My Whole Family’s positive view of the world.

Bringing Local Back: Cristina’s Café Features Local Food in Strasburg, Virginia
By | From Main Street News | July 27, 2011 |

Despite the recent popularity of the Local Food movement, many communities, particularly in smaller rural towns, have resisted the trend, citing the added expense or unavailability of local goods. But in the town of Strasburg, Virginia, a small café is striving to change negative perceptions about eating locally—one plate at a time.

“Especially in rural areas, people do not spend as much of their income on food. ‘Organic food’ is seen as something for people with money— city people,” says Wendy Willis, who, along with her sister Cristina Willis, co-owns and operates Cristina’s Cafe. The café attempts to combat that perception by emphasizing the availability of locally grown produce, meats, and dairy products.

“Eating locally is most important,” says Willis, adding that Cristina’s café strives to “educate people about what is around them and what is available seasonally” by using locally produced ingredients (people in the ‘biz call this “locally sourced “) in their dishes whenever possible — sometimes as close by as the herbs and tomatoes grown in the café’s garden — and creating their menu based on what is available seasonally.

The Friday Night Farmers Market, held during the summer months, sets up along the perimeter of the café’s small gravel parking lot.

Credit: Cristina’s Cafe
In addition to serving locally sourced alternatives to the fast food found in Strasburg, Cristina’s is also strengthening this Main Street community’s local food economy by hosting a farmers market in the café parking lot. “I go to a lot of farmers markets, so I know a lot of vendors,” says Willis, who initially organized the market to serve as a place both for local vendors to sell their goods, ranging from organic berries to handmade soaps, and as gathering spot for Strasburg residents to get out and socialize. The markets are held on Friday nights to avoid competition with Saturday and Sunday farmers markets, and attract a mix of locals and tourists alike, depending on the week.

The Willis sisters have a multifaceted approach to their conservation efforts. “It’s really all about being conscious of the waste you are producing,” says Willis. The café, which is the first Virginia Green-certified restaurant in Frederick and Shenandoah Counties, has incorporated various recycling and waste reduction strategies into their business practices. “There’s no local recycling pick-up for businesses,” says Willis, “so once a week we collect everything and take it out to the recycling plant.”

Beyond recycling raw materials, the Willis sisters put a compost bin in their yard to produce soil for their herb and vegetable garden. Dairy and other kitchen scraps are sourced to a local pig farm, which in turn provides the café with some of its meat products. Meanwhile, a stormwater management system consisting of a hose and gutter system and a 1,500-gallon rain barrel collects water off their roof, which they use to water the café garden. The sisters have also taken measures to reduce the environmental impact of their building by participating as a community pilot project for solar panel installation on the roof of their café.

Two Easy Ways to Green a Business
For businesess looking to green their practices, Willis suggests the following tips:

Be conscious of how much waste you are producing. Small changes in waste management can significantly reduce costs and environmental impact.
Look for recycling and community composting programs. Many areas now offer local pick-up, but if not consider doing your own drop-offs at local recycling plants. If your business is located in a rural area, contact local farmers to see if they can take organic waste; or if you have the space, start your own composting bin. Many urban areas have community composting sites as well.

Rebecca Chan is an intern with the National Trust Main Street Center.

This article is reposted here for those who could not read it on the original site. Cristina’s is across the street from my building so I can attest to the value of the food and the contribution to the community.

The real meaning of Thanksgiving Day for me is being able to express the appreciation I feel for friends and family, for the blessings that have been apparent even when my eyes were closed to them. That is the gift of living long enough to have been on both sides of the fence. In youth I was so certain and so adamant and so ready to right the wrongs! Through time I’ve changed my mind about many minor issues and even most major ones and fully expect to do so again.

I’ve become more grateful each year, more aware, and more open to what adventures life might bring. It is an exciting process this thing called life and I hope that this season we will all to be more thankful, more open and more forgiving. It is my intention to give of myself to as many of those in my circle as possible and I encourage you to consider gifting yourself to those in your life. It can often be as simple as few minutes of time, a phone call, lending a hand, a simple hug or a hand on a shoulder. A plate of cookies and a cup of hot tea with a friend is a gift of time.

Consider a gift of time to those in your circle. I bet if you do your circle of friends and family will grow to be as valuable as mine is to me.

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