Virtually everyone of my generation who grew up in the Great Smokies, and for that matter most anywhere in the readily identifiable if somewhat geographically ill-defined region known as Appalachia, knew something about hard times.

In the 1950s and 1960s, young [...]]]>

Jim Casada has another story up at The Tuckasegee Reader. This is how it started:

Virtually everyone of my generation who grew up in the Great Smokies, and for that matter most anywhere in the readily identifiable if somewhat geographically ill-defined region known as Appalachia, knew something about hard times.

In the 1950s and 1960s, young folks from the area fled to the car manufacturing areas of the Midwest or the shipyards of the Norfolk, Virginia area to escape poverty and find work. Somewhat straitened economic circumstances in the Smokies were a fact of life, although in truth as a boy I never thought of my family as being poor. We always had plenty of food, thanks to growing a big garden, raising our own hogs, having a small orchard, and putting plenty of game and fish on the table.

via Jim Casada’s Smoky Mountain Christmas.

Mark F. Sohn’s classic book, Mountain Country Cooking, was a James Beard Award nominee in 1997. In Appalachian Home Cooking, Sohn expands and improves upon his earlier work by using his extensive knowledge of cooking to uncover the romantic secrets of Appalachian food, both within and beyond the kitchen. The foods of Appalachia [...]]]>

Mark F. Sohn’s classic book, Mountain Country Cooking, was a James Beard Award nominee in 1997. In Appalachian Home Cooking, Sohn expands and improves upon his earlier work by using his extensive knowledge of cooking to uncover the romantic secrets of Appalachian food, both within and beyond the kitchen. The foods of Appalachia are the medium for the history of a creative culture and a proud people. This is the story of pigs and chickens, corn and beans, and apples and peaches as they reflect the culture that has grown from the region’s topography, climate, and soil. Sohn unfolds the ways of a table that blends Native American, Eastern European, Scotch–Irish, black, and Hispanic influences to become something new—and uniquely American.

Sohn shows how food traditions in Appalachia have developed over two centuries from dinner on the grounds, church picnics, school lunches, and family reunions as he celebrates regional signatures such as dumplings, moonshine, and country ham. Food and folkways go hand in hand as he examines wild plants, cast-iron cookware, and the nature of the Appalachian homeplace.

Appalachian Home Cooking celebrates mountain food at its best. In addition to a thorough discussion of Appalachian food history and culture, Sohn offers over eighty classic recipes, as well as mail-order sources, information on Appalachian food festivals, photographs, poetry, a glossary of Appalachian and cooking terms, menus for holidays and seasons, and a list of the top 100 Appalachian foods.

Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes

Gorgeous photographs featuring the natural wonders of the Blue Ridge Mountains fill this wall calendar and keepsake. Below the stunning views of endless mountain ridges and majestic waterfalls, all major holidays and moon phases are marked, and there's plenty of room to keep track of appointments, meetings, and special events.

[...]]]>

 

Gorgeous photographs featuring the natural wonders of the Blue Ridge Mountains fill this wall calendar and keepsake. Below the stunning views of endless mountain ridges and majestic waterfalls, all major holidays and moon phases are marked, and there's plenty of room to keep track of appointments, meetings, and special events.