Tag: Appalachia

Learn More About Buttermilk, Bible Burgers and Other Appalachian Food

Food often provides a universal connection across cultures. Think: President Obama taking part in a meal at a famous sushi restaurant on his recent trip to Japan.

For about 30 years now Greenville, Tennessee, native Fred Sauceman has been documenting Appalachian food culture through a class he teaches at East Tennessee State University as well as journalistic endeavors on television, radio and in print.

Sauceman’s newest book is Buttermilk and Bible Burgers: more stories from the kitchens of Appalachia.

The book covers traditions surrounding a variety of Appalachian dishes such as barbeque, burgers, biscuits, sausage and gravy, peanut soup and that spring favorite, fresh wild ramps.

Sauceman is always surprised by how popular the pungent wild leeks and other mountain staples have become, and finds it interesting that some dishes which have traditionally been poor folks’ food are now prized by fine dining chefs.

“Ramps started out as an emblem of poverty and now they are an emblem of creativity and they are highly valued by chefs who are educated at places like the Culinary Institute of America who just pay these high prices for things that we would go out in the forest and forage for,” Sauceman said. “Same thing for morel mushrooms.”

“It’s almost humorous to watch that trajectory now and see how they are valued at white table cloth restaurants,” he said. “The chefs in New York City go wild for ramps this time of year.”

Sauceman’s newest book provides a vicarious tour of the region’s most traditional and unusual foods. The book includes an essay about a West Virginia produced salsa that includes ramps. It also features chapters on two West Virginia restaurants: Minnards Spaghetti Inn in Clarksburg and Mario’s Fishbowl in Morgantown.

Goldenseal Celebrates 40 Years

Goldenseal magazine, known as the state’s journal of traditional life,  is marking its 40th year of publication with a special commemorative issue, on sale now.

Goldenseal has been published quarterly by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History since 1975.

The Spring 2014 edition revisits favorite stories from past issues, along with story updates and additional content.

The commemorative issue includes a story on the 1931 death of the leader of a band of traveling gypsies in Weirton; a story about a near-fatal military plane crash at West Virginia’s highest summit; and the history of a luxury car made in Berkeley County from 1912 to 1922.

Goldenseal is supported entirely by subscriptions and newsstand sales, and has about 11,000 subscribers in all 50 states and several other countries.

Stories are based on the recollections of living West Virginians, written and submitted by freelance authors. Illustrations include archival images, family photographs and recent pictures.

The anniversary issue is available at bookstores, online or by calling the WV Division of Culture and History at (304)558-0220, ext. 134.

Concord Charlie Agrees with Punxsutawney Phil for Groundhog Day Prediction

The last few weeks, most of West Virginia has endured bitter cold and snowy weather. Many residents were hoping the famed furry friends would bring predictions of an early Spring.

On Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania predicted six more weeks of winter after seeing his shadow. But French Creek Freddie emerged from the West Virginia Wildlife Center in Upshur County and did not see his shadow. According to Groundhog Day tradition, that means an early spring.

Perhaps the dispute can be settled with the folk tale friend, Concord Charlie. 

The Groundhog friend in Athens shared his predictions to interum president Dr. Kendra Boggess via cell phone. 

“You came out yesterday (Groundhog Day, Feb. 2) and you saw your shadow,” she confirmed with Charlie. She then told the furry forecaster, “Go back in your burrow.”  

The Concord Charlie tradition was originated in 1978 by the late Professor R.T. “Tom” Hill. As chairman of both the geography department and the Appalachian Studies program at Concord, Hill started the Groundhog Day Breakfast as a means to celebrate a bit of Appalachian heritage and highlight the program.

Concord tradition shares the spotlight with the Grand Groundhog Watcher, an individual who has positively impacted life and culture in West Virginia.  

This year, Greg Puckett, a native southern West Virginian, 1993 Concord graduate, and one of professor Hill’s former students is the recipient.

“He taught me a lot about Appalachian tradition and Appalachian culture and Appalachian studies,” Puckett said. “That sort of got me involved in a lot of the different things and a lot of the levels and understanding our rich history and what it means.”

Puckett is Executive Director of Community Connections and a key player with the local Creating Opportunities For Youth (COFY) community coalition. His work includes substance abuse prevention efforts among young people and their families.

Concord University student Tyler Jackson contributed to this story.

Jessica Lilly can be reached at 304.384.5981, or by email jlilly@wvpublic.org. You can also follow her on twitter: @WVJessicaYLilly.

For updates from West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s statewide news team, follow @wvpubnews.
 

The Last Forest Collection on West Virginia Public Radio Presents

West Virginia Public Radio Presents is broadcast Thursdays at 9 p.m. and features a variety of insightful programs that explore life, politics, and culture in and around the Mountain State.

Produced by Larry Groce (host of Mountain Stage) these three one-hour programs  dramatize five of the short stories from G.D. McNeill’s book, “The Last Forest.”

October 17  The First Campfire  Back in the 1880’s when this story takes place, the author was a 10-year-old boy living on a mountain farm nestled up against one of the last virgin forests in the eastern United States. It was a life bounded by the seasons and the sun, a life enriched by the tall tales, legends, and family memories recounted over long winter nights by the fireplace. This story tell of his first fishing trip across the mountains to the Cranberry River wilderness.

October 24  The Battle at the Whirlpool & The Last Campfire  This is a fish story told at a time when the native Brook trout streams of the Gauley country were struggling to survive. Logging and waste during the first two decades of the twentieth century killed off many good trout fisheries.  The Battle at the Whirlpool is a quest-story about a young boy seeking to catch the last great brook trout in the Gauley country. In The Last Campfire, 50 years after The First Campfire, a group of old friends reunite to travel to the old wilderness where they spent their youth. It’s a story of loss and renewal, as the group of friends faces the reality of the destructive hand of man, and the ability of nature to be restored.

October 31  The Mystery at Gauley Marsh & The Duke of Possum Ridge  In these stories, G.D. McNeill tells the story of the Gauley Marsh, based on the real-life Cranberry Glades, a sub-arctic wetlands environment that was left behind when the last Ice Age receded from the Allegheny Mountains. In the spirit of Halloween, this is a murder mystery inspired by a real story from McNeill’s day.  The Duke of Possum Ridge is a tale of greed about neighbors who took advantage of those around them during the boom times when the railroads, timbering and mining began to exploit the cheap land and resources of the state.

A curriculum guide is available at The Last Forest Website from the Pocahontas Communications Cooperative. Made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

New CD tells a mountain’s story before strip mining comes

Story telling is an old art form in Appalachia. One West Virginia story teller’s newest project, a CD of music and stories entitled The Mountain Came…

Story telling is an old art form in Appalachia. One West Virginia story teller’s newest project, a CD of music and stories entitled The Mountain Came Alive, attempts to modernize this tradition by addressing today’s concerns.

The CD combines Booth’s interest in music and storytelling with 20 tracks that follow the year in the life of a southern West Virginia mountain that is slated for strip mining.

Booth said he wanted to use traditional methods to tell a story to young people about Appalachia and events in the region that are happening now.

“I found that there were a lot of young folks who didn’t know quite know what Appalachia was or who they were and so I tried to put a lot of folk elements into this and also a lot of contemporary elements into it,” Booth said.

The mountain’s story starts in the winter and takes listeners through the seasons of life including the communities of people, animals, water and plants.

“As I have been telling stories around the country, particularly in Appalachia, one of the themes that comes up is mountain top mining and environmental issues,” he said.

“It tries show that all of these things are very closely related to a sense of place, which is what I believe is one of the strongest aspects of Appalachia, that we’re really related to a sense of place,” Booth said. “And forever and ever that place has been the mountains.”

West Virginians are encouraged to read Kentucky Poet Laureate’s book

The West Virginia Library Commission is hoping folks across the state will read Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X. Walker’s book Affrilachia.  The book is this year’s choice for the One Book, One West Virginia program.

During an appearance at the Martinsburg Berkeley County Public Library Wednesday morning Walker read Clifton 1, the first poem in the book. It tells the story of Walker and his father visiting Clifton, Ky., where his father grew up.

Walker’s parents divorced when he was about four. Walker, who is director of the African American and Africana Studies Program at the University of Kentucky, told the small audience gathered at the library that he was a teenager before he started to get to know his father well.

Walker grew up in Danville, one of 11 children raised primarily by their mother in a home in the projects, where religion and reading were emphasized. All this is reflected in Affrilachia.

“So in that poem you can hear my mother’s influence, the choir singing songs, that personal family history with the divorce and still trying to find a way to make it work,” Walker said. “That reverence for the land and this special place that was not just about land was also about water because he grew up in a place called Clifton that was at the edge of a cliff and that water was the dividing line to the next county.”

“Interesting enough the other county was the official demarcation line for Appalachia,” he said.

An old black and white photograph of Walker’s parents standing in front of a car with two of his sisters graces the book’s front cover. Walker is in the photo, barely, his hand, tinted in red, sticks out from behind one sister. He said it’s the only photo he has of his parents together.

Susan Hayden, West Virginia Library Commission adult services consultant, said everyone in West Virginia is encouraged to read Affrilachia this year.

“We want to just imagine how wonderful it would be if everyone in the state read a really wonderful book and to have a fabulous conversation about it and the connections you would make with your community members and that’s the goal of One Book One West Virginia,” Hayden said.

Hayden said for the past few years One Book, One West Virginia has collaborated with Shepherd University’s Appalachian Writer in Residence program to select a book. While Affrilachia is rooted in Walker’s Kentucky upbringing, Hayden believes West Virginians can relate to the messages it conveys.

“I think it speaks of humanness, I think it speaks to our creativity, our joys and love but hardships, our pain,” she said. “I think its universal, it talks not only to a Black Appalachian, a Black West Virginian, but also all the other races in West Virginia, its universal.”

Walker said he’s flattered that his book was chosen.

“I think that it says more about what our two states have in common,” he said. “About what the region has in common, and about this singular idea behind Affrilachia, that it kind of forces people who have accepted the stereotypes and the caricatures to really rethink what they believe and really know about the region.”

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