Category Archives: Meet our Vendors

5 Questions with Nouri Bar + A Giveaway

One of our newest vendors, Nouri, entered the bar making business only a few short months ago. Using simple, high quality ingredients, Nouri believes that energy bars should not only taste good, but nurture the mind and soul as well. We caught up with the founders to ask them a few questions about Nouri and how it all got started. Q: How and why did Nouri start? Nouri was founded in July, 2012 by Veneka Chagwedera and me (Jared Crooks). We're both Princeton University graduates who have a passion for natural food and doing good in the world. We worked on creating a quick snack from our kitchen that was raw, healthy and portable from which sprung the recipe for the Chocolate & Creamy Cashew Read more …

Meet Our Vendors: Farmstead Ferments

"What an exciting discovery it was to learn that all my favorite foods are fermented!" Dawn Story, the multi-talented owner of Farmstead Ferments and New Moon Naturals, tells me soon after she's offered a pungent, but revitalizing, shot of juice from her garlicky greens kraut. Dawn has long known the benefits of eating healthfully and living a balanced life: "I was in the weird family in the 70's. We lived in Virginia, but we were vegetarians and practiced yoga. At the time I kind of resented it, but now I'm so grateful!" Despite her family's ahead-of-the-curve focus on healthy eating, it was Dawn's interest in herbal medicine and natural remedies that deepened her awareness of Read more …

Meet Our Vendors: Cara’s Kitchen

When Cara married her husband B.J., they both decided to make a conscious effort to look at labels and make healthy food choices. Cara had a lot to live up to — her husband was raised by Maureen, the healthy mastermind behind Richmond's favorite whole grain baked goods. While Maureen was an important influence on how Cara and B.J. view foods as a family, it was a class at VCU that sparked Cara's passion for organic and GMO-free foods. After watching King Corn and Food, Inc. on a professor's recommendation, Cara decided it was critical that her family eat food in its purest form, without any industrial modifications: "if Ian eats an apple, I want him to be eating an apple, not an apple Read more …

Meet Our Vendors: Wild Oats Farm

When I asked Susan, the farmer and owner of Wild Oats Farm, if I could interview her for the Relay blog, she was welcoming but sent a warning: "things are really busy down here in springtime. You can come visit, but you will probably get roped into helping me feed the lambs." Twist my arm. Route 20 South from Charlottesville towards Susan's spot in Scottsville winds between lush, rolling green farmscapes and blossoming redbuds in this year's early Spring. Pulling up to the gate, I was greeted by a large, blond sheepdog and bleating, curious lambs who trotted along the fence line as I pulled towards Susan's rambling white farmhouse. When I arrived, Susan was washing out coolers Read more …

Meet Our Vendors: Brigit True Organics

Who doesn't want to heal their wounds and soothe their skin with an ancient remedy used by knights gallant of the Middle Ages? While we're all glad that antibiotics exist for the truly serious wounds, the wisdom of natural and herbal remedies needn't be forgotten. But with all the attention we Americans have started to pay to eating seasonal, pesticide-free, nutritious foods -- putting good things into our bodies -- it's still easy to overlook the effects of the chemicals we're putting directly on our bodies. For Brigitte Rau, who grew up in Germany but came to the US when her husband started at UVA's Darden School 12 years ago, the void of healthy herbal-based skincare products in Read more …