okra. Issue 7, 2019 Preview

o k r a.

R E A L

S O U T H E R N

T

ISSUE NO. 7T

2019

C U L T U R E

UniquelyEnduring

southern Display Until April 30, 2019

Display Until July 30, 2019

DELTA HILL RIDERS African American cowboy TEXAS TWO-STEPExploring the SAFEKEEPING culture of the Mississippi Delta Pontotoc Vineyards takes two Virginia Willis keeps our SLEEP IT to keep this dream a reality Southern foodON heritage alive

FIELD TO FORK Alabama friendship built from hard work

Luxury linens fresh from the family ONinPOINT farm northeast Alabama

Joyous adventures await on Algier’s Point in NOLA

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54: FAMILY

Carl and Frances Money turned Pontotoc Winery into a family affair

64: FRIENDSHIP

David Bancroft and Josh Hornsby are driven by the land and a kinship

STORIES 74: COOKING

Virginia Willis is the unofficial teacher of Southern cooking

84: SPORTING

Sea Island, SC is the perfect spot for a sailing regata

Our Designers make it easy for us to make a statement

Photography by Jody Horton

92: STYLE

CHAPTERS EDITORIAL

34

PG 8: EDITOR’S LETTER

What makes us uniquely Southern?

PG 12: MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Camp Twin Lakes in rural Georgia offers more than the usual camp experience

TO DINE SOUTHERN PG 34: THE SOUTHERN TABLE Smothered okra is more than just a base

PG 39: GATHERINGS

Serving more than BBQ in Nashville

PG 46: ON OUR PL ATE

PG 132: MAGEE’S SOUTHERN ACCENT

Chef Ross Burtwell serves up tastes of Texas

PG 48: IN OUR GL ASS

Somewhere over the rain blues, the unsung question was .... To Juke or not to Juke?

Let’s talk about the Birds and the Bees

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118

18 SOUTHERN COMFORTS

A ROAD LESS TRAVELED

PG 18: FORGING AHEAD

PG 118: WANDERING

Jed Curtis hammers it home in Roanoke, VA

Discover 19th Century rivertown ambience in Algier’s Point in NOLA

PG 22: BY SOUTHERN HANDS

PG 124: FIND YOURSELF

You’ll want these finds made by locals

What to do in Tallahassee, Florida

PG 26: PAGES

PG 129: SOMETHING ELSE

Author Susi Gott Séguret shares memories of growing up in rural Appalachia

PG 28: LISTEN UP

Visit the Mug House in North Carolina and feel free to forget your coffee

Mississippi’s “Kingfish” is the newly crowned King of the Blues

SOUTHERN SNAPSHOTS

PG 30: LOOK FOR

PG 100: ALONG THE ROAD

Charlottesville, Virginia’s Lowland Hum sings with quiet strength

PG 134: WHERE WE WENT

O. Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia is a photographer’s shrine to steam locomotives

Pulling together to revitalize the small town of Waxhaw, North Carolina

PG 106: SOUTHERN C HARACTER Louisiana’s Rocking Reverend Bill Miller

PG 108: L AY OF THE L AND

Our readers submit photos of their special Southern places and people

FRONT COVER

Friends in a pickup truck at sunset in rural Texas.

Photographed by Cavan Images

5

STAFF Scott Speakes Publisher Genie Gaither Jones Editor-in-Chief Rebecca Cashwell Design Director Steve Ransom Digital Imaging Specialist Tom Ramsey Matthew Magee J. M. McSpadden Contributing Editors Richard L. Jones Copy Editor Alisa Boone alisaboone@okramagazine.com Advertising Advisor

Advertising Sales Specialists Kris Schultz North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia kschultz@cherokeemediagroup.com Carolyn Terry Georgia, South Carolina carolynterry@mindspring.com Theresa Myles Alabama, Mississippi, Florida Panhandle tmyles6073@gmail.com Brittany Sanders Arkansas, West Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Central Florida, Louisiana brmcdonald45@gmail.com All other States Scott Speakes scott@okramagazine.com

Published by Southbound Publishing, Inc. P O Box 4107 Cleveland, MS 38732

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EDITOR’S LETTER

What makes us uniquely Southern? It’s more than just being born below the Mason Dixon line.

In our trav-

els, we are often asked why we want to tell stories about Southern culture? What do we find so fascinating about them? Aren’t we embarrassed being from the South? Don’t we want to change things? Being Southern, both born and raised here, those are such perplexing questions and we often wonder how we should address them. After all, those answers seem obvious to us, but they aren’t to a lot of people. We accept there is a history unlike any other that we wish hadn’t happened but we aren’t trying to hide it. But alongside the bad, there is so much good. These are the stories we want to share, the stories that tell about the things that represent our unique

FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF VIRGINIA TO THE TEXAS PLAINS THERE IS A S O U T H E R N WA Y O F L I F E A N D I T BEGINS WITH HOSPITALIT Y AND A PROPER EMPHASIS ON GOOD COOKING. Winifred G. Cheney

Southern culture. The farmer still working the land his ancestors settled.

The accountant

who couldn’t wait to leave his small town but has now returned. The craftsman keeping true to his art. The unlikely friendships. These are just some of the many things that make the South special to us ¬¬– its people, places and things. In these crazy times, it seems being

different is frowned upon, but in the South, we applaud those differences. We might not always approve, but we’ll give you credit all day long for having gumption. Embracing our differences, taking risks, carrying on traditions, closeness of family, love of food (this one should go without saying), and yes, our history. This is the South to us, and we love it. Political satirist and journalist, P. J. O’Rourke, said it best, “The South is America. The South is what we started out with in this bizarre, slightly troubling, basically wonderful country – fun, danger, friendliness, energy, enthusiasm, and brave, crazy, tough people.” Yes. We couldn’t agree more.

On another note, we want to give a big shout-out to Vera Stewart for her enthusiastic embrace of okra. We have entered into a partnership with the VeryVera Show for her current season. You’ll find some of the people and things from the pages of okra featured on the show. If you’re lucky enough to live in one of her viewing areas you are in for a real treat. Vera Stewart is a true Southern fireball with loads of gumption and fantastic ideas.

We just know you will love watching her as much as we enjoy our relationship with her. Visit her website veryvera.com to find a market near you.

Scott Speakes // Publisher

Genie Gaither Jones // Editor-in-Chief

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: In the print version of Issue 6 we mistakenly credited the wrong photographer for the Chelsea Lovitt photos. The photos were taken by Laura E. Partain. We offer our sincere apologies to Laura.

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ISSUE NO. 7

CONTRIBUTORS JODY HORTON is a food & lifestyle photographer. His editorial and commercial clients include Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Garden & Gun, Texas Monthly, Jack Daniels, Whole Foods, Shiner Bock & YETI. He works both on location and in his daylight studio in Austin, TX. jodyhorton.com

ANGIE MOSIER is an Atlanta-based food writer, stylist and photographer using a journalist’s approach and a culinary background. Angie’s work has been published in the New York Times, numerous magazines and her essays on Southern food are a part of the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. She wrote the 4th installment of the Short Stack Edition cookbooks titled “Buttermilk” and has co-authored cookbooks with Chef Jose Santaella and Chef Eric Ripert. Angie has photographed cookbooks for John Currence, Virginia Willis, Kevin Gillespie, Cheryl and Griffith Day, Eddie Hernandez, Todd Richards, John T. Edge, Eric Ripert and is currently collaborating on a book with Chef Marcus Samuelsson. She has worked as a stylist on cookbooks by Sean Brock, Vivian Howard and Virginia Willis. Angie is a proud member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and is currently the Atlanta Chapter President of Les Dames d’Escoffier. placematproductions.com

JENNIFER STEWART KORNEGAY is a freelance writer and editor based in Montgomery, AL. Her work has appeared in Garden & Gun, Southern Living, The Bitter Southerner, The Local Palate, thekitchn. com, Bake From Scratch, Paste, Travel&Leisure.com, Nashville Lifestyles, Birmingham magazine, Alabama magazine, Georgia Magazine, Alabama Living magazine and more. She’s interested in everything, will write about almost anything but most often reports on Southern culture, food and travel. jenniferkornegay.com COLLEEN DUFFLEY has been shooting people, places, and things around the world for 30 years. With proven insight, experience, and unique vision, Colleen Duffley Productions is hired to concept, produce, art direct, design and photograph national and international ad campaigns, editorial projects, catalogues and much more for elite clientele. A total foodie, she loves to cook and travel. www.colleenduffleyphotography.com TOM RAMSEY cooks, eats, drinks, writes and does other good and noble works in New Orleans. He and his wife reside in the 300-year-old neighborhood of Algiers Point in a great old house filled with art (never enough) and cats (perhaps too many). info@tomramsey.com

10 okramagazine.com

ISSUE NO. 7

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE

“ CAMP IS ABOUT DISCOVERING YOU ARE BRAVE AND NOT FACING THIS WORLD ALONE.

“

12 okramagazine.com

ISSUE NO. 7

Challenging Lives

THIS SUMMER CAMP IS ABOUT MORE THAN C ANOEING AND GAMES Written by Alicia Porter / Photography Courtesy of Camp Twin Lakes Camp. The word itself brings many memories to my mind; the crisp cool air in the morning as you walk to the dining hall for breakfast, the feel of a chilly, wet life-vest slipping onto your arms for canoeing, the smell of the horses from the stables, but mostly the bond created sharing laughter with new friends while enjoying the freedom from a parent’s watchful eyes.

For most of my childhood I went to camp as a camper and as I grew older, returned as a counselor. I learned to be independent, creative, brave and flexible away from the safety-net of my parents and it never crossed my mind that there might be kids who didn’t have the freedom to experience camp.

But as an adult have you ever stopped to think about those kids who can’t go to camp during the summer? The ones who have chronic disease or spend their lives in a wheelchair or on crutches? Or have been diagnosed with cancer?

Neither had I. That is until the spring of 2003 when a good friend who was a transplant coordinator for kids in liver failure, asked me if I could help out with arts and crafts and be a cabin mom for nine year-old girls at a camp very dear to her heart. “Camp Independence” was held at a facility called Camp Twin Lakes in Rutledge, GA every summer for 6 days. Since I loved camp and worked in the creative field, I enthusiastically agreed without knowing anything about it. Camp is camp, right? Well, this week of camp would change my life forever and create a new direction for the rest of that life.

Volunteers consisted of doctors, nurses, med students, past campers and people like me with no medical background. At orientation I learned the kids coming to camp were dealing with chronic health issues involving their major organs (heart, kidney, liver).

It seemed pretty unbelievable and I assumed meant we would be sitting around doing non-active camp things – arts and crafts, ceramics, board games etc. That couldn’t have been further from the truth, but I wouldn’t know just how far until the kids showed up on that first day of camp.

On that first day of camp, as buses arrived from Atlanta, kids began to file into the gym for check-in. To check-in at “Camp Independence” meant blood pressure readings, temperatures taken, medication handed over as well as instructions from nervous parents. I watched in awe as the kids followed directions and ran to greet their camp friends. That is most of the kids. You knew who the newbies were by the terrified look on their face. I would come to learn that this look was more than a fear of homesickness, it was a feeling of “can these people really take care of me? Am I going to get sick while I am here? And, who will make sure I take the correct medication so my new liver/kidney/heart won’t fail?” I was anxious for them. But as the week went by, I learned that this place, this camp I was volunteering at, is one of the most amazing places on earth. The joy I feel keeps me coming

back every year and pushed me to return to school to become a mental health counselor working with adolescents and their families.

The idea of a facility like CTL started with the lack of an adequate place for medical staff to come and support kids who needed to get away from the hospital walls and just be a kid for a week. Enter Doug Hertz. In the early 1980’s, Hertz attended a board meeting for a non-profit called Camp Sunshine that offered many activities and support systems for kids and their families dealing with childhood cancer diagnosis. The original idea of the camp program was started by a pediatric cancer nurse practitioner, Dorothy Jordan. What Hertz learned at that meeting changed the face of camp for hundreds of kids. Typical facilities hosting camps were booked quickly and organizations with special needs kids got pushed to the end of the list. This meant the only dates available were usually when school was still in session at the beginning of the summer or when school had started back in September. Not an ideal plan for kids who already missed school for medical reasons.

Hertz began to envision a place to house camps that were “special” – a facility equipped to deal with medical issues, handicap accessibility and extra requirements not available at the existing camp facilities in Georgia. The idea became a plan and the plan attracted people who could help fund Hertz’s vision.

The first ‘friend’ was The Robert Woodruff Foundation in Atlanta. The foundation gave Hertz a promise of monetary support if he could find the land to build the camp on. With that promise of financial support Hertz took his cause to a company that owned large amounts of land around the state of Georgia. That company, Georgia Pacific, donated 115 acres located in Rutledge to build the facility. With all the pieces falling into place, the vision became a reality and Camp Twin Lakes was officially founded.

In 1993, Camp Twin Lakes opened for summer and groups lined up to use the facility. That first summer CTL welcomed eight camps including Camp Independence and Camp Sunshine all under the direction of Larry Melnick with a support staff of about 25 people. Over the summer, 800 kids were given the opportunity to just be kids for a moment in time, not defined by their illnesses or disabilities.

CTL is now 26 years old and has grown to serve thousands of kids each year as well as opening up the facility to a year round space to give groups more opportunities to support the kids and families they help. There are currently over 60 groups partnering with Camp Twin Lakes by using the facilities, hosting fund raising programs and giving financial support. Groups like Camp Kudzu for diabetics, Camp Braveheart for kids with heart disease, Camp Wannaklot where kids with hemophilia learn skills to take care of their

13

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THE RICHARDS GROUP JOB #: GRV19_029110_ 2019 Print own medical management, or Camp Krazy Legs for kids with Spina Bifida. If there is a disease or disability out there CLIENT: that affects kids, there is probably a camp available to support them. Groups are also available to help families dealGo RVing ing with issues not related to medical reasons – military families, siblings in the foster care system who have been AD NAME: separated, come to camp to spend a week together, families facing grief or dealing with traumatic brain injuries, and Legroom more. Each camp session is designed with the intention to give kids and young adults skills to use once they go back Third Pg. PUB(s): home. Programs are designed to help the kids learn how to manage their medical and emotional challenges, begin OKRA to take ownership of their own treatment and see that they are not alone in their journey. Many campers feel they Ins Dt: are defined by their illness and are used to being the only one at school with issues. When they come to camp, they are2019 surrounded by 100’s of other kids with similar circumstances which gives them the opportunity to let down their April/May TRIM: guard and allow their character to be what defines them, not their diagnosis.

Georgia currently has three camp facilities equipped to support programs set up for kids with challenging life 2.375" x 10.375" (built toissues; live) Camp Twin Lakes, Camp Will-A-Way at Fort Yargo State Park in Winder and a third operating in a partnership LIVE: N/A BLEED: N/A ACTUAL BLEED:

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with Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs. Each camp facility offers medical housing for dispensing medication, accommodating chemotherapy or dialysis interventions, zero entry pools, interactions with many types of animals, horseback riding, a farm-to-table area where kids can plant food to eat or gather the eggs for breakfast, specially designed playgrounds and recreational activities that allow participation for most everyone. The highlight is a challenging ropes course set up for team building equipped with a special lift system to allow non-mobile kids the opportunity to share in the activity with their peers.

And how did my expectations of these kids change in the course of that first week? In too many ways to count. I watched as nine-year olds with chronic illnesses adhere to strict schedules for their daily medications and special nutritional diets. I discovered most of these kids felt sick or tired more days than not, and how much time dialysis stole out of each week. I learned about hope and resilience, courage and perseverance as these kids let down their guard and bonded with each other in ways not possible outside the camp fences. They grew to realize they are not alone on this journey and their disease or illness does not define the beautiful, silly, emotional child inside. The side effects of many of their medications can deepen the feeling of being different and intensify negative self-image issues. At camp, those differences fade away. For one week out of the year, they feel like they ‘fit in’ and begin to blossom. Being in a place where everyone has some sort of issue that is challenging diminishes the feeling of being alone in the world.

I finally understood exactly what this camp experience was all about – not the arts and crafts or the canoeing or even the campfires with s’mores. Camp was about discovering you are brave and not facing this world alone.

To learn more about Camp Twin Lakes and how you can support their mission, visit camptwinlakes.org

Skip the lines, stay together, and get straight to the good stuff.

She can’t see. She can’t hear.

SHE CAN’T WAIT TO GET TO WORK

Meet Barbara. She and her co-workers at Alabama Industries for the Blind make all the military neckties for our U. S. Armed Forces.

“I love my job!

It gives me a sense of pride – and I can travel and do things for my family,” says Barbara with her infamous smile. Alabama Industries for the Blind is the state’s largest employer of blind adults. It is one of many life and job training opportunities available through the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind that serves over 26,000 infants, children, adults and seniors with hearing and vision loss in Alabama.

At Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, our students of all ages combine imagination with the right tools to prove to themselves and others that they are indeed limitless!

WWW.AIDB.ORG

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FIVE CAMPUSES IN TALLADEGA: ALABAMA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF, ALABAMA SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND, HELEN KELLER SCHOOL OF ALABAMA, E. H. GENTRY FACILITY, ALABAMA INDUSTRIES FOR THE BLIND EIGHT REGIONAL CENTERS LOCATED IN: BIRMINGHAM, DOTHAN, HUNTSVILLE, MOBILE, MONTGOMERY, TALLADEGA, TUSCALOOSA AND TUSCUMBIA I OUTREACH PROGRAMS FOR STATEWIDE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

CHAPTER 1

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

17

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

H O M E

FORGING AHEAD Written by Claudia Lynette / Photography by Scott Speakes

During a kindergarten visit to a living history museum in Staunton, Virginia,

what you need, or if the tool even exists. The other day I needed a particular

Jed Curtis first fell in love – he was entranced by the blacksmith. This passion

kind of hammer. You can’t buy them, so I sat there and hammered one out.”

was destined to grow alongside him. Even now, he dreams of fire and sparks

Curiosity drives Curtis, who is self-taught. He stops by old machine shops

and shapes that emerge from the flames.

“As a kid,” Curtis says, “you have this idea of permanence, and this guy comes in and throws that out the window. Here’s metal, but you can push it and pull it and transform it into something else completely new. It just blew

that are closing down to see if he can pick up a tool or bend an old timer’s ear. He researches old industrial journals, including a favorite coal report from 1906, where he learned which type of coal is best for smithing.

His workshop walls also serve as a reference: a white board tracks projects; hand-written signs detail what tempera-

my mind – I was hooked right there.”

In exchange for keeping his eyeglasses in-

tures make steel turn blue, red, or yellow.

tact for three weeks, Curtis’ parents bought

Skillets are stacked on a nearby table,

him his first anvil. His passion continued

waiting to be polished and seasoned. He

to grow as one of his Eagle Scout masters

creates the odd garden tool, or other proj-

built him a coal forge out of a Volkswagen

ects that tempt him to a new challenge,

bus brake drum and a hairdryer.

but mostly, he’s happy with cookware.

After Curtis graduated from Roanoke Col-

Curtis started his smithing business

lege in 2013 with a degree in chemistry, he

with his eye on architectural pieces – “I

was faced with a choice: get a “real job” or

liked the scale of it. Big heavy metal, big

answer the call of his forge. His then-fian-

heavy machinery, swinging a big ham-

cée (now-wife) encouraged him to take the

mer” – but that changed when he went

chance and set out to see what he could

to the store to buy a skillet.

“I was looking at a cast iron skillet,

build through his art.

Curtis coaxes his hand-forged skillets and

but it was kind of ugly, so I went back to

bakers, out of carbon steel discs and bars.

the shop and threw one together. I went

He hammers each one at his workshop in

home and cooked on it, and I felt like

Roanoke, where he’s kept company by his

a prospector who discovered El Dorado.”

“branch manager” Layla, an Australian

The skillet was non-stick, lighter and

shepherd, and rescued “apprentice” Ollie.

more durable than cast iron, and didn’t have hot spots.

His unassuming workshop sits on the edge of downtown, where freight trains wait to come and go, and everything – including Curtis himself – is dusted in soot. Rows of hammers and tongs

“I remember looking at my wife and thinking: This could be dangerous.

We’re gonna have to figure out how to make a lot of these.”

are hung neatly on a rack beneath a small sign that reads “Heart & Spade,”

He enlisted a couple friends – chefs – to try them out, and they soon asked

the only visible evidence of salesmanship amidst the work. He bought most

for more. Curtis worked with chefs to refine his designs, adjusting handles

of these tools from a retiring blacksmith who was happy to sell his supplies

and thickness to ensure they were easy to use and could put the perfect sear

intact.

on a steak.

“The modern stuff can’t keep up, so you’ve gotta find the hundred-year old

“It’s such a multi-disciplined craft, knowing how to make the tools to make

stuff that was built to use, not built to look at. You keep your ear out and know

the skillet, knowing how the cooks are using them. Continually learning to

19

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

make your job easier and the cooks’ job easier and bring value to what you do – I find joy in that.”

“I hate to call it an obsession,” says Curtis, “but it really is. My wife calls it a curse. You’re constantly thinking of metal, pushing and pulling it around in your head.” These daydreams result in new products, when he has time to test them. He recently created a camp spoon: a 6-inch skillet with an ultra-long handle tailor-made for cooking over a campfire, inspired by his Boy Scout days. His baking plate creates a crisper crust than you could ever hope for with a pizza stone. Any ideas that don’t work are simply recycled by 2500 degrees and the heft of a hammer.

“YOU HAVE THIS IDEA OF PERMANENCE, THEN THIS GUY THROWS IT OUT THE WINDOW. HERE’S METAL, BUT YOU CAN PUSH IT, PULL IT AND TRANSFORM IT INTO SOMETHING ELSE COMPLETELY NEW. I WAS HOOKED.” Once people have one of Curtis’ pieces, however, they tend to become heirlooms. Many people request initials or dates to be stamped into the bottom of the cookware to commemorate special events.

“Everybody talks about grandma’s skillet that’s been around forever,” says Curtis, “and now it can really be Grandma’s skillet. It’s giving you immortality.”

As Curtis advances his trade, pairing old tools and technique with modern design, he’s helping the old hammermen live on. Curtis himself, however, isn’t seeking immortality. He is pursuing that shifting permanence that called to him so long ago: the siren song of a bar of steel, waiting for his hands to make it what it will be.

Jed Curtis’ designs are sold online at www.heartandspadeforge.com.

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