A Mess of Greens potx

[...]... important they are in terms of loyalty and love of place At the same time, making mountains the most important part of the phrase recognizes the marginalization of Appalachia and its foodways from the rest of the state and the region North Carolina has never quite known what to do with its mountains—geographically far from the state capital, they often are far down on the state’s priority list as well... cabbage We used a paring knife (my grandmother’s blade was almost gone from years of sharpening) to flake off the small bits of cabbage between thumb and knife blade It took at least half an hour to do a head of cabbage this way Chopping, slicing, or—heaven forbid—using a food processor was frowned upon Although I have asked my mother and aunts, no one knows if this came from a desire to achieve a. .. race as well as gender in the kitchen What looked like a quintessential southern drink, iced tea, was a distant reminder on the 12 introduction table of British colonial trade routes to India and China and the Atlantic slave trade triangle of Caribbean sugar, African labor, and European and U S capital.11 Southern communities, far from being as isolated as the myths said, long traded wildcrafted ginseng... sat undeniably in the center of the family table, whereas cornbread was relegated to supper or breakfast Family members canned tomatoes or ate them fresh, but they rarely fried the green ones Just as my godmother remembers first hearing that she was Appalachian in the 1960s, the celebration of fried green tomatoes as a signature southern food coalesced around Fannie Flagg’s book of that name as late... Belgian, French, and Polish ancestors, sat at the table The family genealogy down to my Mom blended Scots-Irish, German, and English elements The extended family included Native American ancestry; and, as scholars have demonstrated again and again about the small-town South (and yet as many white families feel may have been true for others but not themselves) African American families in the same towns... than it would have otherwise been I am also grateful to the tag team of Erika Stevens and Laura Sutton who, along with the rest of the University of Georgia Press, shepherded this manuscript along its way I thank editors at Southern Cultures and the Journal of Appalachian Studies, as well as anthologists Sherrie Inness and Ronni Lundy, all of whom read and helped improve earlier, smaller portions of. .. definitions What I can do as a scholar—and what I hope you as a reader of this book will join me in doing—is ask what is at stake in the changing definitions Let us try to understand what else is being said when someone asks for a second helping of cornbread, carefully writes out a treasured recipe, opens a jar of garden tomatoes, or sneaks a sip of white lightning e bl ed ra ral ars ct j pa tu e se... timeless (or at least stable over hundreds of years), in fact, they were very much contested and being worked out in the post-Reconstruction era that is the time period of this project The following chapters explore West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Arkansas foodways Virginia and Alabama make appearances Louisiana and Florida get admittedly... stories of hidden, pick-your-own farms or discoveries of patches by the side of the road Late summer meals often meant the first taste of flavors that kept us company all winter Potato salad and slaw filled large bowls in summer, cutting down on heat in kitchens My family was particular not only about how to dress the slaw— Duke’s mayonnaise, vinegar, milk, salt, sugar, and pepper—but also about how... mobile, free and unpredictable, was a source of great anxiety in the early century—for people within and out of overlapping communities of Appalachia, the South, and America Choices made even today hint at the consequences of old anxieties I could have described a different but equally historically southern meal The greens my family ate most often were turnip, mustard, or creasy, not collards My grandmother . important part of the phrase recognizes the marginalization of Appalachia and its foodways from the rest of the state and the region. North Carolina has. Histori- cal Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Boyd D. Cathey and the sta at the North Carolina State Archives, public librarians