Appalachian Alternatives

Spring, 2001 Number 67

A Mess of Early Greens: Spring has hesitated in coming to Appalachia this year as low night temperatures damaged our apricot blossoms and hurt the dozen or so cultivars striving to get started. However, wild greens again flourish and provide a nutritious and plentiful niche in our late winter/ spring table. We return to the potherbs which our forbearers knew could break the effects of cabin fever. These include the following eaten raw, wilted or cooked singly or mixed: Dandelion (potassium- and other nutrient rich, abundant, early); Poke, asparagus-like spears which resprout frequently in spring; Evening primrose or "speckled britches" (early in cold frames and as tasty as dandelions; Lamb's quarters (comes a little later and highly nutritious); Shepherd's purse and Watercress (near creeks and wetlands); Upland cress, "creasies," (found in middle April); Wild lettuce (common in lowlands and near streams; and Chickweed which is a perennial potherb.

ASPI Awards for 2001.

The first prize of $300 goes to Toi Leigh Barrett of Owsley County High School with her essay entitled "My Dream for Kentucky."

The second prize of $200 is won by Fatima Iqbal of Somerset Independent High School with her essay "Conserving Water, Conserves Life."

Congratulations to both of these high school seniors. The texts of their essays will be found on the ASPI web site in early April.

Remember ASPI River Day June 2, 2001 at Livingston -- noon to six p.m. and beyond. This is an ideal time to come, visit our sites, hike the newly marked trails, camp on the neighboring leased bottomland, canoe the Rockcastle River, picnic on our grounds, listen to good local music, and learn about the Rockcastle River watershed.

Eco-Tours: An Appalachian Critique is the title of a paper presented at the Appalachian Studies Conference at Showshoe, West Virginia by Al Fritsch and Peggy Pollard. An academic press is pursuing the topic with us. The text of the paper is our ASPI Technical Paper 61 which is now found on our web site and can be ordered for $2.00 according to ASPI Publications List format. The paper focuses not on the glamour of so-called eco-tourism, but rather on the strengths and weaknesses of general tourism -- all forms of which should be ecological. A listing of green recreation activities is included.

The 2002 ASPI Simple Lifestyle Calendar will concentrate on the challenging theme of "appropriate technology" in Appalachia. This is in keeping with our upcoming 25th anniversary celebration. Part of the challenge is to find interesting pictures which pertain to the subject.

Earth Healing Program. One of our spring television shows featured the homecoming at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County, Kentucky -- within sight of where we conducted the Little Shepherd's Trail dry composting toilet workshop a year ago. The School has a well-known program for bringing school children to experience nature in an incredibly beautiful valley. Unfortunately, approval may be given to remove nearby mountain top to get to the coal underneath. It would be an environmental disaster!

Reflections on Land Stewardship for Religious Communities have been completed
by Al Fritsch and is now distributed in a final form to year 2000 conference participants and other interested parties through a grant from the Jonquil Fund. It is now on our web site or can be purchased in hard copy form for $7.00 including appendices. Copies have been made available to the real property committee of the Legal Resource Center for Religious in Silver Spring, MD, which is currently assembling a manual for administrators of religious community properties on land disposal and use issues.

West Virginia Environmental Resource Assessments: For the first time an entire state's environmental interfaith organization is seeking to develop its own ERA program.
During May, Al Fritsch will conduct the first of four training workshops for groups in each of the regions of the state. The group is now in the process of developing a steering committee and assembling team members from throughout the Mountain State. The program is geared mainly for church and church-related institutions. If you know persons who have expertise in any of the assessment areas (renewable energy, resource conservation, waste and water management, land use and landscape, space utilization, physical facilities maintenance, wildlife management, sustainable forest practices and general environmental quality), please contact

Marcia Leitch at :

jmleitch@cwv.net or

(304)466-4790.

Marcia is the Coordinator of the WV Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign.

Other RAS Work. During this spring the number of states where institutions are located that have contracted with our RAS project has increased from 30 to 33 as assessments are being performed for Mercy communities in Nebraska, Rhode Island and Vermont. Paul Gallimore, who has been associated with our program for the past two decades, is also performing a full assessment for a group of sisters in Nova, Scotia -- the first such project outside of the United States.

Billion Dollar Boondoggle Brewing: ASPI has been involved in the Kick- 66 Campaign to stop the construction of an approximately 30-mile segment of a future Interstate-66. This patch of road, parallelling a perfectly good upgraded and underused segment of U.S. 80 from London to Somerset, Kentucky, is being built because U.S. House of Representatives Transportation Sub- Committee is headed by the district's own Hal Rogers. Amid all the fanfare about alternative routes which many of us have had inputs in the past two years, it is now apparent that one route was already decided and that local developers had already purchased land at each of the anticipated exit sites. If completed, the road would travel through unique areas of forests, cultural treasures, caves, and endangered species habitats. ASPI has recently completed and aired on WOBZ-TV two half-hour television shows on Kick-66 and the reactions of local inhabitants to the intended highway.

Regional Ginseng Consultation. In accordance with our 2001 Educational Foundation of America grant we have conducted consultations on the questions of dealing with the poaching problems among ginseng growers and the future of the marketing system for virtually wild ginseng. Informal and formal hearings were held in Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina in early March and we received spoken or written comments from more than sixty individuals. Some excellent suggestions and remarks were made which are included in preliminary form on our special ginseng web site <www.kih.net/aspi/agf> and have been mailed to interested parties. Reflections stemming from these remarks appear in the spring Appalachian Ginseng Foundation Newsletter.

Tobacco Alternatives. Ginseng promises to be as valuable a crop for the Appalachian states as has tobacco for the last century. Syl Yunker is busy this spring organizing workshops for county agents and officials as well as potential growers in the fifteen most impacted tobacco growing counties in Kentucky. In a related matter, ASPI has not yet joined others in promoting hemp as a tobacco replacement. While hemp is an excellent fiber replacement for forest pulp and chips, it will most likely become the productive domain of wealthier farmers and paper companies due to the high cost of harvesting equipment. On the other hand, organic ginseng growth in the manner we advocate can only be produced profitably by small landholders and operators.

ASPI Recycling: ASPI is coming closer to the total recycling goal. The three residences and other buildings at the Livingston site have all human waste recycled in dry compost toilets and constructed wetlands. The Mt. Vernon office sorts according to ten classes (newsprint, glass, metals, # 1 and # 2 plastics, office white and colored, cardboard, slick paper, and mixed paper) which are taken to the Richmond Recycling Center. All garden and yard wastes are composted at both locations.

THANK YOUS (from 1/1/2001 to 3/31/2001 according to the date received) to

...Frank & Beth Ettensohn, Robert & Julia Honkomp, Roy & Della Rustum &

Kathleen Mourant of Incogniti Trust, Barry Horowitz, Bernie & Ellen Engelman,

Mary M. Morgan, Ralph Nader, John P. Rogers, Robert & Diane Mushaben, Robert

& Virginia Johnson, Andrew & Kathleen Weigert, Peg Taylor, Richard & Carol

Jackson, Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Russell & Elizabeth Ebelhar, Robert &

Nancy Patton;Jr., Rhonda Coleman & Donald Erceg, John Hovekamp, Jr., Therese

Hildebrand, Robert Beaudoin, Beth Gunn, Genesis Farm, Roger & Arleta Hommes,

Amy Ravenholt, Richard & Martha Lammers, John & Patricia Ball, Alan Okagaki,

Patsy Hoover, Mark Morgan, Michael Jacobson of Center for Science in the

Public Interest, Katherine Christensen, Penny Yarman, Margaret Stallmeyer,CDP

of St. Anne Convent, Eric & Deborah Meissner, Sr. Marie Gangwish, Mark

Heffernan of CBTW Wear Parts, Inc., David & Babette Kern, Richard Perkins,

Elizabeth Burdett, Christopher & Della Oberst, Phyllis Fitzgerald, Sr.

Carolyn Lambert, Sisters of St. Benedict, Veronica Ries, Angela J. Showalter,

Mariana D'amico, Darrel Griffin, Ginger Shelby, Paul Rothkrug, Davee A.

Setzer, Marikay Boles, Paul Peachy, Winnie Hepler, Dennis & Maureen Darcey,

Thomas & Julie Barnes, William R Haas, Teresa Petrovic, Mary Clark, Douglas

& Laura Fortmeyer, Ian Rudick, John Spurlock, Steve & Susan Kute & Family,

Joe Cramer, Sisters of Charity of SCN Center, Dick & Mary Hogan, Robert F

Mueller, Jeanie Ringwelski, Martha Shaw, Karl Mulson, Chris O'Connor, Eugene

Kieffer, George & Charlesetta Perraut, John Capillo of Ky. Environmental

Foundation, Oswald Loidl, Guy Maluda, Peter & Patrice Emerson, Ed Newman,

Rebecca Finch, Catherine Reichenberg, John Rogers, Vickie Shufer, Marion

Baker, Jeff Bash, Holly Vetrone, Beth Gehred-O'Connell, Linda Rosenblatt,

Martin Albert, Jenifer Alstine, Stacy Hubbs, Betsy Crofts, Jerryane Bier,

Laurie Webb, John Bazner, Geoff Cox, Annie M. Jamerson, Casey Sterr, Donna

Graham, OSF of Franciscan JPIC Office, Jack Donald Drost, Joyce Gros, OP.,

Jean Fagerstrom., Pamela English, Pat Dewees, Pat Duffy, Bill Simpson for

Equipment, and Katerina Kerfott for books.

ASPI Wish List : ASPI could use chemical laboratory equipment mainly glassware and small lab equipment. We are grateful for scientific, nature and appropriate technology periodicals. If uncertain as to utility, call or write us first.

Notice: We would like to offer condolences to the children and grandchildren of Virgil Loudermilk who lived at the original Sand Hill Community Land Trust house for four years (1997-2000). We at ASPI were deeply saddened by his passing from this life on March 11th.

Appalachia -- Science in the Public Interest
(Office, ASPI Publications, AGF Conferences)
50 Lair Street, Mount Vernon, KY 40456-9806
Phone (606) 256-0077 FAX (606) 256-2779

ASPI (Appropriate Technology Demonstration Center,
Appalachian Sustainable Forest Center)
Route 5, Box 423, Livingston, KY 40445-9506
Phone & FAX (606) 453-2105; Jack Kieffer 453-3211;
Mark Spencer (606) 453-2026.

ASPI Web Site: <http://www.kih.net/aspi

Introduction

Publications List

Programs

Demonstration Centers

ASPI Scrapbook & Links