It’s finally here! This weekend, the third annual Dominion River Rock will roll into town and it couldn’t be a better weekend! If you’re ready to spend the whole day outdoors and witness some of the best athletes in outdoor sports all on Brown’s Island!

Ellwood’s will be there the whole weekend with an array of organic fruits and homemade granola for sale. We’ll also be offering Vita Coco and local bottled water to cool you off. Bring your kids down, we’ll have a “Name that Produce” guessing game with a chance to win a $250 gift card to Ellwood Thompsons! We’ll also be raffling off a brand new bike with all proceeds benefiting the Richmond Cycling Corps!

Check out our Facebook and Twitter feed all day for live updates, pictures, and tweets!

Tonight, Richmond’s historic Byrd Theater will be host to Red Bull’s long awaited Strength in Numbers mountain bike video. The fact that Richmond is getting this video just two weeks after it’s premiere is a pretty big deal. So if you’re a fan of bicycling in general, not just mountain biking, come out to The Byrd tonight! Doors open at 7pm and film start promptly at 7:30pm. Get there early and get a seat!

For the wonderful month of May, we’ve decided to pair two of our Virginia favorites together for a flavor combination that represents spring in Virginia.

Chatham Vineyards: Jon Wehner is a second-generation winegrower on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He learned about grape growing from his parents who operated Great Falls Vineyard in Great Falls, Virginia for thirty years. He and his wife and their three children own and operate the vineyard and winery. Since 1999, more than twenty acres of high-density (1,740 vines per acre) French vinifera varietals have been planted.

The land at Chatham, which overlooks Church Creek, was patented in 1640. The Federal-period brick house, Chatham, was built in 1818 by Major Scarborough Pitts and named for William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham and friend of the American Revolution. The historic outbuildings, barns and two early 1900s homes on the property have been renovated in recent years. Chatham Farm has been a working farm for four centuries

Cabernet Franc: This is a drought wine – made in dry harvest seasons by leaving the fruit on the vine to slightly dehydrate thereby increasing sweetness and intensity of flavors. With hazelnut, spice, tobacco, and notes of dried fruits, this wine lingers on the palette.

3% residual sugar, best served with local figs, cheese, seasonal fruit pie or chocolate dessert.

Paired with Meadow Creek Dairy’s “Mountaineer.”

Meadow Creek Dairy, located in Galax, Virginia, makes an awesome cheese called “Mountaineer.” This Alpine-style cheese is nutty and earthy, everything you would expect from a French comte or Swiss gruyere. Very rich with all the terrior of the Appalachian Mountains. Definite hints of the lush pastures that feed this particular herd of cattle. The earthiness and nuttiness of the Mountaineer is drawn out by the similar qualities in the Cabernet Franc.  The mountaineer makes a nice background for the Cab Franc, and its soft finish really carries the juiciness of the wine.

The cheese is $17.49/lb.

The wine is    $21.49

Save 10% when purchased together.

We’re super excited to bring in two new lines of locally, sustainably raised beef! It’s not often in Virginia that you get humanely-raised, grass-fed beef right at your front door, but today is an exception. Here’s a little break down on each farm.

Tuckahoe Lamb & Cattle is located in Catersville, Virginia, just 52 miles away from our front door. They are a multi-species, grass based family farm that practices sustainable, pasture focused farming without the use of hormones or antibiotics. We now carry their strip loin, ground beef, and ribeye.

Ayrshire Farms is located just outside of our local belt in Upperville, VA. Ayrshire Farm’s heritage breed cattle are certified organic and certified Humane® . This means that animals are raised without growth hormones or antibiotics, on organic pasture, and that these cows come from organically raised breeding stock. Heritage breed cattle are naturally hardy and thrifty animals, which do well on a variety of grasses but take longer to mature than their hybridized counterparts.

Looking for something special for Mother’s Day, our  bakery team can certainly help. We do a wide variety of vegan, non-vegan, and gluten-free cakes that can satisfy any sweet tooth. Just give our bakery a call if you have something special in mind. 804-359-7525

Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market is proud to have our friend from Swoope, Virginia come into the big city on Wednesday, May 30th. From farmer Joel Salatin’s point of view, life in the 21st century just ain’t normal. In FOLKS, THIS AIN’T NORMAL, he discusses how far removed we are from the simple, sustainable joy that comes from living close to the land and the people we love. Salatin has many thoughts on what normal is and shares practical and philosophical ideas for changing our lives in small ways that have big impact.

Salatin, hailed by the New York Times as “Virginia’s most multifaceted agrarian since Thomas Jefferson [and] the high priest of the pasture” and profiled in the Academy Award nominated documentary Food, Inc. and the bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, understands what food should be: Wholesome, seasonal, raised naturally, procured locally, prepared lovingly, and eaten with a profound reverence for the circle of life. And his message doesn’t stop there. From child-rearing, to creating quality family time, to respecting the environment, Salatin speaks with a wicked sense of humor and true storyteller’s knack for the revealing anecdote.

FOLKS, THIS AIN’T NORMAL

Wednesday / May 30th / 5:30-7:00pm / FREE.

Register here.

Welcome to the start of the first annual Carytown Health and Wellness Week – “Local Support for Living Well.” This week will be a celebration of health and awareness in Richmond! In partnership with the American Heart Association Go Red for Women and South University, Ellwood Thompson’s will be offering FREE blood pressure checks this entire week.

May is stroke awareness month and as such, Virginia Department of Health is aiming to get 1 million blood pressure checks completed – those acquired at ET’s will count toward that goal.  I encourage each of you to get yours checked and encourage your employees to do the same!

Ellwood Thompson’s Blood Pressure Screening Dates & Times

Monday May 7 from 11-2

Tuesday May 8 from 5-7

Wednesday May 9 from 4:30-6:30

Thursday May 10 from 11-2

Friday May 11 from 3-5 or 4-6

Saturday May 12 from 12-3

It’s something we never really think about until numbers like this are presented to us. More paper towels are used per day than you could imagine. Often times, only a small percentage of that paper towel is actually used to absorb or clean up any mess. Joe Smith breaks it down for us and shows us how to use them the correct way.

Join us in Ellwood's Community Room for the 4th Annual Child Abuse Prevent-A-Thon. GR SCAN is collaborating with Ellwood Thompson's to offer a FREE Stewards of Children training during the 4th Annual Prevent-A-Thon.  Stewards of Children, developed by Darkness to Light, is a child sexual abuse prevention training that teaches adults to prevent, recognize, and react responsibility to child sexual abuse.

About 20 million people in the United States practice some form of yoga, from the formal Iyengar and Ashtanga schools to the more irreverent “Yoga Butt.” But some Hindus say yoga is about far more than exercise and breathing techniques. They want recognition that it comes from a deeper philosophy — one, in their view, with Hindu roots. Many forms of yoga go back centuries. Even in the U.S., the transcendentalists were doing yoga in the 1800s.

William Broad, a reporter for The New York Times and author of The Science of Yoga, has been practicing since 1970. He says people pursue yoga for all kinds of reasons, from achieving health and fitness to seeking spirituality, energy and creativity. Read the rest of this article via NPR.