The 'Sip | winter 2016

WINTER 2016 $4.95

Experience a ‘Sip of the South

TREE

HOUSE

magic spot in Mendenhall OUTSIDE:

Canning Deer Meat

meal-planning for outdoorsmen

Dairy

FARMS

Local farm families 'milk it' statewide

Also: Smyda Woodworking • Jackson Bassist Nellie Mack • Tom's on Main in Yazoo City

2

Winter 2016

the‘

PHOTO BY RORY DOYLE

sip

CONTENTS

features Page 8

Dairy Farms Mississippi dairy farmers make milking and selling a family affair statewide with a growing demand for fresh and local dairy.

COVER SHOT

A miniature jersey cow named Emily at Southern Touch Farm poses for the camera.

Page 20

Page 42

Brand New Blues

Smyda Woodworking

Delta Blues Rice brings new life and value to the ancient crop and sends Delta-grown rice to kitchens and restaurants nationwide.

A childhood passion for building turns Brandon man on to a career of making one-of-a-kind woodwork creations and furniture.

Page 28

Page 60

Portrait: Emma Crisler

The World's Largest Man

Port Gibson Reveille editor/publisher has never missed printing an issue of the newspaper she unexpectedly inherited from her husband.

Author Harrison Scott Key shares humorous tales about growing up in Mississippi in his first book.

Photo by Melanie Thortis

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CONTENTS

the ‘

sip

departments IN EVERY ISSUE

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4 « Editor’s Note 5 « Sipmag.com 6 « Spotlight: Contributors 36 « ‘Sip Trip: Corinth 52 « ‘Sip of Nature: Kombucha 58 « ‘Sip and Read: Mississippi Nonfiction 64 « The Last ‘Sip

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FOOD 18 | Tom's on Main Foodie uses unique eats to brighten downtown Yazoo City Contents page photo by Melanie Thortis

FASHION 26 | Liz Henry Jewelry Sisters combine skills to make designer jewelry household name Contents page photo by Melanie Thortis

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MUSIC 38 | Nellie Mack First lady of bass takes Jackson by storm with musical talent Contents page photo by Melanie Thortis

LIVING 48 | Johnny Knight Tree House Tree house in Mendenhall gives insight into its creative builder Contents page photo by Melanie Thortis

48 OUTSIDE 54 | Canning Deer Meat Nathan Beane cans meat from his hunts for outdoor feasts.

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Winter 2016

www.bcbsms.com Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, A Mutual Insurance Company is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. ® Registered Marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an Association of Independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.

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EDITOR’S NOTE

the ‘

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from the Front Porch

As we all welcome the new year and celebrate another issue of The 'Sip, thoughts of gratitude — and family — abound for me.

The holidays are behind us but the warm feeling of family lingers.

I am the youngest of five siblings, so, for me, family is everpresent, as it is for any deeply rooted Southerner. On both sides of my family, cousins are as common as cocktails, which also are usually at hand. I seem to bump into relatives — no matter how closely or distantly connected — wherever I go.

The families keep growing, too. Our gathering spot, my mom's house, where my siblings and I all grew up, once welcomed what seemed like herds of family and friends. Now, as our own families grow with new spouses and babies, we have more bodies than beds, but we always find a way. And, we continue gathering.

This issue of The 'Sip, especially, seems to capture the significance of family. Our cover story showcases three families from all over the state who run dairy farms. They give a bigger meaning to "family affair" as young and old work together to support not only their families but also the local economy and dairy production. Our Delta Blues Rice feature focuses on another group of farmers who makes rice the family business.

From making jewelry to publishing newspapers, the stories in this issue display how important family is in the 'Sip.

I am grateful not only for my own family and the families that fill the following pages, but also for the family that has grown out of our 'Sip staff, readers, advertisers and many supporters and followers. We are embarking on another year in print and this issue marks a big transition as we move from free in-state distribution to rack and subscription sales.

I look forward to growing our 'Sip family as the magazine makes its way to readers across the Southeast, sharing the stories of people, places and cultural traditions that make us who we are as Mississippians. We should all be proud of who we are and where we're going.

And, like my own big, loud, loving family, we will always find a way to gather and celebrate that. Please join me in celebrating The 'Sip. You will find information on subscribing inside this issue and online at thesipmag.com. I don't want you to miss a 'Sip.

PHOTOS BY MELANIE THORTIS

Cheers, y'all,

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Winter 2016

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SPOTLIGHT SPOTLIGHT

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a big thanks to this issue’s talented contributors JIM BEAUGEZ | WRITER Jim is a writer, musician and communications professional based in Clinton. After growing up on the Gulf Coast, Jim studied English at Mississippi State University and worked briefly in journalism before shifting to marketing communications and public relations.

His work has appeared in such national publications as Guitar Player and Systems Contractor News, as well as in various regional publications. He has earned the widely recognized Accredited in Public Relations certification and was named a Senior PR Practitioner by the Southern Public Relations Federation. Follow him on Twitter @JimBeaugez.

MARY MARGARET HALFORD | WRITER Mary Margaret is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, where she served two terms as the executive editor of The Student Printz campus newspaper and won awards for breaking news coverage, feature writing and general excellence. She spent three years as a news intern at The Vicksburg Post before working at The Sun Herald in Biloxi as an education and weather reporter. Mary Margaret now lives in Vicksburg, where she is an editor at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center.

MAGGIE INGRAM | WRITER A native of McComb, Maggie started writing for her hometown newspaper at 13. She studied print journalism at the University of Mississippi and worked as a features reporter at The Enterprise-Journal and The Vicksburg Post. Maggie has had work featured in The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi Christian Living and Parents and Kids Magazine.

She and her husband live in Madison with their three children.

SUSAN MARQUEZ | WRITER Susan has been writing professionally for newspapers, magazines, business journals and trade publications from her home in Madison for 13 years. She particularly enjoys writing stories about colorful people, interesting places and fun events in the South, especially when they have anything to do with food. She recently was accepted into the Association of Food Journalists and is passionate about knowing where our food comes from and how it’s prepared. “I see food as a lens through which we can view our region.”

BOYCE UPHOLT | WRITER Boyce is a writer and editor focused on stories about how people shape places — and how places shape up. Born in Chicago and raised in Connecticut, he has lived in the Mississippi Delta for six years. A graduate of Haverford College and current MFA candidate at Warren Wilson College, Boyce is a contributing writer at Delta Magazine, and his journalistic pieces have appeared in Bitter Southerner, The Local Palate, Roads & Kingdoms and Mississippi Magazine. Read more at www.boyceupholt.com.

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Winter 2016

SPOTLIGHT

RON BLAYLOCK PHOTOGRAPHER Photographer Ron Blaylock has been shooting professionally for more than 16 years for editorial, commercial and individual clients. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Le Monde diplomatique, Real Simple Magazine and numerous advertising campaigns. His photographs have been shown in the New Orleans Museum of Art and are in the permanent collection of the Mississippi Museum of Art. His studio/gallery is in the historic Fondren neighborhood of Jackson.

RORY DOYLE PHOTOGRAPHER Rory is a Maine native who has settled in the Mississippi Delta.

He currently is working as Delta State University’s photographer/ newswriter. When Rory is venturing outside the Delta, it’s usually for Reebok Spartan Race, a competitive obstacle racing series he photographs domestically and internationally. His client list also includes Bitter Southerner, Civil War Monitor, Penton Media, Delta Magazine and Teach for America. In 2014, Rory was an exhibiting artist in “Mississippi Rising” hosted by the National Arts Club in New York City.

™

Publisher/Editor Lauchlin Fields Photography Director Melanie Thortis Design Director Erin Norwood Consulting Editor Karen Gamble Copy Editor Olivia Foshee Outside Editor Nathan Beane Writers Gordon Cotton Elizabeth Grey Graphic Designers Claiborne Cooksey Lauchlin Fields Marketing/Sales Director Cortney Maury cortney@thesipmag.com

Sales Executive Penny Johnston

penny@thesipmag.com

JAMIE RUNNELLS ILLUSTRATOR A resident of Mississippi for 11 years, Jamie recently moved to Alabama where she is a professor of graphic design and MFA Coordinator at Jacksonville State University. A selfproclaimed foodie, she is obsessed with illustrating the things she eats.

She has exhibited her design and illustration work in national and international juried exhibitions. She has received numerous ADDY awards for her work, which has been featured in PRINT and Creative Quarterly magazines.

Interns Kimberly Eady Mary Kalusche Anna McCollum The ‘Sip is a registered trademark of Front Porch Fodder Publishing, LLC. The ‘Sip magazine is published four times a year.

Owner: Lauchlin Fields 1915 Mission 66, Suite E Vicksburg, MS 39180 601.573.9975 www.thesipmag.com editor@thesipmag.com Copyright 2016 The ‘Sip

by Front Porch Fodder Publishing, LLC Reproduction of any part of this publication is strictly prohibited.

Dairy

FARMS Local families keeping it real one jug at a time

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Winter 2016

FAMILY AFFAIR The Mauthe family, from left, Kenny Mauthe, Jamie Mauthe, Lydia Tullos, 8, Katie Cutrer, Holden Cutrer, 9, Sarah Mauthe Tullos, Luke Tullos, 6, and Daniel Mauthe stand together on the family farm at Mauthe's Progress Milk Barn.

Hours before the sun comes up in Progress, Mississippi, 55-year-old Kenny Mauthe is beginning what usually becomes a 10-plus-hour day at Mauthe’s Progress Milk Barn.

“There’s really no such thing as a typical day,” Mauthe said, noting that whether it’s delivering products to stores from New Orleans to Jackson, milking cows twice a day, processing the milk or baking Milklady Cheesecakes, something always needs to be done.

The hard work on a dairy farm is nothing new for Mauthe. His grandfather began dairy farming in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward in 1933. Since, Kenny Mauthe’s two daughters, 32-year-old Katie and 34-year-old Sarah, have rounded out the fourth generation of family members to work at the dairy. And every Friday, Kenny Mauthe’s 87-year-old father — who used to deliver milk door-to-door in the Big Easy — tags along for Kenny’s deliveries in New Orleans.

“He’ll tell me stories he says he’ll never forget about how he used to make sure people had milk on their doorstep before they went to work,” Kenny said.

“To be a part of this and know that we can carry it on, it’s just a great feeling,” Sarah said. “It’s what we want even for our children.”

Though the business took a hit in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina, Progress Milk Barn made a comeback and now sells to about 65 businesses in Mississippi and Louisiana, including grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants. All of that is in addition to time spent at farmers’ markets.

“We never realized there was such a demand for fresh, local milk in the marketplace,” Kenny said. “I think people are more conscientious now than ever about where they get their food and how the animals are treated. We get a lot of questions like that from our customers.”

Those same curious customers often brave anything from cold rain to heat waves so they can get their milk from the Mauthes at farmers’ markets.

TOP LEFT: A calf grazes the fields at Mauthe's Progress Milk Barn.

TOP RIGHT: A chocolate chip turtle cheesecake is ready for shipping at Mauthe's Progress Milk Barn..

BOTTOM LEFT: Sarah Mauthe Tullos prepares cheesecakes to ship for the Mauthe's Milklady Cheesecakes products at the family farm.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Four-year-old Abigail Grace Davis leads a goat around the Southern Touch Farm.

Sara Davis gives her niece, Abigail Grace Davis, a ride to the barn on her motorized vehicle at Southern Touch Farm.

Since she was a little girl, Sarah Davis has turned her love of animals into both hobby and sport by showing animals at fairs, spinning wool and making clothes, and making her own dairy food products.

“On a Saturday when it’s cold and rainy and they come anyway, it makes you feel good,” Katie said. “That customer will say, ‘Thank you so much for being here,’ and we can turn around and say ‘Oh, no, thank you for being here.’”

Seeing the smiles and knowing the customers appreciate the Mauthes’ hard work is a huge payoff.

“At the end of the week, that’s our reward; that’s what we’ve worked for,” Sarah said.

Finding milk farmers today isn’t as easy as it was in Mississippi’s past. The number of dairy cattle farms in the state has steadily declined over 30 years, said Lamar Adams, Pike County Extension agriculture agent. In 1960, Mississippi reported 3,230 dairy farms, compared with 85 today.

During that same time, however, the amount of milk per cow has dramatically increased because of advancements in genetics, forages, feeding systems, herd health protocols and other management, Adams said.

Every dairy farm in the state today, he said, is a small, family-owned business.

About 90 miles north of the Mauthes' Milk Barn, 31-year-old Sarah Davis typically can be found at Southern Touch Farm in Brandon with her family and

generally surrounded by any number of animals — including about 20 dairy goats.

At 12, Davis was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, but it’s never stopped her from constant hands-on care for the animals she loves, from her Yorkie lapdog to the miniature jersey cows in the pasture.

And like at the Mauthes’ spread, there’s never a dull day at Southern Touch Farms, regardless of the time of year. In the fall, the goats are bred, and they have their babies in the spring. As soon as the goats give birth, the milking begins for the mothers, and the feeding begins for the babies.

“We deliver the babies and raise them as our own so the mothers can be milked, so they think we’re mama,” said Susan Fitts Davis, Sarah’s mother. “We bottle feed them just like you would a human baby.”

Since she was a little girl, Sarah Davis has turned her love of animals into both hobby and sport by showing animals at fairs, spinning wool and making clothes, and making her own dairy food products.

“I guess I wasn’t always comfortable being in front of a lot of people, I never really was outspoken,” Sarah said.

“But working with the animals gave me a confidence.”

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“Our customers want to support real local farmers, and they appreciate what we do. You feel that when they come to you at farmers’ markets or even when they tell you about your products in a restaurant.

They’re thankful for what we do.”

SARAH MAUTHE

OPPOSITE PAGE TOP: Susan Fitts Davis greets her goats at Southern Touch Farm.

MIDDLE: Eggs are collected at Southern Touch Farm.

BOTTOM: Sara Davis and her niece, Abigail Grace Davis, weigh goat milk at Southern Touch Farm.

“We live life here, and we live life fully.

The goats and other animals just fit right in.”

Susan Davis

When Sarah was more mobile, she and her mother would load up some of their animals and take them to events around the area — from church carnivals to the library — and teach local children about caring for them.

“I quickly learned that the kids thought it was pretty cool. They had questions, and I was able to answer them,” Sarah said. “I felt accepted in that area, where sometimes I didn’t really feel that accepted in other areas.”

Today, the Davis family produces fresh milk and eggs, and they also have experience in making soaps, cheese and yogurt from their dairy. Sarah also spends time teaching interested students how to show animals at fairs, and their gate is always open for visitors who want to learn more about life on a farm.

Unlike Sarah Davis and Kenny Mauthe, 39-year-old Paula Brown in Oxford did not grow up on a dairy farm, and she certainly did not imagine she would wind up operating one in her adult life.

After earning a graduate degree in education and spending time working as a teacher, Brown became a stay-at-home mother in Oxford.

To make ends meet, her husband, Billy Ray Brown, took a job working for the city but felt that it just wasn’t what he was meant to be doing.

“He (Billy Ray) came up with the idea — he saw it on 'The Today Show' where someone had a very small dairy and pasteurized and bottled it right there on sight,” Paula said.

“He came in one day and said he’d put his two weeks’ notice in. I had a little doubt right then, but he’s always come through for us. It took us a while. We did a lot of research. People told us we were idiots and it would never work, but we finally got it built.”

In 2009, the Brown family dairy was up and running, starting with about four cows.

“We immediately realized that wasn’t enough, and we’ve been growing ever since,” Brown said.

Today, they’re milking about 30 dairy cows, in addition to taking care of 50 hogs and 200 beef cows. Their dairy products are sold in counties all across North Mississippi, and they haven’t missed a Saturday farmers’ market in Hernando since they started.

“It’s very busy,” Billy Ray said.

“You’re more than married to this. I bottle 120 gallons a day, and that’s on a short day.”

As a mother of three, Paula Brown enjoys the flexibility of farm life.

“We’ve practiced spelling words out there in the barn while I’m milking,” she said. “I could do my daughter’s hair for a dance out there.”

During the past 10 years, Adams said, some local dairies have entered into the value-added concept of milk production and are now processing and selling milk and other dairy products on their farms for direct marketing in their local communities.

“Our farmers have to overcome the ill-effects of the hot and humid Mississippi summers on forages and dairy cattle, but they are committed to providing the best care possible to their animals to ensure we all continue to enjoy access to fresh milk and dairy products,” Adams said.

Though the days of delivering glass milk bottles to doorsteps of homes before sunrise have passed, the families involved in the dairy business know there is still a demand for their products, and that’s what keeps them going.

STORY Mary Margaret Halford PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis

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DAIRY

Value-Added, On-Farm

Processors

Beason Family Farm Philadelphia • Beasonfamilyfarm.com • 601-416-2222 Brown Family Dairy Oxford • Brownfamilydairy.com • 662-607-5090 Country Girls Creamery Lumberton • Countrygirlscreamery.com • 601-606-1762 Mauthe's Progress Milk Barn McComb • Facebook.com/Mauthesprogressmilkbarn • 601-542-3471 T & R Dairy Farm Liberty • Facebook.com/Tandrdairyfarm • 601-248-3600

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Winter 2016

STATistics source: Mississippi State University Extension service

DAIRY Mississippi

Statistics

1960 3,230 Grade A Farms 366,000 cows

1985 840 Grade A Farms 87,000 cows

2010 130 Grade A Farms 17,000 cows

1965 2,304 Grade A Farms 260,000 cows

1990 653 Grade A Farms 62,000 cows

2011 120 Grade A Farms 14,000 cows

1970 1,636 Grade A Farms 179,000 cows

1995 509 Grade A Farms 55,000 cows

2012 110 Grade A Farms 14,000 cows

1975 1,214 Grade A Farms 122,000 cows

2000 315 Grade A Farms 36,000 cows

2013 100 Grade A Farms 14,000 cows

1980 987 Grade A Farms 98,000 cows

2005 234 Grade A Farms 25,000 cows

2014 90 Grade A Farms 13,000 cows

2015........85 Grade A Farms........estimated 12,000 cows 15

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Winter 2016

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WINTER 2016 $4.95

Experience a ‘Sip of the South

TREE

HOUSE

magic spot in Mendenhall OUTSIDE:

Canning Deer Meat

meal-planning for outdoorsmen

Dairy

FARMS

Local farm families 'milk it' statewide

Also: Smyda Woodworking • Jackson Bassist Nellie Mack • Tom's on Main in Yazoo City

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17

FOOD

the ‘

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YA ZOO C I T Y

Tom’s on Main

Restaurant owner helps brighten downtown The hot pink building on Main Street is not exactly where Yazoo County native and self-proclaimed “foodie” Thomas Johnson thought his love of cooking would lead him. The 66-seat eatery, branded with an old-fashioned sign baring its owner’s name, however, is the perfect fit. His journey to the increasingly popular and brightly colored downtown has been an evolution of sorts for the former farmer.

I

LOCAL COLOR: Tom’s on Main is located at 219 S. Main St., in Yazoo City. Tom’s is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. seven days a week and from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.

Call 662.716.0505 for info. toms.onmain.9

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Winter 2016

“I didn’t really intend on doing something like this 10 years ago,” he said. “I was a farmer, a typical cotton, soybean type farmer.”

An interest in growing tomato plants, about 10,000, led to him selling tomatoes wholesale to area grocery stores. Tom turned his tomato operation into a produce market, which grew into a take-out restaurant and later into Tom’s on Main, the full-service restaurant he now runs seven days a week for lunch and Fridays for dinner.

“So, you can see, I evolved from a farmer to a produce guy to a restaurant (owner), but my hobby has always been cooking, so that was an interest for me,” Tom said from a fourtop table inside the brick building that dates to 1905.

His journey from the field, where he farmed about 2,000 acres for 25 years, to the kitchen also was inspired by his love of experimenting with recipes, mostly dishes he learned about from watching food shows on television.

“When I was a young guy, I just would always enjoy cooking. Typically, guys when they cook, grill,” Tom said.

“Of course, I always enjoyed grilling, but I enjoy being in the kitchen trying different things. I’m an avid fan of Food Network and all those different food channels.”

Watching celebrity chefs, such as Anthony Bourdain, bring international dishes into the mainstream, and doing some traveling of his own helped Tom curate a unique menu for his restaurant.

“It’s a lot of good, ole Southern comfort-type food mixed in with some unusual items that you’ll not typically expect to find in a Southern restaurant,” he said. “The more you travel, I think, the more you appreciate different styles of food and don’t’ get stuck in one style. A lot of people don’t get too far from here and they don’t watch the travel channels or the food channels. I think, certainly, that helps broaden your view of the different food that people enjoy.”

Tom’s on Main offers a revolving menu of daily plate

the‘

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FOOD Tom Johnson, owner of Tom’s on Main in Yazoo City, delivers food to patrons of his popular downtown restaurant.

lunch offerings — everything from crispy fried chicken and chicken and dumplings to Parmesan chicken, bang-bang shrimp and tamales. Hefty helpings of vegetables are paired with each entrée. Tom’s also offers burgers, salads and specialty sandwiches, including Cubans, Reubens and Chivito, the national sandwich of Uruguay, which features grilled ribeye, ham, bacon, grilled onion, pepper jack cheese and a fried egg served on a sesame bun.

Tom’s on Main regular Griffin Norquist said the Chivito is a hit with locals as well as out-of-towners.

“A lot of people who are coming in here to eat lunch are from out of town,” the Yazoo City native said. “I think it’s wordof-mouth.”

He also attributes the success of Tom’s to its namesake.

Having Tom there to serve the guests, he said, is “the key.”

“When the door’s open, I’m here,” Tom said.

The building that houses Tom’s has been everything from a tire shop to a café. For about 30 years, it served the community and visitors as various food establishments. In fact, Griffin’s 95-year-old father has shared memories of dining there when it was Hector’s Restaurant, known for its oyster loaf.

After eight years of running Yazoo Market, Tom changed the name to Tom’s on Main. He moved downtown in 2013 as part of an ongoing renaissance of Yazoo City’s historic Main Street. About 10 years ago, Paul and JoAnn Adams began purchasing the century-old buildings along Main Street and transforming them by painting each a different bright color.

Retail shops began to fill the bottom, while the Adamses opened the upstairs as the Main Street Hotel.

Tom’s on Main has become a huge draw to downtown, especially during lunch. While it is clearly a top choice for locals — the local newspaper’s reader’s polls have named Tom’s as

having the best sandwich, best plate lunch and best waitress — it also has become a hot spot for tourists.

“We have quite a number of people come in here from European countries. They’re on the blues trail and they’ll tell us they saw that picture,” Tom said, pointing to a poster of downtown that hangs inside his restaurant. “We’re kind of a stop on the blues trail.”

Tom’s cash register, which tracks geographic locations from credit card sales, reports about one-third of his customers as new, which is evidence that his restaurant is attracting tourists regularly.

“I never would have thought that many people would have been in Yazoo City new on a daily basis,” he said.

On Friday nights, the one evening Tom serves food, a wider selection of entrees tops the menu — ribeye steak, veal piccata and rack of lamb to name a few. Sandwiches and burgers are also available. The restaurant is the only business open downtown on Friday evenings, he said, and he almost always has a good crowd.

Tom said it’s a combination of quality food and good service that keeps people coming back.

“We bring a good crowd during the lunch hour,” he said. “A lot of people come down here only to eat.”

And, although Tom never saw himself greeting guests to a restaurant baring his name, he is quite content with the steady stream of hungry patrons who enter daily.

“I went from a business where you didn’t see people into constant interaction with people. I like that.”

STORY Lauchlin Fields PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis

19

Brand New Blues

Rice brings new ideas w DeltatoBlues an age-old profession w

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Winter 2016

Near Ruleville — As he drove along the Delta

highway, Charles Lee Robinson pointed out a nook of trees rising from a patch of cultivated ground. He grew up there and, off and on, he’s worked this farm for 25 years.

It was a warm September morning, harvest season in the Delta. In the dusty fields, other men were at work — driving combines, removing polypipes, hopping up bare dirt.

Farming is an old profession — the world’s second oldest, some of its practitioners like to joke — and from the outside it can seem simple, even old-fashioned. Maybe that’s why so few young people are entering the field.

“We have two guys who are under 40,” says David Arant Jr.

He drives the truck, carrying Robinson to harvest soybeans on the far side of the Arant family farm.

“Everybody else is over 55. And nobody ever comes to look for a job.”

Yet farming has changed plenty, as Robinson’s nook of trees reveals: his old house is gone now, and he lives back in Ruleville, the closest town. These days Arant and his family use consultants, soil-moisture sensors and combines with computer consoles. As a part of his daily routine, Arant’s uncle Hugh sifts through emails and marketing reports.

David marks the fourth generation of Arants to raise crops on this land, which straddles the line between Sunflower

w

and Leflore counties. More than 90 years ago, his greatgrandfather moved from Winona to what was then just a patch of swamp. Only 33 now, Arant had planned to avoid this life. After he graduated in 2006 from Mississippi State University with a degree in civil engineering, he took a job with a firm in Jackson.

“I wanted to have weekends,” he said. “I’d been working the farm in the summers. Faming, all you do is work weekends — or Saturdays, anyway. But the first year in Jackson was hard, just being inside all the time.”

He sought as many assignments as he could that would put him outside. At one, the client, an old Delta farmer, started talking about how much he loved his work. Arant began to think of going home.

Four years ago, he sat down with his parents to explain the idea. They resisted — it was a big change, they pointed out — but eventually relented.

“It’s been a blessing,” Arant said. “My dad says it gave him new energy.”

And it’s helped spur one more change on this farm, a sharp break from the way Delta farmers have long viewed their crops. Rather than an anonymous commodity product to be shipped off on a truck, the Arants now approach their rice as a farm-to-table, artisanal product — a food whose whole story you can know.

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Delta Blues Rice (slogan: “Feed the body. Feed the soul.”) offers brown rice, white rice and rice grits. Each is sold in simple but striking Kraft paper bags. Milled and packed in small batches on the farm, this is a purer product than most of their competitors’ on grocery store shelves, Arant says. A large commercial rice label must pour together different varieties of rice from different farms, while each Delta Blues Rice bag benefits from the consistent flavor of a single rice variety.

Just what rice the Arants use is top secret, but the seeds are developed at a research station in nearby Stoneville and are inspected in the field to ensure quality. The family is now working on certified-organic rice, which requires the fields to be chemical free for three years.

“What we sell now is as close to organic as you can be without certification,” Arant said.

While living in Jackson, Arant became interested in the idea of local food. He frequented farmers’ markets and noticed that some restaurants made an effort to source from nearby farms. Now his family’s rice plays a key role in this.

“It’s very encouraging,” Arant said. “Chefs keep using it, so people must be buying it. That’s a big responsibility, too, making sure you continually put out a good product.”

Farming is a difficult business. It requires huge upfront investments in land and equipment and then the farmers are at the mercy of weather and ever-shifting commodity markets. When the price of inputs, from fertilizer to fuel, goes up, the sales price often stays flat. So margins tighten.

Farmers must focus on scale and on the bottom line.

The whole system has its critics, including many devotees of local food. They point out, for example, that despite so much farmland in the Delta, the region produces almost none of its own produce. Delta Blues Rice shows that the farm-to-table movement and large-scale commodity agriculture can co-exist, even on the same farm.

Delta Blues Rice is just one part of the Arants’ agricultural portfolio; they raise corn and soybeans, too, and most of their rice crop will be sold as seed rice or for processing at a larger mill.

“Our mill, it won’t even mill a quarter of this this year,” Arant said as he drove through the 1,200 acres of rice fields. “We’re a long way from even putting a dent in our rice crop in terms of what goes off the farm.”

But part of the attraction of starting their own label is cutting out the middlemen. By doing more work inhouse, the family is adding value to its crop, controlling a bit more of the economics. And if the business takes off, it might create a new set of on-the-farm jobs: marketers and salesmen, for example, which could bring back new generations of the family less interested in the traditional jobs of the farmer.

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Across the highway, at a just-cut soybean field, egrets pick at seeds and insects left behind in the dirt. But the rice remains, yellowed at its tops. In bursts, red-winged blackbirds lift as the truck rolls past. The fields would be harvested the following day and then sit empty until April, when the crew returns to “pull the levee” — churning up dirt to create long mounds that contain the fields’ floods.

Rice levees are a common sight in the Delta now, but not so 100 years ago. An important crop worldwide because it provides more human calories than any other, rice is a dietary staple for 3 billion people. As recently as 1956, however, Americans were skeptical. In Louisiana and South Carolina, both of which have a long history of rice cultivation, it was eaten ravenously that year—about 30 pounds per person.

Across the nation, however, the average American ate only 5 pounds. In surveys, people declared rice to be bland, hard to cook, unhealthy and too “Chinese.”

Now rice is a proud asset of Mississippi agriculture.

Between 2010 and 2014, the state averaged 182,000 acres,

almost all in the Delta, for a total annual value of $165 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service and the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Its growth in Mississippi is the result of a few very modern trends, such as advertising. The Rice Council, founded in 1959, successfully rebranded rice as a healthy, cosmopolitan food. Demographics shifted, too, and Americans became interested in alternative diets, which helped familiarize us with formerly exotic foods. Today, the average American eats 25 pounds of rice each year. Almost all of American rice is harvested in just six states, including Mississippi.

Of course, the Delta itself is a modern invention. The region was largely unsettled through the 19th century. To make clearing its swamps worthwhile, early farmers focused on large holdings of proven crops. No one tried rice much until 1948 when a Washington County farmer planted 300 acres.

After a few experiments, the crop took and, within six years, 77,000 acres of rice was planted across the Delta.

“Rice has been good to our farm,” Arant said.

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Delta Blues Rice owners are, from left, David Arant, Hugh Arant and David Arant Jr.

“If I would have known what it would take to get to this point, I might not have done it, but I'm glad we did. It's been a great learning experience, and I've really enjoyed the challenge of growing a business.”

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DAVID ARANT JR.

Much of the Arants’ soil, heavy with clay, holds water well, making it perfect land for rice. For 35 years now as they’ve rotated crops, the Arants have always planted at least 1,000 acres of rice.

They have long milled a portion of that as a hobby, eating some and giving some as gifts.

“Everybody always wanted more,” Arant said. “We never knew if it was the price or because it tasted better, the price being free.”

Two years ago, in the idle days after harvest, the family began to consider finding out by taking their own milled rice to market. Arant had been back on the farm for two harvests, and his presence meant there was someone on-hand to take charge of the new business.

“Plus I’m somewhat tech-savvy,” he said. “That helps in getting a business off the ground.”

When the new venture was launched in 2014, family members tried to keep using their old mill. That proved inefficient, so they bought a new one, as well as equipment for packaging and labeling, then renovations and insulation for the building. And, this being farming, it took a year before they had a product at all. The costs were much higher than first anticipated.

“Looking back, we jumped in naively,” Arant said. “If I would have known what it would take to get to this point, I might not have done it, but I’m glad we did. It’s been a great learning experience, and I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of growing a business.”

Now he sees real long-term profit potential. The aim, he said, is to get more and more chefs requesting the product, to get the rice into more and more kitchens.

“Just today I’ve talked to two really big distributors,” he said, as he pulled away from the fields and headed back to the shop. “They want to bring it in. I’m very optimistic.

There’s a lot on the horizon.”

Not least of all, there’s this harvest. Before the rice can be cut, the combines must be cleaned: vacuumed, then blasted with air, then worked over by hand, using a screwdriver to dig grain out of hard-to-reach spots. Because some rice will be sold as seed to other farmers, inspectors will check the machines; the presence of even a single grain will mean the whole process needs to be done again.

“It’s not an 8-to-5 job,” Arant said. “It’s a 7-to-8 job sometimes.”

Arant’s family enjoys more than selling rice; they enjoy eating it.

“My wife made a rice salad last night, with grapes and tarragon,” he said. “Once you get over the idea that it’s cold rice, it’s so good.”

The family favorite, however, is quite simple.

“Honestly, just rice and butter,” Arant said. “We’re pretty simple.”

STORY Boyce Upholt PHOTOGRAPHY Rory Doyle

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Liz Henry Jewelry

Sisters combine talents to build big business Victoria Rhodes models jewelry from the Liz Henry fall and winter collection.

One is the marketing guru, and one is the creative force. Their personalities and styles complement one another, and together sisters Christi Gardner and Julie Clark have made Liz Henry Jewelry a household name in the fashion and design world.

PORTRAIT BY MELANIE THORTIS

I CHRISTI GARDNER CO-OWNER, LIZ HENRY JEWELRY

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“I’ve always been interested in interior design and putting fashion ideas together,” said Gardner, 44. “I used to play in my mother’s jewelry box like all little girls, but I never really made necklaces myself until I got into this.”

Clark, 39, has been dabbling with crafting since she was a child, although she wasn’t exactly a natural to begin with, she said.

“When I was a kid I loved to draw and cross stitch, and I learned to crotchet and do other crafts from my grandmother. I wasn’t very good at it, but I tried. The first blanket I tried to crotchet turned out to be a small cape because it was a triangle instead of a square,” Clark said.

Gardner remembers making her first necklace sitting in her sister’s college apartment in Starkville.

“She walked in the room, and I said, ‘Hey, look what I just did,’ and she said, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s really cute,’” she said.

Gardner started with hair barrettes and necklaces that featured school logos, and soon she was making beaded necklaces.

Liz Henry — named after Gardner’s middle name, Elizabeth, and beloved Cocker Spaniel, Henry — officially got off the ground in late 1999. Clark joined her sister in business shortly after, and the brand quickly grew and was featured in local shops and boutiques, followed by showrooms in such larger cities as Dallas and Atlanta. In the first year, Liz Henry sold into about 300 stores.

Clark said Gardner taught her everything she knew in the early days, but as the years have passed they’ve both learned different skills.

“I love having an idea and seeing it come together, especially when it becomes a big seller. It really makes you feel good to know people like what you create,” said Clark.

“Sometimes when we are creating something new we won’t let each other look until there’s a finished product. We want to see the other’s reaction — love it or hate it? We are very honest with each other.”

The company originally was housed in the kitchen of Gardner’s Brandon home, then moved to a small design studio and then to a larger storefront, in Fondren, in 2003.

“At one point we had six or seven ladies working full-time to help us meet demands and make jewelry,” she said.

But when Gardner and her husband, Chris, adopted daughter Gracie in 2006, she decided it was time to scale back the business a bit so she would have more time to focus on family life. The business is now run out of a custom-built studio in Gardner’s home.

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“We still sell in about 80 stores, but we try to keep it manageable so I can be a mom, too,” she said.

Gardner said the Liz Henry style is classic, modern and elegant with versatile pieces that can be worn from day into night. Her favorite designs are earthy styles with mixed metals and stones.

“Right now I’m kind of into the boho chic style, but we’ve evolved as trends have changed,” she said. “When we first started, the floating hearts and floating crosses were big, and we couldn’t make enough of them. That first Christmas when we had our Fondren store, we would have 25 people waiting in line to get a floating heart necklace. It was insane.”

Clark said she and her sister work as a well-oiled machine in the creation process.

“I like things symmetrical and Christi is more asymmetrical,” said Clark. "She can throw things together that end up looking great. I have to start out with a plan and need things balanced.”

Liz Henry has been featured in such magazines as Brides, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living, and Cosmo Girl and has been worn by celebrities such as Hilary Duff, Hayden Pannettiere and Sela Ward.

The success of the business has really been an unimaginable dream come true, Clark said.

“We never imagined Liz Henry would be where it is today. I’m happy with how far we’ve come and am excited to see what the future brings. Christi and I laugh about how in the world we’re going to be able to do this when we can’t see anymore.”

STORY Elizabeth Grey PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis

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emma crisler Keeping The Port Gibson Reveille Alive I n k mu st b e on Emma Crisler’s ha n d s a n d in he r ve in s a fte r a ll the year s sh e h as spent as a me mbe r o f the Fo urth E state . mma is the editor/publisher of The Port Gibson Reveille, the state’s third oldest newspaper. It’s a Claiborne County weekly that was started in 1850 and has never missed an issue. In 1898, H.H. Crisler bought it, and it’s been a Crisler publication now for 117 years. Emma “married into the Reveille” as a midnight proofreader in the early 1970s.

She grew up Emma Flautt in Tutwiler, “definitely Delta,” and went to a college in St. Louis for a year, “the

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year that the cotton crop literally rotted in the fields,” she said.

“My people were insurance people. We didn’t farm, but we insured ‘em, and, if they didn’t make it, we didn’t make it.”

Reflecting on that catastrophic year, she said, “It was a very strange Christmas” and she would not go back to St. Louis, “which was fine with me.”

Instead, she entered Ole Miss, where generations of her family had gone. She graduated with a double major,

THE REVEILLE OPPOSITE PAGE: Emma Crisler stands near an old press at The Port Gibson Reveille.

ABOVE: Three generations of Crisler men stand in front of The Port Gibson Reveille, a paper that has been a Crisler publication for nearly 117 years.

BELOW: A typewriter belonging to Edgar Crisler sits dusty in the newsroom of The Reveille.

Edgar Crisler, like most children of weekly editors, grew up in the Reveille office wrapping papers for mailing and also learning to operate the Linotype machine.

English and journalism, with a minor in French. She went to work for the State Times in Jackson and, then, the McComb Enterprise-Journal.

She was also prepared to teach because “that was a time when you minded your parents, and Mother said, ‘You aren’t leaving school without a teacher’s certificate.’”

She taught English at McComb High School, loved it and, four years later, moved to Vicksburg to teach at H.V..

Cooper High School.

Her sister in Tutwiler wanted her to come home to meet a man who had seen a picture of Emma while visiting in the Flautt home. He was interested in getting to know her. So, up Highway 61 she went to meet the man who would become her husband, Edgar Crisler Jr., who had grown up in Port Gibson.

Edgar had spent some time in journalism school in Chicago, then served in the Navy before going to work for 29

TOP LEFT: Emma Crisler's husband, Edgar Crisler Jr., at his desk in The Reveille newsroom.

MIDDLE RIGHT: Mississippi Press Association awards line the walls of the newsroom.

RIGHT: Emma Crisler sits at her husband's old desk while talking about her time as the editor and publisher of The Reveille.

OPPOSITE PAGE TOP: Emma Crisler walks a copy of the newspaper back to the editing table.

OPPOSITE PAGE BOTTOM: Bound copies of past newspapers sit on shelves in the newsroom.

The Reveille is still published in the same building, but all the old-time sounds and smells of a small-town print shop are gone. Now, there’s a paneled office and modern furniture and a typewriter on the editor’s desk — Emma doesn’t use a computer or a cell phone.

Riverside Industries dealing in soybean futures and living in Los Angeles.

The instant attraction resulted in much of their courtship happening through the mail.

“You know how bad my handwriting is,” Emma said.

“He came back for a translation.”

The two became engaged — Emma got her engagement ring in the mail — the families met and a home wedding was held in Tutwiler on Sept.

20, 1969.

It was the same day of an Ole Miss football game, and some wanted Emma to change the date, but she said no. So, though all her relatives came, her uncles were all on the back porch listening to the game.

Edgar, like most children of weekly editors, grew up in the Reveille office wrapping papers for mailing and also learning to operate the Linotype machine, a Rube Goldberg device that turned hot metal into lines of type.

He had planned to stay in California, but when a boycott of white-owned businesses in Claiborne County made things pretty tight, he decided to go home to help his parents.

“So, instead of shipping my trunks to California,” Emma said. “My things came south to Port Gibson.”

Her teaching career came to an end because a ruling had been made by school officials in Vicksburg that all teachers had to live in Warren County.

To Emma, it was just as well, for she was expecting a baby.

The Reveille was published in a small, brick building on Main Street. Just when it was built Emma doesn’t know, “but it survived the fire of 1839. There was once a plaque out front that told the history, but it was knocked down by a car. It’s now in someone’s garage. I can’t remember what it said.”

The Reveille is still published in the same building, but all the old-time sounds and smells of a small-town

print shop are gone. Now, there’s a paneled office and modern furniture and a typewriter on the editor’s desk — Emma doesn’t use a computer or a cell phone. On the wall are numerous plaques awarded to previous Reveille editors, many to Edgar for his investigative reporting when he exposed several illegal shenanigans by local officials.

In the basement is the “dinosaur,” a huge hand-fed press that is totally obsolete and useless and too big for a museum display. In the back rooms are other machines from the nottoo-distant past, but there’s no use for them either.

In 1974, Edgar Sr., died, and Edgar Jr., took the reins. After a lot of study and contemplating, he made the transition from hot-type to more modern methods of printing. Emma was content to do some writing, editing and proofreading and being a mother to their daughter, Sarah Emma. But her world turned upside down on a Saturday night in 1997 when Edgar died of a massive heart attack.

Emma’s sister and her daughter, who worked for a newspaper on the Coast, stepped to the plate and published that week’s paper on time.

Emma was advised, “You’ve got to sell it, hire somebody or you’re it.”

That ink on her hands and in her veins came to the fore, and Emma became editor and publisher, never missing a deadline and publishing a creditable 100th anniversary edition of The Reveille as a Crisler newspaper.

She’s quick to give praise and credit to members of the Bufkin family, who began working for The Reveille generations ago, saying, “They are very sincere, loyal people.” Today, Martha and Kathy Bufkin set the type, and Gerald Bufkin is about as much a part of the Reveille family as is Emma who said “I wouldn’t dare tell Jerry what to do.”

With the exception of a letter to the editor or a guest column, every word in The Reveille is Emma’s.

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Emma’s roles are writing, editing and taking pictures, and you are likely to see here anywhere in Port Gibson or the remote regions of the county with her digital camera in hand.

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OPPOSITE PAGE: Emma Crisler poses on the steps of The Port Gibson Reveille mimicking a photograph taken of the former publisher H.H. Crisler Sr. (shown here).

TOP RIGHT: Emma Crisler always keeps her camera nearby to document the scenes in Port Gibson for the newspaper.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Emma Crisler shows off an award celebrating 100 years of publishing The Port Gibson Reveille.

The stories are local — perhaps sports, church events, social gatherings, agriculture — or she might take on those in the highway department who want to destroy the integrity and beauty of Church Street.

One of the plaques on her office wall is recognition of some photojournalism she did in 2001. It was given by the Mississippi Press Association, but to Emma, some awards are hardly worth it, because “I’ve got to put the paper out.”

What is the criteria for news that goes into The Reveille?

“It’s got to be worthwhile,” said Emma, who prefers not to tell her age. “There’s so much not worth reporting. I would like to have a positive front page, but you can’t make it up. You get what you get, and that’s the way it works.”

She tries to be fair, “but I cut the crap.”

An old-time expression when the paper went to press was, “We put it to bed.” Now, Emma said, “We just say we’re through.”

STORY Gordon Cotton PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis

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Take a weekend road trip to visit Smith Restaurant 603 N. Fillmore St. (662) 594-1925 Grab a delicious lunch or dinner here and then head up to the bar for drinks and live music.

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Borroum’s Drug Store 604 E. Waldron St. (662) 286-3361 borroumsdrugstore.com Borroum’s, established in 1865, is the oldest drugstore in Mississippi and offers burgers, milkshakes and even the famous slugburger.

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Corinth Artist Guild Gallery 609 N. Fillmore St. (662) 665-0520 corinthartistguild.com Here you can browse local artists’ work free of charge in quaint downtown Corinth.

Shirley Dawgs 629 Wick St. (662) 284-0111 shirleydawgs.com Located in SoCo, short for South Corinth, Shirley Dawg’s offers Southern T-shirts and other attire for both men and women.

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corinth art gallery Andie grace

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Nellie Mack

‘First Lady of Bass’ blazes music trail Like muddy water through a bend, the deep tones of a bass guitar flow heavy downstream. For Jackson native Nellie McInnis, known to her fans as Nellie Mack, the bass pulls a band’s notes together and serves as a foundation for all other instruments.

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Back to the Bass: For information on performances by Nellie Mack or The Nellie Mack Project, visit hittheroadentertainment.com/nellie-mack.

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“It is the bottom of the sound that keeps the music flowing,” said Nellie, who has played bass for nearly five decades. “It’s something that’s felt, not heard.”

Nellie started tinkering with music when she was about 10 after her brother was put in charge of her in the afternoons while their mother worked.

“He’d leave a few dollars on the top of my grandmother’s organ, and he’d teach me a song. It was almost always blues or gospel, and if I played it perfectly by that evening, I’d get the money,” she said. “I always got the money.”

By the time she was in her mid-teens, she could play anything by ear and was ready for more. For years, she’d heard the siren song of her brother’s beloved, and off-limits, bass guitar that was propped near the organ, and she could no longer resist.

“I was forbidden to touch it, barely even look at it,” Nellie said with a laugh. “But one day, he’d left it on. I could see the little red power light, and it was calling to me.”

Knowing how fast she had always been able to pick up music, she picked up the guitar and began strumming.

“There was a full-length mirror in the room, and I caught a glance at myself and thought, ‘I look good with this.’” She had found a new sound and a new love.

Her brother said that if she was going to play it, she had to learn the right way and began teaching her proper technique. Quickly picking up her new instrument, she set her sights on better-paying gigs instead of the couple of dollars her brother would leave. By her early 20s, Nellie was a regular on the Chitlin’ Circuit, the name given to the string of venues throughout the Southeast where black performers were allowed to play. It was one particular gig on that circuit that altered the course of Nellie’s music.

“We were in New Orleans in this pretty plush place,” she said. “Some guy pulls me aside and asks me to come into the back room where I see a table covered with all these papers."

“The paper had these lines with upside down golf clubs all over them,” Nellie recalled. “It was the first time I’d ever

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“I do what I love, and I do it with conviction. In music, you gotta' love this stuff to do it well if you're going to do it for long. You have to practice while everyone else is out having fun.” ~ NELLIE MACK laid eyes on whatever it was, and he picked up one of the papers and asked me to play.”

Nervous and embarrassed, she told him she would get back to him in a week.

“I was hurting on the inside because I was supposed to know what this was, and I didn’t. Nobody had ever told me what sheet music was,” she said.

Nellie went home, determined to learn what the symbols meant.

“I became hungry for education,” she said. “I was so proud.”

She enrolled in classes and eventually received a master’s degree in violoncello from Jackson State University.

“The professor switched me from the double bass to the violoncello because hauling that huge double bass up the stairs was cutting into my class time. He suggested I learn another instrument,” she said.

Nellie Mack gets called many names now, among them “Trailblazer” and “First Lady of Bass.”

“Call me what you want, but I consider myself a female instrumentalist,” Nellie said. “I do what I love, and I do it with conviction. In music, you gotta’ love this stuff to do it well if

you’re going to do it for long.

“You have to practice while everyone else is out having fun.”

Fellow musician Cedric Hollis considers her a multigenerational musician whose sound is difficult to put into words because it blends so many styles.

“She has a sound that brings up so many emotions,” he said. “Some songs make me feel excited, some put me in a mood to dance, some I just want to clap my hands.

“It brings so many memories because she knows old school music and knows nowadays music. Everyone can feel something,” Hollis said. “Her music makes you feel good when you leave a performance, and you remember it as opposed to someone just doing a song. You just want to continue to hear her play.”

Nellie’s talent has taken her as far as Belgium and Norway, but her mother’s declining health over the past several years and death last summer have kept her close to home. Nellie also has served as a primary musician for Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church for 10 years.

“You have to be able to give back to the community that gave you so much,” she said. “Anyone trying to do anything

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“I may wear callouses on my fingertips, but I'm living my dreams.” ~ NELLIE MACK

bigger than him or herself has to realize a higher power.”

Wanting a group of her own, she formed the Nellie Mack Project in 2005. In the beginning, she had to split nearly the entire fee every time they played because she wanted the best talent, and good talent is expensive. The Project has grown, but she still faces obstacles.

"Some major events are still out of reach because I’m a woman, but that doesn’t stop me from doing what I love,” Nellie said. “If you’re a female playing bass, you better be good to survive, but I don’t have time for other people to come around to the idea of a female bass player. I’m going to be out there doing what I love.”

Hollis said magic happens when Nellie picks up her guitar.

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“She has a lot of energy, period, and it turns up 10 notches when she puts the bass in her hands,” he said.

Nellie would agree.

“It’s like something else is happening. The instrument just becomes a part of me,” she said. “If you see me enjoying this thing, you can’t help but enjoy it, too.

“I may wear callouses out on my fingertips, but I’m living my dreams.”

STORY Maggie Ingram PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis

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Smyda

WOODWORKING Passion drives craftsman's builds

A master craftsman in every sense of the word, his work ranges from antique-inspired and traditional to sleek and contemporary, but every piece is one of a kind.

“I just knew I wanted to go do something with my hands. I didn’t want to spend my life behind a drawing board,” he said. “So I decided to go into the building trade."

- Bryan Smyda, Owner

BRANDON — Bryan Smyda was perfecting the creation of a gun rack in his seventh-grade shop class when he knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. It came so naturally to him that, in fact, his teacher asked him where in the world he learned such smooth woodworking skills.

Crafting and working with his hands runs in the family — his father was a renowned photographer; his grandfather, a master furniture-maker and builder.

“I got into shop class, and that light bulb just lit up for me,” said Smyda, 54. “When that class was over I was kind of heartbroken. It was one of the first classes I had been in besides an art class where I really thought, ‘Man, this is fun.’ I wasn’t crazy about learning English. I wasn’t crazy about learning math. I needed the hands-on learning.”

Once he entered high school, Smyda couldn’t wait to delve deeper into the world of woodworking.

Unfortunately, none of the shop classes he took came close to the magical “light bulb” experience he'd had in junior high.

“My 10th-grade year, the teacher just told us to read the textbook. We never even picked up a tool the whole semester, so I dropped it and took art instead,” he said.

“In 11th grade, we moved to Brantley, Ala., and there still wasn’t much of a shop class. They had the shop but no one but the agriculture teacher to teach it.”

Restless that he hadn’t enhanced his skills and not FUN TIMES Dancers take center stage, putting on a fun show for guests.

ready to forgo his passion, Smyda spent the summer using his grandfather’s old tools to build tables and other odds and ends for his grandmother.

After graduating from high school in 1980, Smyda attended Douglas MacArthur State Technical College in Opp, Ala. He enrolled in the architectural drafting and design program. While he appreciated the knowledge he was gaining, a little voice in his head nagged him to take a different path.

“I just knew I wanted to go do something with my hands. I didn’t want to spend my life behind a drawing board,” he said. “So I decided to go into the building trade. I started off as labor on a crew right out of school and worked my way up to a foreman and then a superintendent. I worked there until 1988 when I got an offer to go into business with a friend as a silent partner in a construction company.”

Three years in, the U.S. declared war on Saudi Arabia, causing an economic slump and forcing Smyda out of business in Montgomery, Ala. He didn’t stay down for long, soon going to work for Morton Buildings in sales and project management.

“I was great at the management aspect, but I just never sold anything,” he said. “That was a huge learning curve. You’re living on a tiny salary and hoping for commission. I was broke but stuck it out as long as I could go. I finally got better at selling, but it took some time.”

His determination paid off, and the company soon

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ABOVE: Bryan working with his hands to finish a project BELOW: Saws of various sizes line a wall inside Smyda Woodworking.

With most of the pieces he builds, Smyda has a vision for the finished product before he sees the path to get there.

Somehow, he knows it will all come together.

offered Smyda a territory in Mississippi a few months later.

“They wanted me to choose where to open the business in Mississippi. At that point — 1991-1992 — the building boom was just cranking up, and the Jackson area was the best place to be. We found office space to rent in Pearl. I worked night and day and really got a great clientele established,” he said.

By 1998, Smyda was feeling worn down and started to lose interest in the executive level of the construction industry. He left Morton Buildings, built his own house on 20 acres in Johns, Miss., a community just south of Brandon, and worked remodeling jobs here and there to pay the bills.

One night while watching HGTV’s “Modern Masters” with his wife, Laurie, Smyda had another “light bulb” moment. It was similar to the one in junior high school. The show featured three masters in a field of crafting.

“That night changed everything for me. I saw this guy from Pennsylvania. He had a woodshop similar to what I built behind my house, and he was building this beautiful furniture. I don’t know what it was about it, but I looked at my wife and said, ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.’ I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. My brain was working in overdrive."

The next day, after finishing a job in Madison, Smyda packed up his tools, moved them to the woodshop in his backyard and started setting up his new business, Smyda Woodworking.

“A friend had told me about this guy named Sam Maloof. He said if I was going to do woodworking, I really needed to follow this guy and do it right, so my wife went out and bought me this book about him. He is known for his rocking chairs, and she said, ‘Buy you some wood and

build one.’ Talk about intimidating,” Smyda said.

“I bought the wood, and it sat around for about four months before I finally tackled that rocking chair. It took me 200 hours to build it, but when I finished it, it was such a huge feeling of accomplishment. I put it in the back of my truck and drove around Jackson to decorators, architects, anybody who would look at it,” he said.

Smyda found a fan in Lisa Palmer of SummerHouse Interior Design.

“She took one look at it and said, ‘If you can do this, we need to talk.’

She started feeding me projects, and I started doing a little work here and there, buying more tools, and going to Sam’s conferences to learn more about his style,” he said. “I was amazed. If you just let people know what they can do, then they turn around and do it.”

Smyda said his father told him that he would never be happy in the two-dimensional world of pen and paper.

“He said, ‘You’re going to have to go three-dimensional with your stuff. I can just see it. I can tell. You’re just like your grandpa.’ And then I understood what he meant later on. I don’t mind drawing it, but I have to make it,” he said.

Smyda is a master craftsman in every sense of the word. His work ranges from antique-inspired and traditional to sleek and contemporary, but every piece is one of a kind. Smyda prides himself on crafting each piece to work with the client’s personality and style.

His work has been featured in regional and national magazines, as well as a book by HGTV designer and Jackson local Laurie Smith, and is even slated to be included in an upcoming issue of Architectural Digest.

Through it all, Smyda stays grounded by focusing on his love of the craft.

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“That night changed everything for me. I saw this guy from Pennsylvania.

He had a woodshop similar to what I built behind my house, and he was building this beautiful furniture. I don’t know what it was about it, but I looked at my wife and said, ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.’ I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. My brain was working in overdrive.’’

- BRYAN SMYDA, OWNER -

TOP: Bryan Smyda often works on his woodworking projects into the night.

BOTTOM: Finished furniture pieces display Smyda's attention to detail and style.

“This business has been one big growth spurt after another where I have to learn to grow with it and try to catch up with it along the way, but I finally feel like I’m at a point where things are running smoothly,” he said.

With most of the pieces he builds, Smyda has a vision for the finished product before he sees the path to get there.

Somehow, he knows it will all come together.

“That’s the fun of it, especially with the really challenging pieces. I never worry about it. Each piece is its own work of art,” he said.

Learn more about Smyda Woodworking: www.SmydaWoodworking.com Contact them by email or phone: SmydaWoodworking@bellsouth.net 601-591-0247

STORY Elizabeth Grey PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis

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LIVING

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ME N D E N H A LL

A Tree House

A ‘creative soul’ built a magical hideaway in Mendenhall

Tree House A tree house, a free house, A secret you and me house, A high up in the leafy branches Cozy as can be house.

A street house, a neat house, Be sure to wipe your feet house Is not my kind of house at allLet's go live in a tree house.

SHEL SILVERSTEIN

from

“Where the Sidewalk Ends”

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Between Mendenhall and Star in Simpson County, high atop a ridge and nestled between two creeks surrounded by a glorious forest, a quirky tree house rises above the ground on large cypress trunk supports. A split-log staircase winds upward under a fairy tale canopy to a welcoming space filled with objects made from nature, fairy doors and a reminder to “believe” strung from a tree branch near the entrance to the kitchen.

The tree house was the work of the late Johnny Knight, a quiet man with family roots deep in Mendenhall. Many folks say he was as quirky as the tree house he built. Others marveled at his genius, designing the architectural and engineering wonder on paper napkins — long before computers were used for that sort of thing. He built the house himself in 1971 and worked on it throughout the remainder of his life. At the center of the house is a 300-pound cylinder with beams arranged in a spider-like pattern radiating outward. Windows around the home look out

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into the surrounding treetops. A large deck extends from the back of the house, and a swinging bridge leads to a smaller deck surrounding a large tree.

A designer, an artist and a writer, Johnny Knight undoubtedly was a creative soul. He was the sixth child of Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester John Knight.

Born on Aug. 25, 1930, in Mendenhall, Johnny also was an athlete. A younger classmate from Mendenhall, John Edwards, said anyone who saw Johnny Knight play football for Mendenhall High School believes he was one of the best to ever wear the uniform.

“He could throw the football with the accuracy of a .22 rifle. He was a coach’s dream. Many athletes were in awe of how he could throw a football the full length of a football field,” Edwards said.

Johnny’s artistic ability was evident in the tigers he hand-painted on each of his teammates’ helmets. He went on to play football at Copiah-Lincoln Junior College before joining the Army with several of his Mendenhall buddies. They were stationed in Cheyenne, Wyo., where he was a cook. It was in Wyoming that Johnny developed a love for the mountains. While at the base, he painted murals on the office walls of some of the officers. When he returned home, he painted storefronts throughout Mendenhall and he painted a picture of the courthouse on a billboard along Highway 49. Today, his artwork stands in the form of a large totem pole in front of the Mendenhall library, which serves as a memorial to the artist.

Across the street at Pop’s Discount, Johnny painted the large rooster and cow on the side of the building. Up Highway 49, at Donna’s #6 Produce in Florence, he painted many of the signs seen around the building.

“He was a great friend and a great artist,” remembers Donna Harrell, owner of Donna’s #6. “I have many fond memories of Johnny and his dogs.

He once had a dog named Eastwood, and when Johnny said, ‘Make my day,’ the dog would jump up on people. He was a volunteer firefighter in Mendenhall, and he’d never leave his dogs at home because he said if there was a fire, the dogs couldn’t get out. So we ended up keeping his dogs for him if he had to go somewhere.”

Harrell remembers when Johnny was baptized.

“He didn’t bring a change of clothes, so he walked home with wet clothes on. He didn’t care, because he was so happy that day,” she said.

She remembers how kind a man Johnny was and that he’d do anything he could to help others.

Johnny Knight died in his beloved tree house on Dec. 29, 2003. The following year, his sister put the house on the market.

“She put an ad in the paper and said she was going to take bids,” said Gail Hederman, who lived in Magee at the time. “My next door neighbor went with me to see the house and she said she knew by the look on my face when I first saw it that it had to be mine.”

Hederman took her husband to see it the next day and he thought she was crazy.

“It was pretty rough,” she remembered. “My husband said it would be a big money pit, but I put a bid in on it anyway. He said mine was probably the only bid!”

Hederman got the house, and her next door neighbor gifted her with a book by John Harris of Fenwick, Scotland. Harris has written several books about tree houses and is considered an expert on the

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unique home type. Hederman contacted Harris to find out if hers was a true tree house, as it wasn’t actually built in a tree.

After a few exchanged photos and conversations, Harris came to Mississippi to see the tree house for himself.

“That was the best thing that could have happened,” Hederman said. “He appreciated Johnny’s ingenuity and craftsmanship as much as I did. He was here a few days, and said that theoretically, the house shouldn’t be standing, but there it was, over 30 years after Johnny Knight built it.”

The house had sunk a few inches on one side, so one of the first things Hederman did was to take the heavy covers off the windows.

“Johnny had them in case of bad weather, of which he was extremely afraid,” she said.

Additional weight was taken off the log supports by creating a frame for the home. A concrete pad was then poured underneath where there was once only dirt.

A friend told Gloria Lucas recently Hederman about a local purchased the treehouse built by her uncle, Johnny carpenter and jack-ofKnight, in Mendenhall. all-trades who could help her with additional renovations and restoration of the tree house.

“The first time I met Tim Hudson is when he roared up the hill on his motorcycle. As it turns out, I believe he and Johnny Knight would have been kindred spirits,” she said. “Tim breathed life back into the house. He really worked to capture the spirit of the place.”

Hudson rebuilt the tongue-in-groove ceiling himself, cutting and installing each piece. He constructed a stacked stone fireplace, and handcrafted the heavy doors and beautiful redwood slabs used for the bathroom vanity.

“Tim amazed me with his ability to turn boards, limbs, rocks and other bits of nature into works of art,” she said.

One of the pieces Tim created is a light above the bar in the kitchen.

“Johnny Knight used to drive the church bus for mission trips. He would bring back things he found along the way. Tim

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found a piece of driftwood in the shed that Johnny used a magic marker to write that he brought it back from a mission trip to Snowy Range, Wyo.,” she said. “Tim used it to construct the light fixture above the bar in the kitchen.”

Sadly for Hederman, life changes and a move to Slidell marked the time for her to sell the tree house. She contacted Sue Humphreys of RE/MAX Alliance in Brandon, her next door neighbor’s mother. Humphreys put the house on the market and in record time began getting offers from all over the country.

“It was posted on Facebook and went viral,” exclaimed Humphreys, who has been selling real estate for 47 years. “I’ve never seen anything like this!”

As fate would have it, Johnny’s niece, Gloria Lucas, called Hederman and told her she wanted the tree house.

“I told her to call Sue,” Hederman said.

Lucas is thrilled to have the home back in the family, and she is looking forward to hosting family gatherings in the tree house on holidays.

As she walked around the home, she pointed out details, such as the original floors, which Johnny built using salvaged lumber from construction sites, and the little “fairy doors” placed along a beam and high on a wall. She also noted the sleeping loft, a perfect hideaway for children.

“Gail did a beautiful job renovating this tree house,” Lucas said.

Lucas signed a contract the night before Humphreys was to show the house to the six potential buyers.

“I have such fond childhood memories of coming here to see my uncle, and now we can remember him for long into the future in the place he loved the most. She really preserved his legacy.”

STORY Susan Marquez PHOTOGRAPHY Melanie Thortis

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'SIP OF NATURE

Winter 2016

the‘

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'SIP OF NATURE

N kombucha : Healthy tea a cinch to brew

Kombucha is a lightly fermented, probiotic tea that has gained much consideration in the United States.

Although it has been brewed for more than 100 years by people all over the world, it has not gained widespread recognition in the Deep South. As knowledge of health benefits from drinking this fizzy and tangy drink has increased over recent years, however, consumption also has gained momentum. The most commonly reported benefits of kombucha are improved digestion, increased energy and improved focus/ clarity. The benefits are similar to yogurt, with the bacteria in yogurt providing healthful qualities to the body (particularly digestion). Admittedly, debate over the health benefits of kombucha is considerable; however, my experiences and those of my friends and family who drink the tonic have always been positive. Many of my friends won’t go without drinking it weekly.

So now for the best part, kombucha can easily be made at your home. It requires four main ingredients: 1) water, 2) tea (bags or loose leaf), 3) sugar and 4) a starter culture. The water is boiled, the tea is steeped for 3 to 5 minutes and the sugar dissolves while the tea is still hot. Then, once the tea has cooled to room temperature, a starter culture is added. Finally, the tea should be transferred to a glass container and covered, although never sealed air-tight as pressure build-up of carbon dioxide will occur as the yeast consumes the sugars in the tea. I use a one-gallon glass cookie jar with a glass lid.

As kombucha ferments, a white layer is created on the surface of the tea. This layer protects the sugary tea while it ferments, preventing undesirable bacteria or mold from

showing up in your brew. This layer is commonly referred to as a “mother” — with small samples of it and the tea comprising the starter culture for beginning your own batch. More specifically, the mother is referred to as a SCOBY, which is an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. Although drinking a liquid where SCOBY floats doesn’t seem appealing, it is necessary to ensure the bacteria and yeast fermenting your beverage are proper to provide health benefits and exclude those that could be harmful to you.

If you’re a hobbyist or do-it-yourselfer, brewing kombucha is easy and a lot of fun. Search online or find a friend who brews kombucha for acquiring a starter culture; everything else is readily acquired. Once you have the starter, you can discover how you best enjoy it. The time tea is allowed to ferment will greatly affect its flavor and intensity, with long periods (up to 30 days) becoming increasingly tart. As the tea is fermented, acids are created and the longer it sits, the more it tastes like vinegar. Although some prefer the tart taste of a longer brewed kombucha beverage, I generally let mine ferment for 10 days, then I add a cup of fruit juice to each bottle I filter and pour. I let the sealed bottles sit on the counter for two to three days and allow the living yeast to feed on the sugars in the fruit juice, which provides an increased amount of carbonation and creates an intensely fizzy and delectable fruitflavored beverage. As fermentation of sugars by yeast produce alcohols, trace amounts of alcohol are in kombucha; however, it’s usually less than 0.5%. Many of my friends share small amounts with their children without concern. If you have questions, email me at outdoor@thesipmag.com for further advice on how to get started.

Get your healthy brew on!

g by nathan beane

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VIC KSBURG

Canning Deer Meat

Ways of old provide easy meals for outdoorsmen

One of the most alluring aspects of being an outdoorsman is the sense of self-dependency and knowledge of how to live off the land. Hunting and pursuing quarry for food is challenging and, when successful, is rewarding beyond compare.

PORTRAIT BY MELANIE THORTIS

NATHAN BEANE THE ‘SIP OUTSIDE EDITOR

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Many outdoorsmen who hunt wild game also have the knowledge to process the meat after the harvest; however, many might not be aware of the ability to can meat at home. When a deer hunter has been successful in the field, a bounty of meat is afforded. Often, storing large quantities of food, enough to feed a family, becomes a concern.

My childhood was spent on a small farm where I was exposed to raising and butchering chickens, pigs and cattle. I watched my father process wild game. I also spent a considerable and invaluable amount of my youth with my grandmother, who taught me how to take care of food once in the kitchen. She shared with me her lifelong experience of being raised with five siblings during the Depression.

Most importantly, she demonstrated how to make the most of what you had and to maximize space for storing food at home. Home-canning was something she loved to

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do, so I spent lots of time with her canning garden vegetables, soups, broths and sweets. This skillset became even more valuable once I learned its importance as a hunter and outdoorsman who enjoys camping.

When I was in graduate school in West Virginia, I spent a lot of time in the woods and harvested many deer. The meat was excellent.

I knew how to process it at home, and, when my wife and I struggled with monthly rent, college expenses and a limited income, the enticement of deer meat was inescapable. Deer are an abundant and renewable resource and all I had to do was hunt. Say no more. As soon as archery season opened each fall season, I was in the woods.

Hunting and harvesting deer was easy to me and I love the entire process of it. In fact, in a different life, I might have become a career butcher. I delight in the after-the-harvest process almost as much as the pursuit of the animal. My deer harvests were to provide Heather and me with meals throughout the year, but available cold storage quickly became a limiting factor.

With the assistance of friends we met in West Virginia, we found the solution — a way to store deer meat without having to freeze it.

Our friends had canned deer meat for decades and eagerly showed Heather and me how. To this day, I love canning deer meat and the tenderness of the end-product as a result of pressure cooking. It is an excellent way to keep and preserve food outside of refrigeration and although it’s labor intensive compared to just placing meat in the freezer, the value added to the extra effort is that the meat is fully cooked when processed and is ready-to-eat at any time.

One of my favorite ways is to use small loin-cut steaks battered in flour, and cooked ever-so-slightly in a skillet with a small amount of olive oil or unsalted butter. I need to cook only long enough to make the batter brown-up. As the meat cooks fully inside each jar, its juices blend with the cooked flour batter to create a tasty gravy. So with some precooked rice and a jar of my home-made venison, a redneck version of beef tips and rice is ready in minutes.

When I mention canned deer meat to friends, the response is always the same, “canned what?” The discussions are always comical, but eventually lead to a description of how it works and the ease and utility of doing it. I’ll admit I was leery about the safety of cooking meat inside a jar and storing it in a cabinet. Moreover, my fears of degrading meat quality, consistency and even spoilage were on my radar. However, if you picture canned chili, stew meats and meat ravioli, the hesitancy of the idea lessens. I have canned deer meat for several years and, if done properly, it will store for a very long time.

I’ve never had any spoil or lose quality, even after years.

Canning deer meat is a rewarding and enjoyable experience as long as care is taken in the operation of the pressure canner and cleaning of the canning jars and equipment. Ideal for canning are tender cuts, such as steaks and roasts; however, stew meat and cuts suitable for ground meat preparation are acceptable as the pressurecooking process tenderizes the meat. Meat should be cut with the grain and no more than 1 to 2 inches thick. Smaller cuts of meat are preferred so that they fit easily into the jars; however, larger-sized pieces may be rolled up to fit into jars. Wide-mouthed canning jars are ideal.

Once the meat is cut, I keep it chilled for quality assurance and also ease of cleanup. When packing meat into each jar, the meat

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should be packed loosely so air can be expelled and the meat completely cooked. Salt, unless desired to add at the table, is recommended at ½ teaspoon per pint and 1 teaspoon per quart jar. Herbs and spices are not recommended as they can deteriorate or become bitter if stored for extended periods of time.

Packing is a canning term and refers to how the food is prepared before canning. Packing can be raw-packed or hot-packed. Raw-packed means packing the meat in glass jars with no added liquid before it is cooked. Hot-packed involves precooking the meat and canning it while it is hot; sometimes a hot liquid or broth is poured over the meat. With both methods, one inch should be left at the top of each jar, as the airspace is important for food expansion and creation of the vacuum sealing as the jars cool.

Although variable, about 1 to 3 pounds of meat can be loosely packed into a pint-sized jar. This is the size I use as it’s the perfect amount of meat to feed two people. If more food is required, I simply open additional jars. Once the meat is filled a wooden spoon or spatula may be inserted into each jar to remove excessive airspaces between meat and the jar. Next, each jar top is wiped clean and metal screwbands with seal tops are tightly seated onto each canning jar.

The jars are now ready to go into a pressure cooker.

The pressure cooker requires 2 to 3 inches of hot water in the bottom. A canning rack should be in place at the bottom of the cooker to keep the jars from resting directly on the bottom. Jars should be evenly spaced and not touch one another so the steam can properly cook the meat in each jar. Once the jars are situated in the hot water, the lid is locked in placed on the pressure cooker, and the small, vented opening on the lid (called a petcock) is left uncovered.

The petcock valve is where built-up pressure, as a result of steam, is released and a weighted gauge is eventually added to ensure the proper temperature (240 degrees) is obtained.

It’s important to stress that a pressure cooker is essential and must be used to preserve all meats and low-acid foods.

With the lid secured and in-place on the stovetop range, high heat should be used until steam is seen exiting the uncovered petcock valve. Next, the temperature is lowered to maintain a slow boil, and steam is allowed to exit the petcock for 10 minutes. This is an important step, as this removes air from inside the pressure cooker and will ensure the meat is cooked evenly and properly. After 10 minutes, a 10-pound

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pressure gauge is situated carefully on the petcock valve and pressure within the cooker will begin to build up. Once adequate pressure is reached, the pressure gauge will jiggle and spew in a rocking motion. Under pressure, the cook time for canned venison is 75 minutes for pint-sized jars and 90 minutes for quart-sized jars. Once you have the heat on your stovetop adjusted properly, you can do other tasks while the pressure gauge jiggles and rocks in a rhythmic fashion; but don’t leave the cooker unattended.

When the cooker is removed from heat, it should cool on a heat-resistant surface. The pressure gauge should be removed from the petcock valve only after sufficient cooling.

Be sure that all steam pressure has escaped before opening the pressure cooker and tilt it away from your face and body so that any residual steam doesn’t rise toward you. The jars should be removed from the cooker and water bath and placed carefully on a kitchen towel. I use a canning tool called a jar lifter to move the jars as they are hot and caution should be used to not drop them.

I also cover the jars once they are placed on the kitchen towel to avoid cold air drafts that could potentially crack the hot jars. As the jars cool, the characteristic “popping” of each jar as they vacuum seal will be music to your ears! The final step is to properly label and date each jar for cabinet storage.

Canning venison and other wild game is a skillset every hunter should have. For those who backpack and enjoy camping, a jar of canned deer meat is sure to be a topic of extended conversation around the campfire. During my graduate school research studying high-elevation forests, I spent two summers in a tent, moving daily. After a 10-hour workday and then finding and setting up my campsite, canned deer meat was a lifesaver. All I had to do was warm it up by the fire while my evening coffee percolated.

The wonderful part of home canning meat is that each jar is fully cooked, portable and allows for storage of wild game when freezer space is limited. If you want additional information or have questions, email me at outside@thesipmag.com.

STORY Nathan Beane PHOTOGRAPHY Nathan Beane

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In a state like Mississippi, with such a rich literary tradition and more coming everyday, a list of all-time favorite Mississippi books would run into the hundreds. So, let's narrow it down to some of our Mississippi non-fiction, recently published favorites. In no particular order: Read up!

1.) Mississippi History by Maude Schuyler Clay (Steidl) From the photographer who gave us Delta Land and Delta Dogs, a richly colored photographic portrait of a state and its people • squarebooks.com/

Mississippi Favorites in NONFICTION 1

book/9783869309743

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2.) Troutmouth: The Two Careers Of Hugh Clegg by Ronald F. Borne (University Press of Mississippi) Not known as well now, but Hugh Clegg was among the most notable Mississippi historical figures during the 1920s through the 1960s. squarebooks.com/ book/9781628462081

3.) Dispatches From Pluto: Lost And Found In The Mississippi Delta by Richard Grant (Simon and Schuster) Richard Grant, a Brit who fell in love with the Mississippi Delta and moved there and writes about it from his unique point of view • squarebooks.com/ book/9781476709642

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4.) Once In A Lifetime: Reflections Of A Mississippi First Lady by Elise Varner Winter (University Press of Mississippi) With Joanne Prichard Morris, Mrs. Winter recollects her time standing by the side of her husband, William Winter. squarebooks.com/ book/9781628462197

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5.) Return To Guntown: Classic Trials Of The Outlaws And Rogues Of Faulkner Country

by John Hailman (University Press of Mississippi) The sequel to From Midnight to Guntown, here are more fascinating, and sometimes outrageous, true stories of a former Mississippi prosecutor. squarebooks.com/ book/9781496803054

6.) Delta Jewels: In Search Of My Grandmother's Wisdom by Alysia Burton Steele (Center Street) Photographer and author Alysia Burton Steele combines narrative and photographs to tell the story of 50 women in the Mississippi Delta. squarebooks. com/book/9781455562848

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THROUGH THE

WILDERNESS with Harrison Scott Key

Author tells

stranger than fiction

tales in first book

JACKSON — On an early autumn evening at Belhaven University, a medley of mixed-gray hair and the fresh faces of youth is present at the school’s annual homecoming celebration. It’s a decidedly well-behaved affair, a tapestry of buttoned plaids, modest dresses and mild manners. On this particular night, it feels postcard idyllic — exactly the place you wouldn’t mind leaving your child for a wholesome college experience.

That’s just how Harrison Scott Key remembers it.

Key is back on the campus where he made his final sprint to manhood, after leaving the shadow of the father who factored so prominently in his life, and became, posthumously, the central figure of “The World’s Largest Man: A Memoir” (HarperCollins), the book Key is signing for friends, fans and former professors in the lobby of the auditorium.

The crowd will soon hear tales of late-youth gone wild as Key winds his way through the back roads of his college life. The first laughs come during the introduction, as a classmate remembers Key and a coterie of friends riding bikes up a ramp and crashing into a fountain on campus.

Over coffee the next morning, he recalled the time he and his buddies rappelled into the pre-renovation King Edward hotel ballroom from the rooftop.

Key’s talk was part reminiscence and part book reading, but mostly a stand-up routine honed over the summer on his first book. The slideshow portion is a special homecoming treat for his friends, filled with faded snapshots wherein Key looks very much like a young, wild-eyed Andy Kaufmann.

The stories seem almost too fantastic. But, this was another time, two decades ago, when students like Key felt as if they were given the keys, as he describes, to “an 61

abandoned Christian summer camp.” In other words, he had just as much room as he needed.

The next morning, he picks up the narrative over hash browns and coffee at a nearby Waffle House.

“Once I got to Belhaven, I felt that I had so much in me,” he said. “At home, I could be a little bit myself, but not too much. I think school was the place for me to do and say and write crazy things that I couldn’t say at the dinner table.”

Key found places in Jackson where he could relax after classes, talk music, read books, debate topics with the other regulars and get a cheap meal and a good bottomless cup of coffee. He was kicked out of this particular Waffle House for not ordering enough food on a Christmas morning when an ice storm prevented him from driving to his grandparents’ home in Coldwater.

“In a very conservative, family-oriented bedroom place like Jackson, for me, the only place you could encounter people with interesting or strange ideas was a bar or a place like the Waffle House or Tastee Donuts,” Key said.

“I can’t decide if I became a writer because I liked being in places like that and needed something to do while I was smoking and talking, or if I was coming to places like this because I was a writer. I don’t know which came first.”

Key’s first break as a writer came years later when, from the back row of a Q&A session at a writer’s conference, he challenged then-Oxford American editor Marc Smirnoff to read his manuscript. That eventually led to his first byline in the Southern literary magazine.

His next one came in a similar grand fashion. After meeting and bonding over drinks with Spin founder Bob Guccione Jr., the night before a nonfiction conference at Ole Miss. Key got a boost when his new pal rushed the

podium after Key’s reading with an agent in tow, urging her to sign him immediately or lose out on discovering the next big genius writer.

“He was just being funny, being nice,” Key recalled.

“But he knew what he was doing. He was getting me an agent. And I signed with her a week later.”

Key’s life seems to be defined by these larger-thanlife people and moments. There are his family members, including his seemingly monolithic father, and the folks he encountered at deer camp, which some media types simply can’t believe actually exist. Key has had to explain to more than one interviewer that, yes, his cousin actually tried to stab a deer in the throat while piloting a boat down a river.

“I like to show people pictures so they understand that these people are real. I’ve been asked so many times, ‘How much of this is exaggerated?’ Well, when I describe my father’s head as being the size of the Death Star — that’s an exaggeration,” he said.

But, people who are from the South, he said, often nod in understanding that their own family trees are filled with the same eccentrics and salt-of-the-Earth, rebel-yellin’ types.

“When I realized I was related to these people, I realized that I was really telling stories about hunting for my people,” he said. “For me, this was a mystery book.

‘Who are my people? And how can I possibly be related to the man who is my father?’”

The journey to that place was as straight as a trot line bent and dragged by the current of the Pearl River. Over a four-year period, Key spent his early mornings before teaching at Savannah College of Art and Design working out the stories that became his book. His first submission of the proposal and manuscript was rejected as too sugary,

“For me, the only place you could encounter people with interesting or strange ideas was a bar or a place like the Waffle House or Tastee Donuts.”

Harrison Scott Key with little substance and no cohesive narrative. That was the turning point, when his humor and stories finally coalesced into a book.

Key surmises that finding the boundary of conflict in his life and stories turned the tide. His boundary was the move to Mississippi as a self-avowed “city kid” who was an avid BMX bike rider — he was sponsored by a local bike shop at 8 years old — and enjoyed such typical ’80s indulgences as MTV and parachute pants.

When his father moved the family to Puckett in rural Rankin County, everything Key loved was either unheard of or simply shunned in favor of other pursuits in his new agrarian home.

“I always felt I had a foot in two different worlds,” Key said. “Wherever you find yourself straddling a boundary, that’s probably where your book is. If your dad’s Catholic and your mom’s Jewish, there’s a book somewhere in that intersection. For me, it was being born in Memphis and being a city kid.”

In Puckett, Key learned to speak his dad’s language, one that shunned inward interests in favor of the outward — hunting, fishing and anything tough and outdoors.

For a bookish city kid, it was the line of demarcation.

Somewhere in that DMZ was the specter of his relationship with his father.

At Belhaven, Key ended the evening with a reading of a story that didn’t make the book. It’s about the time he and his brother, Bird, took their father’s boat out on the Pearl River to fish. Key’s pole ended up overboard and sank in the murky, muddy water where monstrous alligators dwelled. He had to face the beasts, both of reality and his own imagination, in order to not face the disappointment of his father — and to conquer them.

As a father to his own children, Key came to understand what his father instilled in him. His own love of the outdoors and sense of adventure and his need to inspire in his children that same excitement of the dangerous and unknown in the natural world came straight from his father.

“I knew I would have to reconcile with him at some point,” he said. “The arc of every story I tried to tell kept bending back to this man,” he said. “This is the man I would have to understand before I could understand myself.”

Let there be no doubt — the stories in “The World’s Largest Man” are all true. And the legacy of that man lives on in Harrison Scott Key. STORY Jim Beaugez PHOTOGRAPHY Ron Blaylock

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photo by Melanie Thortis TH OR T I S P HOT OGRAP HY.C OM

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Winter 2016

It’s a beautiful state.

Enjoy the drive.

MDOT Travel Resources gives you the info you need for a smooth, carefree road trip.

From traffic alerts and road conditions to weather forecasts and more. And you can access it from our mobile app, your computer or by calling 511. Find out more at MDOTtraffic.com.

AMERICAN HISTORY Visit the site of the defining battle of America’s defining war. Learn about the defense and siege of Vicksburg in our unique collection of museums and historic tour homes.

VisitVicksburg.com

MISSISSIPPI MUSIC If you are in search of the elusive sound of the Mississippi Delta Blues you will find it in Vicksburg.

Live music from the Delta Blues to country to rock can be enjoyed at venues throughout the city.

/VisitVicksburg

SOUTHERN CHARM Stroll the brick‐paved streets of our historic downtown and visit our boutiques and art galleries. You’ll find a host of Southern specialties at our eateries. Enjoy sweeping views of the mighty Mississippi River and some of the most beautiful sunsets imaginable. Relax – it all runs on river time!

Scan this QR to visit our mobile site and get your keys to Vicksburg.