Colonial locavores
If you think our country’s founding foodies are the only ones with their own shows on the Food Network, think again. Tuesday, August 28, from 6-8:30pm, head to Monticello’s West Lawn for a conversation with Dave DeWitt, author of The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine. For the $60 ticket price, you’ll get Virginia wine, hors d’oeuvres, a tour of Monticello and its gardens, and a chance to hear this New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum chairman talk food trends and sustainability. Visit monticello.org/site/visit/events/evening-conversation-dave-dewitt-author-founding-foodies for information and to purchase tickets.
A perfect pearing
Asia’s not the only place to grow Asian pears. The round delights, which taste like a cross between an Anjou pear and a jicama, happily grow at Saunders Brothers Orchard on Route 56W, about 35 miles south on 29. Visit on Saturday, September 1 between 9am and 5pm to sample (and stock up) on the pears and enjoy the music of Dave Miller & Friends while you’re at it.
Nice to eat you
Get to know your food and the people who grow, raise, and harvest it at the fourth annual Meet Yer Eats Farm Tour on Labor Day. From 10am to 4pm, tour as many of the 21 participating farms—from Appalachia Star to Wolf Creek—that time and travel allow. Visit meetyereats.wordpress.com/ for information on each farm and to buy the car pass that gets everyone in it all-area access to the grounds of what ends up on your table and in your body. Purchase passes before September 1 for $15, or spend $25 after that.