Cooperative Living/May 2015

As I travel south-west on Route360, leaving the

Middle Peninsula for theoutskirts of Richmond, Ipass an endless streamof fast-food restaurantsand strip malls, and thensuddenly, to my left, Isee a happily paintedschool bus announcingitself as “The Farm Bus.”Pulling up beside it, Ifind myself in front ofyet another oddity: afarm market in themidst of Richmond.

The Farm to FamilyMarket is not exactly anew kid on the block,though. Started after thecreation of the Farm Busin 2009, this little opera-tion seeks to connect city dwellers with locally produced food.

“I started this with the idea of supporting small localfarms,” says Farm Bus founder and Richmond native Mark

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Lilly. The core of hisoperation isn’t reallythe market, but a community-supported agriculture(CSA) direct-sales entity that serves ahandful of customersin Richmond and some 250 in theWashington, D.C.,metro area.

Originally, Lilly andhis wife, Suzi Miles-Lilly, used The FarmBus to make fooddeliveries to CSA customers, thoughthey use it mainly now for educationalpurposes, visiting localschools to teach kidsabout agriculture. “I

bought the school bus off of Craigslist,” Lilly says. “It startedout as nothing more than me trying to create a sustainable-food business.”

STORIES FROM THE ROAD

A trip through Richmond on Route 360 provides a foodie’s farm-to-table tour and a Civil War buff ’s dream destination.

Story and photos byDeborah Huso,

Contributing Writer

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Local Food & Battle Lore

Mark Lilly and the farm bus. Mark and his wife Suzi Miles-Lilly originally used the busto make deliveries to community-supported agriculture customers, but use it nowmainly for educational purposes, visiting local schools to teach kids about agriculture.

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FARM TO BUS AND TABLEToday, the Lillys work with 40 to 50

producers within a 150-mile radius ofRichmond and consider themselves afull-service CSA. They operate year-round and offer local and organic dairy,meat, produce, eggs, bread, and evensmoked trout and maple syrup. In thesummer, they have five to six pick-uppoints for customers and even do a fewhome deliveries.

“This location has been tough for us,”Lilly admits, noting he started the marketmainly to have a place to park his busafter a neighbor complained about himparking it in his driveway. However, cus-tomers can come to the market to buylocal foods Friday through Sunday.

The Lillys aren’t the only locallyminded food purveyors in Richmond.Right on the corner of Route 360 andCary Street in Richmond’s Shockoe Sliparea, Kitchen on Cary (opened in 2011)seeks to create a seasonally changingmenu featuring regionally sourced ingre-dients. In addition, the Kitchen’s chefsare also teachers at nearby Culinard, TheCulinary Institute of Virginia College,and students often practice their arts inthe restaurant’s kitchen.

“We use as much local product as wecan,” says Chef David Hughes, whonotes the menu currently featuresMoneta-based Scott’s Farm greens, locallysourced honey, as well as DinwiddieCounty’s Milton’s Local Harvest beef.“We don’t try to reinvent the wheel,” headds. “We do simple dishes using localproducts.”

As Hughes pulls up a chair at mytable, he tells me seven culinary studentsare currently working in the Kitchen.Hughes himself is a Richmond native,though being a chef wasn’t really part of his life plan. He was a mass communi-cations major at Virginia CommonwealthUniversity, and when he moved in withhis brother, he started cooking a lot. Hisbrother told him he ought to become achef, and so off he went to the NewEngland Culinary Institute. Hughes operated his own restaurant in down-town Richmond for 12 years, so heknows the local food scene well and haswatched the Kitchen become a notewor-thy part of that scene. “Our main goalshere are to produce quality meals andquality cooks and chefs.”

The Farm to Family Market seeks to con-nect city dwellers with locally producedfood, such as the fresh apples below.Founder Mark Lilly says he started theoperation with the idea of supportingsmall, local farms, and the core of theoperation isn’t really the market, but acommunity-supported direct-sales entitythat serves a handful of customers inRichmond and some 250 in theWashington, D.C., metro area.

Kitchen on Cary (above), located inRichmond’s Shockoe Slip, seeks to create a seasonally changing menufeaturing regionally sourced ingredients. Chef David Hughes (left)says, “We don’t try to re-invent thewheel. We do simple things usinglocal products.” The restaurant’s chefs are culinary arts teachers at thenearby Culinary Institute of Virginia,and students get practical experienceunder their tutelage in the Kitchen onCary’s kitchen.

32 Cooperative Living/May 2015

TOURING THE VAULTIt’s pretty hard to travel Route 360

through downtown Richmond with-out taking in its Civil War history,given the city’s role as the Confederatecapital for four years of war. Just a fewblocks off 360 is the American CivilWar Museum (formerly The Museumof the Confederacy) and the WhiteHouse of the Confederacy. WaiteRawls, co-CEO of the American CivilWar Museum, says of the museum’spartnership with the American CivilWar Center at the old TredegarIronworks on the James River, “It’s ourpurpose to help Richmond becomethe premier destination for the CivilWar.” With a jovial laugh, he adds,“1.8 million people go to Gettysburgevery year, and there were only threedays of battle there. Here it wasn’tthree days; it was four years!”

Rawls says it makes sense forRichmond to be a center of Civil Warstudies. “Almost half the casualties ofthe war were in Virginia,” he explains.“And 30 percent were within 20 milesof Fredericksburg.” It’s no small wonder that Rawls can spew thesenumbers off the top of his head. Before coming back to his home stateof Virginia 11 years ago, he spent hiscareer as an investment banker inChicago. “I’ve been a Civil War buffsince I was in short pants!” he jokes,adding how he remembers giving aspeech once for Bank LiquidityManagement and managing to tie it into the Civil War. “You should have seen my boss’ look when Ireferred to it as the ‘War of NorthernAggression!’ ”

Rawls says he has seen the face ofCivil War tourism change dramatically

over the last two decades. “Twentyyears ago, it was about Yankeesand Confederates duking it out on the battlefield and little else,”he remarks. However, he feels themuseum has been at the forefrontof changing that. “We want peopleto really come to grips with history,” he adds. “Even 10 yearsago, Richmond barely talkedabout its slave history eventhough we’re four blocks from the location of Shockoe Bottom’sold slave market. We want peopleto understand all of the history,whether it makes them comfort-able or not.”

And then Rawls gives me a special treat — a private tour ofthe museum’s basement flag vault.He says the museum is home to500 of the more than 1,300Confederate flags still known toexist. Determining the storiesbehind all those flags as well asmuch of the rest of the museum’scollection was the first job of thenow-famous Civil War historianDouglas Southall Freeman.Among the vault’s treasures is the Confederacy’s first hand-stitched battle flag.

Rawls continues his storiesbehind the flags as he shows me a number of flags made from wedding dresses, one of themmade from the wedding dress ofConfederate Gen. A.P. Hill’s wife.Rawls says the museum has 13battle flags made from weddingdresses. “Women couldn’t fight onthe battlefield, so that was theirway of expressing support for thewar effort and their husbands’roles in it.”

Then comes an especially moving collection as Rawls opensdrawer upon drawer of battle flagpoles, many of them worn and darkened where soldiers once carried them into battle. Somewere made from sticks — battle-field ingenuity when a flag polewas destroyed on the field and acolor bearer wanted to keep theflag flying high. “Looking at thisstuff really introduces the humanelement,” says Rawls. n

The American Civil War Museum,formerly The Museum of theConfederacy (above left) and theWhite House of the Confederacy(left) are two of the many histori-cal attractions to be found nearRoute 360 as it passes throughRichmond, a center for Civil Warhistory. Waite Rawls (above), co-CEO of the American Civil WarMuseum, notes, “1.8 million peo-ple go to Gettysburg every year,and there were only three days ofbattle there. Here it wasn’t threedays; it was four years!”

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IF YOU GO ...Richmond offers much more than

one can explore in a single weekend(or, ahem, road trip), but a goodplace to get the lay of the city isRichmond’s main visitor center at theGreater Richmond ConventionCenter (405 N. 3rd St., 804-783-7450, www.visitrichmondva.com,open daily 9-5). Right off of Route360, just before you reach the citycenter and the Capitol is theChimborazo Medical Museum(3215 East Broad St., 804-226-1981,www.nps.gov/rich/planyourvisit/visitorcenters.htm, open daily 9-4:30), also headquarters for theRichmond National Battlefieldin downtown Richmond is the

American Civil War Museum andWhite House of the Confederacy(1201 E. Clay St., 804-649-1861,www.moc.org, open daily 10-5).Expand your travels into Civil War history by also visiting the AmericanCivil War Center at the old Tredegar Ironworks (500 Tredegar St.,804-649-1861, www.tredegar.org,open daily 9-5).

Explore local eats at The Farm to Family Market (2817Mechanicsville Turnpike, 804-767-8570, www.thefarmbus.com), or pickup some farm-to-table lunch at TheUrban Farmhouse (1217 East CaryStreet, 804-325-3988, www.theurbanfarmhouse.net). And right on the corner

of Route 360 and Cary Street isKitchen on Cary, which also serves up fresh and local fare whiletraining area culinary students (1331 East Cary St., 804-643-1315,www.kitchenoncary.com). I recom-mend the Mushroom and SpinachEnchilada! n

To Get More History …

Large chunks of StevenSpielberg’s 2012 Lincoln wereshot in Richmond. In fact,

much of the capital area inRichmond was a stand-in for 1860sWashington, D.C. Almost half thefilming was done in Richmond’sCapitol Square with the Capitolbuilding serving as both the LincolnWhite House and the U.S. Capitol inD.C. If you stand in Capitol Squareand look up at Thomas Crawford’sstatue of George Washington, youcan imagine Lincoln doing the same.The statue was completed just beforethe Civil War, and the real PresidentLincoln, as well as Daniel Day Lewis,likely admired it when visiting thecity. Tourists have become so enam-ored with Lincoln that the VirginiaTourism Corporation has set up a“Movie Trail” website that lets visi-tors follow in the footsteps of thecast and crew. Check it out atwww.virginia.org/lincoln/.

Be sure to check out theAmerican Civil War Center at theHistoric Tredegar Ironworks. Hereyou’ll find a statue of Lincoln and hisson Tad, who toured the smolderingcity with his father on April 4, 1865.

The Center interprets the war fromUnion, Confederate, and African-American perspectives and also includesthe National Park Service visitor centerfor the Richmond National Battlefield.In the 1850s, Tredegar Ironworks wasone of the largest foundries in the coun-try and manufactured ordnance for theU.S. government as well as locomotivesand equipment for sugar mills. The iron-works was critical for supplying theConfederate war machine during theCivil War as well. Tredegar ceased oper-ation in 1952, and in 2000, its threemajor antebellum structures, includingthe pattern building, cannon foundry,and office, were restored and re-openedas the National Park Service visitor cen-ter and later as the American Civil WarCenter. Learn more at www.nps.gov/richand www.tredegar.org. n

Top: George Washington monu-ment outside Virginia Capitol;Above and left: Historic TredegarIron Works exterior and interior.

Chimborazo Medical Museum