September 4, 2008
Whole Foods Opens with the Cavalry
Now that Whole Foods in Short Pump is open (as of yesterday) and Trader Joe’s has announced a Sept. 26th opening date, Richmond is in good hands for the fall as the local farmer’s markets start winding down. My favorite Lakeside Market vendor, Mike Wiblin, is done for the season at Lakeside. But Charlie, over at Victory Farms will continue as long into November as Mother Nature allows.
Word on the street is that there was barely room to move in the Whole Foods yesterday, not to mention shop. They even called in the cavalry — okay, not the cavalry, just the police — but close enough. I mean you’d think Richmond had never seen a natural foods store before or something! Oh, how I’d love a photo of that! Locals are already writing about it.
But you have to admit, eating locally, organically and chemical-free is becoming more and more important to Richmonders, and folks everywhere. The best way to do this of course is to buy from the farmer directly — but if you can’t Whole Foods and Ellwood Thompson’s both offer a huge selection of produce from local farmers. Whole Foods in fact, offers loans to farmers who want to expand their operation to sell to Whole foods. Pretty Cool!
I don’t know if Ellwoods has seen any decrease in business yet, but they’ve come up with a pretty good marketing plan — getting folks to take a Locavore Challenge of eating at least one meal per day made with local ingredients. Including a kick off potluck Sept. 8th at 6:30 p.m. in their community classroom, and an end of the season Celebration: Locavore prix fixe meal at Edible Garden on Thursday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m. Other Richmond area restaurants that feature local ingredients include Savor, Six Burner and of course Zed who I often see at the farmers market buying his veggies in bulk from Charlie at Victory Farms.
As for me, I shopped at the 17th Street Farmers Market this morning, my hubby ran to pick up our last berry share last night, and I guess Whole Foods will have to wait until I’m out in Short Pump anyway, which may be a while.
Here is the link, hours, phone, and address for the new Whole Foods:
| Whole Foods Market |
| 11173 West Broad Street |
| Glen Allen, VA 23060 |
| Phone: 804.364.4050 |
| Fax: 804.364.4032 |
8 am-10pm
Mike has stopped selling the week before Labor Day the three growing seasons we have known him since returning to Richmond. His tomato’s and peppers are terrific
We were at WF Weds afternoon and it was crowded with gawkers and buyers alike. Glad both they and TJ have made it here at last. WF’s seafood is our only hope for some variety and selection in what compared to NoVa and DC is a pretty dismal availability of finned and shellfish. Ah to have a Maine Market or Slavin’s here
s
I think the poster meant cavalry, not calvary.
Ah, yes, that is what I meant! That is pretty funny, thanks for pointing it out.
[...] it’s going to impact the Near West End too. While I still haven’t made it out to the Whole Foods that opened a few weeks ago, I did make it a priority to go to Trader Joe’s on opening day. (And no, the cops were not [...]