Communities throughout the Allegheny region of Maryland, the Greenbrier Valley and Monroe County of West Virginia still prepare their food from local farms. You can visit Reed’s Mill, which still stone grinds heirloom cornmeal and buckwheat, buy local farm products at local stores like Campbell’s Market in Beverly, Bella’s in Lewisburg and Cheese n’ More in Gap Mills.
By Sheila Bowyer Kline. It was a hot, humid, lazy kind of summer day….you know the kind when it is so dang hot you can fry an egg on a concrete sidewalk? Yeah, that hot. “Hot as blazes!” the old timers would say. But I reckon since we were living on our farm in the hills of Southern West […]
Now here’s something you don’t hear about everyday: A chicken that lays wooden eggs. It’s a tall tale told by a man named Johnny Hill, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Gibbs Kinderman brings us this archived recording of Johnny Hill’s magical story about some very peculiar hens. The above photo of the chickens was taken […]
By Gibbs Kinderman Country general stores were the center of community life a hundred years ago along what is now US 219 in West Virginia. They often housed the local post office and provided an informal meeting place for discussion of local affairs and the great issues of the day. These stores sold staples – […]
On a an overcast, October day a crowd of 600 people gather in the little town of Webster Springs. Twenty cooks and 20 Burgoos. Helping judge the best of these Burgoos is Tim Urbanic, chef and owner of Cafe Cimino. “You got to love Burgoo. I really love the rattlesnake. And the snapping turtle. They’re […]
Judy and Warren Ellison celebrated their 70th anniversary last year. Click play to listen to the radio story, or download the story for later. 89-year-old Warren Ellison has been farming in Monroe County since he returned home from World War II. Over lunch at the Ellison farm, Traveling 219’s Roxy Todd recorded Warren talking about […]
The small town of Richwood, West Virginia once had a booming lumber and coal economy, but since the 1980s most of the jobs in town have left the area, as have 42% of the population. Every dollar is needed here, and the town relies on its annual Feast of the Ramson to help rejuvenate the […]
It’s earth day- and today many self-proclaimed ramp lovers in urban cities across the country are celebrating this third week of April and the height of ramp season. Thousands will sit down to a table for dinner, probably at a restaurant in Brooklyn or Chicago and eat their fill of ramps, which pair well with other seasonal spring vegetables like peas and asparagus and also grill very nicely.
They will feast on what many chefs and Appalachian foragers have known for generations-ramps are magical. Or if not that, then they are deliciously repulsive, aromatically stinky, little feisty green onions. If ever a vegetable merited an oxymoron, it’s ramps.
This recipe comes from an expert Salt Rising Bread baker Susan Brown, who grew up in Greenbrier County. Susan is working to research the history of Salt Rising Bread, along with another baker, Jenny Bardwell, who owns a bakery in Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania. Susan’s starter, or “raisin,” as she calls it, uses fewer ingredients than […]
photo by Mike Costello On Saturday, April 26th the town of Richwood, West Virginia will serve 2,000 pounds of wild ramps, along with bacon, potatoes, cornbread and sassafras tea. Richwood prides itself as being the “Ramp Capitol of the World”, and its Feast of the Ramson Festival is the oldest ongoing ramp celebration in the […]
Eldridge McComb spent much of his life farming in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The stories he told spanned generations, from memories of the 1930s to his thoughts on modern day agriculture. Eldridge passed away in 2007. In exploring this area’s farming history, Traveling 219 listened to these interviews, recorded in his later years, to look […]
Click the map to download a high-resolution copy of the Traveling 219 map, or pick up a hard copy at one of many locations along U.S. Route 219. You may also view our interactive map of Traveling 219 stories [HERE].
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