Buck Dancing, square dance calling, Christmas Tree farming Leo Collins, owner of Blue Bird Christmas Tree Farm in Heiskell, Tennessee

S9:E41.12/03/2022

Our featured guest is Buck Dancing, square dance calling, Christmas Tree farming Leo Collins, owner of Blue Bird Christmas Tree Farm in Heiskell, Tennessee, and Fred Sauceman’s Potluck Radio series features Allan Benton and Allan Benton’s Red Eye gravy recipe.

Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm: http://bluebirdtrees.com/

Fred Sauceman: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Newspaper story written by Mary Constantine about Leo Collins: http://www.knoxnews.com/story/life/2017/11/22/christmas-tree-farms-opening-season-knoxville-east-tennessee/862657001/

Photo: KNS, Newspaper story written by Mary Constantine about Leo Collins: http://www.knoxnews.com/story/life/2017/11/22/christmas-tree-farms-opening-season-knoxville-east-tennessee/862657001/

Femeika Elliott, Founder of Meik Meals, and the Lotus Program, Knoxville

S9:E20. 05/28/2022

Femeika (Meik) Elliott, Founder of Meik Meals, and the Lotus Program, Knoxville

Today, we are setting the table with plant-based eating, especially for new Mothers. My first guest is Femeika (Meik) Elliott, founder, and owner of Meik Meals and the Lotus Program. This young, black, Knoxville-based entrepreneurial chef creates foods that give us that comfort of taste while using healthier ingredients. Meik encourages people to make lifestyle choices that nurture the body, mind, and soul. She specifically works with postpartum Mothers to help them feel their best through food, education, and meditation with her Lotus program. Meik also speaks to groups throughout the community about her work. This episode originally aired in February 2022, and since then, Meik Elliott has won the What's The Big Idea? 2022 Pitch Competition, through the Knoxville Entrepreneurial Center, and has presented at Pecha Kucha night, Knoxville. Also, Fred Saucepan’s potluck radio series features Cherokee poet and storyteller Marilou Awiakta.

Meik Meals https://meik-meals.com/

The Lotus Program: https://www.teknovation.biz/breaking-news-the-lotus-program-wins-last-nights-wtbi-pitch-competition/

Fred Sauceman https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Knoxville Entrepreneurial Center: https://knoxec.com/

PechaKucha Knoxville: https://www.facebook.com/pknknoxville/

Mother’s Day Stories and Old Fashioned Recipes

S9:E17. 05/07/2022

Today, we set the table with some good food and memories in honor of Mother’s Day. First, we’ll visit Mary Lynn Snyder, who shares memories of growing up in the R.C. Tway coal mining camp outside Harlan, KY. Then, she’ll share her Mother Ruby’s cooking ways and a recipe for “Mama Ruby’s Creamy Lemon Pie.” Also on the program - Fred’s Sauceman shares a lovely audio essay in memory of his late mother-in-law, Elsie Maddux Derting. And I share a story and recipe about my late mother, Edwena Janie Clayton, Mississippi, and kilt salad for supper.

Fred Sauceman: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Recipes:

“Mama Ruby’s Creamy Lemon Pie” from Mary Lynn Snyder

Ingredients:

• 8-9 inch baked pastry shell, can use grab cracker crust
• Three egg yolks (reserve the egg whites if making meringue)
• 14 oz can of Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk (Ruby used Pet brand)
• 1/2 c. real lemon juice from concentrate
• a dab of yellow food coloring
• 2 cups of whipped topping (Ruby used meringue)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
• In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks with milk and lemon juice, and add a little food coloring
• Pour into the pastry shell
• Bake for 30 minutes, cool, and top with whipped topping *If using meringue, top with meringue before placing it in the oven to cook. Refrigerate before serving, and refrigerate leftovers.

Kilt Salad:

Ingredients:

• A “mess” of Fresh greens. The term “mess” refers to the amount you would use for your family. A family of 4 with a hearty appetite would need about a 1/2 a paper bag full of fresh greens. These cook down to roughly a 6th of their size, so it takes a good amount. These greens can be any greens you can find. Dandelion, lambs quarters, spinach, kale, young poke, collards, etc. Most watery lettuces are too soggy, so I use a more hearty green. Do not use frozen. Triple wash the fresh greens. If you use collard greens or kale, remove the large spines from the leaves. Chop the greens. Try to get the water off of them as well as you can with a salad spinner or a colander. If you still have some water on them, it is ok; they do not need to be super dry. But, if you have standing water in your pot of greens, pour that off.
• 1 pack of bacon fried crisp, drained, and crumbled. Reserve the grease in the pan, and keep the grease hot.
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Hard boil six eggs, peel, and slice.

Directions:

• In a large bowl, place the chopped greens.
• Pour the hot bacon grease all over the greens (about 1/2 cup)
• Toss the greens and bacon fat very quickly to cover all of the greens and to “kill” the greens.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
• Top with crumbled bacon.
• Serve with hot cornbread, vinegar, and sliced boiled eggs.

This recipe comes from watching my Grandmother (Mildred May of Jackson, Mississippi) prepare this in her kitchen.

The late Elsie Maddux Derting. Photo: Fred Sauceman.

Mary Lynn Snyder. Photo: Mary Lynn Snyder Facebook page.

Lost Creek Farm, Harrison County, West Virginia

S9:E8. 03/05/2022

Amy Dawson and Mike Costello are farmers, chefs, owners of Lost Creek Farm, a historic family farmstead located in Harrison County, West Virginia. They describe their cuisine as Story-Rich, Heritage-inspired - Mountain Cuisine. They have been nominated for a 2022 James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef, Southeast!. We recorded this together in 2016, and I am so happy that they have turned their vision for revitalizing this family farm into a reality. Also, Fred Sauceman with a story and recipe from the late Raymond Bautista, Elizabethton, TN.

Links:

Lost Creek Farm: http://www.lostcreekfarmwv.com/

Lost Creek Farm Podcast: Pickle Shelf Radio Hour: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pickle-shelf-radio-hour/id1499208247

James Beard Foundation nomination information: https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2022-james-beard-award-semfinalists

Fred Sauceman: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Emi Sunshine (sings our theme song): https://theemisunshine.com/

Mike Costello and Amy Dawson, Lost Creek Farm, Harrison County, WV. Photo: LostCreekFarmWV.com.

Girls Gotta Eat Good Asian Bakery and Tennessee Wagyu Beef.

S9:E6. 02/19/2022

Girls Gotta Eat Good Asian Bakery and Tennessee Wagyu Beef.

Today, we are setting the table with Asian baked goods and Tennessee Wagyu beef. My first guest is Jessica Carr, a young entrepreneurial woman who created Girls Gotta Eat Good, Asian Bakery. Knoxville’s first Asian bakery. Jessica turned her love of baking, many of her mother’s recipes, and a daring leap of faith after prayer into an innovative business, and she is seeing good results. An inspirational story. In Fred Sauceman’s pot luck radio series, he visits with Ron Hawkins of Hawk Nest Farms, a wagyu beef farmer located in the Greene-Washington County area of Tennessee.

Links: Girls Gotta Eat Good facebook: https://www.facebook.com/girlsgottaeatgood/

Girls Gotta Eat Good Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlsgottaeatgood/?hl=en

Fred Sauceman: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Ron Hawkins, Hawknest Farms Tennessee Wagyu Beef: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Grocery-Store/Hawk-Nest-Farm-435117246687134/

Emi Sunshine (sings our theme song): https://theemisunshine.com/

Jessica Carr, Girls Gotta Eat Good Asian Bakery holding her Ube crinkle cookie. Photo: Amy Campbell.

Jessica Carr, Girls Gotta Eat Good Asian Bakery holding her Kalamay. Photo: Amy Campbell.

Jessica Carr’s Ube crinkle cookie.

Jessica Carr’s Kalamay.

Ron Hawkins’s Wagyu beef heard from Hawk Nest Farm. Photo: Fred Sauceman.

Allan Benton’s Tennessee Prosciutto, made in Madisonville, Tennessee.

Season 8, Episode 29. 08/07/2021.

Allan Benton’s Tennessee Prosciutto, made in Madisonville, Tennessee.

On the show today, we are setting the table with Tennessee-made Country Ham or Tennessee prosciutto.

Our featured guest on the show today is Allan Benton of Madisonville, TN. Allan shares his story on how he learned what the word prosciutto meant and how he positioned his product to the world of fine dining. Allan's prosciutto goes toe to toe with some of the most expensive, well-known prosciuttos from all over the world.

I'll share with you an easy appetizer that I have developed and named Smoky Mountain Sushi. It is not made with seafood, but rather country, ham, collard greens, and black-eyed peas. Keep scrolling for the recipe and a link where I demonstrate how to make this on WBIR Channel 10.

From Radio Bristol's Farm and Fun Time show, recorded live from the Birthplace of Country Music, storyteller Tony Marr's heirloom recipe segment on Leftovers.

Fred Sauceman's Pot-Luck Radio series features Joyce and Nancy McCarroll. They ran the restaurant at Traveler's Restaurant in Traveler's Rest, South Carolina, until 2018.

Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams: https://bentonscountryhams2.com

Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time Program: https://birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/radio/programs/farm-and-fun-time/

Fred Sauceman, maker of the “Pot Luck Radio” segment: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman


Recipe for Smoky Mountain Sushi: Keep scrolling

“Smoky Mountain Sushi” cooking demo video: Here is a link to my Television cooking demo on WBIR TV10: https://www.wbir.com/article/life/food/recipes/smoky-mountain-sushi/51-e7fad395-ee34-42e8-9c07-dc5d4cb7b25b

Emi Sunshine sings our theme song: http://theemisunshine.com/

Tommy Bateman (left) and Allan Benton cut ham at Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Ham, Madisonville, Tennessee.

BattleField Farm & Gardens & the Broccoli Lady

Season 8, Episode 21

BattleField Farm & Gardens & the Broccoli Lady

Today we are setting the table with urban community gardening, and broccoli casserole. Our first guest is Chris Battle who created BattleFiled Farms and Gardens in East Knox County his motto is “Fighting food disparity, building community”. We also hear a wonderful short story by Fred Sauceman about the late Glodine Davis of Johnson City known as “The Broccoli Lady” and the recipe and memory of her beloved broccoli casserole.

Links: BattleField Farm and Gardens: https://www.facebook.com/battlefieldfarmandgardens/

Link to a story written by Fred Sauceman that ran in the Johnson City Press February 20, 2018 in memory of Glodine Davis “The Broccoli Lady”.

https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/the-broccoli-lady/article_eee54cc2-a830-59bf-b4fe-4a92267f0ad6.html

Fred Sauceman: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Emi Sunshine (who arranged and sang our our theme song when she was only 9 years old): https://theemisunshine.com/

Glodine Davis “The Broccoli Lady” Broccoli Casserole recipe by way of Fred Sauceman

Ingredients:

2 fresh bunches broccoli, cut into florets and boiled (frozen can be used, but it isn’t as good)

small onion chopped

2 beaten eggs

1 stick of butter cut into thin slices

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 sleeve Ritz crackers crushed / or Townhouse Crackers

Directions:

Boil broccoli florets for about 5 minutes. Drain.

Mix broccoli with 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, onion, 2 beaten eggs, grated cheddar cheese and butter slices.

Bake at 350 degrees until it is bubbly

And remember “The Broccoli Lady, GLodine K. Davis”

Sadly, Glodine passed away December 2nd, 2017. This is a link to Glodine K. Davis’s obituary. https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/obituary/glodine-k-davis/article_b9cc0151-3806-5bc9-b8e8-dce6136ab93e.html

Chris Battle of BattleField Farm and Gardens: https://www.facebook.com/battlefieldfarmandgardens/

Glodine Davis in her kitchen. This image appeared in an article written by Fred Sauceman in 2018 in the Johnson City Press: https://www.johnsoncitypress.com/the-broccoli-lady/article_eee54cc2-a830-59bf-b4fe-4a92267f0ad6.html