Recently a former intern quipped that Village Acres’ new timber frame building and processing kitchen was “way to beautiful to be called a shed!”  She makes a valid point. When the light is streaming through the windows in the morning, one wonders if we should not have dubbed it the “Food Cathedral.”   (We’ve recently discovered what great acoustics the FoodShed has as well!)  Images that come to mind when we think of a “shed” may contrast with what the FoodShed at Village Acres Farm is. But in other ways, the shed idea fits very well.  When I was a girl the sheds on my grandparents’ farm were the best places to explore and play.  The tumbledown chicken shed and the old summer-kitchen/woodshed were places no adult was tempted to interfere with our play.  The sheds invited exploration, held stories and secrets, were full of fun and adventure.  Sheds, while often weathered and worn, are familiar, unpretentious places.  We anticipate the FoodShed at Village Acres will be a place where folks will gather to eat, talk, tell stories, and explore new ways of preparing, thinking about, and enjoying their food.

“FoodShed” also expresses another idea that is equally important to the farmers at Village Acres.  A food shed, like a watershed, recognizes the connectivity of life in a geographical region.  We hope you will allow your imagination to play with the name, consider for a moment what or where your food shed is, and what impact our food choices make not only our regional food shed, but on the far larger food shed we share with the rest of the world. 

So what is the FoodShed at Village Acres?   It is a vision in process in a lovely timber frame structure that is home to a PDA licensed kitchen with space for dining or just gathering on an ever-evolving, organic fruit and vegetable farm in the Juniata River valley.   We invite you to share in the fun, exploration, and process as the FoodShed at Village Acres becomes the place it is intended to be.