Dozens of indigenous fruits, vegetables, nuts, and game animals are waiting to be rediscovered by American epicures, and Appalachia stocks the largest pantry with an abundance of delectable flavors. In Eating Appalachia , Darrin Nordahl looks at the unique foods that are native to the region, including pawpaws, ramps, hickory nuts, American persimmons, and elk, and offers delicious and award-winning recipes for each ingredient, along with sumptuous color photographs. The twenty-three recipes include: Pawpaw Panna Cotta, Pawpaw Whiskey Sour, Chianti-Braised Elk Stew, Pan-Fried Squirrel with Squirrel Gravy, Ramp Linguine, and Wild Ginger Poached Pears, among others. Nordahl also examines some of the business, governmental, and ecological issues that keep these wild, and arguably tastier, foods from reaching our tables. Eating Appalachia profiles local chefs, hunters, and locavores who champion these native ingredients and describes food festivals—like the Pawpaw Festival in Albany, Ohio; the Feast of the Ramson in Richwood, West Virginia; and Elk Night at Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, Kentucky—that celebrate them. “A thoroughly entertaining and thought provoking journey through an undeservedly overlooked region of the country. Nordahl comes away not only with a harvest of rediscovered ingredients and a reconnection to America’s original pantry, but also a network of genuine friendships.” — Simon Majumdar , author of Eat My Globe and Fed, White, and Blue , and judge on Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen and Iron Chef America “As a native West Virginian, this book transported me back to the amazing meals of my childhood, high in the Appalachians. Join Nordahl as he demystifies the mountains, taking a walking tour of America’s best-kept culinary secrets.” — Forrest Pritchard, professional farmer and author of Gaining Ground and The Farmer in Your Kitchen “With this entertaining and enlightening book, Darrin Nordahl shines a light on the native foods of Appalachia and the colorful locavores who celebrate them. A fascinating read for anyone curious about regional American foodways.” — Marisa Bulzone, cofounder 150ish.com “The book is lively and conversational, and is an excellent beginning point for discovering—or rediscovering—America’s most unique culinary storehouse.” —Eat Kentucky Darrin Nordahl is the author of Public Produce: Cultivating Our Parks, Plazas, and Streets for Healthier Cities . He blogs daily about food at 365wholefoods.com and has written for CNN, the H uffington Post , and Grist.org. He lives in Oakland, California. Eating Appalachia Rediscovering Regional American Flavors By Darrin Nordahl Chicago Review Press Incorporated Copyright © 2015 Darrin Nordahl All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61373-022-5 Contents INTRODUCTION: AMERICAN INGREDIENTS, 1. ALBANY, OHIO: WAY DOWN YONDER, 2. RICHWOOD, WEST VIRGINIA: FEAST OF THE RAMSON, 3. PRESTONSBURG, KENTUCKY: RESTARTING THE GAME, 4. CAIRO, WEST VIRGINIA: TOUGH NUTS TO CRACK, 5. CHEROKEE, NORTH CAROLINA: FOOD BY ANY OTHER NAME, 6. COLFAX, NORTH CAROLINA: FRUIT OF THE GODS, EPILOGUE: TOWARD A NEW AMERICAN CUISINE, Acknowledgments, Selected Sources and Resources, Index, CHAPTER 1 Albany, Ohio: WAY DOWN YONDER * * * Fresh out of Ohio University and sporting a one-off degree in Wholistic Transition to Sustainability, Chris Chmiel was like many recent college graduates in America: educated, ambitious, and unemployed. Chris's career interests — as his conferred diploma suggests — were unique, and few occupations resonated with his sustainable values. For Chris, graduation signaled commencement of a different sort — it was time to begin soul-searching. With his college sweetheart Michelle in tow, Chris wandered the country seeking inspiration and insights into sustainable living. Finding none, he ventured south of the border, where he found a fruit and a purpose on a farm. While working the Mexican soil, Chris discovered guanabana, a curious-looking native piece of produce that resembles a spiky avocado on steroids, but with ivory white flesh and semi-glossy dark, almost black seeds. Guanabana, or soursop as it is called in the States, has an enchanting flavor that is highly revered in its homelands of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Chris, too, was smitten with soursop. What intrigued him most was that this odd-looking indigenous fruit had attained great commercial success. The fruit is delicious by itself, eaten out of hand. But with its characteristic pineapple tartness and banana creaminess, soursop lends luxurious tropical flavor to ice cream, smoothies, fruit juices and nectars, candy, and aguas frescas. Inspired by his time on the farm and by the soursop, Chris saw promise in sustainable food production. He and Michelle returned to Ohio, to the town of their alma mater, to begin a soul-lifting life together. But Chris needed a soul-lifting job first. He tried his han