On this West Virginia Morning, Sue and Stan Jennings for 30 years have run Allegheny Treenware, a company that makes wooden kitchen utensils. But they started off as a couple of coal miners. Folkways Reporter Capri Cafaro has more.
Stinging Nettle is growing in popularity with many uses and recipes. Stinging nettle can be used to make pesto or as an ingredient in smoothies. Use caution when harvesting Urtica dioica (Stinging Nettle). There’s a cocktail of chemicals found in the needle-like hairs on its stem which pack a pretty good punch when touched. If one wants to enjoy eating this nutritional and wild plant there are couple of ways to neutralize the sting.
Have a look at this Edible Mountain episode.
EDIBLE MOUNTAIN How To Eat Stinging Nettle
Edible Mountain is a bite-sized, digital series from WVPB that showcases some of Appalachia’s overlooked and underappreciated products of the forest while highlighting their mostly forgotten uses.
Edible Mountain follows botanists, conservationists, and enthusiastic hobbyists in the field as they provide insight on sustainable forest foraging. The episodes are designed to increase appreciation and accessibility to the abundance found in Appalachia, celebrating the traditional knowledge and customs of Appalachian folk concerning plants and their medical, religious, and social uses.
Tallow is rendered animal fat and has been used primarily in traditional food preparation — as an ingredient and as a cooking oil. In addition, tallow can be used in making soap, candles, healing salves, skin moisturizers and perfumes, as well as lubricants for wood, leather and metal working.
The Narrow-Leaved Leek, (Allium burdickii), while related to broad leaf ramps we enjoy every spring, is its own species all together and not a variation of Allium tricoccum. It’s a relative of the typical wild ramp, or leek, that people seek out this time of year as an eatable spring onion. We know very little about this wild onion.