First of all, there's no "blood" in culture. Culture means the collection of handed-down ways of doing things.
Second, there was a big IF in that sentence. A person's culture is independent of his genetic origins. Substitute "Regardless of their
genetic origins, Appalachians' culture was 'born' here, as surely as
any other."
Why would you take the mitigating clause that begins "Even if..." and
treat it as the main point?
It is not a culture transported intact from another continent, like
the culture of recent Irish immigrants in Boston.
I realize that you might not appreciate the importance of winter gardening to people gardening west of the Cascades. Fava beans are
the number one choice for soil improvement here, because I can plant
them any day in winter and it's like a miracle. Because of this it's
one of few legumes to set seed without irrigation in our dry summer,
after growing all the winter. They're well known at the same
latitude in coastal France, for the same reasons, and the English
know them by many names. But the main forms of agriculture practiced
in the immediate area are limited to grazing and hay cutting (nearly
always grass that's already there), and little planting of seed crops
happens here at all. Yet, if a person here in Sunset Zone #5 were
seriously into survival gardening, this would be the crop for him.
There's just no better deal around.
Usually we prefer to eat _dry_ favas Egyptian-style, cooked, peeled
and mashed like hummus, with lemon, olive oil and lots of garlic. A
bed of _green_ favas, harvested much earlier, yields almost no
caloric value as a staple, by comparison. Cooked dry favas just
taste exactly like the seasoning used.
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