TennesseeFarmTable.com

Today we are sitting around the table and visiting with a family and farm and how this family uses their skills to farm, cook, and host elevated meals for private events and, on occasion, community dinners. We visit with Farm to Feast founders Chef Jeff Jorgenson, event planner Jessica Jorgenson, and Jeff’s sister Heather Fulchum, ecology teacher, farmer, and founder of She Diggs Farm, located in the Hardin Valley area of Knoxville, TN.

Heather grows the food, Jeff uses it to provide farm-inspired dinners using seasonal ingredients, and Jessica uses her hospitality and event planning background to create elegant feasts on the family farm.

Fried pies! With Dale Mackey of Dale’s Fried Pies, Iva Spoon Wilde of Walland, TN, and fried pies at the annual Lord’s Acre sale in Hilton’s West Virginia by way of Fred Sauceman. ⁣

- Chef David Olson is a nationally-recognized American Culinary Federation Chef, television personality and social network influencer, award-winning recipe developer, live fire grill master, international adventurer, and the creator behind “Live Fire Republic.” Chef Olson lets us know how to cook chicken over live fire that is always juicy, not dry.

- Chef Joseph Lenn. Owner of JC Holdway in Knoxville, TN, and winner in the past of Best Chef Southeast by the James Beard Foundation. Joseph loves to fish, especially fly fishing for trout, and he will let us know how he cooks a trout on an open fire in the woods. And about his annual ramp hunt and cook he does annually with Allan and Sharon Benton (of Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams)

- And Fred Sauceman’s Pot Luck Radio series features a specialty of the White Trolley Cafe in Corinth, Mississippi. The Slugburger.

S9.E23. 06/25/2022 Podcast script

Green Beans and Canning Green Beans with Mary Alice Phillips, Friendsville, TN

We visit with Chef David Rule on his new project Trotter’s Whole Hog Barbecue, Sevierville, TN. You may know Chef Rule from his former work with Dancing Bear, Blackberry Farm, and Walnut Kitchen. His current restaurant is The Appalachian, Sevierville, TN. Back in 20007, David used to help me load the huge compost bin from the main kitchen when I worked in the garden at Blackberry Farm. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to get help with that. Most people didn’t want to deal with it.

In addition, Fred Sauceman’s Pot Luck Radio Series features a special appetizer found at Ridgewood BBQ in Bluff City, TN.

Today, we are setting the table with plant-based eating, especially for new Mothers. My first guest is Femeika (Meik) Elliott, founder, and owner of Meik Meals and the Lotus Program. This young, black, Knoxville-based entrepreneurial chef creates foods that give us that comfort of taste while using healthier ingredients. Meik encourages people to make lifestyle choices that nurture the body, mind, and soul. She specifically works with postpartum Mothers to help them feel their best through food, education, and meditation with her Lotus program. Meik also speaks to groups throughout the community about her work. This episode originally aired in February 2022, and since then, Meik Elliott has won the What's The Big Idea? 2022 Pitch Competition, through the Knoxville Entrepreneurial Center, and has presented at Pecha Kucha night, Knoxville.

Also, Fred Saucepan’s potluck radio series features Cherokee poet and storyteller Marilou Awiakta.

We are setting the table today with cornbread. I've assembled an all-star lineup of guests today to talk about this soul-satisfying staple.

• Karen Shankles has twice won first place at the annual National Cornbread Festival cook-off. Today, she shares her recipe for Festive Good Luck Corn Bread Skillet with us.

• James Beard Award-winning food writer Ronni Lundy lets us know how she makes her skillet cornbread that goes with a pot of soup beans. And she also shares with us what she calls her tao of cornbread.

• Food preservationist with deep family ties to the East TN mountains and mountain cooking Shannon Walker lets us know how he makes his cornbread and his thoughts on cast iron cookware and old ways.

• And “Mountain Man”, Josh Lowans of Salubrious Farms, Walland, Knoxville, describes a Cornbread salad recipe that his better half Meagan makes and is his family's go-to recipe.

Today we are setting the table with pretty flowers. Or, as many of us here in Tennessee pronounce it, purty flares. No, it’s not about the eating. It’s about the joy and beauty flowers add to this life. That little touch of grace to the table, the home, or that person in need or celebrating a special event. 

Today, my guest is Susie Kawar, owner and operator of Little Mountain Flower Farm, located in Maryville, TN. Susie grows her flowers and puts together farm-fresh floral arrangements by hand in her floral studio right on her family’s farm. 

She, her husband, and her children grow these flowers with sustainable, regenerative growing practices. In addition, they have a sweet yellow dog named Paris that found them when they lived in Paris, TN. This is an inspirational story of a person who has teamed her creative skills with a firm knowledge base in agriculture and has made a living for herself and her family doing something that she loves to do that brings joy to others. She will also share one of her go-to recipes for a refreshing tabouli salad.

Also, in Fred Sauceman’s Pot Luck Radio series, he features one of Tennessee’s oldest restaurants - Nicks - of Kingsport, TN.

Today, we set the table with some good food and memories in honor of Mother’s Day. First, we’ll visit Mary Lynn Snyder, who shares memories of growing up in the R.C. Tway coal mining camp outside Harlan, KY. Then, she’ll share her Mother Ruby’s cooking ways and a recipe for “Mama Ruby’s Creamy Lemon Pie.” Also on the program - Fred’s Sauceman shares a lovely audio essay in memory of his late mother-in-law, Elsie Maddux Derting. And I share a story and recipe about my late mother, Edwena Janie Clayton, Mississippi, and kilt salad for supper.

We set the table with cast iron, cornbread, and some cornbread cousins. Amy’s guests include the winner of the 25th National Cornbread Festival Cook-Off, Veronica Callaghan. CEO Emeritus and Board Member of Lodge Manufacturing, Bob Kellerman, about his art creations he makes out of recycled pans and parts that he calls Pan Heads. Also, one of the founders of the Southern Foodways Alliance and James Beard Award-winning food writer, Ronni Lundy, with cultural perspectives on sugar, or no sugar in cornbread, and her tao of cornbread.