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["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 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/"]
["Jim Costa, 67 (as of 2016), is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician and storyteller. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan.In the summer of 2016, University of North Carolina folklore graduate student Zoe van Buren spent two months with Costa, conducting oral histories and documenting his extensive collection. Read more about van Burens work here: https://wvfolklife.org/2016/09/06/thats-a-grand-story-to-tell-documenting-jim-costas-collection/Zoe van Buren's website:https://zoevanburen.wordpress.com/"]
["Jim Costa, 67 (as of 2016), is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician and storyteller. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan.In the summer of 2016, University of North Carolina folklore graduate student Zoe van Buren spent two months with Costa, conducting oral histories and documenting his extensive collection. Read more about van Burens work here: https://wvfolklife.org/2016/09/06/thats-a-grand-story-to-tell-documenting-jim-costas-collection/Zoe van Buren's website:https://zoevanburen.wordpress.com/"]
["Jim Costa, 67 (as of 2016), is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician and storyteller. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan.In the summer of 2016, University of North Carolina folklore graduate student Zoe van Buren spent two months with Costa, conducting oral histories and documenting his extensive collection. Read more about van Burens work here: https://wvfolklife.org/2016/09/06/thats-a-grand-story-to-tell-documenting-jim-costas-collection/Zoe van Buren's website:https://zoevanburen.wordpress.com/"]
["Jim Costa, 67 (as of 2016), is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician and storyteller. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan.In the summer of 2016, University of North Carolina folklore graduate student Zoe van Buren spent two months with Costa, conducting oral histories and documenting his extensive collection. Read more about van Burens work here: https://wvfolklife.org/2016/09/06/thats-a-grand-story-to-tell-documenting-jim-costas-collection/Zoe van Buren's website:https://zoevanburen.wordpress.com/"]
["Jim Costa, 67 (as of 2016), is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician and storyteller. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan.In the summer of 2016, University of North Carolina folklore graduate student Zoe van Buren spent two months with Costa, conducting oral histories and documenting his extensive collection. Read more about van Burens work here: https://wvfolklife.org/2016/09/06/thats-a-grand-story-to-tell-documenting-jim-costas-collection/Zoe van Buren's website:https://zoevanburen.wordpress.com/"]
["Jim Costa, 67 (as of 2016), is a native of Summers County, and an accomplished traditional musician and storyteller. He is also an avid collector and expert of 18th and 19th century farm tools and objects of rural life, including Hammons family fiddles, spinning wheels, cast iron cookware, and blacksmith tools. Costa has been building this collection throughout his life, and he restores many of the old tools and instruments himself. In addition to his public presentations on music and material culture, Costa appeared in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan.In the summer of 2016, University of North Carolina folklore graduate student Zoe van Buren spent two months with Costa, conducting oral histories and documenting his extensive collection. Read more about van Burens work here: https://wvfolklife.org/2016/09/06/thats-a-grand-story-to-tell-documenting-jim-costas-collection/Zoe van Buren's website:https://zoevanburen.wordpress.com/"]
["The Helvetia Community Fair, located in the Swiss community of Helvetia in Randolph County, is one of the oldest agricultural fairs in West Virginia. Activities include a parade in Swiss costume, alphorn music, Swiss folk dancing and singing, fahnenschwingen (flag twirling), a crafts, food, and canning exhibition, field events, an archery shoot, and more.Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including the Community Fair: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd in the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]
["The Htte Swiss Restaurant was founded in Helvetia in the 1960s by Eleanor Mailloux and Delores Bagerly. Mailloux took sole ownership of the restaurant in 1976, and it is now owned by a collective of family members. The Htte is still open every day and functions as a community gathering place and ad hoc museum. The restaurant offers mostly Swiss-German fare, with menu items such as rosti, veal and pork bratwurst, parsley potatoes, sauerkraut, house made sausage, homemade bread, and sauerbraten (sour beef). The sampler plate includes veal and pork bratwurst, sausage, parsley potatoes, green beans, curry chicken, homemade bread, sauerkraut, pickled pineapple, Helvetia cheese, and peach cobbler.Visit the Httes facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/The-H%C3%BCtte-Restaurant-164869667005759Read more about the Htte in Emily Hilliards articles for the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/something-good-from-helvetia/NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnachtAnd The Bitter Southerner:https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAlso see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]
["Henry Rice was born in Helvetia, West Virginia in 1978. He is the daughter of Catherine Irene Mailloux and grand-daughter of Eleanor Mailloux, the co-founder of the Hutte. His daughter, Morgan Rice, was also interviewed for this project. Henry Rice cooks for the Hutte Sunday buffet, and works in construction. He is also an avid hunter, trapper, ginseng and ramp digger, morel mushroom hunter, and a collector of old bottles and other artifacts.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/"]