Bessie's Table
(2026)Appalachian Stories and Recipes
(A book in the Women of Blackwater County series)
A collection of stories by Jenny Cafaro
A word from Bessie
Even though I lived my Appalachian life simple, I did so with love. I adored my little world. I didn’t just care for my kinfolk—those boardinghouse friends of mine were treated like blood just the same.
They used to say about me, ‘If you ever want a taste of heaven, just pull up a seat at Bessie’s table.’
And if you’re wonderin’ what they meant… well, come see for yourself.
There’s plenty of stories left from those days. If you’ve a mind to hear ’em, step on into 1954. It ain’t as long as this tale, but it’s just as full.
You up for a story?
Not a novel''but a short piece. Another chapter or two… and a handful of recipes to boot.
Go on—pull up a chair. Rest your bones.
And get yourself another taste.
A taste of heaven… at Bessie’s Table.
In 1954 Appalachian Ohio, Bessie Dearth does what women like her have always done—she keeps moving.
Her second husband is three days in the ground. The boarders still need feeding. The babies still need rocking. And the women who loved her best have driven across Ohio to stand beside her—with a stack cake and forty years of shared grief.
Bessie’s Table is a short novel and recipe collection told through five voices—Bessie, her daughter Anna, and the women who show up when it matters most. Together they cook, cry, confess, and feed anyone who pulls up a chair.
Woven through every chapter are the real Appalachian recipes that carried them—deviled eggs made with bacon grease, chicken and dumplins, dried apple stack cake, chocolate gravy and flitters, salmon stew, and black walnut spice cake.
Because at Bessie’s table, food isn’t decoration—it’s how love gets said out loud.
Book Two of the Women of Blackwater County series. This is a companion story and can be read as a standalone, though it is best enjoyed after Book One.
Other books by this author:
Run, Girls — A memoir of an Appalachian family in crisis
Where the Mountains Whisper — A novel
The Bible of Blackwater County
Genre: Historical
Even though I lived my Appalachian life simple, I did so with love. I adored my little world. I didn’t just care for my kinfolk—those boardinghouse friends of mine were treated like blood just the same.
They used to say about me, ‘If you ever want a taste of heaven, just pull up a seat at Bessie’s table.’
And if you’re wonderin’ what they meant… well, come see for yourself.
There’s plenty of stories left from those days. If you’ve a mind to hear ’em, step on into 1954. It ain’t as long as this tale, but it’s just as full.
You up for a story?
Not a novel''but a short piece. Another chapter or two… and a handful of recipes to boot.
Go on—pull up a chair. Rest your bones.
And get yourself another taste.
A taste of heaven… at Bessie’s Table.
In 1954 Appalachian Ohio, Bessie Dearth does what women like her have always done—she keeps moving.
Her second husband is three days in the ground. The boarders still need feeding. The babies still need rocking. And the women who loved her best have driven across Ohio to stand beside her—with a stack cake and forty years of shared grief.
Bessie’s Table is a short novel and recipe collection told through five voices—Bessie, her daughter Anna, and the women who show up when it matters most. Together they cook, cry, confess, and feed anyone who pulls up a chair.
Woven through every chapter are the real Appalachian recipes that carried them—deviled eggs made with bacon grease, chicken and dumplins, dried apple stack cake, chocolate gravy and flitters, salmon stew, and black walnut spice cake.
Because at Bessie’s table, food isn’t decoration—it’s how love gets said out loud.
Book Two of the Women of Blackwater County series. This is a companion story and can be read as a standalone, though it is best enjoyed after Book One.
Other books by this author:
Run, Girls — A memoir of an Appalachian family in crisis
Where the Mountains Whisper — A novel
The Bible of Blackwater County
Genre: Historical
Used availability for Jenny Cafaro's Bessie's Table