Laura Peters
lpeters@newsleader.com
Published 1:38 p.m. UTC May 28, 2018
STAUNTON – A Mount Solon bakery expands, experience WaynesboroCon and get ready for a night in Victorian Staunton — here’s the buzz.
Bakery
The Briar Patch Bakery in Mount Solon has moved from Gail Fifer’s kitchen to a new building on her farm, allowing her to ramp up production.
For the past three years, Fifer has been providing her breads and sweets to area shops like Jake’s Convenience, Junction Convenience, Perk Place Coffee and Stanley Meat Market. She offers twice a week baking and delivery with about two dozen of any product to each of those places.
What first started out as a way to save money when her children were young, turned into a passion project. Fifer worked for Virginia Blood Services for 13 years but has turned to baking full time.
“I needed a change,” she said.
And it was the right step for her.
“This is so good, it just makes you feel good,” she said.
She and her husband live on a beef and crop farm in Mount Solon — one that has been in her husband’s family for multiple generations.
It’s mainly just her, but her family helps out when she has a lot of orders. She starts her baking at 5:30 a.m. and sometimes doesn’t finish up until 5 p.m.
She makes cinnamon rolls, kolach (a type of danish), pound and bundt cakes and various breads. Her French bread recipe she picked up on a mission trip to Louisiana.
Although her new space isn’t quite a storefront, people can still put in orders and pick up at her new spot.
“It’s nice,” she said. “It’s hard work, but it’s really rewarding.”
For more information visit the bakery on Facebook at Briar Patch Bakery.
WaynesboroCon
The Waynesboro Public Library will kick off its summer reading program with its annual event WaynesboroCon from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 2.
The free, all-ages event celebrates comics and science fiction and fantasy books, movies, games and television. Featured activities include a cosplay contest, gaming, cartooning lessons, crafts and more, the release said.
Cartoonist Paul Merklein will perform at 10 a.m.
Merklein tours libraries, schools and comic cons demonstrating cartooning as he draws wacky famous characters, superheroes and faces from the audience, the release said.
“Paul’s unique show features art, comedy and audience participation,” said children’s services librarian Jamie Kollar in a release. “Get ready to learn how easy cartooning can be.”
Merklein will share his experience as the developer of numerous print and online cartoons, including “Dabney and Dad.” Participants can also design their own cartoon using a computer program, the release said.
Other activities include a cosplay contest at 11 a.m. where participants can share their costumes for prizes.
From noon to closing, WaynesboroCon will feature various crafts, a photo booth, cosplayers in authentic costumes, free comics, and old school video and table top games, the release said.
For more information go to WaynesboroPublicLibrary.org or visit the library at 600 S. Wayne Ave. in Waynesboro.
Victorian night
Downtown Staunton will go back in time Saturday, June 9 to the Victorian period.
Part of StauntoNites, a grants competition funded by a Downtown Investment Grant through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, a Victorian Evening in the Queen City will transform the city into the Victorian time period with several activities.
The owners of The Medieval Fantasies Company have partnered with Rachel’s Quilt Patch, HL Lang and Company Jewelers, Nanny June Vintage and Cherish Every Moment for the event, which begins at 2 p.m. June 9.
“We were asked by the SDDA to conduct an event as part as the StauntoNites,” said Chris Pugh, of Medieval Fantasies Company. “We thought it would be fun to have a Victorian night.”
Enjoy Victorian characters, the Civil War Dance Foundation, a beard and mustache contest, a fortune teller, a feline menagerie and Black Raven Ghost Tours, the release said. Learn about the language of the fan, tea party etiquette, feather painting, Victorian quilting and more.
The event will start with the arrival of Buckingham Branch’s vintage Arvonia Club Car, Pugh said.
Beverley Street will be closed between Lewis and Market streets and there will be a stage at SunTrust Bank and the train station.
“It’s just a great deal of fun, it’s a time period we’ve enjoyed doing,” Pugh said. “There was a Victorian festival here years ago. It was quite a large event. Though we are not trying to recreate that or replace it, it’s more of a nod to it.
“So much of the Victorian period is around in downtown Staunton in its architecture,” Pugh added.
StauntoNites is administered and implemented by the Staunton Downtown Development Association. The grant program was created to provide a regular monthly event to help inspire a vibrant nightlife downtown. The program awards 12 grants of up to $3,700 for events to be scheduled the second Saturday of each month from April 2018 through March 2019.
“To be able to contribute to that atmosphere that downtown Staunton has, that is a thrill,” Pugh said.
For more information about the Victorian night click here.
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The buzz is a short recap of area business trends. Send ideas to reporter Laura Peters at lpeters@newsleader.com or follow her @peterslaura and @peterpants.
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