Wendy Welch | Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids

Wendy has branched out into yet another frontier, broadcast journalism

So after six months of intense education and training as one of their newest Folkways reporters, my first Inside Appalachia story went out Sunday morning. It will run for a week, and then on to the next round.

I have three more stories in the works (no spoilers) and will be looking for more interesting ways to bring folkways to the airwaves in the future. Hint, hint….

The first of anything is usually not one’s best, but the experience was made easier because the people taking me on the hunt were Shawn Means and Amy McLaughlin. Back in 2017 I saw a small advert appear briefly on an Appalachian scholars site, offering a creative residency at Lafayette Flats, a boutique vacation rental in Fayetteville, West Virginia. They gave you all-utilities and one of the flats free of charge; you would buy your own food, have a good time, make art.

The instant I saw it, I wanted to be that artist, but it was competitive, so there was no sense in getting my hopes up–until the day Shawn called to tell me the good news.

I wrote my first novel there (Bad Boy in the Bookstore, Sidekick Press) and have kept up with them casually since then. They were nature enthusiasts even then, so when the mushroom topic came up, I knew where to turn. And my friend Beth O’Connor introduced me to Den Hill. I’m planning to buy an inoculated log from them this winter.

So it went well, and there’s a real kick to hearing something you’ve worked hard on being enjoyed by people. It’s kinda like writing with sound, this radio work. And I look forward to doing more of it. Meanwhile, please enjoy the entire episode, including my mushroom story, via this link, and remember: there are old mushroom hunters, and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters. Be well and safe!

https://wvpublic.org/mushroom-mania-soul-food-and-aunt-jeanie-inside-appalachia/

Wendy is on her way to Louisville…loaded with goodness, of both books and apples

I’m part of a gleaning society. We move food that would otherwise rot in the field, getting it into people’s kitchens. We prioritize food banks and cafes that serve suspended meals or otherwise have token systems for those who can’t pay with money.

A week ago, the coordinator for the gleaners let us know they had apples. Great, everybody loves apples, right? Our coordinator and her husband picked them up.

Six half-ton boxes of apples. Three went straight to some food banks and suspended cafes. The call went out for community members to come get some fruit.

I took ten grocery bags of apples, with the intent of giving as many as possible away, and then canning up a bag or two for gifting. I run the buy nothing list in my county. The list proved disinterested, so I made sure to have some in my car when attending civic meetings. 12 dozen apple gifts later, people were starting to edge away from me at these events. “Don’t go near her, she’s handing out apples. Don’t leave your car unlocked. Apples are the new zucchini.”

And of course the apples landed in a busy week. We’re working on a federal grant – well we would be if our federal identity page for our non-profit worked properly. Six hours passed with help desks and support services, coring apples while on hold or waiting for instruction on what grew to be a more complex problem by the hour. There was something very meta about mashing apples when hearing there was nothing we could do but wipe our profile and start over.

Anger has to go someplace. Mine gave the 21 bottles of cider a nice spicy flavor.

200 cidered apples and one new federal identity page later, I checked the fridge. Apples in the meat drawer. Apples in the cheese drawer. Apples in the veggie drawer. Apples in the butter panel, in the egg holder, stuck behind the coil leading to the freezer. APPLES EVERYWHERE!

I made apple butter. I made apple pumpkin butter, thereby eliminating the problem of what to do with the pumpkin going over on my porch. (Our chickens are mutants. They won’t eat pumpkin.)

150 apples to go. In desperation, I googled “unusual apple recipes for canning.” Then I reset my filter to adult controls and googled it again.

Steamed apple bread pudding (yes you can can bread; you just have to know what you’re doing). Apple salsa. Spiced apple rings. Apple slaw. Each took fewer apples than one might have hoped. There were still a few dozen apples in my refrigerator as I packed a bag to be one of the authors featured at the Louisville Book Festival Nov. 11.