Vendors will offer baked goods, prepared foods, local grass-fed meats, local produce, holiday greenery, pottery, poinsettias, canned and pickled goods, note cards, barn wood framed photography, cookbooks, hand-made jewelry, candles, woodcrafts, hand painted pet portraits, crocheted hats and scarves, quilts, Christmas ornaments, hand-sewn items, spice blends as well as numerous other locally-created crafts.

Free hot drinks will be provided, as well as a kid’s ornament-making table and live music by Sisyphus Hill String Band. Get all your holiday gifts and food at the Catawba Valley Holiday Bazaar!

For more information on the Holiday Bazaar, or to reserve a table, contact Lindsay Newsome at  540-384-6804 or by e-mail at lindsaynewsome@gmail.com.

We will have farm kitchen tools on display and a pottery wheel demonstration. Kids can turn an antique churn and see butter being made. Kids can make and paint their own planters out of clay. Representatives from the USDA and Cooperative Extension Agency will be onsite with conservation of natural resources demonstrations. Join us for a day of fun celebrating Kids, Farms and Gardens!

This is in addition to our regular market filled with fresh local produce, meats, baked goods, prepared foods and traditional handicrafts!  For more info contact: lindsaynewsome@gmail.com 540-384-6804

The Catawba Valley Farmers Market, new in 2010, provides an opportunity to connect fields to forks right in our own backyard!

We are located at the Catawba Community Center (4965 Catawba Creek Road) off 311 near The Homeplace Restaurant and the General Store.

Check out our great selection of fresh, locally-grown vegetables, herbs, flowers, honey, fruit and nuts, plants, salsa, meats, eggs, fresh milled flours, jams, baked goods & ready-to-eat foods. Local residents also offer a varied selection of handicrafts ranging from birdhouses & feeders, baskets, jewelry, pottery, old-fashioned bonnets, locally produced cookbooks, barnwood-framed photography, notecards, and handcarved Santas and ornaments.

The Catawba Community Center is equipped with a picnic shelter with tables and a playground for the kids.  Every Thursday a pottery class/craft project will be conducted by a Roanoke City Schools art teacher for a small fee. There will also be pottery-making and wood carving demonstrations for everyone to watch.

While you’re at the market be sure to stop by the manager’s table to put your name in the monthly drawing to win $25 worth of “market bucks”. Join us on Facebook! Come out to the beautiful Catawba Valley to enjoy local food, arts and crafts!

article by Becky Hepler
Valley Business Front – Oct. 09
Copy of article available for download here.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Mahammudi Mganga as he discussed working with Virginia Tech’s EarthWorks to farm in Virginia. Mahammudi is part of a Somali Bantu refugee community numbering over 120 members living in Roanoke, Virginia. Integration into American society has been difficult for Mahammudi and the Bantu.

Mahamudi Mahdi, president of the Board of Somali Bantu in Roanoke, explained that the majority of Bantu lack English language skills and few are literate in their native languages. Mahamudi said that this language barrier has restricted the job opportunities for the Bantu in Virginia and made simple tasks like shopping and going to the doctor extremely difficult. While many of the Bantu struggle to integrate into American life, they bring with them decades of farming experiences from Somalia.

VT EarthWorks director Christy Gabbard is partnering with the Board of Somali Bantu in Roanoke and Virginia Tech’s Pilot Street Project to train the Bantu to farm in Virginia’s terrain and sell in American-style markets. VT EarthWorks has developed a training program called the Growers Academy. The Academy teaches farmers crop growing techniques, business plans, and market venues. “I’m ready to be a farmer here,” explained Hajiro Wehel, one of the Bantu farmers in the Growers Academy. Hajiro was a farmer in Somalia, growing crops for her family and for sale at market. This year Hajiro joins four other Bantu as participants of the 2011 Growers Academy.

For the Bantu farmers, the farming practices they are learning at the Academy are vastly different from the farming they experienced in Somalia. Hajiro explained, “We used to farm by our hands, by ourselves. Sometimes if you could afford it you could use machines. All the time back there it was always summer. We didn’t have snow or anything.” While the Bantu have found stark contrasts between farming in Virginia and Africa, there are some similarities. “There are a lot of things (in class) that we saw back home,” said Abdikadir Ali. Those similarities include the types of crops that the Bantu grew in Africa, many of which can be grown here in Virginia, including tomatoes, peppers, sweet potato, and pumpkin.

Upon completion of the course, the Bantu farmers, along with the other 25 program participants, will have the opportunity to start farming at the 377-acre Catawba Sustainability Center. The Center offers an abundance of farmland just over 15 minutes from the City of Roanoke. Academy participants will also have the opportunity to sell their crops at the Catawba Valley Farmers Market, run by VT EarthWorks, and Roanoke’s Historic Market.

To learn more about the planning process for this project, click here (PDF).

Read more about the plants that were selected for this project, see the list below:

• Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana): a small tree with a crown width around 35 feet and typical height of around 50 feet.  The tree has handsome dark green foliage and dark blocky bark.  It produces an orange colored fruit about the size of a cherry tomato that ripens in late autumn.  The fruit can be used in breads, puddings, cakes, cookies, and butters.   A rule of thumb is to wait until the first frost to harvest the fruit.  If it is eaten before it is ripe the fruit tastes very bitter.  When the fruit is ripe it is typically very soft and falls from the tree.

• American Plum (Prunus Americana):  a small tree that often has multiple stems.  It gets around 20 feet in height and 20 feet wide.  The tree does well in poor soils.  It produces a plum-like fruit that is about the same size as a persimmon and varies from shades of orange, red, and purple.  The fruit is tart and fantastic for jams, jellies, syrups, and combined with sweet cherries or apples in pies.

• Hickory (Carya spp.):  large trees getting around 75 feet tall and 40 feet wide.  Pecans are a type of hickory, but are not native to this region.  There are three different native species that produce quality nuts, shagbark (ovata), mockernut (tomentosa), and pignut (glabra).  The nut is sweet tasting and can be used in any recipe for walnuts or pecans.

• Black Walnut (Juglans nigra):  a large tree that typically grows 80 feet tall and around 50 feet wide.  It has thick chocolate brown bark and leaves that give lovely shade.  This species emits juglon through the decomposing leaves, fruits and nuts, which can stunt the growth of some surrounding plants.  This is only an issue for species that are sensitive to this chemical; blueberry is one of these species.  This tree produces a nut about the size of a tennis ball that starts out green and turns to brown after it falls.  The inside part of the nut looks very similar to the English walnut, but tastes a bit stronger.   The nut can be used in cookies, cakes, brownies, and ice cream.

• Serviceberry, Juneberry (Amelanchier canadensis):  a small tree that gets around 35 feet tall and 35 feet wide.  This species can be pruned to be more shrub-like if desired.  It has smooth dark bark with delicate leaves.  It has small white flowers in the spring and produces a fruit that looks very similar to a blueberry.  The fruit can be used in pies, jams, and scones.

• Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis):   A shrub that gets around 5-10 feet tall and 3-8 feet wide.  It can tolerate wet soils and dry soils.  It has large clumps of beautiful tiny flowers, which are edible and can be used to make wine.  It also produces large clumps of bb-like dark round berries that can be used to make jellies, syrups, and wine.  The fruit is said to have anti-viral qualities.  Important note:  all other parts of the plant are toxic (stem, leaves, bark).

• American Hazelnut (Corylus americana):  A shrub that can handle dryness, but does not like wet feet.   Gets 5-12 feet tall and 4-8 feet wide.  It produces a small nut that is covered by a leafy-fringed sheath.  The nut is very similar to the commercially sold filbert (hazelnut) and can be used in any general hazelnut recipe.  They are especially good for baking and granola.

• Pawpaw (Asimina triloba):  a small tree that gets around 20 feet tall and around 20 feet wide.  It is sensitive and must be in moist rich soils.  It has a beautiful dark burgundy flower and produces a 3-5 inch greenish yellow fruit that has the consistency of a banana.  The fruit can be used in puddings, pies, and breads.

• Red Mulberry (Morus rubra):  A medium tree that gets around 40 feet tall and 40 feet wide.  It produces a fruit that looks similar to a blackberry.  The fruits are good for jams, scones, breads, and pies.

• Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum):  a shrub that gets 3-10 feet tall and 3-10 feet wide.  It needs very acidic soils (ph 4.8-5.5).  It produces a tasty dark berry.

• Black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis):  a bramble that gets 3-6 feet tall and 4-8 feet wide.  The canes are purple colored.  The fruit looks similar to a blackberry and can be used in pies, cobblers, breads, jams, and jellies.

• Allegany blackberry (Rubus alleganensis): a bramble that gets 3-6 feet tall and 4-8 feet wide.  It prefers moist soils and produces a flavorful fruit that can be used in pies, jellies, jams, and cobblers.

Katie Trozzo, graduate student in Virginia Tech's Dept. of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, is using the Catawba Sustainability Center to experiment with native edible plants in riparian zones.

Virginia Tech graduate student Katie Trozzo is using the Catawba Sustainability Center as the site for her master’s project on using native edible perennial plants as part of a riparian zone scheme.  The project, which is being partially sponsored by the USDA National Agroforestry Center, will evaluate the ecological and economic value of using such plants as part of the vegetated buffer strips along the Catawba

Members of Catawba Landcare fed the hungry volunteers lunch at the Catawba Valley Methodist Church.

Creek and will be available as a demonstration site for landowners interested in such an approach.

In order to get the more than 200 trees and shrubs in the ground, Katie and Kim Thurlow, the Assistant Director of the Catawba Sustainability Center organized a volunteer work day which brought out more than 50 volunteers from the community and the university.  Click here to see pictures from the planting day.

VT students conducting a whole-property planning assessment for the Catawba Sustainability Center.

Each fall, a course on Agroforestry is offered at Virginia Tech in which students work with real life landowners to develop a vision and plan for their entire property.  The process of whole-farm planning breaks down barriers between farming, forestry, and landscaping — merging them all together in one complete plan for the property.  For the last three years, students have worked with landowners in the Catawba Valley to develop plans for properties along the valley.  Read about their work in this article by Virginia Tech.