Valerie @ Cowan Creek Grow Appalachia

It’s that time of the year when we gather to preserve the seasons harvest at the Cowan Community Center. This is a part of the Grow Appalachia program we all love and it continues to grow. At Cowan we like to think we are growing community one garden at a time.

Thanks to Grow Appalachia participant, Callie Blair for preparing for and leading the classes.  Others who make it happen are Shane Lucas, Ashley Collier and Paul Hooper.

We do our canning at the center which has a small kitchen, but folks get as much done as they can on site and then take home to finish the process with directions and support if needed.  We have a six week series at the center, with a Monday night class or a Tuesday morning class.  This week, we had 40 folks show up to basically peel apples and get the directions for making apple butter on Monday night and another 20 on Tuesday morning. I continue to be amazed that folks want to come out for this.  We do very little advertising, beyond an announcement on Facebook.  We have ages from 4 to 84, men and women and everyone helps each other.  I think I’ll just stop here and share the pictures from the classes.

Pickles

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Salsa Night

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Apple Butter

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