Edible Memphis Issue 44 - Summer/Fall 2019

edible MEMPHIS FOOD, FARM AND COMMUNITY IN THE MID-SOUTH

POPPIN’ FRESH PRODUCE • THE CHICKEN LADY RIPLEY TOMATOES • PINK BOOTS SOCIETY • LA HERRADURA Member of Edible Communities

N O. 44

SUMMER/FALL 2019

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contents

5

LETTER FROM PUBLISHER

32 POPPIN’ FRESH PRODUCE

FARM TO STICK

BY BILL GANUS • PORTRAIT BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

6 9

LETTER FROM EDITOR

The MEMPopS mission to source local is met— by the thousands—by Jones Orchard

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PORTRAIT BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

BY CARA GREENSTEIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIM THOMAS

CONTRIBUTORS PAGE

36 COMMUNITY

A JUICE BAR WITH A MISSION

BY EMMA MESKOVIC

Addressing food insecurity in South Memphis

10 GROWING UP

BY JAYNE ELLEN WHITE • PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHIP CHOCKLEY

LESSONS LEARNED IN THE GARDEN Agriculture programs educate the next generation

40 THE BUZZ

BY ANDY MEEK • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZIGGY MACK

SAY YES TO SHRUBS

The evolution of a classic cocktail ingredient

14 MIDTOWN CHICKS

BY BRAD PITTS • PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHIP CHOCKLEY

LIFE WITH CHICKENS

An interview with Melissa Whitby

42 LADY BOSSES

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHIP CHOCKLEY

PINK BOOTS ON THE GROUND

The Memphis chapter of the Pink Boots Society helps advance beer careers for women

16 AT HOME

GREENING THE KITCHEN

BY BIANCA PHILLIPS • PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTIN FOX BURKS

Home-cooked meals and an empty trash can

BY HEIDI RUPKE • PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIM THOMAS

44 WHAT’S BREWING

DRINKING OUTSIDE “THE LOOP”

21 EDIBLE INK

Craft beer comes to Cordova

TENNESSEE AGRICULTURE

BY ALEXANDRA REED • PHOTOGRAPHS BY HOUSTON COFIELD

BY RENATA HENDERSON

22 FARM

48 RESTAURANT

LA HERRADURA

FROM CHILDHOOD DREAMS TO A RETIREE’S REALITY

Meet Debra Lockard, owner of Lockard’s Produce

BY ERIKA CAIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZIGGY MACK

A successful family experiment

BY ALEJANDRO PAREDES • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREA MORALES

52 ROAD THERAPY

WE’RE ON A ROAD TO BARBECUE

28 FARM

A perfectly gluttonous day trip

PICKED BY HAND

Ripley Produce tomatoes thrive despite climate change

BY SARAH HAGAMAN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY BREEZY LUCIA

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD LAWRENCE

56 GET SOCIAL

BRING IT HOME

31 EDIBLE INK

TOMATO FACTS

BY RENATA HENDERSON

2 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

BY EMMA MESKOVIC • PHOTOGRAPHS BY SAMANTHA JONES

57

MARKETPLACE

Thank you to these locally owned businesses that make Memphis a better, tastier city

edible MEMPHIS

summe r/fall 2019 PUBLISHER Bill Ganus bill@ediblememphis.com CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER Kristopher Hassett kris@ediblememphis.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Stacey Greenberg stacey@ediblememphis.com COPY EDITOR Manda Gibson AD SALES partner@ediblememphis.com DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR Emma Meskovic emma@ediblememphis.com DESIGN AND LAYOUT Chloe Hoeg chloehoeg.com FOLLOW US Facebook: Edible Memphis Instagram: @ediblememphis Website: ediblememphis.com Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions.

If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our apologies. Thank you. No part of this publication may be used without written permission of the publisher. © 2019 All Rights Reserved.

ON THE COVER Local favorite MEMPopS sources many ingredients from Jones Orchard, a nearby family farm.

Page 32. Photo: Kim Thomas ON THIS PAGE Ripley tomatoes are a staple of Lockard’s Produce.

Page 22. Photo: Ziggy Mack ediblememphis.com 3

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4 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Portrait: Michael Butler, Jr.; Other photo, Bill Ganus

I

love ice cream. I daydream about a summer job scooping ice cream for friends. I love the science of ice cream. I love combining flavors and playing with the protein and fat sources to make the perfect bite. Burnt honey and Earl Grey, fresh peach with front-yard rosemary, dark chocolate with fresh-picked mint. When I write new ideas in my ice cream recipe journal, I star locally available ingredients because it’s a very appealing idea to have an “all-local ice cream menu.”

But even if I were to open my Cooper-Young craft ice cream summer pop-up, I don’t know that I’d go all-local, only-local. I’d definitely lean that way. And I’d work my tail off to celebrate the region’s capabilities in my recipes. But buying local doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing way of life, especially when it’s unknown territory.

There are ways in which the globalization of our food supply has been good. (Avocados, almonds and bananas are go-to snack foods for me. Also . . . coffee! And none of those can be grown locally.) And there are definitely ways in which globalization obfuscates and exploits relationships between producers and consumers.

You’re not a jerk if you still eat avocados (even though the

My son James loves my ice cream made from Jones Orchard June peaches and front-yard rosemary. closest major avocado farm is in Mexico, 1,500 miles away).

My hope for myself, for my family and for all of us is that we’ll use our voting wallets to make better choices, but not to be paralyzed by a pressure to have to make the best choice every time.

Small steps toward local buying are still worthwhile. Go to the nearest farmers market and meet a farmer. Then buy something. Then ask your favorite restaurant what they buy that’s locally produced. If we all can encourage each other to trend in the right direction, more and easier infrastructure can be put in place to support those goals. You won’t be a jerk for loving key lime pie, but rosemary peach is pretty damn good too! • BILL GANUS Publisher Follow: @billganus ediblememphis.com 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

6 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

In the meantime, Cris gave me some good advice about visiting the markets that I’d like to pass on: Talk to the people selling the food! He suggests asking the following questions: Did you grow this yourself?

How did you grow it?

Where is your farm?

Can I visit?

And finally, our website now has a number of handy local guides including a Mid-South Farmers Market Guide. There are more markets than you think! Check it out, along with our Coffee Guide and Black-Owned Restaurants Guide. Let us know what other guides you’d like to see! •

Clockwise from top left: My son, Jiro; homemade tomato tart; farmers market haul.

STACEY GREENBERG Editor in Chief Follow: @nancy_jew

Farmers market photos: Stacey Greenberg

I

’ve got a secret to share— shopping in season at the farmers markets has made my kids think that I’m a great cook. I just buy what looks good and then lay it all out when I get home to plan my weekly menu.

(I also like to take a picture of my goodies for IG and Facebook: #farmersmarkethaul. Play along!)

My go-to dinner offering is usually meat plus a veggie, but the summer harvest has inspired me. I’ve recently wowed with a tomato tart that was nothing more than gorgeous Tubby Creek Farm heirloom tomatoes and basil, a little sharp cheddar from Bonnie Blue Farm and a store-bought crust. I’ve made two peach cobblers—my first two ever—one with Georgia peaches from The Peach Truck and one with peaches from Jones Orchard. They were delicious, and I have never felt more Southern!

I’ve taken spaghetti and meatballs to the next level thanks to Miles Tamboli’s pasta and the ground pork and beef from Renaissance Farms. My 15-year-old son, Jiro, who’s become my best farmers market buddy, asked, “Where did you get these meatballs?” no less than three times as my answer (“I made them!”) just didn’t seem to click. “They’re so good,” he kept saying as he gobbled them up. He was equally impressed when I was able to recreate two family favorites—egg roll in a bowl and zuppa toscana—with farmers market finds.

Taking Jiro to the market not only results in having someone to help carry everything home, but also means he gets an inside look at our food system. So far his favorites include getting chips and salsa from his friend Leo at the Las Delicias booth, drinking at least half of my cold brew with tonic and grapefruit from the Vice & Virtue stand, and talking to Brandon and choosing flowers from Delta Sol’s booth. On a quest for arugula, we both happily discovered micro arugula at the Rolling Along Farms booth and it is now a must for all avocado toast.

When I told Jiro that I went to visit Renaissance Farms with some of the Edible Memphis gang, he was full of questions, and even felt a little left out. (He was working at Mud Camp that day, or I would have invited him!) When I told him that farmer Cris Watson invited us back for a poultry day, he perked up. Poultry days are once a month, and everyone is invited to come and help Cris process his chickens. And, yes, by process I mean kill and de-feather. Jiro and I talked about the mechanics of this, and we’re deciding if it’s something we could do. (Stay tuned!)

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8 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

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Justin Fox Burks has been a professional photographer for 20 years, but that’s not all.

He photographed and co-authored two vegetarian cookbooks, The Southern Vegetarian: 100 Down-Home Recipes for the Modern Table and The Chubby Vegetarian: 100 Inspired Vegetable Recipes for the Modern Table.

He feels fortunate to be able to make interesting images for a living. @justinfoxburks

Erika Cain is a communications vet with chops in writing, public relations, graphic design, TV, radio and brand strategy. She is a skilled storyteller and has been a trusted adviser to executives and companies for almost two decades. Erika founded GIRL 24, a business mentoring initiative to help build a culture of gifted and ingenious female leaders. She is a spouse, mom, speaker, community volunteer and member of Junior League, and loves dissecting brands. @ecain_co

Chip Chockley, an attorney by day, has been a professional photographer since 2008.Things that make him happy include tacos, mai tais and his wife and kids. @chipchockley

Houston Cofield is a photographer and artist living and working in Memphis. He received his MFA in photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his BA in journalism from the University of Mississippi. He is a fourth generation photographer, all of which have photographed the American South. @houstoncofield

Cara Greenstein is founder and author of award-winning, Memphis-based food and lifestyle brand Caramelized. A bonafide foodie and entertaining expert, Cara offers a wealth of inspiration for the kitchen and home, as well as food and itinerary suggestions for outings in Memphis and beyond. @cara_melized

Sarah Hagaman is a native Tennessean who frequents the Memphis food scene. She has written for various publications, including Edible Nashville, The Oxford Student at England’s Oxford University and The Daily Beacon at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. @swagaman_

Alejandro Paredes is an audiovisual journalist and producer. In 2014 he visited Memphis for the first time and fell in love with the city.

He has been involved in many initiatives to promote Latino culture, such as Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, Ruta Memphis and New Mix FM. @panarkista

Renata “Re” Henderson is a self-taught hand-lettering artist and native of Memphis.

She is a wife, stay-at-home mom to her two sons and an instructional coach. Her motto is “made with purpose, make with purpose,” giving her art and creativity a deeply rooted soul that is seamlessly tied to her Creator. @browngirllettering

Bianca Phillips writes about vegan food (and shares images of everything she eats) on her blog, Vegan Crunk. She's the author of Cookin' Crunk: Eatin' Vegan in the Dirty South. By day, she works as the communications coordinator for Crosstown Arts/Crosstown Concourse. She and her partner, Paul, are the proud parents of five cats and one very stubborn (but adorable) pit bull. @biancaphillips

Richard Lawrence takes pictures in and around the city of Memphis and the Mid-South. @sundayinmemphis

Breezy Lucia is a Memphis transplant from Kansas City, Missouri. She’s a freelance photographer and filmmaker living in Midtown. @breezylucia

Ziggy Mack is an internationally published photographer about town. When not immortalizing the movements of ballerinas, circus performers and mermaids, he spends his time finding candid moments involving delectable cuisines and the people that create them. @fomoloop

Andy Meek is a native Memphian whose work during a nearly two-decade career in journalism has appeared in outlets like The Guardian, The Washington Post and Fast Company. @andymeek

Emma Meskovic is the queen of all trades at Edible Memphis. You can find her posting on social media, managing print files, designing ads or editing the website. You can also find her standing on a chair and taking photos of her food while proclaiming, “Sorry! This is my job!” @emmamesk

Andrea Morales is a producer with the Southern Documentary Project at the University of Mississippi. She’s Peruvian-born, Miami-bred and Memphis-based. After years of existing in spaces heavy with the constructs of socioeconomic binaries, her work moves with the hope of observing the things in between. @_andrea_morales

Brad Pitts is an award-winning Memphis mixologist and beverage manager at the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC). @lbradpitts

Alexandra Reed wants you to know one thing—she’s a registered dietitian, not a food cop. She has written and presented for several companies, including Girlboss Media, Cherry Bombe, Teach for America, Ignite Memphis and Thinx. Email coupons and compliments to notafoodcop@gmail.com.

Heidi Rupke finds pleasure in maintaining the practical skills her grandmothers loved: quilting, gardening, keeping chickens and cooking from scratch. She enjoys biking around Midtown with her family and will drop everything for a good plate of Japanese-style pickled vegetables. @rupkeheidi

Kim Thomas is a lifestyle blogger and photographer based in Memphis. Launched in September 2010, her blog KP Fusion provides of-the-moment fashion, style and beauty tips and trends with a little Memphis flavor thrown in. @kpfusion

Jayne Ellen White has worked in the Memphis tourism industry for 12 years. She is a Memphis music history enthusiast and an adventurous home cook. She is the director of visitor experience at Stax Museum of American Soul Music. @jayne.ellen.vv

ediblememphis.com 9

GROWING UP

L ESSONS LEARNED

IN THE GARDEN

Agriculture programs educate the next generation

BY ANDY MEEK • PHOTOGR APHS BY ZIGGY MACK 10 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

“A

garden can teach you anything.” That’s the mantra of Mary Riddle, the director of environmental education and sustainability at the Hutchison School in East Memphis, where her job includes working with students at the all-girls private school on ways to integrate the school’s farm and outdoor facilities into classwork and studies as much as possible. It’s a mantra, but also a mission, because while that kind of philosophy might sound like a nice educational add-on—a luxury that’s not necessarily a core part of studies over the course of the day—this is how seriously Mary and Hutchison are taking the idea: The school is in the process of building out a farm, on a roughly one-acre patch of land close to the Ridgeway Road side of the school, that will include a climate-controlled glass greenhouse, native plant trails and lookout towers. Other features will include an outdoor classroom with an outdoor kitchen, an orchard, a new apiary and dozens of expansive raised beds for producing vegetables, flowers and fruits.

You can easily contrast that with the modern education landscape, which is chock-a-block with schools going increasingly high-tech and turning to the most expensive, modern and digital tools they can get their hands on to augment classroom learning.

And while Hutchison certainly does those things, this investment in the outdoors, as Riddle explains it, is meant to replace screen time with green time as much as possible. Why? To build facilities that “will allow for the programming that will put Memphis girls at the forefront of the burgeoning agtech movement.”

That’s really what Mary is getting at when you think about the meaning of her mantra. It’s not about gardens for gardens’ sake, or using them merely to learn how to farm and grow food. It’s about no less than changing the way kids see their place in the world in preparation for helping them lead extraordinary lives. The farm is a lens, in other words, through which they learn more about the world. And themselves.

“We try to use the farm—and anything ‘sustainability’—as a complement to any lessons they’re already working on,” Riddle explains. For a math lesson involving, say, the teaching of cubic feet? The girls can come out to the farm and look at how much planting is needed to fill one of the raised beds.

“One of the main ideas we want every kid to walk away with here is that they have the duty and the obligation and the ability to make positive change in their community and the world,” Riddle continues. “That’s what we constantly emphasize. That we’re preparing them for lives of integrity and global citizenship.”

A COUNTY-WIDE MOVEMENT

And it’s not just happening at Hutchison. There is arguably something akin to a movement unfolding across Shelby County with a similar purpose to the Hutchison farm. It’s an assortment of more or less disconnected efforts that share a common goal—the agriculture-related education of the next generation of citizens.

Nakia Hibler and Quamara Muhammad show off vegetables they helped to grow in the Carpenter Art Garden.

It’s not a cohesive effort we’re referring to but rather a series of different initiatives that encompass everything from 4-H to FFA to the Shelby County Agricultural Extension Service, to name a few. The kind of thing that’s not as sexy and can get a little overshadowed next to things like agtech and developments in the start-up world that capture their fair share of attention in any discussion about sustainability and efforts to make the world of both today and tomorrow a little greener.

Memphis has already become a nexus of the modern agtech industry, with the city drawing interest from the start-up community as well as major players ramping up a presence here.

Along those lines, Indigo Ag—which recently installed its North American commercial headquarters in downtown Memphis— held its first annual Beneficial Ag conference here. It was a conference that brought together farmers, plus representatives of seed and grain companies, among others, to talk about ways to improve the food system. ediblememphis.com 11

Carpenter Art gardeners sell produce door to door in their Binghampton neighborhood.

CREATING A FUTURE IN BINGHAMPTON

It’s hard to ignore the fact that Memphis has put itself on the map in a pretty major way when it comes to agtech and the like.

But no less important are members of the region’s generation of tomorrow, like the Hutchison girls as well as the teenagers tending to the beds of produce that comprise the Carpenter Art Garden in Binghampton.

The name refers to the nonprofit overseeing a collection of several properties on Carpenter Street that include three produce gardens, all run and nurtured by teenagers from the neighborhood.

They’re paid a $10 hourly wage and connect with local restaurants like Tsunami and The Liquor Store to coordinate what they would like to have the garden grow and sell to them. Carpenter Art Garden also sells produce to area residents and a couple of local grocery stores, according to executive director Henry Nelson.

“Our mission is to work with the children in Binghampton,” says Nelson, who adds the organization is currently working with 17 teenagers. “We do that through creativity and also something to help their self worth. We do it through art, art education and also vocational opportunities.

“There are art pieces throughout the garden, pieces made by the students. It’s just part of our vision to help the children of Binghampton create a future for themselves” The kids started planning in February for the growing season that began in May and for which harvesting is underway now.

12 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

The garden beds throughout are filled with things like squash, zucchini and tomatoes.

CAREER PREP THROUGH FFA

Dalton Luna, meanwhile, is another example on the other side of Shelby County of a kid busy with this same kind of work. He just graduated a few weeks ago from Collierville High School, where he served as president of the Collierville FFA chapter.

Luna said he wanted to participate in FFA because he saw how much fun and how beneficial his group of friends found the association, which prepares young people for leadership and careers in the “science, business and technology of agriculture.”

The letters in its name stand for Future Farmers of America, and its motto is this: “Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve.”

Luna’s work with the group included things like after-school practices for FFA competitions, along with participating in numerous teams and community service opportunities.

“I’ve always had a huge passion for agriculture and loved working outside and just being outside in general,” Luna explains. “FFA has many benefits. Not only do you further your agricultural skills and knowledge, but FFA also teaches young people life lessons such as brotherhood and serving others.”

He’s hoping to get a job as an agronomist after graduating from UT Martin. “I hope to land a job where I can test soils to

determine what fertilizers could be used or practices that could be done based on the test results,” he says.

EXTENSION PARTNERSHIPS AND 4-H

Young people like him, meanwhile, are also very much a focus of the work being done by the Shelby County Agricultural Extension Service.

That name refers to a partnership between Shelby County government, Tennessee State University, the University of Tennessee and the United States Department of Agriculture.

And the group’s purpose is right there in its name—to serve as an extension of the participating universities, “extending” the knowledge those universities generate and sharing it with people in the community, all in the service of helping people adapt to changes in society and improve the lives of ordinary families and individuals.

If that sounds like a pretty lofty mission, that’s because it’s supposed to. The agricultural extension team focuses on issues relating to everything from agriculture and the environment to food safety, youth development and much more. The extension program also, among other things, serves Shelby County in areas that include 4-H youth development.

“Our mission,” explains Jim Todd, the extension director in Shelby County, “is to bring research-based information to people for things like agriculture, and we also have a youth development

program that includes 4-H. We’re trying to make it as active as we can in Shelby County. Primarily, it’s an outreach program, 4-H is. But we’ve broadened the umbrella to include a lot of other nontraditional programs that we take to the schools.” Traditional 4-H programs, he continues, tend to be club-based and focused on kids’ interests—anything from forestry to outdoor cookery and learning about wildlife.

“Almost anything that has to do with a life skill, we have a project that’s related to that,” Todd says. “We have about 10,000 kids that go through educational programs here at Agricenter every year. We may have a solar energy field trip, and they may come out here and visit our solar farm and be provided activities and lessons here. We’ve also got a program that introduces them to learn how seeds turn into plants and into the food that they eat.”

The 4-H effort that Todd’s organization leads is yearround. Todd says a motto here, like in FFA, is “learn by doing,” and the kids who participate learn by seeing, touching and smelling—immersing themselves in the outdoors and in the world around them.

“We want them to know these things are fun,” he says. “But they’re also going to learn a lot about some of the things they’re interested in.” Kind of like Riddle’s mantra, about the garden.

You plant seeds, water them, watch them grow—and whether the garden is real or metaphorical, it can teach you a lot, if you let it. • ediblememphis.com 13

MIDTOWN CHICKS “The Chicken Lady,” has kept chickens for over 10 years and finds them “hilarious.”

LIFE WITH

chickens An interview with Melissa Whitby

BY S TACE Y GREENBERG • PHOTOGR APHS BY CHIP CHOCKLE Y 14 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

M

elissa Whitby, a board member of Memphis Tilth, lives in Midtown with five chickens, three dogs and a cat. Now that she’s on her third flock in 10 years, we thought we’d have a chat with “The Chicken Lady” about her life with chickens.

Edible Memphis: What made you decide to keep chickens?

Melissa Whitby: Barbara Kingsolver is the reason I have chickens in my backyard. Several years ago I read her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which led to me researching where my food came from. I started buying meat from the farmers market, paying attention to whether chickens were “free-range” or “cage-free” or “pastured,” and researching heirloom vegetables.

Keeping Chickens by Ashley English made chicken-keeping seem romantic. I loved the idea of waking every morning to chicken noises and fresh eggs.

EM: How did you get started?

MW: I did my research. There are tons of chicken-keeping blogs, books and websites. As luck would have it, a friend had a free chicken coop up for grabs in Millington. My dad and I broke it down and put it back together, making it stronger. I purchased chicks from a farm supply store in Collierville and started a blog, The Midtown Chicks. Though I no longer have the blog, I’ve stuck with the chicken-keeping.

EM: How much work goes into keeping chickens?

MW: Caring for them is pretty easy. Once a week, I fill up their feeder and water containers and clean out the coop. When it gets hot, I need to fill the water more often. I look in on the girls and collect eggs daily. They love veggie scraps and stale bread, so I try to save those for them throughout the week.

EM: What kind of investment are we talking about?

MW: Baby chicks will need to live under a heat lamp until all of their feathers come in, so plan on housing them inside for a few months. You’ll want to make yourself a brooder, a heated space for raising young chickens; basically all you need is a large container, heat lamp, food and water. Once the girls are ready to move into their permanent home, you’ll want to have their coop all ready to go. You can purchase a coop kit online, buy a premade coop at a farm supply store or, if you are feeling adventurous, build your own.

Once you have your setup, it’s about $50 a month for food and $20 every couple of months for straw/shredded materials for the coop.

EM: What do they eat?

MW: Chicks eat “chick starter,” then transition to pullet feed, and then to layer feed, which contains calcium. All supplies are available at Hollywood Feed. When the chicks are small, the water dish needs to be very shallow. (Fun fact: Baby chicks just fall down and sleep no matter where they are, so be sure it’s not in a water dish.)

Once they have moved outside and are eating big-girl food, they will love vegetable scraps, bread, scratch, mealworms and fruit and berries. Be sure to read up on which treats they can and cannot eat.

EM: Can we just go to a pet store and buy chickens?

MW: Check out groups like Midtown Chicken People on Facebook if you want full-grown, already-laying birds. However, baby chicks are very cute and very fun. Hollywood Feed has them for sale after the Easter holiday. Farm supply stores also carry them. Chicks purchased from stores typically are sexed, meaning the males have been culled out. That is not always 100 percent accurate, so you may hear a rooster crow around the time the ladies start laying.

EM: Did you name your chickens?

MW: My first flock had fun names like Saffron and Blackberry.

Over time, and after losing a few to illness and raccoons, I now just collectively refer to them as The Midtown Chicks.

I have had this new flock for two years and (knock on wood) we haven’t had any issues other than a surprise rooster. I named him Duke Silver and eventually re-homed him because roosters are not legal in the city limits.

Chickens are hilarious. Each lady bird has her own personality. You could name your flock after the Golden Girls, athletes, movie stars or your favorite breakfast foods.

EM: First flock? New flock? How long do chickens live, assuming raccoons and illness don’t strike?

MW: Typically chickens live about eight years. Toward the end of their lives they will stop laying eggs, so plan ahead for your chickens’ retirement plans. I do not and will not ever eat my birds because they are pets to me. The ladies and I will enjoy their retirement with plenty of mealworms and watermelon rinds—their two favorite treats.

EM: Is the pecking order a real thing?

MW: The pecking order is a very real thing. The ladies establish the pecking order, which is fine and good unless you are trying to introduce two new, very young birds. This can go disastrously wrong.

In an attempt to merge two newbies, I once had to resort to peepers—essentially blinders fitted to the beak—to prevent one bird from spying the little ones across the yard and going in for the attack.

Once in her peepers (which I added googly eyes to just for fun), Fluffy Butt, as I affectionately called her, quickly stopped picking on the little ones and settled in to her new lifestyle. That is, until she flew the coop. Poor thing wandered around the neighborhood for two weeks before she resurfaced one street over. As you can imagine, the neighbor was quite confused by the peepers. Eventually, Fluffy Butt was safely returned to the flock as an Internet sensation.

EM: What are some pros of having chickens?

MW: Eggs. Duh. Your friends will love to see you coming with a fresh dozen when you visit. Telling people you have chickens is a big hit at parties. You’ll never want for used egg cartons. You will get at least one chicken-themed gift for every birthday or holiday. • ediblememphis.com 15

AT HOME

GREENING THE KITCHEN Home-cooked meals and an empty trash can

BY HEIDI RUPKE • PHOTOGR APHS BY KIM THOMA S If one stays in a certain corner of the Internet and social media, one could believe that the minimalist and zero waste movements are populated exclusively by women with swishy blond hair and cauliflower obsessions. Candace Obadina—a consultant, amateur gardener, proud Binghampton resident, thrifty shopper and someone who would choose a carrot over cauliflower any day—blows that stereotype right open. For the last few years, Candace has worked to fine-tune an approach to food that nourishes herself and her family without filling up her garbage can.

Candace minimizes her kitchen waste through a variety of routines: careful menu planning and grocery lists, using The Compost Fairy’s free drop-off sites, reusing containers and pursuing a plant-centric diet. But she didn’t grow up with those habits.

“I come from a family who buys bottled water, uses paper towels like they’re free and never owned a dish towel—like, ever. For most of my childhood I ate TV dinners and prepackaged snacks. A home-cooked meal was a luxury,” remembers Candace.

Her journey toward a healthier, more efficient kitchen has occurred over time, piece by piece. Last year Candace added a small garden in her backyard.

This year composting is a new element.

“When I feel like we’ve conquered each new step, I think, ‘What can we add on?’” she explains.

Candace’s food philosophy is influenced by Michael Pollan, a writer who encourages people to think more comprehensively about their food: its origins, its health impact and its wider implications for society and the earth. His mantra—“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants”—is printed at the top of Candace’s weekly grocery lists.

Simplicity and thriftiness anchor her shopping; she purchases only the food that her family will need for 16 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

“A RAW FOOD CHALLENGE CHANGED HOW I APPROACHED PREPARING MY DAUGHTER’S LUNCHES.” —CANDACE OBADINA

ediblememphis.com 17

TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY TO GREEN YOUR KITCHEN: (TIPS FROM CANDACE, ASHLEY AND HEIDI) 1. Compost. If you don’t want to tend your own bin, call The Compost Fairy.

2. Eat slowly. Appreciating the colors, textures and tastes of your food will keep you from dumping some of it in the trash.

3. Purchase produce without packaging. Bring along your own lightweight bags if you like.

4. Eat leaves and stems. Beet and carrot greens, to take just two examples, are delicious and jam-packed with nutrients your body loves. Try sautéing the beet greens or making pesto from the carrot tops.

5. Replace single-use items such as paper napkins and plastic wrap with reusable alternatives like cloth napkins and beeswax wraps.

6. Plan menus. A plan keeps impulse purchases to a minimum (and reduces extra trips to the store—bonus!).

7. Eat perishable items first. Ashley recommends designating an “Eat First” section of the refrigerator in order to prioritize food that is time-sensitive.

8. Maintain a short list of “blank canvas recipes” that can accommodate odd amounts or combinations of leftover ingredients, e.g., fried rice, fajitas, frittata, pasta salad, etc. For recipes that target odd amounts and leftovers, check out savethefood.com.

9. Buy fewer groceries and try to eat them all. Congratulate yourself on the money you saved.

10. Know how your food is supposed to taste, regardless of the “sell by” date.

If it still smells and tastes good, use it up.

the week, balancing quality of items with economic bargains. Her daughter’s numerous allergies pushed Candace toward intentional meal planning and shopping for items with minimal ingredient lists. Simple foods tend to be cheaper, healthier and less likely to produce an allergic reaction. Win, win, win.

Candace starts with the farmers market on Saturday mornings. First, she drops her compost and then cruises the market for fresh and frugal items like cucumbers and peaches. Next, she goes to Sprouts for items on her list that can’t be found at the market.

Finally, Candace visits Whole Foods for the rest of her list, which includes animal products such as cheese, eggs and meat. Detailed menu planning streamlines her shopping experience and provides fulfillment as she nurtures her family with high-quality food.

A fun component of the food-gathering routine is the regular trip to community gardens for free produce. “We stop by each week to see what’s growing. Most people don’t know you can go to any of the community or school gardens and grab what’s growing for free. Last year there was basil growing all over the place at East High. I texted a bunch of my friends and encouraged them to get some to make pesto. I did it again when there was so much kale unused,” says Candace.

Though her family of origin rarely cooked, a close family 18 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

At the grocery Candace Obadina looks for items that are of good quality for a good price. Each week she saves her kitchen scraps and delivers them to The Compost Fairy at the farmers market.

friend exposed Candace to gardening, canning and home cooking. Her husband’s Nigerian family has shared traditional recipes such as pepe—a combination of bell pepper, habanero, tomato and onion—which forms the base for multiple dishes like jollof rice. Favorite dishes at the Obadina house include fried rice made with bacon, eggs, onions, bell peppers and leftover rice and served alongside grapes. They also love curries and Nigerian beans, or muffins and eggs with fresh fruit and veg. Cookbooks from the library and bloggers provide additional inspiration.

“A raw food challenge changed how I approached preparing my daughter’s lunches. She went from pretzels and packaged granola bars to mostly raw produce. My hope for her is that, as she grows, she will only know how to eat a plant-centric diet and live in a way that produces minimal waste,” says Candace.

While Candace greens her home kitchen, Ashley Cabrera works to reduce waste in kitchens and grocery stores across Tennessee. As the creative services coordinator for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (and as an unofficial green bean enthusiast), Ashley gathers research, runs education campaigns and works with community partners like Kroger to prevent and redirect food waste. She’s straightforward about the severity of food waste in the United States.

“Imagine that you purchase eight bags of food at the grocery store. While in the parking lot, you dump three bags and never bring them home. That’s the average amount of food wasted, which costs an average family $130 to $230 per month on groceries that are never used,” says Ashley.

Ashley’s data show that 75 to 80 percent of food waste comes from home kitchens and grocery stores. The good news is that individual choices can really move the needle on the $165 billion wasted annually in the United States on food and the additional $750 million spent to transport that unused food to the landfill.

Waste is broader than consumer spending and strain on landfills. Food that goes uneaten still requires energy to produce.

(Think: the grass that fed the cows, the labor to milk them, homogenization and pasteurization processes, containers, transportation, labeling, stocking, pricing, scanning.) Waste stretches both backward and forward from what we see in a trash can.

To Ashley, food is more than a commodity. Food is an investment of resources, time, labor, money and even pollution.

“When we treat ample food as a gift—a gift that not everyone shares, frankly—we are less likely to toss it aside without a second thought,” she says. We might even remember to be grateful.

Ashley’s starting points for streamlining the home kitchen sound a lot like what Candace has already put into practice: Buy less. Eat what you need. Plan well.

It’s not complicated, but it does require attention. Partway into her journey, Candace realized that her family had given her some tools that she needed to live simply.

“I read an article about how people of color and poor people have for generations been making choices to green their kitchen. I thought it was funny when a different, European American blogger suggested reusing old food containers as a way to green the kitchen. I thought to myself, ‘Isn’t that obvious? Everyone I knew growing up did that,’” says Candace.

Kitchens reflect values. Candace makes small changes to care for her family, her budget, her patch of earth, her health. She measures her impact in terms of personal habits. Ashley cares about the state of Tennessee’s rivers, forests and cities as well as her own young family. She’s measuring tons of food that avoid landfills.

Ashley and Candace point toward a healthier future for all. • For more about Ashley’s work, check out getfoodsmarttn.com or savethefood.com.

FURTHER READING (CANDACE’S FAVORITES): 1. Any of Michael Pollan’s writings 2. goingzerowaste.com/blog/the-5-rs-of-zero-waste 3. minimalistbaker.com 4. budgetbytes.com 5. bluezones.com/recipes/food-guidelines ediblememphis.com 19

Fi

B

all natural hand-crafted pops

find us at 1 243 RID GEWAY ROAD, C RO SSTOWN CO U N CO URSE , and 3 670 H O U STO N LEVE E ROAD

20 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

EDIBLE INK

ILLUSTR ATION BY RENATA HENDER SON

ediblememphis.com 21

FARM

From Childhood Dreams to a Retiree’s Reality Meet Debra Lockard, owner of Lockard’s Produce

BY ERIK A C AIN • PHOTOGR APHS BY ZIGG Y MACK

D

uring the 1960s in the countryside of Tennessee, you were sure to pass little boys and girls out playing amongst the dirt roads and green fields.

However, one five-year-old girl by the name of Debra Lockard traded in her hopscotch and mud pies for something most children—and adults—shy away from: picking greens.

Before Debra was born, farming was already running through both sides of her family’s history, at a time when both parents and grandparents were called “momma” and “daddy.”

Her mother was raised on a 21-acre farm, but later established life in the city—Memphis, that is. Her father’s rural roots are still planted today in the small town of Glimp, Tennessee, next door to Ripley.

Farm life began when Debra’s grandfather, Albert Henry Lockard, born in 1895, lived on the original family farmland on Lightfoot Luckett Road in Ripley. He worked as an educator for 43 years, which included teaching in a tiny one-room schoolhouse on the family property. Eventually Albert purchased an additional 120 acres of farmland about two miles away, where today the only living senior member of Debra’s family, 90-year-old “Uncle June,” resides at the corner where their miles of grounds intersect. Uncle June was just a baby when his father, Albert, acquired the additional farmland, and June can still be found crouching over to tend his soil and clean harvested onions to a shine.

Living in Memphis, but spending summers in Glimp, a then young Debra returned home from the farm one day— pulling up in a 1962 Biscayne Ford; she gazed into the clear blue sky with much clarity and told herself, “I want to be a farmer!” Debra can still point out the little spot on the farm where her granddaddy built her a small garden when she was five years old. “I grew bunches of greens, mainly turnips and mustards, and loved picking greens so much that they would have to call me from the field,” she said.

22 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

Debra Lockard, a thirdgeneration farmer, on her tractor in Glimp.

“I grew bunches of greens, mainly turnips and mustards, and loved picking greens so much that they would have to call me from the field.”

—DEBRA LOCKARD ediblememphis.com 23

Traveling back and forth from the city to the farm throughout the year, Debra and her three siblings were raised on a tight schedule. They’d harvest plenty of strawberries, peas and potatoes to take back home to share with the community. “We would always attract people in the neighborhood to our house,” says Debra. Like clockwork, the day during the school year consisted of getting up, eating breakfast, driving to the farm for harvesting, driving back to Memphis for school, going home and going to sleep.

As Debra grew in age and determination, she told her dad— who passed away at 91—that she wanted to bypass college because she just knew farming was her calling. Despite that draw to farming, Debra did go to college and had a long career as an educator.

Through all those years, though, she kept farming on the side.

From prepping harvest for the Scott Street Farmers Market (now closed) to transforming her huge backyard into a peach orchard, she dedicated much time, effort and talent to the family business.

Debra is considered the third generation of farmers, and of her three siblings—one brother who died, and one sister who chose a different path outside of farming—Debra and her remaining brother purchased a multitude of the Lockard family farmland, many years later. Debra owns 30 acres of the land, while her brother—a geophysicist and urban farmer in New Orleans who loves teaching on the health of soil—owns 165 acres. Debra helps manage all of the farming and contracts. The land stretches around to Asbury Glimp Road and Albert Lockard Road, identified as the “home seat” of all their farmland. Not all of their farmland is used for growing produce, as other parts are utilized with cover crops for research and studies.

Debra started Lockard’s Produce in 2014, after a 36-year-long education career with legacy Shelby County Schools, retiring as a principal at Woodstock Middle School in Millington. With the gardens situated next to the home of Uncle June, he became Debra’s mentor and taught her the ins and outs of maintaining the farm and soil and producing a quality harvest of fruits and veggies. Lockard’s Produce has seen its share of excitement on the farm, from pigs and chickens skating around on the property, to a full smokehouse where her uncle cured meat. That is, until Debra decided to become a certified naturally grown produce company, resulting in the animals being phased out over time.

Debra is first to admit that without her village of mentors, she would not have progressed to her current magnitude of farming.

Although Debra has workers to assist with tending the farm, she gets her hours of labor in consistently, even during some of the most treacherous days of heat. While others might find refuge sipping from a tall glass of freshly squeezed lemonade amid her acres of green land, Debra often finds peace when riding the plains from the top view of her tractor.

Once a novice, Debra started out trying different things and just planting with her fingers crossed. Then she began taking classes, ultimately becoming a master gardener. Friends and 24 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

Albert Lockard (left), aka “Uncle June,” has served as a mentor to Debra Lockard.

At 90 years old, he still lives on and tends the soil of the family farmland. loved ones pitched in to ensure Debra could fulfill her dream of becoming a farmer. She continues to network, build relationships with other farmers and take classes at UT Extension Institute of Agriculture, which serves the citizens of Shelby County with educational programs in the areas of agriculture and community resource development.

Debra is very knowledgeable about farm life and understands how to maintain good soil, till, water and crop. She is keen on what is capable of growing in her soil, and what to stay away from. Her Ripley tomatoes are a staple and always a sellout. These firm red beauties, including Red Deuce and Mountain Pride, are rich in flavor, or as customers would say, “none other like them.”

They’ve recently earned her the title of 2019 Tomato Farmer of the Year—an honor given by Lauderdale County’s chamber of commerce. “This is my dream come true as a farmer,” Debra said.

Debra has found lessons she learned as an educator—like people skills, scheduling and management—have proven quite useful

for the farming business. In addition to farming life, she works part-time as a prekindergarten instructional coach monitor. As she trains the fourth generation of the Lockard family, Debra’s ultimate goal is to be a sustainable farmer and pass the torch to aspiring farmers, teaching them how to grow without using chemicals. She eventually plans to offer wholesale, as well as a Lockard’s Produce farmers market right on the premises of the family farm in Glimp.

Debra hopes her farming business impacts the local community by providing fresh produce straight from farm to market; she seeks to make a difference globally by sharing stories on social media about the benefits of growing naturally. Lockard’s Produce offers fresh cilantro, dried sage and other herbs, as well as sweet potatoes, kale, cabbage, blackberries, okra, purple hull peas and a mile long of other produce that she hopes to establish at local Whole Foods stores. Debra also makes soap and, most notably, candied pralines and sells them at local farmers markets, including those in CooperYoung, South Memphis, Germantown and Covington. • ediblememphis.com 25

Family owned and operated since 1948.

26 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

“NOT YOUR ORDINARY PORK RINDS.

IT’S PAPA.” FOLLOW US @PAPABEARSKINS

order now at PAPABEARSKINS.COM ediblememphis.com 27

FARM

PICKED

BY HAND

Ripley Produce tomatoes thrive despite climate change

BY SAR AH HAGAMAN • PHOTOGR APHS BY BREEZ Y LUCIA 28 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

Robert Tims, a third-generation farmer, inspects his tomato crops in Ripley.

“We used to have less intense heat and gentler rains. . . . That climate yielded healthier tomatoes.”

—ROBERT TIMS

“L

ike candy,” Robert Tims, farmer and owner of Ripley Produce, says as he walks slowly amongst rows and rows of tomatoes.

It’s a hot summer afternoon; the sun beats down and creates short shadows around our feet. He stops and surveys the plants. “So sweet, we could call these ‘cutie pies,’” he says.

The Tims family has provided produce and tomatoes to Memphis and the surrounding areas for three generations. Tims walks a bit and then stretches out his hand. Tucked in his dirt-lined fingers are a variety of cherry tomatoes—Sun Golds, he calls one variety, which have a biting, sweet-and-sour taste. Others boast a robust purple color and full-bodied flavor. “Chocolate Cherries,” Tims explains. Each tomato is tiny, unique and perfectly ripe.

He calls out more names of tomatoes as we pass: Cherokee Purple, Mountain Spring and Copia. A familiarity with plants infuses the farmer’s words. His favorite crop? Cherokee Purple. “They’re rare and hard to grow, but they’re absolutely beautiful,” he says.

Ripley, Tennessee, is famous for its tomatoes. The small town sits an hour north of Memphis; 60 acres of sweeping farmland belong to the Tims family. Ironically, Tims never wanted to be a farmer. He recounts childhood memories of the drudgery of farm work, which included baling hay and using temperamental mules to work the field—his family didn’t use a tractor-drawn plow until he was six. However, after a brief stint at a steel mill, he decided to return to farm life.

Tims oversees the health and growth of 50,000 plants. Walking through his fields, he shows a distinct ease with his agricultural lifestyle despite the temperamental nature of farming. He touches an heirloom plant as we pass. “Blight,” he says, reaching out to a stalk. A few brown spots have left holes in the leaves. Disease commonly affects tomatoes, but the root of the issue is what really troubles Tims.

Climate change has negatively affected the growth of the tomatoes. Last season, Tims notes, an early cold snap delayed the plants. Then torrential rains pounded the plants. The irregularities in weather make it difficult to keep plants healthy in an organic fashion, though Tims does his best to avoid pesticides and other chemicals.

“It didn’t used to be like this,” Tims says, his eyes roving the horizon. “We used to have less intense heat and gentler rains.

That’s my memory of the environment growing up. That climate yielded healthier tomatoes.”

I broach the touchy subject: “Global warming?”

He nods. “In my experience, it’s no question,” he says. “I don’t know how else to explain this weather pattern, but it’s brutal on plants.”

Despite this concern, the joy in the work remains. Tims relishes the relationships that he has formed with his customers, like those who drive to the farm from the Memphis area and those he meets at farmers markets, including the farmers market at the ediblememphis.com 29

Though he didn’t plan to be a farmer, Robert Tims delights in providing a wide variety of tomatoes to Mid-South customers.

30 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

Agricenter International, the Memphis Farmers Market and the South Memphis Farmers Market. In addition to tomatoes, he sells his sweet potatoes, cucumbers, corn, soybeans and purple beans. Tims hopes over time to see an upswing in the fall farmers market attendance; summer months draw crowds, but many customers miss the bountiful fall harvest.

Industry leaders have also noticed the quality of Ripley Produce.

Whole Foods in Memphis sold Ripley Produce’s tomatoes for several years. Now Tims prefers sending his tomatoes to Tommy Thompson Produce in Louisville and to The Produce Place in Nashville.

The farm’s production room, where we sit now, is modest but welcoming with a big rocking chair and wood board walls. On an old cash register sits a note left by a neighbor who wants to stop by and buy produce.

As I rock and swat mosquitoes, a conveyor belt whirs to my right.

A large machine cleans the surface of the tomatoes and sorts them by size. I admire the various shades of red-orange from my seat. Farming them is strenuous—the workers cover all 60 acres and dig irrigation ditches to keep the plants watered. The summer sun is intense, and workers handpick each tomato. These tomatoes seem far removed from the squeaky-clean uniformity of supermarket tomatoes.

As we leave, Tims tucks his rare Cherokee Purples in a bag for me to take home. A spirit of generosity and connectedness infuses this Tennessee farm—and each and every tomato. •

EDIBLE INK

ILLUSTR ATION BY RENATA HENDER SON

ediblememphis.com 31

POPPIN’ FRESH PRODUCE

The MEMPopS mission to source local is met—by the thousands—by Jones Orchard

BY C AR A GREENSTEIN • PHOTOGR APHS BY KIM THOMA S

32 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

e’re picking peaches right now. We’ll be there in three hours.”

The typical phone call response from Jones Orchard third-generation farmer Henry Jones is exactly what the caller, MEMPopS owner Chris Taylor, anticipates.

Taylor requests produce at a pace he’s quickly outgrowing, once again: A thousand pops a day. A thousand pounds of peaches a week.

As quantities multiply year after year for the beloved MEMPopS mainstay, which now enters its fourth summer season, commitment to quality never waivers.

“We make everything, and I’m proud of that,” says Taylor. “And we take the extra steps to make that possible.”

Locally sourced ingredients are at the core of the MEMPopS mission. Jones Orchard is a key player in carrying that mission forward in year four.

Taylor and Jones go way back to pre-popsicle-shop days, where they’d regularly converse at the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market. Jones Orchard was founded in 1940 when the late HL “Peaches” Jones would sell peaches door-to-door in Millington neighborhoods. Almost eight decades later, the family-run farm continues to grow. Henry Jones leads farm diversification as well as outreach at farmers markets and with partners like MEMPopS. “Our MEMPopS customers love the relationship,” says Chris Taylor. “They see the produce load into the shops in awe. It’s a good feeling to see what goes into it.”

Jones Orchard, which Taylor calls his “one-stop shop,” provides MEMPopS with peaches, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries in the summer, and apples, pears and pumpkins in fall.

“Chris would at first come buy our produce at the Agricenter,” said Henry Jones. “But he started buying enough product to deliver at least a couple of times a week, whenever he needs something.”

In addition to the bulk homegrown favorites, Jones Orchard grows some rare produce offerings, like pluots, a hybrid between an apricot and plum. MEMPopS takes advantage with limited-edition menu add-ons.

“Henry recently turned me onto canary melons too,” said Taylor.

“So we tried out a new niche flavor.”

Before they knew it, the flavor was sold out.

“We aren’t trying to find shortcuts or better margins,” said Taylor. “We are making a good product, and people buy into that.

The ingredient might be more expensive, but it’s worth it to us.”

During the winter months, for example, the blood orange pop was an unexpected fan favorite. Whereas MEMPopS charges $3.25 per popsicle, the concentrated blood orange juice amounted to $1.75 worth of juice per pop. The smaller margin was met with minimal hesitation, however.

Jones Orchard serves as a one-stop shop for MEMPopS. The family-run farm provides them with everything from produce staples like blueberries and peaches to less common fruits like pluots and canary melons. ediblememphis.com 33

—CHRIS TAYLOR

34 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

“People loved it,” said Taylor matter-of-factly. “So we kept making it anyway.”

MEMPopS production is constant to keep its four locations, mobile trucks and pop-up stands stocked.

“We received 70 cases of lemons this week, for example, and fresh-squeezed every case at our Crosstown location,” said Taylor.

MEMPopS hires five full-time, year-round staff and brings in over 40 part-time employees between mobile pop-ups and brickand-mortar stores. Taylor is mindful of hiring students both in the slow season and summers. He even hires his kids—if they’re feeling up to it.

“Over spring break, my nine-year-old daughter ran the register at our Ridgeway location for four hours straight, standing on a stool with my wife supervising,” said Taylor.

“She’s learning how to run credit cards, add up change, talk to customers. It’s great.”

His six-year-old, Harry, meanwhile, juiced two quarts for a batch of pops.

“It was a total meltdown after four hours. A literal meltdown,” Taylor said.

Looking ahead, Taylor is addressing MEMPopS supply-anddemand projections by opening a 2,000-square-foot production facility on Summer Avenue to “give us the room and the motivation to grow.”

Taylor’s entrepreneurial spirit is evident as he looks back on his four years. While he’s learned a lot, he says there’s a lot more they want to do.

This summer MEMPopS has been back at seasonal hot spots such as the Levitt Shell, Big River Crossing and Shelby Farms.

They’ve explored regional opportunities outside of Memphis too, taking MEMPopS on the road to Pops on the River in Little Rock and Fair St. Louis.

Looking back on four years, Taylor reflects: “We’ve mastered how we make the pops. Just like the chefs came up with the French ‘mother sauces’ of cooking, we have done the same with our popsicle base. And then it can evolve into a thousand different things based on the flavor add-ins. It’s a plug-and-play process now.”

Taylor’s explanation of the MEMPopS recipe base points to his culinary background. Before starting MEMPopS, he held longtime sous-chef roles at Felicia Suzanne’s and management roles at Central BBQ. “We first make a custard, essentially an unchurned ice cream, and then we add whipped cream,” explains Taylor. “It’s still rich, obviously, and the consistency doubles the volume of batter, but it’s not too heavy on you.”

Taylor’s suppliers are also some of his biggest fans. Henry Jones and his family, for example, are MEMPopS regulars.

“Sometimes in the area we’ll just stop by,” said Jones. “I love it all, and it’s different every season. I tell people, ‘Just hang on—it’ll change again and you gotta come back!’

“I think people are really getting tired of chains and fast foods.

Local is key. It’s all part of the changing tastes and preferences of today, and we think it’s great.” • ediblememphis.com 35

COMMUNIT Y

A

JUICE BAR WITH

A MISSION Addressing food insecurity in South Memphis

BY JAYNE ELLEN WHITE • PHOTOGR APHS BY CHIP CHOCKLE Y

36 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

T

here is a world-class indoor climbing gym in the middle of South Memphis—a food desert—and it’s often filled with people of all ages and races drinking juice and eating healthy food. Aster Demekech, the 27-year-old South Memphian and director of Juice Almighty, the juice bar and café inside of the Memphis Rox climbing facility, is cultivating new relationships between South Memphis residents and healthy food options.

Juice Almighty caters to hungry climbers and many community members on a daily basis. The mission-driven juice bar is 100 percent inclusive and doesn’t turn anyone away, no matter their ability to pay, thus removing the financial barrier impacting a community with low exposure to healthy options.

(The suggested price of all menu items is $5, but those who can are encouraged to pay more; those who can’t pay are encouraged to put in volunteer hours at the facility.)

Both the climbing facility and the mission-driven juice bar turn no one away, regardless of ability to pay. Menu options include smoothie bowls and no-sugar-added juices. ediblememphis.com 37

e s

“WE HAD TO DRIVE ALL THE WAY DOWNTOWN TO EASY-WAY TO GET FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.” —ASTER DEMEKECH In 2015, Demekech joined an AmeriCorps program called City Year, and that program took her to California, where she ended up training under the executive chef of the University of California, Berkeley. She came back to Memphis because she felt a responsibility to do community work in her hometown.

“I was out there doing community work and all that, and I was like, yo, my hometown is Memphis; I’m out here [in California] doing amazing things, and I could be in my own hometown,” she says.

In her work at Juice Almighty, Demekech is driven to see people be able to afford healthier options—or even just to have them know that healthier options exist and be willing to try them.

Demekech grew up in South Memphis and remembers what it was like to try to eat fresh food there. “We had to drive all the way downtown to Easy-Way to get fresh fruit and vegetables,” she says. “There was never an option besides things like McDonald’s, Church’s Chicken and all that.”

A young man who is enrolled in a youth climbing program at Memphis Rox interrupts to ask Demekech if she feels like making him a burger. She lovingly laughs, and sends him to someone else in the kitchen, but it is clear she has made a culinary impression on this young man. Because of the limited exposure some of her customers have had to healthy food options, she sees it as a challenge to convince them that healthy is delicious.

The grocery stores in South Memphis are secondhand or salvage goods stores, meaning they are stocked with items that traditional grocery stores won’t sell, or that are about to expire.

Often the customers at Juice Almighty are being exposed to healthy options, like plant-based protein patties, superfoods and no-sugar-added juices, for the very first time. Still, most of the reactions to the healthier food are positive.

“Some of the kids joke that the juices taste better than KoolAid,” she says. “That’s something we think about. Let’s create things they know, but that’s better for them.”

38 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

She constantly encourages customers, especially the youth, to try the healthier options. “They want to eat the wrap and the chicken, but not eat the lettuce or the vegetables,” she says.

Demekech is inspired to riff off of the foods that she knows her customers are comfortable with, and that also represent the city’s ferocious appetite, by upgrading them to a healthier dish.

“Kids bring hot wings in here all the time, so I was like, how can I create something that will be that favorite meal they like, but make it a healthier option? And so I created the Explosive Chicken Wrap, and it’s one of the most popular items on the menu,” she says.

In addition to meatless patty melts, vegetarian gyro riffs and a gingery juice called Al Greens, Juice Almighty also has gorgeous smoothie bowls topped with goji berries and granola, an acai bowl, avocado toast and tofu scrambles.

Demekech told the story behind the name for the Treefity salad, a chicken, avocado and sprouts salad with the seemingly perfect ratio of fiber, greens, fat and protein to fuel someone. The name of the salad is Memphis-inspired, and meant to represent the local accent. “In Memphis we don’t say ‘three,’ we say ‘tree,’” she explains.

“We say ‘skreet’ and ‘skraw’ [instead of “street” and “straw”]. So you always hear people say, ‘Mane, it’s treefity.’ It’s the Memphis way to say it.”

The executive director of Memphis Rox, Reggie Davis, says the organization plans to expand the food options, as well as job-training opportunities in the neighborhood. “Memphis Rox has plans for a coffee shop as well as a training restaurant,” he says. “We are looking to bring these entities to uplift the community while providing jobs. More restaurants provide more reasons for people to visit Soulsville. Also, we want to develop a stronger workforce while creating jobs and job training opportunities.”

The organization also offers a basic nutrition class. “The way that you eat now sets the tone for your future, and I want people to get that,” Demekech says. •

THE BUZZ

SAY YES TO

Shrubs The evolution of a classic cocktail ingredient

I

BY BR AD PIT TS • PHOTOGR APHS BY CHIP CHOCKLE Y

t is rare that patrons post up to a bar these days and are familiar with all of the ingredients on the cocktail menu. Case in point— shrubs. Shrubs are generally basic concoctions of fruit, sugar and vinegar. We get the word “shrub” from the Arabic word sharab, or beverage. In ancient times, vinegar was used as a preservative for food and beverages and as a blending agent to make dirty water more palatable. These vinegar-based beverages were also popular options for those abstaining from alcohol because of religious reasons.

Thousands of years before refrigeration, shrubs served to ward off scurvy and aid in digestion in addition to being a tasty thirst quencher. When Europeans first settled the North American continent, they brought shrubs with them on the long sea journey. Vinegar was also a common cleaning solution in colonial times in addition to being used in the canning and storing of fruits and vegetables. But what does this history lesson have to do with cocktails?

During Prohibition shrubs were popular among the drinking public because of their simplicity to produce and even their appeal as a “temperance” drink. When carbonation and refrigeration became prevalent, the shrub went back into obscurity.

Enter the modern bartender. Shrubs have been popping up on cocktail menus everywhere over the last few years as mixologists continue their search for the perfect balance of sweet and sour in their drinks.

The powerful flavors of shrubs combined with their seemingly endless flavor profiles can be used in combination with any spirit. An added bonus of shrubs is that they can be used for “mocktails,” essentially complex drinks without alcohol.

Kirby Davis, bar manager at The Liquor Store, likes to experiment with shrubs and to use them as a conversation starter with her customers.

40 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

8 Days a Leek (charred leek shrub, Sipsmith London dry, Old Dominick Southern, Vya dry and Ancho Reyes) from Andrew Michael.

Shrubbin’ Around (Tanquery gin, tumeric, blackberry shrub with soda) from The Liquor Store.

Strawberry Dreams (rum, vanilla, strawberry shrub and egg white) from The Liquor Store.

Evan Potts, general manager at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, is an experienced drink maker, who directs and assists his bartenders in the continuing evolution of their cocktail menu.

Its current iteration incorporates shrubs that serve a two-fold purpose—both to provide the shrub’s traditional sweet-and-sour flavor profile and to act as a sweetener.

“I think the use of simple syrup has become too widespread in cocktails. It can be a crutch. If you omit this one thing in some drinks, a well-made shrub becomes a great substitute,” says Potts.

“Our customers expect to try different things here at our bar.”

Kirby Davis, bar manager at The Liquor Store on Broad Avenue, has a simple and unique approach to her shrubs. She likes to experiment using intriguing infusions, and always has a seasonal shrub on the menu. “I prefer the element of surprise [when it comes to shrubs],” Davis says. “I play around with different ingredients and then have it available for that customer that is adventurous enough to try it.”

For her it is essential that there is a level of trust between bartender and customer. She believes shrubs and their uses provide great talking points to introduce people to something they wouldn’t otherwise order.

The simple beauty of shrubs is that there is no wrong way to make them. Experimentation with different kinds of fruit and spices is rewarded generally with an interesting amalgam of flavors. If you happen to have any late-summer fruit lying around and are unsure of what to do with it, drop it in a sealed jar with equal parts sugar and vinegar, let it sit in the fridge for a week or two, and experience the magic that is a shrub with your favorite spirit. Cheers! •

House of the Rising Suntory (Meyer lemon shrub, Suntory Toki, Thirteenth Colony rye, Braulio, lemon, honey and jalapeño) from Andrew Michael.

Strawberry Shrub CREATOR: Kirby Davis

INGREDIENTS 4 cups diced strawberries 4 cups white sugar 2 cups apple cider vinegar 2 cups white balsamic vinegar

DIRECTIONS Stir diced strawberries and sugar together to create a syrup. Let rest in refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours. The sugar will naturally dissolve after several hours of emulsifying with the strawberries. (If all of the sugar has not dissolved after 24 hours, heat the mix on a stove top.)

Next, double strain the mix to separate fruit syrup and (now candied) strawberries. Then mix the syrup with both vinegars. Now you have a shrub that is great for cocktails, mocktails or just to sip on—and you can use the candied strawberries as a garnish. ediblememphis.com 41

L ADY BOSSES

PINK BOOTS

ON THE GROUND The Memphis chapter of the Pink Boots Society helps advance beer careers for women

BY BIANC A PHILLIP S • PHOTOGR APHS BY JUS TIN FOX BURK S

Liz McCarty founded the Memphis chapter in April 2018 after she started working as the taproom manager at Crosstown Brewing.

42 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

O

n March 8 of this year—International Women’s Day—a group of 15 women from breweries and beer industry jobs across the city came together at Crosstown Brewing Company to brew Hibiscus Saison, a pink hibiscus-infused farmhouse ale.

The women are members of the Pink Boots Society, an international non-profit organization promoting women in the beer industry, and Hibiscus Saison was their local contribution to the society’s Collaboration Brew Day. The beer raised $500 for the organization.

“One hundred percent of the proceeds from that beer’s sale went back to Pink Boots,” says Memphis chapter founder and president Liz McCarty, who serves as taproom manager, events coordinator and social media manager at Crosstown Brewing.

“Half of that money went to the chapter for awareness, fundraising, education. We can use those funds and go on a field trip or buy a training session for flavor testing. And the other half goes to the Pink Boots scholarship fund.”

Internationally, the Pink Boots Society is made up of women working in all aspects of the beer industry, from brewery owners and packagers to brewers, taproom managers and even beer writers. There are nearly 100 chapters across the globe, with three in Tennessee (Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville).

McCarty founded the Memphis chapter in April 2018, only a few months after she started working as the taproom manager for Crosstown Brewing.

“As soon as I found out about the organization, I wanted to be part of it. I’ve been passionate about the craft beer industry for a long time, and now that I work in it, I want to be involved as much as possible,” McCarty says. “I love the education aspect and the camaraderie with the other ladies in the chapter. It’s really special and important to have that sounding board.”

Brewmaster Allison Higi agrees: “It’s nice to have a group of women who have your back, especially when some jerk says something to you. The support is the most important part of Pink Boots.”

Until her recent move to Costa Rica, Higi brewed at Delta Sunshine Brewing Company. She’s been brewing beer in this male-dominated field for the past nine years.

“I was the first woman brewer in Iowa and in Vietnam, and I’ve had lots of negative comments thrown in my face from men in the industry,” Higi says. “But I love what I do, and I won’t let a handful of jerks ruin that.”

Craft beer careers are still very much dominated by men, shedding some truth on the stereotype of the white, bearded male brewer. But the rapid growth of the Pink Boots Society is evidence that’s changing.

Higi says that, while she was the only female brewmaster in Memphis, there are a number of women working in other positions—from servers to taproom managers—within the local beer industry. Women from High Cotton Brewing Company,

Memphis Made Brewing Company and Wiseacre Brewing Company make up the local chapter’s membership. Not only does the society provide a support network for women working in a male-dominated industry, but it also funds educational opportunities for women looking to advance their beer careers.

Half of the funds from Hibiscus Saison went to the international society’s scholarship fund, which pays for educational opportunities such as Cicerone certification.

“Cicerone is like a sommelier program for beer,” explains McCarty. “I’m a level one, but I’m working on my level two.

Learning to pair beer with other foods is a big part of it. We just had a beer-and-cheese pairing class at Crosstown Brewing. That’s part of my education, learning to pair beer with everything from cheese to whiskey to Girl Scout cookies.”

Other Pink Boots scholarships pay for women to learn the brewing craft in Germany or for field trips to the Czech Republic to tour the hops fields. The majority of the money for scholarships comes from Collaboration Brew Day beer sales across the world.

Another big goal of Pink Boots, on a national level, is to train more women to be judges through the Beer Judge Certification Program, which supplies qualified judges for both amateur and commercial brewing competitions in the United States.

On a local level, the Memphis chapter meets quarterly for official business. “When we get together, we have to have an educational aspect in our meetings,” says McCarty. “We talk about everything from ingredients and brew process to safety in the taproom or in the brewery itself.”

But the local ladies also gather for unofficial business. “We try to get together more often to just have beers and hang out,” she says.

They also commonly consult one another for advice, despite the fact that the members work for different breweries.

“If I have an issue in the taproom and I’m not sure how to approach it, of course I can talk to [Crosstown Brewing owners] Will [Goodwin] or Clark [Ortkiese], but maybe I want another manager’s take on it,” she says. “In that case, I have another taproom manager, Shelby, in Pink Boots who I can talk to. Pink Boots gives us a better sense of community among the local breweries.” • ediblememphis.com 43

WHAT’S BREWING

4 4 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

DRINKING OUTSIDE

“ The Loop” Craft beer comes to Cordova

BY ALE X ANDR A REED • PHOTOGR APHS BY HOUSTON COFIELD

I

f you’ve lived in Memphis long enough, you know everything is based on “The Loop,” aka the circle of I-240 that encases a large portion of Memphis.

Some of us spend a lot of time driving on The Loop, some live inside The Loop, some live outside The Loop, and it’s a big deal if you have to go from one side to the other. A. Big. Deal.

Unfortunately, a lot of cool stuff is concentrated inside The Loop, making it hard to start something great outside its asphalt bounds. Until now.

Meddlesome Brewing Company is making waves out East. I sat down with one half of Meddlesome’s duo, Ben Pugh, with a pint of Champagne Campaign, their brut IPA, in the massive taproom to discuss their meddling ways.

Ben, previously a brewer for Rock’n Dough Pizza + Brewery and a brewing equipment consultant, and his business partner Richie Esquivel, a former brewer at Boscos, opened Meddlesome almost two years ago. Both started out as homebrewers in their early 20s, and it’s a dream fulfilled to finally have their own brewery.

This taproom is not in Midtown or downtown but in the “Dirty Dova” (also a Meddlesome beer, FYI), located on the northeastern edge of Shelby Farms.

Why Cordova? Ben and Richie made a very deliberate decision to open the taproom out East. They were intent on spreading quality craft beer across the Mid-South.

Also, they neighbor Shelby Farms Park, the Shelby Farms Greenline and the Wolf River. What do active people love more than being active? Beer. “When nice weather comes, this place is packed with sweaty people drinking beer on the back patio,” says Ben.

Ben Pugh (pictured) and his business partner Richie Esquivel opened Meddlesome Brewing Company out East to widen the geographic circle of quality craft beer in the Memphis area.

ediblememphis.com 45

Side-note: Did you know drinking beer for your health is a thing? Meddlesome uses the highest quality ingredients, so their athletic customers are faithful to their post-workout brew. Yes, beer in moderation comes with a lot of good stuff perfect after a hard workout. Beer, especially high-quality craft beer, comes with sugary carbs, a bit of electrolytes and plant-based nutrients from hops, yeast and barley. (Trust me. I’m a dietitian drinking a beer right now. Did I exercise before this? No. But science . . . ) Another twist to the origin story is that Meddlesome opened in an industrial park—and Ben says the landlord was puzzled by the proposal to put an entire brewery in the space.

“An industrial park isn’t built for heavy foot traffic, but more of a come-and-go presence of customers,” Ben explains. “The people that own this place are out in California, and they had no idea if or how we could open a brewery in an industrial park.”

Luckily, Ben spent over a decade selling equipment to brewers so he knew the technical issues inside and out and was able to convince the proprietor it would work. They took a “sterile box of white walls” and turned it into a taproom that looks like it’s been there for years.

Ben, holding a beer in one hand and gesturing with his other hand, proudly declares: “We built all of this by hand! That badass gear coming out of the ceiling? We made it. The bar?

Made it. The shelves in the corner? OK, we bought those, but we put them together.”

It was all a labor of love. Now Meddlesome is just shy of two years old and has over 300 accounts. And as Ben and I are chatting on a Wednesday night, the taproom doesn’t have an empty seat.

They also spread the love as much as possible. Meddlesome serves as a host to local food trucks, allowing local food entrepreneurs to sell their products to the taproom customers.

46 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

I paired my Champagne Campaign with an incredible Polish sausage on a brat bun from Lynnie’s Links & Drinks. Other trucks that frequent the taproom include 9 Dough 1, Cousins Maine Lobster, Smoke and Rolls and El Mero Taco.

Ben hopes Meddlesome’s success will encourage other food and beverage businesses to open up “in the burbs.” I asked what he, as a Cordova business owner and resident, thought might do well next in the Dova. “We will need a good coffee shop out here,” he says. “Please, not another Starbucks or Dunkin’, but somebody local. I promise I would be there every day.”

When they opened, Ben and Richie introduced their three core brews: Broad Hammer (American brown ale), Brass Bellows (American blonde ale), and the cheekily named 201 Hoplar (West Coast-style IPA). Their flagship lineup also includes a cream ale and root beer.

Meddlesome’s seasonals, called the Mischievous Series, are also a gold mine of flavor and creativity, including their Champagne Campaign (brut IPA), Water Malone (American ale brewed with watermelon puree), Dirty Dova (New England-style double IPA) and more.

“We started this brewery to have fun and challenge ourselves as brewers,” says Ben. He says their small-batch series, called the Troublesome Series, allows creativity and room to turn over new concoctions about every two weeks. They have a list of over a dozen test batches like a smoked porter and a blood orange IPA. Ben says the best way to keep up with their never-ending creations is to drop by the taproom or keep an eye on social media.

Where does Ben see Meddlesome in 10 years? “Basically, still in Cordova,” he says. “Still making great beer with cool names.

But hopefully we will have Meddlesome in our own cans.” •

“WHEN NICE WEATHER COMES, THIS PLACE IS PACKED WITH SWEAT Y PEOPLE DRINKING BEER ON THE BACK PATIO.”

—BEN PUGH

FIND OUT MORE! For now Meddlesome is only on tap. To find out where to fill your glass or growler around town, use their handy-dandy beer finder: meddlesomebrewing.com/beer-finder/. ediblememphis.com 47

RESTAUR ANT

LA HERRADURA A successful family experiment

BY ALE JANDRO PAREDES • PHOTOGR APHS BY ANDREA MOR ALES

48 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

Patricia Aguilar, owner of La Herradura, says she accidentally went into the restaurant business. Now she’s working to make La Herradura a place reminiscent of her native Michoacán, Mexico.

ediblememphis.com 49

L

a Herradura is a whole experience for the senses—food, music and crafts. I took my friends on a Friday night for karaoke, shopping and to try something new—aguachiles.

It was a fun evening singing both Spanish and English tunes. La Herradura sells amazing craft pieces from Mexico, and one of my friends bought a sun-shaped watch. The aguachiles turned out to be delicious. If you like Peruvian ceviche, you have to try Mexican aguachiles. The same concept of cooking seafood in citrus juices is used for both dishes; however, aguachiles are cooked in a cold, spicy “salsa,” which includes red onions and cucumbers. Sharp and refreshing, it’s served chilled. They definitely get it right at La Herradura.

A week after that, I sat down with the owner, Patricia Aguilar.

I have always found her restaurant to be a unique setup, and I wanted her to tell me how she came up with the concept. Didn’t she ever think it was maybe a bit “extra”?

“We decided to go into the restaurant business by accident,” she says as she chuckles. All of the merchandise that Patricia had in her Western clothing shop (also called La Herradura, which means “the horseshoe”) arrived just as she learned that her lease wouldn’t be renewed. Right at that moment, the day care that was housed in the current building (that she and her husband, Pedro, already owned) shut down. Patricia decided to move in “temporarily.”

The space was too large for her clothing shop needs. She

50 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

In addition to serving food, La Herradura sells craft pieces from Mexico.

The restaurant’s tables, benches and bar were built by hand by Pedro, the owner’s husband. thought it would be a good idea to turn the other half of the building into a taqueria (taco shop). There was a kitchen in good shape left by the day care, and it wouldn’t be too expensive to upgrade it into a restaurant kitchen.

A local chef showed interest in running the taqueria business, but he had to back out at the last minute. “Let’s do it ourselves!” was Patricia’s reaction. Many years of experience taking care of people and her love for Mexican food made her believe that she had what it takes to run a restaurant.

By then, she and Pedro had already invested an important sum building up the kitchen. Although Pedro was not so sure it was the right move, Patricia talked him into it. She wanted to create something different. Something cozy, with homemade flavors but also reminiscent of her native Michoacán—something unique in Memphis.

It took two years to get everything ready for the big opening in December 2015. They weren’t in a hurry, but rather focused on offering something different to Memphians.

Pedro runs a successful construction business that he has grown with hard work since coming to Memphis 21 years ago

from California. It was there they met and married, right after Patricia finished high school. Once in Memphis, Patricia worked many years for a local bank, helping to build a Latino clientele, before opening the first La Herradura.

I tell her that I loved the aguachiles and ask if they are from Michoacán too, after remarking that they must have been prepared by someone who knew what they were doing. She laughs and tells me aguachiles are from Sinaloa, pretty far from her hometown.

She recommends carnitas or pozole if I want to try traditional Michoacán cuisine. She seems very proud to tell me the popular carnitas—slow-cooked pork—are, in fact, originally from her town.

“Pozole changes depending on where you are in Mexico,” she says.

Pozole is a thick pork and hominy soup. Patricia explains that this soup can be white, green or red, just like the colors of the Mexican flag. It all depends on the condiments you add to the stock. In Michoacán, pozole is red, due to the chile peppers they use. She reminds me that hers was voted as the best pozole in town

by The Commercial Appeal readers. I can’t resist the temptation and order a bowl for the rest of the story of the “accidental restaurant.”

She remembers that once they decided to do it themselves, they began to work on the menu, but also on the decorations. Pedro bought a massive oak tree to build tables, benches and the bar. It was a lot of work, carried out with love when he wasn’t working. Patricia thinks it gives the restaurant the rustic look that she wanted. It

has proven to be a wise choice: Both Americans and Mexicans continuously say how it makes them feel as if they’re in Mexico. The combination of wooden tables, handicrafts and the delicious scents of their food certainly transports you to a special place.

Although Patricia has never been the chef herself, she makes sure that dishes have her family flavor. When the restaurant kicked off, they used to offer a special dish each day of the week. “Pozole on Mondays, chiles rellenos on Tuesdays, aguachiles on Wednesdays and so on,” she says. Nowadays they have decided to have all these dishes on a daily basis, as they have proven to be widely popular.

She feels proud of the clientele they have built. Many Americans visit her restaurant regularly, and so do people from many different countries. “When I am here on a Friday night and I see families from different countries singing in Spanish and English and just having a good time, I feel happy and blessed,” she says A devout Catholic, Patricia says that prayers are a big part of their success. “We also like to make people feel as they are well taken care of, not only our customers, but our employees too, and people notice that,” she says. “We are a great team: the cooks, the servers. I just love to be here. When I take a day off to run errands, I miss being here and I am immensely happy with how successful the restaurant experiment has turned out to be.” • La Herradura • 4090 Summer Avenue • Memphis, TN 38122 ediblememphis.com 51

ROAD THER APY

WE’RE ON A ROAD TO BARBECUE A perfectly gluttonous day trip

BY STACE Y GREENBERG PHOTOGR APHS BY RICHARD L AWRENCE

Helen Turner’s barbecue pit sits on a screened-in patio behind her popular restaurant in Brownsville, Tennessee.

52 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

I

enjoy a nice dose of “road therapy” from time to time.

So does Richard, my “whatever a 47-year-old woman is supposed to call the 50-year-old man she is dating when ‘boyfriend’ doesn’t quite sum it up.” On a sunny Saturday, we decided to drive out to Brownsville, Tennessee, to eat at Helen’s Bar-B-Q and walk through Billy Tripp’s Mindfield.

It’s literally a straight shot from Memphis to Brownsville.

Since we planned to drive down Summer Avenue until it turned into Highway 64, then 70, Richard suggested we start downtown and drive the full length of North Parkway to Summer Avenue.

(He really just wanted an excuse to get a coffee at Low Fi, which was fine by me.)

We got a late start—around 10:30 a.m.—and didn’t have any breakfast, so I was already hungry when we hit the road. I made it past Cozy Corner Restaurant, but by Mendenhall Road, I was eyeing taco trucks to see if they were open and saying things like, “Maybe we should get a couple of tacos to snack on?”

Driving through Bartlett, we saw several barbecue places I’d never heard of that sounded snack worthy. I called them out one by one (“Fat Larry’s!” “Baby Jack’s!” “Another Baby Jack’s!”), but Richard never took the bait. In Gallaway, I tried again: “Look, Plumpy’s BBQ!” Nope.

I should probably mention here that Richard typically eats one meal a day. I can’t explain it.

When we got to Mason, which is about 45 miles from Memphis, I pulled into the original Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken under the guise of getting a drink. Richard put his foot down.

“We can’t eat fried chicken now,” he said with his most exasperated Southern twang.

I gave him my sad face and reminded him of how cranky I get when I’m hungry. He took a deep breath, looked across the

On the road to Brownsville, stop in Mason for a pit stop at Bozo’s, where they’ve been serving barbecue since 1923. street at Bozo’s Hot Pit Bar-B-Q’s neon sign and said, “I have always wanted to try Bozo’s. And I really want to take a picture of that sign.”

Ecstatic, I drove us across the street and made promises like, “We’ll just split a sandwich.”

Inside, Bozo’s was hopping. They’ve been serving barbecue since 1923, so they must be doing something right.

The waitress came to take our order, and having been given license to speak for the both of us, I went with a jumbo sandwich and a half slab of ribs with fries and beans. Then the waitress looked at Richard and said, “And what can I get for you?”

I had found my people. ediblememphis.com 53

“COME ON BACK; THERE’S ROOM FOR EVERYONE.” —HELEN TURNER The food came out after a short wait. The jumbo barbecue sandwich had delicious crunchy end bits in it. And the ribs!

The ribs were incredible. It wasn’t possible to eat just one, especially when there were three sauces to try. The beans were just OK. We tried putting some meat that fell off of our sandwich into the beans to make them more exciting, but even that couldn’t do it. The fries were fries.

We noticed our neighbors eating a giant piece of chocolate explosion pie that had chunks of cheesecake in it, so naturally we ate one too.

Back in the car, we headed toward Brownsville, now just a short 21 miles away. Completely stuffed, we both knew we had screwed up. I had purposely worn my “eatin’ dress,” and Richard stated that he was really glad he had forgotten to put on his belt. “We’ll hang out in Brownsville awhile before we try and eat again,” I reassured him.

The stretch from Mason to Brownsville is my favorite. Not much traffic, nice open fields, cute little towns, and fun places where locals congregate to drink, like Kristie’s Tavern (the mascot is a beer-drinking parrot) and the Brownsville Moose Lodge.

Once in town, we took a left on the main drag and headed a few short feet to the Mindfield. Nestled between a strip shopping center and a motel, the Mindfield is a man-made shrine of repurposed and scrap metal. (Think St. Louis’s City Museum meets small town Tennessee.) The creator, Billy Tripp, lives in the back of the property and has been adding to this massive sculpture since 1989. It’s about an acre in size and over 100 feet tall.

We hoped to find Mr. Tripp tinkering on the property, since he does most of his work in the summer, but he was nowhere in sight. I settled on writing him a note in his guest book just behind the barber shop while Richard took pictures.

Back in the car, we tooled around town, trying to piece together Brownsville’s story through the historic cemetery, old warehouses, town square and scenic neighborhoods. Then, by memory, I drove us to Helen’s. Helen Turner is one of only two female pit masters in the Mid-South. Smoke was coming out of the back, the parking lot was full of cars, and it was beckoning to us.

Inside, we discovered a table full of people in fancy barbecue-logoed polo shirts circled around a giant order of 54 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

Helen Turner, owner of Helen’s Bar-B-Q , hosts everyone from local regulars to traveling foodies. One of her specialties is a rib sandwich—a half slab of bone-in ribs served on a bun with your choice of sauce.

Left: At around an acre in size and over 100 feet tall, the Mindfield towers in the Brownsville skyline.

The massive sculpture is the creation of Billy Tripp, who’s been adding to it since 1989.

Bottom: It’s hard to pass up a chance to stop at the original Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken in Mason, Tennessee, even when your road trip is supposed to be all about barbecue. nachos. They had notepads, iPhones, video cameras—you name it.

They appeared to be trying to figure out a secret. The camera man went in and out of the kitchen and reported back on what he saw.

Locals in line alternated from chatting with the crew to chatting with each other. One even asked me if I knew what was going on.

When I got to the window to place my order, the man taking orders was busy being interviewed, so Helen took a break from expertly chopping up a huge chunk of steaming hot pork and piling it on sandwich buns to walk over to take my order herself.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

She smiled and waved her hand in the air, “Oh, these people?

They’re with John T. Edge or Southern Living. I don’t know.”

[I later found out that some “barbecue experts” from Florida were taking James Beard-winning author Adrian Miller (2013’s Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time) to black-owned barbecue restaurants in Memphis and had made a special side trip to Brownsville to see Helen.]

I told her I, too, had come hoping to talk to her, and maybe take a few pictures. Completely unperturbed, she replied, “Come on back; there’s room for everyone.”

Miller’s crew had more than made themselves at home, so I decided to wait it out, maybe try and catch more of Helen’s attention on another day. She asked what I wanted to eat, and I ordered one of those steaming hot sandwiches I saw her making and some ribs.

“Rib sandwich?” she asked.

“Half slab?” she followed when I looked confused.

“Yes, a half slab.”

Finally, she asked, “What kind of sauce?”

“Hot!”

I grabbed a couple of Diet Cokes out of the cooler, and she totaled the order to $21. A few moments later, she handed me the food.

I joined Richard outside by the picnic tables, and he excitedly told me about the former NFL player/local he’d been talking to about the power of food to bring people together. You just never know who you’re going to run in to at Helen’s.

Now, about that rib sandwich she mentioned—the rib ends are nice and crispy, but the meat is so tender that it practically comes off in one bite, and then the bone slides right out. So people really do eat ribs on a sandwich at Helen’s, just a little carefully I suppose.

As we made our way out of town, we had a decision to make— hightail it back on I-40 or take the long way home. We still had plenty of daylight, so we chose the long way.

And, yes, we stopped at Gus’s. • ediblememphis.com 55

GET SOCIAL

T

BRING IT HOME

BY EMMA MESKOVIC • PHOTOGR APHS BY SAMANTHA JONES

2

his spring, Edible Memphis had an exciting challenge for our followers. We asked our foodies to gather local ingredients and products from some of our favorite stores and farmers markets, make a meal using their bounty and snap a photograph. What could they win? Four weeks of fresh produce from Bring It Food Hub’s CSA. We shared the top three winners, let our audience vote and tallied up the results. And wow, we were impressed!

Check out what winner Samantha Jones, a student at St. Mary’s Episcopal School and rising food blogger, has been whipping up in the kitchen with all of her fresh goodies!

In her free time she enjoys attending culinary classes, cooking and photography. You can follow her on Instagram (@panandpantry) and her blog, pan + pantry.

1 Crostini | Toasted baguette, homemade ricotta, Bring It Food Hub peaches, basil, pink Himalayan salt and balsamic reduction

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2 Ramen | sliced and seared pork tenderloin in a sambal oelek and ginger marinade, carrots, Bring It Food Hub zucchini, Bon Appétit’s Jammy SoftBoiled Eggs, and homemade broth with basil, shiitakes, carrots and gochujang 3 Bon Appétit’s Spicy Coconut Grilled Chicken Thighs with watermelon feta salad | Bring It Food Hub arugula, watermelon, feta, mint and flaky sea salt 4 Fried rice with leftover ramen toppings | sambal oelek-marinated pork, Bring It Food Hub zucchini, and carrots with brown rice, cilantro and a fried egg 5 Bobby Parrish’s Crispy Baked Chicken Wings in Frank’s RedHot Wings buffalo sauce with a summer salad | Bring It Food Hub nectarines, cherry tomatoes and mixed salad greens with pepperoncini peppers and feta

56 edible MEMPHIS • SUMMER/FALL 2019

MOSA ASIAN BISTRO

COOPER STREET 20/20

GRECIAN GOURMET TAVERNA

Mosa Asian Bistro blends the bold flavors and savory spices found in classic Thai, Chinese and Japanese cuisines. To make our Asian comfort food dishes, we use the freshest local ingredients, inspiration from family recipes and a modern approach. We offer dine-in and carryout for lunch and dinner, along with catering.

If you have eyes for healthy, flavorful food that’s ready to take home and heat, Cooper Street 20/20 is your place. For a special occasion or just dinner in front of your favorite show, a five-star meal is only an oven away. With more than 25 years in the restaurant business, owner Kathy Katz creates fresh, prepared foods, using local ingredients whenever possible.

Grecian Gourmet Taverna is a local, familyowned-and-operated business in the heart of the South Main Arts District. We pride ourselves on sharing our delicious, authentic Greek cuisine in a comfortable and friendly environment, while creating great experiences for our customers.

mosaasianbistro.com 901.683.8889 850 South White Station Road

cooperstreet2020.com 901.871.6879 800 South Cooper Street

thegreciangourmet.com 901.249.6626 412 South Main Street

edible

MUDDY’S BAKE SHOP At Muddy’s we make homestyle favorites from scratch—tempting pies in butter crusts, tender cupcakes and cakes, flavorful cookies and more. We bake fresh daily using loads of real butter, fresh fruit, pure vanilla, organic milk and free-range eggs. Stop by for some lovin’ from the oven! muddysbakeshop.com 901.683.8844 5101 Sanderlin Avenue 901.443.4144 585 South Cooper Street

MEMPHIS

MARKET PL ACE Thank you to these locally owned businesses that make Memphis a better, tastier city.

RENAISSANCE FARMS

PONTOTOC LOUNGE

We bring locally raised, all-natural meat and eggs from our farm to your table. Our products include pasture-raised poultry, grass-fed beef and lamb, and Tamworth and Mangalitsa pork. You can find us every Saturday at the Cooper-Young Community Farmers Market.

With jazz in the air, our inspired culinary artists get to work daily, squeezing, slicing and prepping our products for your enjoyment. A well-balanced menu of air, land and ocean meets storied and newage cocktails. Find us in the charming and rejuvenated South Main district.

renaissancefarmstn.com 731.764.0341 195 Leadford Lane Saulsbury, TN

pontotoclounge.com 901.207.7576 314 South Main Street

MY CUP OF TEA My Cup of Tea is a social-enterprise, revenuegenerating business in Memphis. We import tea from the Far East and weigh, reformat and package it for local and national sales. We then re-invest our profit to educate and promote our employees, women who live in Orange Mound.

Our mission is to broaden their dignity and deepen their pride through respectable and purposeful work. shopmycupoftea.com 901.614.9769 3028 Carnes Avenue

MAKEDA’S HOMEMADE BUTTER COOKIES The home of the best butter cookies in the world!

Our family-operated business has been spreading butterific love for 19 years in Memphis. Favorites include cookies, banana pudding and our pies made with a butter cookie crust. We have two locations, and our butter cookies are in every Kroger in Memphis and the surrounding areas. makedascookies.com • 901.745.2667 488 South Second Street 2370 Airways Boulevard

Your neighborhood table starts here.

1,000+

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NEIGHBORS

CHEFS

COURSES

TA B L E

OCTOBER 19, 2019

Purchase tickets at dinnerinthegardens.com.

Presented by Central Gardens Association and Edible Memphis