Buy the S&P 500 (acres)!

For those relatively few of you who don’t subscribe to Pork Magazine, (the leading periodical of porcine agribusiness), I pass along an interesting article.  It covers a study from Iowa State that compared Iowa farm acreage, as an investment, to the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index. The study’s authors conclude that the wisdom of [...]

Build it (Farm it) and They Will Come

Below is the unabbreviated copy of the article written by Edward H. Carter that appeared in Piedmont Virginian magazine. Where do we go with this?  Posited the fleece clad Bob Baldwin as he stood next to a blank whiteboard facing the fifty or so participants in the inaugural conference of the Baldwin Center for Preservation [...]

Deep Background

The Piedmont Virginian is a lovely magazine focusing on history, culture and preservation of Virginia’s rural heritage.  It’s always a good read, especially when they do the occaisional feature on Bundoran Farm or someone we know in the Charlottesville area.  This winter, Thomas Randolph has begun a fascinating new feature callled Deep Background.  In each [...]

Local Food Friend-of-Bundoran Gryffon’s Aerie

The Bundoran Farm team just visited with a friend, Collins Huff, of Gryffon’s Aerie.  Collins and his wife Ramona run one of the most remarkable grass-fed beef operations in the country, and it happens to be here in Albemarle County.  As if on cue, Collins’ visit to the Baldwin Center was presaged by a feature on [...]

Welcome to the Country

We just saw an interesting short feature on the economic impact of agritourism in Augusta County. Augusta is seeing a comeback in farm acreage, swimming against the tide of decline.  This story focused on some of the non-traditional recreational activities, some very distant from what we’d call agriculture, which are becoming essential economic engines for [...]

Trail Images

Someone just asked me for a picture from Bundoran Farm’s trail network.  I dug through the files and found a few shots from this fall on Israel Mountain, the ridgeline trail that tracks the western boundary of Edge Valley, and one looking down from the gazebo near the treeline on Tom Mountain, above Lake Scogo [...]

Cheese News Update!

In defiance of economic conditions, my wife and I recently had the opportunity to dine with some friends at Jean-Georges in New York.  The grandparents foolishly offered to host the kids overnight, and before they finished the sentence, Hillary and I were in the New York suburbs.  If you haven’t heard of JG, it’s the flagship of JG Vongerichten, quite [...]

Cheese News

I just got a chance to have lunch with Friend-of-Bundoran Andrew Morley.  Andrew is an interesting fellow who has decided to take an extended break from the world of hedge funds (whatever those are) and focus on something really exciting: artisanal cheese. During his journey through the world of artisanal cheeses, Andrew has worked and [...]

Dirt Tastings on the Cul-de-Sac

My favorite moment in publishing is the end-of-year retrospective.  The New York Times Magazine is set to publish its Year in Ideas, which this year includes Virginia’s recent action to promote connectivity in new subdivisions.  As is often the case, a very well-intentioned idea that generally promotes good planning practice is, in the context of [...]

Taking Sustainability Mainstream

Bundoran Farm was featured in the most recent issue of The Darden Report, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business’ magazine.   The article, entitled “Taking Sustainability Mainstream” highlights our overall approach to developing the property in manner that is sustainable and preserves the use and character of the land.  Joe Barnes, Bundoran Farm [...]