Today Only at Blacksburg Farmers' Market: Berries from Talking Hill Farm

Photo of goumi berry (elaeagnus multiflora) by HEN-Magonza on Flickr

Today, at the market, Bill Whipple ((AKA Dr. Barkslip) of  has set up a display of his berries for folks to taste and buy.  He offered at least three kinds of gooseberries, red currants, tart cherries, black cherries, black raspberries, mulberries and one I couldn't identify.

It turned out those were goumi berries, a sweet-tart red fruit (aka gumi, natsugumi, or cherry silverberry), a native of China, Korea and Japan, which he has grafted on to the more common Autumn olive (or maybe Russian olive...I can't remember which)  in the same family.  I read it's  regarded by the USDA as an invasive--that's probably because all of them have the ability to fix nitrogen and thus can grow places where more delicate plants suffer.

Next to the table, he had set out a large branch from a tart cherry tree  in a pail of water, with a sign "pick your own"  sign. I bought a box of mixed berries which included the goumis. He talked about how he lets his trees decide if they're fit for propagation, by whether they thrive without spraying.

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 Bill homesteaded his farm in Monroe County near Union, West Virginia starting decades ago and began planting fruit trees as he  pursued a career as a studio furniture maker.  He has furniture on display at Henderson, NC's Silver Fox Gallery and has made traveling violins which he calls wipLstix, pictured at the end of this post.  I'm not sure if he still makes them, as he lists his address on the site as Union, WV, rather than Asheville--I'll have to ask him about the wipLstix when he comes back to Blacksburg with his pears.  That's  how I met him last year, through baker Aaron Grigsby.

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If you want to read more about Bill's adventures in horticulture, you can read his blog, where he posted before he started a website for his farm and fruit school.  He has also published on grafting in Permaculture Activist (#87 Weeds to the Rescue, Spring, 2013, "W.E.E.D:  World of Excessive Extracurricular Dendrology") and is one of the founders of the Buncombe Fruit and Nut Club. At one time he was caretaker for the George Washington Carver Edible Park.   In the small world department, it turns out that that park is managed by Bountiful Cities Project, which also manages my friend Randal Phlegar's project, Grass to Greens.

Photo from Bill's site  and three videos from YouTube.

And finally a chin and shoulder rest adaptation from Australia's Animato Strings.

Senators Move to Restore Pre-Clearance in Voters Right Act

Photo by  Heather Rousseau for the Roanoke Times

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Rev. Sylvia Ball of Roanoke's Sweet Union Baptist Church (left) and Rev. Leslie Watson Malachi, director of African American Religious Affairs with People for the American Way joined  others in Elmwood park for a three-hour rally calling on Republican House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, to update (and preserve) the pre-clearance formula of the Voters Right law, struck down two years ago in the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder.


“Hold a hearing, Mr. Chairman,” Brenda Hale, president of the Roanoke Branch NAACP, urged Goodlatte. “You’ll hear the evidence.”

The previous day, Dems Tim Kaine and Mark Warner co-sponsored Patrick Leahy's Senate bill S.1659 seeking to restore the pre-clearance provision. The bill establishes a “rolling” trigger so only states with recent records of discrimination would be targeted and expands the authority of the courts to order that troubled jurisdictions be put under pre-clearance.

Upon its introduction, Senator Leahy explained the rationale for the bill:

Mr. President, this year marks the 50th anniversaries of the March from Selma to Montgomery and the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act. Passage of the Voting Rights Act was the result of the blood, sweat, and tears of so many brave Americans who marched for justice--and the decades-long work of countless other men and women committed to seeing our country live up to its promise of equality and justice for all. Their actions transformed our Nation. On this 50th anniversary year, we pay special tribute to their legacy, but there is still work to be done. Each generation must contribute to the fight for equality. Each of us must answer the call to move this Nation toward a more perfect union.

In the coming weeks there will be continued celebrations of the passage of the original Voting Rights Act. Unfortunately, two years ago, the Supreme Court voted to dismantle a core piece of that vital legislation. In Shelby County v. Holder, five Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court drove a stake through the heart of the Voting Rights Act. Under Section 5 of the Act, the Federal government has the authority to examine and prevent racially discriminatory voting changes from being enacted before those changes disenfranchise voters in covered jurisdictions. By striking down the coverage formula that determined which States and jurisdictions were subject to Federal review, the Court effectively gutted Section 5. And in holding that the formula was based on outdated information, the Roberts Court disregarded thousands of pages of testimony and evidence from nearly 20 congressional hearings held when the law was reauthorized in 2006.
Within weeks of the Supreme Court's devastating ruling, Republican governors and State legislatures exploited the Shelby County decision. Several States with a documented history of racial discrimination in voting implemented sweeping laws that disproportionately suppressed the voting rights of minorities, the elderly, and young people.

For example, Texas immediately implemented the most restrictive photo identification law in the country. Although, a Federal judge found the law to be an ``unconstitutional poll tax'' that could disenfranchise up to 600,000 voters and disproportionately impact African Americans and Latinos, the law was allowed to disenfranchise voters this past election.

In North Carolina, the Republican legislature and Republican governor passed a far-reaching bill that restricted its citizens' right to vote. The bill cut early voting down from 17 days to 10 days, eliminated teenagers' ability to preregister before their 18th birthday, and eliminated same day voter registration. It also enacted a strict photo identification requirement, which is currently being challenged in court.

These are just a few of the numerous discriminatory voting restrictions that have been enacted since Shelby County was decided. We cannot sit by as the fundamental right to vote is systematically undermined. We must not retreat from our commitment to civil rights and the great accomplishments we celebrate this year. As my friend Congressman John Lewis has stated, voting ``is the most powerful, nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.''

Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson on the Charleston, SC Terrorism

This photo of the victims was used on a memorial poster.  The original, in color, had accompanied news accounts.

Top row: Cynthia Graham Hurd, 54, manager of St. Andrews Regional Library branch at Charleston County Public Library; Reverand Clementa Pinckney, 41, the senior pastor at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church; Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45,  speech language pathologist at Goose Creek High School, a track coach there and an assistant pastor at the church.

Middle row:  Daniel Simmons Sr., 74, a retired pastor; DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49, an enrollment counselor at Southern Wesleyan University's Charleston Campus; and Tywanza Sanders, 26, a 2014 graduate of Allen University in business administration, who was a poet and rapper.

Bottom row:  Myra (Quarles) Thompson, 59, teacher at  Brentwood Middle School, now known as Meeting Street Elementary School at Brentwood, in North Charleston, during the 1980s and 1990s; Ethel Lance, 70, a retired custodian at Gaillard Municipal Auditorium and sexton at the church; and Susie Jackson, 87, Lance's cousin and Sanders's aunt.

For those wishing to donate, 

Throughout his ministry, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney worked with many non-profit organizations, including the Palmetto Project, to address social and economic challenges facing youth and marginalized communities in South Carolina.  In coordination with the City of Charleston, the Palmetto Project has created this special fund to continue this work in those communities in which Reverend Pinckney served as a pastor. The Fund is guided by an advisory board of his colleagues, friends, and family along with representatives from congregations he served including Emanuel AME Church.

Also, at the request of her family, the library will have a fund to continue Ms. Hurd's work there.

The City of Charleston has also been collecting funds for the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund for the victims' families, with any surplus to go to the church. 


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What to say about the killings in Charleston?  I'm heartsick and at a loss, other than to say that this was an act of terrorism.  And so I turn this page over to my friend and community organizer Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson of Chattanooga, who calls on us to respect the local leadership in her post on Facebook, which I'm republishing here with her permission.  Ash is connected to both Concerned Citizens for Justice in that city and Atlanta's Project South.  Both organizations are signatories of  The Movement for Black Lives statement on Charleston.  The picture is her current profile picture on Facebook.  That's her in the center standing behind Margaret Block (oral history pdf), one of the leaders of the Mississippi Freedom Summer.  For another piece by Ash, see her post on fighting mountaintop removal.

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I'm feeling some sorta way about folks who aren't from Charleston, some who aren't even in Charleston, encouraging folks to flock to the city, to flock South, for the funerals/memorials.

1) anti-Black racism is everywhere. Including where you live. What you doing on your home turf?

2) the activists and organizers worth their salt are working nearly 24/7 to get folks free in that city. It's where their focus should be (healing from this trauma, taking care of themselves and their community, and fighting like hell to get free), not comforting those of us that aren't most immediately impacted by this tragedy. We're all impacted, sure, but not in the same ways or to the same degree.

3) these communities and, even more, these families deserve to have their moments to collectively grieve without being watched like they're in a reality tv show that they never asked to participate in.

Black tragedy is NOT a tourist attraction. It shouldn't be made into an extractive industry. Don't buy into or perpetuate it.

Things to think about before going:

Did someone from or living in Charleston ask you to come?

Are they connected to and accountable to a crew that supported that invitation?

What can you contribute that will support their local work? What are you leaving behind to increase their capacity to change Charleston for the better?

Can you handle the emotional and physical toll it will take on your body, so as to not burden the local folks who are going through it right now.

Kohlrabi Home Fries

Photo by Andrew Scrivani, the food stylist for The New York Times accompanied Martha Rose Shulman's 3/7/2012 recipe, which was posted as part of her Recipes for Health column.

The expected Glade Road Growing farmshare for the week of June 23 will include beets, collards, summer squash, scallions, and kohlrabi.

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If there's not enough kohlrabi to suit your taste, you can augment the serving by making home fries from the (unpeeled) summer squash and, of course, potatoes and sweet potatoes.


1.  Peel the kohlrabi  thoroughly including the thick, hard fibrous layer under the surface, which will not soften when cooked.  If greens are included, they're edible, so reserve and cook like any other kind of turnip greens. Cut kohlrabi into thick sticks, about 1/3 to 1/2 inch wide and about 2 inches long. If you want to can store the kohlrabi sticks in the refrigerator for several hours.

2.   Place 1 tablespoon of whole wheat, chickpea or rice flour in a large bowl, season with salt if desired and quickly toss the kohlrabi sticks in the flour so that they are lightly coated.

3.  Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil (or more if needed) over medium-high heat in a heavy skillet (cast iron is good).  When the oil is rippling, carefully add the kohlrabi to the pan in batches so that the pan isn't crowded. Cook on one side until browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Then, using tongs, turn the pieces over to brown on the other side for another 2 to 3 minutes. The procedure should take only about 5 minutes if there is enough oil in the pan.

4.  Drain on paper towels, then sprinkle right away with the seasoning of your choice such as chili powder, ground cumin, curry powder or paprika. Serve hot.





Here are some previous recipes for kohlrabi:
Kohlrabi Apple Carrot Slaw
Kohlrabi Fritters with Tzatziki (Greek Cumber Yogurt Dill Sauce)

Robert Gipe's Trampoline

Looking forward to returning to McConnell Library at Radford University tonight to attend Robert Gipe's reading from his illustrated novel, Trampoline (hardcover, 360 pages, Ohio University Press,  3/17/15, ISBN 978-0821421529.)

This reading is part of the Highland Summer Conference.  With more than two hundred drawings throughout the narrative, this debut novel this would be a good addition to the English and Appalachian Studies collection at the Virginia Tech Library, so I submitted a request today.   Gipe is  also a playwright whose work has attracted the attention of the NYT.

Readers here know of many folks in Appalachia, young and old, who equate the fight to save mountains and  to stay in their native home and make life more sustainable with love and survival, rather than its opposite. Gipe sets his story in Kentucky, where his narrator, teenager Dawn Jewell's  father Delbert has died in a coal mines leaves her mother Tricia  a grieving drunk while her grandmother Cora fights to stop mountaintop removal.

The publisher's summary is that  Dawn must decide "whether to save a mountain or save herself; be ruled by love or ruled by anger; remain in the land of her birth or run for her life."   Does Gipe truly view things as a dichotomy or is this Dawn's point of view or is the publisher thinking this is a dramatic "elevator pitch." I've yet to lay my hands on a copy of the book to read it but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Napa Slaw with Garbanzo Beans

Photo by Katie Trant from her blog post on The Muffin Myth



Katie Trant suggested a recipe that I've adapted to my taste by marinating in a dressing and topping with toasted sesame seeds, adding ingredients from Glade Road Growing's farm share for week of June 16 (which is expected to include: sugar snap peas, napa cabbage, summer squash, garlic scapes, and lettuce.

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Serves 6

1.  The night  prior or at least two hours before serving, cover one pound of garbanzo beans in cold water and bring to a boil in a heavy bottomed lidded pot..  Rinse on bring to a boil a second time and simmer for 5 minutes and then leave to soak for at least an hour or overnight.  Rinse again , cover with water, boil, then simmer until soft. Rinse in cool water. This will make about 6 cups of beans.  You will use half of them for this salad and reserve the rest in a covered jar in the refrigerator to make hummus.

2.  In a seasoned cast iron skillet toast  at least 2 tablespoons of  raw whole sesame seeds until they brown and start to pop.  If you toast more than you need you can store them in a covered jar in the refrigerator and use to make hummus or as a garnish for salads, soups and entrees.

3. Wash and prep the following vegetables:
    1 head of Napa thinly chopped
    3 medium carrots, grated
    3 stalks of celery thinly cut on the diagonal
    1 bunch garlic scapes thinly sliced
    1/2 #  sugar snap peas  thinly cut  on the diagonal
    1 cup of radishes or salad turnips thinly sliced and then cut into half moons (optional)
    1 tablespoon of ginger root, finely chopped
    1 cup of coarsely chopped cilantro   



4. In the bottom of a large salad or mixing bowl, to make dressing, whisk together with ginger root:
    1 tablespoon of maple syrup or demerara sugar
    1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
    1 tablespoon of miso paste
    1/4 cup of your favorite vinegar
    1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

5.  Cut   2 lemons or limes cut into wedges for garnish

6.  Add veggies, sesame seeds and garbanzo beans and toss to coat.  Let marinate in refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour to combine flavors.

7.  Divide among six bowls, top with citrus wedges and serve chilled. 

Week 3 share by Michael Sutphin.

Rita Quillan and Robert Gipe Coming to Radford University

Rita Quillen and Robert Gipe will be giving public readings in Radford next week.

Beth Macy's Factory Man is Out in Paper!

Yes friends, Beth​'s Factory Man came out in paper today from Back Bay Books,  Tom​'s made a video and just look who's playing "Old Jack Gillie" (Yep, that would be the Black Twig Pickers from their 2010 album, Ironto Special (review in Pitchfork by Stephen Deusner).

Beet and Feta Burgers

Photo by David Frenkiel, which accompanied Luise Vindahl's recipe at Green Kitchen Stories post for July 22, 2013.

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Sally has started posting the Glade Road Growing farm share here and June 9 is slated to include broccoli, rainbow chard, beets, summer squash, scallions, and head lettuce. If you're not going to cook the beets right away, trim the greens as soon as you get your share home and store them separately in a large plastic bag.

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Serves 6-8

I've adapted this recipe for the beets and scallions from one of my favorite food blogs, Green Kitchen Stories, based in Stockolm, where David is a photographer/writer and Luise is a nutritional therapist.


1.  Wash beets in two rinses of water.  Trim beet greens and reserve.   Peel beets and discard peels.  Grate 3 cups of the peeled roots on a box grater into a large bowl (or you can use a food processor with the grating blades attached.)

2.  Wash scallions in two rinses of water.  Trim greens  and reserve.  Peel bulbs and grate along with two cloves of peeled garlic.  Peel and finely chop another two cloves of garlic and reserve to cook with the greens.

3.  To the bowl with the beets, onions and garlic add and mix well:

1.5 cups rolled oats
2 eggs
2 TB extra virgin olive oil

4.  Add in 7 ounces of crumbled feta cheese (you can  firm tofu, to make this vegan), a handful of fresh basil, sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper.

5.  Set aside in fridge for at least 30 minutes, so that the oats absorb the liquid and the patties will hold together.

6.  While beet mixture is setting up, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Blanch beet greens for 2 minutes until tender.  Transfer immediately to a bowl of cold water to stop cooking and preserve color, then drain and squeeze the water out from its leaves. Chop coarsely.

7.  Chop onion greens.  Heat 2 TB extra virgin olive oil over medium heat in a large, cast iron skillet.. Add the finely chopped garlic and 1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes and cook, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant and translucent, 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in the greens. Stir for a couple of minutes, until the greens are nicely seasoned with garlic and oil. Season with salt and pepper, remove from the heat.  Set aside to serve as a bed for the burgers.

8.  Peel and slice 2 ripe avocados and a mango for use as a garnish.

9.   Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet and heat.

10. Try shaping a patty with your hands. If the mixture is to loose, add some more oats. Divide into six to eight portions.  Shape as many patties as will fit in your skillet and fry until golden on both sides.  Transfer onto a plate.  Continue making patties and frying until all the mixture is used.

11.  Serve patties on  whole-grain sourdough buns on a bed of the cooked beet greens and garnished with mango and avocado.  If you have extra greens, they will keep in the refrigerator for several days.

Photo of week 2 share by Michael Surphin.

Broccoli and Zucchini Bowls with Tahini Sauce

Photo from ProduceGeek

The first farm share from Glade Road Growing on June 2 is slated to include broccoli. kale, lettuce mix, scallions and zucchini.  Here's a recipe that features the broccoli, scallions and zucchini.

Serves 4


1. To make tahini sauce, in a blender, combine until smooth
1/3 cup roasted sesame tahini
2 tablespoons lime  juice or rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
4 tablespoon miso paste
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 clove of raw garlic

2.  Prepare veggies for cooking:
Slice 3 washed zucchini on the bias into ¼” to ½” slabs
Peel and thinly slice broccoli stems and break heads into bite-sized florets
Thinly slice 4 cloves of fresh garlic
Coarsely chop 3 scallions for garnish


3.  In each of  4 bowls cover bottom with 1 cup of  cooked starch (brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat or corn pasta, or sorba or rice noodles or your choice) topped with 1/2 cup of a cooked protein
(garbanzo or other beans, cubed chicken, thinly sliced  tempeh or your choice).  Set aside and cook vegetables

4.  To cook veggies, pre-heat 3 tbs olive oil in a 3-4” deep frying pan over medium-high heat
Add garlic, cook until translucent
Add zucchini and broccoli, season with salt and pepper
Cover with lid for 1-2 minutes to self-steam
Uncover, sauté for 3-4 minutes stirring and flipping frequently, until vegetables can easily be pierced with a fork.

5. Top each bowl of starch and protein with 1/4 of  veggie mixture,  drizzle on tahini sauce and garnish with scallions. Serve immediately.

Photo of the first share by Michael Sutphin.

David Huddle: The Stile

Photos and poem used by permission as posted to Facebook on 2/21 by author David Huddle.

I found this poem lovely, It's fully as powerful as the Sharon Olds poem "I Go Back to May 1937,"  in The Gold Cell, but with the right man and the right woman. David commented that "Only after I posted the photos...did I see how clearly they connected with this poem that was written some years ago. It's in Blacksnake at the Family Reunion.

See: Blacksnake at the family reunion : poems. LSU Press, November 2012, 55 p..   I'm happy to report that the Virginia Tech library has a copy of this and many other of David's works. You can find it on the fourth floor of Newman (PS3558.U287 B53 2012).  Huddle comes from Ivanhoe Virginia in Wythe County.  I know him from Hollins, where he has taught.  He is professor emeritus (bio) at the University of Vermont and will be at Breadloaf this summer.

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The Stile

A stile is a pair of steps or ladders that is accessible to pedestrians but generally inaccessible to animals. Stiles
often found in rural areas or along footpaths and allow access to a field or other area enclosed by a fence or
wall. Unlike a gate, there is no chance of forgetting to close it…. --Wikipedia

Between the house of my mother’s childhood
 and the one where my father grew up was

a field about the size of a city
 block, a fence on both sides, with a gate through

which he had to pass to enter the field,
 then a stile over which he had to pass

to leave the field and arrive in her yard.
 My brothers and I were specks of cosmic

dust floating far above the thistles, clover,
 alfalfa, and wild strawberries that grew

in that field--no bodies, brains, or spirits,
 we nevertheless witnessed a young man’s more

and more frequent trips through the gate, across
 the field, and over the stile that summer,

both their mothers watching from bedroom windows
 that faced each other across the shimmering

heat of June, July, and August. Desire
 is the sky, the grass, the smell of cedar,

specks of light shooting through blackness: it knows
 no authority. Our mother was fifteen,

compelling as fire seen for the first time,
 strong-willed as a young horse. Their mothers knew

better than to say no. My brothers and I kept
 our watch, drifting closer each time my father

approached the stile to find her on the porch,
 waiting in the wicker rocker. Her half-closed

eyes saw him flying to her. That’s when they
 must have felt us waiting out there in time.

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Paul Corbit Brown and T. Paige Dalporto on Powellton Hollow Derailment and Oil Spill

1:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015, firefighters and emergency crews responded to a train derailment in Montgomery, WV. Within an hour, officials were evacuating the towns of Adena Village and Boomer Bottom, near Mount Carbon and Deepwater. Lawrence Messina, communications director for the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, told media that at least one tanker, believed to contain crude oil, had fallen into the Kanawha River. As a result, officials shut down Route 61 and set up a shelter at Valley Elementary School for folks in the two towns being evacuated in Powellton Hollow.

By this morning Ken Ward, Jr. of the Charleston Gazette, along with his fellow reporter Rusty Marks, who had broken the story for the paper, were telling us that the train, belonging CSX, was still aflame,  having set"at least one house" and power lines "ablaze...causing numerous tank cars" of the 107 it had been hauling to burn and explode.  The train, tranporting Bakken Shale crude oil from North Dakota, was slated for a terminal in Yorktown, Virginia." Appalachian Power spokeswoman Jeri Matheney told Ward and Marks that electricity has not yet been restored to about 900 customers and FEMA said that about 2,400 folks had been evacuated or displaced.

They noted other derailments include one in April 2014 in Lynchburg along the same route, another in Quebec in July 2013, in which a  74-car train carrying Bakken Shale crude oil killed 47, an another on February 14, 2015 in Northern Ontario, enroute from Alberta to eastern Canada.

If I can get a permalink for the story from Ken, I'll substitute the one above, which may be ephemeral.  Meanwhile, my friend, photographer (and eloquent essayist and public speaker)  Paul Corbit Brown (website) a native of Fayette County, wrote me this morning and offered his essay, along with the above photo from another friend,  songwriter and photographer T. Paige Dalporto, who lives in Charlton Heights, WV. 

I had been planning to write about the derailment, having posted a comment to Facebook at one o'clock this  morning, "The more things change...two top stories in the news right now: WV for ecological disaster and NSA for spying...sigh." Since I'm writing from Salem, VA, I thought, I'd instead, turn this space over to Paul Corbit.

If you're wondering about the history of Powellton Hollow and coal, see the website of Chris DellaMea, of Beckley, WV, who has visited more than 400 coal towns in that state and Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio.

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More than a train will be derailed before this is over:

By now I'm sure most of you know about the train that derailed and the ensuing explosions in Fayette County, WV today. We are told it was carrying around 109 tankers filled with crude oil from North Dakota and headed for a destination in VA. Surrounding communities have been evacuated, it is believed that at least one tanker and possibly more have actually fallen into the Kanawha River. Six massive explosions so far, and one home completely destroyed. Water intakes for at least two PSDs on the Kanawha were closed as a result of the crude oil and other possible contaminants entering the river. More than 200 residents are in a shelter tonight.

My prediction is that politicians like Joe Manchin will quietly welcome this event while they appear to be surprised on TV. Some of you might wonder why. Manchin has often been heard saying that these things (such as mine fatalities and environmental disasters) have got to stop. Like his predecessor Arch Moore, he acts as if these things truly are unavoidable "acts of God". Right about now, the wheels on that Ill-fated CSX train have stopped spinning, but the real spin is soon to appear. Soon we will see politicians pointing to this and other recent train disasters involving crude oil while we hear them extolling the "benefits" and "safety" of the Keystone XL pipeline. Manchin is personally on a mission to see to it that there is a veto-proof Senate in the event that Obama does veto the KXL.

Manchin will likely act saddened by this, the-most-recent-environmental-disaster, to his beloved state (the one he calls an extraction state, the rest of WV still calls our home the Mountain State) and he will talk about the "common sense" approach, and how common sense would dictate that we choose the safer of the two alternatives for moving the deadly tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This is where the Truth will be derailed, once again. Just like all the great tricksters of the past and the present, he and his ilk will frame the debate as the safest of two options, while omitting the third (and ONLY SAFE) option: leave the tar sands in the ground.

While Manchin has at least enough sense to admit that Climate Change is real AND influenced by humans, he refuses to let these common sense facts guide him when it comes to decisions regarding the extraction and exploitation of fossil fuels. But at least he's in good company here in WV. Within weeks of opening the most recent legislative session, the republican led House and Senate have proposed and are working to push through legislation that will not raise the minimum wage, destroy prevailing wages, undermine healthcare, set our education system back decades, get rid of renewable energy initiatives in the state, strip the tank safety law from last year (to the point the 90% or more of the tanks in WV are exempt), further intrude on women's rights to make their own decisions about their bodies, protect coal companies from lawsuits involving fatalities, further relax safety laws, and (as if this wasn't enough) they are working to downgrade the classification of WV waters. This last one is more dangerous than it might seem at first. Downgrading water standards is BAD for public health and good for dirty businesses. They are working to make sure Manchin's motto of "Open for Business" becomes a reality, but only for dirty businesses (like fracking and coal) that need a river or landscape for deposit of their waste.

Rebecca Randolph and the WV Manufacturers Association believe WV needs to relax its water quality and other environmental laws in order to be competitive. Competitive to what!?!? The most polluted places in America?!?! It's remarkable to me that the politicians and industries that run this state continue to insist that the only way we can remain competitive is to allow our state to be a cesspool for industry. Our state has produced trillions of dollars in coal, yet the 5 counties in WV that produce the most coal continue to be among the poorest counties in the entire US. Republicans have convinced us this is because of the Democrats' control of WV. I beg you to look for yourself, it has nothing to do with absurd Party Politics and everything to do with being a resource colony. This is the same situation in any place where "natural resources" are prized more than "human resources". Quick question: "How does it feel to see the value of your life and the life of those you love compared to a lump of coal, a gallon of gas or some shiny stone?" Don't answer right away, just think about it.

I'd like to live in a WV where we compete to have businesses that care about the environment AND the quality of life for the people they employ and the generations to come. That is a competition worthy of our state and her people. As a state, we are at the bottom of every list for quality of life. The reason is simple, it has nothing to do with red, blue, race, religion or lack thereof. There is only one real reason: Everything that was ever built in this state by the government and predominant coal industry that owns the government, was built to take wealth OUT of WV: All of it. We are left with decaying infrastructure, broken bones, broken homes, broken communities, poverty, sickness and death.

The true colors of West Virginia are not those manipulated by politicians. Our colors are the colors of Strength, Determination, Creativity, and Perseverance. It's no wonder they want to keep us broken, if we as a People ever once realized our power and stood United, WE would run the show.

The choice is quite simple: "Stay broken and in thrall to poverty, sickness and pollution; or, Rise Up! and run these rascals out on the same rails that stole our wealth and our health."

David Carr's last work: Times Talk on CITIZENFOUR

David Carr, media critic for the New York Times, died today at 58, soon after moderating  a Times Talk interview with Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and (via live video) Edward Snowden concerning the upcoming HBO film CITIZENFOUR.

A & G Coal Corp Appeals Permit Denial to Destroy Ison Ridge

 

 

I'm humbled by the many who have been helping me get back (eventually) to my beloved town and region (by choice, if not roots).... December 10  a driver shattered a pedestrian's  two legs and shoulder  in a crosswalk in Blacksburg.  Said walker (me) is grateful to have survived and checked in last night to a very good rehab after some missteps (says the woman who has yet to take another step since the collision.) Tonight I'm back for a short entry after too long offline.  Graphic from this webpage available for upload thanks to the smart phone of fellow journalist aka techno-amanuensis Bob Stepno, who continues to help me as he has on facebook, now that I'm no longer being held incommunicado.

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The courts, the EPA, and even the Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy giveth hope to those who would preserve what's left of the south-central Appalacian Mountains.  The coal companies would taketh away that hope and the mountains.

Ison Rock Ridge Mountain in Wise County, Virginia shelters the mountain communities of Derby, Arno, Inman, Andover and Appalachia, providing freshwater to over 1,800 people there and many more who live downsteam.

Almost  6 years ago, on May 7, 2009, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspended its approval of A and G Coal Corp.’s 1,200 acre Surface Mine 0.8 miles west of Andover. The Sierra Club and Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards had  sued to block the permit and the Corps stated that the suspension would give officials "an opportunity to fully evaluate concerns" raised by EPA April 3, 2009.

When I checked my email today, I learned that the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy is holding a hearing in room 219 of its Big Stone Gap office on February 18, 2015 at 9:00 AM.  The office is in the Buchanan-Smith Building at 3405 Mountain Empire Road off Route 23. The permit number is 1003841 and the Code of Virginia sections are §§45.1-240, 45.1-250(B), and 2.2-4020 as amended.  See also §4VAC25-130-775.11(b) of the Virginia Coal
surface Mining Reclamation Regulations.
 As before the contact is  Harve A Mooney, harve.mooney@dmme.virginia.gov.  You can also call him at 276-523-8271 or fax 276-523-8163.

Want to keep up on this and other Virginia government hearings.  Go to https://www.townhall.virginia.gov/.

James and Vivian Leva at Monkey House in Blacksburg Sunday December 7 3:00 PM

Food and socializing starts at 3:00 pm at The Monkey House.  Concert at 3:30.  All money goes to James and Vivian Leva ($10-15 suggested.)

If you want a ticket contact Jim and Robyn or leave a note on fb.

Claudia Emerson

Scott Elmquist's photo of Claudia Emerson accompanied Peter Galuszka's February 11, 2014 story, The Power of Place, in Richmond's Style Weekly.

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I was a great fan of poet Claudia Emerson ever since I started readying her body of work when she won the Pulitzer in 2006.  She was kind about letting me reprint her poems here and then I got to hear her read her poems at the 2008 Virginia Festival of the Book.  She returned in 2011, but I didn't make it that year.

So, I was sad to learn of her death today via facebook from her fellow UNC-G alumni Kathryn Stripling Byer.

I wrote about Claudia Emerson back in 2006 when she won the Pulitzer and created a Wikipedia article that I spent four hours today (starting at 3:22 p.m) restoring and updating.  (Someone saw fit to delete a bunch in September 2011, rather than take the time to update broken links.)  Which is unfortunate, because I DIDN'T get to add these links to new pieces or catch up on reading her new poems.  But there will be time for that.

Emerson had joined the VCU faculty in 2013 and there's an interview from the Spring 2014 issue of Poictesme by Hannah Morgan with an illustration by Megan Goldfarb, in addition to the one above by Peter Galuszka.   And then there's the  interview by Sarah Kennedy from the Winter 2006 of Shenandoah, reprinted on Poetry Daily.

#GivingTuesday: SAMPLER (Southern Appalachian Media Project for Literacy on Environmental Renewal)

Photo quilt I design from individual photos on SAMPLER entries 


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What's Giving Tuesday?

Black Friday,
Cyber Monday...

After two days of shopping, December 2nd is a day to give back. It's #GivingTuesday.

In 2012, 92Y joined with the United Nations Foundation (“UNF”) to create an annual global day of giving that helps raise funds and awareness for important causes everywhere.

How can you help SAMPLER?

You can donate on Razoo and/or help spread the word....

Here's a post on facebook
Here's the tweet...

Our projecthe audience for of this project will be regional and national consumers of legacy, online and social media. The users will be citizens in South Central Appalachia and journalists. Our challenge is that our region is covered only occasionally by the national media, often when there is a mining disaster or a release of poverty statistics. The authors of this coverage often lack a feet-on-the-ground understanding of the complexity of local issues. Regional papers that provide balanced coverage tend to cover one state, although the problems are endemic. Citizens often don’t understand the difference between public relations, spin and good journalism.

We believe our crowd source approach to good journalism will build skills needed for users to raise awareness of the issues facing our region and provide citizens citizens with the information they need to meaningfully evaluate those issues and participate in the civic arena.

Our partners
We are partnering with the Appalachian Community Fund (ACF) to build an alliance of journalists and citizens working to strengthen in-depth reporting on a sustainable transition from coal's mono-economy in Southern Central Appalachia (West Virginia and the areas affected by coal mining in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina.) We especially plan to cover the practice of mountaintop removal. Other topics include the proposed introduction to the region of other extractive carbon-based energy industries (fracking and natural gas pipelines) with an analysis of their their possible effects on climate, water, land and/or air quality.   On November 1, we submitted an application to the Knight Foundation's Prototype Fund to help develop the project.  OVEC serves fiscal sponsor and is accepting our crowd-sourced donations until we achieve own non-profit status.

Here's how I described the project to Knight:

SAMPLER will use a website, twitter, facebook and other social media to provide content to national media and teach citizens to critique our coverage and that of others.

We take our definition of reporting from the Society of Environmental Journalists. Our goal is to help citizens gain the skills to create and publish stories, photos and videos of their communities and to help journalists cover topics they could not address as meaningfully alone. Our users will gain knowledge that they need for meaningful civic engagement to improve quality of life through a transition from poverty and environmental degradation to environmental justice and sustainable development.

The assumptions we will test if we get the grant:

*Citizens can build skills needed for users to raise awareness of the issues facing our region
*Journalists will use our content to deepen their own content

We will know if the project has worked or not by metrics such as:

*number of participants
*participant evaluations
*consumer evaluations
*number of blog posts
*number of articles on other media
*number of comments websites of other media linking to our posts
*number and variety of supporting organizations

What we've done so far:

*we've use this blog as a prototype to publish photographs (Paul Corbit Brown, Vivian Stockman, Roger May, Antrim Caskey); journalism (Rachel Parsons, Sarah Verkasi, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Ted Boettner, Mary Anne Hitt, Jon Foley)
*Sue Sturgis and Chris Kromm of Institute Southern Studies provides advice, offer to syndicate through Facing South
*Margo Miller of the Appalachian Community Foundation has offered to syndicate content in its regional blog
*established relationships with MIT Center for Civic Media, Looking at Appalachia Project, Cir.ca, Carnival of Journalism
*Darryl Fears, Washington Post environmental reporter wants background information to cover mountaintop removal
*Blacksburg Glade Road Growing syndicates posts on sustainable agriculture, cooking with local ingredients
*New Organizing Institute and Energy Justice Network underwrote social media training
*Newstrust added coal as news archives category
*Alliance for Appalachia provided a travel grant for me to attend the 2012 Knight Media Learning Seminar
*Washington and Lee provided scholarship for its Poverty Journalism Workshop
*developed logo
* provided description to local and regional foundations
*set up google alerts on related news topics
*set up data base on scientific research on mountaintop removal
*Newstrust will share material on how to think like a journalist in evaluating quality of journalism
*started data base of environmental, poverty and political reporters; civic groups

PD James: writing everything while remaining in the genre

Cropped version Murdo Macleod's photo of PD James before an 8/26/06 appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival accompanied  The Guardian's obituary by Stanley Reynolds.

I first published this post at 5:44pm on 11/30,14, as I wanted to get the word out and am in the process of adding to it. (In glancing over the program, I noticed others we have lost who appeared that year, including Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) and Harold Pinter (1930-2008).

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From the obituary of PD James by Stanley Reynolds in The Guardian:

...Phyllis [Dorothy] James had not started writing until her 40s, and said she only wrote a whodunnit as practice for a serious novel. Later on, though, she never fretted about being locked into crime writing. She said she could write everything she wanted while remaining in the genre.

What I miss when I don't go online.  While I was celebrating Thanksgiving, PD James died at age 94, having published Death Comes to Pemberley (Jane Austen revisited through a murder mystery) in 2011 "which combined my two great enthusiams in life" (quote from video at the end of this post) and Talking about Detective Fiction in 2009.  Both (and many more) are at the Virginia Tech Library including her 1999 autobiography, A Time to be in Earnest, as well as a DVD of Children of Men, the 2006 film based on her book on the end of the world due to male infertility of the same name published in 1992 (with a first U.S. edition by Knopf in 1993.)


James talks about why she started with and maintained loyal to the detective novel in her Paris Review interview from 1994 by the late Shusha Guppy:

I don’t make a distinction between the so-called serious or literary novel and the crime novel. I suppose one could say mainstream novel. But I didn’t hesitate long before I decided to try to write a detective story, because I so much enjoyed reading them myself. And I thought I could probably do it successfully, and the detective story being a popular genre, it would have a better chance of being accepted for publication. I didn’t want to use the traumatic experiences of my own life in an autobiographical book, which would have been another option for a first attempt. But there were two other reasons. First, I like structured fiction, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I like a novel to have narrative drive, pace, resolution, which a detective novel has. Second, I was setting out at last on the path of becoming a writer, which I had longed for all my life, and I thought writing a detective story would be a wonderful apprenticeship for a “serious” novelist, because a detective story is very easy to write badly but difficult to write well. There is so much you have to fit into eighty or ninety-thousand words—not just creating a puzzle, but an atmosphere, a setting, characters . . . Then when the first one worked, I continued, and I came to believe that it is perfectly possible to remain within the constraints and conventions of the genre and be a serious writer, saying something true about men and women and their relationships and the society in which they live.

It's not as if James didn't want to be a writer earlier than at age 40.  As Marilyn Stasio noted 
in the NYT, James was fond of saying [as she did in the Paris Review],

When I first heard that Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall...I  immediately wondered: Did he fall — or was he pushed?

I didn't know that James opposed Scottish independence and marriage equality in the House of Lords until I read a bitter comment in The Guardian.  Evidently, activist Linda Semple has forgiven her for both, if not two of the books I mentioned above. (Semple "spent the 1980s and ’90s working in women’s and LGBTQ organizations, publishing, and journalism. She now works for the Scottish Government, heading up its work on health and social care efficiency.")

I love this send up James gave the BBC (tape), which she describes as being a:

large and unwieldy ship … with a crew that was somewhat discontented and a little mutinous, the ship sinking close to the Plimsoll line and the customers feeling they have paid too much for their journey and not quite sure where they are going or who is the captain.

But even more, this lovely interview with James by Australian journalist Jennifer Byrne which aired on ABC Book Talk on 5/14/2013:

52 Books in 52 Weeks: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Robin McCormack's book challenge continues. (Reports are due every Sunday.)

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs, Scribner, 416 pp, Septembe 23, 2014, ISBN 978-1476731902

Novelist Jebb Hobbs, spent over 300 hours of interviews trying to make sense of the murder of his Yales roommate, Robert Peace.  The 30-year-old African-American was an almost straight-A student in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, who also dealt marijuana, not so much for what he could buy himself, as for how he could support his family and friends..

Here is an NPR interview including Hobbs reading from the book and the NYT book review.

Celeriac! (and Butternut Curry)

Photo by Janet for her 2012 recipe for curry.  She has other celeriac recipes here.  I first published this post at 8:07pm on 11/24/14 and updated it for formatting  at 11:20am on 11/26.

The November 24 (and last 2014) farm share from Glade Road Growing is slated to include celeriac, kale, lettuce mix, butternut squash and napa cabbage, oh my! (Sally and Jason will be at the Blacksburg Farmers Market in December on the 6th, 13th and 20th with root veggies, meats, some greens and winter squash. They'll be back there in April and the 2015 farm share sign up will probably open in December.)

Today's recipe features celeriac.  Who can resist something that roasts or pickles so well and tastes yummy raw, something like a cross between celery and parsley. 

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By day, Janet is a physician in Toronto, after living for a year in Houston, Texas. By night, she's a food blogger and photographer at The Taste Space and also shares recipes with Kahakai Kitchen.

She made the above curry with pumpkin, but after all, that's just one type of winter squash and this week we'll be getting butternuts. It turns out she adapted her recipe from one by Sarah Breton, who used squash.  Here's my remake of her remake...

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Serves 6

1. In a countertop convection or conventional oven (on a cookie sheet), roast veggies for 1/2 hour and let cool enough to prep:

1 large onion
1 carrot
1 lb celeriac
4 garlic cloves
1.5 lb pumpkin or butternut squash

2. While veggies are roasting, cover 1 cup of dried red lentils with water and bring to boil. Cover with lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Rinse well , cover with fresh water plus 1 cup, cover with lid and  back to boil and and let sit.

3. In a separate pot, do the same for 2 cups of raw quinoa.

4. Peel veggies and cut into cubes. Finely chop two T fresh ginger root.

5. Chiffonade kale, keeping stems separate.

6. In the bottom of a steamer pot, combine veggies, ginger, lentils, and the following spices:
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t tumeric
1/4 t dry mustard
1/2 t gound fenugreek seeds
1/4 t ground cinamon
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t ground cardomon

7. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium and steam first the stems, and then the leaves of the kale until tender, but bright green.  Add kale to curry.

8. Serve over quinoa (or cooked yellow rice) and garnish with celery leaves or cilantro leaves.

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If you're not going to make this recipe tomorrow, refrigerate the celery root in an unsealed plastic bag for up to 2 or 3 weeks. To prepare, trim the leaves (if present) and root end. Scrub well. You can roast it to make it easier to remove the skin and any brown bits. If you’re using it raw, peel quite thickly and place cut the pieces in water with a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent discoloration.

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"British chef" (other than for all those exquisite cream and fruit pastries) may sound like an oxymoron, until you think about Nigella Lawson.  As of today, I'm adding Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I came upon his feature at The Guardian when I was looking for celeriac recipes. Just take a look at this  salad he composed.  Since we don't have endive in this week's farm share, think about a chiffonade of kale with cashews (or your favorite nut) and orange or apple slices.

Fearnley-Whittingstall has been "championing food integrity + consumption of local, seasonal produce since 1998" River Cottage on the Dorset/Devon border and he LOVES celeriac. He writes, as compared to a potato, it's

even more unprepossessing, with knobbly, knotted looks that only a mother could love – or a cook who has unearthed its inner beauty. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that celeriac might just be my favourite root of all time. It's nothing less than a winter wonder.

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Want more celeriac recipes?  Here are some that look yummy:

• Epicurious.com
• Chef Jamie Oliver
• BBC's Good Food
• Martha Stewart
• Eating Well
• The Food Network
• Chow
• Fait Maison
• Blue Apron
• Cooks by Books (Peggy Klineman's Book Club Blog)

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BTW, did anyone make it to the farm November 21 for the final 2014 farm stand which included a meat show case? Besides the veggies, there was a fresh supply of goat and pork cuts, sausages, fresh chicken, duck eggs, and more, along with cooking tips.

If you didn't make it, you missed some good eating. I heard a lot of folks say they had no room for dinner after stopping in for samples. (My own black bean and rice dinner had to wait until the next day.)

Here's the scoop on this years samples, as best as I can remember (sorry I didn't take notes):

• goat sausage congee and goat bone broth from Hoof Harted Farm
• a variety of ham steaks (my fav was Lisa's lemon rosemary) from Ben's  pastured pig, plus his cracklings and Lisa's spinach and ground pork fritatta
• hard boiled eggs and Lisa's squash or pumpkin curd  featuring Sally's ducks
• gizzard stew, a brined roast  and a roast with fennel from Sally's Freedom Ranger chickens.