Sustain Floyd | To preserve, enhance and support a resilient local community

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Community Market Grapevine August 5

I just cut up the cantaloupe from Saturday’s farmers market this (Tuesday) morning as part of breakfast. The smallish, flawless melon passed the sniff test at market, giving off a faint perfume. Three days on the kitchen counter had magnified the scent; cutting it open confirmed the results. And the taste? Ambrosia. You know it’s [...]
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SustainFloyd’s History

2008: On November 16th 2008, a small group of Floyd County residents gave a public presentation in the Floyd Country Store entitled “The Future of Floyd.” This gathering was arranged by The Floyd Fund, a local affiliate of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley. Some 60 residents attended and presented diverse viewpoints. After [...]
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App State Scrapes the Plate

Over the 1999 spring semester, students enrolled in a sustainable development curriculum at Appalachian State spearheaded a project to collect food waste from campus food services. A year later, students in an Appropriate Technology curriculum track launched a pilot project, constructing an aerated static pile and composting about 18 tons of food waste. At last [...]
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Our Home: Floyd County, Virginia

Floyd County is a rural mountain community in the Blue Ridge highlands of Virginia. Located on a high plateau, on the eastern edge of the Continental Divide, it comprises 360 square miles of forests and farmlands. The County is a sensitive ecological area, with a topography, elevation and watershed that are scenic and relatively unspoiled. [...]
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Community Market Grapevine ~ July 8

Our Farmers Market seems to be falling into a steady rhythm of commerce and camaraderie, many Floydians making part of the Saturday ritual. As the cool of the morning gives way to the heat of the day, all stays cool under the shade of the Community Market Pavilion. I do wonder if the community fully [...]
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Wendell Berry: 17 Rules for Sustainable Economies

This seems like a pretty good starting point in facing Floyd County’s future. Do you see “rules” you disagree with or others with which you could both agree and contribute? Wendell Berry is a strong defender of family, rural communities, and traditional family farms. These underlying principles could be described as ‘the preservation of ecological [...]
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Locavores misguided, critics say – The Denver Post

…Rob Gardner, a Chicago- based locavore and editor at large for thelocalbeet.com, believes some critics have created an extreme caricature of the locavore as someone who forbids the consumption of any non-local food to suit their arguments. “I don’t think anyone is advocating such extremism,” said Gardner, who still drinks coffee, eats citrus and uses [...]
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Community Market Grapevine May 27

With our pre-season warm-ups complete, it’s time for the Big Game Day at the Floyd Farmers Market. Our Grand Opening Celebration is this Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. sponsored by the Floyd office of Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance in a great show of support for the market and its producer-members. The Grand Opening [...]
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How to Contribute

Volunteer; donate towards specific projects; donate to the general SF effort; make suggestions–offer ideas. To be fleshed out SOON!
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Size Small: Field Hands

About 35 Blue Mountain School (BMS) students, along with several BMS teachers and parent volunteers, spent a recent morning planting potatoes as part of Floyd’s Farm to School Program (FTS). The planting, supervised by the Five Penny Farm farmers at their fields on Shooting Creek Road, was the latest step in building on last year’s [...]
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