Carrie Miller for The Old Town Shop
Virginia has a rich history — and a list of rich food traditions and celebrations of Virginia-grown and Virginia-made foods.
To this day, peanuts fuel parts of the economy in southeastern Virginia. Near what is now Waverly, which is south of Richmond and west of Norfolk, the first known commercial peanut crop was planted in 1842. For several decades in the late 1800s, Virginia was the top producer of peanuts in the United States. By the early 1900s, the state was home to 14 of the United States’ 20 commercial peanut processing factories.
This October, Suffolk County (home of Planter’s Peanuts) will host its 44th celebration of this favorite legume. In some years, festival-goers can smell peanuts a quarter-mile away, emanating from an eight-foot Mr. P-nutty statue. Creative types will compete in the peanut butter sculpting contest, carving from a five-pound block of the gooey spread. Visit suffolkpeanutfest.com.
To satisfy your craving before the Suffolk festival, visit the Virginia Diner in Wakefield. The diner serves peanut pie — a caramelized, peanutty filling in a flaky crust. Or, visit the Hotel Roanoke for its peanut soup, served topped with fresh, chopped peanuts with spoonbread. (For the recipe, visit hotelroanoke.com/downtown_restaurants/hotel_roanoke_recipes.)
Peanut lovers may also take delight in a road trip to the Isle of Wright Museum in Smithfield to learn about the history of peanut farming, and a visit to the first peanut museum in the United States, inside the Isle of Wight County Museum, in Waverly.
Here in Alexandria, be sure to stop by The Old Town Shop to pick up a can of Hub’s Peanuts.
MAPLE SYRUP
PHOTO BY SUGAR TREE COUNTRY STORE & SUGAR HOUSE
Wood smoke and maple syrup aromas mingle in the mountain air in Virginia’s “Little Switzerland,” Highland County. For generations, maplers have drained sap from trees, some 200 years old, through plastic tubes snaking down the hills from 15,000 tree taps. The sap is boiled down into pure syrup — no preservatives, no artificial flavoring, no coloring. Highland County is the center of Virginia mapling.
The county offers a passport and guide that visitors can reference to stop by seven “sugar camps” that operate year-round. The camps offer opportunities to learn the techniques of maple syrup production. There’s a prize for visiting all seven sugar camps and getting your passport stamped at each one. Learn more at virginiamaplesyrup.com.
Mark your calendar for next March’s Maple Festival in Highland County. Veteran maplers will be on hand to offer tutorials, tastings and more. For more than just pancakes, maple syrup is a key ingredient in local sausage, pork gravy, chicken barbeque, donuts, ice cream, apples, mustard, pecans, lollipops, cream, fudge and tea. Visit highlandcounty.org/events/maplefestival.
WILD GAME
The Virginia Housewife, a cookbook published in 1824, is widely considered the first cookbook published for mass use in America. Vintage copies available online contain recipes for a wide variety of meats, fishes, stews, sauces, desserts and more.
Not included: Brunswick stew. The dish wasn’t invented until later in the 1820s, when a chef accompanying a Virginia state legislator reportedly invented the game-based dish. Though Georgians may try to claim this invention came from the town of Brunswick, Georgia, many Virginians believe that Brunswick stew originated in Brunswick, Virginia.
The dish was originally made with wild game like rabbits and squirrels, though today’s “adulterated” versions may include chicken or beef. Diehards simmer it in a cast-iron cauldron over a fire and add vegetables, like potatoes and lima beans. Virginia Senate Clerk Susan Schaar, in her office overlooking Richmond’s Capitol Square, displays a five-foot-long wooden paddle, designed to stir Brunswick stew. The critical, undisputed ingredient of a true Brunswick stew, Schaar insists, is squirrel – not rabbit, chicken or (heaven forbid) beef.
“Every January, I tell the new General Assembly pages that those squirrels out there will end up in a Brunswick stew,” she says. HAM Virginia hams are historically famous — even well-known back in the 18th century, according to Mount Vernon Estate Associate Curator Jessie MacLeod.
The Marquis de Lafayette was so fond of Virginia ham that George Washington shipped him a barrel full of them in 1786. Virginia’s most famous type is the Smithfield ham, which by law must be cured within Smithfield town limits. The company, founded in 1936, initially fed their hogs peanuts. Smithfield hams are dry salt cured “country style.” Virginia tradition calls for ham to be served with grits and red-eye gravy, which is made with coffee. Smithfield’s own website has a variety of ham recipes and side dishes, as well. Visit smithfield.sfdbrands.com. Or, visit the recipes section of the Mount Vernon Estate website at mountvernon.org/inn/recipes.
APPLES
Apples thrive around the state, with Shenandoah Valley the epicenter. John Bruguiere of Dickie Brothers Orchard, in central Virginia’s Nelson County, explains that the state’s elevations, soils rich in organic matter and nitrogen content and cool night temperatures during the growing season make apples “a good fit.”
A traditional Virginia staple is the fried apple “pie.” Vaguely resembling a piece of pie, it’s a mixture of cooked apples, sugar and cinnamon between two pieces of dough pressed together and skillet fried in Crisco.
A famous Virginia apple product is apple butter, a mahogany-hued, slurpy condiment made in the fall. Apple butter purists use a copper kettle with a rounded-bottom and no seams and cook it over a wood fire. With a special paddle, minders stir the mixture of apples, water, sugar and spices, including cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon, in a long, slow boil for long as 12 hours.
Many experts prefer Rome, Stayman, Granny Smith, golden delicious and winesap apples. Some offset tart apples with sweeter varieties in their apple butter. How to eat it? Smear it on biscuits or cornbread, or put it in cakes or on ice cream.
At Lorton’s Pohick Church every fall, parishioners convert 50 to 60 bushels of apples into 1,000 to 1,200 jars of apple butter. If you’re up for a road trip this fall, Etlan United Methodist Church’s Apple Butter Committee makes gallons at Graves Mountain Lodge’s annual Apple Harvest Festival in Syria, in Madison County, this year on October’s first three weekends.
Here in Alexandria, don’t skip a visit to Lost Boy Cider. The cidery has been winning accolades in Virginia and across the country for its Virginia apple-based ciders. Learn more at lostboycider.com.
OYSTERS
Whiskey & Oyster
Dubbed “bite-sized bundles of love,” oysters have long been central to Chesapeake Bay diets. Oysters helped some English Jamestown settlers survive. Visiting the Bay in 1701, Swiss nobleman Francis Louis Michel effused that Virginia oysters were four times the size of England’s, marveling at their abundance. “There are whole banks of them so that the ships must avoid them,” he wrote.
Discriminating oyster aficionados can identify the water of origin by the oyster’s saltiness, sweetness, creaminess or mineral notes. “To enjoy the many flavors of a Virginia oyster, you need to chew it a number of times or you’ll miss the subtle tastes,” advises a Virginia Marine Products Board brochure. “After the initial salt, you will often notice a light creamy/butter flavor of different intensities and then a sweetness. The finish varies depending on the oyster and the time of year.”
This fleshy blob of meat inside two nondescript, bumpy, gray shells is so revered in Virginia that in 2015, then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe launched the Virginia Oyster Trail and declared the state the “Oyster Capital of the East Coast.”
Urbanna, “A Little Historic Town with an Oyster Problem,” has a festival every fall, this year on Nov. 4-5, where people gobble up the morsels breaded, deep fried, steamed, boiled, stewed, Rockefellered and frittered as they shop for oyster shell lamps, ornaments and jewelry. The festival’s oyster shucking contest has sent shuckers to international championships. Contestants split the bivalves at lightning speed, aiming for clean separation, no dirt or shell fragments, undamaged meat and a tidy tray display. Festivities climax with the crowning of the Oyster Queen and Little Miss Spat. Visit virginiaoystertrail.com and urbannaoysterfestival.com.
Here in Alexandria, of course, make a reservation at the new Hank’s Oyster Bar, which moved from King Street to Old Town North in April. Or, in the Carlyle District, make a date at Whiskey & Oyster.
