Cooking Up A Storm: A Story of Cooking, Gathering, and Natural Healing in Appalachia

Creator: Spence, Angie

: Sheets, Mary Anne

: Sheets, Opal

: Harris, Patricia

Angie Spence enjoys cooking and knows from her experiences growing up in the Eastern Shore of Virginia, that people cook with what foods are native to their regions. This idea interested her and gave inspiration for this project. Ms. Spence found three local fans of cooking and interviewed, and cooked with them. During the interviews, she heard about gathering roots and berries, canning, making preserves, and natural healing using traditional Appalachian herbal elixirs. In addition, Ms. Spence saw that with a love of cooking comes also a love of family and friends. This interview is among projects created by students enrolled in English 446 (initially English 452), “Appalachian Folklore,” 1981-2019, and in graduate level counterparts English 548 and 648 “Appalachian Folk Culture(s)” offered 17 fall semesters between 1987 and 2009. Minimally contain collector’s introduction and analysis, transcribed informant interviews, and excerpted and labeled examples of oral, customary, and/or material folklore/folklife collected primarily within the Appalachian region. Most include also tables of contents, informant information, indexes (outlines) of interviews, photographs, miscellaneous paper items, and indexes of informants, genres, and geographic locations. Accompanying audio recordings (several minutes to 2+ hours). Transferred to McConnell Library Archives & Special Collections from Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Fall 2013.