Gather 'Round
Greetings from Lost Creek Farm!
We are honored to have the Expel team join us for Gather ‘Round, a special virtual event on Wednesday, January 11 at 4 p.m. ET via Zoom. Follow this link to join us from the Lost Creek Farm Kitchen. By now, you’ve probably received a Farm & Forage Provision Box containing a few items we’ll discuss and enjoy together Wednesday afternoon.
Find more details about the box, as well as recipes for some of the included items, below. But first, here’s a bit about us: Lost Creek Farm is operated by chefs, farmers and lifelong West Virginians Mike Costello and Amy Dawson. Though Lost Creek Farm is a working farm, we’re primarily a culinary venture offering our own takes on mountain cuisine using heritage recipes, heirloom seeds and the stories behind them. We host an on-farm dinner series called the Farm & Forage Supper Club, and take our traveling kitchen to venues throughout the eastern United States. Through food, we find meaning behind recipes, ingredients and techniques. We use food stories to disrupt common narratives about people and place, to explore our region’s complicated past and help us reimagine the future. Put simply, the stories create symbolism and significance that extend far beyond what we see and taste at the dinner table.
We’ve specifically selected the items in your boxes because their stories highlight a sense of community that guides and inspires so much of our work. As we share these stories (and snacks!) Wednesday afternoon, we’ll aim to enter the rest of 2023 with a renewed appreciation for the communities to which we contribute.
Please use this page as a resource leading up to, and following, our discussion. We’d love for you to explore the audio clips, video tutorials and, especially, the Gather ‘Round Recipe Swap feature below. We want our experience to be interactive, so it would be great to hear from you!
If you have time, feel free to check out our storytelling podcast, The Pickle Shelf Radio Hour and our award-winning documentary film series, Homegrown Foodways in West Virginia, to learn more about our work with our community’s diverse food traditions and the stories behind them.
We can’t wait to meet you Wednesday afternoon!
Starting Snacks
Momaw Betty’s Communion Wafers
These crispy, savory crackers were made by Mike’s grandmother, Betty Williams in the basement kitchen of Emmanuel Baptist Church, where elders were known to break out into song as they cooked extensive meals and baked wafers for Sunday service. We’ve included a packet of communion wafers in your box, but we still encourage you to make your own. These are incredibly easy to make (recipe below!) and can be enhanced with a few dried herbs, seeds, or parmesan cheese.
on the side
Bourbon-Sage Apple Butter
Our mountainous region is sometimes called Apple-atcha for good reason. We take our apples seriously, and in local communities you’ll find plenty of time-honored apple butter recipes. Amy grew up spending chilly late-fall days with family and friends, slowly cooking apple butter over an open fire, watching fresh apples transform into the dark, thick, delectable spread we love to pair with communion wafers, cornbread and classic desserts.
for the kitchen
Spanish and Italian Sausage Seasonings
The rich food culture of north-central West Virginia is shaped by centuries of cultural convergence. Among the most revered traditions in former immigrant communities are the old-world sausage recipes handed down over the generations. We’re lucky to learn about spicy Spanish sausages and fennel-rich Italian links from nearby home cooks and tradition bearers. We’ve included two specially crafted spices blends so you can easily make traditional sausages in your own kitchen.
Something SWEET
Black Walnut Brittle
We named our specialty boxes and supper club series Farm & Forage because ingredients from the farm are paired with wild-harvested items from the field and forests at Lost Creek Farm. The process of gathering wild black walnuts can be labor intensive, but it’s nothing compared to the task of shelling. Head to an old-fashioned walnut shelling to see teamwork and mountain ingenuity on full display. Once these tasty, funky and slightly bitter nuts make their way out of their shells, they find themselves in some of our favorite recipes throughout the year.
recipe swap!
Do you have a special recipe you’d like to share? How about a story or memory that makes that recipe remarkable beyond interesting flavors, textures and technique? If so, feel free to use this Google Doc for the Gather ‘Round Recipe Swap. We’ve already populated the list with a few of our recipes. For each of the recipes we’ve added, you can also find a video tutorial from the Lost Creek Farm Kitchen below.
LINK: Click for the Gather ‘Round Recipe Swap