Wes Kent, Augusta County
At Winding River Farms, Wes Kent does the conserving while robots do the milking — and the land, streams, and cows are better for it.
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Sally Johnson, Washington County
Sally Johnson has made her way as a cattle farmer in Southwest Virginia by combining the power of family with the power of the sun.
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Waddle Farm, Smyth County
Several years ago, a neighbor asked Shelley Waddle if she and her husband, Jeff, had ever considered protecting their 1,158-acre Saltville farm from development with a conservation easement. She was skeptical at first. “We didn’t understand the process, the terminology,” says Shelley, a farmer and schoolteacher who was born and raised in Smyth County. “Once…
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Craun Farm, Augusta County
Jim Craun celebrated a 100th birthday in June. Not his—his barn’s. The barn is one of several buildings that Mr. Craun has restored on his family’s 165-acre farm in Augusta County. The cavernous interior is barely enough to contain his memories of summers spent working there as a boy, when his grandparents owned the place….
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White House Farm Foundation, Page County
In 1760, about 30 years before construction began on the White House in the District of Columbia, a Mennonite settler named Martin Kauffman II built his own little White House in Page County, Virginia. Kauffman constructed the building as a residence and Mennonite meeting house, locating it at the foot of the Massanutten Mountains, along…
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Oak Grove Plantation, Halifax County
Oak Grove Plantation, a bed & breakfast just outside South Boston in Halifax County, works hard to minimize its environmental footprint. Some of the steps it has taken include recycling, composting, installing energy-efficient storm windows, offering optional linen service, drying laundry on clotheslines, collecting rainwater with rain barrels, and using compact fluorescent lighting. The inn…
