Good Press

Wendy's is changing its burgers, the Associated Press reports . I think the brand's quality has gone down since Dave Thomas died. They need to focus on better customer service because I find it almost impossible to get good service at a Wendy's. And they should look at their prices. The combos have gone up at least $2 in the past three years. And the value menu isn't a "dollar menu" anymore really. Ew, and this is the yuckiest thing: The other day I got a Monterey chicken sandwich from the value menu, surprised to see a chicken sandwich on there, and it was a processed chicken patty like you'd get in a school cafeteria. Yeah, I don't think changing their burger is where they need to focus their energy.

My husband is in Romney, W.Va., for work today and he's going to buy some peaches and, I hope, Incredible sweet corn from Spring Valley Farm & Orchard on U.S. 50. We will eat some of the peaches fresh and I'll freeze the rest to enjoy all winter. Last year we froze some and I canned some and I much prefer the quality of frozen. The canned-in-jars peaches tasted fine but they turned unappetizingly brown during processing. I won't do that again. Here the peaches looked beautiful before processing. But the freezing method worked best for me. Here's how to do it: Blanch peaches in boiling water. Place in ice water and slip off the skins. Cut each peach in half and remove pit. Pack in freezer bags leaving about an inch of headspace. Pour a light simple syrup over the peaches. Press out air and seal the bag. I have a Reynolds Handi-Vac handheld food vacuum sealer, which I used to remove even more air. You have to have special freezer bags for this. LIGHT SIMPLE SYRUP FOR ...

I wrote this story in the fall of 2010, but I want to save it here. The Davis Brothers farm has morphed from being a dairy operation to agritourism in three generations. By CYNTHIA McCLOUD For The State Journal MASONTOWN — Someday the Davis sisters will be running Davis Brothers Farm. The Davis sisters — Julie Davis Mallow and Debbie Davis — are the daughters of Jim Davis, who still works the farm with his brother, Bill. Julie’s husband Jay Mallow and Debbie’s fiancé Rob Crawford help, as do workers Robert Gamble and Mark Smith. The Davis sisters are the third generation to work their family’s land in Preston County. While they are tied to the land, they are not set in their ways. They have had to adapt and innovate to keep the farm operating. Their latest venture is into agritourism. Read more ... http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=86146

I have written about this dear and enterprising man before. Here's the latest version. By CYNTHIA McCLOUD For The State Journal Glen Facemire Jr. is a ramp man like his dad. The elder Facemire dug the ramps that supplied the annual ramp feed in Richwood. That was many years ago when the event attracted far fewer than the 1,000-plus attendees it draws now. It requires about a ton of ramps — Allium Tricoccum, a member of the onion and garlic family — more than just one person could dig. He raised his children on ramps. “We would go back in the mountains,” Facemire Jr. remembered. “We would fish, and we would dig ramps. We would take a bunch of half-gallon and quart jars and a big tub. We would build a fire, and my mother would sterilize the jars and wilt the ramps. She’d put about a spoonful of salt to a half-gallon jar, and she would lightly tighten the lids and put the jars onto boil for 1 1/2 hours. When they were finished, they were ready to come home and put them in t...

Not exactly about local food either, but a local man is doing something to feed the world. I had the privilege of writing about him. By CYNTHIA McCLOUD For The State Journal Jake Harriman turned in his sword for a plowshare. The 36-year-old Preston County native and former Marine saw that he could fight terrorism more effectively if he battled one of its chief causes: Extreme poverty. While fighting in Iraq, he saw terrorists exploit poor people to do their bidding. He left the service, where he was a decorated U.S. Marine Corps Recon Platoon Commander in the Iraq War, and enrolled at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business in 2008 with a goal to build an organization that would address terrorism by ending extreme poverty. Armed with an MBA in nonprofit management and backed by classmates, professors and Silicon Valley investors, he co-founded the nonprofit Nuru International. He serves as its CEO, spending much of his time working the program in Kenya. Read more ...

No you can't eat it but it is a part of our Appalachian culture, and you can buy the juice from its berries. Ginseng roots and flowers grow naturally in West Virginia. The number of people who dig wild roots to sell fluctuates based on a number of things — weather, a bad market and high employment. By CYNTHIA McCLOUD For The State Journal When Janet Hodge was a kid she couldn’t wait to get the list of which wild roots dealers were buying and how much they were paying. Today, although Hodge has taught her children to recognize ginseng, black cohosh, bloodroot, goldenseal and more growing in the woods, they’re not interested in harvesting it — no matter how valuable it is. “They know they can go out and dig X amount of pounds for X amount of dollars but they don’t want to,” Hodge said. “They know what these things look like. They know how to dig. But they’re not going to do it. There’s a lot of work involved. They’ll mow somebody’s yard before they go dig roots.” Many of their peers ...

Using coupons is not a new concept, but there are some modern ways to make sure you get the best deals. I'm still learning how to do this. By CYNTHIA McCLOUD For The State Journal MORGANTOWN — Shalane Koon sticks to a $40 a week grocery budget and for six months last year lived off a stockpile of products she bought with coupons. Stormy Matlick paid $1 for six body washes that will last her husband and son three months. Koon and Matlick, both of Morgantown, will tell you their money-saving reality differs greatly from what you might see on TLC’s show, “Extreme Couponing.” The cable program and the rising cost of goods are spurring consumers to use more coupons. ABC News reported that coupon use has increased 30 percent since 2008, when the country plunged into an economic crisis. In 2010, shoppers saved $3.7 billion using coupons. “My husband and I DVR ‘Extreme Couponing’ on TLC every week,” Koon said. “I love to see what people get for next to nothing. Pennies on the dollar, reall...