Written by Marlee Harris, Hospitality Director at Windy Hill Farm and Preserve.
Hospitality is one of those things I’m not sure I ever learned. It was simply always around me.
This Appalachian hospitality means the world to me. It is more than an idea or philosophy. It is what I am most proud to have been taught and what I am most proud to share.
Like Windy Hill’s original proprietor, my grandmother was born in the hills of Appalachia. She was one girl in a family of many, raised in a coal-camp community that captured a particular moment in time. I share her name, which was chosen for her from a hat passed among the surrounding mothers. To say that the lessons learned in those mountain hollers have shaped my life is no understatement.
Hospitality was simply a way of life. Homes were shared openly and gladly, with a sense of humility woven through every offering. To welcome someone into your home was the greatest honor.
This kind of hospitality is not formal. It places no requirements on the person entering—it simply invites you in. The invitation is sincere and grateful. The offerings come from the highest shelf, whether or not they can easily be spared, and they are presented with one purpose: to make the recipient feel comfortable and at home.
It is less about entertaining and more about belonging.
That same spirit is at the heart of a stay at Windy Hill. When invited in, you should expect a welcome that is warm and genuine, offered by people who take real pleasure in making others feel at home.
And, really, there is no place where Appalachian hospitality feels more at home than around the table.
A meal gives us a reason to gather, but what happens around the table is rarely only about the food. The table has a way of making room for everyone. It is a place where a meal can become something more—where stories are told, time slows down, and connection comes a little easier.
At my grandmother’s table, we ate year-round from my grandfather’s garden. Her dishes carried the influence of the many people and traditions that came together in the coal camp where she was raised, and every bite was always delicious.
But it is not only her cooking or those familiar flavors that I remember. I can still recognize the feeling of home she created for us around that table.
At Windy Hill, the table extends beyond a seat at Wilder. It can be found in a walk through the garden, a comfortable place to rest, a cup of coffee enjoyed without hurry, or a meal shared slowly.
These are simple things, but I think that is the point.
The hospitality I grew up knowing was never about grandeur. It was not for show. It was about giving what you had, offering the best of it, and making certain there was always room for one more.
Luxury can be beautiful linens, an incredible meal, or a perfectly prepared room. Those things matter. But I believe there is another kind of luxury that is much harder to create: the feeling of being known. Of having someone notice. Of being genuinely cared for.
There is nothing especially complicated about that idea, and I think that is part of what makes it feel so Appalachian.
At its heart, hospitality is not about impressing people.
It is about making room for them.
Marlee Harris is the Hospitality Director at Windy Hill Farm and Preserve. Shaped by her Appalachian upbringing, she brings a deeply personal understanding of hospitality to the way guests are welcomed, cared for, and invited to feel at home at Windy Hill.