Emily Lawson and Rachel Reynolds on stage at the Smithsonian's annual Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. photo by Morgan Shortt
As I made way over to the moonshiners, I could faintly hear the raspy notes of Melissa Carper's voice fluttering through the leaves. "I'm packin' up my pick-up…Arkansas bound". A shine still to my left and Sad Daddy on stage to my right; for more than a moment, I forgot that I was in Washington DC. If I looked just past the teaching gardens full of native Ozark plants, the US Capitol was in plain sight, but I was home in those tree plots of the National Mall.
Last Fall, Pink House Alchemy CEO and Founder Emily Lawson approached me with an interesting opportunity to be involved in the Smithsonian's annual Folklife Festival. Their upcoming festival for 2023 was to be based on the Ozarks: Faces and Facets of Region. I strapped up and agreed to join the ride in true hillfolk fashion! As a born and bred Ozarkian, I felt beholden to my region to represent with pride, but I could not have expected to come out so incredibly fulfilled. What started for me as a foraged chestnut bitters workshop at the Meadowcreek Nature Preserve in Fox, AR, turned out to be one of the most enriching experiences of my life to date.
Our Folklife home was the Foodways stage, an outdoor kitchen and demonstration stage where guests could view traditional recipes prepared by participants from the Ozarks. This is where the magical intersectionality of our region came to life. Chefs from all backgrounds took to the stage to display their talents. From the Cherokee Nation, we saw Chef Nico Albert Williams tell stories of the corn mother, Selu, and illuminate the audience on the use of ash to remove the hull from hominy. Chef Bradley Dry shared his family's recipe for Kanuchi and his grandmother's clever ploys to get the children to gather hickory nuts. Chef Xue Lee Vang and her mother, Shoua Vue, represented the Hmong people and displayed the rich Loas heritage nestled in our hills. Adorned in beautiful, bright colors, they taught recipes they share with loved ones during sickness or after the birth of a new child. Bentonville locals and co-owners of Yeyo's El Alma de Mexico showed off their Oaxacan barbacoa and posole recipes while entertaining the crowd with effortless comedic brotherly banter. From foraged feasts to classic soulful sides, the Foodways stage was brimming with culture and eager eyes.
Following each day's food, Emily hosted an Ozarks Happy (Half) Hour! Folks gathered round to watch Emily masterfully crafted cocktails (and mocktails) using foraged items from Susan Belsinger and Tina Marie Wilcox's teaching garden. We were lucky enough to have our pals at Mountain Valley Spring Water supply the h2Ozarks, so every drop of our libations was authentically Arkansas. In the quiet hours of the morning, Emily would deadhead the marigolds in the garden and use them to create a syrup from which she made the following joyful Summer sipper:
Morning Marigold
.75 oz marigold syrup
2-3 dashes of pH Honeysuckle Bitters
.75 oz fresh orange juice
1.5 oz your favorite vodka or gin
Mountain Valley Sparkling Water
*if it's not your vibe to imbibe, just omit the booze!
Marigold Syrup
Add 1 bottle pH Lavender syrup to a blender with 8-12 fresh marigold blooms
Blend until syrup is a rich, turmeric yellow
Strain through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth
*You may need to repeat this step 1-2 more times to remove any particulate from the syrup
Strain back into your pH bottle and keep in the fridge for up to 30 days
The work was, well, work. It was hot and humid and long. The Canadian wildfires were amidst a fierce quarrel with our air quality, and a dense haze had come to rest all around us. The whirlwind of a new place, people, and experiences was daunting for us all. Many people there, like myself, were far from home and had been so for weeks, even months. Many had never left home before, not to mention boarding an aircraft. The feverish chaos of all the new quickly settled into a fervorous collective action to share our practices and explore those of our new friends, our new family. I learned more about where I come from, but selfishly, my biggest takeaway was the things I learned about myself. I am strong in times of adversity. I am capable of things I had never considered. I made my first-ever pie crust in an environment where the dense humidity was waging wars with our oven pilot light. I learned in real time how to properly identify the butchered cuts of a hog. I explored a new city by bike or Metro, under-caffeinated and perpetually perspiring.
A common topic of discussion that came up on the Mall was: What does it mean to be from the Ozarks? Going into this experience, I admittedly felt a sense of imposter syndrome. My upbringing may have been too contemporary, or I'd have nothing meaningful to contribute. That notion couldn't have been further from the truth. I am a multi-generational native. My family has roots in these hills that can never be stripped away. I've unknowingly been steeped in culture and heritage that took traveling far away for me to identity. What does it mean to be from the Ozarks? The answer lies somewhere between a heated debate about how one acquires paw paws and the best recipe for collards. Distilled to its purest form, to be from the Ozarks is to simply carry it with you wherever you go. So, I will continue to proudly tote my experiences and personal history throughout the rest of my life as Morgan Shortt, an Ozarkarian.
Story and Images by Morgan Shortt, Pink House Alchemy Retail and Events Director