In late spring the folks at Chicago Review Press sent me a copy of the book Eating Appalachia written by Darrin Nordahl. As many of you will remember, I had a bumpy start to my summer when Pap decided to fall, break his hip in 2 places, and have a heart attack all on the same day! Needless to say, I didn’t get to read the book as quickly as I would have liked with all that going on, but I’m here to tell you the book was worth the wait.
Nordahl begins the book with a premise that has never occurred to me: most of the food we consider American Cuisine isn’t native to America. For example, he points out most people realize bananas aren’t native to the USA but wonders if most people know bananas are hands down the most popular fruit consumed in America. Nordahl goes on with a list of fruits and vegetables that have been staples in my diet since I was a child. None are native to the USA.
The following chapters of the book are dedicated to highlighting foods that are native to the Appalachian Region of the USA. Think ramps, papaws, black walnuts, butternuts, hickory nuts, sumac, persimmons, wild greens, and more! Each chapter has recipes to go along with the food item being discussed.
Along with all that tasty goodness, Nordahl discusses what role eating indigenous (native) foods could play in the scheme of our country wide food system. He also high lights folks who are dedicated to making sure these native foods stay around and the various festivals they’ve created to aide in that process. Most of the native foods he discusses aren’t sold in chain supermarkets and with no one to remind folks about them they’ll be gone from our diets and our history before you know it.
Nordahl’s epilogue contains a very sobering quote:
“Around the world, people have witnessed the flavors of their childhood vanish. Three-quarters of the world’s food plants have disappeared, according to data from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. In the United States, the statistic is more alarming. Over 90 percent of our crop varieties have been erased from farmers’ fields…Today, 60 percent of the world’s food is based on just three species: wheat, rice, and corn.”
That gives you something to think about uh?
The book ends on a hopeful note. Nordahl describes Slow Food Ark of Taste, which is dedicated to remembering those fading food items and reminds the reader-if you want to support native foods EAT THEM!
Making native food items that grow right outside our doors part of our regular diet is the best way to hold onto them and to encourage others to use them as well.
—————–
Chicago Review Press has graciously offered to give a copy of Eating Appalachia to a Blind Pig Reader. To be entered in the giveaway all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. *Giveaway ends Saturday August 29, 2015.
If you’re interested you can visit Nordahl’s Amazon page here to purchase the book for your collection-I’m telling you it’s a keeper for fans of Appalachia.
Tipper
Dear Tipper,
I would like to make a small correction to my post if possible. Regarding the bit about pawpaws & may-apples in spring. I was thinking about looking under those big umbrella leaves to find the blooms of the may-apple. Neither fruits in the spring but this is when you spot them. The pawpaw flowers are very dark maroon (they kind of stink) plus the leaves are pretty big, nothing else blooms like that so it’s a good time to identify the tree. When the pawpaws are ripe you’ll probably also see raccoon scat with huge seeds. They are crazy about pawpaws. Pawpaws taste heavenly and may-apples are like eating perfume. I know that sounds weird but they don’t taste anything like any other fruit you’ve ever had. Don’t eat the seeds or any other part of the may-apple. Except for the fruit, it’s toxic – VERY toxic. So much for a SMALL correction.
Oh, I got the Foxfire cookbook. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from it. this would be a wonder addition to my cookbook collection.
This looks like a fascinating book! I just moved to Tennessee this spring and being an avid hiker and backpacker, I’m amazed at the abundance and variety of wild mushrooms, nuts and other native foods that I see while out on the trail. I look forward to learning more about the authentic foods and dishes of this part of the world and this would be a great book to learn how to use some of those native ingredients 🙂
Wow! I am not familiar with cooking any of the foods that you listed from the book, Eating Appalachia. What a great resource (especially if it has pictures.) My Dad was from NC and his parents were from VA. These foods were probably familiar to them, but they have all passed on. The statistics are alarming. Thanks for sharing. nwn
Would love to add this book to my collection of Appalachian foods and recipes. Makes me think of a song by the Judds: “Grandpa, tell me ’bout the good old days.”
Really sounds like a great cookbook!! I cook very “old-fashioned”. It suits me and makes me happy. This cookbook sounds like it would suit me just fine!!
Looks like a good book. I would love to win it.
Sounds like a great book! Would be a great addition to my bookshelf…..
Was gifted with a gallon of Hickory Cane corn this morning and was so happy to find this post in your archives. https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/blind_pig_the_acorn/2009/11/hominy.html Now I can make a small batch of hominy! Thank you and thank Granny too!
I would love the cookbook!
Sounds like a wonderful book. I’d love to test out the recipes!
Hi Tipper,
The information you posted regarding the disappearance of foods native to these United States is absolutely shocking. Who would have even suspected that 90% of our edibles have gone missing? Like many of the other commenters, I have fond memories of the wild foods you listed: the taste of my mother’s persimmon pudding and black walnut divinity, wild morels, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods and lion’s mane mushrooms from the back woods, plus pawpaws and may-apples every spring. I’ve had plenty of sumac-ade, lamb’s quarters, cattails and milkweed. I still gather bushels of hickory nuts each fall and I know where to find heaps of ramps – and no, like most folks I won’t say where (mostly because it’s on federal land – oops.)
Ed Ammons will probably go blind ’cause he won’t eat his orange and yellow vegetables. Too bad, it could have been prevented.
To Julia Hall: I guarantee your paring skills will improve greatly with 30 years of practice!
P.S. It’s not too late for blueberries at Graveyard Fields. You can pick up to a gallon per person per day. Also, Raspberries are coming on at Mt Mitchell. You can snack as you walk along but I don’t think they’d approve of anyone carrying away buckets-full.
I think this looks like an awesome book! Love Applachia and my Applichian Heritage! Love reading your blog!
I remembered the taste of the Appalachians from my childhood. My grandmother from Western NC taught my father her family recipes. I was very young when he passed, but I remember well what he served up. My other grandmother came from the Kentucky hills, and was a good cook as well. When I moved to the mountains of NC, I reclaimed my cooking heritage, and rediscovered ramps, greasy beans, grape dumplings, and more. I have been traveling for years now, but am eager to return to my heart home, the Appalachians. I wonder, Tipper, how many recipes in the book are those of my grandmothers?
I love this chance to win this book. And as always your writings are so interesting and make us feel close to home. Thank you for the warm feelings!
One way or another I wish to read the book. Shocked me to learn the number of native foods that are already gone.
I would LOVE to win this book. Like someone else said, the only sumac I know is poison sumac. I am flumoxed as to what you would do to eat sumac.
I would love another Appalachian cook book. I recently started researching and trying some old mountain recipes. The best part is being able to use ingredients out of the garden!
-Val Sellman
Tipper, the book sounds awesome. My son is a chef in Asheville and has spent the last year finding and using heirloom plants for the restaurant. This book would be a great way for him to locate plants he can incorporate into the menu at the restaurant. I would love to have a copy of the book. Thanks for sharing some of the book with us. It sounds fascinating!
I am homesick for my home place that is just a memory now. We lived in a old log home that was used as a hospital during the Perryville Kentucky battle in the civil war I sometimes close my eyes and go through each room and allow myself to remember my wonderful childhood. I grew up on a tobacco farm with cows, chickens and pigs and dogs and cats and a peafowl named Nicholas. It was a hard life maybe to some as we had a outhouse and used the water from our well. We canned from our garden, picked walnuts and killed our hogs and own beef. We ate poke, hunted morels and used some plants as medicine. My parents dug sassafras and even blackberry roots for a tea that they said helped with a headache. We used everything in our garden and I only bought store bought potatoes after I was married! I would love to have this story book as it would remind me of my childhood. I love to take a few minutes and keep up with your page. I am never disappointed.
I love there are more books popping up that share the beauty of Appalachian foodways! I would love to win this!!
This cookbook description reminds me of my grandmothers and the way they could make a meal of whatever was growing on or around their property. I learned more about food from these dear women than any cooking class I have taken since. I would love to share these southern delights with my own daughter.
I would love to read this book.It has been a long ,busy ,hot summer here” way down south”.Just the thought of curling up with a book like this sounds like fun.I love reading all the comments.I’m still wondering if a pawpaw really would taste like bananas and Robitussin!
Come to think of it there were pawpaws above the water gauge but I never thought to sample them since I thought a pawpaw probably was pretty much a pawpaw. Maybe there is a creek variety and a river variety. I’ll bet the river variety were more Listerine or Chloraseptic tasting. You’ve got to remember though, I’m the one who don’t like dark yellow stuff: yams, carrots, mango and pawpaws are not to my liking. Pumpkin, papaya and pineapple are no better. Anything that resembles the contents of a six month old baby’s diaper is repulsive to me. Those who have never raised kids cannot ever understand. I reckon I am just different.
PS: I apologize to the few who’ve never had kids but who have raised kids (these are world’s true heroes.) It all depends on at what age you inherited them.
PPS: Again I apologize, to all the older folks. I realize that Depends is a forbidden word when we are well past 60 but I couldn’t think of another word that expressed my thoughts adequately.
Those statistics are alarming. Here we are, basically being trained by supermarket chains to only buy and eat certain foods, when there was most likely plenty of native food species free for the taking growing right at our feet not that many years ago.
I’d love to be entered in the book giveaway. What a veritable fount of information it must be, and great to know, especially with things going the way they are in the world right now.
God bless.
RB
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Wow, what a lot of comments! The book sounds very interesting. I am curious about it and about the sumac recipes especially. I am only familiar with poison sumac and was taught to stay away from it. I saw something on the food channel where the host visited a family in Cherokee and sumac was one of the dishes prepared; intriguing! I would love to win the book! I am familiar with hickory nuts and pawpaw. Ramps, whoooo my dad eats them and stinks, ha!
Growing up and raised by my Granny, she had pear, June apple, peach, mulberry trees. She raised a garden, canned, helped her neighbors gather their garden and can, she searched the country roads and creek banks for poke. I remember how she would wash that mess of poke about 5 times to get the sand out, boil it twice, then sauté it in bacon fat. A lot of work for a little mess of poke, but, wow, was it good with corncakes, fresh garden green onions and tomatoes. I would love to win or buy this book. I know I would enjoy the old recipes and foods and then to hand down to my kids.
Oh Tipper! You have done it again. I am now remembering the wild greens we gathered in early spring and how our mother would cook them up and serve them with a sprinkling of vinagar. So much better than greens available in the store. And very difficult to find today with all the herbicide used. Then there we’re mulberrys, crabapples and the asparagus and morels we foraged for. You’ve “done flung a cravin’ on me! ” If I don’t win a copy of this book I am going to nag on the local library til they buy a copy! (My family would raise a big ruckus if I bought another to add to my 60 years of cookbook collecting.)
There used to be Pawpaw trees above the Water gauge up the Little T above it’s confluence with Wiggin’s Creek and Butternut trees above the Beachertown Power House on the Nantahala River. I planted Pawpaw trees but when Duke Power sprayed under their lines they got my trees even though they were twenty feet above the lines. The book sounds interesting and I’d love to read it. Ed should have shared the Pawpaw with Stephen, maybe he would have liked them.
Interesting timing on this post. Tomorrow, a local Appalachian lady is conducting a class on sauerkraut and how it relates to our region. Participants even get to bring home a gallon of the stuff to let ferment. Woo Hoo!
Well, that post certainly generated a number of responses! So here I am born and raised in Michigan of Southern Appalachian stock and still preparing the foods and recipes of my mother, grandmothers, great aunts and so on. Much to the delight of my family (and I’m the guy).
Wow! This looks like my kind of book. Thanks for the blog post, and I look forward to reading this soon.
Wow! Those numbers are staggering. We must all do what we can to hold onto our native foods!
This is a great post Tipper. These are the foods I think about when I want to share Appalachian cooking at the folk school. Let’s figure out how to eat these as often as possible. These flavors of our mountains are unique to the world.Thanks for reminding us.
At 50 years old, I am still new to the “simple” ways. It started, about 4 years ago when I read an article about rendering lard and I have never looked back. I finally have my own chickens and turkeys, am raising meat birds, Goats, and hopefully cows, are next (just gotta get more land!) Still so much to learn. It’s sad that we are so removed from the basics of life and have been brainwashed into thinking the only things we can eat, are what the grocery stores sell.
Thanks and Blessings to you and yours!
Tipper,
Thank you for what you do for our
Beloved Appalachia.
Fifty some years ago, I remember
eating White Walnuts up in our
holler. You could put two together (kinda like pecans) in your hand and crack ’em with no problem. And we had a huge Juneapple tree just loaded with delicious apples.
Daddy picked lots of different
greens for our supper, but sadly
all this stuff is gone. To me,
those were the Good ole Days…Ken
Sounds like an interesting and very valuable resource for anyone. Since I do not ‘win’ things very often, I will have to rely on our public library to see a copy of it. I am really looking forward to that.
Love your blog and the interesting things you tell about. One of my ancestors lived in the Appalachian area before migrating to Iowa. So I feel a little closer connection to her whenever I read about your life.
There was a pawpaw tree on Wiggins Creek. Going up the road past the field where Adam Sutton grew tobacco, you go around a curve and there is a slight dip in the road before it starts uphill again. Right at the end of the dip there is an old road that turns off to the right and goes down to the creek. Across the creek and back into the woods about 30 feet there was a pawpaw tree. I remember eating one and didn’t like so I didn’t bother looking for any more trees. The fruit tasted something like mango. Something like a mixture of banana and Robitussin.
Jim-thank you for the comment! The book doesn’t share any traditional Cherokee recipes however it does indeed mention Cherokee NC : )
Tipper
Blind Pig The Acorn
Celebrating and Preserving the
Culture of Appalachia
http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com
Lorie
So good to hear from you! Your kind comment made my day-so glad you enjoy the Blind Pig. I have only eaten pawpaws raw-they are tasty! But I found this link that shares a few recipes for you:
http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/pawpaw/recipes.htm
Tipper
Update on the edible sumac. The leaves of the poison sumac have smooth edges. The edible one has toothed edges. The best and safest bet is to google the edible and poison ones but I for one love the drink.
I miss the mountains. I want that book…..BAD.
As one who likes to read cookbook recipes from front to back, I would love to read this. We fail to appreciate where so many of our foods originated.
Hi Tipper
Been a long time sense I replied to a post on here but have been reading and listening to the girls and group singing. Something caught my eye today so here I am again. I have read that the paw paw tree is native to NC,SC,Virginia and Tennessee but have yet to talk to anyone that has seen one. The fruit of the pawpaw is supposed to be very good for the treatment of cancer and many other diseases.Do they grow up in your neck of the woods?
Hope Pap is still doing well and tell him he is still in my prayers.
Oh yes this is for Don Casada and eating sumac. Be very careful to only eat the berries and only the red ones. The white berry can kill you.We gathered a bunch of them a couple of years ago and washed them good to take the tiny hairs off them then put them in a dehydrator then ground them to a powder. It tasted like a cross between a lemon and a strawberry. A lot of people call them Indian lemonade.
Sorry about writing a book but please put me in the drawing for the book.
Would love to win this book.
Souds like an interesting book. So many of thetings we ate when I was growing up seem to no longer be around. You mentioned Hickory Nuts. I gan see my granny coming up the path from the woods with an apron full.
Tipper,
I JUST HAD A TERRIBLE IMAGE GO THRU MY OLD BRAIN…
WHAT IF DEER AND ELK CROSSED…??? and what would you call them “DELKS OR ELKEERS”….?
NOW then, that right there is a very “skeery” thought!
I love books about food, when I buy a new cookbook I read it cover to cover. There are always such interesting asides. Tipper, thank you for starting my mornings with a smile 🙂
I just keep saying one of your posts is my favorite. Excuse me if I am repetitive, because you write about most things I love.
This book sounds exactly like one I would keep forever and refer to often. Of course, I love anything Appalachian is why I am a faithful morning visitor.
I have a black walnut tree after finding out it is not a good neighbor for many other trees. I am very proud of my ramp/winter onion/ garlic patch behind the garage. My uncle proudly planted Paw Paw trees but they died–maybe needed a more forest like environment.
We have numerous ramp festivals around the area, and there is a wonderful casserole made from sausage, potatoes, onions, and those wonderful ramps. They sure do have a strong odor, but when everybody eats they aren’t as noticed.
Tipper,
I am a cookbook nut! I read them like novels. Rarely do I totally follow a recipe in a cookbook. Mostly only following recipes from friends or from your recipe blogs.
“Tried and true” recipes will most of the time eliminate a failure for me…well, there is a chance of operator error, a’kin to my use of the “computer box”!
I think Darrin’s book fits the bill for my novel cookbook collection…so put my name in the hat, so to speak!
I agree with all about the book stated and also what you said!
Exception; I do have a problem with the bull Elk pictured on the cover, indicating that one might eat this Appalachian treat!
After waiting patiently until dusk and viewing the re-introduced Elk in and around Cherokee county, I find it very hard to even think of killing and eating one. Even if I could get drawn for a hunt!
They are beginning their rut now. We observed two young bulls practicing the head butting routine just last week. One big bull Elk was just “moseying along” enjoying the pasture not paying those young “whippersnappers” a bit of attention. I am sure he knew who was going to be ruling the roost! So I am sure he was thinking just let them keep practicing their head butt! ha
I think Elk are just too “magnificent” to think of killing and eating.
Now then, those pesky overpopulated
deer in my garden…hmmmm, yes I believe I could bring one down with a “good smack” with my broom! Yep, I’ve cooked many a venison roast!
Thanks Tipper,
also, congratulation to the previous winner.
Saw the Rada dealer at Murphy yesterday, added a mayo/peanut butter spreader to my Rada knife collection!
Sounds like a book after my own heart! I would love to win it and then I can become more familiar with the native foods of this area. I am slowly learning through this site many of the valuable plants and foods to grow.
That books sounds really interesting!
I would like to be entered in the contest. Your blog is the first thing that I do each day. Keep up the good work.
Well Tipper, you did good on this post. I read the whole post to Jim as we were finishing our breakfast of cereal made from wheat – probably! Now put my name in the pot to win that book.
This morning I am going to the library and tell the wonderful Librarian to order the book!
Eva Nell
That sounds like an excellent book, and I hope I win it. It sound as if a good project for the Union County Historical Society would be putting together a list of natural, local foods.
Tipper, the book sounds very interesting. In thinking about how many native or wild fruits and vegetables we consume at our house, berries are in the lead unless you consider foods like corn and beans.
Conratulations to Julia. Happy peeling and slicing !
I see on the cover of the book a picture of butternuts. I grew up calling them white walnuts. I have only ever tasted one nut. They are said to have more oil than black walnut. White walnut is not a very common tree to start with and in the wild at least it often does not have nuts. Many people are unaware there is such a species and fewer still ever tasted one. The wood is favored by dulcimer makers.
They are susceptible to a disease called butternut canker and many have died since about the 1980’s. The US Forest Service funded a survey of the population in the South back in the 1990’s. Jim McConnell, the geneticist who conducted it told me butternut was most common in the central portion of KY and TN and along the KY-TN border. Some years ago there were some extra-nice ones on the banks of the Obey River within the town of Celina, TN.
It is probable that white walnut was planted and tended near Native American villages and that the pioneers of Appalachia also planted it on their farmsteads.
Interesting statistics! It’s sad that today’s kids have no idea what a papaw or mulberry is. I read somewhere that southern farmers are planting more soybeans than anything else due to the high demand of the food filler and the huge jump in the market price. I can’t wait to read the book.
I love the recipes from the Appalachian region and have several books of them. I’d love to add this book to my collection. Have a wonderful day!
I’d love to read this one! And if I win the giveaway but it turns out that many of the foods can’t be found – or substituted with native plants – in my region, I’ll copy out the recipes I can use and then pass the book along to someone who can more fully utilize it.
Your review of Nordahl’s book indeed reminded us that even foods–and our taste for them–passes away if we don’t continue to find, cook and serve them. All of us born and reared in Appalachia would agree to how true his evaluation is of not clinging to our traditional foods. What happened to that “mess” of “creaseback” greens in the spring–geared to help the body get rid of that “winter bile” that had built up? And the “ramp tramp” to find that wild vegetable, which, if one ate, everyone nearby would know what one had eaten.
The Slow Food Ark of Taste has rescued many foods in danger of becoming extinct or introduced them as forgotten foods when people have stopped eating them in favor of massed produced foods. In Florida we have secured our only native pumpkin which has been documented as far back as the 1500’s miss named the Seminole Pumpkin. (The Seminoles came much later). I believe your closest Slow Food chapter is in Ashville. Check SlowFoodUSA.org for more information on the Ark of Taste.
Sounds like a very interesting book !
A Master Gardener friend of mine here in Ocala grows, sells and eats native. I would love to win the book for him. Thank you for these special offers. Janice
HI Tipper, I love your blog. I found you while searching the internet trying to find someone to re-confirm the old time ways of preserving food, such as fermenting beans and corn. My mentors in that area have passed away and season -to-season it is hard to recall exactly how things should look and be done. Your blog has become my stand in for those consoling voices saying, ‘Skim the scum off. They are fine!” Haha.
I have a question. I have someone who has offered to give me PawPaws. I do not know what to do with them. Any suggestions?
Thank you for voicing the ways of our heritage. I am sad to say the old ways have vanished for most folks Your newsletter and website make me feel at home. A little touch of the
old ones that have passed on, still here with me.
God bless.
I would love to learn more about the native foods nature has given us here in America, and how to prepare them. My dad’s family came from Appalachia and I remember them gathering wild greens and other items for medicinal purposes. However the thinking then was that wild greens were weeds and the others were downright poisonous. So much of that knowledge was lost to me and I would dearly love to learn and practice it.
Sounds like a great book to read and own. Barbara
Those are some pretty amazing statistics. I had no idea that so much of our native foods are gone.
I checked out the Slow Food site. It will take me a while to wander through all of it.
I wonder if Sow True, who provides the seeds for your garden and for your plant trials, is a provider for some of these Slow Food of Ark of Taste foods.
Tipper, you must be excited. This is exactly why you started this blog, you wanted to save our Appalachian traditions. Now you are taking one more step forward. You’ve taught us about a lot of these native foods now your showing us a global organization preserving our foods.
Way to go, girl!
Tipper–The book sounds quite interesting. Does it include recipes or simply food lore? Does the author cover traditional Cherokee foods such as yellow jacket soup (I’ve never eaten it and, given way too many negative interactions with what would be involved in obtaining the ingredients, I likely won’t), bean bread, chestnut bread, etc.?
As for butternuts, finding enough today to use them in much of any way might be a real chore. The tree seems doomed to go the way of the once mighty American chestnut.
At any rate, it sounds as if this work fills an interesting niche. Whether you realize it or not, the fact that the publisher sent you a review copy also attests to the growing popularity/recognition of your blog. Kudos!
Jim Casada
When I was a little girl growing up in Kentucky, my grandma’s sister came to visit – we called her Mawdese. We lived out in the country. She took me ‘shopping’ in the field. We got dandelions, wild greens and ramps. It was so much fun. I am 58 and still remember it clear as day. This book would be a great thing to have! Thanks for the chance to win it.
Don’t do a lot of cooking as I live alone but I do love to read and learn even at the age of past 93.
Charles
I would love a copy of this book! I’ve been an avid forager since I was a kid and would like to learn more about the foods of my Appalachian ancestors. Hoping to make a trip out one day.
Eating Appalachia sounds like a great book to have in anybody’s collection. Love books like these. I have two from Cade’s Cove that tell about life back in the day and I so love them.
I have to admit that I have never heard of eating sumac. With the butternut canker (or maybe it’s called anthracnose?) disease, you’re hard pressed to find fruit these days.
Oh,how I would love this book!! This is the type of reading I love..cooking and history combined!
Oh, i shouldn’t; having been a recent winner, but this looks too delicious! BTW your comment re banana’s made me get up and raid the fruit basket for one and gotta tell ya bananas are much cheaper here than in Hawaii where they grow in every yard… most in the stores are imported just like here but it’s the old bulk thing…
OK, this book sound great. I think it is very important to native foods, herbs and heritage animals around. I have paw paws and black walnuts on my land and I am in the process of identifying medicinal herbs that are growing. I would love more information on native foods.