Rooted in the Revolution: The Story Behind Nelson County's Founding Foragers Digital Passport

We interviewed Brittany Niemeyer, the Assistant Director of Economic Development & Tourism for Nelson County, about the Blue Ridge Fruit Loop Trail’s past and present and how it has evolved into the Founding Foragers passport.

For someone unfamiliar with Nelson County’s Fruit Loop Trail, what is it, and why is it worth making the trip?

 The Blue Ridge Fruit Loop is a trail connecting 11 farms and orchards across Nelson and Amherst counties, running from May all the way through December. You’ll find everything from pick-your-own apples, peaches, and berries to fresh cider, jams, and jellies all with spectacular Blue Ridge Mountain views as your backdrop. There’s fresh fruit from late spring through the holidays and the farms genuinely collaborate, so if one doesn’t have what you’re looking for, they’ll point you to one that does! 

The “Founding Foragers” name has a great origin story built in. How does the Revolutionary War history of Nelson County actually connect to the farms and producers on the trail today? 

Colonial Americans were drinking around 35 gallons of hard cider per person every year, so orchards weren’t decorative, they were essential. Continental soldiers had a daily beer ration established by Congress in 1775. George Washington himself was one of America’s biggest whiskey producers. And Nelson County’s own namesake, Thomas Nelson Jr., signed the Declaration of Independence. The farms, orchards, breweries, and cideries on this trail are doing the same work, in the same mountains, that sustained the Revolution. We didn’t have to manufacture a historical connection; it was already rooted here.

The passport spans a pretty wide range of stops, from orchards to cideries, breweries, wineries, a distillery, and even the Blue Ridge Tunnel. How did you decide what belonged in the Founding Foragers experience? 

Every stop has a genuine connection to how Nelson County fed and sustained early America. Orchards because apples were a survival crop – the source of the cider that kept colonial families and communities going. Breweries and cideries because beer and cider were everyday staples and homegrown alternatives to British imports. The distillery ties to a long tradition of spirits production that George Washington himself was part of. And the Blue Ridge Tunnel earns its place because Rockfish Gap, right above it, was a real crossing point through these mountains, used by everyday people, soldiers, and supply wagons alike during the Revolutionary era. Every stop has a story, and every story connects back to this place!

What made this the right moment to launch a digital passport for the trail? 

Virginia’s 250th anniversary gave us a reason to tell this story at scale. Nelson County has always had the real thing with working farms, family orchards, and craft producers with genuine roots in this era, but VA250 created the moment for people to pay attention. Launching the Founding Foragers digital passport through LoyalBrew now means we can meet that interest with something tangible: a trail experience visitors can actually do, stamp, and complete for a chance to win an overnight stay in the county at the Farmhouse at Veritas.

What problem were you hoping LoyalBrew would help solve and what does success look like at the end of your first season with it? 

We wanted to turn casual visitors into engaged explorers, like people who plan to stop at two places and end up discovering six. A physical stamp passport is easy to leave in the car. A digital passport lives in your pocket and nudges you to keep going. LoyalBrew gave us a platform that was already built for exactly that kind of trail experience, so we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, we just had to build the story around it! Success at the end of season one looks like passport holders who spent more time in Nelson County than they planned, and producers who felt that lift directly at the tasting room and farm stand. If we’ve built the habit of coming back, that’s even better.

What does it mean to the local farms and producers to have visitors engaging with the history behind what they’re growing and making?

It changes the conversation when someone walks in. Instead of just asking what to try, visitors arrive with context. They know why apple orchards mattered, why cider was essential, why brewing has deep roots here. For the families who have been working this land for generations, some of these orchard’s date back to the 1800s, having that story recognized as part of something bigger is meaningful. It’s not a marketing angle layered on top. It’s their actual heritage, and Founding Foragers gives visitors a reason to engage with it.