Woodshed: An Appalachian Joint

What does it mean to be West Virginian in a post-coal world?

In "King Coal" on PBS, two middle-school girls grapple with their identities inside a state that’s doing the same.

Smokey Bear turns 80, but is he still relevant?

Since 1944, Smokey Bear has taught us the importance of snuffing out campfires and never playing with matches. Now that we know some forest fires are good, experts are asking if Smokey is still “on message.”

HISTORY+CULTURE

Santa’s real-life helpers make toys for underserved N.C. children.

Since 1985, Apple Country Woodcrafters has donated 25,000 wooden toys in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Their workshop is straight out of the North Pole.

HISTORY+CULTURE

Weird Appalachia: Brown Mountain Lights

Dr. Daniel B. Caton once saw things in the sky he couldn't explain, the Brown Mountain Lights. He has spent decades trying to figure out this Burke County, N.C. mystery.

HISTORY+CULTURE

Meet Mildred: Grandfather Mountain’s real life equivalent to Yogi Bear

For over two decades, Mildred — a soda-sipping, selfie-loving bear — charmed visitors at Grandfather Mountain, the highest peak in the Blue Ridge.

HISTORY+CULTURE

This Marketing Exec Got Paid to Move to Appalachia

Chasing big incentives, telecommuters and remote workers are moving to the mountains of West Virginia and Johnson City, Tennessee.

HISTORY+CULTURE

8 times Dolly Parton proved she’s the Patron Saint of Appalachia

Dolly Parton's charitable acts are legendary. With these eight acts of kindness, she proved she's the Patron Saint of Appalachia.

HISTORY+CULTURE

Finding Treasure in a Trailer

I was raised to think single-wide trailers were for desperate people. Buying one showed me just how wrong I was.

HISTORY+CULTURE

Get garlicky with 5 of Appalachia’s top ramps festivals.

From Pennsylvania to Tennessee, these ramps festivals celebrate the region’s favorite wild leek.

FOOD

Asheville lady bootlegger inspires today’s women booze-makers

Moonshiner Grace McAbee moved to Asheville in her 20s. Not long after, she met her husband and purchased a home in an industrial community called West End-Factory Hill, known today as the River Arts District. There, she sold and possibly produced booze.

FOOD

Recipe: Elevate your vinegar pie with this secret ingredient

I know what you’re thinking. Vinegar? In pie? That’s disgusting. I used to think so, too. But when I finally mustered up the courage to take a bite, my five-year-old palate was pleasantly surprised.

FOOD

Is kudzu the future of Appalachian food? Chef Sean Brock thinks so.

When Southern Chef Sean Brock sees kudzu, he sees an opportunity for new recipes and new food traditions.

FOOD

Four foraged foods that will wow Thanksgiving guests

From dandelion roots to acorns, wild edibles that you can forage in Appalachia will give you serious outdoorsy cred on Thanksgiving day.

FOOD

Recipe: Cathead biscuits from Biscuit Head inspire sweet memories.

This morning, I ate two and a half biscuits in three minutes flat. I’m not proud of this record, though my gluttony does attest to the power of this damn good biscuit recipe. It also says something about grief.

You see, earlier this week, doctors told my daddy he is dying. The medicine prescribed for his progressive lung condition, a disease brought on by 20 years of back-to-back shifts in a Western North Carolina paper plant, isn’t working. All we can do now is sit around hoping he’ll be eligible for a lung transplant from a suitable recently-deceased donor, which honestly is a weird thing to hope for.

FOOD

PBS spotlights Roanoke’s South Asian and Black communities

The owners of Taaza Indian Cuisine moved to Roanoke, Virginia for its mountains and, once there, found a community that celebrates its diversity.

FOOD

Appalachia’s Best Eggs? Celebrity Chef Katie Button visits her favorite egg farm.

Asheville, N.C. chef Katie Button knows a good egg when she sees one. For her TV series "From the Source," she visits Dry Ridge Farm, where she buys eggs for her restaurant and market La Bodega/Cúrate. And she tells us why we need to get out of nature's way when farming.

FOOD

8 Binge-Worthy Road Trip Snacks

Whether you’re headed for your meemaw’s hollow or Hilton Head, pack these Appalachian snacks.

FOOD

Eat the Appalachian Breakfast Trail

With everything from bacon-topped donuts to carrot pancakes, this path of breakfast joints is like that other Appalachian Trail, only tastier. Find stops in Morgantown, W.V.; Stuart, V.A.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Asheville, N.C., Travelers Rest, S.C., and Clayton, Ga.

FOOD

Recipe: Cheese slaw, the dip you didn’t know you need

FOOD

Virginia Living: The Pakalachian

FOOD

Our Pawpaw Cocktail is in Garden & Gun!

FOOD

The Roanoke Times: Can Ramps Be Sustainably Farmed?

FOOD

Yard to Chards: How one Virginia farmer turned underused lawns into profitable farmland

FOOD

Recipe: Snack-worthy Communion Wafers

MUSIC

6 unlikely banjo songs (indie to EDM) we can’t stop playing

These tunes prove the banjo ain’t just for country music anymore. Today, clever instrumentalists are plingin’ and plangin’ banjo strings in almost every imaginable genre.

MUSIC

Playlist: Hellbilly Hits

Many of these Appalachian musicians were punk before punk was even a thing.

MUSIC

Tyler Childers goes gay (but not the way you think.)

Tyler Childers and Silas House craft a heartbreaking love story about a gay Appalachian couple in the 1950s.

MUSIC

One Song: You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive

At first, Patty Loveless had trouble getting into the song that might end up being remembered as her signature tune — "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive." She first released it back in 2001 on "Mountain Soul," a deeply personal album of bluegrass and old time tunes that sent her career in a new direction while snagging her a Grammy nomination

MUSIC

One Song: Young, Gifted and Black

While Appalachia is best know for bluegrass, it's also given birth to artists like Nina Simone, who blended genres and drew from her wide-ranging life experiences to create her own remarkable sound and this inspiring song.

MUSIC

One Song: Parkway Bound

MUSIC

One Song: Honey, I was Wrong

MUSIC

One Song: Take Me Home, Country Roads

MUSIC

Rolling Stone: The Life and Death of Bluegrass Innovator Tony Rice

MUSIC

One Song: Old-Timey Grey Eagle

MUSIC

Look Up, and See What Inspired "Blue Moon of Kentucky"

MUSIC

One Song: In the Mountains

MUSIC

NPR: Mother Maybelle Carter's Lifetime of Labor

MUSIC

One Song: All I Ever Wanted

MUSIC

One Song: I've Endured

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Down and dirty on the Hatfield-McCoy Trails

How do you commemorate the legendary Hatfield-McCoy feud? If you’re the state of W.Va., you do it with 1,000 miles of off-road recreational vehicle trails.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

5 reasons the opossum should be Appalachia’s official mascot

Thanks to its toothy snarl, hairless tail, and bulging eyes, the opossum is never going to win a beauty contest, but if this critter were to vie for the position of Appalachia’s official mascot, I reckon it would win big. Here’s why.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Ready to escape the cold? Try caving.

From Kentucky to Virginia to Tennessee, Appalachia is graced with countless cave systems. They range from the longest in the world to one boasting a stalactite organ. There's no better time to check out the region's remarkable caves than winter.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Wanna' Save Appalachia’s Butterflies?

If you have a yard, you can help save butterflies in five easy steps.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

‘Round Here: Sevierville, Tenn.

Visit Dolly Parton's hometown — Sevierville, Tennessee — and see how new restaurants and shops honor her place in music history.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

5 Stunning Wedding Venues in Appalachia

With Appalachian mountain backdrops, these wedding venues make for beautiful memories. And they’re waaaaay better than the jail in which writer Lauren Stepp accidentally got married.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

‘Round Here: Hendersonville, N.C.

A Hendersonville, North Carolina native shares her favorite places to visit, including HenDough Chicken and Donuts, Mike's on Main Street, and the Appalachian Pinball Museum.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Skiing the “Canadian Valley” during a banner W.Va. season

Writer John Briley visited White Grass Ski Touring Center, which is ground zero for Nordic and backcountry skiing in West Virginia.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

5 blowout New Year’s Eve parties in Appalachia

Whether you prefer a Gatsby-esque affair or something more low-key, these five Appalachian parties will help you ring in the new year.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

'ROUND HERE: WYTHEVILLE, VA.

Mark Lynn Ferguson visits Wytheville, Va. his mother's hometown and unravels a wee family mystery while exploring restaurants, galleries, a book store, and more.

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Putting the Glam in Glamping

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Blue Ridge Outdoors: Why Winter Hiking Is Better

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Southern Living: Va.'s best parkway towns in the fall

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Farmers' Almanac: Are Fireflies Disappearing?

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

BRO: The Outdoors Is Open Again!

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

Cocktails in a luxury 1940s train car

OUTDOOR+TRAVEL

WV Explorer: Help track a bobcat, get a $100 gift card

ART+LIT

One Passage: "Sidle Creek," an NPR Book of the Year

They told author Jolene McIlwain to leave Appalachian Pennsylvania and never look back. She stayed and wrote an acclaimed anthology.

ART+LIT

2024 Mountain Mama Gift Guide

This Mother's Day, find the perfect handmade gift for the artsy mama, the outdoorsy mama, the mystical mama, and more.

ART+LIT

Preserving W.Va.’s coal legacy through crafts

To honor her West Virginia family's coal mining legacy, Megan Brown created a stunning handmade necklace crafted from actual coal dust.

ART+LIT

Our most-read stories of 2023

2023 was Woodshed's first full year as a magazine! From every corner of Appalachia and beyond, readers have flocked to our articles — especially these ten, our most-read stories of the year.

ART+LIT

Mark Lynn's Gift Ideas 2023

Give Appalachian this holiday season! All year, we've been combing hills and hollers for fantastic gifts, and, dang it, our collection of handmade crafts and small batch foods has never been more exciting.

ART+LIT

A mysterious tombstone inspired Ron Rash’s new novel, set in N.C. and Korea

Interview: Award-winning Appalachian N.C. novelist Ron Rash talks headstones, childhood trauma, and what’s next for his career.

ART+LIT

Wild places and loyal dogs ground Silas House’s life and his novel “Lark Ascending.”

This is the second part of our interview with author Silas House about his newest novel — set approximately twenty years from now. “Lark Ascending” shows humanity at its best and worst, in the context of a calamitous future.

ART+LIT

How Silas House turned crushing grief into a lauded novel

After losing a beloved aunt, Kentucky author Silas House channeled his grief into "Lark Ascending," a novel about humanity in the face of ceaseless loss.

ART+LIT

One Passage: Vicious is My Middle Name

Punk meets Appalachia in "Vicious is my Middle Name" by David Dunn. Read an excerpt and hear what inspired the author to mash-up these two cultures.

ART+LIT

Mining for love: How a coal mine romance led to a thriving craft business

ART+LIT

A scary story that will also make you smile

ART+LIT

One Story: Helter Skelter

ART+LIT

Appalachian Crafts Beat the Winter Blues

ART+LIT

Salon: How son's "Dark Waters" film role and father's cancer connected

ART+LIT

One Passage: To The Bones

ART+LIT

The Rke Times: 89-year-old builds her first banjo

ART+LIT

We Opened A Shop!

OUR FARM

Bringing Christmas cheer to a wrecked family home place

We bought our family farm in 2021, but the wobbly economy has delayed restoration of its historic farmhouse. This Christmas, though, I just couldn’t stand seeing it dark and grim anymore. I mixed up an old fashioned, grabbed my favorite little Christmas tree, and headed out to the old place.