Mama Sue's Southern Kitchen

BY CAROLYN DRINKARD

Photos by: Nadia Wilder Photography

Sue Garrett does not know what the word “retirement“ means! For 20 years, she taught school at Vinson Elementary School and then became assistant principal, retiring in 2002.

After this, she owned a fabric shop, where she sewed and monogrammed children’s clothes. Then, she became her church’s secretary and later, the “Mission and Outreach Minister.” She also taught Sunday school and played the piano for church services. “I’ve always worked,” she stated, “and I’ve always liked to work!”

Since July, Sue Garrett has become a social media sensation, and her thousands of followers know her as “Mama Sue,” the sweet, gentle lady with the Southern “purr,” who welcomes everyone into her kitchen for some good home-cooked food.

Mama Sue’s rise to social media stardom came about quite by accident. Everyone in her hometown of Harpersville, Alabama, already knew that Sue Garrett was a good cook. She often posted pictures of dishes she had made for her family and shared recipes with friends on her personal Facebook page. In June, Kate DeLoach, who owns DeLoach Farms with her husband John, saw some of those posts and approached Sue’s daughter, Amy Martin, about her mother possibly making a video, cooking vegetables from their farm. De- Loach Farms had just started taking orders for their farm to door seasonal vegetable boxes, which they delivered weekly in the area. They wanted Sue to make a video, showing how easy it was to cook the vegetables from one of their boxes.

For Sue, this was a breeze! From her box, she cooked green beans, fried okra, squash and corn. Then she used the fresh peaches to make a peach cobbler. The box also contained tomatoes and cucumbers, and Sue shared how to use both in a meal. DeLoach Farms posted the video on their page, and hundreds more shared it. Sue Garrett was a big hit! Suddenly, she was besieged with requests to do more videos.

In July, Amy Martin helped her mother create and post the page, “Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen.” The page received over 50,000 views. Since July, Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen has continued to grow, as followers have shared her page daily. With each video, she receives thousands of “likes” and “comments.” She now has viewers from all over the U. S., Canada and Australia. In January, her videos reached 3,500,000 people.

Sue’s viewers relate to her calm, easy manner and kind, Southern voice. Many compare her to their mothers and grandmothers, sharing childhood memories of cooking with their loved ones. Her recipes are Southern staples that use ingredients found in most kitchens. However, Mama Sue quickly realized that some followers, in other parts of the world, were unable to get common ingredients she had used in her recipes. For example, she once had to explain what “Rotel” was to fans in Canada and Australia. Viewers in northern states let her know that they could not find “self-rising cornmeal.”

Still, Sue cooks her time-honored recipes the way she was taught. She once made easy dumplings with flour tortillas. She explained that there were many other ways to make dumplings, but this was a quick, simple way for young mothers to fix good Southern comfort food.

Sue also shared her own Southern biscuit recipe, using cold butter, sugar, self-rising flour and sweet milk (which she later had to explain was just her Central Alabama way of saying, “milk”).

“Now, I know this is different from what you may have done, “ she smiled, “and that’s all right. This is just what works for me!”

Readers often ask Sue to show them how to make specific dishes. Some requests are nostalgic, like the one for Depression Pie. Others are comforting, like the young mother who asked Sue to teach her how to make Egg Salad. Some are humorous, like when her son, Chris, appeared on camera with her, making beanie weenies, a family favorite.

Sue believes that cooking is an act of love, and there is no better way to show love for your family than to cook them a good meal. She explained that there is no one way to cook Southern food, and she learns something new every day from her fans.

“It’s the little things that most of us take for granted,” she said. “If they ask me, I try to show them how to do it, but I always tell them that someone else may do this differently, and that’s all right! This is what works for me!”

After each video, Mama Sue posts the recipe. “It’s more work for me,” she stated, “but I want to make sure my followers have the right measurements.”

When viewers asked about a cookbook, Mama Sue put one together with her own family recipes and a few other favorites. At first, she ordered 1500 copies, but after showing the cookbook on one video, she sold 760 in the first 24 hours. Needless to say, she had to reorder many times.

Sue Garrett prides herself on being a country girl, who was raised on a working farm. “We had a large family,” she laughed. “We grew a ‘patch of peas’ or a ‘patch of corn,’ and we picked and put up what we grew.” She still lives on family land, 30 miles south of Birmingham in Harpersville.

Sue has been married for 48 years to Harold Garrett, who coached football at Vincent High School for 28 years. She has two children, Chris and Amy, who are both educators. She often talks about her nine grandchildren, and she has even made homemade soup with three of her granddaughters. When grandbaby Blake was born prematurely in December, thousands of her readers asked for daily reports and offered encouragement and support. Her shows are a family event with either Harold or Amy filming. Since Sue has now gotten a swish, her viewers are able to see even more.

Besides cooking, Sue loves to garden and can her harvests. In 2020, she canned over 200 jars of tomatoes, green beans, peas, okra and potatoes. In some of her videos, she has shown how to can homegrown vegetables, especially okra.

Mama Sue has now been doing her shows for nine months, but she has quickly realized that her videos are about much more than cooking. Each one has become a personal ministry.

“I want to teach young mothers, who have so little time, that cooking is not hard, and it gives you such a wonderful opportunity to be with your family and enjoy a good meal together!”

With each video, Mama Sue also encourages everyone to be “salt and light” to others. Using Mathew 5:13- 16, she urges her followers to “let your light shine so others can see Jesus through you.” This is exactly what Sue does in each video.

Mama Sue (Sue Garrett) welcomes everyone into her Southern kitchen. With each dish, she brings light to thousands of viewers, struggling through some very dark times. She seasons each recipe with love,compassion, kindness and hope, something that everyone needs right now.