Blue Ridge Mountain Cafe First to Go "Green" in Virginia's Shenandoah County
By Sue McMurray
Move over Sara Snow. Resource Recreation and Tourism (RRT) alumnus Wendy Willis (‘08) and her sister Cristina Maddox do more than encourage people to eat their greens at the café they co-own and manage. The pair recently experienced a bit of celebrity status after earning the title of Shenandoah County’s first “green” certified restaurant.
Cristina’s Café, located in Strasburg, Va., sports a garden behind its walls instead of a parking lot. The sisters use all of the fruits, vegetables and spices they grow to enhance the cuisine they serve. They depend on local farmers to provide the rest of the vegetables and coffee they need. Staying local helps everyone involved, Willis and Maddox say.
"I know that ‘local’ is kind of a buzz-word these days, but for us, it's much more than that," explains Willis. "We were raised as restaurateurs, and our parents always told us, before it was even popular, that it is important to help the people out in your town, to do local business, instead of just going to all the box stores on the outside of town," adds Willis.
A Virginia green restaurant is accredited by the Virginia Green program, which focuses on recycling grease and less consumption of energy and waste.
Willis and Maddox recycle the café’s grease, cans, plastic and waste. Extra or uneaten food scraps go to Golden Farms owner, Sue Golden, who feeds her pigs with the extras and alleviates some of her feed costs. And what isn’t eaten by the animals is composted into the soil.
The owners of Cristina’s Café say going green is more expensive but worth it. “You feel better going green, because you are not such a consumer,” says Maddox. “I am doing soemthing besides just using and creating more pollution in the world.”
They want to raise awareness and encourage other restaurants to try green practices to help the Shenandoah Valley environment.
"It's really important given where we are located," says Maddox. "I mean we are in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, and there are so many resources all around us and so much that we can do to help beautify this place. The more we destroy, the less we're going to have to enjoy and the less our children are going to have to enjoy."
Move over Sara Snow. Resource Recreation and Tourism (RRT) alumnus Wendy Willis (‘08) and her sister Cristina Maddox do more than encourage people to eat their greens at the café they co-own and manage. The pair recently experienced a bit of celebrity status after earning the title of Shenandoah County’s first “green” certified restaurant.
Cristina’s Café, located in Strasburg, Va., sports a garden behind its walls instead of a parking lot. The sisters use all of the fruits, vegetables and spices they grow to enhance the cuisine they serve. They depend on local farmers to provide the rest of the vegetables and coffee they need. Staying local helps everyone involved, Willis and Maddox say.
"I know that ‘local’ is kind of a buzz-word these days, but for us, it's much more than that," explains Willis. "We were raised as restaurateurs, and our parents always told us, before it was even popular, that it is important to help the people out in your town, to do local business, instead of just going to all the box stores on the outside of town," adds Willis.
A Virginia green restaurant is accredited by the Virginia Green program, which focuses on recycling grease and less consumption of energy and waste.
Willis and Maddox recycle the café’s grease, cans, plastic and waste. Extra or uneaten food scraps go to Golden Farms owner, Sue Golden, who feeds her pigs with the extras and alleviates some of her feed costs. And what isn’t eaten by the animals is composted into the soil.
The owners of Cristina’s Café say going green is more expensive but worth it. “You feel better going green, because you are not such a consumer,” says Maddox. “I am doing soemthing besides just using and creating more pollution in the world.”
They want to raise awareness and encourage other restaurants to try green practices to help the Shenandoah Valley environment.
"It's really important given where we are located," says Maddox. "I mean we are in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, and there are so many resources all around us and so much that we can do to help beautify this place. The more we destroy, the less we're going to have to enjoy and the less our children are going to have to enjoy."
