eliot williams,
Appalachian South Folklife Center, Pipestem, WV
Today we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Appalachian South Folklife Center. People from all over have come to Pipestem this weekend to honor the legacy of Don and Connie West with a symposium yesterday and a folk music festival today. The folklife center is a beautiful camp on a hill with dorms, large fields, a dining hall and an amphitheater. These days they host social justice groups, weddings, reunions and a lot of youth camps. They also have a local home repair program that they involve the youth groups in.
We have had a lot of rain lately but not like the floods to the west of us. (Thank goodness, I’m so sorry for those affected). Beans and cucumbers are starting to come in strong. I had the pleasure of fried green tomatoes for dinner last night and am thinking about how I need to make a lot of zucchini bread.
This summer we have been donating vegetables (honestly mostly greens) to the Seeds of Peace Kitchen collective, whose east coast faction is based out of the area. Seeds of Peace is a kitchen made up of volunteers who cook on a low budget for camps and events that have a focus on social justice and emphasize direct action. Sometimes they cook for hundreds and easily use 4 bushels of collards in one meal. We have also been selling some lettuce and salad mix to a new local cafe in downtown Princeton. I have sold salad mix at market a few weekends this year as well, a lot of people have been excited (I had some really, really good lettuce in May and June) but I also had others who were just looking for a particular type of head of lettuce– Probably iceberg because I had some pretty nice heads of romaine on the table that month too. My lettuce successions petered out mostly now and now its a lot of squash and greens. (And unfortunately quite a bit of weeds).
Can’t wait til tomatoes!
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