Edible Blue Ridge Fall 2022

Salted, Snitzed,

Stirred, and Saved

Food traditions of Highland County

I I’m pounding the kraut. With a closed fist, I punch the salted, shredded cabbage until my knuckles turn red. The mixture squelches, but the water has not yet fully expunged. My part ner takes over, punching, punching, asking the cabbage to let go its squeaky-crisp struc ture, to create its own brine. When the cab bage is as tightly packed as we can manage, we push it down in the crock with a couple of leftover outer cabbage leaves until they are fully submerged under the brine, and weigh these down with a big bag of rice. It’s magical, really, that with only salt and some effort, a perishable vegetable can be pre served, given a much longer life in a new form. Preservation, though the word implies an act of keeping sameness or purity of form, is of ten actually about transformation: the story of how a thing that was once present becomes simultaneously of the past and of the future. Jars on the shelf for the winter. Processing ap-

WORDS & ILLUSTRATIONS

Susanna Byrd

that surrounded them. In a modern world that values fast food and efficiency, we too often forget about the intangible benefits of gather ing to prepare, preserve, and enjoy real food. In my interviews, the strongest themes that emerged were self-sufficiency and com munity gathering. Perhaps these seem incom patible –– “do it yourself ” at the same time as “help your neighbor”? But in the food tra ditions here, these two salient attitudes work in tandem to define the daily life and unique traditions of Highland County. All my inter viewees recounted memories of large gardens, fruit trees, raising hogs and chickens, smoke houses, root cellars and other mainstays of a self-sufficient, homesteading lifestyle. Gardens held enough produce not only to enjoy during the season, but also to “put up” in one way or another for eating through the long months of winter and spring. The gathering of friends and family

plesauce in the midst of the season of bounty, anticipating the coming of the cold. You often find food preservation practices at the heart of a community. They are a way of celebrating life, history, tradition and love. People take pride in family recipes and unique ways of eating food taught by their parents and grandparents. In Highland County, Vir ginia, this is as true as anywhere else in the world. History and community hold strong in the folds and ridges of the mountains there, and food memories and traditions remain es sential to the fabric of the shared experience of living in that place. When I lived in Highland County for a season, I was fortunate to be able to talk to a number of Highland residents and “old timers” about foods that have been special to them throughout their lives. These folks are sages –– full of wisdom and colorful, crisp memories of special foods and the meanings

20 | edible blue ridge fall 2022