By STELLA RICHARDS

By STELLA RICHARDS

and WILLIAM WESLEY TALBOTT

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

We have just about done your Christmas shopping for you, right here in Rappannock County. In our travels around the mountains we have discovered practical gifts, like elegant hearth brooms and tasty wheels of cheese; artwork, like Peter Kramer’s hand-painted chest of drawers; and knickknacks like the one-of-a-kind one foot long, very heavy bunch of glass grapes at the Washington House of Reproductions.

You can buy everything in Rappahannock from microwave ovens or mistletoe kissing balls to old bachelor’s buttons. There are just no excuses this year for going out of the county for any of your Christmas shopping!

A selection of items for sale locally are grouped by approximate price.

Although we have not included it on our list, it might be nice to consider giving a parcel or two of prime Rappahannock countryside (why not throw in a couple of steers to complete the look!).

GIFTS UNDER $5

Try some Lion’s Club apple butter for $2.50 a pint from any Lion’s Club member or from the Washington House of Reproductions. Add some Rappahannock apples from any of the local fruit stands and you have a wonderful fruit basket.

At $3.00 each, handmade earthtone herb jars by local artist Jeanne Drevas make a very attractive stocking stuffer for the over-20 age group. The jars, with thick cork tops, specify different types of herbs, from thyme to Italian seasoning. Jeanne sells these wholesale at her studio in Sperryville.

For children’s stocking stuffers, try Jelly bracelets from W&J Grocery at 20 cents each and balsa wood gliders from the Washington Cash Store at 85 cents each. Faith Mountain Herbs sells little wooden pop guns (with corks) for $2.50 each.

W&J Grocery also sells a large variety of deer hunting caps for children of all ages for $4.99 each.

A great shopping place for a number of attractive gifts under $5.00 is Mountain Side Antiques, conveniently nestled in a tiny cot