Food+Drink
Featured
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Healing Plants of The Smokies
Herbs, flowers, saps and roots have captivated me for almost a decade. After experiencing the power and healing properties of dried herbs and essential oils, I became a true believer in nature’s ability to support the health of the human body. Read more
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The Delights of Vegetable Mixes
Late summer, with the high country edging into the often stifling heat and humidity of Dog Days, finds mountain gardens at their peak of productivity. Read more
Gifts from the Gardening Gods
Every gardener, whether of the minimalist pots and raised beds on the patio clan or of the full-blown frustrated farmer of the half-acre patch persuasion, knows that their labor produces distinctive rewards that satisfy, in terms of tastiness. Read more
Apr 1, 2022
Traditional Mountain Drinks
In its widest sense, writing about food means embracing liquid nourishment and celebratory drinks. So, let’s celebrate traditional mountain beverages meant to warm the inner man, lift the spirits, and in some cases, “lighten one’s load.” Read more
Feb 1, 2022
High Country Country Foods
“A body can get the miseries or suffer from mollygrubs most any time,” my Grandpa Joe used to say, “but somehow they seem to come most often in the dead of winter.” He had what he considered surefire remedies for these ailments. Read more
Dec 1, 2021
Time of the Season
Around Labor Day, when the first cool breeze rolls through the ancient mountains of Southern Appalachia, so, too, is the indication that fall is just around corner. It’s also the signal to harvest the bounty of another growing season. Read more
Oct 1, 2021
The Delights of Dried Food
In my youth, and to a far greater degree one or two generations earlier, hardy mountain folks living close to the land relied heavily on curing, pickling, and drying to preserve foods. Read more
Oct 1, 2021
The Many Pleasures of Pickles
Pickling has always been important to residents of the Smokies and other portions of the southern Appalachian highlands. Read more
Aug 1, 2021
Courtesy of Jim Casada
Trout on the Table
One of the more frequently used quotations from 19th century wilderness wanderer, writer, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau suggests that “some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after.” Read more
Jun 1, 2021
A Yearning for Yard Bird
In past generations, chickens were as much a part of normal mountain homesteads as bedsteads or corn cribs. Variously known as yard birds, preacher birds, and Gospel birds, as well as chickens, they had a myriad of virtues. Read more
Apr 1, 2021
