Tucked in the hills of rural Virginia, a once-abandoned 1930s trout hatchery has been revived by a man reconnecting with his roots. Smoke in Chimneys is redefining farm-to-table trout, raising them in a setting nearly as natural as a stream. The hatchery’s exceptional fish are now sold at farmers markets across Virginia and featured on the menus of top Michelin-starred and James Beard award-winning restaurants on the East Coast.

Owner Ty Walker was raised in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains near Roanoke, where his grandparents taught him farming and fishing, and he spent hours fly fishing in the Shenandoah Valley. After earning a business degree from James Madison University, Walker tried life in Los Angeles and Oregon before returning to his family’s farm in 2017.

While exploring new ventures, Walker learned of an abandoned trout hatchery near New Castle, Va. The facility had been a U.S. Department of Interior hatchery and research center and later operated by the state of Virginia before being left vacant. Inspired by its potential, he took a leap of faith and decided to revive the facility, naming it Smoke in Chimneys after two ancient stone chimneys on his grandparents’ homestead.

Located within the George Washington & Jefferson National Forest, Smoke in Chimneys stands apart from typical hatcheries that use plastic pools and recycled water. This hatchery uses a natural spring-fed system, where 2,500 gallons per minute flow from an artesian spring through limestone rock into the raceways, providing a steady supply of pure mountain water. No pumps or artificial oxygen are needed, creating the perfect environment for raising trout. The result is healthy fish with a taste that rivals those caught in the wild.

Despite its promise, realizing the vision was no easy task. It took a year of clearing and restoration before the facility could be stocked with fish. Getting the water flowing through the ancient gravity-fed system proved elusive until a lucky break led them to an old-timer who knew how to activate the plumbing. Learning to raise trout in a natural setting proved just as challenging. Most literature focused on large-scale aquaculture, not heritage systems. A century-old book on trout husbandry found on eBay helped turn things around.

From that rocky start, Smoke in Chimneys now raises four types of trout: brook (native to Virginia), brown, golden and rainbow. The property has seven working ponds and five raceways, all sunlit and stocked appropriately to ensure the fish’s health. The waterways are never treated with chemicals or antibiotics. Each is lined with aquatic plants and grasses, and adjacent to pollinator gardens, providing a natural diet of insects, microbes, and other creatures that thrive in the stream ecosystem. This is supplemented with high-quality feed, which Walker says is the best they can obtain.

A sunlit hatchery building houses two smaller raceways, where 35,000 roe, hatchlings, and fingerlings are carefully monitored for up to 10 weeks. Once the fish sufficiently grow, they’re moved to larger raceways, where they remain for 10 months to two years. “There are around 10,000 marketable fish at any given time, not including eggs or fingerlings,” Walker said. “These marketable fish typically weigh between 1 and 2 pounds, depending on the species and their intended destination.”

Their destination includes farmers markets in Blacksburg and Roanoke, where the hatchery is the only vendor of fresh fish. More notably, it’s featured in over 250 top restaurants along the East Coast, including the Inn at Little Washington, a favorite of Washington, D.C., dignitaries. As Walker proudly said, “Our trajectory is to grow amazing trout. Chefs appreciate that.” The chef at Michelin-starred Albi in DC called it “some of the best fish I’ve tasted.”

Despite the value of premium fish, the aquaculture industry focuses primarily on mass production. The USDA’s latest Aquaculture Survey reports 335 trout farms in the U.S., each averaging over $500,000 in sales. Smoke in Chimneys, however, operates differently, prioritizing quality over volume. Walker estimated his farm sold about 25,000 pounds of fish in 2023, or roughly 400 mature fish each week. While small compared to volume operations, the quality is virtually unrivaled. “We compete – and win – on the quality side,” he said. Their trout is as close to stream-sourced as possible, which high-end restaurateurs desire. Ryan Zale, co-owner of Local Chop & Grill in Harrisonburg, explained in Garden & Gun, “With the natural spring, all the impurities are gone, and that comes through in the color and taste. I don’t want fishy trout. I want it to taste like spring water, and this does.”

Raising fish is not the only thing Walker does the old-fashioned way. From the outset, he nurtured customer relationships through personal visits, samples, and deals sealed with a handshake. “We hand-select fish every week for our restaurants,” he said. The trout is then carefully packaged, placed in coolers, and shipped overnight to their valued customers.

Modern perks, such as an online store, were eventually added, allowing retail customers to purchase fresh trout, trout cakes, and bottled water sourced from their stream. They eventually expanded into farm-hosted dinners and events, and coaching on agricultural sales and wholesale account development.

Though Smoke in Chimneys continues to evolve, Walker nonetheless keeps his trout center stage. His goal is to make Virginia-raised trout a regional delicacy and an inland seafood specialty. To that end, he’s raising fish the same way it was done almost a century ago, supplying trout rivaling those caught in the wild. “It’s a lot of work,” he said, “but it’s how you raise fish that tastes like you fished it right out of a mountain stream.”

To learn more or to contact Smoke in Chimneys, visit: www.smokeinchimneys.com.