Authentic South

From contributor Kelley Libby: For years, at historic plantation sites across the South, the focus was on the big house and not on the slave cabins. But cabins like that are now being resurrected by a program called Slave Dwelling Project on the grounds of Montpelier, James and Dolley Madison's home in Virginia. Originally aired August 21, 2014.

Vivian Howard is the chef at Chef and the Farmer in the small Eastern North Carolina town of Kinston. She also "co-stars" with her husband Ben Knight on their Peabody Award-winning PBS show “A Chef’s Life.” Originally aired July 1, 2014.

Hunter Lewis is currently the editor-in-chief of Food & Wine. When we interviewed him here, he was the executive editor at Southern Living magazine. Before that, he had stints at the publications Bon Appetit and Saveur. In this episode he discusses writing and cooking, Eastern North Carolina whole hog barbecue and the agricultural renaissance that is feeding the way people cook in the South. Special music by Joel Madison Blount. Originally aired June 17, 2014.

In Episode 17, we met Sean Kelley, a writer who set out to raise a couple of pigs for the purpose of butchering them himself. He was so adamant about that mission that he even named the pigs Lunch and Dinner. This episode picks up at the point where Dinner had grown to over 300 pounds, and Sean was finally ready to slaughter her. Special music by Boone, N.C.-based Redleg Husky. Originally aired June 5, 2014.

Sean Kelley is a writer, and in this show, he begins telling us the sometimes comic/sometimes tragic story about raising a couple of pigs so that he could slaughter, butcher and eat them just learn about that entire process firsthand.

"We know everything about pork and beef and poultry. We know nothing about pigs and cows and chickens," he says. Originally aired May 21, 2014.

Chef Hugh Acheson is one of the most celebrated and influential chefs in the country. He has a restaurant in Athens, Georgia Five and Ten. His Empire State South in Atlanta is one of the most popular places to dine in the city, and he also has Spiller Coffee with a couple of locations. Hugh is a two-time James Beard Award winner, once as a chef and once for his cookbook, A New Turn in the South. You may have seen him on television competing on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters or as a judge on the show Top Chef. Originally aired May 2, 2014.

“Folks started talking about the New South after the Civil War," says Tom Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina. "Where we are now is the newest of the New Souths, the Newcomer South.” Tom speaks about the ever-evolving South, especially as it relates to food, from a booth in El Pulgarcito, a Honduran-Salvadoran-Mexican restaurant in the eastern part of the city. Special music in this episode courtesy of Charlotte-based band UltimaNota. Originally aired March 7, 2014. 

Cynthia Graubart attained culinary celebrity status when she won a James Beard Award for the cookbook she co-wrote with famed Southern author Nathalie Dupree. It’s called Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking, and it is amazing. It took four years to write, and it weighs six and a half pounds. It’s got 750 recipes and another 650 variations on the standards. It is becoming itself a standard--a bible--for any Southern cook. Originally aired January 31, 2014. 

Eudora Welty was one of the South’s most beloved writers, and her fiction is still a study in detail and dialogue and wit. Her settings were often Southern, but her themes were universal. Eudora won multiple awards in her lifetime, including a Pulitzer in 1973 for her novel The Optimist’s Daughter. She passed away in 2001.

The audio you hear of Eudora in this episode is part of folklorist Bill Ferris' book The Storied South, which is a collection of interviews with iconic writers, musicians, historians, photographers and artists. 

I first featured Bill in Episode 10, and we talked extensively about his 40-year career and how the South has perfected the art of storytelling. 

In this episode, Bill returns to tell us about his close friendship with the famous Southern writer. Originally aired January 16, 2014.

Contributor Kelley Libby visits a shape note singing event in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Sometimes this style of singing is referred to as Sacred Harp. That’s because there’s an old tune book called The Sacred Harp, and most shape note singers use it, especially in the deep South. Originally aired January 2, 2014.

Bestselling novelist Cassandra King talks about her book Moonrise as well as her writing relationship with her husband, famous author Pat Conroy. "Being married to another writer was just like dropping a little fat kid into a candy store." Originally aired December 13, 2013.

Preeminent Southern folklorist Bill Ferris has spent the last 40 years documenting the South in print, photography and film. His book, The Storied South, is a collection of interviews with some of the South's (and country's) most iconic writers and artists, including Alice Walker, Alex Haley, Robert Penn Warren and Eudora Welty. We discuss the book, the importance of story and how Bill defines the South. Featuring the song "Remember You Used to Love Me" by War Jacket. Originally aired September 10, 2013.

One of the highlights of Knoxville’s International Biscuit Festival is the Mr. & Miss Biscuit Pageant. This episode profiles Liz Barr, the reigning Miss Biscuit 2013. Her win was surely secured after she performed an interpretive dance to an original love song...about a biscuit.

The pageant's talent competition was serious. One guy ate a spoonful of flour. There was a woman who carved a butter sculpture to resemble the Sunsphere, one of the city’s iconic landmarks.

And then there was a woman who sang an a cappella piece she wrote to the tune of the Little Mermaid song, “Part of Your World.” Originally aired August 8, 2013.

Birmingham, Alabama, singer-songwriter Josh Vasa of the band Sanyasi talks about his Indian heritage, writing, and the value of cheesy lyrics. Originally aired June 14, 2013.

The Indian Pass Raw Bar is the anchor of the community in the Florida panhandle. It sits on County Road 30A, just southeast of Port St. Joe and west of Apalachicola. It’s an institution in this part of the world and has been here since owner Jimmy McNeill's grandparents opened it in 1929. People come for the oysters and the unusual 'honor system' code, but they also come for Jimmy, the unofficial mayor of Indian Pass. This episode features the song "372" by Pressed And. Originally aired May 31, 2013.

Les Thomas wrote his way across the South. His travel writing, for Texas newspapers,  Southern Living magazine and beyond, has spanned over 45 years. He's a giant of a man with an innate curiosity.  

"I've always liked to ask questions," he says. "That's been part of my life, I guess. I've probably asked way too many beyond patience, but I don't know how you find out things unless you ask." Originally aired May 10, 2013.

In our food-obsessed culture, we likely never think about what's on the menu at an eating disorder clinic. A couple of chefs bring their inventive cuisine and gregarious personalities to Magnolia Creek, a treatment center in rural Alabama. The episode features the song "Pour Traverser" by the Birmingham-based band War Jacket. Originally aired May 2, 2013.

Barbara Nottingham has been running the Happy Hollow Gift Shop in Medicine Park, Oklahoma, for almost 40 years. Its live rattlesnakes and an abundance of tchotchkes draw most of the visitors who have come to the area to tour the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Barbara believes her divine purpose is to be a people person.

This episode features "Dancing Song," a track off Duquette Johnston's  album Rabbit Runs a Destiny. 

Originally aired April 25, 2013.

This episode features James “Ooker” Eskridge, a waterman who has lived on Tangier Island, Virginia, his whole life. Ooker talks about being the Chesapeake Bay island’s mayor (population 450), the dwindling interest in working in the seafood industry, and the island’s distinct Cornwall, England-tinged accent. Originally Aired April 19, 2013.

Little G Weevil is a Hungarian-born Blues musician living in Kennesaw, Georgia. When he talks, you know he had to come from Budapest. But when he sings, it’s like he’s stepping right off of Beale Street in Memphis. This is his story. Originally aired April 11, 2013.