Charlottesville Food Read Online Free Page A

education and a love of heirloom tomatoes. Horse & Buggy began officially in 2006, unofficially in 2004, when Wilson was growing produce for restaurants and peddling cider. One day, a group of local women saw the produce in the back of Wilson’s pickup truck and inquired about his foodstuffs. The demand for his product exceeded its supply, so Wilson partnered with Mennonite farmers in the valley. Due to such “mom requests,” Wilson made his produce available in 2006 via Horse & Buggy subscriptions.
    Wilson’s partnership with the Mennonite farmers, born from the realization that his own farming capacity was not suitable for keeping up with the demand for heirloom products, is crucial to his business. Wilson himself is no longer a farmer but a distributor. Having to make the choice between roles and lifestyles, Wilson chose to “be the link between populations,” whether the populations are grower and consumer or the Mennonite community and the local populace at large. 87 Wilson’s decision to buy from the Mennonites led to an exodus from conventional jobs for the community members, who have now begun raising poultry and dairy as well as produce. Beaming, Wilson tells the story of a Mennonite man whom Wilson has seen grow from childhood, now the owner of a five-acre produce farm partially funded by Horse & Buggy.
    Wilson is now considering adding organic, regional and conventional items to Horse & Buggy’s traditionally local offerings, seeing as “people still eat bananas.” “We can’t be so absolute in our convictions that we ignore what people need,” Wilson insists. Horse & Buggy itself is now a year-round operation, freezing berries, cider, cherries and tomatoes and offering black beans and non-produce foodstuffs such as Albemarle Baking Company bread and Aqui Es Mexico tortillas to round out its offerings.
    Wilson’s idea to combine the freshest of available local products with offerings more likely found at a supermarket chain has already been taken a step further by a company that has established a veritable online grocery empire in Virginia over the last several years. Online grocery stores are the kind of thing one sees advertised on the New York subway, a standby of larger cities where convenience is king and fresh produce can be hard to come by. Yet Zach Buckner, an electrical engineer from Lexington, has discovered a way to make a virtual headway into “the biggest business in the world” with his company, Relay Foods. 88
    Browsing Relay Foods’ website is like walking through Whole Foods, the farmers’ market and your neighborhood quick-mart all at once. One can buy No-Bull gourmet veggie burgers, AA batteries, Tropicana orange juice and quail eggs from Down Branch Farm with a click of a mouse. Relay offers an incredible selection of local produce, from red Russian kale to canary melons. Weekly Bounty Baskets, which change daily as well as seasonally, allow customers to pick up a CSA-style assortment of produce, albeit from different farms and at a no-commitment price. For those too nervous to commit to a subscription or too curious to stick to one farm, these Bounty Baskets have the excitement of a CSA bundle without the insecurity or the commitment.
    But Relay’s allure lies with its foothold in more markets than just the local food scene. Many Whole Foods products, including its often-organic and reasonably priced 365 brand, are available online for those craving quality ketchup without wanting to brave the traffic at Whole Foods’ location on Hydraulic Road. Conversely, cheaper-priced food items like Richfood or similar off-brands are also available on Relay, thanks to a partnership with Reid Super-Save Market on Preston Avenue. Household cleaning products and cat litter line up with organic bell peppers and frozen pizzas from Mona Lisa Pasta on an easily navigable, user-friendly website that has made converts out of even the