Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food

If you are a fan of Tipper Pressley of the Blind Pig and the Acorn, her blog website, you will really enjoy the cookbook she and Jim Casada, another western NC native, have created. I ordered the book from City Lights Books in Sylva, NC, and immediately began reading it. The book is more than a cookbook. It is a history of southern Appalachia foodways. 

This is the blurb on the back of the book, Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food

High-country cooking fit to grace any table.

Southern Appalachia has a rich culinary tradition. Generations of passed-down recipes offer glimpses into a culture that has long been defined, in considerable measure, by its food. Take a journey of pure delight through this highland homeland with stories of celebrations, Sunday dinners, and ordinary suppers. The narrative material and scores of recipes offered here share a deep love of place and a devotion to this distinctive cuisine. The end result is a tempting invitation, in the vernacular of the region, to “pull up a chair and take nourishment.”

Excerpt from a review: Chicken and dumplings. Biscuits and gravy. Beans and fatback. To any list of wonderful culinary partnerships, add the duo of Casada and Pressley. In “Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food: Recipes & Stories from Mountain Kitchens,” Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley combine wide knowledge, hands-on experience, and a conversational approach into a sure-fire recipe for enjoyable reading and fine dining. 

You can order it on the Etsy Channel or find it on Amazon. It will also be available in big stores around the country. 

Although I don't cook big meals anymore since I don't have anyone to cook for now, my mouth watered when I read recipes for some of my favorite dishes my mother used to cook. Tipper and I met back in 2007 when one of her twin daughters, Katie, came to our Coffee with the Poets group and read some poems she had written. The girls were still in elementary school then, I think. 

Tipper used the downtime during the pandemic to create a very popular YouTube channel called Celebrating Appalachia. She has done so well with it that she quit her job and stays home to do what she loves, gardening, canning, and cooking meals for her family. She posts on her blog every day and does the same with the videos. She is a busy person who loves what she is doing now.

She has a huge following on her blog and her YouTube channel. Her followers say watching Celebrating Appalachia is like being home with Tipper, her husband, Matt, and Katie and Corie. She shares her life and the lives of her family with her viewers and I watch every new video she puts up. Even though I have cooked for more than 45 years, I still learn new things from watching Tipper prepare food in her kitchen. 

A bonus is watching the twins, in their twenties now, who make their YouTube videos and they are loved also. You will find them at the Pressley Girls. 

Tipper and Jim have been signing books every weekend and their fans love seeing them, talking to them, and giving them gifts. I told Chris at City Lights Books in Sylva to be prepared for a huge crowd when Tipper and Jim are there signing books. Chris didn't know what a following Tipper has and he emailed me after the book signing saying he was glad I gave him a heads up about the crowd that filled his store that Saturday. 

Hope you enjoy visiting the YouTube channels and the blog website that Tipper has maintained for many years.   Leave a comment if you do.

John Campbell Folk School Festival was Fun

In 1996 I signed up for my first writing class at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. If you have never been to this special place nestled in the beautiful mountains between Chattanooga, TN, Asheville, NC, and Atlanta GA, please add taking a class at JCCFS to your bucket list.

This weekend my sister and BIL, Stu, came up and we had the greatest time. Saturday afternoon we drove over to Brasstown and found ourselves caught up in a traffic jam. Who would have thought we'd have a traffic jam on Settawig Road? Cars were bumper to bumper and we had become discouraged by the time we reached the parking area on the campus. Stu dropped off Gay and me at the entrance near the Gift Shop. Thousands of people come from all over the country and I'm sure from other parts of the world to visit JCCFS on festival day.

This is a place where I always see people I know. We made sure we arrived in time to see Butternut Creek and Friends, a great singing group that includes Steve Harvey who plays banjo, ukulele, guitar and he sings.
We have been fans of the group for over sixteen years. Steve is an essayist and will be teaching a class at the Ridgeline Conference this weekend.

We didn't want to miss seeing the lovely twins, The Pressley Girls, who have blossomed into quite a singing group backed by their grandpa, their mother and their uncle. The girls belong to Tipper of Blind Pig and the Acorn.

The folk school holds many good memories for me from my first class there with Nancy Simpson, poet, to my first opportunity to teach a writing class. I was asked to sub for a weekend class. I had taught some classes already, but this was my first time at John C. Campbell Folk School.

I'll never forget the emotion that rolled over me as I turned the key to the door of the room where we would gather. I thought I would burst with gratitude, and I wanted to laugh and to cry at the same time. I felt I'd reached a milestone. I hoped I could give my students the same feeling I had in my first class at this magical place.

Years have passed since that day and many men and women have sat before me in writing classes at the folk school, at classes in church fellowship halls, at Tri-County Community College, at ICL classes held at Young Harris College and in my own studio. But I never forget that my life changed forever the day I took my first writing class at John C. Campbell Folk School. 

Read Robert S. King's post on three good ways to promote yourself

I often hear from writers and poets that they can't promote themselves. How sad. If they don't do it, who is?

Robert S. King wrote an excellent post on three ways to promote yourself.

Click here.

I am listed in the directory of Poets and Writers. It wasn't difficult to meet the qualifications. Robert tells you how in this article.

I have been remiss in not using You Tube for my readings, etc. Many times I've watched videos of Kathryn Stripling Byer because someone in the audience videoed her reading. Robert would like to see all the Netwest readings videoed and I think I'll look into it for myself. Although I wouldn't want to watch myself, I think it could be good publicity.

Tipper Presley did teach me how to upload a video of deer in the snow outside my window. I'll see if I can remember how to put it in this post.

Robert S. King will be teaching a class at Moss Memorial Library on Saturday, April 20,10 - 1 PM. 

Tipper is Cooking this Week at JCCFS

My friend, Tipper Presley, of Blind Pig and the Acorn fame, is teaching a cooking class at John C. Campbell Folk School this week.

To enjoy her posts on the class, click on this link

I don't know where Tipper gets her energy. She never stops and has made her blog on Appalachian culture one of the most popular on the blogosphere.

Be sure to visit www.theblindpigandtheacorn.com 

Let me know if you like it. I have sent so many of my friends to this site and they all thank me and subscribe to Tipper's interesting blog.