This week on Inside Appalachia, a Virginia Tech researcher challenges deeply held ideas about the purity of natural springs. Also, we meet the folks behind Angelo’s Old World Italian Sausage. They still use a family recipe that’s been handed down from generation to generation for over a century. Customers love it.
This week, a Virginia Tech researcher challenges deeply held ideas about the purity of natural springs.
Also, we meetthe folks behind Angelo’s Old World Italian Sausage. They still use a family recipe that’s been handed down from generation to generation for over a century. Customers love it.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
Angelo’s Old World Sausage is available in stores in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.
Credit: Zack Harold/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Angelo’s Old World Italian Sausage is from a family recipe that goes back over a century to the Calabria region in southern Italy. It’s become a grocery store favorite in West Virginia.
Folkways Reporter Zack Harold spoke with the makers of Angelo’s Old World Italian Sausage and heard a story about sausage-making spanning generations.
Water Woes And The Trouble With Spring Water
It’s an old story in Appalachia: failing water systems leaving people afraid to drink from their taps. In McDowell County, West Virginia, people have relied on bottled water and mountain springs for decades, but maybe those alternate sources aren’t so pure.
Researchers at Virginia Tech have been looking into water inequity in the region. Mason Adams spoke with professor Leigh-Anne Krometis about what she’s found.
A Picture Of Peerless City
“Peerless City” is a documentary about Portsmouth, Ohio, a city that’s been alternatively described as the place “where southern hospitality begins” and “ground zero for the opioid epidemic.”
Filmmakers Amanda Page and David Bernabo wanted to go beyond slogans, though. Bill Lynch recently spoke with them about the film, and about Portsmouth’s complexity.
Inflation Hits Eastern Kentucky Hard
Recent reports show inflation is down from what it’s been over the last two years, but people in places like Letcher County, Kentucky are still feeling the pinch.
WEKU’s John McGary has the story.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by The Dirty River Boys, Hot Rize, Hank Williams, Jr., Ron Mullennex, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Tim Bing and Noam Pikelny.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
Since 1979, the colorful three day street festival has celebrated Italian culture and heritage in the Mountain State. In preparation for the event, blocks of streets are closed off to traffic to accommodate the thousands of visitors expected to pour into downtown Clarksburg over Labor Day weekend.
Since 1979, the colorful three day street festival has celebrated Italian culture and heritage in the Mountain State. In preparation for the event, blocks of streets are closed off to traffic to accommodate the thousands of visitors expected to pour into downtown Clarksburg over Labor Day weekend.
With one of the largest Italian American populations located in the north central part of West Virginia, it has been rated one of the “Top 100 Events in North America” including Canada and Mexico.
Children participating in the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival in Clarksburg.
Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival
Festival board member Weege Vargo said the authentic Italian cuisine and entertainment draws people from across America.
“Well of course, one of the things that the Italian culture is most known for is their delicious food, so you will find numerous food vendors lining both sides of Main Street between 2nd and 5th Street,” Vargo said. “Another cultural thing we are very well known for is our music and our dancing.”
Vargo said there will be continuous entertainment on the main stage all three days of the festival.
“You can listen, you can dance, you can enjoy however you see fit,” Vargo said. “We do have a traditional closing each day of the festival with the band AMICI – an Italian band – and during that show people dance in the street doing the traditional tarantella and some of the other Italian dances.”
The royal court of Regina Maria – Regina meaning “Queen” and Maria the name of the first queen of Italy – is crowned during the opening ceremony. The festival culminates with a traditional festival ball with highlights that include an annual 5k run, and West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival Golf Tournament and a pasta cook off.
Delaney Wells is the 2023 West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival Regina Maria.
Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival
This year’s Regina Maria is Delaney Wells of Charleston who gets to wear a signature sequin-rich, brilliant red dress for the celebration.
“Like with the big crown, and like she’s known for having this huge dress. I remember seeing it when I was kid and seeing her on the float,” Wells said. “I mean it was just like this huge ball of red, but like, it’s so beautiful, and there’s a huge court that she has, oh my gosh, there’s so many young kids on the court. There’s a minor court, a junior court and then maids of honor. And actually, my cousin is a maid of honor this year.”
To be chosen as Regina Maria, Wells said she sent the festival board a letter outlining her Italian heritage, experience and interests.
“And then I had an interview with them. I had a Zoom call on Superbowl Sunday and each person on the board asked me different questions,” Wells said. “They asked me if I have any memories of the festival, what I love about being Italian, what I’m doing right now in school, what my goals are in the future, and the next day they emailed me back with a letter of congratulations.”
Vargo said the crowning of the queen marks the official start of the festival which continues through the weekend.
The West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival draws people from multiple states and abroad.
Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival
“On Friday, we start at noon with the coronation of Delaney, who will be Regina Maria the 44th. She will receive her crown from last year’s queen, and she will start her official reign, and she will stay in that position until she crowns the queen next year,” Vargo said.
After hearing she’d been chosen as Regina Maria, Wells immediately told her family and set about preparing for the event.
“They’re so excited. My mom went to the first one in 1979 when she was 12,” Wells said. “There’s a picture of my grandma braiding her hair, and she and I recreated it when I was 16, and we took a picture of her braiding my hair at the Italian Festival. I’ve been going there ever since I was a little kid. I think I only didn’t go because of COVID, and then I was at college, but then that was when the whole world was messed up so I couldn’t go.”
Kids enjoying the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival.
Credit/West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival
For her role as Regina Maria, Wells has to attend all the festival events, something she said she is looking forward to.
“I’ve probably said dancing with kids a million times, but that’s what it is, I really do dance in the streets with all the children and all the people attending,” she said.
Along with a pepper eating contest and Italian bocce ball games during the festival’s pasta cook-off people share compelling stories about their ancestors while enjoying excited chatter over food.
“I mean, maybe when I was younger, it was people who had come from Italy who were cooking food. But now it’s their children, grandchildren who are there,” Wells said. “Because there are so many people, I know one of the women who runs the event, her name is Rose Mazza, she was born in Italy. So I guess, like talking about the food, like it’s more than just your pizza that you get at takeout, or just a little more real and tasty. They have really good food there.”
On Saturday, Wells and her court will ride on the Queen’s float reigning over her court in the Grand Parade which will feature dignitaries like Clarksburg Mayor Jim Malfregeot and others.
The annual pasta cook off is one of the festival’s most celebrated events.
Credit/ West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival
Sunday’s events include a Catholic outdoor mass at 10 a.m.
“Whether you are Catholic or not, it is a very moving and rich ceremony and service, and people stand in the street and worship,” Vargo said.
Following the mass, the Allegro Dance Company will entertain the public with archived festival footage and performances by Mary Frances Beto Smith, Benjamin DeFazio, Chelsea Boyles, Brandon LeRoy, Marissa Bailey and AMICI.
The last day of the festival also marks Fritti Sunday, which starts at 8 a.m.
“Frittis are an Italian type of dessert, it’s dough just covered in sugar. They’re so good,” Wells said. “I know people from Clarksburg who knew about them growing up so they’ve been around forever. People love them, I mean, they sell out so quickly.”
Families line a street in Clarksburg for the West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival Grand Parade.
Credit/ West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival
Each year, the festival honors outstanding Americans with public awards and recognition. This year’s honorary Italian man of the year is Brad Smith from Marshall University.
Past recipients have included Govs. John D. Rockefeller and Cecil H. Underwood, Leland Byrd and Senior Status Judge Daniel L. McCarthy as well as A. James Manchin, uncle of current U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.
Delaney Wells is a journalism major at the University of Kentucky and she interned this summer with the West Virginia Public Broadcasting newsroom.
On this West Virginia Morning, teaching is the career that all other careers are built on, but recently West Virginia has struggled to fill vacancies in classrooms. Chris Schulz continues our new radio series “Help Wanted: Understanding West Virginia’s Labor Force” by exploring the struggle to keep the state’s schools staffed.
On this West Virginia Morning, teaching is the career that all other careers are built on, but recently West Virginia has struggled to fill vacancies in classrooms. Chris Schulz continues our new radio series “Help Wanted: Understanding West Virginia’s Labor Force” by exploring the struggle to keep the state’s schools staffed.
Also, in this show, the 44th West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival is gearing up for a full weekend of activities this Labor Day holiday weekend. Caroline MacGregor reports.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.
Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
Landfilling has been the main source of getting rid of waste for centuries. But a new technology coming to West Virginia may change how we think of waste disposal, and in the long run, help our environment.
Entsorga is an Italian resource recovery company that has been around since 1997. About four years ago, the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority was looking for ways to promote a cleaner environment and find a safer and more efficient way to dispose of waste. …Entsorgaended up finding them.
After three years of waiting, Entsorga received approval from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to begin constructing a new resource recovery facility later this year on property owned by the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority. The facility will take anywhere from 65 to 75 percent of the refuse they collect and turn it into fuel instead of putting it in the ground.
“Essentially what you take waste, and you use it as a resource or you use to make energy,” said Clint Hogbin, the chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority, “This is garbage that will be picked up on the street, no differently then it’s being picked up today. And instead of the truck going to a landfill, the truck will go to a 4 acre building, and unload its waste inside of a building, where mechanical equipment, electro-mechanical equipment will sort and process that waste and prepare it to be used for fuel.”
The Berkeley County facility will be the first Entsorga plant in the country and the first resource recovery facility in West Virginia using a technology called HeBIOT.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Acreage just behind the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority’s main office. The Entsorga facility will be built just beyond this fence.
“HeBIOT is an acronym. It stands for high-efficiency biological treatment, and it’s a patented technology, patent by Entsorga,” Hogbin said, “It uses the biology of waste if you will, the decomposition of waste, to prepare the waste to be used for a fuel.”
Hogbin says while there are other resource recovery facilities in the United States, this facility is the only one that will use the HeBIOT technology. The waste is turned into a confetti-like material by use of high-tech machines operated by humans within a clean room. The material is then dried and can be burned for fuel and used as a replacement for some non-renewable resources like coal. And that’s what Hogbin says may keep the state from embracing the new fueling system.
“We were worried about there being some concern, particularly from downstate, about the impact on coal, because this would be competing with coal,” Hogbin noted.
With the push from the federal government to reduce carbon emission, however, Hogbin says recycling refuse is a viable option for not just West Virginia, but the entire country.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Clint Hogbin, chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority, stands in the field soon to be under construction.
“Emissions from burning of this material has been studied. It’s been studied by Entsorga. It’s also been studied by the United States Environmental Protection Agency who literally sent this board a letter, advising us their opinion of burning this material was significantly lower or equal to the emissions of burning coal.”
Entsorga has an agreement with another Italian company called Essroc, also located in Berkeley County. The confetti-like material produced at the Entsorga plant, will be sent to Essroc, where this fuel will be used to power the plant that makes cement.
Apple Valley Waste Services will also play a role by providing Entsorga with the garbage it will use to make the fuel.
Hogbin says once the Entsorga facility is up-and-running, it would employ around 12 people, with salaries ranging from forty to sixty-thousand dollars a year.
