I LOOK FOR FOOD IN EVERYTHING
Food catches my attention. I can scan a page of a book or an old letter and find food as though it’s highlighted in fluorescent yellow marker. It jumps out at me—snippets of biscuits, cornbread, cake, preserves, elderberry wine—and pulls me in. My brother-in-law, writer Jim Magnuson, says that when I scan the horizon, the food grid rises up above everything else. When I was a child, my parents, Huddy and Jerry Cohen, asked familiar questions—how was school? the field trip? summer camp? I reported back with detailed descriptions of friends’ distinctively southern bag lunches (how come no one else ate my suspiciously Jewish egg-and-olive sandwiches?), the fancy bakery cookies purchased at Goldsmith’s downtown department store in Memphis, reports of taboo road food, and platters of fried chicken at Camp Wah-Kon-Dah in Rocky Mount, Missouri. My mother sighed, “What happened besides the food?!” We began to see a pattern. For me, food was what happened.
Why does food have this magnetic appeal to me, while others seldom note food or, worse, wonder what’s the fuss? For the non–food seers, food is banal, so ordinary that it is virtually invisible. For food seekers, it is the boldface headline of life. In the most basic way, food catches my attention because I know what it feels like to eat something delicious, to be hungry, to dislike the taste or texture of a food, to both struggle with food and be enchanted by food. If only for a sentence or a scene, a description of food enriches my understanding. It is a sensual experience, because, in food, an emotional world comes into view—a place of color, imagined tastes, interaction, and memory. Food helps me understand the world around me, but it is also my entry to the past.
Food is the center of our holidays at the farm where my husband, Bill Ferris, was raised in Mississippi. On Christmas Day, the family gathers around the dining room table. The ritual surrounding the preparation for this southern meal is elaborate. Activity begins months in advance as casseroles and desserts are prepared and frozen by Liz Martin, an expert cook and housekeeper. She has worked in culinary tandem with Bill’s mother, Shelby Flowers Ferris, for over thirty years. In the last twenty-four hours before the meal, work reaches a crescendo. Bill’s three sisters, and now the next generation of grandchildren and nieces and nephews, divide up chores, polishing silver, setting tables, and arranging bowls of camellias. The other meals surrounding Christmas Day are just as important, such as the traditional gumbo we enjoy for supper on Christmas Eve. Eating this meal reminds us of the family’s deep ties to New Orleans, the Creole city that has seduced each generation of Ferrises.
Throughout the holiday, we gather daily for breakfast, a hearty noontime dinner, and a light supper in the evening. Mrs. Ferris sits at the head of the table. She is the center of life at the farm. Now in her mid-nineties, she still plans the menus and coordinates our meals. It is difficult to rise before her, at five A.M. each morning. There are fresh grapefruits cut and ready for each of us at our places at the table, designated by napkin rings personalized with our names. These rituals reinforce our southern family and Shelby’s love.
Between meals at the farm in Mississippi, we go our separate ways, some to write and read, others to work outside or tend to children. Shelby and her daughters chat and work as they move through the day. In the kitchen, these women, divided now by place and time and their own families, become the family of their childhood once again. When we gather to eat, there is a joy that overlays a quiet sense of grief. The family has suffered many losses, including the death of Bill’s brother Grey, his wife, Jann, and their daughter Shelby. Grey’s strength and quiet wisdom, Jann’s breathtaking beauty and joyful spirit, and Shelby’s wit and energy are painfully absent. There is a huge void in the difficult years that follow. Mealtime helps to ease the silent pain we all feel.
In the summer of 2008, we returned to Vicksburg to be with family and to attend Grey’s funeral. As everyone gathered, food arrived in an elaborate display of community support and love. Emily Compton and her daughter Dannie arrived with homemade Vicksburg tomato sandwiches, stuffed eggs, tomato aspic, and a beautiful congealed salad of brandied peaches and ginger that glistened like amber. (When my own beloved father died during the summer of 2013, Dannie Weatherly wrote, wishing she could send tomato sandwiches to comfort us in Chapel Hill.) Bobby Ferguson, a talented carpenter and friend of the Ferris family, delivered a casserole prepared by his wife, Elaine, who told us, “I just made what my family loves.” There were stiff drinks of bourbon enjoyed with cheese straws, platters of fried chicken and pulled pork, and delicacies brought from New Orleans by Jann’s mother, Mittie Terral, whose weekly visits from Louisiana revived the family with gumbos and étouffée. Dr. Eddie Lipscomb, a veterinarian from nearby Port Gibson, brought a pecan-smoked brisket he lovingly prepared for the family. There were strawberry cakes, blueberry pound cakes, caramel cakes, and double fudge brownies baked by Mary Bell Gibbs, whose mother was famous for her brownies, too.
While we attended Grey’s funeral in town, Story Stamm Ebersole, a talented Vicksburg caterer, laid out supper for the family—platters of Mrs. Compton’s tomato sandwiches and big bowls of chicken salad. Food never tasted as good as that meal. We ate and drank in small groups and later gathered in a large circle around Shelby Ferris, telling family stories until late in the night. Throughout those trying days, food poignantly symbolized the foundations of southern family, community, memory, and tradition. A central purpose of The Edible South: The Power of Food and the Making of an American Region is to explore the meaning and influence of food in southern history, extending my analysis beyond one family to that of the larger historical southern family, a people as diverse and as complicated as the region itself.
It is with deep gratitude that I recognize the friends, colleagues, and institutions that made this work possible. I begin with the resilient librarians and archivists who embraced my research. Special thanks are due to Harlan Greene and Dale Rosengarten, Special Collections at the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library, College of Charleston; Avery Institute of Afro-American History and Culture, College of Charleston; Christopher Harter and Andrew Salinas, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University; John Dann, Barbara DeWolfe, Clayton Lewis, and Jan Longone, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan; Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia; Historic New Orleans Collection; Cynthia Harris and Ashley Stark, Hale Library, Kansas State University; Beverly Brannan, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress; Elizabeth Sherwood and Greg Lambousy, Louisiana History Center; Angela Stewart, Margaret Walker Center, Jackson State University; Clinton Bagley, Hank Holmes, Alanna Patrick, Anne Webster, and Chrissy Wilson, Mississippi Department of Archives and History; Victor Jones Jr., New Bern–Craven County Public Library, New Bern, North Carolina; Susan Tucker, Newcomb Center for Research on Women, Tulane University; W. Troy Valos, Norfolk Public Library, Norfolk, Virginia; Ann Wright, Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, North Carolina; Sarah Hutcheon, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University; Beth Bilderback and Henry Fulmer, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina; South Carolina Historical Society; Amy Evans, Southern Foodways Alliance Oral History Collection, University of Mississippi; Leon Miller, Kenneth Owen, and Eira Tansey, Howard-Tilton Memorial Special Collections, Tulane University; Jerry Ball, Biltmore Industries Collection, and Helen Wykle of the D. H. Ramsey Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Asheville. I am also profoundly grateful to Athena Angelos for her thorough research in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. At the High Hampton Inn in Cashiers, North Carolina, Ann Austin and Will McKee graciously granted me access to the High Hampton Inn’s papers on site.
I am especially appreciative of the dedicated librarians at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Jacqueline Solis of Davis Library, who fielded hundreds of my research queries with good humor and the investigative skills of a detective; Laura Clark Brown, Holly Smith, Matt Turi, and former curator Tim West of the Southern Historical Collection; Steve Weiss and Aaron Smithers of the Southern Folklife Collection; Diane Steinhaus of the Music Library; the staff of the Southern Oral History Collection; and the talented graduate students in folklore, history, and library science, including Sam Crisp, Virginia Ferris, Anne Skilton, Helen Thomas, Tim Williams, and Marwa Yousif, who located materials in the Southern Historical Collection for me.
Elizabeth Engelhardt and other scholars offered a close reading of my book manuscript, and their insightful, productive criticism helped my writing and research immeasurably. Robert Allen, Warren Belasco, Fitz Brundage, Bob Cantwell, Rayna Green, Jacqueline Hall, Bernie Herman, Glenn Hinson, Woody Holton, Jim Horton, John Kasson, Joy Kasson, Jim Leloudis, John McGowan, Kathy Roberts, Ann Romines, Ted Rosengarten, Patricia Sawin, Laurel Sneed, Charlie Thompson, Rachel Willis, and Charles Reagan Wilson read numerous fellowship applications and supported my effort, for which I am eternally grateful. Research leaves funded by the University of North Carolina’s W. N. Reynolds Grant, the University Research Council, and the Department of American Studies gave me important time to complete my book manuscript. The friendship of colleagues in American studies–folklore and Jewish studies at the university has provided motivation and encouragement. Former American studies administrator Debbie Simmons-Cahan was unwavering in her steadfast support and good cheer. The passion of my students for the narratives that lie within southern food inspired this book. Special thanks to Sara Camp Arnold, Sara Bell, Whitney Brown, Nina Bryce, Laura Fieselman, Tema Larter Flanagan, Chris Fowler, Emily Hilliard, Daniel L. Pollitt, Sarah McNulty Turner, and Emily Wallace for their contributions to this project and to southern food studies.
William Andrews, David Auerbach, Ira Berlin, Hodding Carter III, Angela Jill Cooley, Josh Davis, Jinny Turman Deal, Walt Edgar, Eli Evans, Rien Fertel, Darryl Gless, Susan Glisson, Kay Goldstein, Mike Green, Minrose Gwin, Hank Haines, Tom Hanchett, Jessica Harris, Reg Hildebrand, Alan and Karen Jabbour, Wilma King, Nick Kotz, Alan Kraut, Lucy Long, Malinda Maynor Lowery, Bobbie Malone, Jere Nash, Jocelyn Neal, Moreton Neal, Frederick Douglass Opie, David Orlansky, Ted Ownby, Dan Patterson, Sharon Paynter, Theda Perdue, Barry Popkin, Larry Powell, Jedediah Purdy, Stuart Rockoff, Leonard Rogoff, Ann Romines, Jamie Simpson Ross, Ruth Salvaggio, David Shields, Vin Steponaitis, Julia Stern, Ann Stewart, Carrie Streeter, John Martin Taylor, John Vlach, Harry Watson, Anne Mitchell Whisnant, Heather Williams, Psyche Williams-Forson, Ashley Young, and Kenneth Zogry all generously responded to my questions and shared their knowledge and experience. The collegiality of Karen Cox and Rebecca Sharpless has been a special gift.
For the opportunity to publish parts of this work during my research and writing, I thank David Davis, John T. Edge, Elizabeth Engelhardt, Ted Ownby, and Tara Powell. Special appreciation is due to Ayse Erginer and Dave Shaw of Southern Cultures for creating a standing special issue devoted to food.
As the field of food studies evolves, one of the great pleasures has been to work with local faculty and students in founding the Triangle University Food Studies (TUFS) group. I am especially grateful for TUFS’S interest in my work and, most important, for the friendship of the founders of TUFS, Alice Ammerman, Anna Childs, Sharon Holland, Randall Kenan, and Charlie Thompson. There could be no better partners for fostering excellence in food studies than Inger Brodey, Jim Ferguson, and Bernie Herman at the University of North Carolina and Kelly Alexander at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS). Much appreciation is also due to Tom Rankin at CDS, Dean Laurie Patton (Duke University), and Dean Karen Gil, Senior Associate Dean Terry Rhodes, and Dean Barbara Rimer (UNC-CH) for their strong support of food studies.
The folks at the Southern Foodways Alliance are “my people,” and they provide a warm home where I return annually for excellent food studies scholarship and enduring friendships. It has been my privilege to speak at their conferences and to publish work in their series, Cornbread Nation: The Best of Southern Food Writing. Special thanks to SFA director John T. Edge and SFA staff Sara Camp Arnold, Amy C. Evans, Melissa Booth Hall, Mary Beth Lasseter, and Joe York and SFA friends Ann and Dale Abadie, Lex and Ann Alexander, Brett Anderson, Jean Anderson, Jim Auchmutey, Ben and Karen Barker, Scott Barton, Sarah Blacklin, Scott Blackwell and Ann Marshall, Roy Blount Jr., Ann Cashion, Sheri Castle, David Cecelski, Ashley Christensen, Langdon Clay, Maude Schuyler Clay, Nancy Carter Crump, John Currence, Susan Dosier, Crescent Dragonwagon, Nathalie Dupree, Lolis Eric Elie, Belinda Ellis, Barbara Fant, Randy Fertel, John Fleer, Donna Florio, John Folse, Martha and Paul Fogleman, Martha Foose, Sara Foster, Damon Lee Fowler, Sarah Fritschner, Lynn Gammill, Cynthia Gerlach, Peter Hairston, Alex and Betsy Hitt, Blair Hobbs, Linton and Gina Hopkins, Pableaux Johnson, Joyce Emerson King, Phoebe Lawless, Matt Lee, Ted Lee, Jane Lear, Carroll Leggett, Judy Long, Ronni Lundy, Dean McCord, Nancie McDermott, April McGreger and Phil Blank, Kate Medley, Adrian Miller, Debbie Moose, Angie Mosier, Joan Nathan, Sheila and Matt Neal, Davia Nelson, Sandy Oliver, Mollie O’Neill, Louis and Marlene Osteen, Donna Pierce, Carol Puckett, Susan Puckett, Kathleen Purvis, Dale Volberg Reed, John Shelton Reed, Julia Reed, Andrea Reusing, Mike Riley, Sara Roahen, Glenn Roberts, Miriam Rubin, Fred and Jill Sauceman, Kim Severson, Pope and Peggy Shuford, Nikki Silva, Elizabeth Sims, Bill Smith, Leni Sorensen, Pat Stevens, Frank and Pardis Stitt, Marion Sullivan, Fred Thompson, Toni Tipton-Martin, Amy Tornquist, Natasha Trethewey, Michael Twitty, Rob Walsh, Andrea Weigl, Ari Weinzweig, Jay Wiener, Liz Williams, Thomas Williams, Virginia Willis, and Alex Young. The devastating loss of John Egerton, who died in the fall of 2013, was a poignant reminder of the core mission of the Southern Foodways Alliance, which John founded. As the moral anchor of this institution, John urged us to never forget the healing power of food by honoring southern working people and their core culinary heritage. I was blessed to know John’s wisdom, humor, kindness, and generosity of spirit.
When Nancie McDermott founded the Culinary Historians of Piedmont North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2011, she created a gathering place where our community and invited guests can share their food-related passions and talents. I am grateful to Nancie, Claire Cusick, Jill Warren Lucas, Colleen Minton, and Jamie Fiocco and the staff of Flyleaf Books for fostering this intellectual salon. Keebe Fitch, Sandra Gutierrez, Deborah Miller, and Katherine Walton have been so supportive of my work.
At the University of North Carolina Press, I am privileged to work with its devoted, talented team. My editor, Elaine Maisner, patiently nurtured this book from development to completion. Her wise counsel was invaluable. Special thanks are also due to Dorothea Anderson, Kay Banning, Dino Battista, Ivis Bohlen, Kim Bryant, Ellen Bush, Mary Caviness, Robbie Dircks, Michael Donatelli, Chuck Grench, Laura Gribbin, Jennifer Hergenroeder, Gina Mahalek, Ron Maner, Joanna Ruth Marsland, Joe Parsons, Heidi Perov, former editor-in-chief David Perry, Alison Shay, John Sherer, Mark Simpson-Vos, former director Kate Torrey, Paula Wald, and Vicky Wells. On the press’s Board of Governors, heartfelt appreciation is due to chair Jack Evans and board member Eric Muller. Rich Hendel designed this book, and I am profoundly thankful for both his friendship and his artistry.
I am deeply grateful to William Eggleston, to his family Rosa, Winston, Andra, and Bill, and to the Eggleston Artistic Trust for permission to use the photograph, Sumner, Mississippi, on the cover of my book. William Eggleston’s pioneering color photography evokes timeless narratives of the American South. Many thanks to John Hill for sharing his beautiful photograph of Edna Lewis.
Emma Patterson, my literary agent at Brandt & Hochman, lovingly oversaw this project after the loss of our dear friend and agent Wendy Weil in September 2012. Emily Wallace and Gail Goers did extensive work in preparing the manuscript for publication. Emily edited text and finalized footnotes and bibliography, while Gail served as illustration editor, coordinating the herculean task of securing images and permissions. Their combined expertise, talent, and good humor allowed me to deliver my manuscript on schedule. Bob Rudolph, my dear friend and technology guru for over fifteen years, thoughtfully addressed computer issues that ranged from daily maintenance to firestorms, and I am indebted to him for his great skill, fortitude, and calm demeanor. Many thanks are also due to Peter Renfro for his mastery of shipping and scanning.
Friends, family, and dogs sustained me while researching and writing this book. Daily conversations with Meredith Elkins provided encouragement and laughter, as did visits with Kaye Anne Aikins, Sandy Armentrout (of blessed memory), Dick Barnes, Amy Bauman, Denise Broussard, Bill Cox and Judy Rosenfeld-Cox, Elaine Eff, Lyn Gagnon, Sally Greene, Martha Hauptman, John and Sharon Hays, Ryan Hipp, Richard and Lisa Howorth, Bob and Cecelia Jolls, Frank and Harriet Livingston, Scott and Kody Magnes, Bobbie and Bill Malone, James and Susan Moeser, Ellen O’Brien, Susan Harbage Page, Sandi Prentis, Carol and George Retsch-Bogart and the Chapel Hill Sukkot Group, Penny Rich, Lesley Silver, Holly Wagner, Lydia Wegman, Janie Weinberg, Genie and Gilles Wicker, and Shelly Zegart. Special thanks are due to Jack Bass and Nathalie Dupree, Linda and Stephen Bingler, Cathy and Andy Burka, Ernest and Diane Gaines, Kay and Buck Goldstein, Nancy and Ferris Hall, Becky and Bernie Herman, Mary Hartwell and Beckett Howorth, Dorothy and Tom Howorth, Herman and Nancy Kohlmeyer Jr., Gary and Joan Levy, Etta Pisano and Jan Kylstra, and Bonny Wolf and Michael Levy, who were generous hosts during research trips.
No words can adequately express the appreciation and love I feel for my husband, Bill, and my stepdaughter, Virginia, who weathered the highs and lows of this project. (They also did the grocery shopping and cheerfully ate the same meal for approximately five years as they completed books [Bill] and a master’s degree in library science [Virginia].) Bill listened and edited ad infinitum. I am deeply grateful for their support, and for that, too, of our exuberant Labrador retriever, Roper Ferris. I am indebted to Shelby Flowers Ferris, Martha Ferris and Kos Kost-mayer, Hester and Jim Magnuson, Shelby and Peter Fitzpatrick, Gene and Joyce Ferris, and the extended Ferris family for their love and constant encouragement, and to my “little” family—my sister, Jamie Cohen, my former brother-in-law, John August, and my mother, Huddy Cohen, as together we endured the loss of my father, Jerry Cohen. This work is dedicated to his memory.