Culinary Programs Specialist Marion Sullivan Attends Southern Foodways Symposium

The subject for the 2011 Southern Foodways Symposium was "The Cultivated South."

All of the presentations are now available on Vimeo at:
Podcasts from presentations are available on iTunesU. Click  http://t.co/q4SY72SP to be taken to the SFA iTunes U page.


SFA Executive Director John T. Edge

The Symposium officially began Friday morning with great oysters from Virginia and a rousing speech on the potential of farmers markets. Other topics of the day: Sean Brock discussed olives in the South and poured samples of the first pressing of Georgia olive oil.

Emily Wallace detailed the history of pimento starting in Georgia and ending up in California. Eleanor Finnegan discussed Muslim farms. Ragan Sutterfield discussed the morality of the farm, as seen in chicken raising. Kevin Young offered poetic salute to the Groaning Table. Lunch that day was a “southern bento box” prepared by Korean chef Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia in Louisville.

Chef Lata's Lowcountry Clam and Oyster Stew

On Saturday, Michael McFee read his fabulous poetry. Shirley Sherrod spoke of discriminatory African-American farming practices in the mid-1900’s in Georgia. Elizabeth Engelhardt acquainted us with the practices of exchanging seeds and plants via the farm journals. Rashid Nuri & Richard McCarthy spoke on urban farms. Sara Roahen spoke on the mirliton. Felder Rushing on the Long Beach Radish. CIC Chefs Council member Mike Lata fed 300 people a fabulous lunch and did Charleston proud.

SC native Dori Sanders was the 2011 Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Click here (http://southernfoodways.org/hall_of_fame/lifetime/lifetime-awards-dori-sanders.html) to read Ronni Lundy's tribute at the award presentation.

CIC Culinary Programs Specialist
Marion Sullivan

Sunday morning we viewed an amazing Collard Green Opera. The composer says that” The bulk of the text come from a collection of poems entitled Leaves of Greens: the Collard Poems, published in 1984 by the annual Ayden Collard Green Festival in North Carolina; supplemented by a few more poems and traditional hymns. The structure of the piece is in 3 main parts, each dealing with a different aspect of Southern life: relationships with parents, Southern mythology, and relationships with grandparents. Leaves of Greens is scored for soloists, choir, piano and percussion and lasts approximately 25 minutes.” You can watch it, too. http://vimeo.com/31453069

See the SFA Blog for videos (http://southernfoodways.blogspot.com/2011/11/watch-pimento-cheese-please-online_10.html) and more information from the symposium. And you'll also find online a photo gallery (http://jenniferdavick.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/2011-Southern-Foodways-Alliance-Symposium-Oxford-MS/P0000dGf2c.FXTNA , the event brochure (http://southernfoodways.org/events/symposium/documents/BrochureSFS2011.pdf) , a bibliography (http://southernfoodways.org/events/symposium/documents/BibliographySFS11_001.pdf), and the schedule of events (http://southernfoodways.org/events/symposium/documents/ScheduleSFS11.pdf).

Photos of Mr. Edge and Ms. Sullivan supplied by Jennifer Davick Photography.

http://vimeo.com/channels/mdpsfa