Foodies flock to Carver Food Enterprise Center
- Carver Kitchen
- Mar 20
- 4 min read
RAPIDAN — A cornucopia of sugar, spice and everything nice, the first Local Flavor Fest featured a selection of tasty bites prepared by food entrepreneurs.
The variety of fare offered represented a range of cultures and stylistic cooking with one thing in common — all of the chefs use the Carver Food Enterprise Center to prepare their dishes. Nearly a dozen vendors lined the halls Sunday of the Carver Center for the culinary event held to benefit the community kitchen that opened less than two years in the back of the historic school.
“It’s amazing,” said Becky Gartner, greeting visitors to the event.
She is board chair of the George Washington Carver Agricultural Research Center that established and started building the commercial kitchen eight years ago, before it opened in September of 2023. Gartner works as an extension agent in Rockingham County but remains involved with the kitchen.
“It’s was a long time coming,” Gartner said. “It’s awesome what they are doing here — this was the vision.”
The vision is to serve food entrepreneurs from around Virginia—caterers, food trucks, home bakers and fare preparers—with an equipped, licensed and accessible commissary kitchen. The main kitchen features two stock pot burners, a 10-burner gas range, a dual oven, large stainless steel prep tables and in the bakery section, a double-stack electric convection oven. Prices to use the space start at $10 per hour.
Bethane Erkaya of Centreville has been cooking up her famous “PB Made With Love” banana breads in the Carver kitchen since earlier this year, and recently got her state license. She and her fiancé, Paul, run the business, offering original banana bread, with chocolate chips, chocolate chips and walnut or walnut alone.
“You can make it in bulk here — 48 at a time. I made 51 last time,” Erkaya said Sunday, offering up tasty bites to lucky ticket holders. “We’re in the process of our cinnamon rolls and roll cakes getting approved by the state. We try to use our time to the best of our ability, have to be resourceful.”
She mentioned PB Made With Love would have its products featured at the upcoming Taste of Springfield Festival June 7 at Springfield Town Center. Erkaya, a former Burger King Manager, said she’s passionate about baking.
“For as long as I could reach the counter, I have been cooking my whole life.”
Around the corner, Brent Blackwell of Culpeper dished out samples of picanha, Brazilian-style top sirloin with the fat still on it, he said.
“Our grill has skewers,” said Blackwell, chef/owner, 2B-Q Churrascaria & BBQ.
He’s been using the kitchen at Carver Food Enterprise Center for just a month and learned about the offering on social media. Not a food truck or a caterer, the food business is a “ghost kitchen” in that they use the commercial facility and sell from there.
CFEC Program Director Gretchen Ledmor is an amazing support, Blackwell said, noting he probably could not have started his business without the kitchen or her leadership. Ledmor gave tours of the kitchen during Sunday’s Flavor Fest.
“We have 11 businesses handing out samples—enough food for everybody,” she said of the event which sold out all 100 tickets.
Proceeds will be used for programs at the Carver Food Enterprise Center, Ledmor said: incubation services, the Feeding 500 program, job training and one-on-one coaching.
In the kitchen, CFEC Board Member Miriam Boteng, who works in Fauquier County, prepared Jollof rice, a West African staple, from her native Ghana. She uses jasmine rice with a tomato-based sauce made from scratch.
“It’s a thick sauce, like a stew,” said Boteng.
Asked about the Local Flavor Fest, she said, “Very nice,” before getting back to cooking, her dish boiling on the burner.
Flavor Fest attendee David Pierce of Culpeper had a plate full of delicious bites as he wandered the halls.
“I drive past the Carver Center all the time and had no idea this was here or the things that they offer,” he said. “Very good!”
Kitchen user Madeleine McGraw, of Fredericksburg, offered her hot sauces and dry spice blends at the event, as owner of Spicy Grrrls LLC. Their tagline is, “Summon the heat,” and do they ever. She’s been using the kitchen at the Carver Center for almost a year to develop her products.
“I was looking for a community kitchen to expand the business, but it was difficult to find one we could afford and have a support system,” McGraw said.
The food vendor said the kitchen’s leadership is helpful with all kinds of stuff, including getting the proper state permits.
“All of that paperwork can be hard to handle on our own.”
McGraw grew up around the world in a military family and her mom is Cajun.
“I wanted to make a sauce that tasted good,” she said.
Around the corner, offering bites of barbecue chicken and apple butter, husband-wife team William and Rosemary Bellamy, of Springfield, run Grandpa Foods. They’ve been using the kitchen to make their products for about a year.
“We like it — the convenience, the friendly staff and all the equipment you need to use,” said William.
Allison Brophy Champion: 540/825-4315
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