Dynamic Traditions: Resourceful Communities
Parkway Ballroom (4th Floor), Plemmons Student Union, Appalachian State University
Schedule
10:00 ~ Registration
10:15 ~ Opening Remarks
10:30 ~ An Appalachian Foodways Conversation with author Ronni Lundy & chef Shelley Cooper
12:00 ~ A Locally-sourced Lunch by F.A.R.M. Cafe. During lunch, participants are invited to attend:
2:45 ~ Food Waste & Food Recovery: Building Economic & Ecological Wealth. Participants are invited to attend an afternoon breakout session:
10:15 ~ Opening Remarks
10:30 ~ An Appalachian Foodways Conversation with author Ronni Lundy & chef Shelley Cooper
12:00 ~ A Locally-sourced Lunch by F.A.R.M. Cafe. During lunch, participants are invited to attend:
- Sharing Seed Stories from the Blue Ridge Mountains with anthropologist Jim Veteto, folklorist William Ritter, Bethel School Garden Coordinator & Watauga County Seed Library Co-founder Debbie Bauer, and Cooperative Extension agent Travis Birdsell
"Farmily and Community" a presentation with documentary artist, Houck Medford
2:45 ~ Food Waste & Food Recovery: Building Economic & Ecological Wealth. Participants are invited to attend an afternoon breakout session:
- Planting Seeds of Change: an interactive activity on understanding the psychological aspects of food waste led by Amy Galloway and Grace Bowling.
- Community Presentation: Renee Boughman of F.A.R.M. Cafe and Carol Coulter & Lindsey Giglio of Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture facilitate a conversation about the collaborative Food Preservation Project.
- Local Perspectives on Food Waste: Campus and civic collaborations.
Bios
Ronni Lundy, the award-winning author of Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes, has been writing about the food, music and culture of the southern Appalachians and the American South for more than 30 years.
In 2017, Victuals, received the coveted James Beard Award for Book of the Year, as well as best American Cookbook honors from both the Beards and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. The book was also shortlisted for The Art of Eating Prize and reached the Elite Eight in the annual Piglet competition.
Ronni’s other nine books, include Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken, named by Gourmet as one of the six essential cookbooks on Southern food, Butter Beans to Blackberries and Sorghum’s Savor. Lundy was also the editor of Cornbread Nation 3: Foods of the Mountain South.
A founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance, she is a former board member and recipient of that organization’s Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing her work as a writer covering both food and music. Lundy is also a founder of the Appalachian Food Summit.
Born in Corbin, Kentucky and raised in Louisville with strong ties to the mountains, she often writes from the perspective and about the experience of the Appalachian diaspora. She is happy to find herself in her beloved mountains again as a present resident of Burnsville, NC.
In 2017, Victuals, received the coveted James Beard Award for Book of the Year, as well as best American Cookbook honors from both the Beards and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. The book was also shortlisted for The Art of Eating Prize and reached the Elite Eight in the annual Piglet competition.
Ronni’s other nine books, include Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes and Honest Fried Chicken, named by Gourmet as one of the six essential cookbooks on Southern food, Butter Beans to Blackberries and Sorghum’s Savor. Lundy was also the editor of Cornbread Nation 3: Foods of the Mountain South.
A founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance, she is a former board member and recipient of that organization’s Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing her work as a writer covering both food and music. Lundy is also a founder of the Appalachian Food Summit.
Born in Corbin, Kentucky and raised in Louisville with strong ties to the mountains, she often writes from the perspective and about the experience of the Appalachian diaspora. She is happy to find herself in her beloved mountains again as a present resident of Burnsville, NC.
Shelley Cooper was born in Memphis, Tennessee, into a family that revolved around a bountiful table always filled with farm fresh Southern cuisine. Her maternal family hails from the Mississippi Delta, and her father from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. She credits this combination with providing her Southern culinary roots. Both families placed a high regard for fresh, seasonal, and ‘made from scratch’ foods, as well as instilling the appreciation of pure simple ingredients. Shelley could not help but to be positively affected by such inherent passion.
She was professionally trained at Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute in Charleston, South Carolina and The San Francisco Baking Institute. Chef Shelley honed her craft at Belfair Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina, 30° Blue at Bay Point Resort in Florida, Craggy Range Winery in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, First and Hope Supper Club in Los Angeles, Alaska Expedition on the Gulf of Alaska, Monettes Artisan Seafood on the big island of Hawaii, and TerraMáe Appalachian Bistro in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now she is tapping into her true roots and fully embracing her heritage at Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro in Townsend, Tennessee. The culmination of her life travels and culinary passion have merged to create her unique version of highbrow Appalachian fare.
She was professionally trained at Johnson and Wales Culinary Institute in Charleston, South Carolina and The San Francisco Baking Institute. Chef Shelley honed her craft at Belfair Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina, 30° Blue at Bay Point Resort in Florida, Craggy Range Winery in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, First and Hope Supper Club in Los Angeles, Alaska Expedition on the Gulf of Alaska, Monettes Artisan Seafood on the big island of Hawaii, and TerraMáe Appalachian Bistro in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now she is tapping into her true roots and fully embracing her heritage at Dancing Bear Appalachian Bistro in Townsend, Tennessee. The culmination of her life travels and culinary passion have merged to create her unique version of highbrow Appalachian fare.
Linda Bilsens Brolis is the Project Manager for Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Composting for Community Project and Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders (NSR) Composter Training Program. The NSR program is a replicable train-the-trainer program that was designed as a model for composter training programs throughout the country and to bolster community-scale composting nationwide. Her work with ILSR began in December 2013 with an initial focus on state food waste recovery policies. She then led a nationwide survey of Master Composter training programs, and has managed the NSR since it launched in 2014. Linda was the lead author of ILSR’s 2016 “On-Site Bin System Composting Guide” and is now developing a national NSR program replication toolkit and best management practices guide. She is a certified Compost Facility Operator for the state of Maryland, and has trained with the internationally renowned Lubkes in Austria, who specialize in a unique technique that enhances the humus content and quality of compost. Linda has a B.S. degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and is an avid gardener with an interest in permaculture, social justice and sustainable food systems. Her backyard gardening and composting efforts were rewarded by a surprise visit from former First Lady, Michelle Obama in early 2016.
Jim Veteto is an environmental anthropologist specializing in ethnoecology, agrobiodiversity studies, sustainable agricultural systems, climate change, food and culture, and alternative political ecologies. I am currently Assistant Professor of anthropology and Cherokee studies at Western Carolina University, Executive Director of the Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies, Director of the Southern Seed Legacy, and a Research Associate at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.
Debbie Bauer has been a board member since 2014. She has been gardening most of her adult life and her passion is school gardens that teach young people to garden and know where their food comes from. She is the former garden manager for the ASU Edible Schoolyard and a garden coordinator with the Lettuce Learn Project at Bethel Elementary School.
Travis Birdsell is a North Carolina Cooperative Extension agent, specializing in horticulture in Ashe County, North Carolina. Travis worked with the Ashe County Master Gardeners and the Ashe County Historical Museum to establish a Victory Garden. The Garden pays homage to the Victory Gardens of the twentieth century, while joining the ranks of modern Victory Gardens whose purpose is to fight a war on hunger. It also features vegetable and flower varieties that have been grown in Ashe County for over 50 years. The Victory Garden’s living exhibit project is maintained by Cooperative Extension, Ashe Center and Ashe County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers in partnership with the Museum of Ashe County History.
William Ritter is a native of Bakersville, NC, and an alum of Western Carolina University. He graduated with a degree in Technical Theatre, but spent most of his time in school studying the musical folk traditions of Western North Carolina. Recently, William received his MA inAppalachian Culture and Music from Appalachian State University. William plays banjo, fiddle, guitar, and other "string-ed things." He is particularly interested in old apple trees and mountain humor--ever eager to swap lies, half-truths, jokes, and seeds.
Houck Medford is an entrepreneur, documentary photographer, and film maker. He established the Department of Dentistry at Wake Forest University in 1978, created the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation in 1996 and served as its CEO until 2010, and completed the Documentary Studies Program at Duke University. He and his wife, “K.B.”, have a passion for sustainable agriculture and advocate for those individuals and causes which save the planet.
Lee F. Ball Jr. has a doctorate in Sustainability Education, a master's degree in Environmental Education, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Science. He spent fourteen years teaching sustainability-related content in Appalachian State University's Department of Sustainable Technologies and the Built Environment. Lee's primary research is focused on sustainability literacy, the valuation of green building, biophilic/ecophilic design, and change agency related to community engagement. Lee is a founding member of Appalachian State University's Sustainability Council and is the current chair of its Assessment and Data sub-committee. Lee is also a founding member of Appalachian State University's Living Green residential learning community and he developed its linked first-year seminar course, Contemporary Green Living. In addition, Lee serves as president of the Elkland Art Center, a local non-profit community-based experiential art and sustainability education organization that specializes in large scale community parades, puppetry, video documentaries, and community development. His other interests include art, birding, stone masonry, gardening, music, running, and spending time with his family.
Amy Galloway is a Psychology Professor at Appalachian State University where her interest in eating behavior connects with her community service focused on issues of sustainability. She believes that if human mental and physical health are essential elements of sustainable living, then understanding how to foster a preference for whole, less-processed foods across the socioeconomic spectrum would seem to be a vital step in achieving this goal. Amy also enjoies working with Blue Ridge Women and Agriculture (BRWIA.org) and an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Appstate focused on sustainable food (AppalFRESH - Appalachian Food Research for Equity, Sustainability, and Health).
Renee Boughman worked for many years working as a chef in a fine dining restaurant, but she always wondered why the best, healthiest foods went to people with the highest incomes when the people of less means are truly in need. This thought stayed with her, and one day she and a couple of her church members were talking about how to create something that would meet this need and feed the hungry in their small community. Someone overheard their conversation and introduced them to One World Cafe, a pay-what-you-can cafe. They thought this model would be perfect for their community, so in 2009 they started fundraising and getting the word out about creating a similar cafe in Boone. They opened F.A.R.M Cafe, which stands for Feed All Regardless of Means, in 2012 as a low-waste, local, sustainable, pay-what-you-can eating establishment that has served more than 30,000 meals to date, a good portion of which went to people in need.
Carol Coulter moved to Ashe County in North Carolina in 1995, after having worked in outdoor/leadership programs at UNC Charlotte and the NC Outward Bound School. Carol serves as the Executive Director of Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the High Country's Local Food System. Previously, Carol served as an administrator for the Ashe County Partnership for Children and as operations manager for the National Committee for the New River. Carol co-owns Heritage Homestead Goat Dairy with her husband Lon.
Quint David is a 31 year old, full-time employed homeowner in Boone NC. He completed a BS in Construction Management and Appropriate Technology from Appalachian State University, specializing in green building and solar energy. Quint currently works for IONCON (It’s Only Natural) Engineering. In recent years he has worked with strawbale, earthbag, yurts, and shipping container homes as well as the design of renewable energy and rainwater collection systems. Quint has certified homes for Energy Star, LEED, and the Home Builders Association National Green Building Standard. He currently serve as the chair and founding member of Boone’s now permanent Sustainability, Economics, and Environment Committee, as well as the Appalcart board, and as the Co-Chair of the newly created Watauga Food Council. Quint cares deeply about issues that not only impact our environment, but issues that affect workers, property owners, neighborhoods, and businesses as well.
Kevin Gamble is an alumnus of Appalachian State University, and is currently a lecturer in the Department of Sustainable Technology & The Built Environment. His research interests include: sustainable waste management, anaerobic digestion, composting, and the application of social sciences in understanding energy and climate-related issues. Currently, he is involved in a research project exploring wasted food and food recovery practices in High Country food-service businesses.
