TennesseeFarmTable.com

James Gann, a music educator in Blount County, Tennessee, won a blue ribbon for his pumpkin pie at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center. James tells us about the type of pumpkin he grows and his pie. Haylee Gibadowski describes how to process a fresh pumpkin for pies and shares her recipe for a delicious gluten- and dairy-free pumpkin pie. (Recipe below — keep scrolling.) Fred Sauceman’s Pot Luck Radio series features novelist Adriana Trigiani, author of Big Stone Gap, Milk Glass Moon and Big Cherry Holler. She describes her Appalachian autumn memories and shares a story involving Elizabeth Taylor and choking on a chicken bone.

Today, we are setting the table with a traditional food of Appalachia, apple butter. Each year in the fall in the Mountain South, you can find pockets of people who get together and cook down bushels of apples, sugar and sometimes cinnamon into this biscuit-slathering favorite. It is one of those old-fashioned foods that is still a favorite on dinner tables near and far and makes a favorite gift for the holidays. Almost as important as the final product is the sense of community and preservation of culinary traditions that these “apple butter makings” preserve. Our featured guest is Derek Blankenship, who is an orthopedic therapist at a long-term health care facility in East Tennessee. Derek and his family keep a family tradition of making apple butter each fall in Fall Branch, Tennessee. The recipe they use dates back to 1905. Fred Sauceman, professor of Appalachian studies at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, shares a segment on apple butter making in the Mountain South and a recipe for sausage balls with apple butter. And I, Amy Campbell, also share a recipe for apple butter pork roast from Allrecipes.

Iva Spoon Wilde with Cast Iron Cornbread, make your own butter, fried peach pies.
Mary “Dee Dee” Constantine with a recipe for Vietnamese Beef Stew.
Fred Sauceman’s “Pot Luck Radio” segment with “Pal” Kenneth Barger, the man who created an upper East Tennessee favorite eating establishment “Pal’s Sudden Service”.

Cast Iron Rescue, Rehab, and Cornbread with Dr. Katie Hoffman Cast Iron, and Cornbread, two staples of the Appalachian table. My guest is Dr. Katie Hoffman who describes how she and her husband Brett Tiller created a business called Vintage Kitchen, Cast Iron and Collectibles, and how they rescue and rehab cast iron and resell their finds at their cast iron pop up clinics that they conduct from time to time in Tennessee and Virginia. They call these sessions they hold “Cast Iron Clinics”. They sell cast iron and ship it all over the country and will also take in your old, sad, probably rusty and pitted heirloom cast iron, and will rehab it for you so it can be brought back to it’s useful life once again. Also, Katie is also going to let us know how she makes her cornbread in a cast iron skillet. In Fred Sauceman pot luck radio series, he his subject is “Gritty Bread”.

Bill Houston narrates the story of Houston's Mineral Water which is still going strong since 1931. Bill Houston is the owner and operator of this Mineral Well that his Grandfather established. This well is a treasured watering hole for the community of Jefferson County, TN and beyond. It is said to have healing properties. The water healed Bill’s Grandfather after he had a dream to dig the well. Bill Houston is a gifted fine artist with a focus primarily on Tennessee landscapes. He also taught fine art to students at Carson Newman University for over 40 years. He used to teach his lecture on how to draw in perspective with the help of his Spice Girls ruler. Bill is a 3rd generation, New Market, Tennessee resident, a Tennessee treasure, and a fabulous storyteller.

A visit with Singer and Songwriter Sarah Pickle, a Tennessee Treasure, program director, and fiddle instructor with Smoky Mountain JAM, Junior Appalachian Musicians program. I also asked her how she wrote her song The Piney Rose and about her chicken and dumplings.

JC Holdway memories with Chef Joseph Lenn and his Grandmother and Mother. Plus Chow Chow from the Carter Family. Memories of J.C. Holdway from his sister, Juanita Holdway Evans; Chef Joseph Lenn; and her daughter, Emily Lenn. Fred Saucepan shares Joe and Janette Carter’s Chow Chow recipe and kitchen memories. Today, I went to the deep freeze and pulled out a recording that I made in 2016 with Chef Joseph Lenn, Joseph’s mother (Emily Lenn), and a late friend of mine, Juanita Evans, who was Joseph Lenn’s grandmother and the sister of J.C. Holdway. J.C. Holdway is the namesake of the downtown Knoxville restaurant created by Chef Joseph Lenn and named after his Uncle Joe. The restaurant, J.C. Holdway, has been in the news lately, receiving the prestigious designation of “Recommended” by the renowned Michelin Guide in its inaugural regional publication of restaurants in the Southeast. Chef Lenn is also a James Beard Award–winning chef. I thought it would be a great time to play this recording we made together before he opened his restaurant. I (Amy Campbell) am an artist, and I wanted to paint a portrait of Uncle Joe as a kind of encouraging gift to Chef Lenn before the restaurant was created. You may have seen that painting, along with my portraits of Allan Benton, Eugenia Duke, Bill Best, and John Coykendall at J.C. Holdway.Keep scrolling to see those images below. We also hear a recording by Fred Saucepan with memories from Janette and Joe Carter (children of A.P. and Sara Carter of the original band The Carter Family) as he shares their recipe for Chow Chow.

Our guests are Rick Riddle of the Winery at Seven Springs Farm and JD Dalton, Vineyard Manager of Tsali Notch Vineyard in Monroe County, TN. They will share with us the history, taste, and nutritional properties of this indigenous grape to the Southeast, and both Rick Riddle and JD Dalton will speak on the topic of Muscadine wine.

JFG Coffee, “The Best Part of the Meal", a Knoxville, Tennessee staple is the focus of my latest podcast and radio broadcast. I’ve got a "mess of guests and here’s the line up::⠀
•Bill Houston (Owner of Houston’s Mineral Well and fine artist extraordinaire tells us all a story about a former New Market TN neighbor who came up with the tag line “The Best Part of the Meal”. ⠀
•Tinah Utsman shares memories of her father “Coffee Jack” who was President of JFG Coffee during the 1982  Knoxville World’s Fair. ⠀
•Mary “Dee Dee” Constantine has a recipe for coffee and brown sugar steak rub.⠀⠀
Hope you can join us on us by radio, or by podcast (link to podcast is in the bio up there) Thank you for listening to these stories and recollections of foods and agriculture from Tennessee. ⠀

A visit with Singer and Songwriter Sarah Pickle, a Tennessee Treasure, program director, and fiddle instructor with Smoky Mountain JAM, Junior Appalachian Musicians program. I also asked her how she wrote her song The Piney Rose and about her chicken and dumplings on my latest radio broadcast and podcast.