Growing Home
story by Donna Hecker & photography by Talitha Schroeder
Hanging out with Valerie Ison Horn is like being sucked into the slipstream of a supersonic jet. With a cell phone in one hand, the steering wheel in her other and a foot planted firmly on the accelerator, she took us for a memorable ride through her hometown of Whitesburg, Ky.
Community is always on her mind, but Valerie’s definition of it isn’t limited by geography. When asked about that, she laughed and said, “Well, we’re going to Korea next year!”, then elaborated on what makes a community.
“There are the positive things that unite us, like food, music and art. And some negatives too, like health concerns and financial worries.” For her lifelong work celebrating the positives and overcoming the negatives of her Eastern Kentucky home, Valerie received a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award.
Whitesburg and surrounding Letcher County are home to the Cowan Community Center, CANE Kitchen and the Whitesburg Farmers Market, a thriving growers market for area gardeners and farmers. Valerie calls them the Three Sisters, a perfect example of mutual support, using the least resources to do the most good. The original Three Sisters were so named for the Native American tradition of planting corn, beans and squash together to nurture one another.
The Three Sisters have a common denominator and it is Valerie Horn. As director of Cowan Community Action Group and board chair for both CANE Kitchen and the Farmers Market, she can explain in detail how the three are connected in their mission to support, uplift and advance the community they serve. And how food and agriculture form the nucleus
“For years our area provided energy to our country and grew our country. Food is another form of energy and our rural communities can help meet the challenge of providing it. Coal was successful when miners were fairly compensated. We need to think of farms and farmers the same way and recognize and value their skill and work, and invest in them.”
Valerie speaks from the heart. Listening in as she sat for an interview with the USDA, we heard the story of how a community endures and suffers and unites and rejoices, always taking care of its own along the way.
And we saw it in action as Valerie made her rounds during last week’s Growing Home, A Community Revival, a celebration of growth and progress since the flood of 2022.
We stopped by the farmers market where she checked on a group of sweaty teens who’d just set up the tents and tables, and firmly instructed them to break for water and an air-conditioned lunch.
Then we drove uphill to the county extension office for her USDA interview and a look at the agricultural workshops underway there. Back downhill to the post office to drop off an AmeriCorps VISTA member. Between the two, another stop at the farmers market to re-right several tents blown over by the wind. Once at the post office, a demo for the volunteers on how to tie blue ribbons onto medallions for participants in that day’s addiction recovery parade. A trip back to the farmers market to retrieve Valerie’s missing phone.
Next was a winding drive out to Cowan Creek in Valerie’s well-worn Toyota 4-Runner, with commentary en route. She described growing up on Cowan Creek, how her own mother (the youngest of nine) had grown up there and grudgingly gone to Whitesburg for high school, at the insistence of sisters who couldn’t go themselves.
How her mother had set sights on her father, in his clean clothes and a lunch that hadn’t spent the morning cooling in the well. Envious of his bologna sandwich and Little Debbie snack cake, she was sure she’d be rich if they married. And admitted later that they may not have gotten rich but ate plenty of bologna sandwiches and snack cakes in fifty years of married life.
Valerie told us how the people of Cowan Creek organized their own garbage collection long before the rest of the county. Bought a truck and scheduled weekly pickups. Arranged for cable TV to come in. Purchased kitchen equipment for the school and served free lunch to all the students. Provided continuous childcare since the early 1970s.
Today the former school site is the Cowan Creek Community Center – home to Kids on the Creek, Interns on the Creek, a USDA summer feeding program, the Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, Grow Appalachia Garden Program and Leavitt AMP Whitesburg Music Series. During our visit, some kids had just completed an art collage and others were reading their poems aloud. A musical trio was putting their instruments away.
Valerie pointed out the sturdy support beams in the center’s circular common area. Said local youth pulled the logs out from an area farm and transported them to the center on a school bus. There was something so rooted about the heft of the beams and how they anchored the space. “They’re our foundation”, she said with a catch in her voice.
We capped our day with a community dinner at CANE Kitchen, where Holly Hill founder Chef Ouita Michel had spent the afternoon helping CANE Chef Brandon Fleming and his staff prepare a low-country boil for upwards of 500 guests. Many of whom wore t-shirts inscribed with HEAL, short for Help End Addiction for Life.
Having dropped us off earlier, Valerie got back in time to welcome folks and say a few words. Then she was gone in a whirl, no doubt tying up a few remaining loose ends to finish the day. And we were left with the indelible memory of how one person could so powerfully embody the strength and resilience of an entire community.
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Okra Fritters
Okra was just coming on at the Whitesburg Farmers Market while we were there. For this recipe, seek out the smallest okra you can. And don’t be deterred by okra’s mucilaginous quality; it’s the secret ingredient to successful fritters!
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