TennesseeFarmTable.com

Today, we are setting the table with Mead. My guest is Jay Martin, Co-Owner of Flora De Mel, a Meadery and full-service restaurant located in Rossville, GA, just over the state line of TN from downtown Chattanooga. Jay is a proponent of urban beekeeping. This business sprang out of he and his business partner and wife Stephanie’s beekeeping. And in this show, Jay will answer the question of …What is a demijohn.

In Fred Sauceman’s Potluck Radio Series, he features the last surviving Blue Circle restaurant in Bristol, Tennessee.

Today, we are setting the table with pant-based eating and how this helps new moms. Today, my first guest is Meik Elliott, creator, and owner of Meik Meals. 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.

Fred Saucepan’s potluck radio segment features Cherokee poet and storyteller Marilou Awiakta.

In honor of the upcoming National Seed Swap Day, we are setting the table with swapping seeds. It is that time of the year when we plan our gardens, order our seeds, and, if we are lucky, attend a local seed swap to swap seeds and stories with our neighbors.

Today, we visit with Sheila Pennycuff, a Librarian at the Blount County Public Library located in Maryville, TN, and the woman who took an old wooden card catalog and turned it into a seed library. This seed library is located inside the Blount County Public Library. It is an excellent service to the community where patrons check out seed and contribute seed back to the seed library.

I also let you know about a seed swap that will take place at the Library on January 29th, which is National Seed Swap Day. In addition to the seed swap, Deena Trimble will also talk about winter sowing and seed starting. Today we will also hear from Deena about her seed saving, swapping, and growing.

Bill Houston narrates the story of Houston's Mineral Water, New Market, Tennessee - still going strong since 1931 - Bill Houston is the the owner and operator of this Mineral Well that his Grandfather established and this is a treasured watering hole for the community.
http://www.houstonsmineralwater.com/

Bill Houston is a very gifted fine artist with focus primarily on Tennessee landscapes. He also taught fine art to students at Carson Newman University for over 40 years.  Bill is a 3rd generation, New Market, Tennessee resident.  More information: https://www.facebook.com/houstonsmineralwater/

Fred Sauceman’s Potluck Radio series features an obscure sausage called soutissa, made by Waldensians in Valdese, North Carolina with the voice of Louis Bounous who Fred interviewed in 2008. Louis died 2 years later at the age of 91.

In this episode, we are setting the table with a brand new artisanal food market in Knoxville, TN. This market is named Olde Virden's Tennessee Pepper Company Artisanal Market, and husband and wife Allyson and Chris Virden are behind this. This market showcases a variety of regionally made food products that are not necessarily found on shelves of larger stores. A marketplace to help growing food companies specializing in regionally-produced products to help grow their business.⁣⁣

In Fred Sauceman's Pot Luck Radio Series, he shares a mid-century food memory of Maude Shipley's Red and Green pair salad by way of her daughter Margaret Carr from the Central Community of Carter County, TN. And a note, none of the businesses at this market advertise with The Tennessee Farm Table.⁣⁣

Today we are setting the table with tamales and a Knoxville Tamale Tale with Historian Jack Neely, Executive Director of the Knoxville History Project. Jack lets us know the rich history of the tamale in Knoxville. It is not all ham, soup beans and sorghum in the culinary history of East Tennessee. Jack shares Knoxville tamale history dating back to as early as 1890.

Fred Sauceman shares a Pot Luck Radio series on Clara Davidson who made hot tamales for decades after taking over Mary’s Hot Tamales on Magnolia Ave a business named for her late sister.

And I share news of a book fair hosted by the the Knoxville History Project Tuesday, December 14 at 6:00 p.m. at Maple Hall, 414 S. Gay Street, Knoxville TN. All proceeds go to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Knoxville History Project.

We are setting the table with Sorghum, an ancient African Grass adopted to the southern table with a cast of characters including:

-Fred Sauceman shares a segment with Dr Mike Fleenor, Sorghum Maker.

-Ronni Lundy, 2 x James Beard award winning food writer on differences between sorghum and molasses.

-Mary “Dee Dee” Constantine shares a recipe for Butternut Squash and Apple Bake using a recipe from Ronni Lundy’s book “Sorghum Savor”.

-Chef Matt Gallagher: On the topic of biscuits and Sorghum butter.

In this episode, we are setting the table with several favorite food memories involving dressing and black walnuts for Thanksgiving weekend.

- “Dee Dee” Mary Constantine (Retired food writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel, ) shares a memory and recipe for her Daddy’s cornbread dressing.

Dee Dee also shares her audio remembrance of her interview with Shirley McMurtrie of Union County TN and Shirley’s method of dry canning black walnuts along with Shirley’s recipe for Black Walnut Candy.

- Beverley Nells of Blount County TN shares her family’s dressing recipe by way Beverly’s Mama “Peggy Sue Sikes, who was from Lennox TN. Now Beverly’s Mama Peggy Sue Sikes is gone, Beverly is the person in the family who makes this dressing for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. This is a cornbread and toasted white bread dressing recipe.

- And in Fred Sauceman’s Potluck Radio series - we revisit his segment on the historic happening of turkey herding in Tennessee

Today, we are setting the table with news about a brand new cookbook from Bales Farms written by Aliceson Bales. She has been a visitor several times on this show, before. Aliceson, her husband Barry Bales, and their 14 year old son Marshall own and operate Bales Farms in Mosheim, Tennessee. A 6th generation family farm.

Today Aliceson is going to share information with us about lard from pasture raised animals. The differences between lard, how to render lard, some of the nutritional benefits in lard, and cooking applications.

Dolly Parton wrote the forward for this brand new cookbook that Aliceson wrote, and I want to share that with you .

And, Aliceson shares a recipe from her new cookbook with us for white cheddar pimento cheese. She suggests pulling this out to handle the crowd when they first show up at the house for Thanksgiving.

Also, Fred Sauceman has a really neat segment on the historic happening of Turkey Herding in Tennessee.

Today, we are setting the table with an organization called the Farmer Veteran Coalition. This is a National Organization with a TN chapter and the work of this organization is pretty straight forward. They help veterans become farmers with support, education, networking, and resources.

We visit with Jim Artman, who is a Veteran having served 8 years in the Army, a former sniper, and founder of Appalachian Grit, a yard to table agricultural company located in Knoxville. He battled his own serious case of PTSD with nutrition, exercise and gratitude and he feels it is a mission to help other people in the community to gain greater access to nutritious foods by helping to build and advocate for healthy foods, community food gardens, urban agriculture and food systems.

Jim is also Vice President of the TN Chapter of the FVC and he’s going to let us know of the important work of this organization.

Jim will also let us know about a FVC conference that takes place in Knoxville in just a couple of weeks November 17, 18,and 19th.