Food:
Possum is edible, but just barely. As my papaw used to say, "It's kinee slick."
Your grandfather is your "papaw" and your grandmother is your "mamaw." Your aunt is always your "aint" and never your "Ahnt."
In southeastern Kentucky, if you put sugar in your cornbread, there's somethin'
wrong with you. Bits of crumbled bacon on the other hand, is dam' fine eatin'.
Pinto beans are made into a soup with a thick broth, usually with plenty of salt, pepper, rosemary and bacon (more salt) or hamhocks (ditto). The beans are never mashed and made into refried beans. They're eaten in a bowl with a big chunk of cornbread crumbled up in 'em. That's why they're called "soup-beans."
For dessert, crumble up a slab of cornbread in a glass of milk. Please note, cornbread frequently comes in "slabs," though "slices" are acceptable. Pie, on the other hand, comes in "slices" and "pieces," as does cake, but neither of those ever comes in "slabs" except as a joke or a compliment to the cook ("I'll take a big ol' slab o' that cake." "Oo, you musta liked it, theyun! Hyerr y'go! Y'wont some ahs-cream with thayut?")
Old ladies like squash. Everybody else puts up with it, 'cause they know it's good for you, especially alongside cornbread and green beans and ham. There's plenty of it, because the old ladies still plant this way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_S...agriculture%29
Another word about Appalachian agriculture. A lot of the families their have seed strains, especially for green beans, sweet corn and squash, that has existed for generations. The seeds get divided up amongst the younger family members who stay in the area (which is a surprisingly large number of them, given the widespread poverty), so they can plant 'em and do some "cannin'" (see below). The quality of these family strains is almost universally
superb in taste, but usually yield less than commercial varieties.
Mason jars get used for "cannin'" all kinds of things. "Cannin'" occupies a lot of time, starting in about July, and it continues until October. A basement full of "cannin'" is evidence of a hard-workin', well-prepared family, and those who can do it well and consistently are highly respected -- especially since they have to spend long hours in a brutally hot kitchen.
You eat tender young leaves of poke salad, after boiling them at least three times. Avoid any leaves with red in 'em, and do
not eat the berries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolacca_americana
Blackberries grow wild, and huge thickets of them start in creek-bottoms on cleared property. A possible summertime occupation for kids growin' up in the rural southeast is to take a one-gallon plastic milk jug, and cut out a triangular section (the spout and a section of the front) big enough to easily admit a hand. Take six of those down to the blackberry bushes, work your way into 'em, and fill the jugs.
On a late summer afternoon, boys and girls aged 12-15 can be seen walking along the side of the road, two to three jugs in each hand. They'll sell you a blackberry jug for ten bucks or so, but will negotiate. An enterprising youngster can make several hundred dollars in a summer, and keep his or her neighbors well supplied. Blackberries get used for cobbler or for "cannin'" as jelly.
Local hazards:
Copperheads:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_contortrix
Cottonmouths are worse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agkistrodon_piscivorus
Snappin' turtles is good eatin', but they'll take finger or toe, if you ain't careful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Snapping_Turtle
Poison Oak is everywhere (as is poison ivy, but everybody knows about that one):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicodendron_pubescens