(chain rattling) >>1750 is the earliest documentation of a mill being located here.

Mostly Scots-Irish immigrants coming from Northern Ireland, Philadelphia, then down the valley.

And so the stone work that you see here, a lot of the timbers go back to 1750.

>>Oh, this, they really like this.

When the filter activates and the water starts shooting the food down, then they really go, you can see 'em all gathered right there.

>>That's amazing, they're just beautiful.

>>Production funding for Virginia Home Grown is made possible by... (birds squawking) (birds chirping) (upbeat lively music) (upbeat lively music continues) (upbeat lively music continues) Welcome to Virginia Home Grown.

Today we're talking about water and the ways it can be used beyond sustaining our plants.

Dr. Robyn Puffenbarger visited Wade's Mill in Rockbridge County to see how the mill has used the power of water to assist in processing grain for hundreds of years.

(water gushing) (water dripping) (mill whirring) (water gushing) (water gushing) >>Karen, I know Wade's Mill from my time in graduate school and visiting here in the mid-90s.

But I understand the mill is much older than that.

>>Yes, Robyn, there's been a mill on site since 1750.

And so Wade's Mill is one of the oldest commercial grist mills in Virginia if not the oldest, and one of the oldest in the US.

>>As we're standing here looking at the water coming over, I think it didn't always come in just like this.

>>Right.

So originally, there would've been a long wooden mill race going all the way back to the edge of the property but as you can imagine, a long wooden box full of water the entire time was very hard to maintain.

So in the early '30s, iron pipe was installed and that's how the water gets to the mill.

>>Now would that be the 1930s or the 1830s?

>>The 1930s.

The 1930s.

>>When you're looking at preserving a property from the 1750s, I'm guessing things are not the same.

It's more than just the water that's changed over hundreds of years.

>>Right.

Well, originally, the mill was three stories and then in the late 1700s when they installed the Oliver Evans system which was US patent number three as a way of moving material around the mill, the fourth floor was added.

So that was a change from the original structure.

But the foundation that you see, the limestone is the original from the 1750s and much of the interior.

A lot of the beams are the original beans from the 1750s.

>>And so the original miller, how far would people be bringing the grain to them?

>>Originally, the mill would've served the local farming community and the majority of the milling would've been done for animal feed, to feed the farmers animals and a bit for the human consumption for the farmer's family.

>>And then it sounds like things changed from the late 1700s into the mid-1800s.

>>Right.

And once that system, the Oliver Evans system was installed in the mill, the miller could then become more of a merchant mill and could buy in grain to mill and then send packed in barrels by river out to the eastern seaboard and then abroad.

>>So we are talking about flour from Virginia in the late 1700s, mid-1800s going international.

>>Internationally, as far as Brazil.

>>Wow.

When we're thinking about the history of the mill, we get to the 1850s and there's something else famous going on just down the road.

That's right.

>>So up until that point, the Shenandoah Valley was considered the Bread Basket of America.

And then Cyrus McCormick came along at his farm just up the road and invented the Reaper.

And so once the Reaper was around, it didn't really work that well on the landscape of the hilly landscape of the Shenandoah Valley.

So Cyrus McCormick moved his business to Chicago and the rest is history.

The Midwest became the grain belt of America as it still is today.

>>But you're still here.

>>But we're still here.

One of the few mills still standing.

>>Wow.

Well thank you, Karen, so much for all this history as we watch the waterwheel go around.

Now, we're going to go inside the mill and I think someone else is gonna give us a special tour.

>>That's right.

You'll be meeting my husband, John, the miller.

(water gushing) >>So John, what now is working with the water power from the wheel outside?

>>So water power still comes into the operation.

I still use it for lifting my heaviest sacks of grain up the side of the building.

So all of my grain is stored upstairs.

All of the milling is done here.

In the 1980s, the Wade family installed two sets of electric stones.

And so everything is stone ground but done with two sets of electric stones.

>>So it sounds like US patent number three of the 10 million that have been granted in the US is a very important number for you.

>>It's an important number for a lot of the mills that were built between 1750 and 1850.

It was a patent signed by George Washington.

It was a patent developed by Oliver Evans and it was the most efficient way to organize a grist mill with the power plant downstairs milling and packing on this floor and separating or sifting on the floor above and then storage of the grain and cleaning.

So you're constantly shifting material up and then using gravity to help you separate out big things from little things.

>>And so before patent number three, that would've been all human powered?

>>Yes.

Efficiency, there's always a cost to that or you're working toward trying to reduce the number of people that are in many cases, exposed to safety issues.

Mills can be dangerous things.

There's belts, pulleys turnings.

So the fewer people that you had in the mill, the safer it was, but also the more efficient.

>>As we were talking about outside, Virginia once was a bread basket.

So how would this mill have contributed to having food not just for Virginia, but maybe farther afield?

>>Yeah, so once you could separate, once you could remove bran and germ from white flour, then you had a commodity.

So that was the early 1800s.

But then by 1850, Mr. McCormick just up the road developed the Reaper in that industrialized agriculture.

And he very quickly moved to Chicago.

And then it was a long slow decline.

The Wade family bought the mill in 1880 and upgraded it.

So a lot of the equipment that we run on weekends goes back to the 1880s.

We run that and we run the water wheel so people can kinda see how a mill ran in the 1880s.

Businesses were always trying to improve their business and make them run but the writing was on the wall.

It was far more efficient to farm in the Midwest.

And by 1850, you had rails so you had distribution then.

>>So then, how do you come into the picture now?

'Cause we're in the 2020s and so much later than 1880.

>>Yeah, probably even since I left university, there's been a slow and growing community of people that wanna know where their food has come from.

They want stone ground grains.

There's actually an organization in Virginia that is trying to get grain production back to Virginia.

It's called the Common Grain Alliance.

It's an alliance that connects farmers to millers to bakers.

And so that has also helped.

It's helped us be able to connect to farmers because we're not ag people originally.

But if you're interested, you can learn to do anything.

And we've slowly now have a network of farmers, local farmers that grow for us and local bakers that use our product.

>>So what kinds of products would you produce nowadays?

>>Most of our raw material is sourced locally.

We grind five kinds of corn, three kinds of wheat, depending on what kind of baker you are.

Spelt, rye, buckwheat.

Most of it's grown between Southern Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

>>Wow.

John, thank you for all of this information.

This is just a wonderful place to come and visit >>Anytime.

Happy to have you.

The mill has seen so many changes.

I'm glad to see it still provides stone ground products while letting visitors experience a unique aspect of Virginia's agricultural heritage.

Next, Jen Naylor shares tips for growing Korean Chili Peppers and explains how she dries and grinds them at home.

>>Today I am gonna show you how to grow Korean chili peppers.

Now, these are actually started in the greenhouse with the seed and then when they're about this tall seedlings in about mid April to at the end of April, you take it out, you plant it in your garden.

They are prolific producers and they're absolutely delicious.

Now, when they're green, I use it to pickle, I saute them, I actually make it into pepper chips.

And also you can grill nice piece of steak and peppers grilled, you're gonna be in heaven.

When they're red, you harvest them.

And what I do is I sun dry them basically using a mat that's made out of straw.

And that way, the air circulates from the bottom to top and, of course sun at the top.

Drying.

Now, sun drying to me is what I grew up with.

My grandmother, when I was growing up in Korea, she would harvest these hand harvested, of course everything is grown naturally.

She sun dries them and she takes out the stem and cut the pepper in half and take all the seeds out and she'll take them to water mill in Korea.

And I used to just absolutely love it.

It's because the water mill is just to me, it is just so beautiful and it's natural.

So, my grandmother would take it there and mill them and then bring it home and she keeps them for the wintertime and also to make kimchi with.

Now when they're green, they're very, very crunchy and some are kind of sweet and mild, some are very spicy.

But anyway, they're absolutely wonderful.

Now, when they're the small and if it gets really hot quickly, what happens is that it could start to bloom.

Now, what I need you to do is take that bloom off the plant and go ahead and discard that.

If you leave it on there, what it does, it'll stunt the growth of the actual plant.

So, it's not gonna get as big is because all that energy goes to making that pepper.

Now, this will get up to about three to four feet tall and you'll have tons of Korean chili peppers.

I grind these in a coffee grinder.

I don't have the water mill.

And also, you can grind and grind it to very fine powder and you can make Gochujang, which is a Korean chili paste.

Very, very tasty.

But anyway, I hope you'll be able to go and grow your own Korean chili peppers and sun dry them, experiment and grind them, coffee grinder works for me.

Try making kimchi or any other dishes.

I just absolutely love cooking with Korean chili peppers.

Preserving what you grow provides comfort in knowing where your ingredients come from.

Like Jen with her chili powder, I enjoy garlic powder that I dry and grind myself.

And now let's visit Bill and Linda Pinkham's private garden in Isle of Wight County.

In addition to having an amazing collection of plants, their landscape also boasts a remarkable koi pond.

>>Bill, you've got just an amazing collector's garden here.

What are some of the features that you have here in your garden?

>>Well, I not only collect plants, I also collect rocks, and this is an up and coming garden feature that's being practiced all over the country.

It's called a crevice garden, but I also use rocks as walkways and retaining walls, and then also as sculptural elements like these basaltic column crystals.

>>Beautiful.

>>That is framed by this nice arch of native bald cypress.

>>Oh, the softness of that just makes it, but, you know, texture-wise, you've put together some wonderful combinations here and colors.

So, when you get a new plant, how do you figure out where to put it?

>>Well, thank you.

It's a challenge.

I walk it a lot.

I walk the garden a lot, finding these spots.

Sometimes I flag them, and then I'm a nut on yellow plants, and they stand out, particularly evergreens.

Summer and winter, they liven up the garden.

>>Right.

Right.

>>So I try to triangulate those.

>>Yes.

You know, there's so many features to a garden.

You know, texture, color, everything, but also views and water, and you've got it in spades here, my friend, with this amazing view of the James.

That's just gorgeous.

>>The site, Linda found this place and it is amazing.

That's the James River with the Norfolk Naval Base on the other side.

>>It just adds so much.

It opens the garden.

Any other water features?

>>Well, our main water feature's at the front door.

Want me to show you that?

>>Okay.

I'd love that.

(water burbling) Bill, these fish are absolutely beautiful.

How often do you feed them?

>>I feed them twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening.

>>Mhm, and the water circulation helps a lot with the fish, giving them oxygen?

>>Yes, definitely.

It also is a deterrent for the birds.

So, yes.

>>While we're talking, is it possible to turn off the water?

>>Oh, yeah, sure.

All right.

We're in good shape now.

>>I absolutely love this fountain.

This just is beautiful, and, to be honest, this whole area, you know, I was in Japan a number of years ago, and I feel like I'm back in Japan.

>>Yeah.

>>So, was that your inspiration?

>>Definitely.

We were there in 1976 on a Virginia Tech alumni tour.

It was our first time and the first week was in Tokyo.

The second week was in Kyoto and we did nothing but go to gardens.

>>Oh, sounds like my trip.

>>And we saw this technique.

One had millstones, little millstones, another one had natural stones, and, of course, I love everything Japanese, so I had in the back of my mind that, someday, I was gonna design something.

>>So how deep is the pond?

>>It's two feet deep.

Legally, in the state of Virginia, if it's over two feet of depth, you have to have a fence.

They like a deeper spot in the pond, as much as like five feet.

This is all two feet.

>>How many gallons is it?

>>It's 30,000 gallons.

They say that you're allowed to have one larger fish per 1,000 gallons.

So, the 30,000 can have 30 fish, and that's what I have.

>>And you have beautiful fish.

Absolutely gorgeous.

>>Yeah, some domestic.

Some imported from Japan.

>>Some from Japan.

What a wonderful combination.

Well, tell me about the care of the pond, though, because so many people would love to have a water feature in their landscape, and they really don't know where to get started or even what the care is for it.

So, tell me.

How do you care for this beautiful space?

>>The best thing is to find a source, a local source.

We have a guru over in Newport News, and he has answered all the questions.

That's his life's work.

So, if I have a problem, and they're the ones, they sent somebody over here, actually.

They got me on the right track.

Salinity is probably the number one thing, and I have this meter that you press.

When it zeroes, you stick it in, and it's reading 0.12.

It went up to 0.13.

That's exactly where you want it to be, and the reason for that is, through research, they found that the 0.12 will not kill plants, but it keeps the slime coat on the fish, which is what keeps them healthy.

>>Yes.

That's very important.

Well, you have a water filtration system but I don't see it.

>>Originally, this back here was the filter, and it wasn't enough, not nearly enough, so the water stayed cloudy all the time with algae.

So, at some point, about eight years, seven or eight years ago, I decided we had to build a better filter, and we did that on the side of the house, which is lower than this, which was a little bit of a challenge, because most ponds are on level ground and they put their filter right behind the pond with a waterfall.

>>Right.

Exactly.

>>And that recirculates with one pump.

Because this is higher than the filter, the water has to be pumped down to the filter, through the filter, and then pumped back up back.

So, two pumps.

>>Since it is a biological filtration system, what is the maintenance on it?

>>The filter on the side gets, there's a trap on the pump that gets cleaned every day, and, if I don't, it just builds up on there.

It'd probably burn the pump up.

>>Interesting.

>>The surface of it has to be cleaned off once a month, so you go in and clean that off.

>>Okay.

>>And the reason I didn't do it, because you all were coming, is that it really muddies the water up.

>>Right.

>>And then I have, there's a manifold system underneath the filter with screw caps for clean-outs, and I have this coil of piping I take down there, and I just unscrew it, and, quick, hold it over, and that takes the gunk, algae out, and dumps it into one of the beds.

>>It just sort of helps clear out whatever has been collected.

>>Right.

That's about, every two weeks, I do that.

>>Okay, and then, here, what do you do?

Do you check the salinity every day, or?

>>No, not really.

I check it depending on the rain.

If we get a lot of rain, I check it, and it usually needs more salt.

It's the same salt used in swimming pools.

It doesn't bother the fish.

It's nothing.

It's just salt.

>>What do you do to try to mitigate the temperature of the water?

Do you do anything on a hot summer day?

>>Nothing.

Nah, nothing.

>>Or is all the aeration and bubbling helping to stabilize that?

>>Yeah, it might get pretty hot, but I don't do anything.

>>Oh, interesting.

>>I come out here with ice, maybe.

I'm not gonna do that.

(Peggy and Bill chuckle) Tell me, though.

I'm assuming you must have another door to your house, because if you come home very tired, I don't know if you want to maneuver these stepping stones.

>>We're not gonna be coming in this way if we're drinking, but nobody has ever fallen in this pond.

My sister brought her dog up here from North Carolina and I brought the dog right out here and I turned around about where you're standing, and I turned around, and I said, "See, Jamie?"

About that time, the dog walked right off.

(Bill and Peggy laugh) They don't have any depth perception, and I should have kept walking.

>>You surprised him.

Yeah, surprised him.

So, despite having a dog in the water, for people considering putting a pond at their landscape, what would be your advice?

>>Do the typical one where it's all on one level, and freeform shape.

This is rectilinear, just because, the way it was lined up with the house, I didn't have enough room to do this really informal curvilinear thing out in the yard, so it just made more sense to make this rectilinear, and then these are on cinder blocks, so it's all solid.

>>Nice and low and solid.

Yeah, mhm.

>>Yeah.

>>Would you encourage people to do more of a larger bog?

You know, sort of garden like?

>>If somebody tells you this, you need this for the filter, double it.

>>Double it?

>>Really, because there's never too much filtration.

>>Well, Bill, you know, this, to me, is the ultimate example of a water pond, and it's- >>Oh, thank you.

>>You're welcome.

I love the fact that it's the entry to your home.

>>Yeah.

We do too.

>>And I just love the fact that you've got these beautiful fish, and you've actually, over the years, figured out the best way to manage this, and I thank you so much for sharing this with us.

>>You're welcome.

What a great use of water in the landscape.

Water gardens are typically tucked away.

But not this one.

It's part of the front walk.

Next, Shana Williams has tips to share for collecting rainwater for the garden and how to be more water wise.

(upbeat music) (rain pattering) >>At the Williams City Farm, we use rainwater all the time.

We know the benefits of rainwater.

Rainwater is the nitrogen in the air.

It captures that and it basically is our natural fertilizer.

But one of the key things too is it's free and our plants adapt so readily to rainwater.

We do have a setup now that allows us to use tap water.

However, the one thing about this tap water, it's cold.

It shocks our plants, and rainwater is softer water whereas tap water is a lot harder and it has more minerals.

Therefore, if we can use rainwater often as possible, that's the best thing for our plants.

Now, when we talk about our water collection systems here this is what we created and we have them located throughout the farm.

We're trying to create a roof just like at your house.

So we have our roof, we have our rain gutter here, we also have our downspout.

But the important thing is to have a type of rain barrel that will allow you to collect water but it's really going to be really important that it's food safe.

No harsh chemicals should have been inside it either one of these containers.

And then another thing is if it's dark in color that means simply less algae and less algae is your friend.

Over time, diseases can form in your water affecting your plants.

Now what we have to do periodically is we have to make sure that the gutters are clean.

We need to make sure that the screens are clean and we'll check inside of our rain barrels to also make sure that they're clean.

We might use a little simple bleach solution if we see that there's algae forming in there, less as possible.

Just rinse it, clean it out.

If you notice, this is approximately about two and a half feet off the ground.

That allows gravity to do the work for us and when I attach it to a water hose, gravity is going to help deliver the water to where I need it to go so we don't have to lug water all over the garden and it creates that water pressure that we need.

Think about the different types of water spouts that you choose to use.

Now, this water spout that we have here has a simple on and off shutoff, but some have the turn knob and it's always important to make sure that it's turned off and it's closed.

Sometimes when you have it twisted, you can't tell if it's turned off or on.

But here, simple.

We know it's on.

We turn it, we know it's off.

Always make sure that you're paying attention to this.

You're hate for it to rain on a hard day, heavy rain and then you don't capture all that rainwater that you would like.

As you think about using rainwater, it's simple and easy.

Attach one to your house or build a simple structure like this.

Capture rainwater.

Feed your plants.

You can do it.

I know you can.

You'll love it once you do and your plants will love it too.

Happy gardening.

It's hard to beat Mother Nature.

Nourishing your garden with rainwater will truly make your plants happy.

Today we have contrasted the power of water.

Its strength can move a wheel.

Yet its soft sounds can soothe the soul.

Water is vital to all living things, so let's steward it responsibly.

Thanks for joining us on Virginia Home Grown.

See you next time.

And until then, remember, gardening is for everyone, and we are all growing and learning together.

>>Production funding for Virginia Home Grown is made possible by... (birds squawking) (birds chirping) (upbeat lively music) (upbeat lively music continues) (bright tone)