The Rendered Blessing: Animal Fat in Appalachian Folk Magic ​In the misty hollows of the Appalachian Mountains, the figure of the "Granny Witch"—or traditional healer—occupies a space where the practical meets the spiritual. To the modern observer, the act of rendering—boiling down animal fatty tissue to purify it into lard, tallow, or grease—is merely a culinary or butchery term. ​However, for the Appalachian healer, rendering was an act of transformation. It was the process of taking the life