We are so excited to welcome you to our farm bed and breakfast inn! Here’s some information about what makes our property unique!
Proprietor
Melinda has always dreamed of being a “gentlewoman farmer” and owning a bed and breakfast. After years of visiting the craft beverage (wine, cider, beer, whiskey) producers of Virginia, she looked for a property in Shenandoah Valley, with views of the Blue Ridge.
She is busily planting heritage apple trees and is making cider, cyser (apple and honey), and mead as a hobby. Eventually Melinda plans to build a small tasting room and event center at the back of the farm.
A former corporate sustainability manager in the events industry, she brings efforts to carefully manage the environment to her work here, with organic gardening, composting, recycling, and reduction in pesticide use.
We hope you enjoy this beautiful home and property as much as she does!
House
All of the guest rooms and common areas are in the original 1790 farm house, with the owner’s private areas and kitchen in the addition, built about 100 years ago.
Throughout the house, you’ll find spacious 9′ and 10’ ceilings, and the soaring, tall windows that allows for. All the original woodwork remains. The beautiful hardwood floors are covered with oriental rugs. The interior decorating features elegant antiques, without being over furnished or fussy.
The entire ambiance is peace and rural tranquility. Every window has a pretty pastoral view, and no bedrooms share a wall. You have complete privacy.
Farm
- Play croquet, badminton, or horseshoes
- Take a walk through the orchard meadow
- Explore the native plant landscaping
- Pet the donkeys and feed the alpacas
- Hang out at the fire pit or grill your own dinner in the boxwood garden
By acreage this farm’s current principle crop is hay, worked by a local cattle and turkey farmer. We’ve taken a couple of acres out of hay production to turn into a bio-dynamic orchard, which is a fancy term for a type of organic farming that actively cultivates the fungus in the soil and enhances the trees’ natural defenses to avoid pesticide use. We currently have 140 heritage apple trees, both full-size and crab apples, with the intention of creating a small commercial cidery when the trees are mature in 2024.
When you grow apple trees you think a lot about pollinators. Yes, honey bees, but also all the native bees, wasps, moths, and butterflies that pollinate our fruit trees and plants, which led us to extensive plantings of native wildflowers as our landscaping, gradually reducing the amount of lawn grass. We’re trying to label all the varieties, in case you are curious, but are struggling to keep the labels visible as the plants grow!
But don’t worry! We’re keeping enough lawn to play croquet and badminton, and there’s a horseshoe pit not too far from the house. To maintain lots of wildflowers and clover for the pollinators year-round, we never mow the entire orchard at once, but we do maintain mowed walking paths for those who would enjoy a tranquil walk through a meadow.
We have five pet alpacas, Emily, Charlotte, and Anne Bronte, Latte, and Max who hang out in the barn in summer and the front paddock in cooler weather. In the back paddock are the donkeys, Jane Austen and her son Percy Shelley, and Angel. And four cows in the front field who love peppermint biscuits. We’ll give you carrots, apples, or grain if you’d like to visit and feed the animals.
Breakfast
We have adapted to Covid-19 by:
- Individually serving items that would have been in the buffet
- Staggered dining room seating times
- Offering a choice of seating:
- Dining room
- Back patio (heat lamp)
- Deck (heat lamp)
- Your room
All areas receive sanitization between uses. All dishes, cutlery, serving utensils receive industry-standard sanitization.
We continue to serve the same high-quality, locally-sourced meats, eggs, honey, fruits, and vegetables. Every morning we serve a full gourmet hot breakfast as well as fruit, bread, yogurt, and pastries, with coffee or tea.
Check out some of our favorite recipes in our blog.
Our farm grows many of the fruits we serve, including apples, cherries, berries, and melons, in season, supplemented by the local markets.
The menu alternates between a gourmet egg dish (omelette, frittata, casserole) and a luxurious carbohydrate (pancakes, waffles, French toast), or, in season, our favorite, the German Apple Pancake. Always served with a locally sourced breakfast meat, in rotation: bacon, link sausage, or sausage patty.
We always serve local breads and homemade muffins or quick breads, and a variety of locally made jams or jellies and syrups. Ever try apple cider syrup, also known as boiled cider, instead of maple for a change?
We serve on a variety of antique bone china, English porcelain cups, and silver flatware. Just to feel special.
Need to make a super-early start? Give us advance warning and we’ll make you a continental breakfast to go.
