"hand crafted" news and stories

Lately I have been very interested in the small craft distillery scene in the US. Not to long ago I got an email from a friend discussing how the Mid-Atlantic States are getting on the map for its craft distilling scene. Then I read this article about three small distilleries in Virginia and their new, premium, small batch, handcrafted spirits. These distillers are bringing back the distilling tradition to Virginia that hasn't been seen since before prohibition, and doubling the number of distilleries in the state.

There have been three distillers of liquors that could be considered long time native Virginian: Laird & Co. distilling since 1780 makes Bonded Apple Brandy and Apple Jack from apples grown in the Shenandoah Valley (A branch of the same company whose headquarters are in NJ); A. Smith Bowman distilling since the 1930's known for Virginia Gentleman bourbon; and Belmont Farm Distillery, distilling since 1987 which makes a version of corn liquor/moonshine called Virginia Lightning.

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Many professionals are changing careers to head back to the land and to become small scale dairy farmers. I tried this myself four years ago when I went to work and live on a brand new dairy farm. I was the assistant to an ex-computer engineer who had become a full time artisinal cheese maker. Herding and milking the cows, brewing beer, making cheese, baking bread, feeding the chickens, haying, and driving a tractor. You're outside in the hot summer sun and five degree wintry days, building things and tearing down others, up at dawn and working past dusk. At least you have the fringe benefits of making fine food products; eating all you make, trading your goods with others in the food community, and going to fun and fancy food events. It's a tough life where you never stop moving, but one that is becoming more rewarding than just a few years ago.

Small dairy farms are located all over the country, many in places you would think like Wisconsin and California, but also all over New England, the Mid-West, and the Pacific Northwest. Anywhere you can find a decent piece of farm land where your milk producing, four legged friends can thrive. The farm where I lived and worked for a few months straddled the NY/NJ border, just a half hour from NYC, and in the middle of a bedroom community for many of those professionals who are thinking about second careers.

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