Conversations | her itage
proud owner of a 1930s farmhouse, a big red barn, and 100 acres she calls Sassafras Farm. Suzanne is a teacher, photographer, farmer, and the author of more than 26 published novels. She writes a bimonthly column for the Charleston Daily Mail and is the creator of the wildly popular chickensintheroad.com. Her memoir Chickens in the Road: An Adventure in Ordinary Splendor was published in 2013 by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins. You always wanted to live in a place that had chickens in the road, so your title is perfect. Are ordinary splendors all around us? Yes, finding ordinary splendor is what living a simple life affords. It gives us those slow moments, when we make bread, for example, instead of tossing a plasticwrapped loaf into the grocery cart, to stop and smell the roses, so to speak. I really believe everything is just too easy and too fast in today’s world. Why did you name Glory Bee’s new calf Moon Pie? I decided all my cows’ names should make someone smile, and they should have two names like Beulah Petunia (Glory Bee’s mom). When Glory Bee was born, I was so glad that, glory be, it was a girl, so I named her Glory Bee. Dumplin’s full name is Apple Dumplin. Moon Pie came from her coloring. She’s a sort of silvery-white, looks like the moon, so I came up with Moon Pie, which is also after the Moon Pie treat. How did you learn to bake the Grandmother Bread that is one of the delicious recipes in your book? (Recipe on pg 64) My mother taught me when I was 9 years old. She learned how to make bread from my father’s mother when my father brought her to West Virginia as a new bride. My grandmother learned from her mother, and so on, going back in time. When my grandmother was a little girl, it was her job to make bread for the family every day. That was what life was like in those days. Today we can buy bread from the store, but why? It’s so easy to make and doesn’t take much time at all.
Conversations with
Suzanne McMinn written by laura
treacy bentley | phtographed by suzanne mcminn
moon pie is the latest addition to Sassafras Farm. Her mom, Glory Bee, and big sister, Dumplin, welcomed the adorable new calf to the family. Suzanne McMinn, “former romance writer turned intrepid farm girl,” was there to witness and celebrate the birth. After moving from state to state all her life, Suzanne wanted a place to call home, “a place to call mine,” she says. So she left the city and brought her three children to rural Roane County and stayed for a couple of years in a 100-year-old farmhouse until a home was built in nearby Stringtown where she lived for four years. Today she is the
You even make lard and corn cob jelly from scratch and offer how-to workshops at Sassafras Farm. What has been the best part of your journey so far? For me, the best part of sharing old-fashioned and sometimes forgotten skills is how excited it makes people when they learn and realize that they can do it, that it’s not that hard, that they can be self-sufficient, if only in a few ways. It’s purposeful, for me and for them, and that is very satisfying. Have you made root beer from the sassafras that grows on your property? Yes. I have dug some sassafras roots and have also made tea and even sassafras tea soap. What brought you back to West Virginia? I was looking for some kind of challenge and connection within myself. I was drawn by the memories of my childhood summers here, the beauty, the peace, and the simplicity. I was looking for a sort of peace within myself, and West Virginia wvliving.com 63