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Exploring PA in a Tasty Way—Culinary Trails

This week we are excited to shine a spotlight on the Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) at Chatham University.  The CRAFT team created four culinary trails for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development—trails that highlight the foodways traditions in southwestern Pennsylvania and throughout the Commonwealth. In the article below, guest writer and Program Manager for CRAFT, Cynthia Caul,  offers a taste of the Picked: An Apple Trail.

By Cynthia Caul, Program Manager, CRAFT at Chatham University

Fall is upon us. The air has turned cool and crisp. The leaves are changing colors, falling to the ground, and crunching underfoot. People are drinking pureed pumpkin frothed with warm milk and sugar, and in Pennsylvania, apples are ripening on the trees to be turned into delicious ciders, sauces, pies, and so much more. You can check out these apple treats for yourself on the Picked: An Apple Trail. This story highlights the fourth and final trail that we at Chatham University’s Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) created in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Pennsylvania Apples

Pennsylvania is one of the largest apple-growing states in the country with over 20,000 acres of apple orchards producing up to 500 million pounds of apples per year. A little under half of these apples are sold fresh, and the rest are sold in a myriad of value-added forms.

In this region, the Appalachian Mountains have bestowed us with rolling hills and the well-drained soils that so often accompany them. You may be most (and unpleasantly) familiar with this phenomenon manifesting as a wet basement or collapsing retaining wall. However, this phenomenon is also responsible for creating great soil and conditions for apples trees to flourish and thrive.

The south-central part of the state is most conducive to apple growing. However, throughout history, apples have been grown throughout the state. At one point, almost every farm in the state included an apple orchard. The trees were usually grown from seed, and the apples they produced were called “spitters.” This was because when you ate the fruit, you’d usually have to spit out the sour-tasting seed.

Because of this sour taste, these apples were often processed into alcoholic cider or vinegar rather than eaten fresh. This made these orchards vulnerable during prohibition; the FBI burned down many orchards during this period.

Where orchards still remain and are plentiful in the state, there is often a vibrant culture of seasonal markets and food traditions that include fresh apple cider (alcoholic and nonalcoholic), apple butter, and handmade apple dumplings and other baked goods. Nowadays, there is wide variety of apples grown that are sweeter in taste—due to grafting, a form of plant breeding—which are better suited for these types of treats.

However, in spite of conducive growing conditions and this rich history, apples are not indigenous to this area—or to this country or continent at all. They actually originated in modern-day Kazakhstan in Paleolithic times and did not make their way to this continent until the 1500s. First, the presence and popularity of apple trees spread across Europe. Then, they were brought to Mexico and South America by Spanish colonizers. A bit later, the apple trees were planted in other parts of North America; British colonizers were the ones to bring them to our region. One such colonizer who is so often associated with apples and their prevalence in this region was John Chapman. You may know him as Johnny Appleseed.

Johnny Appleseed

Chapman was born in Massachusetts and found his way to Pennsylvania, where he gathered apple seeds from the cider mills along the Monongahela River and carried them throughout the state, as well as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, planting as he went. This in effect granted him legal claim to these lands. At that time, roughly the early 19th century, one way homesteaders colonizing the western frontier were able to gain recognized ownership of lands was if they planted at least fifty apples trees on the land. So as these individuals and families traveled westward, Chapman sold them his newly acquired plots of land and the orchards that grew upon them.

This was a rather lucrative business venture for Chapman. It also effectively seized ownership of these lands from the indigenous communities that had inhabited, cultivated, and cared for them for generations, moving into the hands of frontier families and European colonizers. In the 19th century, our beloved apples that have graced this earth since 10,000 BCE became instruments of an injustice that has not yet been rectified.

Chapman or Johnny Appleseed is often mythologized as a pacifist and environmentalist, but his actions contributed to land theft and new forms of land ownership and farming that were even contrary to his own environmental beliefs. For example, he would have opposed the sweet, grafted apple varieties that we’ve come to love today, as opposed to the sour spitters, as he did not believe this form of plant breeding was appropriate. Grafting is a form of plant breeding where the roots of one plant are attached to a new shoot or branch of another plant, and it is required to produce these sweeter varieties.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, when we decided to take a food systems approach to developing these trails, we were looking to answer and unpack questions about who was growing and making what where, as well as how these food practices and traditions came to be in this region. This process of exploration and self-reflection can often be as rich as it is fraught. In the case of apples, we carry the dissonance that exists between these beloved fruits of the earth, the joy and traditions that accompany them, and the complicated role they played in our region and country’s colonial history.

With Gratitude

As I wrap up this final blog in the series, I want to thank Rivers of Steel for giving me this space to highlight this work.

Additionally, I want to give a special thanks to Mary Miller, the culinary historian we worked with on this project, who shared an absolute wealth of knowledge and spent a monumental amount of time driving around our state visiting the businesses you can now find featured on all four Baked, Chopped, Pickled, and Picked trails.

Hitting the Trail

Finally, I want to thank you for reading along! I appreciate your time and attention. I hope you get a chance to experience some or all of the trails and that it is a truly meaningful experience for you that leaves you feeling full, including but not limited to your stomach.

As you are headed out on your travels this fall, here are a few highlights from the western portion of the trail:

Apis Mead in Carnegie, where you can find a seasonal cyser made from local apples. Cyser refers to a mead, which a type of wine, that is made with apples.

Emmett’s Orchard in Mercer County. This is a family-owned farm growing apples and making fresh apple cider, muffins, and jams—all of which they sell in their gift shop!

Furhman’s Cider Mill & Luminary Distilling in Erie. Fuhrman’s cider mill has been producing cider for over 125 years. They more recently joined forces with their neighbor, Luminary Distilling. One of the most popular collaborations is the Apple Pie Moonshine.

Twin Pies in Linesville, where you can find all the pies—including the classic apple pie, an apple raisin crumb pie, a Dutch apple pie, and pies made with other seasonal fruits as well. This a family-owned business that makes pies from old and new family recipes.

Tavern on the Square in New Wilmington. We almost lost this ninety-one-year-old tavern and former Underground Railroad stop to the pandemic, but it is under new ownership and renovation and is set to open in 2023. I’m leaving this here for future reference (and to nudge the new owners to bring back those renowned apple dumplings!)

Further Afield

If you’re looking to travel a bit further and take in more of that fall foliage, you might want to check out:

Tait Farm Foods, in Centre Hall, PA, which provides spiced apple shrub and apple butter, as well as a variety of other shrubs, jams, butters, mustards, and more.

Mile Level Farm Market in La Vale, MD, where you can get Pennsylvania Apple Pie Cheddar cheese, apple dumplings, and apple teas.

Case’s Mansfield Cider Mill in Mansfield, PA, is a 125-year-old cider mill that produces ciders, jams, dumplings, and more from locally grown apples.

Schlegel Farm in Dalmatia, PA is a fifth-generation eco-farm that grows over thirty varieties of apples.

The Markets at Hanover in Hanover, PA (of course), where you can find apple snitz (schnitz), apple wine, and other local goods to accompany your apples, including honey and cheese.

National Apple Museum in Biglerville, PA—yes, that’s a thing. The museum is located in Adams County—the heart of the apple-growing region in Pennsylvania. You can learn all about the history of apple growing here.

Apple Valley Creamery in East Berlin, PA. As the name suggests, this is a dairy, but relevant for our purposes, they sell smoked Applewood cheddar, apple griller sausage, and Oyler’s apple cider at their farm store.

About CRAFT

The Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) works to support robust regional food systems that are equitable, inclusive, and sustainable in Western Pennsylvania and beyond.

CRAFT works with a number of regional partners to develop culinary trails that support economic development particularly in our region’s rural communities.

These trails aim to highlight the rich heritage and food traditions of the region, as well as include the history and culture of all of the region’s historical and current residents. We take this inclusive approach in order to acknowledge, learn, and inform about the fraught and complex history of land ownership and food production in our region and country, recognizing and celebrating the contributions of displaced indigenous and enslaved peoples.

The trails provide regional farms and food businesses with increased markets and promotional opportunities, and provide tourists with a deeper understanding of the regional food system and the unique value and history of the food grown and prepared within it.

Cynthia Caul is the program manager for CRAFT at Chatham University and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School for Public and International Affairs, where she studied International Development. Cynthia’s research has focused on food and nutrition security, land access, and the role of agricultural smallholders in an increasingly globalizing economy. She also worked at the Ford Institute for Human Security, conducting research on human rights-based approaches to improving agricultural land access for women farmers and was the 2017 recipient of the Simon Reich Human Security Writing Award. Prior to her current role, Cynthia worked on public health programming in Ghana with the U.S. Peace Corps.

If you’d like to know more about the culinary trails, check out her most recent post in this series, which features the Pickled Trail,

A display of pickled and fermented products. Image courtesy of The Pickled Chef, Latrobe.

Exploring PA in a Tasty Way—Culinary Trails

This week we are excited to shine a spotlight on the Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) at Chatham University.  The CRAFT team created four culinary trails for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development—trails that highlight the foodways traditions in southwestern Pennsylvania and throughout the Commonwealth. In the article below, guest writer and Program Manager for CRAFT, Cynthia Caul,  offers a taste of the Pickled trail.

By Cynthia Caul, Program Manager, CRAFT at Chatham University

“Pickled: A Fermented Trail” Offers Travelers Unexpected Flavors and Variety

Do you know what cheese, vinegar, wine, hot sauce, beer, olives, and yogurt all have in common? They are all (or at least often are) fermented foods.

What is fermentation exactly? The production of energy from nutrients in the absence of oxygen using a community of bacteria and yeast.

There are also different types or processes of fermentation. For example, some processes require “feeding” this community of bacteria and yeast. You may have heard of this, or even become intimately familiar with it, during the renaissance of sourdough and other bread baking we witnessed at the outset of the pandemic. Some fermentation processes involve “culturing,” where the bacterial community (or mother culture, as some refer to it) is added at the outset. Butter and cheeses are fermented in this way. Still other processes are wild or spontaneous, where the community or culture presents naturally and begins the fermentation process, creating a rich regional terroir—a taste that can only be produced in that specific place because of its unique soil, climate, and surrounding environment.

Got it? It’s okay if you don’t. You don’t need to understand all the scientific intricacies behind fermentation to enjoy and appreciate the fermented foods featured on our Pickled: A Fermentation Trail.

It’s similar to how people often debate whether tomatoes are a vegetable or a fruit. Scientifically, however, there isn’t really much to debate. Tomatoes are, in fact, fruits. And so are cucumbers and zucchini because they bear seeds and grow from the flower of the plant. Botanically, this is what makes a fruit a fruit.

You know what else? Strawberries aren’t berries.

And you know what is a berry?  A tomato.

This may feel relevant for those of you who find yourself saying, “I don’t like fruit on my salad,” when you may more specifically mean, “I don’t like (insert apples, strawberries, cranberries, sweet things, etc.) on my salad.” But ultimately, it’s not that relevant at all. You can keep saying the former, even if you mean the latter, and everyone will know what you mean.

That’s culture. Culturally, the debate about whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable is far richer. There is a science to food. But food is also, and just as importantly, cultural. It’s spiritual. It’s about taste, and no single one of us can experience taste in the exact same way.

All of this is just one example of what we mean when we say we took a “food systems” approach to creating these four culinary trails or when we say we take a “holistic” approach to food systems. We’re not just referring to how a plant reproduces or where its seeds are housed. We’re referring to how the food was cooked or grown, who cooked or grew it, and for whom. How and when was it eaten? What was the experience? What significance did that experience hold for a community?

In much this same vein, this trail includes pickles, even though pickling and fermenting are two different processes. They produce similar, sour tastes that many people associate with one another. Pickling refers to soaking a vegetable, fruit, or other food in a vinegar or brine. In this country, when we think of pickles, we often think of those jarred, little cucumbers, but pickles consist of much more than that. And sometimes, those jarred, little cucumbers aren’t even pickled at all. Sometimes, they’re fermented. (But don’t worry, a lot of the time, they’re pickled.)

Fermenting and pickling are both practices that have a rich history and vibrant presence in this region, and they connect us to people all over the world who have originated and used these practices to preserve and prepare a variety of foods and beverages. For example, pickling dates back to 2030 B.C.E., where it was used to preserve cucumbers in India’s Tigris Valley. And the regional favorite sauerkraut that is often associated with German traditions is actually believed to have originated in China. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1870s that this fermented cabbage really found favor in the region. Prior to that, it was once referred to as ”pickled manure” in a Chambersburg newspaper. The culture surrounding food matters, and it’s also ever-changing.

So, with all of this new or revisited information under your belt, you’re primed to take a trip through one or all of our pickled and fermented itineraries.

Here are some highlights from the itinerary for southwestern Pennsylvania:

In addition to probiotic teas and kombucha, Abeille Voyante Tea Company offers a wide selection of all kinds of tea.

Abeille Voyante Tea Co., where you can get probiotic teas and kombucha.

A variety of Heinz Pickle Pins. Image courtesy of the Heinz History Center.

Heinz History Center, where you can brush up on your pickle trivia as well as see a 160-year-old jar of pickles.

Strange Roots exists at the intersection of farmhouse brewing tradition and creative, locally-driven experimentation. They are passionate about celebrating our environment through the use of local ingredients, varying fermentation methods and micro flora, and strive to create unique artisan ales inspired by our surroundings here in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains.

Strange Roots Experimental Ales, which carries an array of wild (remember regional terroir?) fermented beers and vinegars.

Taiwanese Bistro Café 33 with a full menu of Taiwanese dishes, including fermented favorites like stinky tofu and kimchi hot pot.

The Pickled Chef has so much pickled and fermented goodness, including pickled ramps, kohlrabi, okra, and green beans, fermented sauerkrauts, and kimchi.

Lapp’s Family Market, which carries local water kefir, yogurt, and buttermilk.

Barrel & Flow Fest, a local beer festival, which I mentioned in my first blog post on grains but is also relevant here. It’s coming up in August, and tickets are on sale now.

If you’re looking to travel a little further, you might also be interested in:

Meadville Market House with a variety of unique pickled items, including golden eggs and spicy shrooms.

Core Goods, carrying a variety of products from familfarmers, including Clarion River Organics sauerkraut and Moody Culture kombucha.

Calkin’s Creamery, a family-owned creamery since the 1880s known for their award-winning cheeses.

Mister Lee’s Noodles, located in a historic public market, serves Japanese specialties, including fermented miso, kimchi, sriracha, and house-pickled vegetables from local farms.

Franklin Fountain, where you can get a refreshing, house-made root beer float. Root beer is a fermented beverage that was commercialized in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s, with the practice itself having a longer history originated by our nation’s indigenous peoples.

If you’re planning a trip, also be sure to check out my past two blog posts on the Baked and Chopped trails we developed alongside this one at Chatham University’s Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) with regional culinary historian Mary Miller for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.

Happy travels!

About CRAFT

The Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) works to support robust regional food systems that are equitable, inclusive, and sustainable in Western Pennsylvania and beyond.

CRAFT works with a number of regional partners to develop culinary trails that support economic development particularly in our region’s rural communities.

These trails aim to highlight the rich heritage and food traditions of the region, as well as include the history and culture of all of the region’s historical and current residents. We take this inclusive approach in order to acknowledge, learn, and inform about the fraught and complex history of land ownership and food production in our region and country, recognizing and celebrating the contributions of displaced indigenous and enslaved peoples.

The trails provide regional farms and food businesses with increased markets and promotional opportunities, and provide tourists with a deeper understanding of the regional food system and the unique value and history of the food grown and prepared within it.

Cynthia Caul is the program manager for CRAFT at Chatham University and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School for Public and International Affairs, where she studied International Development. Cynthia’s research has focused on food and nutrition security, land access, and the role of agricultural smallholders in an increasingly globalizing economy. She also worked at the Ford Institute for Human Security, conducting research on human rights-based approaches to improving agricultural land access for women farmers and was the 2017 recipient of the Simon Reich Human Security Writing Award. Prior to her current role, Cynthia worked on public health programming in Ghana with the U.S. Peace Corps.

If you’d like to know more about the culinary trails, check out her first post in this series, which features the Baked Trail.

Industrial relics inside the Henrichshütte Iron and Steel Works in Hattingen, Germany.

Rivers of Steel in the Ruhr Valley

Augie Carlino, president and CEO of Rivers of Steel, shares an overview of the recent visit to Germany’s Ruhr and Emscher Valleys by members of the organization’s staff.

By August R. Carlino

Post/Industrial Ambassadors

Earlier this month, members of Rivers of Steel’s staff embarked on journey to Germany’s Ruhr and Emscher Valley regions, where we were hosted by the LVR-Industriemuseum and the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe—two quasi-governmental entities that are responsible for Germany’s industrial and cultural heritage projects.

Rivers of Steel staff tour Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, a former gas power station that is now a state-of-the-art performance space.

This region of Germany is remarkably similar to southwestern Pennsylvania as it was—and still is—the nation’s industrial heartland. Like our region, it saw a change in its industrial economy in the 1970s and ‘80s as global steel production shifted to Eastern Europe and Asia. Unlike our region, however, the German government quickly recognized the value of industrial culture. As a result, it established strategic, planned reuse of the former sites, incorporating the historic structures into their reuse and redevelopment.

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord is a public park located in Duisburg-Meiderich, Germany. It was designed in 1991 by Latz + Partner, with the intention that it work to heal and understand the industrial past, rather than trying to reject it.

During our trip, we visited about a dozen former industrial sites. Now stripped of their former roles, they have found new postindustrial purposes, operating commercially, culturally, and recreationally. These sites included former steel mills with blast furnaces, coking plants, and coal mines. In addition, we toured industrial communities connected by the Emscher and Ruhr rivers. Like Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, these communities are connected by a trail system that parallels the rivers and canals of the region. And we stayed in Essen, Germany. Does that sound familiar? It is where the name for the town of Monessen originates—Essen on the Mon!

A sign displaying the industrial culture route through the Ruhr Valley.

Paragliders practice at the Hoheward Landscape Park—the largest slag heap in Europe that is now a recreational space.

Rivers of Steel and these two German agencies are working to develop an international partnership to advance industrial heritage and preservation efforts within the U.S., Germany, and in other countries. As part of this work, Rivers of Steel has been invited to join the International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage (TICCIH). In addition, Rivers of Steel’s metal arts staff will return to Germany in September to participate in a European metal arts demonstration conference to be held in Berlin.

Over the next weeks and months, Rivers of Steel’s staff will share their takeaways—things we learned and observed during this process. Beyond that, we’ll convey some of what our German partners were able to gain from the exchange with us, as we forge new partnerships via our work in conserving industrial heritage.

August R. Carlino is the president and CEO of Rivers of Steel. Read his bio.

Strikers from Local Union 1397 in Homestead point towards the Carrie Blast Furnaces. Image from the Rivers of Steel Archives.

May Day & the Legacy of Labor

In honor of May Day, Interpretive Specialist Ryan Henderson reflected on the origins of the holiday and the impact of labor on our region.

By Ryan Henderson

Understanding May Day

Now that April showers are behind us and May flowers ahead, May Day is here and with it the perfect opportunity to reflect on labor history and the importance of preserving and memorializing that history.

You may be asking, “What does May Day have to do with labor?” Though May Day might conjure up images of twirling ribbons around the maypole to celebrate spring and the coming of summer, the holiday has a different connotation across much of the world. Also known as International Workers’ Day, the holiday celebrates workers, the working class, and the labor movement, and is recognized as a public holiday akin to the American Labor Day in many countries. In France, for example, the day is a national holiday that most people have off; it is well known for coinciding with marches, parades, and protests.

The idea for tying May 1 to the cause of labor was proposed in 1904 by the Second International, a group of Socialist and Labor parties. They intended May Day to serve as a day for demonstrations pushing for an eight-hour workday, in addition to a way to honor the working class and labor movement more generally. The fight for an eight-hour day was one of the major workers’ rights issues of this era, where ten- or even twelve-hour days were the norm.

Workers from the 1880s. Image from the Rivers of Steel Archives.

The Second International chose May 1 as it coincided with the beginning of the 1886 general strike, a push for the eight-hour day that concluded in the infamous Haymarket Affair. This incident—one of the most important days in American labor history—saw a rally in Haymarket Square in Chicago descend into violence and chaos as a bomb was thrown into the path of several policemen attempting to disperse protesters, resulting in several deaths. The ensuing trial and execution of those held to be responsible was and remains controversial, with members of the labor movement of the time insisting that the men convicted were falsely accused and that the bomb had actually been thrown by individuals working for business interests to create a backlash against labor.

While the original May Day was directly linked to these events and the specific goals of labor in the late 19th century, the day has become more generally a day honoring the causes of the working class. As the push for the eight-hour workday was successful in many parts of the world, May Day came to represent a holiday celebrating the labor movement and its accomplishments more generally, while still serving as a day of protest and demonstration.

United Mine Workers of America. Image from the Rivers of Steel Archives.

The Legacy of the Labor Movement

Though many Americans are not union members or part of organized labor, the contributions of workers’ rights movements to our society today are innumerable, in ways many of us do not often stop to consider. Many workplace protections and laws we take for granted as part of a standard day at work were the result of decades of struggle. Things like the aforementioned eight-hour day, child labor laws, minimum wage, workplace safety laws, and the right to organize only exist today as a result of decades of protest, strikes, demonstration, and lobbying.

Much of the benefits workers enjoy today, such as paid time off, owe a great deal to the labor movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gaining these protections for future generations was not without a great deal of sacrifice on the part of many activists. Blacklisting, jail time, and serious risk of injury and even death was common. As many owners and business leaders in this period were loath to give up power in the workplace, those fighting for workers’ rights were often met with violence and suppression. The fight for rights in the workplace was often a literal battle, with several instances of armed conflict between industry and labor, whether in the coalfields of West Virginia or here in Pittsburgh. Many owners hired union busters, Pinkertons, various “detective agencies,” or bought off local law enforcement to suppress workers by any means necessary.

While labor conflicts and the resulting upheaval are often overlooked parts of American history, they are nonetheless events of monumental importance that deserve greater honor and recognition.

Visitors to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum can learn about the Battle of Blair Mountain. Image courtesy of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

The (Literal) Fight for Workers’ Rights

Take, for example, the Battle of Blair Mountain, a confrontation with the miners of Logan County, West Virginia on one side and forces including the West Virginia Sheriff’s Department and hired representatives of local coal companies on the other. The battle, which occurred from late August to early September 1921, was the largest uprising in U.S. history and the largest armed conflict in the United States since the end of the Civil War.

Part of the larger Coal Wars of this period, the battle was precipitated by increasingly hostile confrontations between members of the United Mine Workers and agents of mine ownership such as the Baldwin-Felts Detective agency. The miners pushed for greater unionization and resisted the eviction of miners and their families from company towns following retaliatory mass firings of workers who had joined the union.

After these tensions boiled over into a gunfight in the town of Matewan that left several Baldwin-Felts detectives and miners dead, both sides continued to steadily move toward open conflict despite attempts by various figures, such as Mother Jones, to stave off a bloodbath. Eventually a multiday battle took place, resulting in over one hundred deaths. The fighting was incredibly fierce and even saw the use of private planes hired by the coal companies to drop leftover World War I munitions on miners. The miners were forced to surrender, and nearly one thousand of their number were arrested.

While this represented a victory for the coal companies of the time, it paved the way for a new wave of union organizing and tactics, as well as a greater public sympathy for the appalling conditions that miners faced and the severity of the situation in coal country. Eventually, the unions rallied and won major victories in the 1930s, creating larger, stronger, and better organized movements that continued to win further labor protections.

More than 120 people attend the walking tour of Historic Matewan by the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum during the Blair 100 activities. Image courtesy of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.

Though many Americans may not know the story of Blair Mountain, historians are hard at work to preserve its legacy and help to bring the event and struggles in the coal industry into the wider public consciousness. The Battle of Blair Mountain celebrated its centennial in 2021, a weekend marked with marches, speeches, talks, and panels with organizations across the country, including Rivers of Steel.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum

Visitors to Matewan today can visit the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, which collects, preserves, and interprets the history of Blair Mountain and other similar conflicts. While the Battle of Blair Mountain and the Mine Wars Museum is only one example, there are dozens of museums and organizations working today to memorialize or preserve labor history. Museums looking at the history of specific fields, like the automotive or textile industries or specific events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, can be found all across America, working to elevate the stories of workers’ struggles for rights and fair treatment.

Visitors to the Pump House in Munhall can learn about the Battle of Homestead.

Honoring the Everyday Worker

At Rivers of Steel, we believe the memorialization of labor history is an incredibly important part of not only the legacy of the steel and iron industry, but the legacy of the Pittsburgh region.  Many nationally important labor events took place here, such as the Battle of Homestead, which you can learn more about here. Today, visitors can stop by the Pump House to walk the grounds of the battle or come to the Bost Building, where the Amalgamated Union was headquartered during the conflict.

The story of labor, though, is more than just the physical remains of these events. We believe it is important to not merely tell the story of industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, but also to focus on the everyday stories of workers. All too often, the experiences of men and women who worked “regular” jobs are not given equal attention to the experiences of industrial leaders to the detriment of our understanding of the events that shaped American life. While the story of industry as a force moving American life is important, the individual stories upon which that narrative is constructed need to be told as well, with the attendant conflict that was a part of labor in the 20th century likewise included.

A group assembled at the end of a sixty-day strike. Image from the Rivers of Steel Archives.

To that end Rivers of Steel has, in addition to our historic facilities, worked to preserve a series of materials related to labor in our archives. Union contracts, pamphlets, meeting minutes, newsletters and newspapers, pins, buttons, and ID badges are all there, as are books relating to labor, photographs of strikes and labor conflicts, contemporary newspapers, and even letters and communiqués from events like the Homestead Strike. Rivers of Steel uses some of these materials as the basis for many of our exhibits and programs, but the archive is free and open to the public for research purposes as well, and we encourage interested parties to contact us to set up a time to visit.

In the meantime, however, spare a thought this May Day for the workers who came before us and all they sacrificed so that we might enjoy a safe, fair workplace today, and don’t forget the many struggles that are ongoing to keep these rights into the future.

Ryan Henderson is an interpretive specialist and grant writer with Rivers of Steel.  You can also catch him giving the occasional tour at the Carrie Blast Furnaces. 

If you liked this reflection, you may want to read article A Home for the Culture of Steel.

A musician plays at Blue Dust during Homestead Live Fridays in the fall of 2021.

Reawakening: Homestead Live Fridays 2022

By Jordan Snowden

“I feel like when I walk around Homestead; it’s a very special neighborhood. Its legacy of the past echoes through into the present.” Jon Engel, Rivers of Steel’s “on-the-ground guy” who manages many of the forthcoming Homestead Live Fridays’ event logistics, speaks of the former steel mill center with an enthusiasm and passion typically unheard of in non-Homestead natives.

“I have a lot of love for the area and the community that inhabits it and makes it meaningful,” he says. “The Homestead Live Fridays series, as cool as it is, it’s just a very small part of looking at a place like that and going, ‘This has worth and value,’ maybe not necessarily to people who are not of Pittsburgh, of this history, but this has worth to us, and the people who live here, and we have worth to each other, and we gotta stand by each other.”

Event-goers visit the galleries of Kindness, Solidarity, & Design during Homestead Live Fridays.

Homestead Live Fridays is an event series that welcomes newcomers to the neighborhood, letting them in on a secret locals already know—it’s a happening place. Alongside a goal of economic and cultural revival, the upcoming revamped performance series will showcase the small town’s unobserved substance and ample entertainment options that it has to discover.

“People used to think of Homestead as crime-filled, impoverished, and just an all-around bad place to live, work and play,” says Vanessa McCarthy-Johnson, Homestead Borough Manager. “People that actually live here know much better. We have a great community that needs to be highlighted as best as possible. We have new businesses coming in every day, developers creating new housing in various price ranges, and we have great restaurants and nightlife.”

Kicking off May 20 and running monthly through October, Homestead Live Fridays will occur in multiple venues throughout the area’s Eighth Avenue business district, including gastropub Blue Dust, cafes Dorothy Six and Duke’s Upper Deck, and local breweries Voodoo Brewing Co. and Golden Age Brewing Company, among others. Presented by Rivers of Steel and the Steel Valley Enterprise Zone, the event series features local performers, art exhibitions, and activities almost every month from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m.

A crowded street scene during a Homestead First Fridays event.

“This is a huge deal for Homestead,” says Shunta Parms, a Homestead native and current Borough secretary. “A lot of us Homestead natives don’t go to The Waterfront; we hate the train. We look forward to Eighth Avenue for retail, spa, and dining. Homestead Live Fridays will show how rich Homestead is in its history and diversity . . . I appreciate the thought and brainstorming from Rivers of Steel. Homestead is a vibrant, live, and full-of-life kind of town. I’m grateful that others see what I already saw in this hidden gem. That they too can call it home.”

Rivers of Steels represents southwestern Pennsylvania’s eight county-wide National Heritage Area (NHAs), which the National Park Service (NPS) defines as “places where historic, cultural, and natural resources combine to form cohesive, nationally important landscapes.” Yet, while National Heritage Areas fall under NPS, NHAs are large, lived-in landscapes, unlike national parks. Therefore, the spaces need a different type of care and preservation.

“One of the ways that we support Heritage Partners throughout this region is to try to work with them to create exciting things that get people out into the community, out onto main street, walking around to support local businesses,” explains Chris McGinnis, Rivers of Steel’s arts director. “Using the arts is really a mechanism for that. Homestead Live Fridays is essentially a manifestation of that. We’re of course based in Homestead, our offices for Rivers of Steel, but we also have a very close and long-term relationship with this community.”

Passersby engage with the folks from MVI.

To that effect, Rivers of Steel launched an initiative called the Mon Valley Creative Corridor. By collaborating with community partners throughout the region, Rivers of Steel works at the grassroots level to stimulate the economic and cultural development of the Monongahela Valley. Homestead Live Fridays, and Homestead First Fridays before that, has become River of Steel’s flagship move for the Creative Corridor.

“Here is a town, Homestead, where we’re based,” says Engel. “It has this business district that’s underutilized; but the buildings are full of character. It’s a town with profound history and community, which deserves to be recognized. So Live Fridays are our part of a movement to invest in this community—through arts programming, we pull people to the business district and stimulate the community.”

When Live Fridays started in 2019 as Homestead First Fridays—which was intended to be the long-term vision for working with Homestead—Rivers of Steel’s collaboration goal with local businesses and community partners was relatively simple: “Do whatever you want as long as it’s going to draw a crowd; let’s just do it together all on one night.” Rivers of Steel put on art programming in an empty lot in Homestead, 309 East Eighth Avenue, which the organization dubbed the Community Plaza.

Blacksmithing and glassblowing demonstrations were among the activities occurring in the Community Plaza.

“We had art vendors and art performances that created something interesting and visual. It made people feel like an event was happening,” explains Engel. “So other businesses—more than two dozen of them—on or near Eighth Avenue filled in with their own programming. It was pretty successful, but not as focused as what is planned for 2022.”

Then the pandemic hit, and it gave the Homestead First Fridays team a moment to recalibrate, think about the first year, and reflect on what went right and what went wrong. One of the most significant changes was moving the event series from the first Friday of every month.

“There’s a lot of competition for first Fridays in Pittsburgh,” says McGinnis. “Homestead Live Fridays gives us more flexibility. We also wanted to double down on live music; that’s a cornerstone of the series now. It was the easiest route for a lot of partners and organization businesses in town to connect with the program. Not everyone has a roster of artists, but the capacity to host a small band or a solo act is much more doable.”

However, McGinnis emphasizes that Homestead Live Fridays is not solely a live music event series. There will be outdoor art and experiences, workshops, vendors, and numerous other activities that are non-music-related, like outdoor exhibitions.

A crowd gathers around breakdancers on Eighth Avenue.

The inaugural May event, for example, is centered around hip hop, aptly titled “Hip Hop Homestead,” and will include spray can art and breakdancers. The theme stems from Rivers of Steel’s graffiti art program, which pulls inspiration from local graffiti writers, urban explorers, and guerrilla artists—the underground culture found in Carrie Blast Furnaces and other postindustrial sites in Pittsburgh after the steel industry collapsed.

“When all the mills closed and were vacant, people still gravitated to them, including graffiti artists,” says Engel. “What I really appreciate about Rivers of Steel is that they honor that postindustrial era, the art traditions and way of life that could only come about in Pittsburgh, and places like it, that maybe don’t get the attention they deserve. That is to say, we have that historical relationship to this art . . . it just follows naturally to dip into that heritage. They come from our relationships, which ultimately come from our history of the town.”

Colonel Eagleburger’s Highstepping Goodtime Band march and play their way down Eighth Avenue in 2019.

Other Homestead Live Fridays themes include Circus on the Street, which will feature circus performers; August’s Skate Park Block Party, where downtown Homestead will be turned into a temporary skate park with food vendors; an ethnic food, music, and dance event called Eighth Avenue International; and finally, closing out the 2022 performance series is October’s Hot Metal Halloween, which will include an aluminum pour and horror movies.

“I’m looking forward to the themed events and hope that part will stick around—Hip Hop Homestead, Circus on the Street, Skate Park Block Party, Eighth Avenue International, and Hot Metal Halloween—best themes ever,” says McCarthy-Johnson. “I love the idea of the arts meshing with local businesses as well. I’m excited about the whole series! This is the year for me to be much more involved and try to see how we as a local government can help make it successful. I want Homestead to see local government and understand that we are here to increase the quality of life in our community.”

Outside revenue and recognition are other vital aspects of Homestead Live Fridays—bringing enthusiasm back to a place steeped in rich history and community. Not only from the people who live there but the people from other areas of the City of Pittsburgh.

“It’s about changing the perceptions of a place, sharing the stories about what is exciting and how you can experience something different,” says McGinnis. “By having public space activated in a positive and creative way it provides opportunities for local residents to recognize value and interest, hopefully in the places that they live, and for those who don’t live there, they recognize these places as forward-thinking and creative communities that are open to doing things differently. So it’s twofold, and all those things have both community and economic implications to them.”

Some financial aspects of Homestead Live Fridays have been alleviated thanks to the help of the Steel Valley Enterprise Zone, a private, nonprofit local development corporation located in Homestead. Working in partnership with Rivers of Steel for the event series, the Steel Valley Enterprise Zone is partially underwriting some of the live music bands and artists set to perform in Homestead.

“I hope this series gets the word out about Homestead and brings in lots of visitors who will check us out, see what we have to offer, and come back to try other things,” says McCarthy-Johnson. “I also would like our residents to appreciate what we have to offer and participate in our events. I also want to showcase how important the history of Homestead is to the residents. Homesteaders are proud of the rich history and culture you find here.  We are a small community who has long memories.”

Jordan Snowden is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh whose work has been published in The Seattle Times, Pittsburgh City Paper ,and elsewhere. She also runs @jord_reads_books, a book-focused Instagram account where she connects with other bookworms. In her free time, Jordan can be found with a book in her hand or DIYing something with her husband.

If you liked this, you can also check out Jordan’s previous story for Rivers of Steel—History, Function, & Artistry: Embracing Architecture.

A charcuterie board, image courtesy of Parma Sausage in the Strip.

Exploring PA in a Tasty Way—Culinary Trails

This week we are excited to shine a spotlight on the Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) at Chatham University.  The CRAFT team created four culinary trails for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development—trails that highlight the foodways traditions in southwestern Pennsylvania and throughout the Commonwealth. In the article below, guest writer and Program Manager for CRAFT, Cynthia Caul,  offers a taste of the Chopped trail.

By Cynthia Caul, Program Manager, CRAFT at Chatham University

A pig greets shoppers at the Stone House Butcher and Provisions in Farmington, PA.

“Chopped: A Charcuterie Trail” is not just for Foodies

“Foodie” is one of those words that makes me cringe a little each time I hear it. I am personally referred to as a foodie fairly frequently, and it always elicits an awkward laugh with a gentle correction out of me. I am not a foodie, and you don’t need to be one, either, to enjoy Pennsylvania’s Chopped: A Charcuterie Trail.

The trail was first released back in the fall, along with three other culinary trails from the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development, and it was developed by regional culinary historian Mary Miller and by our team at Chatham University’s Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT).

As spring finally emerges, it’s a perfect time to revisit these trails as you plan your long weekend or even just a day trip.

As I mentioned in my first blog when the trails launched, we developed each of these trails with a food systems approach, incorporating a variety of food growers and makers, as well as a diversity of individuals responsible for cultivating our food traditions historically and today. In the same way that we took this holistic approach in selecting the stops along the trails, we also hoped to create experiences that could be enjoyed by an equally inclusive community.

If you just Googled “charcuterie” to figure out what it means, this trail is still for you. Take it from a person who just Googled the word for the very same reason a short few years ago.

And if you didn’t just Google “charcuterie” but were planning to, let me make it easy for you: Google defines charcuterie as “cold cooked meats.” It’s a French word that directly translates to “pork-butcher’s shop” or “cooked pork meats.” Today, it refers to a wide range of cured meat products, many of which you are likely to be familiar with. It does not just entail meats spread on a beautiful tray or wooden boards. It is also that backyard smoked sausage or kielbasa. Personally, my family has been eating kielbasa at almost every special occasion for my entire life, but we never once referred to it as charcuterie.

Sisters Ryleigh and Remi, whose family is friends with the owner’s family, work at the Hungarian Smokehouse.

So, if you read “charcuterie” and immediately associated it with an inaccessible or esoteric foodie trend, I hope you’re starting to reconsider (and if you already knew what it meant this whole time, I hope you’ll stick with us too).

Charcuterie certainly has been trending lately, but the practice of drying and curing meats dates back to the very first communities in what is known today as Pennsylvania as well as more broadly in North America. Many indigenous communities of this region made and continue to make jerky and are the inventors of pemmican, a mixture of dried meats, berries, seeds, and fat. Historically, this nutritious mix was invaluable to these communities during long winters and was adopted by many European colonizers upon their arrival here for the same reason.

Industrialization in the region throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought migrants from all over Europe and the world who carried with them their own traditions of drying and curing meats. The many who settled near the port in Philadelphia were often able to get imported meats from their countries of origin, maintaining their former food traditions here in the region. However, those who moved to more rural areas to work on railroads or in coal mines often adapted their traditions with ingredients that were readily available to them, creating new regional traditions.

A selection of meat and cheeses at Silver Star Meats in McKees Rocks, Allegheny County.

Seasonality continued to play a significant role in meat preservation. Farmers often slaughtered their hogs and other animals in the late fall or early winter, as the cold weather made it possible for them to preserve the meat safely. Once preserved, the meat would sustain them through the winter when it was otherwise too cold to cultivate food. Farmers typically had smokehouses in their backyards in addition to smoking shelves in their chimneys. Some of these smokehouses still remain today, and you can see them for yourself as you drive through the Juniata River Valley on the part of the Chopped trail that runs through the central part of the state.

Like the Baked trail, the Chopped trail will give you a full experience of your food, providing an understanding of its history and how it ultimately came to be on your plate, including all of the stages in between. The trail will take you to farms where the animals are raised, meat auctions, supply stores where you can get everything you need to cure your own meats, workshops to teach you how, and places to purchase beautiful handmade trays and boards to serve them on.

The trail provides an opportunity to visit a myriad of local businesses where you can taste and take home a variety of products, including deer and elk jerky, ring bologna, chorizo, kielbasa, soppressata or “soupie,” and so much more.

Specifically, the western part of the trail takes you to neighborhoods and areas within and just beyond Pittsburgh, including the Strip District, Larimer, McKees Rocks, Brookline, Crafton, and the Laurel Mountains. Highlights include:

A wide variety of authentic Italian pork products are available from Parma Sausage. Images courtesy of Parma Sausage.

Parma Sausage Products, a nearly seventy-year-old, family-owned company specializing in cured Italian meats that operates on the same street where the very first prosciutto was cured in the United States.

Mike, Brian, and Linda were working behind the counter at Silver Star on a recent Friday afternoon.

Silver Star Meats where owner Robert Germony is dedicated to preserving the recipes and memories of Pittsburgh’s Polish community, working with the many Polish delis that have closed their doors over the past decades to reproduce their recipes. For hunters, you can also get your own meat processed here.

Las Palmas Carniceria, where you can get both Spanish- and Mexican-style house-made chorizo from their meat counter in the back or tasty chorizo tacos from their stand out front.

The Hungarian Smokehouse on Route 88 in Carmichaels, Greene County.

Hungarian Smokehouse, where they carry a vast variety of jerky, beef sticks, kielbasa, pickled eggs and vegetables, smoked cheeses, and more.

The Stone House Butcher and Provisions offers grass-fed beef from their own farms, along with other products. It is situated on the historic National Road (Route 40) in Fayette County.

Stone House Butcher and Provisions in the scenic Laurel Mountains near Fayette Springs, which includes an inn, restaurant, butcher shop, and barbecue hut.

You can see the full-length trail on the visitPA website.

Whether you consider yourself a foodie or not, plan your trip today. This trail is for all meat-eaters.

And remember to bring a cooler!

About CRAFT

The Center for Regional Agriculture, Food, and Transformation (CRAFT) works to support robust regional food systems that are equitable, inclusive, and sustainable in Western Pennsylvania and beyond.
CRAFT works with a number of regional partners to develop culinary trails that support economic development particularly in our region’s rural communities.

These trails aim to highlight the rich heritage and food traditions of the region, as well as include the history and culture of all of the area’s historical and current residents. We take this inclusive approach in order to acknowledge, learn, and inform about the fraught and complex history of land ownership and food production in our region and country, recognizing and celebrating the contributions of displaced indigenous and enslaved peoples.

The trails provide regional farms and food businesses with increased markets and promotional opportunities, as well as providing tourists with a deeper understanding of the regional food system and the unique value and history of the food grown and prepared within it.

Cynthia Caul is the program manager for CRAFT at Chatham University and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School for Public and International Affairs, where she studied International Development. Cynthia’s research has focused on food and nutrition security, land access, and the role of agricultural smallholders in an increasingly globalizing economy. She also worked at the Ford Institute for Human Security, conducting research on human rights-based approaches to improving agricultural land access for women farmers and was the 2017 recipient of the Simon Reich Human Security Writing Award. Prior to her current role, Cynthia worked on public health programming in Ghana with the U.S. Peace Corps.

If you’d like to know more about the culinary trails, check out her first post in this series, which features the Baked Trail.

All photos by Rivers of Steel, unless otherwise noted.