Hayfields Little Washington Va

08/18/2026

There’s good news out today about Hayfields rural kitchen and market. If you’re not receiving updates, sign up in the link below or at hayfieldslittlewashington.com.

Email from Hayfields rural kitchen and market Let’s catch up on our Hayfields progress Hayfields rural kitchen and market, a new project from Brian Noyes, is coming to Rush River Commons in Little Was

08/06/2026

Dwight’s mom, Dot, taught me how to make her quirky yet delicious peach cobbler. The recipe is featured in my “Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook” which salutes our local orchards and farmers markets, and we’re headed into peak season to make some incredibly fresh dishes, desserts, and jams. Signed copies are available at R.H. Ballard Shop & Gallery in Little Washington, and through all the usual sources. Photos by Angie Mosier.

08/03/2026

27 years ago I entered my first peach jam at the Arlington County Fair, knowing it was a stellar batch boosted by chopped crystallized ginger that a friend had given me. I dropped off my entry on my way to the airport for a flight home to California, and I called Dwight from out west that weekend for a judging update. He’s a county fairgoer from way back and had checked on the winners. “Well, you’re not going to believe this, but you won an honorable mention.”

Cool. A ribbon for the kitchen. Dwight went on, relishing an opportunity to slowly drag out the news: “You also won best of theme. And, well, first place. And champion. And there’s more. The judges went nuts over the peach jam and named it the Grand Champion of the fair.” They told Dwight it was the crystallized ginger that put it over the top, and I wrote a story about it for the front page of The Washington Post’s food section. The big win led to me leaving publishing to launch a bakery, write two cookbooks (both have the jam recipe!), and a peach jam-making tradition that continues to this day—I just finished canning a batch an hour ago.

The Washington Post story:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/food/2000/08/09/my-first-jam-and-its-a-winner/b87eee9c-3843-4f02-80cf-74548306abbb/

08/01/2026

It’s peak Cherokee Purple tomato time at Johnny and Michelle Jenkins’ fruit stand at 11951 Lee Highway in Sperryville, and I’ve been fine-tuning my BLT action for Hayfields. Those tomatoes, and Benton’s smoked bacon from our pals in Madisonville, Tennessee, are the key to my epic sandwiches.

08/01/2026

Your summer feast starts here: The recipes in my “Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook” salute our local orchards and farmers markets, and we’re headed into peak season to make some incredibly fresh dishes, desserts, and jams. Signed copies are available at R.H. Ballard Shop & Gallery in Little Washington, and through all the usual sources. Photos by Angie Mosier.

07/23/2026

Your summer feast starts here: The recipes in my “Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook” salute our local orchards and farmers markets, and we’re headed into peak season to make some incredibly fresh dishes, desserts, and jams. Signed copies are available at R.H. Ballard Shop & Gallery in Little Washington and at AlabamaBooksmith.com, and the cookbook is available at all the usual sources in your town and online. Visit your local farmers market or one of our favorites at Rappahannock County Farmers’ Market, Archwood Green Barns Farmer’s Market, Warrenton Farmers Market, Falls Church Farmers Market, Arlington County Farmers Market, Freshfarm, McLean Farmers Market, McCutcheon/Mount Vernon Farmers Market. Photos by the extraordinary Angie Mosier.

07/21/2026

Big thanks to the Town of Washington’s Architectural Review Board for their unanimous and exuberant approval of our Hayfields signage at Rush River Commons, across Leggett Lane from the town’s post office.

A number of residents showed up to voice support (all who spoke were in favor of my plans) and many were sympathetic to the lack of any signage opportunity on Warren Avenue. The ARB applauded my signage and the creative typography on the upper front of the building, appreciating that in the process we’re also giving the building a personality. Town council member Brad Schneider grew wistful as he told the group that the sign, and the identity it gave an otherwise bare facade, reminded him of his family’s grocery store in rural Vermont.

Exactly. The challenge for me in designing the sign was two-fold: within the constraints of an allowed 25 square feet total, the sign had to attract passersby headed into town on Warren Avenue from Route 211, and it needed to add charm and an identity to a building that had been characterized as an office park. I love the building and its envisioned old mercantile roots. Before I undertook professional culinary training and opened the Red Truck Bakery 18 years ago, I was a typography aficionado and art director for The Washington Post, Architecture, Preservation and Smithsonian magazines. I embraced the “old town hall / rural grocery” inspiration and combined it with my love of vintage yet classic typography, in this case using a 1930-40s grocery store typeface and sign treatment.

I’ve envisioned Hayfields as a salute to our local rural farmers of the Great Depression. My logo, featuring a 1935 Clare Leighton woodcut illustration of a hay farmer sharpening his scythe, is explained in detail on https://hayfieldslittlewashington.com. The walls of Hayfields feature FDR’s New Deal Farm Security Administration’s photography project that documented rural life during the Depression (also on the website). You’ll see more design nods to that era in Hayfields—no bread lines but how about some vintage “church lady” cakes of the 1940s.

Stay tuned to our Instagram and pages as work progresses on Hayfields, with an opening in late fall or so. —Brian Noyes