Chris Couch owns and manages Dreaming Tree Farms, a small farm outside of Richmond, Virginia that sells prepackaged salad kits for a weekly-delivered subscription service under the name Farm-To-Salad. He started out as a hobby farmer in 2009 and in 2017 decided to leave his job as a management consultant to pursue a more fulfilling career growing healthy food for his community…
Virginia
Local Government Tries to Shut Down Virginia Farm
Our whole fiasco with the government trying to shut our farm down came on a Monday in mid-March and began with a call from one of our chefs we sell to. He notified us that the local Loudon County health inspector came into his restaurant, impound stickers in hand, and…
VIRGINIA: Call Secretary of Ag to Keep Farmers Markets Open!
As you may know, the State of Virginia has declared a state of emergency in response to COVID 19. We have heard reports of uncertainty regarding how this affects the operations of farmers markets. The Virginia Farmers’…
Virginia: Oppose These Herd Share Bills Now
While the sale of raw milk is illegal in Virginia, raw milk advocates have used the concept of herd sharing to obtain the revered, nutrient-dense food for decades. In a herd share agreement, consumers pay a farmer a fee for boarding their animal (or share of the animal), caring for…
Herd Shares in Virginia: The Stumbling Beginnings
In 1975 when I first started milking goats on my small ten-acre farm near Charlottesville, I was besieged by persons allergic to pasteurized cow milk and/or just wanting to consume raw milk. Not knowing the law but having heard