Perfect Flavor hopes to provide glimpse into world of food production

By Gina Farthing

Published: July 18, 2008

Think again if you believe you can only enjoy flowers or wine this weekend at the Viette farm on Route 608.
The Daylily and Wine Festival hosts other events during its two-day run that starts today. Informational seminars are available to instruct people on how to garden with little or no work and why daylilies are the perfect perennial plant to grow.
Carol Flora, of the Wild Bird Center in Harrisonburg, will provide visitors with information on how to garden for birds — in other words, how to get birds to come to a garden.
“We provide a basic idea of what to do,” Flora said. “It’s a Q-and-A seminar and we’ll be talking about feeders, birdhouses and plants that people can use to attract birds into their backyards.”
Some of the most common creatures in the area include cardinals, which are the most popular, according to Flora; gold finches; hummingbirds in the summertime; woodpeckers; doves; and butterflies.
“We’ll also talk about problem solving, to keep out unwanted pests such as squirrels. They’re cute, but can be a nuisance,” Flora said. “We’ll be reviewing water sources such as ponds and bird baths, too.”
Flora usually spends two hours doing a seminar and has participated at the Daylily festival previously. But she said she’s pared down her information into a 20- to 30-minute talk with about 30 minutes for questions afterward.
A new Waynesboro business at the festival as a seminar presenter will be Perfect Flavor.
Owned by Lynsie Watkins and her fiancé, Colin Steele, Perfect Flavor is located on east Main Street, east of Rockfish Gap Outfitters. The operation opened in March.
“We’re an ice cream processing facility and retail business,” said Watkins. “We prepackage two- to 16-ounce packages.”
Perfect Flavor also gives tours and has large windows into various parts of its processing, to provide an open view of how the company produces its treats. Owners especially want to be open to children.
“We have nothing to hide here. It’s part of our business,” said Watkins.
Watkins will give a seminar about her business at the Daylily festival because, through her business, she hopes to reeducate people about food. Ice cream, she said, is the easiest example for people to understand.
“The crux of our business is to show it’s important to support local farmers and show how easy it is,” Watkins said.
“You can eat locally and seasonally. You will survive.”
Perfect Flavor only uses locally and seasonally grown ingredients for their ice cream. Watkins planned on cracking 250 chicken eggs obtained from a local farmer for her ice cream base mix.
“We’ll never use strawberries in February, because they’re not in season here locally. We won’t even use them if people bring them in,” she said.
Watkins goes really local: she gets graham flour from two suppliers, one within a 20-mile radius and another within a 50-mile radius, and her peanuts come from Sedley.
The products she can’t obtain locally, such as coffee and chocolate, she buys organic.
The company’s Web site provides information for consumers and includes a listing of their suppliers.
“We’re totally open. We want people to see and learn about food and ask questions,” Watkins said.
“Nobody asks questions any more.”