MADE IN VIRGINIA Archives

The American Windsor

On the Eastern Shore, the Lewins carve, bend and paint so folks can sit in comfort Kurt Lewin pulls the drawknife toward himself, and oak shavings fall to the floor. He alters the angle and pulls again. Thousands of times a day he will…

A River Of Chips

Mount Jackson, Virginia – Inside a beige cinderblock building half an hour from Harrisonburg up I-81, 15,000 pounds of potatoes a day thunder down a stainless steel chute and through a chamber where they’re tossed by an auger, knocking off farm soil that is then captured and reused as topsoil for Route 11 Potato Chip employees.…

Rooted in the Shore

In Chatham’s vines, centuries of tradition come together. There is a minerality to these Eastern Shore wines, a hint of slate and granite and the shells of creatures tossed ashore by the long-ago meteor that cratered out the Chesapeake Bay and scrambled the soil. There is salinity – from the wind or the Bay or…

Ain’t It Grand

Small restaurant. Big taste. So worth the wait. Steve Marsh holds an octopus by its head cavity and lowers its body into boiling water, blanching the legs to make them tender before he cuts them off and cooks them sous vide in olive oil. Later he’ll throw each on the grill for a quick char…

Farming Of The Future

Inside an arched and insulated 60-foot-long building down a dirt road behind Hunt Club Farm in southern Virginia Beach, 8,000 heads of lettuce grow in what its owners call a “plant spa.” John Pierce and Jacob Gold shuffle their feet through a low tray of disinfectant before entering a control room where a computer controls…