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As part of the program at this year’s Upperville Colt & Horse Show, five distinguished individuals will be added to the Wall of Honor on Saturday, June 11. The inductees have participated in all facets of the show from making barbecue, competing, owning and serving on the board of directors.

The 163rd edition of the Upperville Colt & Horse Show, the oldest horse show in the United States, will take place at the Grafton and Salem show grounds off Route 50 from June 6-12.

Local equestrianSloane Coles expects to be among the top riders in the $216,000 Upperville Jumper Classic finals at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 12. But she and many others agree that the most competitive event at the horse show is the lead line for very young riders. Highlights include: 

There was a time, nearly 75 years ago, when the Foxcroft School was on military footing, just like the rest of the country. Back in the 1940s, with World War II raging in the European and Pacific theaters, the girls of Foxcroft were regularly drilling and marching in formation on campus under the direction of school founder, Miss Charlotte Noland.

As the heat of summer ascends and spring crops wither and fade, tomato plants take off, and often become unruly garden residents.

Most heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate, meaning they keep growing and growing, sometimes reaching upwards of six feet high if trellised. Just as you would with fruit trees and bushes, these varieties of tomatoes can be pruned and trellised to yield a higher volume of better tasting fruits.

Twenty-plus years ago, Franny and Walter Kansteiner acquired three Merino sheep. Since then, their Gum Tree Farm near Middleburg has become home to a flock of 70, producing home-grown and hand-made organic wool luxury items.  

Navy Rear Admiral Brent Scot, Chaplain of the Marine Corps and Deputy Chief of Chaplains for the Navy, will preach this year’s ecumenical sermon at Middleburg’s 41st annual Free Church Homecoming, Sunday, June19 at the Middleburg Baptist Church.

Everyone has a story about traveling abroad, that maniacal Parisian taxi driver going 80 down the Champs Elysee, that first, frightening London ride in the rental car with the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car, the mystery meat in a Hong Kong restaurant you later discovered was filet of feral cat.

Farmers in some parts of Virginia experienced one of the rainiest months of May on record, and they’re finding it difficult to keep their spirits afloat when so much field work has to be put on hold.

“The wet weather has really slowed down all farm work,” said Ellis Walton, a Middlesex County farmer and member of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation board of directors. “You can’t care for small grains and can’t get started on corn and bean planting because it’s been too wet to put equipment in the fields. No hay has been cut for weeks. I still have a half-inch of standing water in my own yard.”