John T. Edge is the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance . Based out of the University of Mississippi, the SFA studies and documents Southern food cultures. A respected authority, Edge writes about Southern food and culture for publications such as Garden & Gun Magazine and The Oxford American . He joined us to talk about his new book, “ The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South ,” which explores the South by way of its food. We begin with a simple but tough question