I’m often asked if Dowdy Corners is a real place. It is. It is where I was living when I gathered the first group of club members and created this blog. I no longer live there, or run a local cookbook club, but the name is too good to give up. (Click here to read about my relocation to the Upper South, and  here to read about the move from Dowdy Corners.) Besides, cookbooks are still an addiction (always will be) and Dowdy Corners is still very much with me—the spirit of the place and all that I learned about growing my own food on that slate/schist-enriched soil (and what I learned about myself in the process). Once you’ve grown it, tended it, raised it, or weeded it, you never look at food the same way. If you’re interested in learning more about Dowdy Corners the place, read my original “About Dowdy Corners” entry below, written when this blog was launched.

 

About Dowdy Corners

Dowdy Corners is an intersection with woods on one corner, fields on the other two corners, and our house, built by Mr. Dowdy, on the fourth. When Mr. Dowdy built his house, a modestly sized cape, it was meant to be a summer residence only. I-89 wasn’t yet built and the dirt road in front of the house was much narrower. But the huge oak tree in front of the house, one of the oldest in the county, would have been nearly as large as it is now. And the 90 to 100-year-old apple tree on the property, with its hollowed out trunk (it’s hard to believe it still stands), that still produces great apples, would have been here too. The name “Dowdy Corners” doesn’t appear on every map for this intersection, and sometimes it appears with different spellings, but I love the name, and since the notion of place—where local foods are grown and communities gather—is key to this club, it seemed a natural name for the cookbook club. The whole point of moving to Dowdy Corners (previously I’d only lived in urban/town settings) was to learn how to grow food and do things like keep bees and chickens. I’ve learned a lot (I’m into my second year of it), but my boyfriend and I are definitely not self-sustainable (we’d starve if we had to make do with our harvest!). Occasionally I post tidbits about life at Dowdy Corners on this blog, as much as to seek guidance from more experienced gardeners, canners, and chicken stewards as to share my experiences, thoughts, and observations about growing food, preserving it, and cooking it (oh yes, and eating it). −Fall, 2010