This seems to be exactly what Downtown Crozet does not need:
Asked to share five percent of the proceeds, Wilson decided instead to move the food pick-up point to nearby Old Trail Village which— while it may not be able to offer giant shade trees— won’t charge the Community-Supported Agriculture entity a fee.
Downtown Crozet needs to encourage more community activities in the Downtown area rather than encourage them to look elsewhere. Surely there’s more to this?
More at the Old Trail Village blog:
Beginning this Saturday, June 13th, Horse and Buggy Produce will offer farm-stand produce to subscribers and area residents from 8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. every Saturday at the Old Trail Village Center. Horse and Buggy Produce, a provider of local produce and other farm goods, has long offered subscription-based shares to Albemarle residents. They are expanding their operation to include farm stand options, allowing all area residents and visitors to purchase fresh items from Mennonite farms in the Valley of Virginia from pick-up locations such as this.
Do you not like this idea because it’s going on at the same time as the Crozet Farmers Market? Pick up time is only an hour and a half on Saturday morning. Maybe the Village is just trying to get any activities that they can going on Saturday morning to bring more people to the area. Horse and Buggy makes picking up your fresh groceries for the week pretty fun, Brett is good at making people smile. I also think he’s providing a service for people by setting up pick up at so many different locations so that you don’t have to drive far to get his local produce.
I think that, rightly or wrongly, Downtown Crozet is competing with Old Trail for the future of Crozet’s identity.
Things like the Horse and Buggy drop off brought people downtown who may not have gone otherwise – and that “hustle and bustle” brings vitality and energy that is very needed.
If Old Trail Village could get the farmer’s market too, that would be a major coup, and if I were them I would be doing my best to woo the current farmers’ market and/or establish another one.
I don’t have a public opinion on this whether this is a good or bad thing, but recognize that the competition is very real.
Agree with you, Jim, about the identity of Crozet. I would not be surprised if Old Trail is actually paying Horse and Buggy to come out there like they did with ACAC…
Just to clarify… Old Trail is not paying Horse & Buggy or ACAC to come to Old Trail Village. We are allowing Horse & Buggy to use the parking lot for free, and ACAC is leasing 8,400 square feet in the village center.
Thanks Justin for the clarification and for taking the time to comment.
(but doing so really puts a damper on our conspiracy theories)
Well done in getting them to OTV.
Tabor imposed a fee that forced Horse and Buggy out?
OH PULLLEASSSE!
As a member of Tabor church, I’m proud of our 100yr+ service to the Crozet community and feel very blessed to have wise neighbors and friends who question idle gossip. We request a donation for the use of our parking lot IF POSSIBLE. Mr. Wilson was never asked to leave, nor contacted us about any displeasure or even, simply, that he was leaving. We joyfully provided space for him last year with no donation involved.
Tabor encourages everyone to take advantage of CSA’s (Farmers Market, Horse and Buggy, etc.) Our community is blessed to have these opportunities. Additionally, I invite everyone to join us at Tabor at 10Am on Sunday mornings and discover, for yourself, what great neighbors we really are!
As the Operations Manager at Horse & Buggy Produce, I feel that I too should comment. The issue about Tabor’s Board of Directors asking for 5% of profits was unfortunately overheard by someone at the Hook and put into the press. It is not something that we wished to have publicized, as Tabor has been really good to us for the past year (as was the Crozet Methodist Church the year before). The donation request was not the sole reason that we were leaving but did play into it, especially since our subscriber base in Crozet has decreased for the past three years, and therefore so have our profits. The main reason we moved was to get more foot traffic and more exposure in hopes of increasing our subscriptions in Crozet so we can continue to service this area next year. Andrea Sarate, the marketing director at OTV has been a joy to work with and was open to the idea of having our CSA drop spot/market liven up the newly developed village center. We appreciate the use of the space free of charge and hope that having us there serves the community of Old Trail and brings in folks from the surrounding area. We sell many of our items “a la carte”, so anyone is welcome to stop by to make a one-time purchase. Of course we hope you enjoy your purchase so much you come back for more (most people do!).
Glad to here there’s talk of us out here in the cyberworld.