Over the years that we've been heading out to Hawksbill Cabin for the weekend, I've had a lingering thought about how to be a part of the (at least in my opinion) very promising agri-tourism industry.
It's a natural complement to the beauty of the area there in Page County, and certainly it offers up the potential for co-marketing with active tourism, which we come by from the outfitters at Appalachian Outdoors Adventures, Hawksbill Bicycles, and Appalachian Adventures. On the agribusiness side, we have all the family farms that have joined Page County Grown and work at the delightful farmers market in Luray - as well as our vineyard at Wisteria.
A third leg of this stool, if you will, might be the local brewing group. Check out the blog in the right hand column about the Blue Ridge Brewers Association - there's no shortage of enthusiasts working on this pastime.
With the thought that I might some day be able to contribute to developing this brewing community, I started looking at Kickstarter to see how others are getting small brewing related enterprises off the ground with micro-funding projects. So far, I've found two nano-breweries in the DC area that interested me, and I sponsored them with small contributions.
The first is Baying Hound Aleworks, in the Maryland suburbs, who sought $5,000 to expand their operation. I can find their beers at the local shop near my office, so I was glad to make a contribution.
The second is Crooked Run, located in the further out Virginia suburbs. The proprietor there is promising to develop a Farmhouse Brewery - that brings a lot of my interests together in one place, so I was glad to make a little contribution. His $10,000 project was also successfully funded.
Between the two of them, I can't wait to get out and check out how things are going for them. By the way, links to their Kickstarter pages are included below.
It all comes down to this for me...as our community of brewers in Page County continues to thrive and grow, how can we find a way to add this to the mix of the agro-tourism and active tourism activities that are really coming into their own? I'll be thinking of the right project to join...I know I'm not the only one.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bayinghound/baying-hound-aleworks
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1463544393/crooked-run-brewing-a-farmhouse-nanobrewery
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