TennesseeFarmTable.com

Today, we are setting the table with special growers, an East TN makers market, and a young entrepreneurial fellow who has his own flavored tea and lemonade stand.

Today, our guests are Kent Davis, one of the parents who created a non-profit organization called Special Growers in Maryville, TN. Special Growers grow culinary herbs and fresh-cut flowers. In addition, they partner with several regional restaurants and offer meaningful job training and employment to special needs individuals post-high school.

We also visit with Debra and Miller Dean. Debra is a baker, a maker, and one of the founders of the ETMM markets held biannually on the campus of Maryville College.

I love to feature young entrepreneurial individuals through regional food or agriculture on this show. We also visit with Miller Dean, Debra’s fourteen-year-old son, who has a flavored tea and lemonade booth at these markets.

Look at all these ribbons Marshall Bales won at the fair this past year! This 15-year-old farmer describes his egg business at Bales Farms, Mosheim, TN. Lady Farmer Aliceson Bales shares her Mother's famous deviled egg recipe plus tips on peeling the eggs more easily. And Karen Zorio shares her recipe and story of Hot Cross buns.

We welcome spring in Tennessee with Clint Smith’s Small batch Tennessee maple syrup doings. And Author, Podcaster, gardener, and YouTube channel favorite “Digging It,” Kelly Smith Trimble on the topic of Asparagus.

How does a struggling self-described hillbilly ham smoker turn into THE man on hams and bacon? Dearly loved by locals, chefs, and customers across our nation, here is his story of taking a wise chance with his business and how that has paid off.

Today we are setting the table with a good ole fashioned morel mushroom foraging in search of a wild food that delivers the umami taste. My guests are Chris Burger Farmer, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Century Harvest Farms Foundation in Greenback, TN. Chris was kind enough to invite me on a morel hunt for this mushroom that only appears from late March through the first few weeks of April annually in Tennessee. We also will be joined in the kitchen at Century Harvest Farms Foundation by Chef Robert Allen. He will share how he cooks morel mushrooms and what he pairs them with.

Our guests are Alyson and Chris Virden of Olde Virden’s Tennessee Pepper Company and their new Artisanal Food Market located in Knoxville, plus Aliceson Bales, of Bales Farm with a refreshing springtime recipe for chilled Strawberry Soup. The Virden’s hosts a spring pop-up market with 10 participants offering artisanal foodstuff and products.

Our guest is Stephanie Carlson of SoKnoSourDough - a sourdough bakery in South Knoxville, TN. Stephanie had no plans of ever becoming a baker. Today, we will hear how she got into this line of work, where her starter came from, some of her products, and how she equips the community to bake sourdough for themselves.

Also on today’s program in Fred Sauceman’s Potluck Radio series he features novelist Adriana Trigiani on culinary cultures

Amy Dawson and Mike Costello are farmers, chefs, owners of Lost Creek Farm, a historic family farmstead located in Harrison County, West Virginia. They describe their cuisine as Story-Rich, Heritage-inspired - Mountain Cuisine. They have been nominated for a 2022 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef, Southeast!. We recorded together in 2016, and I am so happy that they have turned their vision for revitalizing this family farm into a reality. Also, Fred Sauceman with a story and recipe from the late Raymond Bautista, Elizabethton, TN.

Tyler Rogers from Chattanooga, Tennessee, makes wooden chairs, the old-style way with hand tools. His chairs are as beautiful as they are functional. Tyler also shares his Grandmother Wyline Lewis's squash casserole recipe. Also, Fred Sauceman shares ham smoker Allan Benton's Red Eye Gravy recipe.

Today, we are setting the table with Asian baked goods and Tennessee Wagyu beef. My first guest is Jessica Carr, a young entrepreneurial woman who created Girls Gotta Eat Good, Asian Bakery. Knoxville’s first Asian bakery. Jessica turned her love of baking, many of her mother’s recipes, and a daring leap of faith after prayer into an innovative business, and she is seeing good results. An inspirational story.

In Fred Sauceman’s pot luck radio series, he visits with Ron Hawkins of Hawk Nest Farms, a wagyu beef farmer located in the Greene-Washington County area of Tennessee.