A recent trip to Abingdon, Virginia yielded a rare food find: POPCORN CORNMEAL.
The assistant miller at the historic White’s Mill just outside town told me the story. During the Civil War, troops from both armies often took local food stores, leaving civilians to fend for themselves. And according to Abingdon oral history, one such incident [...]

This past weekend, Roanoke, Virginia celebrated its diversity of food and culture at the annual Local Colors festival. It was my first time at the party, but I tasted some incredible dishes and met some wonderful cooks.

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Syrup or gravy?
That question confounded retired Roanoke Times photographer Gene Dalton recently when he stopped at the Cavalier Inn in Hillsville and ordered buckwheat pancakes (See biscuitpower’s buckwheat cakes recipe) for breakfast.
As he has all his life, the Southwest Virginia native ordered syrup for his pancakes. But as he paid the clerk on his way [...]

After months of researching home sausage grinders and good sausage recipes — not to mention watching the “To Stuff a Sausage” episode of Julia Child’s The French Chef — I had the luck to be invited to a home sausage making party hosted by Brett and Johanna Nichols of Five Penny Farm, an organic vegetable [...]

ELLISTON — Dave Long can remember when Montgomery County had more than a dozen dairy farms and supported four family-owned feed and flour mills.
Today he can count the number of local dairies on one white powdered hand, and Big Spring Mill, owned and operated by his family since 1935, is the only mill left standing.
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