By Michael Copley
Staff Writer

As he does most days, Bill Cox spent a recent Thursday morning working, checking off chores from the spread sheets he uses to keep his weeks and months – and farm – in order.
By mid-afternoon, with the sun up high over his fields, he’s walking through rows of blackberries talking about failed melon crops, soluble-sugar content and the business of a small farm. When he finds a berry he likes he picks it off the plant and passes it back to be sampled.

With a mushroom crop that stalled at launch in a heat wave and dozens of other projects begging his attention, Bill could, and probably should, plow ahead; but he’s not, he’s talking. 
It’s important, he says, for Powhatan residents to understand that they’re surrounded by farms and small businesses that are alive and growing. 
After Walmart filed a rezoning request to build a 155,000 square foot store in the eastern end of the county, a group of residents, led by Powhatan Grow Smart, united behind the call to save Powhatan’s rural character from large-scale commercial development.

At a public hearing in June, Debbie Markel, a spokesperson for Powhatan Grow Smart, asked the county’s Board of Supervisors to “do something special for the county”: reject Walmart’s request and put a cap on the permitted size of retail stores allowed in Powhatan.

Markel contends that big-box development would tank existing businesses and turn Powhatan into a “faceless clone of every other suburban area.” 

But that rural character, often an abstraction that never gets nailed down and identified for what it is, is all around the county, Bill said. It’s in the soil, so to speak. While some businesses have fallen under the weight of a depressed economy- not Walmart, he notes- others have opened and are doing well.

“Just because they (big-box retailers) build a building doesn’t mean it’s successful,” said Planning Commissioner Bill Melton. “You the people make them successful.”
India Cox, Bill’s wife, added, “The demise of our small businesses in Powhatan is all up to us. I’m not going to stop shopping at [locally owned retailers because a Walmart opens]. We can take charge of that.”

And with a water and force main extension project approved by the Board of Supervisors at a cost of $4.3 million, the county has to have a businesses base if there’s going to be any hope for a return on the investment, Bill said.

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Casslemonte Farm is 120 rolling, gnarled acres of woods and fields that Bill and India have spent the past two years working with a singular focus: to produce organic food of unmatched taste.
Go to Food Lion, Bill insists, and you’ll find fruits and vegetables at the same price that he sells for, “But my product is ten times better,” he said. “I can give you a greater range of taste.”

And when you buy locally, Bill said, you stand to get produce that’s better for you: Without a cross-country trip to consider, farmers can leave fruits and vegetables on the vine and in the ground longer.
Casselmonte specializes in asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes and berries, but experimentation and variety are the fun and the passion that drive the hard work.

The tomatillo crop- one of Bill’s experiments- was planted because “I don’t know what fresh ones taste like,” he said as he crushed up a leaf from the plant and held it to his nose. “If I like it then we’ll promote it.”

And “Maybe we can’t grow melons,” he said, pointing across a field to a cluster of 24 melon hills. He paused with the sun in his face; if that is the case, he said with a smile, “It’ll really piss me off.” 
Casselmonte Farm- comprising a forestry operation and a burgeoning preserve for Bobwhite quail- is a small operation and not big enough to profit from quantity, Bill said: so the focus is specialty.

Bill and India grow 24 varieties of tomatoes, including the Marizola Bratkis – the hands down favorite for a B.L.T. sandwich, six varieties of blueberries, and blackberries; there are peach trees, sour cherry trees, apple trees and pear trees.

It’s about “growing plants that make sense for where you are,” Bill said. “We’re not doing this just for fun, there’s a business model.”

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Bill and India Cox aren’t alone.

According to the county’s department of economic development, there are 228 farms in Powhatan at an average size of 131 acres. There are more equestrian-based businesses than the county probably has an accurate count of.

There’s at least one flower farm, alpaca farms and vineyards.

And there’s a sense of community amongst local producers- agribusinesses that represent a growing and important part of the culture in Powhatan- the feeling of a kind of shared fate.

When it comes to farming, Bill said, “There’s no proprietary information, really. It’s unbelievable how much help you can get” from other farmers.

Clyde Bodie, the owner of Bodie Vineyards- the county’s first farm winery- agreed, and said Powhatan has done a good job, in his experience, of helping businesses like his.

The county is organizing a farmers’ market for September, October and November, to bring together all parts of the agribusiness community, and getting planning help from people like Jo Pendergraph of Manakintowne Specialty Growers.

At the end of the day, to create a good atmosphere for an agribusiness, you need other good producers, said Bill Cox.