just running a successful business, Newman says that one of their end goals is to eliminate waste through education.

“We want to help the colleges and other places do a complete full circle by taking their food waste, composting it down and producing soil products and landscape materials to supply back to them,” he said.

Recently, Royal Oak Farm has been working with James Madison University, which Newman says has been very successful. In addition, they are supplying products to local golf courses, wetland projects, Liberty University and other colleges around the area.

However, these successes do not come without some challenges.

“Being the first facility in the state of Virginia was a hurdle we had to get over,” Newman said.

Another hurdle: the unpredictable weather, which is a common farm problem. Financial burden also weighs heavily on them, as the equipment used to run the business is costly. Other challenges include being monitored to follow rules and regulations and completing the lab testing and packaging of products.

The Newman family is eco-friendly in others ways as well. Recycling everything in their house, it is then composted out. They help with recycling for their county and also use fuel-efficient European equipment to run the farm.

Composting is what Royal Oak Farm does, but Newman says the most important aspect of their business is sharing their knowledge of “going green” with others locally.

“We are trying to do whatever we can to encourage education in this area. We act as an education center and provide tours. We do talks and power points to engineering companies and schools. We want to educate people to start recycling and go green,” he said. “The West Coast is ahead of the East Coast in this area and the European coast is ahead of the West Coast, so we’re behind.”

Royal Oak Farm is a unique business that is helping our area go as green as the grass their soil produces. To order products or schedule a tour, visit their Web site at www.royaloakfarmllc.com.

“I definitely don’t think the city has a trash problem,” said Hunt, who works in the city’s Communications and Marketing department. “We do have a lot of good volunteers who help make that possible. We have improved dramatically over the years.”

Lynchburg has several programs in place where volunteers and businesses alike can help keep the city clean, including the Adopt-A-Street program and the March on Litter.

“Lynchburg businesses benefit substantially by having a cleaner city in which to operate,” Hunt said. “A clean city encourages more people to come here, live here, shop here and work here. A clean city shows that we care about where we live and we care about each other.”

Lynchburg started its Adopt-A-Street program about 19 years ago, Hunt said.

“Since the City of Lynchburg isn’t under VDOT, city streets did not fall under the [state’s] Adopt program, so we started our own,” she said. “After the first couple of years, we’ve averaged between 50 and 70 adoptions.”

With the city’s Adopt-A-Street program, participants are required to adopt a minimum of a half- mile of roadway and clean it a minimum of four times per year with a two-year contract. The adopting person or group receives a sign designating the adoption, orange trash bags, safety vests, litter getters and work gloves, when available. The city picks up the filled orange bags after the clean-up is finished.

Participants may adopt a location of their choice or choose from several locations throughout the city that organizers have allocated as spots needing attention.

“People who pick up trash together have fun together,” Hunt said. “It’s a good way to build team spirit while doing something positive for the community.”

March on Litter is an annual event that occurs on the last Saturday of March. The event is sponsored by the City of Lynchburg, in partnership with CCL (Citizens for a Clean Lynchburg).

“Each year, we gather at the Lynchburg Community Market downtown and provide volunteers with a listing of littered areas to clean,” said Beverly Herndon, who works in the city’s Public Works department and oversees March on Litter. “We provide bags, litter getters, gloves, vests, giveaways and even light snacks, coffee and hot chocolate.”

Organizers have seen between 50 and 150 volunteers participate each year and have reported up to a ton of trash collected. Herndon said many of the participants are the same ones that participate in the Adopt-A-Street program.

“Businesses, as well as some volunteers, usually choose the March on Litter event as one of their required four clean-ups for the year because of all the excitement, fun and cooperation surrounding the event,” Herndon said. “It also serves in spreading awareness of the constant need for citizens’ participation in keeping the city clean.”

Wingate by Wyndham on Candlers Mountain Road has been participating in the Adopt-A-Street program for about a year as an extension of the hotel’s “green” initiative, said Brian Knopp, Director of Sales for the hotel.

“It was natural to expand that initiative with the clean-up efforts,” he said.

Annually, the hotel goes above and beyond  the city’s program and does two larger clean-ups in addition to the four required by the Adopt program. The hotel has adopted the section from the Wingate to Applebee’s. For the larger clean-ups, which continue up the mountain, the hotel partners with other businesses and organizations, such as the Circle K Club at Liberty University, the Miller Home of Lynchburg and the Liberty Godparent Home. The hotel’s next large clean-up  is scheduled for September 10.

“We try to coordinate them with local events,” such as the clean-up done April 9 before College for a Weekend, Knopp said. “It helps give visitors a good first impression of the city.”

Knopp said his vision is to expand the clean-up efforts past the roads and incorporate the trails system on the mountain.

“It’s a good idea to give back to the community, and this is one way we have found that works really well,” Knopp said. “Plus, it’s good exercise.”

The city also has a Bulk Collection program in place to help encourage people to dispose of large items properly. According to Hunt, the city used to only have two collections of big items, in the spring and the fall, which lead to people dumping old sofas and stoves in secluded areas illegally.

“With the onset of the Trash Tag system several years ago, we implemented an on-call bulk collection for residents,” Hunt said. “They called when they needed a pick-up and we picked up their bulky items. Now, residents only need to put their items out on the curb and one of our trash collectors will input the drop-site into a GIS system via a special handheld device that schedules the pick-up for later that week. Citizens that have a good way to dispose of large items quickly and conveniently are less likely to illegally dump the items, again, resulting in a cleaner city.”

To learn how to participate in the Adopt-A-Street program, call (434) 455-6087. For more information on the March on Litter, call (434) 856-CITY (2489).

“We are thrilled to have a market nearby,” Forest resident, Bette Demma, said. “The market is so important. Not only will you get freshness and quality of product but you will be supporting your local community. Also, helping to save energy costs since produce does not have to be shipped a long distance.”

Bette and her husband, Tom, are not only planning to take full advantage of the Virginia-grown fruits and vegetables, they’re gearing up to be one of the first vendors, too. The Demma’s grow salad greens, herbs and heirloom tomatoes.

“These are very rare and hard to find tomatoes because they need to be picked during peak ripeness,” Demma explained. “Not like your typical store-bought tomatoes which have a very poor flavor.”

Besides an array of fruits and veggies, there will also be local meats, honey, flowers, breads, cheeses and crafts. It’s a tall order for a first-time market, but it’s one that Dorothy McIntyre has been working on for about nine months. McIntyre lives in Forest and will also manage the new market.

“We hope to bring together the farming community and the local population and create an awareness of where food is coming from and how it is grown,” McIntyre said.

She believes that the Forest Farmers’ Market will be a big hit with residents because the area’s other two markets are so far away. The Lynchburg Community Market is a 25- minute drive and the Bedford City farmers’ market is about 20 minutes away. Forest’s market will be conveniently located in the Forest Library’s parking lot on U.S. 221.

“We hope to create a destination where people want to gather,” McIntyre said. “Bedford County put in a walking trail behind the library several months back. This, along with the market and the library are great ways to bring a sense of community to Forest.”

Originally, the idea was to have at least 10 vendors. But McIntyre says that interest has grown fast and furiously, so much so that she’ll likely be increasing that number. And the buzz continues to grow. Newspaper articles, word of mouth, even Facebook—they’re all helping to spread the word.

Forest’s Farmers’ Market is certainly starting up at the right time. Every year, more people catch on to the value of vine-ripened veggies and freshly plucked fruits. There are now dozens of markets across Virginia, all with a common goal to connect people with the farmers who grow the food they eat.

Someone who knows a thing or two about farmers’ markets is Mellenie Runion. She’s sold her homemade soaps at markets all over the state and is a regular at the Old Town Alexandria Market Square, which is thought to be the oldest, continually-operating farmers’ markets in the United States. Local farmers and artists have been selling their products there since 1753. Runion says there’s a lot that can be learned from this established, historic and bustling marketplace.

“Just like each town and city in the U.S., each farmers’ market has its own personality,” explained Runion. “It is really up to the ‘market masters’ to set the tone. It really depends on their demand from customers and their area standards.”

Runion also says it’s important for Forest market-goers to chat up the farmers and vendors. Learn their names. Ask about their growing methods. After all, they’re not just your suppliers; they’re your neighbors, too.

“I recently saw a picture of the Old Town Market in the 1880’s and it was kind of cool to see the simple exchange people have been making every Saturday morning for over 100 years,” said Runion. “Not much has changed.”

So from the oldest farmers’ market to the newest on the block, things are looking good for the big debut of the Forest Farmers’ Market.

The Forest Farmers’ Market opens its first season on April 30, with hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market plans to run through October.

But after four years as a hub for vegetarians, friends of vegetarians and folks simply looking for good food in a hip coffee house setting, Starlight is on the market.

“I came to Lynchburg with a vision of revitalizing this block on 5th Street but my commitment to be here was only five years,” Carri Sickmen, owner of the Starlight Café, explained. “It’s time for me to pass the torch and do something else.”

This unique coffee joint opened its doors on 5^th and Clay with a clear mission to serve locals, tap into area farming and food producing communities and to draw much-needed traffic to the Hill City’s downtown.  It was a tall order.  But with a tasty menu and a standout comfy-casual atmosphere, Starlight hit the spot for a lot of Lynchburgers.

“It’s your living room away from home, with a very local vibe,” Sickmen said of her efforts to create a true coffee house aura. “Great coffee and great food.”

Starlight’s coffee is roasted by Escalera Roasters, which is located just a few miles from the restaurant. Its eggs are always local. And Sickmen sources as much local produce as she can get her hands on. Sometimes that includes growing her own veggies from a courtyard garden.

“We grow several different kinds of grape tomatoes, lettuces, several herbs such as thyme, rosemary, basil, lavender and mint,” Sickmen said. “We also have two very large yielding fig trees.”

Five years ago, the courtyard garden was a gravel pit. Today, it’s a signature spot for patrons to enjoy their beverages while taking a few minutes to “smell the roses.” It also embodies a lot of what Starlight stands for.

“I allow all of my customers and neighbors to pick from the garden and we use a lot of it in our dishes in the summertime,” Sickmen said. “Passion flowers line the courtyard. It’s a really beautiful, relaxing space to have a mimosa and just hang out.”

One customer who values Starlight’s veggie options, especially the tater tots which she describes as “off the chain” (that’s a good thing), is Leah Campbell. She’s been a vegetarian for three years and has had a tough time finding a good meal amid all of Lynchburg’s chain restaurants.

“Eating out in this town is really daunting, especially after living in places where healthy and delicious vegetarian options are so readily available,” Campbell said.

Aside from the food and coffee, Campbell is also a fan of Starlight’s modern-hippie-hometown spirit.

“Starlight has a feel entirely its own, as well as the incredible ability to make people from all walks of life comfortable,” Campbell explained. “You get the feeling that you know everyone there, even if it’s not true. I love places where you get to see different kinds of people who, in general, may not agree on much but are temporarily united in their enjoyment of good food, coffee and atmosphere.”

Local musicians have also found a home in Starlight. In true coffee house form, it offers up live music from an array of artists. Bluegrass, rock and everything in between, it’s a scene that has grown in popularity over the last four years.

“I really like to play at Starlight,” Becca Mancari said. “There is something about that place at night. It’s just such a beautiful place that brings people together.”

Mancari has been entertaining music lovers at various Hill City spots for the last three years. She says venues for local artists are few and far between.

“I think that it would be a huge loss if the next owner did not share the same heart for bringing music to the community,” Mancari said. “I mean, if you build it, they will come.”

Mancari also notes that the music, the food and the coffee are all just part of the attraction. She says that as people walk through Starlight’s courtyard garden and through its front door, the world slows down a little. Folks take the time to say “hello” and play catch-up.

“Everyone is looking for a place to have the feeling like they are coming home,” Mancari expressed. “Starlight provided the space to have that comfortable feeling you get when you walk into your own kitchen.”

So after four years of showcasing local artists and giving thousands of customers their caffeine fix, Sickmen is moving on—and out of town. For someone who has developed such deep ties to the community, she says the decision was not an easy one.

“Starlight has been my baby. I joke around that I have two kids, because my daughter will be 5 in May,” Sickmen said. “When I opened Starlight, she was barely walking and she has grown up in Starlight. She really does think it’s her second home!”

Sickmen feels certain that the next owner will not let all her efforts go by the wayside and that Starlight will continue to burn bright. After all, it’s not Starbucks, but Starlight where you can enjoy a locally roasted cup of Joe and a side of tater tots!