Spring is Here!
The Hands Behind the Harvest, Spring Dishes, BEACON Kitchen's Grand Opening
During a meeting last week, a colleague remarked that the blooms of spring feel especially hopeful and compelling this year. I’ve reflected on this on my daily walks and found I couldn’t agree more. The violets that are scattered along pathways and clumping in yards, the happy daffodils. The cherry blossoms that shake off their petals in the breeze. It is just so beautiful and enthralling, to see the world around us burst with growth and life.
While I may be captivated by the magic of budbreak, for growers, this time of year is when the work ramps up. And, as the work increases, so does the demand for seasonal labor. A common-place practice among Virginia vineyards is to hire H-2A workers from Mid-March through the end of October to help tend grapes, harvest fruit, and make wine. In our Spring Issue, writer Sarah Golibart Gorman takes a us on a deep dive into the labor shortage that our wineries face and how H-2A and highschool or college programs can help.
Welcome to the Edible Blue Ridge newsletter that brings you food stories from our region and beyond. You're receiving this email because you've purchased a magazine subscription—thank you!—or you signed up via our online form. If you need to opt out at any time, there's a link at the bottom. We're glad you're here.
Thanks for reading, happy eating, and enjoy your weekend,
Lisa - Publisher & Editor
EVENTS
Have an event you’d like us to share? Email: info@edibleblueridge.com
3.29 Stone Soup at the Market - Harrisonburg
3.29 Pollinators in Your Backyard- Harrisonburg
3.30 No Kid Hungry Benefit Dinner - Charlottesville
4.05 Rockbridge Bull & Oyster Fest - Lexington
4.16-4.20 Tom Tom Festival - Charlottesville
4.12 Reclaiming Our Roots: America’s Native Food Trail in VA - Roanoke
4.19 & 4.20 Experience Easter at the Frontier Culture Museum- Staunton
FEATURED EVENT: BEACON Kitchen Grand Opening!
Charlottesville, VA – After years of planning and community involvement, BEACON Kitchen will officially open its doors on April 5 marking a major milestone in the city’s vibrant food scene. The public is invited to attend the celebration where there will be food, drinks and a live DJ.
BEACON Kitchen is more than just a commercial kitchen—it’s an incubator for new businesses, a gathering place for collaboration, and a resource hub for culinary professionals of all kinds. Whether you’re perfecting your family’s secret recipe, launching your business, or scaling an established food brand, BEACON Kitchen provides the space and equipment to bring your vision to life.
All attendees are encouraged to register for free via Eventbrite. The first 100 people to attend the after-party will receive two $5 food vouchers to use towards their meal (first come, first serve!).
Date: April 5, 2025
Location: BEACON Kitchen, 221 Carlton Rd, Unit 1, Charlottesville, VA 22902 Ribbon Cutting: 12:00pm-1:00pm
Community Block Party and Entrepreneur Showcase: 1:00pm-4:00pm
For more information about the grand opening of BEACON Kitchen, membership details, and general inquiries, please visit www.beaconkitchen.info or contact Malaika Karriem at karriempr@gmail.com.
WHAT WE’RE COOKING
POEM OF THE WEEK
Swifts By Anne Stevenson Spring comes little, a little. All April it rains. The new leaves stick in their fists; new ferns still fiddleheads. But one day the swifts are back. Face to the sun like a child You shout, 'The swifts are back!' Sure enough, bolt nocks bow to carry one sky-scyther Two hundred miles an hour across fullblown windfields. Swereee swereee. Another. And another. It's the cut air falling in shrieks on our chimneys and roofs. The next day, a fleet of high crosses cruises in ether. These are the air pilgrims, pilots of air rivers. But a shift of wing, and they're earth-skimmers, daggers Skilful in guiding the throw of themselves away from themselves. Quick flutter, a scimitar upsweep, out of danger of touch, for Earth is forbidden to them, water's forbidden to them, All air and fire, little owlish ascetics, they outfly storms, They rush to the pillars of altitude, the thermal fountains. Here is a legend of swifts, a parable — When the Great Raven bent over earth to create the birds, The swifts were ungrateful. They were small muddy things Like shoes, with long legs and short wings, So they took themselves off to the mountains to sulk. And they stayed there. 'Well,' said the Raven, after years of this, 'I will give you the sky. You can have the whole sky On condition that you give up rest.' 'Yes, yes,' screamed the swifts, 'We abhor rest. We detest the filth of growth, the sweat of sleep, Soft nests in the wet fields, slimehold of worms. Let us be free, be air!' So the Raven took their legs and bound them into their bodies. He bent their wings like boomerangs, honed them like knives. He streamlined their feathers and stripped them of velvet. Then he released them, Never to Return Inscribed on their feet and wings. And so We have swifts, though in reality, not parables but Bolts in the world's need: swift Swifts, not in punishment, not in ecstasy, simply Sleepers over oceans in the mill of the world's breathing. The grace to say they live in another firmament. A way to say the miracle will not occur, And watch the miracle. Copyright Credit: Anne Stevenson, "Swifts" from Poems 1955-2005. Copyright © 2005 by Anne Stevenson. Reprinted with the permission of Bloodaxe Books Ltd. www.bloodaxebooks.com Source: Poems 1955-2005 (Bloodaxe Books, 2005)
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I'm wanting to try that ravioli recipe!😍
Thank you for highlighting how integral immigrants are to our food systems!