Irvington Spring Farm is a family-run flower farm in the heart of Lynchburg that is open to the public from March through October. They sell fresh cut flower bouquets, bunches, arrangements and pollinator-friendly native plants. They also offer two affordable and 100 percent locally grown wedding flower options: DIY buckets and Farmer’s Choice flowers.

Just this year, Irvington Spring Farm started a new “Bouquet Club,” offering memberships for the entire season, spring, and fall. These make a great gift for the flower lovers in your life. Also new in 2021, the farm is offering annual flower plant “starts” and dahlia tubers for sale in the spring/early summer that are perfect for the home gardener to try their hand at growing flowers.

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Learn more about the farm, as well as their upcoming outdoor classes, at irvingtonspringfarm.com.

Bacon St. Bagels Offers Fresh Breakfast and Work Culture Perspective

When Jordan Nickerson and Jordan Hawkins sat down to discuss potential business ventures in January 2019, they didn’t know that their meeting would end with serendipity in the shape of a bagel.

“I said, ‘I know this is kind of out there, but I’ve always thought it would be really cool to open a bagel shop,’” Hawkins says. “Jordan was taken aback because that morning he and his wife, Holly, were on a walk and he mentioned to her that having a bagel shop in Lynchburg would be awesome.

We saw it as a sign to move forward.”

On November 6, 2020, their vision became a reality when Bacon St. Bagels opened on Rivermont Avenue. The community response to the grab-and-go bagel shop was immediately—and continues to be—overwhelmingly positive.

The menu boasts several types of New York–style bagels with a variety of toppings, specialty breakfast sandwiches, and coffee from Staunton-based coffee shop Crucible Coffee.

New York–style bagels are boiled before they’re baked, a process that locks in flavor and gives the bagels a delicious chewy density.

Hawkins’ favorite sandwich on the menu, The Lenora, is named after his grandmother. “She was Italian, so the sandwich has mozzarella, tomato, basil pesto, and a balsamic glaze,” he says.

The Nickersons and Hawkinses first met and became friends at Liberty University. The Nickersons opened the successful ice cream shop Rookie’s in Forest and Hawkins worked in local restaurants before deciding to start a business together.
When it came to selecting a location, downtown Lynchburg was the clear winner. Nickerson specifically was very taken with the standalone building on Rivermont that now houses the shop.

“I love standalone buildings,” he says.

“They offer so much space for charm, creativity, and flair.”

The shop got its name from Nickerson’s childhood home street in Massachusetts.

“I’m a huge breakfast food fan, so it’s ironic that I lived on Bacon Street!” says Nickerson. “We had about five names on the board, and Holly came up with that one.”

The brand is built not only on affordable and delicious breakfast options, but also on a positive work culture that values individual employees and customers as well as the community at large.

“I’m very thankful that I get an opportunity to sink my teeth every single day into what I’m passionate about: entrepreneurship and creating healthy and exciting workplace cultures,” Nickerson notes. “I would say we’ve already established a really healthy culture in our building. I love the opportunity to kind of challenge the status quo in the food work culture industry.”

“Our motto is ‘bigger than bagels’,” says Hawkins. “A lot of people are miserable going to work because they feel that they aren’t cared for or valued, and if we can change that, even just for our employees, then it will be worth it.”

In the future, the team hopes to add a takeout window and online ordering and to ultimately expand.

“We want the shop to grow into its potential, and we want to steward it really well,” Nickerson says.

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Bacon St. Bagels
306 Rivermont Ave., Lynchburg
Open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. or until items sell out
www.baconstbagels.com

Imagine waking up and sipping your morning coffee while taking in this picturesque view of downtown Lynchburg.
The Krise on Ninth Street was built in 1907 as the city’s first skyscraper. After renovation and restoration work, the impressive architectural building has been converted into luxury loft-style apartments.

Take a virtual tour at www.thekriseluxurylofts.com.

How the 1960 Sit-in Was a Catalyst for Civil Rights in Lynchburg

Sixty years ago, six college students sat down together for a cup of coffee at the lunch counter at Patterson’s Drug Store in downtown Lynchburg. But because two of those students were Black, all six were arrested and charged with trespassing.

Their Dec. 14, 1960 arrest and subsequent conviction, which included a sentence of 30 days in jail, sparked a number of other sit-ins, forcing residents to grapple with the ugly inequality in their segregated city.

“Oh my God, that was a wonderful day,” recalls the Rev. Virgil Wood, then pastor at Diamond Hill Baptist Church who helped plan the sit-in. “I remember it like it was yesterday. It’s indelibly imprinted in your spirit.”

Now 88 and a resident of a Houston suburb, Wood said the sit-in “was an originating moment in some ways” and was significant because of the institutions involved.

Barbara Thomas, 21, and Kenneth Green, 28, were students at the all-Black Virginia Theological Seminary, while Mary Edith Bentley, 20, and Rebecca Owen, 20, were students at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. James E. Hunter, 19, and George Terrill Brumback, 20, were students at Lynchburg College.

“It was just an obvious moral issue; (segregation) was wrong,” said Hunter, the only one of the six interviewed for this story. Two have died, one is ill, one can’t be found, and the other declined an interview.

Hunter, who will turn 80 in December, has not talked about the sit-in much over the years, but summed up the action this way: “Two things I would emphasize are that nonviolence can work, and things can change.”

Hunter, who had a career in social work and lives in Maine, acknowledges that racism remains a problem, but says things have improved vastly. He had seen signs of segregation, including separate drinking fountains, as a child. “You saw that kind of thing all over the place,” said Hunter, who grew up in Indianapolis. “It irked you.”

The decision to become involved in civil rights was a no-brainer for Hunter. He said a group of students had been meeting at Diamond Hill for a few weeks and realized they needed to take action. They chose Patterson’s Drug Store because of its prominence on Main Street and hoped to convince drug store owner William S. Patterson to get on the right side of history.

Instead, Patterson called the police and had the students arrested for trespassing. A patrol wagon took the students to jail. Hunter said a Black businessman posted his bail that evening.

Rebecca Owen called her good friend Alice Hilseweck (now Ball), who got word to R-MWC President William Quillian. Quillian arranged for bail for his students.

The very next day, Ball participated in a sit-in at Peoples Drug Store. “We didn’t want to go home for Christmas vacation and leave (the people of) Lynchburg thinking there were just six bad guys in the town,” Ball, now 81, said in a phone interview from her home in Atlanta.

Ball joined four other R-MWC students and Miriam Thomas Gaines, a Black student from Campbell County High School, at Peoples. Miriam’s sister, Barbara Thomas, had been arrested the day before.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it,” Ball said. “This is an issue now and has never not been an issue.” Her book club in Atlanta is reading The Race Beat, about how the media covered racial issues from 1958 to 1960, which makes her realize “the things that I as a white woman don’t have to wake up thinking about.

“I believe some of the material that’s being written now is beginning to get white people to wake up,” Ball said, adding she is hopeful because white Episcopal parishes in her area are talking about white privilege.

Ball’s life reflected her early beliefs. Her work to help battered women, foster children, and young girls earned her national recognition. She has also worked as a mediator and trainer for an alternative dispute resolution center in Atlanta.

For Miriam Gaines, now 77 and a resident of Forest, her decision to join the Peoples sit-in was prompted by the racism she experienced as a child. Until very recently, she has been reluctant to talk about it. When she was asked to tell children about the sit-in at Pleasant Valley Church earlier this year, however, she couldn’t resist. She shared the notes from her talk.

Gaines said her father worked three jobs to support his nine children. He owned a store and a barbershop and was a porter carrying mail and packages at a railroad station. Her mother stayed at home and periodically did day jobs cleaning the homes of whites.

“One of the things that bothered me was how the white men, women, and children would call my mother, Sallie… even though she was much older than they were,” Gaines said.
Her mother had to use the back door to those white houses. On vacations with her family, Gaines learned that Blacks couldn’t stay in hotels or motels, eat at restaurants, or use restrooms that were for whites only, much less attend the same schools or live in the same neighborhoods.

Photo courtesy of News and Advance“We had a white school one block from our house,” she said. “We had to pass that school and attend a Black school about 10 blocks away. We used to walk to school. As we passed the white school I can remember being teased and being called the “N”-word as we walked by… .

“Finally, unrest developed in the Black community and we felt that we had enough living as secondhand citizens,” she said. When the movement came to Lynchburg, Gaines was 18. She tagged along with her sister Barbara.

Barbara, who died in 2004, was one of those arrested at Patterson’s Drug Store, but Gaines joined the next day’s Peoples sit-in without hesitation. “The four white girls ordered Cokes; I was ignored. When the drinks came, one of the girls slid her drink to me. I sipped it. Immediately, the manager told us to get out. He said this is the end, good-bye, and showed us the door.”

Alice Ball was the one who slid her drink to Gaines. She grew up in Texas with parents who were part Choctaw and taught her to treat all people fairly. “It was the air to breathe and the water to drink at my house,” she said.

In Lynchburg, the attempts at integration were resisted forcefully by many whites, including one woman who lived on Rivermont Avenue. She invited the R-MWC students to tea to try to coax them to reveal who at the college put them up to participating in the sit-ins, Ball said. The students let her know it was all their doing.

The day after the Patterson sit-in, the two R-MWC students were brought before the Judiciary Committee where they learned they would not be expelled, but received “stern” disapproval from the College administration for breaking the law, according to a story in the fall 2010 Randolph College Bulletin. They had to promise not to be involved in more protests.

The College lost several large financial supporters and three R-MWC trustees resigned publicly after Dr. Quillian refused to let the Board handle the decision. “It was a difficult time,” he said in the 2010 Bulletin article. “The lines were pretty well drawn in our community. I was devoted to all of our students, and I was torn as to how best to deal with a situation like this. I respected them and I shared their concerns, but I wasn’t sure this was the best way under the circumstances to try and bring change when others were trying to bring change in a different way.”

When the students returned to campus in January 1961, they faced a packed court hearing where they were found guilty and received the maximum sentence, 30 days in jail. They appealed the verdict, but later decided to drop the appeal, and on Feb. 6, people were shocked as the six students were led away in handcuffs.

Jim Hunter joked that they got out after 20 days for good behavior but weren’t sure what that meant. Unlike the R-MWC students who said they read and studied, Hunter said he and Terrill Brumback mostly played poker with their cellmates.

While in jail, Hunter, who smoked, had been sent cartons of cigarettes as a way to show appreciation for his participation in the sit-in. Cigarettes were the currency of poker. “I wasn’t a great player so that made me a popular player,” he said.

Hunter added, however, that he did manage to read Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, while behind bars.

Ball said the students’ jail time served its purpose. “They decided Lynchburg would never confront what was going on unless their own college students were in jail,” she said.

About the same time as the sit-ins, a group of Blacks were preparing to start the court case that would desegregate E.C. Glass High School. Owen Cardwell, who became one of the first two Black students to attend the school on Dec. 29, 1962, said he has thought a lot about the events that got his attention as an eighth-grader in 1960.

“The key thing that stands out for me was there was a two-fold strategy: public accommodation and public education,” Cardwell said.

Caldwell believes the sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina from February to July 1960—which were a pivotal part of the national civil rights movement—brought greater awareness to the Blacks in Lynchburg. “In a real sense, the Patterson sit-in launched the Civil Rights Movement here in Lynchburg,” he said.

PHOTO BY National D-Day Memorial Foundation/Ryan Anderson

A bird’s-eye view of the National D-Day Memorial shows just how breathtaking the grounds are at the base of the Peaks of Otter. The Memorial officially opened on June 6, 2001, and stands in honor of those who died on June 6, 1944 in the Allied invasion of Normandy, France.

Most of the Memorial’s events in November and December will be virtual this year, with the exception of the Flames of Memory luminarias display December 4-6.

For a full calendar of events and other information, visit www.dday.org/events.

ETC Shop: DONATING PROFITS TO THE COMMUNITY FOR HALF A CENTURY

Run by a volunteer committee and a tiny staff of part-time employees, the ETC Shop, a cozy philanthropic consignment shop on Old Forest Road, is celebrating 50 years of operation.

Members of the Lynchburg Junior Woman’s Club (LJWC) opened the ETC Shop in August 1970 with a goal of donating all profits back to the community. 81-year-old Becky Spetz, a member of the founding committee, remembers the vision they had. “We needed a way to fund the important projects we wanted to do in the community,” says Becky. “In particular, we were trying to fund a petting zoo in Miller Park… . We operated the zoo for awhile, but it was the ETC Shop that really stuck.”

Originally, E-T-C stood for Everyone’s Thrifty Cottage, but now folks refer to the thrift store as The “Etcetera” Shop. Prior to opening, Becky and a committee of women from the LJWC visited an established shop in Pittsburgh and modeled the ETC Shop after that business. Amazingly, the Lynchburg store is still open while the one in Pittsburgh closed long ago.

The original location of the shop was on Boonsboro Road in the Kroger shopping center. “We have four generations of families coming into the shop,” says Susan Spetz Kidd, Becky’s daughter and shop employee for more than 20 years. Susan, like her mother, was also a member of the club for a number of years. “We had a woman who came into the shop several months ago who remembers her mother buying the dress she wore to her wedding—47 years ago—at the ETC Shop. She also bought a little boy’s navy suit and told her at the time whichever brother fits the suit would be the one to wear it.”

All sorts of clothing and household items find their way into the shop. “We even had someone sell a worm farm kit through us,” says Anne Gerhardt, ETC Shop employee and past member of the LJWC. “And, wouldn’t you know, the person who bought it still comes in and lets us know what a success that worm farm was.”

The highest priced item sold by the ETC Shop was a beaver coat for just under $1,000. “People don’t wear fur coats anymore,” says Susan, “but what a find for someone years ago! A few years back, we also received what turned out to be someone’s diamond engagement ring, but, when we realized it was a valuable diamond and probably sentimental as well, we returned it to its rightful owner.”

The ETC Shop accepts 20 items per week/per consignee and prefers them to be less than three years old, in good condition, and seasonal. The consignee and the shop split the sale of the item 50/50. After eight weeks, consignees can retrieve their items or donate them to the shop.

“Over the last 50 years, the LJWC has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars—all profits from the ETC Shop—to Lynchburg and surrounding counties through a wide variety of groups,” explains Marilyn Norfield, treasurer of the thrift store and past member of the LJWC.

The LJWC has funded projects for Centra Health, the Lynchburg Humane Society, Girls on the Run, Miriam’s House, Miller Home, Boys and Girls Club, and many more. One of the largest funded gifts was toward the purchase of the first neonatal van in Lynchburg in the 1970s. Also, for decades, the LJWC has funded the Sterling Silver Award—each Lynchburg City Schools library receives a monetary award and the staff receives recognition.

“It’s amazing what we can fund from the profits of a $3 pair of shorts,” laughs Susan.

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The ETC Shop is located at 2912 Old Forest Rd. #B, Lynchburg and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

New food truck lures crowds to Forest with its savory handheld pies
PHOTOS BY Lindsay Carico

When Linda Hall saw a small mobile building on Facebook Marketplace, she knew she had to buy it.

Hall, along with her Love Is In The Air business partner Mary Love, had wanted to start a food truck business, especially since the pandemic had slowed down weddings and events. But the two women weren’t sure what to sell. All they knew was that they wanted something unique that set them apart.

And that’s how The Pied Piper was born.

Since opening in June, the business has been a hit. Located on Route 221 in the Rookie’s parking lot next to Aylor’s Farm and Garden, people have been lining up to grab one of Hall and Love’s hand pies.

“When we first opened, I was optimistic that we might sell 50 pies a day,” Hall said. “On the first day we were open I made 250 pies for the day, and we sold 88 pies 20 minutes after opening.”

Pies had always been a hit for Hall and Love at events, especially their signature Rustic Tomato.

“I had never had one until a few years ago, when my neighbor who is Italian brought one over to me, and I was like, ‘Oh this is the best thing ever’,” Hall said.

Pie enthusiasts can find the Rustic Tomato alongside a rotating menu that ranges from traditional flavors with a twist such as French Apple and Peach Bourbon to more experimental flavors such as the Reuben, Green Chile Chicken, and Jammin’ Bacon Cheeseburger.

Hall said they try to introduce new flavors each week while still keeping some favorites around.

“We want to keep everything fresh, new, and interesting,” she said. “But many are [flavors] I’ve baked all my life.”

Both Hall and Love have been flabbergasted by the response thanks to word of mouth and social media. Now, to keep up with demand, they’ve added a mobile kitchen to the lot where they can bake their pies right on the property, instead of in their catering kitchen just down the road. As weddings begin to pick up again, this will make their lives so much easier.

“We knew the pies were delicious, but you don’t know what the response is going to be,” Hall said. “It has been challenging, but we’ve also had people buy $70 worth of pies.”

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The Pied Piper
16129 Forest Road, Forest
Wed.-Thurs.: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Fri.-Sat.: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 4 – 8 p.m.
Sunday: 12 – 4 p.m.
Get in touch on their Facebook page: The PIED PIPER VA

At Beaver Dam Farm in Buchanan

Every September since 2016, Beaver Dam Farm—located a little over an hour from Lynchburg—has drawn in visitors from across the state as its fields of beautiful sunflowers reach full bloom.

The farmland was purchased in 1900, and the farm became a dairy in 1927. They switched to beef cattle last year. In 2016, to diversify the farm’s income, the family owners and operators planted 20 acres of black oil sunflowers. They invited guests to come walk the picturesque fields, and since then, their beloved Sunflower Festival has grown and expanded to include crafters, food vendors and much more.

The festival is still taking place this year, with precautions. Online ticket sales begin in early September, and there will be a limited number of people allowed on the grounds at one time, as well as a two-hour time limit.

Learn more at beaverdamsunflowers.com.

Lifting Black Voices

In our July/August issue, we asked members of the local Black community to submit essays that give us their voice as the country continues to wrestle with issues regarding race and equality. Nicholas George, local poet and nonprofit founder, submitted a poem that asks: “Is It Okay to Love My Skin?” Here is an excerpt:

“i’ve spent my life uncertain of my beauty.
like i was not comprised of cosmic dust
blessed with earth’s tone
and i just want to know
is it okay to love my brown skin…
or does that scare you?”

Read George’s full poem, as well as check out any future submissions to this essay campaign, at the Lifting Black Voices Here.

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Remembering a Local Artist
When Inez Berinson Blanks passed away unexpectedly in July, her husband Norris’s life was forever changed. “The one true light in my life has gone and since that day my life will never be the same,” he said.

Born in Australia, Inez settled in Lynchburg via stops in Sydney, parts of Africa, India, Nepal and Washington, DC. In 2002, Norris and Inez traveled to Lynchburg and, after she fell in love with the city’s history, texture and more, they decided to relocate here.

For the past 14 years, Inez was deeply rooted in the local art community, working as a private employed artist, art teacher and part-time employee at the Art Box. She remodeled their historic home on Washington Street and created an art studio in the lower garden level. That’s where she would often work through the night creating art or teaching many of her art students. Inez also showed in two exhibitions and sold pieces of her work.

Inez was scheduled to have a show at the Academy Center of the Arts in 2021. Late summer, a slot opened up in October, and the Academy is now able to host a retrospective show to highlight her incredible works—from abstract pieces to beautiful portraits. “The greatest gift I could give Inez in her passing is the recognition of her art,” said Norris. “I’m so grateful for this opportunity.”

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Royal Visitors
Pageant Queens Make Stops in the Hill City

In late July, Miss America Camille Schrier spoke at the International Athena Awards luncheon at the Virginian Hotel and took a few photos around town with local photographer Rick Myers. Schrier was crowned Miss Virginia in June 2019 and earned the Miss America title later in the year. She will be the first Miss America to serve a two-year tenure, since the next pageant has been rescheduled to 2021.

Mrs. Virginia American may be a recognizable face to some in Central Virginia. Dhomonique Murphy, formerly a news anchor/reporter at ABC-13, visited Lynchburg to talk about her July pageant win. She made rounds with an interview on talk radio station WLNI and an appearance on ABC-13’s “Living in the Heart of Virginia.” Murphy will compete in the Mrs. USA pageant later this year.

County Smoak Finds a Home on Timberlake Road
Photos by Jenna McKenney

You might say that Ken Hess eats, sleeps and breathes barbecue. But lately, he’s not getting much sleep. “I generally get here at six in the morning. By the time we get home, it’s 10:30, 11 [p.m.],” he says.

Ken and his wife Jess have poured all they have into County Smoak, which just opened on Timberlake Road in May. They are both trained chefs, graduating from the Culinary Institute of America. Ken was familiar with Lynchburg, competing here in his first barbecue contest in 2002. They ended up moving to the Hill City in 2016, and Ken worked at several restaurants for the Parry Restaurant Group (including Bootleggers and My Dog Duke’s Diner).

Jess worked at Linkhorne Middle School, which is what led them to their barbecue business. After a food truck backed out of a school fundraiser, County Smoak was born. Last year, they started doing more frequent events, including pop-ups at Stadium Inn. “We got a pretty good following. We would have lines sometimes in the morning. Thirty minutes before, people would start lining up,” Ken explains.

The Hesses looked at spaces to anchor and grow County Smoak for a year before opening up on Timberlake Road next to Tiny Town Golf. When the pandemic hit, Ken was laid off, and that sped up their plans. Their family of five drove straight through to St. Louis to buy a trailer with a smoker that Ken calls “the beast.”
Two months later, County Smoak opened its doors.

In some ways, the pandemic was a great time to open. It’s trained people to do takeout and order online, which is the core of the County Smoak business model. There are a few picnic tables outside, but the majority of orders are to go. If you want brisket or mac and cheese, don’t wait too late in the day—they sell out frequently. The pork sandwich is the number one seller, and Ken says the turkey is very popular as well.

Also, in this polarizing time, the Hesses are glad to see a diverse customer base come together to agree on good barbecue.

“I think we’ve really been able to bring everybody in,” Jess says. “With the right message to people, there is common ground. Everybody can come together and be in a shared space and enjoy the same food and get to know each other.”

A part of the mission of County Smoak is giving back to the community. They started Thankful Thursdays, where they provided free meals to members of the hard-hit service industry. With the help of donations from customers, they were able to expand that to a daily mission. Every night, they take leftover food to people in the Roads to Recovery program, a nonprofit that focuses on those who are recovering from addiction.

“It’s not just about making money. It’s about the community aspect,” Ken says. “Barbecue has always been about community and family.”

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County Smoak
7423 Timberlake Rd., Lynchburg
Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Wednesday-Sunday
www.countysmoak.com (434) 215-3311