As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, West Virginia’s evolving food traditions offer a unique window into the people, cultures and communities that have shaped the Mountain State for centuries.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As West Virginia prepares to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, the state’s culinary history tells a story far richer than pepperoni rolls and biscuits and gravy.
According to historian Stan Bumgardner, editor of e-WV, the evolution of food in the Mountain State mirrors the evolution of the people who have called the area home for thousands of years.
“It’s probably good to note that foodways go back 12,000 years,” Bumgardner said. “We’ve learned through archaeology more and more about how prehistoric cultures lived, what they ate and how they adapted to changing climates.”
Early settlers in the Mountain State learned to survive by growing hardy crops, raising hogs and relying on the land, creating traditions that would define Appalachian cooking for generations.
West Virginia University Archives
Long before European settlement, Indigenous peoples survived by hunting deer and bison, fishing rivers and streams and gathering berries, nuts and edible plants in what is now West Virginia.
As the Ice Age ended and large game disappeared from the region, Indigenous peoples adapted by developing agriculture, cultivating crops such as corn, beans and squash — known as the “Three Sisters” — which would remain staples for centuries.
When European settlers arrived in the mid-1700s, they faced many of the same challenges.
“The one constant throughout West Virginia’s history — even before West Virginia existed — is that we’ve had to live off the land,” Bumgardner said.
The state’s mountainous terrain made farming difficult. Rocky soil and steep hillsides forced settlers to rely on hardy crops that could survive poor growing conditions, including corn, potatoes, beans and squash.
Hunting remained essential, with pork becoming a dependable source of meat because a single hog could feed a family for nearly a year.
A woman picks corn from the field at Arnolds Farm in Hampshire County during the Hampshire County Farm Crawl of 2023.
Staff photo by Faithlyn Graham
Unlike today, food preservation was just as important as production.
Families dried beans by stringing them together and hanging them in the sun, salted pork and fish, and fermented vegetables into foods such as chow chow and pickled beans known as “dilly beans.”
Fruits and vegetables were stored in root cellars or buried beneath layers of dirt and hay to survive the winter.
“They worked all summer and especially in the fall to get everything into some state of preservation before the weather changed,” Bumgardner said. “Then you’d work all spring trying to keep those foods protected from the heat.”
Cooking centered on the home fireplace or wood-burning stove, where cast-iron pots hung over open flames. Wealthier families sometimes built separate summer kitchens to keep heat out of the main house.
Bread was also a daily staple.
Before commercial yeast became widely available, many families baked salt-rising bread, a labor-intensive loaf made without traditional yeast that Bumgardner called one of his favorites despite its pungent aroma during preparation.
For generations, 4-H Extension canning classes equipped West Virginians with practical food preservation skills, ensuring homegrown harvests could last well beyond the growing season.
West Virginia University Archives
The 19th century brought gradual but significant changes.
While diets remained centered on homegrown vegetables, pork and seasonal produce, the Civil War accelerated one innovation that would transform home kitchens: canning.
4-H Extension programs helped preserve more than food—they taught West Virginians the skills and knowledge needed to safely can fruits and vegetables for future generations.
West Virginia University Archives
Although canning existed before the war, the need to preserve food for soldiers helped popularize the practice. By the late 1800s, home canning had become widespread, aided by West Virginia’s growing glass industry.
Companies such as Hazel-Atlas manufactured glass jars and lids in cities including Wheeling and Grafton, while Clarksburg became home to one of the world’s largest tumbler factories.
The Civil War helped popularize home canning, and West Virginia’s booming glass industry made preserving fruits and vegetables more accessible for families across the state.
West Virginia University Archives
4-H Extension services later offered canning classes to teach families safe food preservation techniques.
Connected through the railroad
Railroads forever changed West Virginia’s dinner tables by connecting isolated mountain communities to products like coffee, bananas, oranges and sugar that earlier generations rarely experienced.
West Virginia University Archives
Railroads also reshaped the state’s diet.
For the first time, general stores could stock coffee, sugar, oranges, bananas and other imported goods that earlier generations rarely saw.
As supermarkets replaced many local grocery stores, convenience increased — but so did concerns about the loss of fresh, locally grown food in rural communities.
West Virginia University Archives
“I used to wonder where people were getting ingredients for pineapple upside-down cake and banana pudding in those old recipe books,” Bumgardner said. “Then it hit me — we were connected to the world by the railroads.”
Immigrant culture shapes food
As the coal industry expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigration introduced new culinary traditions.
Italian, German, Greek, Irish and Eastern European immigrants arrived to work in mines and factories, bringing family recipes that gradually blended into West Virginia’s food culture.
Still, Bumgardner said widespread acceptance took time.
“Italian food caught on first,” he said. “But many immigrants cooked their traditional food at home while serving hamburgers and hot dogs in their restaurants because they didn’t think people wanted Greek or Chinese food.”
Chinese restaurants began appearing in larger cities in the early 20th century, while authentic Mexican and Indian cuisine would not become common until decades later.
Coal camps developed their own food traditions.
Mining families often maintained vegetable gardens beside company houses, with women and children tending crops while miners worked underground.
During labor strikes, when miners were evicted into tent colonies, survival again depended on the land.
“They planted gardens, hunted rabbits, squirrels and muskrats — pretty much anything that was edible,” Bumgardner said.
The Great Depression reinforced a culture of self-sufficiency, with simple meals like beans and cornbread becoming daily staples for families facing difficult economic times.
West Virginia University Archives
The Great Depression reinforced those habits.
Money was scarce, and many families relied almost entirely on beans, cornbread and homegrown vegetables.
Bumgardner recalled interviewing a woman who remembered asking her mother what was for lunch and dinner.
“For lunch we’re going to have beans and cornbread,” her mother said. “For dinner we’re going to have cornbread and beans.”
Local grocery stores and postwar change
For many West Virginians, supermarkets revolutionized the way families shopped, replacing seasonal food preservation with year-round convenience.
West Virginia University Archives
Following World War II, West Virginia experienced one of its greatest food revolutions.
Neighborhood grocery stores, refrigerators, rural electrification and eventually supermarkets dramatically expanded food options.
For many families, home preservation gradually gave way to store-bought convenience.
“My mother was the first generation in her family who didn’t grow up on a farm,” Bumgardner said. “To her, supermarkets changed her whole world.”
The arrival of refrigerators, rural electrification and neighborhood grocery stores after World War II dramatically changed how West Virginians shopped, cooked and stored their food.
West Virginia University Archives
Food deserts and modern challenges
As independent grocery stores disappeared and chain supermarkets consolidated, many rural communities were left without easy access to fresh food.
Today’s food deserts, Bumgardner argues, often exist in places that once sustained themselves through farming.
The growth of processed foods and fast-food restaurants transformed eating habits across West Virginia, raising new conversations about nutrition, health and the future of local agriculture.
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“We gave up the type of farming that kept families alive year after year for the convenience of grocery stores and supermarkets,” he said. “Now there are people who don’t have access to fresh food, and that’s very sad.”
He also points to the rise of processed foods and fast-food restaurants as a defining feature of the late 20th century, raising new questions about public health and local agriculture.
Stan Bumgardner says today’s food deserts are a reminder that many communities once relied on farming to feed themselves before access to fresh food became dependent on grocery stores.
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Farmers markets have become increasingly common across West Virginia, reconnecting communities with agricultural traditions.
“We’re starting to see people reinvesting in fresh food,” Bumgardner said. “Healthy doesn’t mean bad tasting. Fresh, home-cooked food can be absolutely delicious.”
A butterfly sits inside a window panel of a green house of a local farm in Hampshire County which was being toured for the Hampshire County Farm Crawl of 2023.
Staff photo by Faithlyn Graham
West Virginia’s food history even includes homegrown claims to fame, including the Grimes Golden apple, which first appeared in Brooke County in the early 1800s, and the Golden Delicious apple, which originated in Clay County in the early 20th century and became one of the world’s most recognizable varieties.
Looking across more than two centuries, Bumgardner said one lesson remains constant.
A picture of a T-shirt being sold at a farm in Hampshire County during the Hampshire County Farm Crawl of 2023.
Staff photo by Faithlyn Graham
Whether hunting game on the frontier, tending a coal camp garden or shopping at a modern supermarket, West Virginians have continually adapted to changing landscapes, technologies and economies.
“Our food has always reflected the lives we lived,” he said. “It’s a story of adaptation.”
Dining and Cooking