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- Identifier:
- 4224.BetlerEleanor.AudioInt.2.5.16
- Title:
- Oral history of Eleanor Betler
- Date:
- 2016-02-05
- Creator:
- Betler, Eleanor
- Contributor:
- Hilliard, Emily
- Subject:
- foodways, Canning and preserving, Beef cattle, Dairy cattle, Hill farming, Bakers, Bread, Cooking, Swiss, Helvetia (W. Va.), Cheesemaking, Wild leek, Orchards, 4-H clubs, Corn bread, Swine, Food habits, and Carnival
- Location:
- Helvetia (W. Va.)
![["Eleanor Betler was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia in 1940 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She spent her summers in Helvetia at the farm of her maternal grandparents, James and Anna Merkli McNeal. She married Howard Bud Betler in 1961. The couple moved to a hilltop farm in Helvetia and raised four children. All the good cooks, many of them relatives of Mr. Betler taught Mrs. Betler about canning, preserving, cooking and baking. She was especially interested to learn the skills of butchering and preserving meat, and making sausage. Mrs. Betler loves the Swiss traditional baking but also Appalachian ways of some neighbors. She grinds her own flour for baking bread. At Fasnacht time she invites neighbors and friends to make the hozablatz and rosettes just to keep the tradition alive. She also preserves this history by collecting stories, music, and photographs for The Helvetia Archives.This interview is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]](/thumb/4224BetlerEleanorIntTranscript2516 "Transcript of oral history of Eleanor Betler")
- Identifier:
- 4224.BetlerEleanor.IntTranscript.2.5.16
- Title:
- Transcript of oral history of Eleanor Betler
- Date:
- 2016-02-05
- Creator:
- Betler, Eleanor
- Contributor:
- Hilliard, Emily
- Subject:
- Cooking, Swiss, Sheep farming, Carnival, Wild leek, Helvetia (W. Va.), Canning and preserving, 4-H clubs, Food habits, Dairy cattle, Cheesemaking, Beef cattle, Bread, foodways, Hill farming, Orchards, Bakers, Swiss American women, Swine, and Corn bread
- Location:
- Helvetia (W. Va.)
![["Vernon John Burky was born to a Swiss family in Helvetia, West Virginia in 1925. He grew up speaking Swiss on his family farm, where his parents raised animals and managed a sawmill, and his grandparents operated a cheese house. They made Helvetia cheese, a type of Swiss cheese, similar to Emental, that was made throughout the Helvetia community and a staple in the diet of residents. As a child, Burky raised chickens and tapped maple trees on his family farm. As an adult, he was an active winemaker, a common pursuit in the Helvetia community. During his working years, Burky worked as a truck driver for a saw mill and a coal company. He learned to play fiddle as a child and started playing in the Helvetia Star Band, the local dance band for generations and the namesake of one of the villages two dance halls. He still plays in the group, which performs regularly for Helvetia square dances and events. Yeah; just kept that smokehouse full of smoke all day and night. Theyd put a big hunk of wood on it; it wouldnt burn but it--they had fire under it and it would sit there and smoke that little room half as big as this. They just smoked up tight. They had the sausage on rods; nothing could come in or get up on there. There it would sit; it was just dried up real solid and my uncle was--I stayed with my uncle when I was in high school. And he said, hey Vernon; come over here. (Laughs) He had rheumatism and he couldnt move around. He was in bed all winter. Go up there to the smokehouse and get me a link of that sausage. (Laughs) And Id go up and clip one of them off and bring it down. Hed get a hold of one piece and put the rest under the pillow and hed start eating that. He wasnt supposed to have red meat because of rheumatism.This audio slideshow is part of a series of interviews conducted with foodways practitioners in Helvetia, West Virginia, as part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]](/thumb/4224VernonBurkyVideo001111416 "Audio slideshow of Vernon Burky speaking about making Hevetia cheese")
- Identifier:
- 4224.VernonBurky.Video.001.11.14.16
- Title:
- Audio slideshow of Vernon Burky speaking about making Hevetia cheese
- Date:
- 2016-11-14
- Creator:
- Burky, Vernon
- Contributor:
- Hilliard, Emily
- Subject:
- Cheesemaking, Swiss Americans, Helvetia (W. Va.), Cooking, Swiss, and Dairy cattle
- Location:
- Randolph County (W. Va.) and Helvetia (W. Va.)
