The community of Lobelia in Pocahontas County has brought together people from different backgrounds since the influx of homesteaders in the 1970s. Nowadays, the small, rural area continues to boast younger generations of people who have moved there looking for a certain, special something in the form of a slower, more intentional life, and many of those folks gather at the Yew Mountain Center, a 500-acre botanical sanctuary, community center, lodging and camping destination and school located on the Lobelia Road.
This weekend, the Yew Mountain Center will highlight the work of one of Lobelia’s residents, Marlyn McClendon, who is preparing the “I Love Yew” Valentine’s dinner on Saturday, Feb. 11.
McClendon will prepare the South Korean-themed meal as a fundraiser for the Yew Center; this is the fourth year the Yew Center has centered on an international theme for its fundraiser.
McClendon, a longtime volunteer and staff member of the Yew Center, and her mother, Yong, from Huntington, will prepare the popular fermented dish kimchi along with yaki mandu, bulgogi and japchae, a beef and stir-fry glass noodles dish, with hotteok for dessert. The meal is being offered with advanced reservations, which are limited to about 10 couples.
McClendon has been preparing food for the community since she moved to the area in her 20s and quickly realized the rural markets were not there to support her South Korean diet. McClendon’s mother had raised her on the recipes she grew up with in South Korea, and McClendon notes that her mother faced those same challenges of finding familiar foods when she first arrived in Huntington as a bride of an American soldier.
McClendon is now passing that knowledge her mother gave her onto her own children, teaching them South Korean nursery rhymes and love for South Korean dishes that they can share with their grandmother when she visits from Huntington.
For a while, McClendon sold kimchi, a pickled slaw made from fermented fish sauce and Napa cabbage, locally through Edith’s Store in Lewisburg, but obstacles of food permitting and sourcing ingredients slowed down that enterprise.
“There are obstacles to preparation and manufacture that the department of health has to enforce and sometimes makes it a bit difficult,” says McClendon. “Now I am focusing on the CBD products that my partner markets in Elkins, Davis and Thomas, West Virginia.”
While her kimchi business is on hold, she still has some ideas fermenting in her mind, as she said she’s considering making and marketing “a vegetarian kimchi, using a vegetable base instead of fish.”
McClendon also is a popular photographer and is currently doing weddings and family gatherings, while also focusing on bigger project, “Shiku,” which explores the South Korean experience through three generations of a family in Southern West Virginia.
McClendon’s culinary business may be on hold, but for one night, visitors to the Yew Center can experience the mother-daughter duo’s cooking and culture while supporting the nonprofit business.
For reservations, call the Yew Center at 304-653-4079. Information about Marlyn McClendon Photography can be found on Facebook.
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