Welcome to Emporio at the Farm

Carmelita “Lita” Scholes is an entrepreneur, artist, instructor, chef, mother, and spouse of an active duty Marine for 21 years.  She is active in both the Italian Culinary and Women Owned Small Business communities.
Throughout her time as an active duty spouse, she skillfully managed a busy household and ensured it was filled with love, laughter, and important life lessons. Notably, she and her family moved eight times during her husband’s carrier. In each of the austere base housing residences they were assigned, she designed and remodeled this temporary housing to provide an elegant space that provided both comfort and sophistication. Fellow base residents often asked for her assistance in decorating from choosing furniture, to changing out florescent light fixtures, and paint glazing cinderblock walls. In each local community, she established a network of antique dealers, local artists, and estate auctioneers.
Her family was not surprised in 2012, when she opened Emporio LLC a popular home décor and gift store in historic downtown Fredericksburg, VA.  She was quickly handpicked by Annie Sloan Interiors Ltd. as the area Stockist (retailer) for their revolutionary furniture Chalk Paint®. Lita regularly provides inspirational workshops and individual classes on tips & techniques in using this unique product. She was the first Stockist to use the Chalk Paint® as a medium on canvas to create beautiful watercolor paintings. Her impressionistic cow painting became so popular in sales that she has offered classes on creating it while leaving the choices in color to her students. She has recently gone on to use the paint to create wall murals.
In 2015, she and her husband purchased the 60 acre historic Bleak Hill Farm (circa 1790) in King George, VA. Just maintaining a farm house and property was not enough for her. She quickly established a horse boarding business, a wedding venue (with catering), and began offering cooking classes, hosting dinner parties for small groups, and raised a flock of chickens who produce farm-fresh eggs for sale. 
But before she was a mother — or a wife, business owner, artist, or rancher — she was Salvatore and Maria Giunta's daughter born and raised only a block from the Mediterranean Sea in the city of Catania on the gorgeous island of Sicily. It was mainly from her father, an Electrical Engineer, that she developed her love for the rich heritage of her country’s cuisine. On Saturdays she would accompany him to the local markets (seafood, meat, produce, etc.) temporarily setup in the center of the city and pick specialty items that she would help him prepare for their family’s weekend dinner parties. The flavors of her and Papa’s recipes for Pasta alla Norma and Involtini di pesce spada (baked swordfish rolls) still linger in her memory as some of the best dishes he has ever eaten.
A product of Italian and American public schools Carmelita Scholes studied Interior Design and Culinary Arts at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California.