See My Project: Eating Out In Lexington

Journalism Final Project

"Working" Assignment

Victoria Wade works at the Jefferson Florist in Lexington

The inspiration for this assignment comes from Studs Terkel's book "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do."

I was born and raised here. I went to Dabney S. Lancaster for a year. I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to do so I just started working.

I had a couple of summer jobs – babysitting and painting at VMI. Right before this I was at the Lexington Recycling Center for about a year and a half. Then I found this job and I’ve been here ever since.

On a day-to-day basis I don’t know where I’m going to have to go on deliveries, who I’m going to meet, or the different sites I’ll get to see. I get to do a variety of things each day. I help the customers and I do deliveries. Mainly in just the spring, summer, and fall I do the plant care outside.

Sometimes you get your customers that are a little picky, a little rude. The main thing about being in a business is to keep your customer happy. If we don’t have a plant and have a particular flower we try our best to get it. But being in a small business, you try your best to please them so it will keep them coming back.

Jefferson Florist delivers to a variety of people in Rockbridge County and beyond.

We do pretty much anyone. We go to the high school and do a lot for the students at VMI and W&L. We go to Kendal and sometimes I’ve even gone to places like Millboro and Augusta County.

           

The good thing is that when I’m here I can answer the phone and take someone’s order. I don’t do any of the flower arranging. Somebody else puts it together and then I get to deliver and talk to the person that’s receiving it. So I talk to the person who’s ordering it and the person who’s receiving it. I get to see what they’re like. Most everyone’s pretty cool. There’s on occasion the rude person.

They don’t send anonymous arrangements for a reason.

Sorry I’m just the middle person. We had one [mishap] when I first started here.

The sender wanted to remain anonymous. We thought okay, a little secret admirer thing. We didn’t think much of it. When we deliver it, they’re like “Who’s it from? Who’s it from?” We say, “Well they wanted it to remain anonymous.” I didn’t have the paper to actually say who it was from so I had to come back here. Turned out it was a girl who was just a high school student. She had to move to Lexington because the person who was sending it was stalking her. So we make sure that we don’t do any of those anonymous secret admirer things. But gosh – how did he find her after they had to move because of it?

Plant care

It’s a lot with the weather here lately. I don’t really have to water a whole lot. There’s a lot of dead heading which is pulling all the dead blooms and of course all the leaves getting up. But summertime is more of a routine. You come in, you water everything and then you check it again before you leave to make sure it hadn’t dried out. Some of them dry out a little faster. Doing it everyday you get to learn what plants stay wetter and which need water twice a day. It’s good having one person doing it all. When I have a day off it’s a little harder. I have to tell them which plants actually need it and which ones don’t because you can actually overwater or underwater of course.

I work sometimes six days and sometimes just four or five. It varies. That way one person isn’t working every weekend and one person isn’t off every weekend.

I am big into horses. I’ve been riding since I was ten. So in my free time I am at home taking care of them and riding with my friends. I just went the other day up North Mountain, which is one of the scenic little trails. It’s between Rockbridge and Allegheny County. It was wonderful to get away for a day and not have to worry about what’s going on at work and your phone ringing and what not. It’s just a day to yourself.

I have an older sister and a younger sister and brother. We all live at home. My older sister has two boys ages five and three. They live with us now so it’s a handful. But, they actually get into the riding too. They help me with my horses so that’s good. One of my horses I’ve had for two years, the other I’ve had since I was thirteen. I’m 24.

We’ve got some flowerbeds. Not really anything very well landscaped. We just put a little of everything in there. It’s not like you see downtown, the beautiful gardens. I don’t have that touch and I prefer just something broomed together.

We all have our days where we get a little stressed out, especially when we get a really busy day. But for the most part we kick back, relax and joke around, and have a good time. So, it’s good when you can get along like that.

I know on average we do anywhere between five and fifteen [deliveries] on a day-to-day basis. Five on our slow days and I’ve done 10 to 20 on a busy day, sometimes even more.

Several [people] come in on a weekly basis. The housemothers come in and do their little flower arrangements. There are some locals that you know want a couple plants here and some flowers there. Or they’re looking for a particular thing so they’ll continuously come in saying, “Have you gotten it yet?” On occasion we have farm fresh eggs. Our owner has chickens brings in eggs so we have our standard egg customers. Another thing about being here, I’ve been here for about three years now, is the deliveries. I can go into a lot of the same houses. You can tell when it’s this person’s anniversary or this person’s birthday because you’ve been there before.

There are some days of course any boss is going to come in and make you feel a little stressed out. But he’s a really nice guy, laid back. If you’re not doing something, he tells you to do it. He gets his serious days where he doesn’t want to joke around. He just wants to be all business and that’s understandable. He’s a pretty good guy.

I would like to stay here. I don’t plan on going anywhere else. I’m hoping to get a degree in horticulture. I really enjoy doing the outside plants. I don’t know everything about them, but it’s something I’d like to get to know a little better. A lot of times [customers] come in ask questions that I don’t have an answer to; I’d like to be able to have an answer for everyone. I hadn’t really checked into it completely, but it’s a thought I’m working on. For now I just get my books out and I study. The little plant books give you a brief description and you learn a little bit about the plants.

Barren Ridge Vineyards

Owner John Higgs with Rascal

Based on an interview with John Higgs, owner of Barren Ridge Vineyards in Fishersville, Virginia. Higgs opened the first winery in Augusta County just two years ago. 

Well, I guess some of it was trying to figure it out for myself. My father was an apple grower and he owned a number of apple orchards. He bought this orchard in 1934 from a Dutch company.

From the 1940's through the 1960's, the Shenandoah valley was the apple growing region of the United States. It was like the bread basket of the United States. But then as things moved west with the apple regions of Washington we just couldn't compete.

My father was a very stubborn man. He started losing money. He sold all of his orchards except for this one.
He sold our house in Staunton and moved us to the tenant house on this property when I was in between school.

I went to Hampton Sydney for college. I lived here with my father and we worked the land just the two of us. So, the land has historical resonance to me as a son.

But he still could not make money. The business eventually went into decline. The whole property became overgrown for maybe 30 years.

 I left to go to the army. I may have been the only U.S. Army draftee with a grin on my face because I was so happy to be away from this place. It was nothing but hard work and I could see no future in the business. It was a losing proposition. But still, I'm the son of an apple grower which is fruit so I think the raising of fruit is somehow in my DNA.

This property has a soft spot in my heart, which I didn't realize until later on. I spent a large portion of my career in Europe and other foreign countries. I am living proof that if you run away from a place in a straight line and you go really fast you're going to end up right back where you started and that's exactly what happened to me.

I ended up doing what my father was doing which I thought was really stupid back when I was a kid.  The only difference is that this business is wine, so it's a heck of a lot more fun to try to make a product out of than apples in my opinion. (Laughs.)

At the end of 1999 I was living in Switzerland and working in Russia for Phillip Morris. I had a retirement offer and took it. My wife and I moved back to the states and lived in Richmond.

We spent a memorable weekend at the Barboursville Vineyards in Charlottesville. They were having a festival called Opera in the Vineyards. I became very interested in opera while I was in Europe. I remember it was a beautiful day and there were tents with lots of gourmet food and we sat on the lawn  listenting to beautiful music. Somehow or another I got the idea that I could do something with the orchard property that was similar to that.

From that kernel of an idea I started plans for a winery. The land completely overgrown and I had to buy it from a family member. I also had to deal with many zoning issues.

But once I bought the property it took me two years to clear. In the winter of 2006 I started building an addition to the old packing shed along with other renovations. I completed the winery part in the winter of 2007 along with our first harvest. In the spring 2008 we opened the doors for customers.

It was not until this year that they had their first major crop because it really takes three years to get a legitimate crop for grapes. 

Patio overlooking the vineyards

The soils in the Shenandoah Valley from what I've learned and seen in my vineyard here are ideal for grapes. They were ideal for apples and generally speaking are a good place for grapes. I knew that this was one of the most beautiful orchards you could imagine. It's just spectacular. I did intensive soil testing to make sure. I was right.

Geology lesson. 

The soil has a lot of limestone and weathered shale. The broken up shale allows moisture and roots to travel through. It is in effect an ideal location for grapes. It also has the advantage of being a high plain. When the glaciers came through they did so in a very interesting way. They left a lot of ridges and a very high plain. Our elevation is at 1400 feet at its peak. It has a very good orientation because evidently the glaciers came from the north going south and carved out a valley. Most of the ridges go north and south. This is a  perfect orientation for grape vines because you have a trellis system pointing north and south. The sun comes from east gets the east side of the vine and and travels over top and gets whole west side. This is great because maximum sun exposure is needed for the grape vines energy and growth.

Young French winemaker at work

Barren Ridge offers 13 varieties of wine. The tasting room and winery are open daily.