GAZETTE COLUMN: FOOD FIGHT – HOW MUCH CAN ONE TOWN EAT? By John P. Flannery

Is the trade of a barn and an historic working farm for a

new grocery store - a Harris Teeter - really worth it?

 

 

Joni Mitchell: "They paved paradise ... to put up a parking lot ..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwUJH70ubM

Putting aside how some engineering geniuses accidentally knocked down an abandoned barn in Purcellville that they promised to preserve and protect, while making way for a spanking brand new Harris Teeter grocery store, you have to ask how many grocery stores does a town really need? 

How much food can the town’s people eat?

We already have a few big stores in town, namely, Bloom and Giant, and there are other smaller stores as well, for example, for the health conscious, we have Healthway Natural Foods, also the 7-11 for small fast stops, and even “My Deli and Café” for the sandwich on the run.

I confess a personal bias for Giant as I shop there occasionally and my daughter Diana works there.  But I used to shop at Bloom before Giant and sometimes still do.  There’s the loaf of bread and milk I get at the 7-11.  And we can’t overlook what's nearby, Natural Mercantile in Hamilton and Wegman’s only fifteen minutes away in Leesburg.

Meaning no offense, “why in the world do we need a Harris Teeter?” 

It’s been long reported, seemingly without sufficient enviro or governmental empathy, that, at the same time we are planning for this new grocery store, right across the street, in order to make way for the SCR, we are destroying a 250-year old farm, Crooked Run Orchard Farms, where you can still pick fresh produce yourself; one friend said she picks 50 pounds of berries a season; it is bitterly ironic that, as we trash a producing historic farm, we are making way for a retail grocery store? 

Now that the court cases are winding down, and this farm family has been crushed like a bug, a fleet of monstrous earth-moving machines stands ready, motors running, to punch holes in the ground, tear through their vegetable patches, knock down the barn, lay a road, and, slice and dice this family’s dreams to shreds.

Many came to this County because it was a land of farms, of rolling green pastures and country roads sunk out of sight by design because the sight of roads diminishes the landscape.

We are squandering our natural legacy by inches and miles, converting the living and beautiful into an everywhere sameness, supplanting the curve of a hill, rock outcroppings and pastures with manicured patches of grass, acres of asphalt, and glass and steel boxes that sell what we can get elsewhere or what we don’t need at all.

A Greek philosopher said, “Nothing improves our aim like having a target.”

Is our target eating more and getting fatter?

Is it endangering the groceries we have by increasing competition in the face of a doubtful demand?

Is it making a magnet store to attract more people to move here, without regard for how we afford the necessary services or infrastructure?

None of these “targets” are worthy.

We won’t receive a dime’s worth of benefit from this unrelenting and unnecessary fast-growth development.

But the profit that these developers expect make them totally indifferent to preserving and protecting what’s living, natural and beautiful about this County.

GAZETTE COLUMN: THE DUVALLS – A NEIGHBORLY REMINDER by John P. Flannery

Host Robert and Luciana Duvall

Photo by John Flannery

Everyone knows Academy award-winner Bobby Duvall - perhaps our greatest living actor. 

But he has also made a significant contribution to our region.

I first saw Duvall in the 60s in Greenwich Village playing Eddie Carbone in a revival of Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.”  He became that haunting Arthur “Boo” Radley, mentally disabled, appearing as if out of thin air from behind a slowly swinging door in an unforgettable scene with Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”  He was the Corleone’s mob consigliere to the “Godfather,” the Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore who loved the smell of napalm in the morning in “Apocalypse Now,” the Texas Ranger, Gus Macrae, who chose death rather than have his leg cut off in “Lonesome Dove,” and so many more sensational roles on stage and screen.

But Bobby is also a great neighbor. 

Bobby Duvall and his wife Luciana worked hard to help defeat the PATH transmission lines; they also resisted separate development plans by Disney and Walmart’s that might have destroyed the historic Bull Run Battlefield in Manassas.

Now, they are helping the PEC encourage us one and all to “buy fresh and buy local” from neighboring beef, pork and poultry farms, from vegetable and flower gardens, from Virginia wineries, and local bakeries. 

This way, our local farmers earn more than the discounted prices wholesalers pay them, remain viable, and continue to supply us with what’s fresh and healthy.

Bobby and Luciana hosted a “Meet the Farmer” gourmet tasting buffet prepared by Chef Claire Lamborne at their 360 acre horse farm, the Byrnley Farm in the Plains, to show us what’s available in the region.

But first you have to hear the story behind the venue where they convened their tasting.

Years ago, Bobby found he loved “the seedy” and “the sweetness” of the tango dance. 

While in Argentina working on a film, he met Luciana, a younger, striking, tall, dark-haired beauty. 

They shared an interest in the tango, and they made a film that Bobby wrote and directed. 

Bobby posed a critical question, by his character: “If I were younger, would I have a chance with you?” 

Luciana’s character answers, “You have a chance now.” 

And so he did.

They danced the tango on a finished polished barn floor at their farm. 

That’s where we had our tasting – at the soulful center of their homestead.

Bobby spoke before the dinner was under way. 

He insisted we had the richest soil in Virginia, praised the fresh chicken that was free of antibiotics, the beef better than that found in his beloved Argentina, without any hormones or steroids, the fine pork passed down through generations since James Madison, and the bread and exceptional wines. 

Bobby finished by declaring, without a murmur of dissent, that “Virginia is the last station before heaven.”

Former Congressman Tom McMillen said this was “a communal celebration of the produce, once tasted, that you can commend to others.”

Anne Donovan Larson said, “Loudoun was once the breadbasket of America, and could be significant once again.”

We must preserve and buy fresh produce from our local farms, and thank the Duvalls for reminding us of the treasure we have before it’s squandered.

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