The Strother Family has served as stewards of historic Valley View Farm for five generations and is proud to announce the recent partnership with Philip Carter Winery to open a wine and hard cider tasting room at the farm located in Delaplane, Virginia.

The Locavore Farm Market at Valley View Farm opens on the weekend of May 5th and 6th and will offer Virginia wines and hard ciders, seasonal pick-your-own fruits, organic vegetables from the Garden at Valley View, and other local farm products, including the Orchard Branch Collection. The Orchard Branch Collection is the finest available Virginia wine country art and furniture, handcrafted by local artisans from repurposed barrels, farm products, wood, and equipment from historic Valley View Farm and Philip Carter Winery. The Orchard Branch Collection will be available exclusively at Valley View Farm and Philip Carter Winery.

“We are thrilled to provide a complete destination experience for customers who appreciate locally produced products, who we refer to as, “Locavores”. Valley View Farm is considered one of the most spectacular landscapes in the northern Piedmont of Virginia. It is stunning. To be able to make this site available to Locavores to enjoy fine wine, Virginia ciders, pick-your-own fruits, and organically grown vegetables is nothing short of being able to create the perfect local farm fresh experience,” Philip Carter Strother, owner of Philip Carter Winery.

The farm is a 500-acre tract that is rich in history and, with one exception, has been in the same family for nearly three centuries. Located in the Crooked Run Valley in northern Fauquier County, the farm was patented in 1731 by James Ball of Lancaster County, a first cousin of Mary Washington, the mother of George Washington. Originally land of the Powhatan Indians, the Valley View tract was inherited in the early 18th century by Thomas, sixth Baron Fairfax. In the 1740s, it was first settled by several pioneer families that moved into the region, many of the original settlement structures built on the farm in the mid-1700s remain today.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Quaker pastor Henry Simpers purchased the property. He offered it as a stopover point for the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, Simpers allowed armies from both sides to camp at the farm, including Stonewall Jackson’s troops who marched through on their way to the battle of Second Manassas.

Upon Simpers’ death in the 1920s, George Thomas Strother purchased the farm for his son Ed Strother who worked the property for sixty-one years, from 1926 to 1987. He bought and sold cattle, raised sheep and horses, and built a new manor house and red barn, which is the current location of the Locavore Farm Market today. Neighbor and famous general, George S. Patton, enjoyed foxhunting with Strother.

In 1997, Charles E. Strother, Jr. inherited the farm he had been helping his father run for the previous decade. Charles expanded the farm business, offering it as a retreat for day outings by business and religious groups. He also established a Pick-Your-Own attraction, formerly known as Virginia Perfection Orchard, featuring both pick-your-own fruits and vegetables.

In 2002, Valley View Farm inspired a two-year odyssey by internationally acclaimed artist Andrei Kushnir to document every aspect of this remarkably historic and beautifully serene portion of Fauquier County, Virginia. The culmination of Kushnir’s work, 50 landscape paintings were part of an exhibition at the Virginia Historical Society in 2004, Painted History: The Landscapes of Valley View Farm. The paintings, all created en plein air, depict one of the few family-owned farms in the Crooked Run Valley, just south of Sky Meadows State Park. According to the Virginia Historical Society’s Lora Robins Curator of Art, William Rasmussen, “the paintings underscore the idyllic nature of the area, as was apparent to Paul Mellon when he set aside the park acreage as a gift to the public.”

In 2016, Charles and his son, Philip Carter Strother, formed Strother Family Vineyards that currently operates a vineyard on 45 acres of the farm. Today, the story continues as father and son have collaborated once again in order to open the Locavore Farm Market & Tasting Room at Valley View Farm, in the red barn that Philip’s Grandfather built in the 1920s.

We invite you to come experience this historic property for yourself starting May 5, 2018.

Valley View Farm is located at 1550 Leeds Manor Road, Delaplane, VA 20144, www.valleyviewva.com.

The Locavore Farm Market and Tasting Room will be open initially Fridays and Saturdays, 10:00am to 7:00 pm and Sundays, 10:00am to 6pm. For more information, please email info@valleyviewva.com or visit www.valleyviewva.com.