November/December 2025
Tim Yaniko brings Christmas spirit
READY FOR THE SEASON CAFÉ
APPALACHIA
Serves meals, recovery community
PUBLISHER
Joe Imel
EDITORIAL
Heath Harrison, Editor
Mark Shaffer, Staff Writer
Amanda Larch Hinchman, Contributor
Dawn Nolan, Contributor briefs@irontontribune.com
ADVERTISING
Christie Coleman, Sales Consultant christie.coleman@irontontribune.com
PRODUCTION
Kandi Thompson, Design
PHOTOGRAPHY
Blair Burns, Contributor
The most wonderful time of the year
Shortly after this issue of Tri-State Living hits the stands, the Lawrence County Festival of Trees and Christmas Market will be returning for another year.
theater renovation and other projects in the community.
Started in 2015 by Shirley Dyer and the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, the event has been a popular draw, first at Ohio University Southern’s Proctorville Center and then, for several more years at the Chamber’s headquarters in South Point.
This year, the festival will find its way to a new location: Ironton.
Set for Nov. 21-23 and Nov. 28-20 the event will take place at the newly-renovated RoNa Theater, located at 310 S. Third St.
Trees, decorated by local businesses and organizations, will be on display, and then auctioned off to support the
In addition to the signature trees, there will also be a Christmas market, set up with vendors selling everything from food to crafts to clothing to art.
This year, the Chamber has handed the festival off to new organizers, Ironton aLive!, a community group long known for its events, such as the Tuesday Night Concert Series at the Ironton Farmers Market, and the Friends of Ironton, who oversee the theater.
The event is family-friendly and we encourage everyone to come out and enjoy it in its new home and get a start on the holiday cheer.
APPALACHIA Serves meals, recovery community
Tim Yaniko brings Christmas spirit
HEATH HARRISON is the editor of The Ironton Tribune and Tri-State Living.
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arts & culture
went from fun side project to main stage.
close p. 8
Loose Cattle
SOUTHERN sounds.3
Huntington native is co-leader of acclaimed band
New Orleans-based Loose Cattle
Aband a Huntington native said started just “for fun” has taken on a life of its own and is now garnering a large following nationally.
Michael Cerveris is the co-leader of Loose Cattle, a New Orleans-based band. Cerveris, 64, grew up in the Tri-State and his best known for his decades-long acting career, including roles in the television series “Fringe,” as well as his Tony Award wins for portraying John Wilkes Booth in the musical “Assassins” and another win, a decade later, for “Fun Home.”
Story, Photography Heath Harrison, Submitted
Cerveris said the band came about, first, as a side project.
“I’ve played in tons of bands from the time I was growing up in West Virginia and have always done music,” he said. “This band began with Kimberly Kaye, my co-leader in band. We met in New York and started in 2011. And, initially, it was just a for fun kind of thing. We’d both been in bands where we writing our own music,
trying to teach various lineups the songs over and over again and always doing the hard work of finding gigs and setting them up. By the time we actually got to the venue to play, we were worn out because it was as much work to get the gig, set up and rehearse for it as it was actually play.”
Cerveris said he and Kaye decided this band was going to be “the fun part.”
“We were going to do covers, country covers, play in people’s living rooms and that was it,” he said “And, almost immediately, we started doing that. It was really fun.”
Cerveris spoke about the types of covers they did.
“One great example is, early on, Kim had this idea to do a mashup of (Dolly Parton’s) ‘Jolene’ and CeeLo,” he said. “That kind of thing, stitched together, and we put our own spin on it. It’s sort of a reverent, but irreverent thing — a lot of what we would do. The very first song Kim and I wrote was for a holiday album. We thought, ‘Here we are covering other Christmas songs, let’s try to write our own.’ And it’s not that easy to write a Christmas song that doesn’t suck.”
He said their commitment to the band became more serious when they got a call from West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage several years ago, when the program was doing a show at the Keith-Albee, as part of
the Marshall Artists Series, in Cerveris’ home town.
“They asked if I wanted to come and play,” he said. “All of the sudden, we were going to do the kinds of shows you would be working toward playing. So we thought maybe we should actually rehearse and take this a little more seriously.”
He and Kaye, by then based in New Orleans, expanded the lineup.
“I had made a lot of friends there who are all musicians and started playing with them,” Cerberis said. “We started to look for people to play with down there and got introduced to Rene Coman and Doug Garrison, the bass player and drummer for our band. – they had played in the Iguanas, who are well known in New Orleans and nationally, and had been the rhythm section for Alex Chilton’s band.”
He said, they then moved away from doing covers.
“We always did left field kinds of covers, and did our
own versions of them,” he said. “Our first record was a live set from a residency in New York. Our second record was holiday record, where we did covers. Our third record, “Heavy Lifting,” was our first proper studio album. There has been a lot of growth from that to this our record. In the period in between, we really started figuring out who we were as band.”
Cerveris spoke of how many of his songs incorporate social and political topics.
“That’s something that’s kind of important to us,” he said. “We felt like we had things, as people, we want to say and there were injustices we were witnessing.”
He said he feels artists have an opportunity to “try to move the world toward something better.”
“Artists that we listen to, like and care about have always done that, whether it’s far back as Hank Williams or Woody Guthrie, protest singers in the ‘60s or bands like Drive-By Truckers,” he said. “I think, especially in the
South, in which I include West Virginia, it’s important to call things out sometimes. We don’t set out to be a proselytizing, dogmatic kind of band, but we do have things to say and we try to weave it into our music in a natural way, in the same way Drive-By Truckers, John Prine and a lot of people do. It’s really just having a conscience.”
Cerveris recently made a return visit to the TriState in September, playing two shows. The first, in Huntington, where his band headlined The Loud, with opener Jay Gonzalez, of Drive By Truckers. Gonzales also joined Loose Cattle for their performance.
The next day, Loose Cattle performed for their third time on West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage, in Charleston, where they appeared on a lineup featuring The Baseball Project (featuring Peter Buck and Mike Mills, half of the legendary band R.E.M.), The Minus Five (another Buck project) and a solo electric set by Bob Mould, of Hüsker Dü and Sugar, for whom Cerveris used
to tour as a guitarist. That show is available as a podcast on Mountain Stage’s website.
Cerveris said, due to the wide range of the band members’ backgrounds, they span genres, but he summarizes their sound as “Americana.”
“Nobody know what that means, and it covers pretty wide range of things,” he said. “I feel like, at this time, using that description, Americana has congealed and hardened into this one sort of thing that is kind of as confining as other genres. We’re more along lines of alt
country kind of stuff, like Sun Volt and bands were doing in ‘90s, kind of leaning back into our electric guitar roots and that kind of thing.
He said “so many musical roads converge” in New Orleans and the band is representative of that,
“That’s kind of that part of what defines New Orleans musicians — adaptability and the range of influence,” he said. “And it’s freed Kim and I to make peace with our misspent youths and bring our punk days into it.”
For more information, visit www.loosecattleband.org. a
Capitol CityHolidays
Charleston, W.Va, has plenty of Christmas events scheduled
Story Amanda Larch Hinchman | Photography Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau
Acity with an unparalleled shopping and dining scene, gorgeous views and an abundance of outdoor recreation, Charleston, West Virginia does not slow down in the winter months.
During the holidays, major events and some hidden gems add light and fun to the already festive season, according to Leslie Smithson, director of communications for the Charleston Convention & Visitors Bureau.
HOLLY JOLLY BRAWLEY
Returning for its fifth year, Holly Jolly Brawley is a two-day festival taking place on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday each year. The city of Charleston partners with businesses and groups within the city
who purchase Christmas trees and partake in a festive decorating contest.
“During Holly Jolly Brawley, there are 120 trees and all those trees are decorated,” Smithson says. “The public is invited to vote. Prizes are awarded, and the trees stay in place throughout the holiday season, so the walk from Summers to Capital Street is gorgeous, with a very festive atmosphere.”
During the free, two-day, community-driven festival, there’s also a kids carnival, games, music, holiday vendors and more. The City Christmas tree lighting is at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 28, and on Saturday, Nov. 29 is a holiday drone light show.
It’s the perfect time to start Christmas shopping, Smithson says.
“We encourage everybody to come out and do their Black Friday and Small Business Saturday shopping,” she says. “The stores stay open late to accommodate people.
A lot of people are working on Black Friday anyway, so everybody just kind of gathers downtown. It’s just a great crowd; a lot of people are in town visiting their relatives.”
Holly Jolly Brawley is centered around Slack Plaza in Charleston, located at 169 Summers Street.
“It’s a great opportunity for everybody to get a good feel of Charleston opening up the season, so to speak,” Smithson says. “We have a very excited community, businesses and organizations that love this event and want to support it.”
LIGHT THE NIGHT
Featuring 2.5 million lights, the Salango Law Dirty Birds Light the Night is one of the largest holiday light shows in West Virginia. Now in its third season, this walk-through light display gets bigger each year, Smithson says.
“Last year, they had record number attendance for the
ballpark,” she says. “They’re pumped and ready to do it again. It’s very popular within Charleston.”
Other activities inside the ballpark are ice skating, ice bumper cars, carnival games, carnival rides, inflatables and more. On sale now, tickets can be purchased online ahead of time or at the gates, and Smithson says it’s important to note the ballpark is now a cashless venue.
In 2024, Light the Night saw more than 123,000 attendees from across West Virginia and from 42 states.
“It’s just an experience that everybody loves,” Smithson says. “People travel in from other states. Anytime somebody’s home for the holidays, it seems like all the families get together and go as groups.”
Light the Night begins Friday, Nov. 21 and runs until New Years Day 2026. Its hours are 5-9 p.m., MondayThursday and 5-10 p.m., Friday-Sunday. It will be closed on Christmas Day.
The GoMart Ballpark is located at 601 Morris St. in Charleston.
“We’re really stressing the family friendly part of it. This is something that everybody can do. Everybody enjoys the lights, from infants to grandparents, so it’s
Christmas | living
really a great family friendly event,” Smithson says.
HOLIDAY HIDDEN GEMS
Many other holiday events will take place throughout the Capital City during the Christmas season, with something for everyone of all ages and interests.
Tickets are now on sale for the national tour of Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol musical, which will take place Wednesday, Dec. 3, from 7:30-10 p.m. at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences.
A Christmas Carol, a family-friendly presentation by the Appalachian Children’s Chorus and the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble, will be held at the West Virginia Culture Center & State Museum. There will be two performances, Friday, Dec 5. from 7-8 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. Interested attendees are encouraged to email rcybe@aol.com for tickets.
Holiday Hoopfest: WVU vs Wake Forest NCAA Men’s Basketball will be at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 4-6 p.m. Doors open at 2:30 p.m., and tickets are on sale now.
The Nutcracker with the West Virginia Symphony
Orchestra and the Charleston Ballet returns to the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences. This is the only local performance of Tchaikovsky’s beloved Christmas ballet with live music and includes more than 170 local and guest performers. The three show times are Friday, Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday Dec 13 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Charleston’s Capitol Market will present Merry Market Mingle, a holiday themed fundraiser Wednesday, December 10. The Merry Market Mingle will feature music, winter ales, holiday wine and food and drink from Capitol Market vendors. Capitol Market is located at 800 Smith St. in Charleston.
As a walkable and accessible city, it’s worth planning a trip to experience all that Charleston has to offer this time of year, Smithson says, for residents and visitors alike.
“Charleston is a very walkable city, so it’s easy to get to these events,” she says. “Everything is fairly close together, and we have so many restaurants and so many things to do that nobody’s going to get bored here. We’ve got a great city, and we want to see everybody come out and explore it and come to love it like we do.”
This diverse range of holiday activities and events allows everyone to get out and enjoy the season in the way that best makes sense for them, Smithson says.
“There’s so many activities and there’s a lightheartedness to the season anyway,” she says.
“Families want to come and spend some time. They enjoy our holiday events. They see that we’re doing a great job, and maybe they want to come back in the summer.” a
Red Suit STEPPING INTO THE
Yaniko brings Santa to the people
Story Dawn Nolan | Photography Heath Harrison, Submitted
Sixty-six. That’s how many events Tim Yaniko did last November and December alone. You see, he’s what you call a professional Santa. He even has his own LLC, The Santa Experience.
“I do breakfasts with Santa, I do home visits, I do corporate parties, I’m the Santa for the Barboursville Christmas Parade,” Yaniko explains. “I also work with a bunch of photographers.”
A Pine Grove, Ohio, native and retired AT&T line repairman, Yaniko has now been playing Jolly Ol’ St. Nick for more than 15 years. It all started with Christmas Eve phone calls for a friend’s nephews.
“He’d put me on speakerphone during his family’s holiday party, and I’d talk to the kids about what they wanted for Christmas and how good they’d been, based on some information that he gave me beforehand,” Yaniko said. “I did that for a few years.”
Yaniko’s Santa-like personality even followed him into other parts of life. He’s part of Bikers for Christ, a motorcycle ministry where every member is given a “road
name” by the group’s leadership.
“At the time, my beard was short — just two little tufts of white on either side,” Yaniko said. “We were at a Tim Hortons in Portsmouth one night, and they called me and said, ‘We had a meeting. We talked it all out. Your road name is Santa.’”
Yaniko was surprised by the revelation, since, at that time, he was still only doing the Christmas Eve phone calls.
“I asked, ‘Why Santa?’ And they were like, ‘Well, you’re big and jolly, everybody loves you and you love everybody.’”
That same friend whose nephews Yaniko called later contacted him about taking on an in-person role as Santa for his company party.
“I said, ‘I don’t play Santa.’ And he was like, ‘But you are Santa,’” Yaniko recalled. “I also told him that I didn’t have a suit.”
That excuse didn’t work. As it turned out, another friend had picked one up at a rummage sale.
“It was a terrible suit, but I cleaned it up and made it look pretty good,” Yaniko laughed. “Also, at the time, my beard wasn’t really long, but it was starting to get white. We dolled it up a little bit.”
Everyone at the party loved him. So much so, in fact, that the company hired Yaniko to come back the next year. It wasn’t long before word began to spread.
“I had other people getting a hold of me and asking if I could be their Santa,” Yaniko said. “So, I bought a suit off eBay, fixed it up, and did a few more events. Then it started snowballing.”
Yaniko doesn’t have a talent agent like some other Santas in the business, and he’s mostly self-taught (though he’s a member of several Santa organizations and groups), but he has still built a loyal following and a growing client list.
“I’ll always pick up a few new ones every year, but a lot of the ones I do are the same people,” he said. “I’ve been with some families so long, I’ve watched their kids grow up.”
Despite the demand, however, he keeps his rates modest — approximately $60 for a half-hour family visit, $100 for the first hour, and $80 per hour after that, with slightly higher pricing for corporate events.
“I haven’t increased my rates much since I started, and a lot of people have told me that I should,” Yaniko explained. “But I don’t live in a big metro area. I’d rather stay busy and go out and do it. Since I’m retired, it’s a nice little income for a couple of months; it helps out.”
For those hoping to book him, Yaniko offers one piece of advice: plan early, even more so for weekend events. His calendar fills up.
“A lot of people will wait until the last minute, and then they’ll call me and want a Saturday. Then they’ll try to pick another day, and I’m booked, then, too,” Yaniko said. “I hate it, but there’s really nothing I can do. I can only do so many events.”
Even when he’s “off the clock,” and not wearing his signature red suit (“Normally, I don’t wear red at all,” he said), Yaniko still has children that recognize him and are excited about seeing Santa in public. It doesn’t hurt that his wife, Cathy, who he described as “a petite lady with solid white hair,” is often with him.
“If I’m out, there will be kids that say, ‘Hey; there’s Santa.’ and my wife and I have had them come up to our table at a restaurant,” Yaniko explains. “You’ve got to be able to flip that Santa switch on.”
For all the smiles, laughter, and photo ops, there are moments that tug at the heartstrings, too.
“Some of the kids I visit don’t come from good homes. They think that Santa’s magic can do anything, and they’ll crawl up in my lap and ask, ‘Can you keep Mommy and Daddy from fighting?’ It can tear your heart out. You just have to try to hold it together,” Yaniko said. “That doesn’t happen often. Most of the time, you’ll get a kid who’s just so excited and squirmy. And the hugs they give — they just want to squeeze you until you pop.”
Those are the times that remind him why he does it — why, year after year, he steps into the red suit and brings the magic of Christmas to life. For Yaniko, it’s about keeping the holiday spirit alive, and it’s safe to say that the experience has brought him as much joy as it has the children and families he’s met.
“Yeah, being Santa is pretty awesome,” he said. “It really, really is.”
For more information on Tim Yaniko and The Santa Experience, which is fully licensed and insured, visit facebook.com/ TheSantaExperienceLLC or call 740-636-3828. a The Santa Experience | feature
Appalachia helps those in recovery.
p. 30
Café
FRUITS OF THE EARTH
Café Appalachia’s farm-to-table offerings aid those in recovery
Café Appalachia is much more than its farm-to-table menu, highlighting seasonal, garden-fresh and local ingredients. The café serves as a social enterprise, part of founder and CEO Cheryl Laws’ nonprofit, Pollen8, that provides prevention, treatment and reintegration programs for women in recovery and children affected by substance use disorder.
Pollen8’s social enterprises, including the two Café Appalachia locations and Café Catering, center on holistic and sustainable recovery. Also falling under the Pollen8 umbrella is Appalachian Behavioral HealthCare (ABHC), a 30-bed inpatient facility for women in recovery from substance use disorder. As part of the
Story Amanda Larch Hinchman | Photography Blair Burns
reintegration aspect, Café Appalachia employs women in the program, who gain food preparation and agricultural skills and restaurant and catering business experience.
“Our tagline is we serve a greater purpose with every meal,” Laws says. “To you, it’s a meal, but to us, it’s a life. We are a social enterprise, not a restaurant — it’s way more than that.”
In 2016, after graduating with her master’s in Appalachian studies from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, Laws set out to make a difference back home in West Virginia. During her time in grad school, she was particularly inspired by a cafe she frequented and volunteered with. Operating on a pay-what-you-think scale with a focus on healthy food choices, the F.A.R.M. Cafe was nourishing in many ways, Laws says.
“I was a single mom in grad school, barely getting by,” Laws says. “I would go there and eat lunch, and I volunteered. I would realize when I got back to work on
my thesis that I wasn’t tired. It was healthy, but my soul felt good, too — and it didn’t break my pocketbook.”
Her thesis was on reintegration of women in recovery, and upon returning home, Laws’ focus shifted to helping children as well. She organized Camp Appalachia, an eight-week, at-risk youth summer program in partnership with the St. Paul United Methodist Church. From there, her outreach and mission evolved.
“Afterwards, we were debriefing all the community partners, and they loved it and asked if I had any other ideas,” she says. “I was like, ‘Well, I would love to do this cafe.’”
Another local congregation had recently merged with St. Paul’s, leaving behind an empty church building. Church leaders offered to rent it to Laws for $1 a month. Laws began to gather funding, piecing together about $42,000 in small grants to launch Café Appalachia in South Charleston, West Virginia, which opened in 2018. Though not a religious organization, faith has played a
part since the beginning.
“We demoed it without having a dime, so it was kind of just a step of faith,” Laws says. “There’s been a lot of discernment and divine orchestration in it; so many little things throughout all of it have come together where you’re just like, ‘Alright, we’re supposed to do this.’”
Laws purchased the building about three years ago, thanks to the church’s help in writing a foundation grant to the Methodist foundation. Remnants of the restaurant’s past as a church, like the stained glass windows, remain today.
Originally operating on a pay-what-you-think scale, mirroring the F.A.R.M. Cafe, Laws knew she had to consider changing her business model when it did not prove as successful.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Forced to shut down, it became a good time to transition, Laws says. The business received an emergency loan from the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, allowing them to
buy the necessary equipment to update the menu.
“We shut down for months and it saved us,” Laws says.
Now celebrating its seventh year in business, Café Appalachia’s culinary mission — a healthy twist on Appalachian comfort food — continues, and they grow as much of their food as possible to serve fresh as well as to preserve and store for the winter months.
“In the summer, we grow our own tomatoes for slicing on sandwiches, but the excess we turn into a tomato jam for the winter,” Laws says. “Instead of ketchup, you get tomato jam made from fresh tomatoes.”
They also make their own simple syrups, dressings, jams and more. What they can’t grow in the eight raised bed gardens adjacent to the restaurant, Café Appalachia partners with local and regional growers and farmers to source the majority of the remainder of its ingredients.
“We grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, but it’s impossible to do all of it,” Laws says. “We have a
In the Kitchen
lot of farmers that’ll drop off their excess, and we’ll use whatever somebody donates to us. That’s why we say as locally sourced as possible. We’re very integrity driven as an organization.”
Breakfast is served all day at both locations and includes waffles, omelets, quiches made with fresh veggies, biscuits and gravy and more. Lunch options such as burgers, soup of the day, sandwiches, salads and baked goods, as well as a coffee bar, are also available.
While some items are seasonal, others are year round. Some of Laws’ favorite menu offerings are chili and the Oh My Cluckin’ Goodness pesto chicken sandwich, made from basil grown in the café gardens.
“We have a very small menu in both locations, and they’re incredible,” Laws says. “You can’t go wrong. We grow the basil, and when we harvest it, if they don’t need it fresh, they freeze it and we use it in the winter. A lot of our menu changes seasonally, just because of that sourcing.”
Future plans for the nonprofit organization include strengthening and creating new partnerships with West Virginia producers to place more local ingredients in the Café Appalachia kitchens.
“There’s a whole microcosm of people trying to grow things across West Virginia: fruit, eggs, chicken, but they don’t always have a way to get it down here,” Laws says.
Another goal is to establish a permanent commissary kitchen for the cafés and catering, and they are actively expanding their 50 by 70 foot raised bed garden on the ABHC property with help from an Appalachian Regional Commission grant.
Laws says she’d also love to potentially
open other Café Appalachia locations throughout West Virginia to further Pollen8’s mission and benefit as many people in recovery — and their communities — as possible.
“The beauty is it allows the space for someone to come out of their comfort zone,” she says. “For instance, a lot of the women here, when they come through this program, they’ve never had a job or they haven’t had a sober conversation since they were 16. So it allows us to have that platform to change the narrative that they’re not altered anymore and they’re just a human being.
“That’s what we want to spread because that’s what
the social enterprise experience has been to us; it’s not just for the population that you’re putting through,” she continued. “It’s the community, and it’s around food. Food is healing anyway.”
Open 7:30 a.m.- 2 p.m., Monday-Saturday, Café Appalachia is located at 206 D St. in South Charleston, West Virginia, and Café Appalachia Downtown is located at 110 McFarland St. in Charleston, West Virginia. Downtown’s hours are 7:30 a.m.- 5 p.m., Monday through Wednesday and 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m., Thursday-Sunday.
“My COO Hollie and I, we’re very tenacious, which you have to be to do something like this,” Laws says. a
Fans watch Tyler Childers perform at Healing Appalachia at the Boyd County
Sept.
ABOVE: Tyler Childers performs at Healing Appalachia at the Boyd County Fairgrounds on Sept. 20. LEFT: Remi Wolfe performs at Healing Appalachia at the Boyd County Fairgrounds on Sept. 20. (photos courtesy of Blair Burns)
Fairgrounds on
20. (photo courtesy of Blair Burns)
BELOW: Healing Appalachia took place at the Boyd County Fairgrounds on Sept. 20. (photo courtesy of Blair Burns)
Stuffed Boneless Pork Loin Roast
• 1 Coleman Natural boneless pork roast (3-4 pounds)
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 cup diced onions
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
• 2 cups cubed fresh bread, crust removed
• 1 apple, diced
• Gravy, for serving
Preheat oven to 375˚F. Butterfly roast.
In large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil and butter. Add celery, carrots and onions; cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
While vegetables are cooking, whisk eggs; milk; salt, to taste; and pepper, to taste, until well combined. Mince sage and rosemary.
In large bowl, combine bread, vegetable mixture, liquid ingredients, apples, sage and rosemary. Gently toss until bread absorbs most of the liquid.
Cut three pieces of butcher’s twine about 4 inches longer than the longest side of butterflied roast. Lay string on cutting board horizontally and lay roast on top of string to cover.
Place half of the stuffing mixture onto butterflied pork loin and press down firmly. Roll roast up and tie with butcher’s twine to hold it together, taking care not to tie too tightly, and press any stuffing that comes loose back into ends of roast.
Place stuffed and tied roast, fat cap up, on rack over baking sheet. Season liberally with salt and pepper; roast until meat thermometer inserted into roast registers 140 F, 75-90 minutes.
Place remaining stuffing in a small ovenproof casserole dish and cover with foil. After roasting 30 minutes, place extra stuffing in oven to cook alongside roast.
Remove foil from extra stuffing and remove roast from oven. Let rest for 10 minutes then remove the extra stuffing from oven.
Cut twine from roast and discard. Cut roast into six thick slices, taking care not to lose stuffing. Serve with extra stuffing and gravy.
From the Cookbook | food
Cheesy Baked Little Potatoes
• 1 1/2 pounds Little Potatoes (any variety)
• 1 1/3 cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated small
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 5 sprigs thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Preheat oven to 400˚F.
Pierce potatoes with fork and microwave for 7 minutes. Cut in half and place cut side up in parchmentlined 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
In a bowl, mix cheese, cream, garlic powder, thyme, salt and pepper. Pour over potatoes, spreading cheese evenly.
Bake for 10 minutes then broil 3-5 minutes until golden brown.
A community shines T
here’s something about walking down Third Street in the fall that makes time stand still — the crunch of leaves underfoot, the glow of the Ro-Na marquee illuminating the brick buildings, or the sound of distant laughter echoing off The Depot.
It’s the kind of magic that feels familiar, even if you’ve never felt it before.
Ironton Wizardfest began as a simple idea: What if we turned our little city into something out of a storybook? Just for a weekend. We weren’t sure what that even meant, but we believed in the power of imagination and the heart of this community.
What’s grown since then is more than a festival. It’s a gathering of neighbors, dreamers, families, fans and friends — a homecoming of sorts. Civic groups and nonprofits get the spotlight they deserve. Volunteers, some of them just kids when we started, now help lead the charge. Visitors arrive from across the country and leave with a piece of Ironton in their hearts.
And through it all, we’ve managed something rare — a true win-win. Artisans thrive, the local economy gets a boost, organizations raise funds, families make memories and our city gets to shine.
It’s not just about wands and wizardry. It’s about pride, progress and what happens when a community believes in itself. Year after year, Ironton Wizardfest reminds me that even in a divided world, a little magic and a lot of heart can still bring people together. And that’s something worth holding on to.
Brad Bear is one of the organizers of Ironton Wizardfest.
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