#chickahominy

Jessica Canaday Stewart & Vanessa Adkins, Chickahominy dancers

Jessica Canaday Stewart grew up watching her aunt dance traditional Chickahominy dances across the powwow circuit. Unlike many of her young friends who gravitated toward the contemporary powwow dance styles known as “jingles” or “fancy dances,” Jessie dedicated herself to mastering the traditional Chickahominy dances of her ancestors. At 26, she has already been named “Miss Chickahominy” five times, representing the tribe as a dancer at powwows across the East coast.

The youngest Master Artist ever to participate in the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, Jessie will be apprenticing her young cousin, Vanessa Adkins, who, much like Jessie as a young teenager, is eager to learn to dance in the true Chickahominy tradition.

New blog post featuring a talented roots musician and beautiful human Cinamon Blair!

As I was recovering from the flu last week I decided to watch the documentary American Symphony on Netflix and it was absolutely heart-wrenching and timely and spoke to the incredible creativity that surviving a history as brutal and violent as the American history. The story really reminded me of the healing and survival power of creative expression, especially music. Multi-instrumentalist…

Hunting and Fishing is hard. Too often we head out to the woods or traverse bodies of water, glowing with optimism and anticipation of the animals we intend to encounter. And too often are we left with nothing to show. Just a bad sunburn and some sleep deprivation. That’s why I adopted the ritual, success or failure, to find a local lunch spot post hunt, to nurse our wounds or celebrate our conquest. Be it a burger, some smokey barbeque, breakfast pizza… You name it. Whatever the local spot’s best dish has to offer. Whether you ended your adventure in victory or defeat here’s an idea for some mouth pleasure indulgement. Bon Appetit.

Our Saturday began like most Saturdays during the summer. An hour long drive, first thing in the morning, to try out another fishing spot. The spot today was the infamous Chickahominy River, just a few miles outside of Williamsburg, Virginia. The Chickahominy is regarded as one of the prominent areas in the state to catch tidal river largemouth bass. According to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, “There’s just no place like it in Virginia right now.”

One of the many reasons the “Chick” is so highly regarded is its population of “F1 Tiger Bass,” introduced in 2005 when a group of concerned anglers raised $25,500 to purchase 114,000 fingerling fish from an Arkansas fish farm. The “F1 Tiger Bass” is a strain of fish from largemouth bass in Florida, known for its combination of trophy size and notorious aggression.

So with F1 Tiger Tidal Bass on our mind, my brother and I set out with the yaks to hook up on a few. It was the perfect late July morning out on the water. Bass boats zoomed up and down the river’s bend as we paddled our way to off shooting creeks, just out of the reach of our fellow boating anglers. The river looked healthy as ever, bright green vegetation, lily pads covering the edges, old cypress trees showing off their powerful roots in the early morning low tide. To say we were excited was an understatement.

We backed into a runoff creek and within five minutes I’m on the board. The first fish of the day was a healthy looking little guy. I didn’t get the best look at him as I went to pull him into the boat when the feisty little bass spit the hook and vanished back to where he came from… must have been an F1 Tiger Bass. Little did I know, that was the only fish I’d catch that day. My brother caught one at nearly the same time, but shortly after, the “Chick’’ had our number.

We casted and casted, throwing everything in the tackle box, including the kitchen sink, to no avail. At high noon, we reluctantly made our way back towards the boat ramp. You never want to leave the water in such a fashion, tails between our legs, however our stomachs had other ideas. The thoughts of mouth watering BBQ to ease our hunger pains was enough to call it quits. Sure that day we weren’t the best anglers the Chickahominy had seen, but we’d always excelled in eating BBQ sandwiches. Stick to what you’re good at kids.

Next stop, a fifteen minute drive to Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que.

If you ever find yourself on interstate 64 headed towards Virginia Beach or back up to Richmond, Pierce’s is a must stop for BBQ enthusiasts. After working in restaurants nearly his whole life, Julius C. “Doc” Pierce decided it was time to open up his own joint. In 1971, “Doc” moved from Tennessee to the restaurant’s current location where he started selling his mother’s soon-to-be famous BBQ sauce right out of his house. Many years and a few thousand smoked pigs later, Pierce’s Pitt Bar-B-Que is perhaps the best spot in Virginia to get a bite of some sweet Memphis style pork.

Now I have to admit, I’m not a Memphis BBQ fanatic, Carolina Vinegar based style is what I grew up on, but I had heard some incredible reviews and I was starving so I sucked up my BBQ pride and ordered the J.C. Special, “The popular "jumbo" sandwich - 5 oz. of famous pulled pork bar-b-que in "doc" pierce's original bar-b-que sauce, layered with homemade slaw. Comes with regular drink, french fries.” Apparently I mistakenly substituted the fries, which I’ve now been told are out of this world, for bake beans because what’s a better combo than Barbeque and baked beans.

The sandwich was delicious, a good sized portion of BBQ and a perfectly textured bun. The sauce was slightly sweet, but not overwhelming. The baked beans were pretty standard with chunks of hot dog and bacon. And I walked away with a souvenir fountain drink cup. Overall meal experience 7.1/10.

The fishing could have been better, it’s hard to say whether if the was the river or the anglers. If I’m being honest, likely the anglers. The Barbeque experience was the highlight of the trip and I intend to use the Chickahominy river as an excuse to visit Piece’s in the future.

And that’s the lesson here folks, when the fishing beats you down, the Barbeque will lift you up.

Until Next time.