I hope that this post finds everyone well and that you are staying cool through this very hot spell! The heat index today will be about 110 degrees, so the summer heat is certainly on. The rains have been plentiful this year at Bundoran Farm, providing good conditions for the pastures and orchards. Additionally, a small vegetable garden that we planted this year is thriving in these conditions. In fact, we presently have plenty of fresh organic cucumbers available for Bundoran Farm owners and nearby neighbors. So if you are in the area stop by the Baldwin Center and help yourself to a few. We also have a few zucchini and yellow squash available to the first few that arrive. Later in the season we will have some corn, sweet peppers, green beans and plenty of vine ripe tomatoes.

What a great way to enjoy and appreciate the bounty of the land.

Below are a few picture of our small garden and our recent harvest.

Here’s a link to the video Robyn O’Brien Video

The video is worth watching.

Design

Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards is posed to to be Central Virginia’s most comprehensive boutique winery and vineyard.  Located on Bundoran Farm and just minutes from the University of Virginia and Downtown Charlottesville, Pippin Hill Farm is envisioned as a fresh interpretation of the classic winery through expertise of a collaboration of artisans, winemakers, local farm producers and event designers.  Their design pays homage to the classic American form of farmstead house, barns and fields, and reflects on Pippin Hill and their design team’s vision for an understated structure that blends into the contours of the land, naturally enhancing the beauty of the property.

The design and construction reflects a commitment to their patrons, and equally important, to the environment.  The building incorporates a range of LEED and Green Engineering elements, including resource efficient timber and wood frame construction, cellulose insulation, geothermal heating and cooling system, rainwater harvesting and natural stone and wood finishes.

Wines and Vines

A member of the Monticello Wine Trail, Pippin Hill Farm is a boutique-scale operation defined by their signature wine production.  At its most basic level, their operational philosophy is to preserve and protect the rural agrarian nature of the farm environs.  Their five-acre vineyard is planted with Savignon Blanc, Petit Verdot, and Viognier varietals.  They will supplement their grapes with others from their co-op farm partners through a lease of their vineyard production.

Pippin Hill’s winemaking aims for quality and requires a high level of personal skill, experience and commitment.  It is structured as a unique partnership with recognized winemaker, Michael Shaps with Virginia Wineworks, utilizing their ‘custom crush’ production services for the range of Pippin Hill wines.  Custom crushing is an innovative process that allows individuals, grape growers and wineries to capitalize on an established winemaker’s facility and expertise to create distinctive wines for their own brands.

Pippin Hill sources all of their grapes regionally from Virginia’s finest vineyards.  For their premiere year, they are offering a range of wines including Chardonnay, Viognier, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Meritage blends and seasonal sparkling Blanc de Blanc and Rose Wines.

Pippin Hill’s Tasting Room is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM and features wine tastings and food pairings with the wines. Group tastings are available by appointment, in their Wine Bar Loft.

Here’s a link to a news clip that appeared on the local NBC affiliate about the opening of the Pippin Hill Farm and Vineyards  - “Finishing Touches for Pippin Hill’s Opening”

The only thing that has come close to this quality of eggs are the one-half dozen eggs we received each week when we belonged to a local CSA – Community Support Agriculture.  The color and taste can’t be beat.  How I would love to have some chickens in my own yard for both the quality of the fresh eggs and to provide my sons with some of the experiences I enjoyed as a kid.

If you are in the same mind frame I’m in, have no fear.  I recently ran across this website/blog , Chicken Coops Plans.  It contains almost everything you would want to know about building a chicken coop and raising chickens for personal use and enjoyment.

Several residents and owners at Bundoran Farm have expressed an interest in having a few chickens around their house.  I can’t wait to see this happen.  It would be a great addition to this Charlottesville Va real estate.  Not only is it 100% compatible with the overall vision for Bundoran Farm, I look forward to swinging by in the morning, helping them gather their eggs and perhaps even enjoying and nice sunny-side up egg breakfast.

In addition to providing an overview of the project vision and a brief history of the property, Hay goes on to describe how the vision is being fully realized as development activity proceeds.

“When you enter Bundoran Farm, you will see cattle grazing peacefully on acres of pasture and cattails swaying gently around the ponds. Gravel farm roads cross gurgling streams on well-constructed bridges with timber railings, and meander off into the woodlands. Tasteful wooden road signs mark the routes at each fork in the road. It is difficult to believe that you are actually in a residential development – a preservation development – and at the same time, on working farm.

Using the Tillman House built by Maple Ridge Group as an example, Hay also goes in great detail how the homes are designed and built in an environmentally friendly manner. All house built at Bundoran Farm are required to meet EarthCraft standards, the green building standard for residential construction in Virginia.

“Homeowners are encouraged to build homes with a scale and style that complement the landscape of the region. An example is the Tillman House. It is designed by Russell Versaci, one of the several architects and design professional in the Bundoran Farm Guild.

The site plan for the Tillman house was designed to protect and nurture the land. Non-permeable surfaces such as asphalt driveways were avoided to prevent runoff. Instead, permeable surfaces create a rain garden, keeping the rainfall on the property.

During construction, Maple Ridge implemented a recycling program for all the debris created in the process. Steve Nicholson, Maple Ridge’s managing partner, added that their company-preferred building practice exceeds the demand of the EarthCraft standards.”

Hay concludes the article by speaking with Fred Scott whose family stewarded the Bundoran Farm land since the 1940’s. “Scott feels that he has place his family homestead in good hand and insured its future.”

Virginia Sportsman Magazine – June – July 2010

First, there is a conviction among the developers that, if properly integrated (or insulated), farming in its various forms need not be extinguished when residential uses are introduced.

Second, and more important, the residents of these communities have made the determination that, in 2010, a working farm adjacent to their homes is an amenity, not a nuisance.   This is a remarkable shift from even ten years ago, when a residential amenity was fairly well understood to be a golf course or a pool.

At the Baldwin Center, we try to track and understand, at least in broad strokes, the many approaches currently underway (the article mentions a hundred projects) to pair residential uses with productive uses of rural lands.  It is clear, from this article and others, that we are in the midst of a moment of incredible innovation and change in two businesses: agriculture and land development.  How these many models succeed and fall short over the next decade will likely be a critical contribution to our discussion on the future of rural land.  Stay tuned.

Over 150 people attended this Forum to learn about everything from the latest trends in specialty crops, how to use social networking as a marketing tool, how to direct market a product, to new innovations in the Mid-Atlantic region.  There were also panel discussions on innovative uses of large acreage tracts, and folks presenting successful projects around the region. 

These types of workshops are incredibly useful to both established farmers as well as people that are contemplating a new agricultural venture.  The lessons learned can help direct someone into growing a particular crop, using new and more efficient tools, and learning from other people’s mistakes.  For us working on Bundoran Farm, not only do we have an opportunity to be exposed to and learn about innovative programs that we may what to explore here on our property, but we also great to meet and rub elbows with others who care as much as us about preserving productive agriculture lands.  Its great networking opportunity for people to establish new connections.  And to top it all off, a wonderful lunch was served that featured products from local farmers!

This Forum was co hosted by the Offices of Agricultural Economic Development and Cooperative Extension in Clarke, Fauquier, Frederick and Loudoun Counties, Virginia, Berkeley and Jefferson Counties, West Virginia, Potomac Headwaters and Shenandoah RC & D, Virginia Cooperative Extension and WVU Extension.

I love watching the young calves romp around.  They remind me of large puppies, make me smile and probably lower my blood pressure too.

By means of a short poll, we came up with a list of some of the top things to do in, and with, the snow at Bundoran Farm. 

• Take your sled out of your attic and pretend you are on the Olympic luge team as you glide across the pastures and by the orchards.
• Make what you think is the world’s biggest snowman with your friends, kids and/or grandkids. If you are really ambitious and creative, you can make a snow cow too. 
• Watch the shadows grow across the snow covered pastures as the morning rises in the east, shrink during the day, and grow long again as the sun sets in the west over the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
• Drive, ride and/or walk on the Bundoran Farm roads that, due to the diligent efforts of the farm management team, are plowed well in advance of surrounding roads.
• Enjoy time with your neighbors next to a warm fire, over a hearty homemade stew made with fresh ingredients from one of the many local “farm to table” sources, with a nice bottle of wine from a nearby vineyard.
• Marvel in the nearly heroic efforts of the farmers to keep their cattle well feed with the hay they cut and put up the previous summer.
• Listen to the serene, almost “sounds of silence’, interrupted by the babbling of a nearby stream, the call of a far off bird or the whistle of the wind passing through the branches of the hardwoods.
• Discover and follow the tracks in the snow created by abundant wildlife that inhabits this protected landscape or make new tracks in the virgin snow for someone else to discover and follow.
• Sit back, relax and ponder the beauty of it all and relish in the realization that this is your place and your time with a way of life on a land that works.

Please let us know what you think we should add to the list by e-mailing us at info@bundoranfarm.com.