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The hillbilly stereotype is frequently used to shame mountain people, but there are gentler versions, like Snuffy Smith, the long-running comic strip character. Snuffy Smith originally started out as a supporting character in his comic strip, which first launched in 1919 when Billy DeBeck created Barney Google. Artist Fred Lasswell was brought in during the ‘30s to create Snuffy Smith and his friends. And now the strip is written and drawn by John Rose, who lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
Home » EDIBLE MOUNTAIN – Growing Wild Mushrooms At Home
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EDIBLE MOUNTAIN – Growing Wild Mushrooms At Home
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Jeremiah Stevens takes mushroom hunting to a new level. When he finds edible or medicinal mycelium growth, he takes samples home to his lab in Wheeling, WV. Once clean and in a nutrient-rich agar, he makes clones. Finding different genetics, he builds up the varieties.
Stevens’ sterile growing environment enables him to cultivate a nice mess of wild-sourced mushrooms.
Chuck Kleine
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Jeremiah Stevens prepares to take a sample of an oyster mushroom.
“After the first original tissue sample is transferred to nutrient rich agar, and one or two transfers after to clean it up, you can continue cloning from the repeated new fruiting bodies that appear as you grow out the species,” he said. “The mycelium from the first few transfers can be extended to a number of new petri dishes.”
The oyster mushroom tends to do exceptionally well as it is forgiving when it comes to coping with possible contamination.
Chuck Kleine
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A oyster mushroom sample grows in a petri dish.
Today Stevens sells his goods as Ohio Valley Mushrooms. Besides the the fruiting body he also offers a range of grow kits and cultures for folks to try to grow their own wild mushrooms at home.
Edible Mountain is a bite-sized, digital series from WVPB that showcases some of Appalachia’s overlooked and underappreciated products of the forest while highlighting their mostly forgotten uses.
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) will host a public screening of selected excerpts from The American Revolution, the landmark documentary series by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, followed by a community conversation at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 5, 2026, at the Brad D. Smith Business and Innovation Center on the campus of Marshall University.
Shannon Silverman, an astrophysicist at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences in Charleston, West Virginia, guides us through the cosmos above the Mountain State.
Join West Virginia Public Broadcasting this evening at 7 p.m. for Gov. Patrick Morrisey's 2026 State of the State address. You can watch the broadcast on WVPB-TV, The West Virginia Channel or stream it with WVPB Passport or our YouTube channel.
