West Virginia Folklife Presents Virtual Apprenticeship Showcase: Forest Farming

Ed Daniels and Clara Haizlett at Shady Grove Botanicals. Photo by Carole Daniels.

West Virginia Folklife Virtual Apprenticeship Showcase:

Forest Farming

Wednesday, September 22, 12:00-1:00pm

Via Zoom


Please join us on Wednesday, September 22 at noon for a virtual apprenticeship showcase featuring forest farmers Ed & Carole Daniels of Randolph County and apprentice Clara Haizlett of Brooke County. The team, who recently completed their 2020-2021 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship year, will present on their apprenticeship cultivating American ginseng and other forest botanicals, and hold a Q&A.

The event is free and open to the public, but attendees should register via Zoom here.

Ed Daniels of Mill Creek led an apprenticeship in agroforestry/forest farming with Clara Haizlett of Wellsburg. A ginseng digger and cultivator since he was young, Daniels and his wife Carole own and operate Shady Grove Farm in Randolph County where they grow ginseng, goldenseal, ramps, cohosh, and industrial hemp, among other plants. Haizlett, who was an intern in The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage’s “American Ginseng: Local Knowledge, Global Roots” project, plans to start a forest farm on her family’s land in Brooke County. Learn more about their apprenticeship here.

The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, which is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, offers a stipend to West Virginia master traditional artists or tradition bearers working with qualified apprentices on a year-long in-depth apprenticeship in their cultural expression or traditional art form. These apprenticeships aim to facilitate the transmission of techniques and artistry of the forms, as well as their histories and traditions. This marks the second year of the biennial Folklife Apprenticeship Program.

For more information on the event contact Emily Hilliard at hilliard@wvhumanities.org or (304)346-8500.