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Welcome to the Southern Foodways Alliance -- an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture with headquarters at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.

The Southern Foodways Alliance documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South. We set a common table where black and white, rich and poor -- all who gather-- may consider our history and our future in a spirit of reconciliation.

2003 Southern Foodways Symposium

Appalachia:
Exploring the Land and the Larder

October 2-5, 2003

Southern Foodways Alliance
Center for the Study of Southern Culture
University of Mississippi at Oxford

The sixth annual Southern Foodways Symposium will be held October 2-5, on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. For 2003 we explore the people, places, foods, and traditions of the Appalachian South.

This event provides opportunities for cooks, chefs, food writers, and inquisitive eaters alike to come to a better understanding of Southern cuisine and Southern culture. Lectures, held in Johnson Commons, at the heart of the University of Mississippi campus, are complemented by informal lunches and dinners served in and around Oxford.

The Delta Divertissement (October 1-2)
For 2003, we expand our programming with a new event: the Delta Divertissement.

Over the course of a twenty-four-hour sojourn to the town of Greenwood, Mississippi, this inaugural outing offers an opportunity to explore the land that gave birth to the blues. You will taste Delta tamales and come to know how they became a favorite hereabouts. You will come to appreciate the particular topography of the alluvial floodplain known as the Mississippi Delta. You will raise a glass in one of the private dining rooms at Giardina’s. What is more, in keeping with this year’s Appalachian theme, you will have an opportunity to interact with our guest chef, John Fleer. Bend an ear as Fleer shares his philosophy of foothills cuisine. Savor his buttermilk degustation menu. Learn how to prepare muscadine-glazed guinea hen swaddled in buttermilk cornbread gravy.

Other Symposium Events
In keeping with our tradition of offering attendees practical instruction in the study and dissemination of oral histories and the like, on Thursday, prior to the official opening of the symposium, Ann McCleary and Helen Chambers of the Department of Public History at the University of West Georgia will conduct a workshop on incorporating oral histories and documentary photography into foodways exhibitions and festivals. The workshop will be free of charge to the first twenty registrants.

This year we continue to expand our entertainment offerings. Thursday night, after a dinner catered by Amy Crockett of Ajax Diner, we stage Nanny and Blake, an original one-act play written by Southern Studies graduate student Kendra Myers and set in the mountain South. On Friday night, we bring the music of the mountains to Mississippi when Greasy Beans, a five-piece band that fuses bluegrass and newgrass and old-time influences, takes the stage at Taylor Grocery. On Saturday afternoon, we screen a new documentary film by Joe York, a tribute to Bill Best, winner of the 2003 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award. Saturday night reaches its zenith with the debut of Ed Dye and the Hambone Orchestra.

But as Rick Bragg will no doubt remind us on Saturday morning, we should not forget the food. Among the highlights will be a lunch of shuck beans, stack cakes, and cornbread. And a pimento cheese tasting. And a fish fry featuring, in addition to our traditional taste of catfish, a sampling of char raised in the mountains of West Virginia. Not to mention Appalachian appetizers from Jared Richardson of Kentucky’s Wallace Station. And that’s just Friday. Other featured foods include grits and garlic custard from John Fleer of the Inn at Blackberry Farm; buttermilk and cornbread from Tennessee’s Cruze Dairy; a country ham tasting highlighting the best ham men and women, from, among other places, the mountain South; a brotherly battle of fried pies with Robert and John Stehling; and a Sunday morning biscuits and grits and gravy breakfast hosted by John Currence of Oxford’s own City Grocery.

Host for the event is the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Contributors to our efforts include Ajax Diner, Biltmore Estate Wine Company, City Grocery, Cruze Farm Dairy, the R&B Feder Charitable Foundation for the Beaux Arts, Glory Foods, the National Pork Board, West Virginia Aqua, and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.

Thursday

• Bringing Oral Histories To Life: A Workshop On Baking And Memory And Public History -- Helen Chambers and Ann McCleary

• Thacker Mountain Radio Show -- Off Square Books

• Dutch Oven Dinner -- North Oxford Square, Amy Crockett

• Nanny & Blake: A One-Act Play About Mothers, Daughters And The Food They Cook -- Kendra Myers

Friday – The Lay Of The Land

• Welcome And Introduction Of Glory Foods Scholarship Winners -- Charles Reagan Wilson

• Benediction -- Frank X. Walker

• How To Make It Real Compared To Possum -- Ronni Lundy

• Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, And God’s Own Cornbread -- Sarah Labensky And Students From The Culinary Arts Institute At The Mississippi University For Women

• Selu Through Cherokee Eyes: The Other Half Of The Gift -- Marilou Awiakta

• Zeit Und Raum Ist Alles: Tales Of The West Virginia Swiss -- Sally Schneider

• Bright Hope To Frog Level: A Mountain Diner’s Diary -- Fred Sauceman

• Lifetime Achievement Award

• Pimento Cheese Tasting, Crowning Of P.C. Contest Winner, And Book Signing at Off Square Books

• Fish Fry With West Virginia Char And Mississippi Catfish at Taylor Grocery -- Lynn Hewlett And Jared Richardson

• Greasy Beans Street Dance

Saturday – A Look At The Larder

• SFA General Meeting -- Damon Lee Fowler

• Welcome To Affrilachia -- Frank X. Walker

• Bragg About The Damn Food -- Rick Bragg (Introduction By Mary Jane Park)

• Cornbread And Cruze Buttermilk Break

• Corn As A Way Of Life -- Loyal Jones

• Beating The Biscuits In Appalachia: Race, Class, And Gender

• Politics Of Women Baking Bread -- Elizabeth Engelhardt

• Viking Range Luncheon: Foothills Cuisine -- John Fleer

• Tales Of Temptation And Hillbilly Fruit -- Frank Browning

• Presentation Of The Ruth Fertel Keeper Of The Flame Award To Bill Best And Screening Of A Documentary Short -- Randy Fertel And Joe York

• Mountain Spirits: Paean To Moonshine And Moonshiners -- Joe Dabney

• Jack Daniel’s Country Ham Summit -- Gary Pasture, Curated By Jim Gerhardt

• Brotherly Battle Of The Fried Pies: Apple Vs. Peach -- John Stehling And Robert Stehling, Music By Ed Dye And The Hambone Orchestra

Sunday

• White Lily Biscuits And Grits And Gravy Brunch -- City Grocery, John Currence

• Cooking Up Country: Food For Thought -- Lee Smith (Introduction By Kathryn Mckee)

 

 

The Fertel Foundation

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey

Southeast Dairy Association

Viking Range

White Lily