Exploring, Foraging & Growing the New River Valley
Seasonal Adventures of 2023
In our first full year exploring wild and local foods, meeting incredible people from around the region, and crafting new recipes as "Feeding Appalachia", we’ve had many adventures!
From Hiwassee to Blacksburg, Floyd to Giles, Eggleston to Radford, across all of the NRV (New River Valley) and greater Appalachia, we recognize the infinite number of ways that each of us can play a role in positively growing and FEEDING APPALACHIA.
Sometimes it looks like building a garden or planning an event, but let’s not forget the importance of “the little things”, like a nature walk, bringing us closer to the earth, feeding our soul and better equipping us to show up and offer nourishment for others. We carry this ideal with us everywhere, knowing that no moss-ball is too small for a second look!
For all of the magnificent (and painstaking) days head, the adventures and experiments, the sacrifices and successes: together, we hope you enjoy a few of our favorite snapshots from 2023!
❄️Last winter we got outside as much as possible. We found ourselves on side roads, under bridges, anywhere there might be water. Water begets life and even in winter the signs are everywhere.
❄️In FEBRUARY, we kept exploring-- dazzled by winter blooms and the warmth of the sun on a sandy beach...having received the go-ahead from Radford City, we also broke ground on our first free garden at Sunset Park.
❄️With warmer temps, MARCH brought us more blooms. We visited creek-side forests and found ourselves enamored with Spring ephemeral flowers beyond what we could have expected.
🌸 APRIL 2023 was a busy month! In addition to admiring the incredible colors, blossoms, and new life that spring brought, we continued exploring the NRV-- looking for rare species, paw paw trees, mushrooms, and wildlife... all the while savoring delightful delectables along the way. We closed out the month celebrating Radford's “City Tree” at Nesselrod on the New.
🌸 In MAY, you better believe we were taking nature walks almost every day! We were fortunate enough to find several mushroom jackpots and enjoy many strolls by the waterside. We also installed a new garden bed at Sunset Park and commemorated with a handful of carefully selected plantings.
🌸 Apart from enjoying first harvests from our garden, in JUNE we indulged in natural trail-side snacks like the blueberries that so generously line forest floors in our unique conifer biomes. We camped a lot and unfortunately, spent many trips en route cataloging the visual environmental impacts that the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) had (& is still having) on our mountainsides, waterways, and overall quality of life. At the end of the month, we protested its dangerous legislation with hundreds of others in front of the Nation's Capitol.
☀️ In JULY 2023 we hosted our second community event at Sunset Park, giving away extra garden starts, tree & bush saplings, as well as a few New River PawpawFest tickets. We continued monitoring Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) sites by taking pictures wherever it was visible and hosted Radford's first informational meeting in regards to its construction, specifically here in the New River Valley. We learned from lawyers, scientists, and many other professionals how they're measuring its impact and protecting themselves as they protest irreversible damage to our waterways, ecosystems, and drinking water. We closed out the month harvesting our first elderberries of the year, and made syrup that nourished us for many months.
☀️ As one might expect, in AUGUST we spent a lot of time near water-- in it, on it, by it. We foraged from kayaks, canoes and by foot, finding fantastic fruits, teas, and antioxidant boosters growing wild. We watched herons, kingfishers, turtles, frogs, fish, and muskrats in their homes and learned more about their natural behaviors in the landscape. We networked, we pursued continued education in our fields, we learned, we laughed, and we looked for new ways to improve our approach to native planting.
☀️ SEPTEMBER was another abundant month for us! Sunchokes in our backyard began to open their buds bringing bright upward momentum to the garden, tomatoes in tow. We shared incredible *from scratch* meals with friends, and foraged some of our most favorite pawpaw patches in Virginia!
🍁 In OCTOBER 2023, we foraged even more fruits and herbs around the New River Valley, and across Virginia. Exploring old and new forests, fields, and waterways, we also enjoyed mushroom harvests of ranging colors and textures. Throughout the month and into fall, we had the pleasure of sharing these unique wild foods and flavors, the opportunity to create recipes that enhance their distinctive taste, and the honor of being present when others experienced the joy of trying these ingredients for the first time.
🍁 Despite dropping temps, in NOVEMBER we made an effort to continue getting outside as much as possible. We camped, did garden prep.. anything and everything we could think of amongst the backdrop of changing leaves. Feasting on crops like Sunchoke (aka Jerusalem Artichoke) that get better with each frost, we savored the toils of spring, including receiving a generous grant donation towards our community efforts.
🍁 DECEMBER didn't disappoint. Even in single digits, the views and forests continued to give. Reminded by this truth, we visited many parks and frequented our backyard woods for cold season sights and foragables. Sharing a meal with family at one of our absolute favorite restaurants, The Palisades, was the perfect way to close out the year.
Overall, 2023 was an exceptionally eventful year, and we thank you so much for following along and for FEEDING APPALACHIA in all the ways you do. ❤️ Please stay tuned for another exciting and gratifying year of loving nature, each other, and seeking ways to combine the two!
What else you can expect from us in 2024:
More recipe-sharing & culinary creations!
More marketing & design for local businesses!
More story-telling & creative collaborations!
Plenty of wild, edible adventures across Appalachia!
More Community events & Native plants! (see below;)
UPCOMING ARTICLES:
Exquisite Winter Recipes with Native Plants
TOP 10 Edibles of Appalachia
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Spring Equinox! Native Plant Giveaway @ Sunset Park (Radford, VA) - 3.19.24
Solar Eclipse Plant Extravaganza @ Sunset Park (Radford, VA) - 4.8.24
Radford Redbud Festival 2024 @ Nesselrod on the New (Fairlawn, VA) - 4.13.24
