My Thoughts on Appalachian Heirlooms

[bluelacedredhead]

Not sure what made me think of this today, but here goes.

I don't have relatives in the Appalachians so my interest is not based on sentimentality or a desire to preserve heirlooms belonging to my heritage. My family were for the most part, United Empire Loyalists who came to Canada as a result of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. I'm a Mis-placed Yankee..

So why the interest in conserving the heirlooms of families of Appalachia??

I've long been fascinated by Kentucky & Tennessee..They are both breathtakingly beautiful states with those rolling beautiful bluegreen mountains..

But a trip in recent years through the state of West Virginia sticks out in my mind like no other.
Those mountains are steep. So steep in some places in fact that we truly marvelled at how those round bales of hay could stay on the mountainside??
And who actually had the fortitude to do haying on a steep incline like that?? I'm not sure I could drive up something that steep, let alone operate machinery or even drive a team on something like that.

And the images of a horse or a homestead atop a mountain with no visible roadway to the top, certainly brought 'home' the concept of isolation from other communities. And the need to develop and preserve foods that grew well in one's own space.


Back in 1905, my Great Grandparents moved their family 2 miles away to a village with a railroad line. These days, we think nothing of moving 200 miles away and coming home on weekends. But even a move of two miles was a big deal in those days and so one of the elderly women of the community gave my grandmother a hand carved wall thermometer as a going away gift. To the elderly woman, those two miles meant probably never seeing my Grandmother again. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I have thought so much about the little mountain communites of W.VA.

So it's not difficult to understand why there can be so many different beans for example, all named for different persons or places that more than likely all sprang from the same variety sold at the Trading Post or General Mercantile that might have been several days drive or walk away.

What about seedsmen? Were there small seed companies throughout the state? Or have these precious varieties been developed mostly by families/small communities?

[brook]

Very nice thoughts, Wen.

As to the sources of seeds, there were many, depending on timing and location.

Throughout the 19th and much of the 20th century, for instance, pack-peddlers worked those mountains. They sold everything from sewing needles to seed, and, often enough, bartered their wares as well as selling them.

Many of the people who settled those lonely hills brought seed with them from wherever they came. And population dynamics did the rest.

Bicolored tomatoes in eastern Kentucky are a good example of this. Bicolors are, primarily, Germanic in origin. But there was no German settlement to speak of in eastern Kentucky. So where do the bicolors come from.

As it turns out, most human intercourse, until about 1964, took place between eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia. And West Virginia had several waves of German immigration.

Once you know that, it becomes obvious that the bicolor seed merely migrated westwards.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Tracking down the history of heirlooms is as facinating as the plants themselves.

[Dewdrop]

Jun 5, 2007 21:55:23 GMT -5 bluelacedredhead said:

Those mountains are steep. So steep in some places in fact that we truly marvelled at how those round bales of hay could stay on the mountainside??
And who actually had the fortitude to do haying on a steep incline like that?? I'm not sure I could drive up something that steep, let alone operate machinery or even drive a team on something like that.
 

I'm still learning with my interest in history, but it may depend on the slope, and the tools you use.  Some slopes may be doable (although beyond my own comfort zone) if tractors and mechanical equipment have a low center-of-balance.  I've heard second-hand that horse drawn teams could work steeper ground than the could tractors back then.      
While I don't personally know it was done this way locally in eastern WV, I wonder if some of the slopes were mowed down manually with scythes, and the wet hay (tall grass) was turned over with wooden hay rakes. 

Scythe-related links: 
scytheconnection.com/the-scythe-must-dance-book/
Youtube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxmaejvJaEY