When I can’t find anything nice to say about DC–and there are those days–I tell people that it’s a great city to escape. Within a two hour drive, we have…
Celebrating in Shepherdstown & Sharpsburg
Ramps: Loving Them to Death?
Right now, ramps are hotter than poppa bear’s porridge. You can’t walk into a farmer’s market or restaurant without catching a whiff of their pungent delights. This is good for our…
Blue Ridge Hosts Toughest Marathon
Next Saturday, folks from across the region and around the world will make their way to the Star City of the South. Roanoke, Virginia plays host to the Foot Levelers…
7 Tips for a Sure Fire Garden
Spring has finally sprung, and it has Crystal Vaughan, our friend over at Red Hill General Store, pulling out her spade and watering can. An avid gardener, she took time…
Appalachia’s Most Endangered Places
About this time every year, the Southern Environmental Law Center releases a list of 10 places in the South that face immediate, potentially irreparable, environmental threats. If ever there’s a…
A Winter Hike at Home
I woke up yesterday thinking about hiking. I haven’t been since the fall, back when the air was crisp but not so cold I needed hand-warmers in my front and…
Did God Make Ghosts
About this time each year, I sit on my front porch with a bowl of candy, taking swigs from the bourbon and Coke that I’ve tucked behind my jack-o-lantern and…
Quilt Squares Give Leaf Peeping a New Shape
You’ve probably seen them when you were driving down some winding state route. Maybe it was this time of year. Maybe you were cruising a little too fast. Maybe you…
Win a Blight Resistant Chestnut Tree
You probably know that chestnut trees once blanketed the Appalachians. Before blight decimated them, they accounted for a quarter of all trees in the mountains. Their fruit sustained squirrels, deer,…
In the Forests of the Night: Appalachia’s Great Horned Owl
There are many creatures you don’t want to cross in Appalachian forests. Boar are vicious. Bear are strong. Bobcats will scratch your face off. But none are as brutal or…