Magazine

You can make this delicious brown sugar black walnut cake

I love sharing time with my mom, Nancy Suddreth, who is 72. Recently, while we were puttering around the kitchen, she let slip this whopper: “Did you know that black walnuts cost ten dollars a pound?”

I almost dropped a plate. “Ten dollars a pound?” I couldn’t believe it. “Why don’t we just gather them like we used to. I know where a black walnut tree is.”
Find deer sheds in the Appalachian woods

I’m talking about deer sheds, not tool sheds.

When you hear the word “shed,” you probably think of the shack that sits in the back of your property where you store your gardening tools and whatnot. You may conjure up a little house with a smokestack and old barn wood siding where a hunter might stop for a break.
Make this simple Appalachian winter afghan project

A quick and easy crochet project

My friend came to work dressed in the most beautiful shades of blue, gray and off-white recently. It reminded me of the Appalachian Mountains in winter. I was inspired!
an authentic Appalachian wood cook stove

And how to appreciate modern-day appliances

Ask your Appalachian-born-and-bred grandparents: “Before you had electricity, how did you cook your food?”

Their answer undoubtedly will be “Why, on the cook stove, of course.”

A wood cook stove is a stove built out of iron that could house a fire. This stove had many uses, from heating up a chilly house on an Appalachian Mountain morning to warming up our hands after a day of hunting and playing. But its primary use was cooking.
Pete Seeger sings in an Appalachian holiday music manner

This holiday season, ring in an Appalachian Christmas.

Christmas is a special time of year no matter where you are, but there seems to be something a little bit different about an Appalachian Christmas. Maybe it’s because many of the old traditions are still alive in these mountains. Perhaps it’s because snow falls infrequently enough in the South that when it does cover the ground on Christmas Eve, it feels especially magical to young and old alike.

A Fairy Tale Setting
Appalachian wines and ciders

’Tis the season for family celebrations and office parties. If you’re not giving thanks for past memories, you’re creating new ones. In Appalachia, people like to keep things local, which means toasting with local cider and sparkling wine. Fermenting hard cider and making wine started in Europe, and the European settlers who came to the Appalachian Mountains brought their tastes and recipes with them.
Appalachian Fly-Fishing

Fly-fishing for mountain trout is a sport at which the fish sometimes win, and the fishermen don’t mind. In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, fly-fishing has a rich and active history. There’s even a Fly-Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians in Cherokee, North Carolina.
Downtown Boone with holiday lights

Winter Wonderland of the Appalachians

Once a frontier town, Boone, North Carolina, has become a small-town paradise in the Appalachian mountains of western North Carolina. It has the sights, sounds and culture to delight you, and it exhibits plenty of charm. You can visit Boone any time of year, but come winter, it’s full of holiday spirit and offers plenty of outdoor activities.