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“No other form of cultural expression, not even music, is as distinctively characteristic of the region as the spreading of a feast of native food and drink before a gathering of kin and friends.”
— John Egerton, Southern Food
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Letter from the President
Southern Drinkways 101
Just when you thought you could easily define “Southern foodways” to your friends, the Southern Foodways Alliance offers another term for you—“Southern drinkways.” Because we are a hands-on kind of organization, you can experience Southern drinkways at our October 23–26, 2008, symposium in Oxford at the University of Mississippi, when we will explore the cultural history of liquid refreshments in the American South.
Our speakers will analyze how Southerners define themselves by what they drink. The drinks might be ice cold mountain water; iced tea, that iconic drink of the South (sweet, of course); buttermilk, with crumble-ins of cornbread; regional soft drinks; a Yadkin Valley, North Carolina, chardonnay; a craft-brewed beer; a layyou--on-your-backside cocktail from New Orleans; or soft sipping whiskey from Kentucky or Tennessee.
Because our Southern states now suffer from one of the worst droughts in the history of the region, drinkways is a very timely topic. Global warming makes us pause as we consider the impact of climate change on Southern drinks, from water to wine. You will hear more about this exciting symposium in the months to come.
Our summer SFA fieldtrip to Louisville, Kentucky—“Blue Grass and Brown Whiskey”—is an important introduction to the world of Southern drinkways. To prepare for the symposium, I plan to inventory my personal experience with
Southern “drinkables.” Here’s a start: cold skim milk with a piece of my mother’s chocolate cake—“really skim,” says my mother; a cherry Coke from the Kream Kastle Drive-In, Blytheville, Arkansas; iced tea sweetened with local honey at my mother-in-law’s table in Vicksburg, Mississippi—extra lemon for Bill, please; Manischewitz Concord Grape wine at the annual Passover Seder; orange juice from frozen concentrate; my first cocktail in Overton Square in Memphis; and chicory coffee at Morning Call in New Orleans with puffs of powdered sugar everywhere.
I look forward to seeing you at SFA programs throughout the year, and I encourage you to ring in 2009 at the Taste of the South SFA Benefit at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, January 8–11, 2009. Please join us for this wonderful weekend of amazing Southern food, drink, hospitality, and SFA friends—new and old—all of whom are dedicated to supporting the important work of the SFA.
In friendship,
MARCIE COHEN FERRIS UNC at Chapel Hill
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