Edible Memphis Issue 49 - Fall 2020

N O. 49

FALL 2020

FOOD, FARM, AND COMMUNITY IN THE MID-SOUTH

FAMILIAR FACES FARMING FOR A LIFETIME VEGAN DINING GUIDE Member of Edible Communities

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ON THE COVER Jennifer Payne, garden program manager at Alpha Omega Veterans Urban Farm, says that watching the ground change and produce food as she farms is like magic.

Page 32. Photo: Michael Butler, Jr.

fall 2020 PUBLISHER Bill Ganus bill@ediblememphis.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Stacey Greenberg stacey@ediblememphis.com ART DIRECTOR Emma Meskovic emma@ediblememphis.com COPY EDITOR Manda Gibson AD SALES Ali Manning partner@ediblememphis.com DESIGN AND LAYOUT Rebecca Phillips 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. © 2020 All Rights Reserved.

2 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

ON THIS PAGE For Edible Memphis contributor Erin Kim, cooking East Asian dishes at home is one way she brings comfort into her daily routine, even during a pandemic.

Page 26. Photo: Erin Kim

contents

5

LETTER FROM PUBLISHER

32 FAMILIAR FACES

JENNIFER PAYNE

BY BILL GANUS • PORTRAIT BY EMMA MESKOVIC

6 9

LETTER FROM EDITOR

Being outside is priority one for this Alpha Omega Veterans Services farmer

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PORTRAIT BY ASHLEY HARPER

BY MANDA GIBSON • PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

CONTRIBUTORS PAGE

36 TRASH TALKIN’

A NOTE FROM THE COMPOST FAIRY

BY EMMA MESKOVIC

In a world that feels overwhelming, here’s one way you can make a real difference

10 COMMUNITY

ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN THE MIDST

Wherever you look in the local food system, you’ll likely find a U of M anthropology graduate

BY MIKE LARRIVEE • PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRANDON DILL

40 AT HOME

A COVID SILVER LINING

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRANDON DILL

How a pandemic led me to the Urban Agriculture Academy

14 FARM

A LIFETIME INVESTMENT

Steve Richardson has spent his years helping Mississippi’s small farms thrive

BY TAKEALLAH RIVERA • PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

44 GUIDE

VEGAN DINING GUIDE

BY ERIKA CAIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZIGGY MACK

BY BIANCA PHILLIPS • PHOTOGRAPHS BY BIANCA PHILLIPS AND MADELEINE O'TOOLE

18 CULTURE

ARE THE SCALES TIPPING?

The dubious history of tipping service workers—and why it might be time to end the practice

50 ROAD THERAPY

FORAGING AND FARMING FOR A TRULY LOCAL BEER

BY BRAD PITTS • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ZIGGY MACK

An interview with Marika Josephson of Scratch Brewing Company

22 FAMILIAR FACES

BY STACEY GREENBERG • PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD LAWRENCE

JESUS RAMON

Chef brings rich culture to Southall Cafe, East Memphis’s newest brunch spot

54 WEIRD MEMPHIS

SAY CHEESE DIP FOUNTAIN

BY MANDA GIBSON • PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIM THOMAS

Quarantining with our very own Memphis-style waterfall

BY JULIA MCCLOY • ILLUSTRATIONS BY JIM STEFFAN

26 IN THE KITCHEN

DAY-TO-DAY COMFORT

Embracing change through coffee, Korean home cooking, and cocktails

56 GET SOCIAL

THE CHECK-IN

Insights from our Instagram page

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIN KIM

PHOTOGRAPH BY MADELEINE O’TOOLE

57

MARKETPLACE

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

ediblememphis.com 3

4 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Portrait: Emma Meskovic; Other photos: Edible Memphis

G

race, accountability, and solidarity. These are the essentials we offer to one another in difficult times.

By and large, our food system— farms, distributors, markets, restaurants, and more—is bravely adapting and innovating into a marketplace with ever-changing regulations, opportunities, and challenges. Sometimes they—along with us here at Edible Memphis—get it right, and the social and health crises result in a stronger, more resilient food system.

The New South Memphis CSA—with support from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis and the Assisi Foundation—is a great example of a rapid-response intervention that has served farmers, customers, and underserved communities in this critical time.

Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza was one of the first local businesses to completely reimagine what the city needs under new circumstances, and my fingers are crossed that Miles’s quick shift will

NEW SOUTH MEMPHIS

offer that business the stability that it deserves in days to come.

The Check-In has powered through constant adversity to bring a community-focused, market-driven food truck onto the Memphis scene. This fight for the balanced collaboration of values and operation should be rewarded by a city that prides itself on authenticity and determination.

I could go on and on with a list of heroes of 2020. Muggin Coffee, Tsunami, Beauty Shop, Cocozza American Italian, Comeback Coffee, and innumerable others have set the stage for a community of entrepreneurs who care about more than the bottom line. They help define the culture of the city we call home.

We owe it to them and to each other to help ensure their longterm viability as we spend money, share stories with friends, and tip our delivery people.

We can do this. And it will be easier if we do it together. •

BEAUTY SHOP

BILL GANUS Publisher Follow: @billganus

COCOZZA AMERICAN ITALIAN

ediblememphis.com 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

I

6 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

A friend gave me cuttings of night-blooming cereus and Wandering Jew. I'm rooting them on my new front porch with hopes of planting them later this fall.

This issue also features a handful of anthropologists for you to meet, an activist who loves coffee, a couple of rad farmers, one very inspiring fairy, and an up-and-coming chef. I hope you love it as much as I do.

If you need me, I’ll be reading my copy on the porch. • STACEY GREENBERG Editor in Chief Follow: @nancy_jew

Portrait: Ashley Harper; Other photo: Stacey Greenberg

f there’s one thing we can always count on, it’s change.

And with change comes adaptability. We all have seen family members, friends, farmers, business owners, and restaurateurs power through the pandemic, and each of us has made our own adjustments.

Since my last letter to you, my 16-year-old son has gotten his driver’s license (no easy feat during a pandemic!), and my 18-year-old has gotten his own apartment and started (virtually) attending the University of Memphis. Being home all day, every day in a somewhat lonely building made me realize that I did actually miss having a yard to take care of and my very own outdoor spaces to enjoy—not to mention, someone to share them with. So I sold my condo in Cooper-Young and bought a house in VECA (on the other side of Midtown) with my favorite person. Richard and I have both logged many hours swinging on our new porch and are relishing the planning of house and garden projects. (I’m unsure of the execution of said projects because the porch is so nice!)

I’ve also relished reading stories of others’ adjustments. Erin Kim’s “Day-to-Day Comfort” (page 26) is a great example of someone finding joy in the simple things, and I’m so glad she decided to share a glimpse of her home life with us. Takeallah Rivera reached out after reading my call in the Summer 2020 issue for more Black voices in the magazine; she has generously shared the ways in which she tackled her own food insecurity by enrolling in Memphis Tilth’s Urban Agriculture Academy (page 40). We also have Jim Steffan and Julia McCloy’s hilarious effort to build (and consume) a cheese dip fountain during quarantine (page 54).

Fall is for festivals, and, of all the ones we are missing in person this year, I will miss the Cooper-Young Beerfest the most.

I had high hopes of Scratch Brewing Company, which makes all of their beer from farmed and foraged ingredients, participating this year. However, the Beerfest organizers are adjusting like many others and taking the festival online—which means I have another reason to drink on my porch! For those looking for some road therapy, the Scratch brewery is just a short three-hour drive away in Ava, Illinois. Read my interview with brewer Marika Josephson (page 50) and plan a day trip. They offer beers to go and an outdoor drinking oasis on weekends. (If you’re looking to make it a weekend getaway, check out our guide to nearby Murphysboro on our website.)

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Michael Butler, Jr., loves everything Memphis.

His goal is to show the beauty in Memphis that others overlook. He’s a photographer, videographer, Memphis tee collector, foodie, lover of tacos, and mayor of South Memphis. @_one901

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

Brandon Dill has found a home in Memphis.

When not planning road trips with his wife or building blanket forts with his two daughters, he likes to take pictures. His photos have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and others. @bdillphoto

Manda Gibson is copy editor at Edible Memphis. Her pastimes include encouraging her kids’ quarantine baking, admiring her compost pile, and silently judging the grammar of everyone she meets.

Erin Kim spends her time freelancing in digital illustration and lifestyle photography. She works with local and national publications to illuminate stories through her work. She recently opened an online print shop and is constantly working on illustrative series to share. Follow her on Instagram to see her cute pup and tasty meals. @oneofakim7

Mike Larrivee is a licensed professional geologist and worked for nearly a decade in environmental consulting. He serves as vice president of the Tennessee chapter of the U.S. Composting Council. He is the founder and executive director of Compost Fairy, a nonprofit waste diversion and soil rehabilitation effort founded in Memphis in 2017. @compostfairymemphis

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

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

Julia McCloy is a writer living in Memphis.

Laughing is her raison d’etre, which is French for her other raisin. She has two raisins. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s. @julia_mccloy

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, taking photos of her food, and proclaiming, “Sorry! This is my job!” @emmamesk

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

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

Takeallah Rivera is a millennial mom, full-spectrum doula, soap maker, and reproductive justice advocate. She enjoys kayaking at Shelby Farms, hiking at Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, and sipping martinis at Side Street Grill.

Jim Steffen is an illustrator living in Memphis.

When he was little, he told his mom that he wanted to be a "drawer" when he grew up. It confused her. But hey, Mom, look now. @jimbojimbo

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

Madeleine O’Toole is a junior at Rhodes College, where she’s double majoring in business and urban studies. When she’s not in school or helping out with Edible Memphis, she can be found running on the Greenline, hitting up local coffee shops, or making healthy dishes for her food blog, Granola Grrl. @granolagrrl

ediblememphis.com 9

COMMUNIT Y

Wherever you look in the local food system, you’ ll likely find a U of M anthropology graduate

BY STACE Y GREENBERG • PHOTOGR APHS BY BR ANDON DILL

W

hen I visit the farmers market, I observe what’s in season and strategize how to best load up my market bag. But I take note of many other things too.

This is what I learned on a recent Saturday: The “new guy” with the cantaloupes and watermelons looks familiar. Turns out he’s a former manager of a local restaurant who’s a few weeks away from opening his own restaurant. His new head chef just happens to be someone whose career I’ve been following. Next, when I’m buying my weekly chickens, the farmer tells me he’s running out of hogs to butcher and may retire early.

There’s discussion of how difficult it is to get animals slaughtered in the current “normal.” The dairy farmer has added a $1 deposit to the mason jars he sells yogurt in, as they are harder and harder to come by. The produce farmer has stopped accepting empty egg and berry cartons because she doesn’t want any added contamination risks.

This is what we anthropologists call “participant observation.” It helps me look for the various ways that people, projects, and communities are connected in Memphis and how they also connect to the larger food system. Understanding these connections is fundamental to Edible Memphis.

I studied anthropology at the University of Memphis, where

Keri Brondo serves as chair of the anthropology department.

“Anthropologists are important everywhere,” she says. “They are trained to understand social phenomena both holistically (so we can make cross-cultural comparisons and talk about the human condition generally) and also very specifically (due to our deep ethnographic engagement), which allows us to make connections between structure, agency, and cultural meaning.”

When it comes to food, anthropologists have a specific role to play. “Anthropologists working in this area connect the symbolic and cultural significance of food to material realities—thus connecting, for instance, systemic racism to calls for food sovereignty,” Keri says.

I realized a few months ago that a lot of my fellow alumni from the University of Memphis Department of Anthropology are deeply involved in our local food system—running restaurants, managing urban farms, helping rural farmers harness the power of nature, coordinating community supported agriculture, creating school gardens, and managing a farmers market and kitchen program in South Memphis.

I thought you might like to know more about them, and learn how anthropology is alive and well in Memphis.

Understanding these connections is fundamental to Edible Memphis.

10 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

Marie Dennan Program Manager, Big Green Memphis Class of 2016, Urban Anthropology

On any given day, you might find Marie Dennan working in a local school garden with her team, developing relationships with community partners, or discussing national strategy for Big Green. In whatever she’s doing, collaboration is at the heart.

“We connect with community partners on a regular basis to collaborate and make sure our work is relevant,” she says. “Anthropologists consider a code of ethics when working with communities, making sure the work is respectful, ethical, and community-driven.”

She recognizes that a local food system is made up of many stakeholders—including farmers, consumers, nonprofits, government agencies, food distributors, restaurants, and public health agencies.

“Anthropologists tend to be interested in learning from multiple stakeholders to work together and inform decision-making,” she says. “We tend to value collaboration and being able to collect and analyze multiple perspectives. Anthropologists can provide value to working in any industry.”

Mia Madison Executive Director, Memphis Tilth Class of 2012, Urban Anthropology

“Food is at the center of every culture in the world,” says Mia Madison.

She believes that having anthropologists working in the local food system helps ensure that a culture is upheld and sustained into the future.

“It ensures that the farmer, who is at the center of the system, is observed, assisted, awarded, and sustained,” she says.

In her work with Memphis Tilth, Mia uses “participatory action research” to understand and create more equitable opportunities for people of color to become stewards of the natural environment.

She says that anthropologists are uniquely able both to provide a unique qualitative perspective and to use observations and historical recordings to quantify across cultures.

“We maintain the validity of the human perspective by reporting our findings for social good,” she says.

ediblememphis.com 11

Sanne Latta Senior Manager for Agronomy Operations, Indigo Ag Class of 2014, Globalization, Development, and Culture

“At Indigo, we harness nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet,” says Sanne Latta.

The team she leads focuses on improving grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and digital technologies.

As an anthropology graduate student, Sanne researched food systems and environmental sustainability and learned about the connection with qualitative, quantitative, and ethnographic research.

“Really, everything I did and learned as an anthropologist helped me prepare to be successful in this role,” she says Anthropologists bring to the table some unique qualities and skills, like empathy, curiosity, a desire to collaborate, and a broad

toolkit to understand and design nearly everything, she says.

They tend to be both data-driven and people-focused with a wide variety of interests, experiences, and backgrounds.

“I’d like to believe that we as anthropologists always focus on inclusivity and doing the right thing,” she says.

When it comes to local food systems, Sanne says a diverse group of people need to be working together, and anthropologists often bring valuable, broad networks.

“We tend to approach issues from the bottom up, which I think can often give a much different perspective from the more top-down approaches that are common in business and government,” she says.

Kristin Fox-Trautman Owner/Founder, Inspire Community Café Class of 2004, Urban Anthropology

As Kristin Fox-Trautman and her team planned the Binghampton-based Inspire Community Café, she relied on key principles of anthropology, like equity, social justice, and prioritizing stakeholders' voices.

“These principles shaped our business model, which pays a living wage and has an employee profit-sharing component,” she says. “We also have a flat leadership model in which all core team members have equal voice in decision-making and all major decisions are based on the consensus of the team.”

Kristin says that anthropologists focus on how a local food system affects people who have been marginalized or who face inequities, like a lack of access to healthy food. With issues like that in mind, Inspire intentionally uses products that are grown and produced locally, and they seek to partner with vendors owned by women and people of color.

When looking at a system, Kristin and other anthropologists want to make sure that everyone has a voice. “We look to see if decision-making bodies are representative of the diverse cultures and stakeholder groups within that community or institution,” she says.

12 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

Roshun Austin President/CEO, The Works, Inc. Class of 1997, Urban Anthropology

Roshun Austin says that she serves as CEO, CAO, COO, CIO, and CFO—all wrapped into one job. Among her myriad other responsibilities, including managing 17 staff members and overseeing a $5 million operating budget, Roshun ensures the successful operation of the South Memphis Farmers Market, which is both a farmers market and a green grocer.

“I use several methods of anthropology in my work,” she says.

“They include analysis of how people interact with their environment; ethnographic methods like participant observation, interviews, and surveys; and quantitative surveys.”

Roshun says her anthropological training in analysis has served her well as a CEO. “Analytical skills allow me to be nimble and manage all lines of business efficiently and effectively,” she says.

Theo Davies Manager, Green Leaf Learning Farm Class of 2014, Globalization, Development, and Culture

Theo Davies is an urban farmer who spends his days on two certified-organic acres in the Soulsville area of South Memphis, just down the street from the Stax Museum and LeMoyneOwen College.

“Anthropology helps me unpeel the layers of food inequity I see on a daily basis,” he says.

“It has helped me understand the role of each player—for example, how the U.S. Department of Agriculture established the '40 acres and a mule' program after the Civil War, but then how it was systematically dismantled due to racial discrimination, and how, combined with the effects of middle class flight, that left urban neighborhoods like Soulsville in dire straights.”

But his anthropology background doesn’t help him only to see the problems. It also gives him tools to work toward solving them. “My education has helped me see there’s opportunity to make real change by accessing a community's assets instead of dwelling on its flaws,” he says.

Theo believes food is the strongest transmitter of culture, and he sees anthropologists as key to understanding that and translating it to the local food system.

“We know from anthropology how barbecue became the tradition it did and how a delicious rack of ribs, beloved in this city, was born out of the kitchens of slaves,” he says. “Anthropology provides us with a lens into the past and how it informs our present. We need anthropologists in the local food system to analyze our agricultural past—how food inequity has continued to tip the balance of power away from some, how change is made at the community level to address food insecurity—and to inform our perceptions, policies, and food traditions.” • ediblememphis.com 13

FARM

A LIFETIME

INVESTMENT Steve Richardson has spent his years helping Mississippi’s small farms thrive

BY ERIK A C AIN • PHOTOGR APHS BY ZIGGY MACK

14 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

S

tanding amid 145 acres of pasture feels quite different from glancing at it pinned on Google Maps. The grounds at Richardson Farms seem to go on for miles, beginning at a two-lane roadway and intersecting somewhere in the blue skies.

With multiple fields of farmland stretched across Tate County, Mississippi, Steve Richardson has planted a major investment into the cultivation of what has always been a widely respected platform of labor—small farming.

Before Richardson Farms was rooted, Steve began farming as a little lad when he had to share responsibilities on his family’s farm in Edwards, Mississippi. While his dad worked on the road, he, his mom, and his 12 siblings ran the farm—planting cotton and corn and raising cattle and hogs. “We always planted our own food,” says Steve. “We had gardens and truck patches.”

At that time, a company moved into nearby Bolton and wanted people to plant cucumbers for their packing shed. Steve’s dad set aside some ground on his farm and planted cucumbers for about two years for the company. He discontinued his services, but Steve acquired one acre of farmland from his dad to seed cucumbers and keep selling to the company. Steve beamed with a smile, sharing, “After selling my cucumbers, I made enough money to buy me a one-rack pulpwood truck when I was 15.”

Now retired from Mississippi State University Extension Service, Steve says he got his start in farm agriculture in Decorah, Iowa, working for a soil conservation service. He later graduated from Alcorn State University and hoped to start at the extension service then, but there was a hiring freeze at the time. “I moved back home and went to West Point, Mississippi, to finish my master’s,” he said. “When they lifted the freeze, the county agent position became available, so I moved from West Point to Tate County to accept the role as the first African American agent to oversee an entire integrated office in Tate. Back in the day, Negro county agents could only work with Blacks.”

Over the years, Steve has offered hands-on educational workshops, youth programs, and resources to the community and master gardeners. Through his work with Mississippi 4-H, he taught youth how to do everything from barbecuing and sewing to planting and canning foods.

In fact, his 4-H teams traveled to Memphis each year for the Mid-South Fair competitions for livestock, poultry, and pork—taking home awards for the poultry and pork barbecue categories.

In 1990, Steve purchased his current land, but not yet with the idea of it becoming Richardson Farms. He started off by planting and selling soybeans and wheat, but they didn’t turn a great profit. After adding plantings for sweet corn, tomatoes, watermelon, and then a little bit of everything, Richardson Farms began producing for the community.

“I started the Tate County Farmers Market in 1989, and it still continues to this day,” Steve remembers. Steve founded and built the market by working with the county board of supervisors—receiving monies to build a shed—while the city chipped in to provide things like restroom facilities and electrical sources. He recruited vendors to set up and sell their produce and even ran an ad in the local paper, taking a poll on whether or not people would buy from a local market. Needless to say, it was an overwhelming yes. After much success with Tate County Farmers Market, Steve has offered guidance for other markets across the Mid-South, including the Memphis Farmers Market. Somewhere in between, Steve even found time to run for Mississippi state representative.

Today, Richardson Farms is best known for its tasty produce and standard of excellence for squash, leeks, snap beans, mustard greens, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, and bell peppers in seven different varieties—green, yellow, orange, red, chocolate, ivory, and purple. On up the road, Steve rents another 36 acres, where you can find watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, field corn, pinkeye purple hull peas, speckled peas, and butter beans, to name a few. While there are no berries on Richardson Farms, Steve is thinking of adding strawberries, figs, and herbs in ediblememphis.com 15

the future. He owns about 50 heads of cattle on another field adjacent to the farm.

Farming is a full-time lifestyle for Steve. Timing is of the essence for plantings to flourish in appropriate seasons in order to maximize quality offerings to buyers. Planting rotates every three weeks until the last planting in July, keeping him busy the entire day, seven days a week. In addition, Steve grows his own transplants and sells them before the season begins, educating his customers on proper care and treatment.

Cycles, irrigation, plastic-lined rows, and temperature checks all play a role in Steve’s production of colorful fruits, veggies, and other plants. Plantings are made one after another so, each time produce is harvested, another round is seeded. Planting and picking, prepping the bays, and then planting and picking again—a cycle that is nonstop to produce the supply for the high consumer demand. The harvest is so plentiful on the farm that Steve can barely keep up at times without having help—planters, pickers, and groomers. But that doesn’t diminish his expectations of quality.

When picking a watermelon for his customers, Steve insists it meet certain criteria, such as the sound it gives when thumping it, the color of its belly, and even the pin curl that connects it to the vine. Once those criteria have been met, he is ready to present what he considers to be the perfect summertime fruit. Oh, and the cantaloupe and honeydew are so special that he refers to them by nicknames, mostly inspired by friendships.

Steve’s equipment is of critical importance during the long hours of labor throughout the planting seasons. His water wheel planter is laced with spikes; when the wheels perforate the ground, a charge of water shoots into the holes and the plants are settled within. Most of his rows of produce are shielded by thick, black plastic that gives him more earliness, holds moisture longer, and warms the soil quickly.

The numerous fields of 2,000 heat-tolerant tomato plants are like works of art, showcasing varieties like Mountain Fresh Plus, Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Carbon, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Roma, Mountain Delight, Quincy, Emilia, Carolina Gold, Lemon Boy, Pink Girl, Arkansas Traveler, cherry, and more.

According to Steve, every plant’s plan is to survive, which is the purpose of producing food. “Plants don’t add fruit so you can eat,” says Steve. “It adds fruit so it can survive for the next year.” During harvest the challenge is to keep a good pace of picking fruit from the vine before the plant shuts down and “matures,” a survival mode when it stops replenishing itself.

“I remember telling some other small farmers—20 years ago—that the days of the small farmers would be obsolete in five years,” says Steve. “And, by small, I mean 500 acres or less.

Although small farming may still be persistent, young generations are not picking up the field.”

Steve will one day pass down all of his farmland to his descendants—two daughters and a 15-year-old grandson who comes to help sometimes. His hope is to motivate more young people to keep small farming viable.

In the winter, Steve puts his carpentry skills to use, working with wood and metal. He’s made farm equipment, rotisserie grills, and, most notably, a couple of houses—one that he previously considered his homestead and the other a cabin where he nestles each night before rising at 5 a.m. And he’s currently building his new place of residence.

You can find Richardson Farms produce at various farmers markets, including Tate County Farmers Market (daily), Batesville Farmers Market (Wednesdays), Sardis Farmers Market (Wednesdays), Memphis Farmers Market (Saturdays), Hernando Farmers Market (Saturdays), and Oxford Community Market (Tuesdays). •

16 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

I MOVED FROM WEST POINT TO TATE COUNTY TO ACCEPT THE ROLE AS THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN AGENT TO OVERSEE AN ENTIRE INTEGRATED OFFICE IN TATE.

ediblememphis.com 17

CULTURE

ARE THE SCALES The dubious history of tipping service workers— and why it might be time to end the practice

BY BR AD PIT TS • PHOTOGR APHS BY ZIGGY MACK

In a world turned upside down by a pandemic

and growing civil unrest, many of the simple acts we deem as accepted practice in our social order have come under near constant purview. Now add tipping to the list of complicated social constructs we navigate on a daily basis.

What makes tipping such a controversial subject? Our value systems are challenged daily—and this includes the outmoded pay structure of restaurant and service industry professionals. The expectation that patrons will tip their servers and bartenders is a key component of our culinary economy. But in the last five to 10 years a movement has been afoot in the restaurant industry to end tipping altogether, albeit with mixed results.

The ever-widening gap in income equality is especially exacerbated in the industry as a whole, where 43 states still allow employers to employ workers more or less for free on the basis that their tips will satisfy minimum wage requirements in each state. It’s an old system, rooted in New Deal-era federal laws and policies that are ingrained into current American culture. Its beginnings are much more nefarious and complex.

Americans didn’t always tip. It wasn’t even part of our vernacular until after the Civil War. Nouveau-riche Americans were traveling to Europe in droves and staying in grand hotels and dining out in chic restaurants and clubs. When they returned to the United States, they tried to show how adept they were with European aristocratic institutions by tipping porters, train valets, and hotel staff. These positions of service were ultimately unionized, removing the need for additional compensation. Restaurant workers were left out of these organized labor movements and continued to rely on patronage.

However, during this post-Civil War Reconstruction period, tipping became inextricably linked to the enduring legacy of slavery. When the Thirteenth Amendment to the 18 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

Constitution ended slavery, most freedmen were limited in their choices of occupation. If they chose not to sharecrop, they often became servants, waiters, barbers, or railroad porters. The railroads and restaurant and hotel employers essentially became feudal landlords by refusing to pay these workers an actual wage under the guise that guests would pay them with a small tip instead. By keeping these workers poor and indentured, these industries continued these practices virtually unencumbered until the 1930s, even as the racial dynamics of the country continued to evolve and improve. Tipping was here to stay.

In 1938 the federal government introduced the first federal minimum wage statutes that would require employers only to pay their tipped workers a wage that added up to the federal minimum wage when combined with their tips. The only modification to this system was in the late 1960s, when legislation was changed to allow workers in the service industry to receive a lower minimum wage if a portion of their salary came from tips.

Today the federal minimum wage for tipped workers is (still) $2.13. Regular minimum wage is $7.25.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, seven states (Tennessee isn’t one) mandate that all workers, regardless of the amount of tips, must be paid the “full state minimum wage before [emphasis added] tips.” Because of slavery and the desire to underpay workers, the “tip” in the United States—which should be a bonus or extra gratuity on top of your wage—was turned into a wage unto itself. And here we are almost a hundred years later.

During the current state of affairs, we as a nation have been forced to readdress the perpetual issues of racial discrimination, income inequality, sexual harassment, misogyny, and power disparities. These same problems run rampant in the restaurant and service industries.

Some restaurateurs, like Danny Meyer of the successful

and large Union Square Hospitality Group in New York, have attempted to move away from accepting tips in the last five years.

It was part of their effort to bring the (almost $1 trillion per year) restaurant business in line with “modern workplace standards.”

The customer pays a fixed amount listed on menu pricing, which reflects service being given. The servers or bartenders are then paid wages that match skill sets and seniority. The argument is that doing away with tipping will create a work environment with more equity between those who work in the kitchen on “straight” wages and those who work in dining rooms and bars exclusively for tips. In many states it is illegal to tip “back of the house” employees such as line cooks and dishwashers. (Note: The pandemic has caused Union Square Hospitality Group to abandon their no-tipping policy for good.)

Restaurants and their owners have profited from tipping by using tips to subsidize entire payrolls of service staff. The drawback of a no-tipping policy—as Danny Meyer learned firsthand—is that this crucial financial ingredient is removed from business plans and they have to find another way to make their payroll. A result of this has been higher menu prices which can cause “sticker shock” for patrons and the loss of highly skilled, educated workers who can take their services elsewhere. Also, old traditions and ways of conducting restaurant business are difficult to change in a short period of time. It even remains true that customers like the tipping experience and the satisfaction they get from paying for service, good or bad.

While the no-tipping model is an admirable and worthy effort, it fails to thoroughly address the real underlying problem throughout the service industry that the global pandemic has only heightened: Most restaurant and other tipped workers are grossly underpaid. With the restaurant business in a freefall, the time is now to revisit antiquated policies and laws that fail to

percent of servers are women, and most do not work in upscale or casual fine dining establishments.

Female servers and tipped people of color

suffer from three times the poverty rate as the rest of the U.S workforce.

Restaurant sales growth is higher in states that require employers to pay the full minimum wage to tipped workers.

States that have fair-wage legislation have

higher restaurant sales; the restaurants that pay higher wages in these states have lower turnover, better morale, and greater productivity.

The average tip is around 16 percent.

ediblememphis.com 19

protect the most vulnerable. One Fair Wage—a national coalition that advocates and seeks to lift the millions of tipped and sub-minimum wage workers in this country out of poverty by requiring all employers to pay full minimum wage with tips on top—has been pushing for federal legislation to end the unequal wage system that’s been in place for almost 100 years.

However you look at tipping, some basic problems remain at the forefront. Studies have shown that tipping is not an incentive for performance in serving staff. A tipped minimum wage of $2.13 also helps create a two-tiered system that allows restaurants to not pay their employees and even misuse tips to pay less than minimum wage if tips make up the difference. When this happens, it says that employees are essentially valueless and cheap sources of labor. What persists is that the average customer doesn’t know (or care) how much the person serving them makes per hour and is completely unaware that a person could be paid $2.13 per hour (or less).

The restaurant industry is the only industry in America that allows the customer to pay employees while being freed of the responsibility to actually pay a living wage. The uncertainty and forced layoffs during the pandemic have only managed to bring this—along with a myriad of other societal ills and injustices— to the forefront. So, as we work together to right other wrongs in our society, let’s make this right too. •

20 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

ediblememphis.com 21

JESUS RAMON

FAMILIAR FACES

Chef brings rich culture to Southall Cafe, East Memphis’s newest brunch spot

BY MANDA GIBSON PHOTOGR APHS BY KIM THOMA S

22 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

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ife has taken Jesus Ramon to Mexico, California, Memphis, Southaven, and even Japan. And now he’s brought all those experiences with him to his role as head chef at Southall Cafe.

His journey to chef hasn’t been a straightforward one. Detours have included time served in the Marines and being furloughed from restaurant work at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic—an occurrence that almost made him change career paths altogether.

But he’s thrilled to be at the helm of opening a new restaurant, and he’s full of ideas for the future. He’s curated a menu that features Southern and seasonal food with tastes of his Mexican heritage woven throughout. And he’s proud that many of the menu items can be adapted for vegan or vegetarian diets. While Southall is focusing on breakfast and brunch for now, Jesus looks forward to experimenting with ticketed private dinners focused exclusively on Mexican cuisine—including a Day of the Dead pop-up dinner.

We sat down with Jesus as Southall was preparing to open. The space was abuzz with masked employees training, seasoning equipment, and organizing supplies. We loved hearing Jesus’s story and hearing about his vision for his new restaurant. We think you will too!

I’VE NEVER SEEN A TOWN SO SUPPORTIVE OF THEIR COMMUNITY. Edible Memphis: Where did you grow up? How did you land in Memphis?

Jesus Ramon: I was born in a little town outside Mexico City. My parents moved to the San Francisco Bay Area before I turned one. We moved to Southaven during my freshman year of high school. I finished high school in Southaven, took six months to rest, and then went straight to culinary school at L’Ecole before it shut down. But then, being a young cook in Memphis, working different kitchens, I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. Certain chefs just need someone to hold down their station, and there’s no real room to work up the chain. I worked two jobs in two different kitchens just trying to make rent. My passion was burning out, and I didn’t want that to happen. I took a step back and joined the Marine Corps. I didn’t think I’d cook again.

Tell us more about why you chose the Marines.

I had grown up watching Marines on TV and seeing how disciplined they were.

When I was 17, I wanted to join. I tried, and my parents wouldn’t sign the papers. By the time I was old enough to enlist, I was deep in the culinary world. When I got burned out, I was 22 and still young enough to go. I chose the Marine Corps because, if I was going to join the armed forces, I was going to join the hardest one. I made it. I don’t regret it at all.

How did you get back into the food world?

The Marine Corps sent me to Japan for two years. Tasting their food, seeing how proud they are, how they interact with their food—when I got out, I decided to go 100 percent. I jumped into a kitchen there in Virginia Beach to see if I could hang with the cooks and got offered a sous chef position. When my wife got out of active duty, I moved back here. I did pop-up dinners on my own, worked as kitchen manager at El Mero, and then helped open Bishop. ediblememphis.com 23

You went to culinary school right out of high school.

How did you get interested in it so early?

No one taught me to cook. I never cooked with my mom. In my culture, it’s not something the men do; the women do all the cooking. One day I woke up early on summer vacation and was really hungry and didn’t want to wake my parents, so I made pancakes out of a box—that was fun! I would help my dad when he was grilling. Then Dad started watching food shows, and that’s when I realized it could be a career. My parents weren’t big on the idea of me being a chef. They wanted me to be a lawyer or doctor. Cooking is a blue-collar thing in Mexico. It wasn’t until I got my first paycheck that they realized it could be something.

Now they’re all for it.

Do you cook for your extended family?

I do requests. But for the most part I just go home to eat my mom’s food. Her flautas are always perfect—crunchy, juicy, tender chicken, covered in cotija cheese, avocadoes, and salsa verde.

COVID-19 has been tough on the restaurant world.

What has it been like for you?

I was part of the crew that helped open Bishop and was there until the pandemic hit. I was supposed to be sous-chef, but then Hog & Hominy burned down and a lot of their chefs moved over to Bishop. My spot got taken immediately. Then I was furloughed once Covid hit. I thought I would always have a job in restaurants, but Covid showed that restaurants aren’t essential. I was about to enroll at the University of Memphis for a different career— microbiology. As a last-ditch effort, I filled out every chef application online, and Mark [Pender, co-owner of Southall] called.

What’s your vision for this restaurant?

The concept for the food is breakfast and brunch—Southern and seasonal with my Mexican twist. We’ll have a full cocktail menu and a full patio to seat 64 with misters and fans. Two of our head bartenders work at Catherine & Mary’s too.

Tell us more about that combination of Southern, seasonal, and Mexican.

I’ve made contact with local farmers and realized I can get ingredients used in Mexico that I didn’t realize were available here. I’ve found milpa—popcorn shoots that are really sweet and taste like corn—to use throughout the menu. We’ll have a tomatillo-cucumber gazpacho; the Southerness for that is that the protein filler will be crawfish. A lot of the menu has little touches of my Mexican background. We’re gonna do a country pâté but instead of wrapping in bacon will wrap in squash blossoms; the proteins and spices in it are things I worked with when visiting my family in Mexico. I’m calling it the Hidalgo Pâté, after a little town up in the mountains where my father is from. It’s going to be really pretty and colorful.

You have plans to make a lot of your menu elements in-house, right?

We’ll be curing and smoking our own hams in-house. We’ll make our own gravlax in-house for one of our Benedicts. My best friend, Donald [Stocker], was assistant pastry chef at Bishop 24 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

and is head baker here. We’ll eventually be doing desserts, sourdoughs—all our breads—and have a display out front to sell Donald’s bread. We’ll have raised beds behind the restaurant to grow our own specialty herbs and vegetables.

What’s it like to be opening a restaurant during a pandemic?

It’s been kind of easy actually. We stay up to date with the CDC and will have all of those guidelines on how to operate safely in place from the beginning. All our projections are based off of half capacity. We see it like a really long soft opening. By the time we get really busy, we’ll have a system for everything.

We hired three delivery drivers for a three-mile radius and have a dedicated curbside pickup area.

This is the first time you’ve helped to open a restaurant as head chef. How does it feel?

It feels great. I’m having to pull from everything I’ve ever learned to get things done.

What makes you nervous?

This is the first time it’s 100 percent my menu. I hope I can keep the standards that were taught by people before me. Now it’s all on me. I just want to do a good job.

What have you learned so far in your career?

If you’re a younger cook, take a break before you get burned out. A lot of my peers have quit cooking because they never took a step back to breathe. It’s draining.

What’s one thing you do to keep from getting burned out?

At least once a year, I take my family on an R&D trip back to Mexico. We go to a new area every time. That helps keep everything fresh.

Tell us about a recent trip.

We went to Hidalgo, where one of my grandmothers lives. My great aunt is a baker there and bakes bread for the whole town.

She has her own brick oven that’s outside her house that’s been

passed down from generation to generation. They do everything by feel—no recipes. I helped butcher the lamb for barbacoa. I was there for the whole process. It definitely gives you a new perspective on the food; it makes it more intimate. You see the animal and don’t want anything to go to waste.

What’s your dream job?

Being the chef/owner of a Mexican restaurant with a Michelin star. That’s the goal one day. But I have to take it step-by-step.

It depends on whether I can get Michelin down here. For some reason, they don’t come through Memphis. But, hopefully, with all the chef talent we have in Memphis, we can catch their eye. It’s just a matter of time.

Who’s your mentor?

Michael Francis from Heart and Soul catering. He was the first one to give me a sous-chef position.Throughout my two years there, he helped me build my confidence in my own food. He put new responsibilities on me, and, if I got out of line, he put me back in—but I always learned something.

What’s your favorite thing about Memphis?

Definitely the people. I’ve never seen a town so supportive of their community.

If you could have lunch with any Memphian, who would it be?

Where would you go?

Tim Howard. He’s the co-owner of 901 FC. My dad was a semi-pro soccer player in Mexico, and he always played goalie. I’d see if he’d let me cook for him.

What really matters to you?

My son, Daniel. And, honestly, balancing the goals I have set with my family life. I’ve seen so many chefs devote themselves to one or the other. I don’t want my inspiration and my creativity to die, and, at the same time, if I can do it right, as Danny grows up, he can see that, whatever you’re passionate about, you can make it a living and reach your goals. • ediblememphis.com 25

IN THE KITCHEN

Comfort DAY-TO-DAY

Embracing change through coffee, Korean home cooking, and cocktails STORY AND PHOTOGR APHS BY ERIN KIM I honestly believe there is no going back to “normal,” but I believe we can re-learn how to bring comfort back into our day-to-day routines.

Pre-pandemic, my boyfriend, James (who happens to be a chef), and I loved going out and trying new restaurants and bars and being around those who enjoy sharing good food. We used to start a lot of our days at a coffee shop and end them grabbing a nightcap somewhere. We both lived on the go, worked in the hospitality industry, and craved grabbing bites out in the city.

I’ve tried to use this new time to learn more about things I didn’t always have time for, like Taoism and the human response to change. Overshare, a Brooklyn-based podcast, aired an episode discussing how people generally say we hate change—but, in reality, we are rebellious creatures who actually go against the flow to create disruption in our lives. But what do you do when the change isn’t by choice, is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced, and has no timeline? A friend who I used to work with reminded me to let go of what I don’t have control over and to work on what I do. Here are a few areas where I realized I could make some adjustments to make this time of change more bearable.

26 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

Food:

We’ve hit a lot of different bends in the road of cooking. When I was growing up, my mother cooked every day and had books on books full of index cards with handwritten recipes. There was no googling Bon Appétit recipes or DoorDash. I’m not sure how she did it and was still able to put out a dessert most nights. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen that we’ve been cooking a lot of East Asian dishes. Our weeks contain a lot of Korean and Taiwanese/Chinese home cooking with takeout on the weekends from East Meets West in Germantown or those delicious appetizers from Pho Binh in Midtown. I’d never dreamed of making dim sum or bao at home, or even thought about making homemade soy milk until now. Our go-to meal for easy nights or breakfast is a Korean tofu stew: kimchi jjigae. It's a belly-warming stew that is easily customizable for any diet and is super healthy with all of that fermented kimchi juice!

ediblememphis.com 27

Coffee:

Before Covid, I was a barista at Vice & Virtue and enjoyed hanging out at Comeback on my days off. My go-to at any shop is always the drip or flash brew. Seasonal drinks are fun once in a while, but the lighter blends from Vice or the medium roasts on flash brew at Comeback usually fix my cravings. Coffee at home has definitely been a journey. I started off with my French press since I typically like fuller-bodied coffee in the mornings. I was missing lattes, so I attempted to aerate milk via my French press and brewed espresso in my Moka pot. A friend loaned me his Bellman Stovetop Steamer to improve my aeration, so I made cortados for us in the morning. At last, James bought me a Hario V60 for my birthday, and I’ve been making flash brew at home with beans from Handlebar Coffee Roasters, a friend’s shop based in Santa Barbara. It’s probably the most relaxing and comforting part of my day.

Dessert:

Sweets haven’t always been such a big deal with us before. We would grab boba or ice cream once in a while, but it wasn’t a staple.

During quarantine, we’ve become huge ice cream fanatics. It started with ordering six different pints of Jeni’s. Then I found the black sugar boba ice cream bars at Viet Hoa, and they blew our minds!

Now we are munching on some delicious plant-based, non-dairy “ice cream” by Eclipse Foods in Berkeley, California. They have a chef series out; our favorite flavors have been Win Son’s Sweet Potato & Salty Black Sugar Caramel, Flour Bakery’s Sticky Sticky Bun, and Eclipse’s Vanilla.

28 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

Cocktails:

My go-to at any bar is an old-fashioned, and James usually goes with a negroni or gin and tonic.

I always knew how to make a couple of basic cocktails, but I never actually made them at home. The old-fashioned was one of the first things I learned how to make during quarantine, and so far the preferred bourbon whiskey has been Old Dominick’s Huling Station. It’s been the smoothest old-fashioned, after wrestling a few with Bulleit Bourbon’s Barrel Strength.

Groceries:

On Saturdays, our grocery list is usually split into two places: Asiana, a Korean market on Mt. Moriah, and Whole Foods. We started going to Asiana a while back before the pandemic. I had always been nervous to go in by myself because I can’t speak Korean f luently. Don’t let that stop you from going in, though, because the owners, Soon Ah Chung and her husband, have lived in Memphis for 24 years and don’t expect customers to speak Korean. Before July, the owners always had kimbap for sale at the counter.

Kimbap is cooked rice rolled up in dried seaweed and cut into bite-size snacks. Each person has their preference in what they fill the rolls with, but at Asiana they tend to stick with carrot, spinach, bulgogi (Korean marinated beef), egg, pickled radish, and crab meat. It’s so good! We usually buy one tray to eat on the drive home and then the other to snack on the next day.

In the back of Asiana, a metal door opens up to a refrigerated produce section where you can find jars of homemade kimchi, pickled radish, and shelves of scallions, garlic, onion, daikon, green chili peppers, and napa cabbage. We usually load up on the homemade banchan and bulgogi in the fridge up front, and we’re always looking out for any new Korean snacks or noodles. In the summer, they put out an ice cream freezer full of Melona popsicles and Samanco fish-shaped cookies filled with red bean ice cream. Basically, Asiana is your one-stop local Korean grocery store!

Companions:

The last big change while in quarantine has been the addition of our sweet Malamute puppy, Yuna! She is five months old and a little over 40 pounds of crazy cuddles. Her favorite snacks are salmon-skin jerky, frozen bananas, and ice cubes. Follow her cuteness on IG @thekitchenpup. • ediblememphis.com 29

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FAMILIAR FACES

JENNIFER PAYNE Being outside is priority one for this Alpha Omega Veterans Services farmer

BY MANDA GIBSON • PHOTOGR APHS BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR.

32 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

L

ike many of us, Jennifer Payne loved the outdoors as a child. And, like many of us, she traded in that outdoor time for a desk job when she grew up. But that’s where the similarities between Jennifer and “the rest of us” end. Because she quickly decided that she was too young to be miserable and found a way to make a living outdoors.

She started her farming work with Memphis Tilth, then spent time with Green Girl Produce, and recently became garden program manager at Alpha Omega Veterans Services (AOVS). Jennifer is passionate about farming and about engaging people with where their food comes from. Our time with her encouraged and inspired us!

Edible Memphis: Tell us about your work at the Alpha Omega Veterans Urban Farm.

Jennifer Payne: I am a recent addition at Alpha Omega Veterans farm. The team I’m working with are people I was familiar with and respected. So I’m farming with people I knew and loved already. I’m so excited to be on board with the whole endeavor.

AOVS is a residential facility for veterans who have experienced homelessness.

They can engage in the farm through paid work, or just through observation if they want their own space. The garden program manager in particular is a role that incorporates other people into the farm. So, yes, I’m a farmer, but I’m bringing into that other people who aren’t farmers.

Tell us more about how the farm engages veterans.

Half of what we grow automatically goes to AOVS residents. We also do what we call client engagement. It’s that therapeutic component of being outside and touching dirt and experiencing farming—meaningful work. It’s healthy in every way. Whether you’re eating more veggies or digging a hole in the ground, it’s going to be good for you.

What’s the coolest thing about your work?

Within a day or within six weeks you can see the ground change and produce food. It’s really cool. I took a picture six weeks ago of three beds that we weeded and prepared and planted. They looked clean and well organized. Six weeks later, right before we harvested, they were abundant with greens. It’s not instant gratification, but it’s really fast. It always seems like magic.

What’s most challenging?

Farming in the South in the summer. It’s really hard with the weather. At the end of the day, we don’t make sense with our sentences.

Let’s back up a little bit. Tell us about how you grew up.

I grew up in Collierville. Both my parents in different ways had me outside a lot. My mom taught me about gardening, and my dad taught me the wonder of the outdoors. My mom and I would plant hostas and grow a little tomato garden. I would walk around with my dad and look for critters in the neighborhood. I grew up ediblememphis.com 33

outdoors and fell in love with it. I started running in high school, and that kept me outside too.

I went to the University of Memphis and studied political science. Then I worked in an office and then from home. I thought, “This is just what life is and what adults do.” I didn’t have another example in my life of someone who spent their time outdoors. I grew a garden and bought some land and grew another garden. Then I thought, “I’m 23. It’s not time to settle for a life of unhappiness.” I applied to Memphis Tilth to be a gardener. I told them, “I’ll make a lot of mistakes, but I’ll learn from doing them and not make the same mistakes again.” So at night I watched YouTube and read books. I got to play outside, and food happened because of it. That was a pretty rare chance I got, but it changed the last eight years of my life.

What did you learn in your time at Memphis Tilth and Green Girl Produce?

As community garden organizer at Memphis Tilth, I was bringing people closer to the food system by growing food with and for them. My heart got really excited and broken at the same time. I met some adults who saw food as nutrition and power and choice. But others told me: “I was made to grow this” or “my ancestors were made to grow this, and it’s always been used as a tool against me.” Knowing that people had such a different experience with the food and the food system really changed me.

After I left Memphis Tilth, I went to manage Green Girl Produce, an indoor hydroponic vertical farm. I grew and sold microgreens to restaurants, which was a wonderful experience in business and the restaurant world. I shifted from working with anyone to selling produce to chefs. There was a different threshold of quality. I’m not a good cook, but I know the value of good food. I met all the people who turn produce into things people want to eat. It was so cool to talk to chefs and hear about the design of food.

From there I was recruited to AOVS. I’ve finally settled on the fact that I’m an outdoors person, and I just really need to work outside.

You’ve seen different aspects of our local food system up close. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses?

I think we’re really good at food. We’re a great restaurant city. Tourists come here for food. We’re in the South near the Delta, so we’re good at growing food. I do think the way food has been produced for a long time hasn’t been good for people or the planet. That’s the thing I love about AOVS. It’s a way of farming that benefits the ground and people.

We need to celebrate farmers markets and farmers. That’s the best way to get our food. In Memphis there are two great markets on the weekend and smaller markets during the week. I don’t know that more markets is the answer, but more people shopping at farmers markets. You talk to the people who grew the food, and you’re bringing people that much closer to the food.

What was your work like as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged?

I was at Green Girl Produce. I’d left for the day and by 11:00 that night, 100 percent of our customers—all restaurants—had 34 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

closed. I just turned my phone off and went to bed. I walked into work the next day and had to think, “What do we do? We work two weeks ahead hydroponically. In two weeks I’m going to have tons of microgreens and nowhere for them to go.” A job that was usually planned became—every day, what does it look like to be a farmer today? It was wild.

The biggest Hail Mary for us and other farms was home deliveries. There are some farmers who were selling to restaurants exclusively who now only deliver to homes five days a week. Their entire business model changed.

How are you seeing Covid change our food system?

People initially were scared to go to the grocery store, and, because of that, some of the farmers I know had up to a 600 percent increase in sales. I hope that never goes away because that’s the best place to be—to have a smaller web of your food system with less shipping in and less flying in.

What do you anticipate for the future of our local food system?

I would hope for everyone to know a farmer. It makes your food so much more personal, and it’s more fun that way. I’ve gotten to know the people at Home Place Pastures. I would probably be fine not eating meat, but I want to support them so I have a subscription. You can choose to buy or not buy. That’s your power as a person who buys food.

How can we make our food system here in Memphis more equitable?

I think a lot of people are still in the dark about where you can get fresh food and how you can get it. We have a lot of work to do in making that equitable. A step in the direction of a more equitable food system, in general, includes paying farm workers

and food service workers a living wage—because they’re people, but they’re also growing and preparing what we eat to nourish our bodies.

What’s something that few people know about you?

They know everything because I put it all on Instagram and I talk so much.

What step can every Memphian take to make a better food system?

Take some time to think about the whole food cycle, and figure out a way to do a few things better. It’s difficult to do everything well, but just pick a place to jump in, whether you compost or buy meat from a local meat producer or go to the market to get your veggies.

What matters most to you in life?

People. People knowing that they’re worthy and worthwhile and deserve great things. They deserve to feel good and enjoy what they eat and how they feel. That is absolutely the most important thing. I hope what I grow and what I sell help people find that out. Because of what you put in your body, you can feel stronger and think more clearly. When you know you deserve good things, you’re less likely to be someone who takes and more likely to be someone who gives. You’re not living out of fear; you can be more generous.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

I get inspiration from being so close to what I’m doing and from farming being so hands on. I see the effect that I have on being outside. As a runner, I immediately see the effect of me running because there’s a path left because I stepped there. As a farmer, I see the result of my weeding and don’t have to wait long to see the result of planting something. My impact is always visible. The more time you can be outside or engaging with nature, the more quickly you see your impact, whether good or bad.

What kinds of meals do you eat at home?

Raw vegetables. Anything you can cook with eggs. Cooking for one is no fun.

Where do you like to take visitors to Memphis?

I love to take people to Shelby Farms. There’s usually something there for anyone. Even if you get hungry, there’s food there.

What has helped you get through Covid?

I’ve been able to maintain contact with a lot of people because I spend so much time outside. I never lost my running partners and coworkers. Being outside was the healthiest thing in the world for me. It was also a great way to invite people still to have that social interaction. It wasn’t hard to figure out ways to invite people to share space responsibly because we could do so much outdoors.

Do you have a mentor?

A farming mentor—Chris Peterson [AOVS farm manager].

He taught me that the quality of your work matters.

If you could have a meal with any Memphian, who would it be and where would you go?

We would skip the meal and go running. I’d want it to be with a complete stranger. Talking to strangers skips the chitchat and gets right to the good stuff—and you never know what the good stuff is going to be!

What else do you want us to know?

Just take a look at the Edible Memphis CSA Guide. Those are all my favorite people—people who are moving in the right direction. •

favorites

What do you do for fun?

Running and reading.

PODCAST: Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

What do you like to read?

My favorite is to listen to an autobiography on Audible with the author reading it. My number one book by far is Dolly Parton’s autobiography [Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business]. Her story is wild, but hearing her read it is like her telling you the story.

VEGETABLE: Tomatoes

What music are you listening to lately?

Brandi Carlile is doing a lot for me right now. The songs “Raise Hell” by Brandi and “Move Together” by Ndidi O are on my morning playlist.

MOVIE OR TV SHOW: I don’t watch anything

FRUIT: Tomatoes (I have a little tomato tattoo) INDULGENCE: Good bourbon (right now, Blue Note) PARK: Grand Teton National Park LOCAL PARK: Shelby Farms VACATION SPOT: Anywhere I haven’t been

ediblememphis.com 35

We do not throw things away.

'Away' is a myth.

36 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

TR ASH TALKIN’

A Note from the Compost Fairy

In a world that feels overwhelming, here’s one way you can make a real difference

BY MIKE L ARRIVEE • PHOTOGR APHS BY BR ANDON DILL

T

he Compost Fairy offers a variety of composting services for both residential and commercial customers. Sign up as a residential customer, and you’ ll soon have a “ little white bucket” delivered to your house, ready to start collecting your compostables. For commercial customers, Compost Fairy will work with you to customize a composting program to meet your needs.

Learn more at compostfairy.com.

On a recent stop at an apartment complex in north Midtown, a girl—maybe four years old, wearing Buddy Holly-style glasses and a ridiculously cute white frilly princess dress—cautiously approached me while I was swapping out the compost cart for her building. Holding tight to her momma’s hand, she tentatively asked, “Are you the Compost Fairy?”

“I sure am!” I replied. I asked her for her name, and she answered quickly. She was much more eager to get her next question in: “Why do they call you the Compost Fairy?”

“I’m kind of like the Tooth Fairy,” I told her. “Because, like her, I take something a lot of people might think is worthless, like a tooth, and turn it into money! Only, I take your banana peels and the leftover spaghetti and meatballs that stayed in the fridge too long and turn it into super plant food for your mom, so you guys can grow those pretty tomatoes.” I pointed to a small container garden tucked between parking spaces on their lot. We fairies had filled those containers with compost earlier this spring.

It now hosted a handsome crop of tomatoes, beans, peppers, and wildflowers of every color. The little girl looked at the garden, then looked at the cart full of food waste on my trailer, then back again. She screwed up her little face for a few heartbeats, and then I watched her realize what this all means.

I am building an army, one bucket at a time.

It’s tempting to throw up your hands and give in to a feeling of helplessness in today’s world. The globe is covered in burning rainforests, and polar bears are swimming across the open sea

where there used to be an ice cap. It all feels like a seemingly inevitable, planetary-scale dumpster fire. It’s easy to come to the conclusion that nothing you do can possibly make a difference.

But that line of thinking is partly responsible for the mess we’re in now. The truth is, everything we do makes a difference—everyday, small decisions. That little white compost bucket that you fill up and leave on your porch every week is all about personal empowerment that literally makes a global impact. Not only does it turn the dial back on climate change by reducing the truly staggering amount of carbon we’re putting into the atmosphere, but it’s a real chance to live your values.

Drive a Prius? That’s great! Putting some solar panels on your house? Even better! Buy your food from a local farmer? Now you’re really getting somewhere! The fact of the matter is that there are millions of opportunities that you can readily implement that will shrink the shoe size of our gigantic carbon footprints.

And, friends, I’m here to tell you—we’ve got lots of work to do.

But it would be hard to find an easier and more impactful place to start than composting.

We tend to think in terms of finished product when it comes to compost, and that is one of the big wins of a large-scale organics-management program. Composting provides mountains of the “black gold” that any farmer (or savvy gardener) worth her salt knows is key to building back our depleted topsoil, which is the formula to cranking out bushels of shiny tomatoes or massive heads of lettuce in the veggie patch.

But what happens on the other end of things? If one of those heads of lettuce happens to sit in the crisper a day or two too long and winds up taking a trip to my compost facility, it will be well on its way to unrecognizable in a few days, and more or less decomposed in two weeks. Then, on to creating that beautiful soil.

Now, here’s the starving polar bear or burning rainforest moment of this whole composting deal: If that lettuce, instead, ediblememphis.com 37

makes its way into the trash, it will sit in a landfill and slowly decompose over the next 25 years. That’s right—25 years. And here’s the really bad news: The entire time it’s rotting in that heavily compacted, oxygen-starved environment, it will be releasing methane, alongside the nearly 40 million pounds of food waste we send to landfills each year, just in the United States alone. That’s a literal (methane is a combustible gas) and figurative bomb. The data indicate that, as a greenhouse gas, methane is 84 times more impactful than the carbon emitted from the tailpipes of our cars, directly contributing to climate change.

Fact: Organics, including food waste, in landfills are the single highest-point source for methane production worldwide.

We do not throw things away. “Away” is a myth. There is no such place as “away,” friends. In Memphis, “away” is the South Shelby landfill on Malone Road, and it’s terrifying. Imagine if a trip to the open cell of the landfill were a part of the education curriculum in each community, so we could see what millions of tons a year of “away” looks like. Do you think more of us would choose to live our values?

Until Compost Fairy arrived on the scene, Memphis never

38 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

had a city-wide composting program. Composting may seem simple—and it is. But this is the kind of program that progressive ideas in other spaces tend to stick to, and that has the power to change the landscape of a city—to attract people, businesses, and industries that can amplify positive change for all of us.

For all of us Memphians, the Compost Fairy offers us the first opportunity in the history of ever to create that impact. One hundred percent of the food waste that goes in that little white bucket we set out at your house will be recycled. That’s four out of every 10 pounds of waste generated in a typical home that won’t be headed to the landfill just by composting alone. Same for the juice pulp, paleo waffles, and rib bones that go into the commercial compost carts at City Silo, Bedrock Market & Cafe, Central BBQ, or any of the many other restaurants in town that have continued to work with us despite the added challenges of Covid. (Respect!) Same for any compost container collected by a Compost Fairy anywhere in this city. With commodity recycling markets in upheaval worldwide—only nine percent of all the plastic ever created has been recycled—this is real agency. Here’s your chance.

We may not prevent a forest fire or put sea ice back under the paws of polar bears, but…maybe we will. One bucket at a time. •

ADD SOME

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Switzerland. Naturally.

Cheeses from Switzerland. ediblememphis.com 39 www.cheesesfromswitzerland.com

40 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

AT HOME

A COVID How a pandemic led me to the Urban Agriculture Academy

BY TAKEALL AH RIVER A PHOTOGR APHS BY MICHAEL BUTLER, JR. As 2020 began, I set a goal to consume healthier foods and to cook at home more often. As it turns out, I took that further than I ever imagined, earning a certification in gardening through Memphis Tilth’s Urban Agriculture Academy and beginning to grow my own foods. Here’s how it happened.

ediblememphis.com 41

When COVID-19 and the ensuing pandemonium struck, I, like many others, went into a tailspin of confusion, fear, and panic. I watched anxiety-inducing press conferences on every media outlet while scrambling to access resources, adjusting to wearing a mask, and stocking my home with vital materials. Food was the most difficult and stressful commodity to obtain and maintain.

(And toilet paper, but that’s another story). When I was laid off from work, I started working two new jobs in order to continue to provide for my son and me. As a result, I had less time to grocery shop and prepare healthy meals.

When I did have time to shop, I often left stores frazzled, frustrated, and practically empty-handed. Even when I utilized grocery delivery services, such as Shipt and Instacart, I struggled to find the in-stock, healthy foods that I craved. I often settled for fast food and carb-heavy foods, which took a toll on my health.

I eventually subscribed to Imperfect Foods and Misfits Market, where fresh produce is shipped to your home weekly. But, with nationwide shipping delays, the produce often arrived late and damaged, and, once again, many items were out of stock.

One afternoon, when I was flipping through family photo albums, I came across pictures of my grandfather, and a light bulb

42 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

came on—I could start a garden! As a child growing up in South Memphis, I often watched my grandfather garden. He lived in a small duplex on Bruce Street but had a backyard garden where he grew collard, mustard, and turnip greens. I helped him in this, but he passed away before I was old enough to truly understand the importance of growing food. Drawing from my childhood experiences with my grandfather and my year as an AmeriCorps food access coordinator at Rainier Valley Food Bank in Seattle, Washington, I decided to seek an urban gardening education.

I hoped to learn about the diverse history of farming, the importance of having access to fresh, organic foods, and the impact fresh foods have on overall health.

Some quick research led me to Memphis Tilth’s Urban Agriculture Academy, which offers a certificate in Urban and Community Farming. The five-week certification course aims to help people gain practical skills and expertise in urban farming and sustainable agriculture. Drawn to the program’s mission to improve quality of life through establishing local food systems, I completed the application and applied for a scholarship with my fingers crossed. About a week later, I was accepted into the program with a full scholarship.

The program was primarily remote, due to COVID-19, and included detailed assignments and discussion boards. But, as Shelby County’s reopening plan shifted into Phase Two, I attended in-person specialty classes. I learned about soil science, Southeastern vegetable crops, plant nutrition and fertility, and orchard fruits. We also studied food insecurity, food apartheid, food sovereignty, and racial injustice, which sparked fulfilling conversations amongst my classmates.

Community resources that I learned about have helped fill my own food insecurity gaps. During my first week of class, I discovered that Memphis Tilth has a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program called Bring It Food Hub, where fresh produce, meats, and breads are available for pickup weekly through an affordable subscription that also includes recipes. I also discovered Great Nile Food Co-op, a local, Blackowned CSA subscription that delivers for a small fee. Subscribing to both of these services altered my eating habits and made it much easier on the way to work to reach for fruit rather than a muffin or a bag of chips.

Since completing the program, I’ve started my own indoor and outdoor herb and vegetable gardens and hydroponic garden in order to have continuous access to healthy foods and educate my son on the history of Southern farming and the importance of Black farmers in the South.

I hope to use my newly acquired knowledge to educate and encourage youth to start their own gardens and to value local food sources. I’m looking forward to seeing more gardens pop up in the city! •

I CAME ACROSS PICTURES OF MY GRANDFATHER, AND A LIGHT BULB CAME ON—I COULD START A GARDEN!

ediblememphis.com 43

GUIDE

DINING GUIDE

BY BIANC A PHILLIPS • PHOTOGR APHS BY BIANC A PHILLIPS AND MADELEINE O' TOOLE MEMPHIS MAY HAVE A REPUTATION as home of the world’s best pulled-pork barbecue, but the Bluff City is also surprisingly vegan-friendly. From cauliflower hot wings and meat-free fried chicken to carrot hot dogs and—yes—vegan barbecue, Memphis menus are loaded with options free of meat, eggs, dairy, and other animal by-products. This list offers a sampling of favorites, but it’s by no means exhaustive. Before you visit these spots, check in for updates on their policies and hours in the ever-changing world of COVID-19.

Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant Who needs a fork when you can use bread as your food-to-mouth delivery system? At Abyssinia, spongy injera—the sour fermented Ethiopian flatbread—stands in for silverware. Tear off bits of bread to sop up the colorful kaleidoscope of vegan dishes offered on the Yetsome Beyaynetu Platter (aka Vegetarian Combo Platter). Spicy red lentil stew and yellow split pea stew are served alongside slow-simmered collards, stewed green beans and carrots, creamy potato salad, and earthy beet salad. When you get the combo to go, be sure to add a few extra pieces of injera to your order (each extra piece is $1) because they send you home with enough food to last for a couple days.

2600 Poplar Avenue, Suite 115

Bala’s Bistro African fare, such as kebabs, stews, and saka saka, meets American standbys, like cheesesteaks and burgers, on the menu at Bala’s Bistro. While this airport-area, mom-andpop storefront serves plenty of carnivorous options, they also offer a vegan menu with meatless spins on classic African and American dishes. There are vegan kimchi wraps and a chipotle veggie burger, as well as vegan fataya (vegetable hand pies). The hearty Vegetable Rout Curry Stew is loaded with root veggies (beets, sweet and white potatoes, carrots, and parsnips) simmered in a coconut curry base. All vegan items are served with your choice of rice (jasmine, jollof, or fried), plantains, or veggies of the day.

2160 East Raines Road

4 4 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

Brother Juniper’s

The Crazy Noodle

Brother Juniper’s may be best known for their fluffy pancakes, house-made artisan breads, and packed-to-thebrim waitlist, but they also offer a couple of vegan options that are worth the half-hour-or-so wait for a table. Fahim’s Special is back on the menu (after going off-menu for several years). This hearty tofu scramble is loaded with roasted red peppers and portabella mushroom slices, seasoned with a tangy balsamic blend, and served with Brother Juniper’s Memphis-famous crispy home fries and house-made artisan bread and jam. Or, if you’re in the mood for something on the fiery side, try the Spicy Tofu, a Southwestern-style scramble with black beans and jalapeños, served over home fries and topped with avocado spread.

3519 Walker Avenue

The Korean-style ramen bowls at The Crazy Noodle are like dressed-up versions of the packaged ramen of your college days. In the Vegetable Ramen Bowl, curly fried noodles are simmered in a rich veggie broth and flecked with tofu, cabbage, zucchini, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and Korean radish (vegans: order without the egg). Other noodle bowls can be ordered vegan-style as well—such as the Mandu Guk, a rich and spicy soup with chewy, flat Korean rice cakes and veggie-stuffed gyoza. If rice noodles are your preference, try the vegetarian version of their signature Crazy Noodle bowl with mushrooms, bean sprouts, and tofu.

2015 Madison Avenue

City Silo Table + Pantry On City Silo’s menu, vegetables and whole grains are the stars of the show. While City Silo isn’t entirely vegetarian, their menu leans more toward vegan than omnivore. Sure, you can get a chicken sandwich or Greek yogurt bowl, but most options are plant-based. For example, all three burgers on the menu—a bean burger, a beet burger, and a portabella burger—are made without meat. The hearty grain bowls are loaded with veggies and plant-based protein. Try the Buffalo Tempeh + Sesame Cauliflower Bowl—your choice of a quinoa and brown rice blend or zoodles, topped with roasted sesame cauliflower, spicy tempeh, roasted sweet potatoes, sweet corn, leafy kale, and cashew ranch. This is also available in wrap form if you’re on the go. Wash it down with kombucha (on draft!) or fresh-pressed juice. A second location is scheduled to open in late 2020 in Germantown.

5101 Sanderlin Avenue, Suite 104

The Doghouzz Beyond Meat brand brats are offered at The Doghouzz, a hot-dog bar across the street from Crosstown Concourse.

Beyond Meat products were some of the first plant “meats” to revolutionize the vegan meat market, and their thick and juicy bratwurst could fool even the most diehard carnivore. Build your own dog with toppings that range from barbecue sauce and caramelized onions to pickle chips and avocado. Or order a vegan brat Chicago-style with sweet peppers, mustard, tomato, onion, celery salt, and a pickle spear. The Doghouzz's beloved braised carrot dog is no longer on the regular menu, but it is offered as an occasional special. Vegetarian sides include chips, Asian slaw, and Doghouzz owner Steve Murphy’s special-recipe, slow-simmered pinto beans (always a winner!).

1349 Autumn Avenue

ediblememphis.com 45

Evelyn & Olive This Midtown Jamaican restaurant is vegan-famous for its black bean tacos—two crispy-shell tacos stuffed with a mixture of seasoned black beans and pan-fried tofu and topped with kiwi salsa. It’s served with fluffy Jamaican rice and peas and a cooling, fresh cucumber-tomato salad.

The Conscious Potato Chickpea Curry, a hearty coconut curry stew served with coconut rice, can’t be beat either. All menu items at Evelyn & Olive should be properly washed down with a tall glass of Jamaican rum punch, a powerful cocktail that features several kinds of rum and fruit juices.

One (OK, maybe two) is all you’ll need.

630 Madison Avenue

Global Café Global Café is both a restaurant and a social enterprise, providing immigrants and refugees with space to sell the dishes of their home countries without the hassle of running a business on their own. There are three countries represented—Syria, Sudan, and Venezuela—and all offer vegan options. Black bean and pico-stuffed vegan arepas are offered alongside hearty rice and bean platters with fried plantains at the Venezuelan stall. Or try the crisp, cookedto-order falafel and creamy hummus from Sudan. At the Syrian stall, the generously stuffed dolmas (rice-stuffed grape leaves) make a perfect accompaniment to an order of tabbouleh and baba ganoush with pita.

1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 157

Imagine Vegan Cafe Order whatever you want from the menu at Imagine Vegan Cafe! Every dish is prepared without meat, eggs, dairy, or animal by-products. This family-run restaurant proudly specializes in vegan junk food, making it the ideal spot to treat yourself to vegan fried chicken drumsticks; meat-free, “Big Mac”-style burgers (with double patties and special sauce); deep-fried, dairy-free mozzarella sticks; or sweet and savory vegan chicken and waffles generously topped with vegan butter and maple syrup. In true Memphis fashion, there’s a messy barbecue sandwich piled high with seitan “meat” and creamy coleslaw, served with baked beans and seasoned fries. Save room for dessert, as no meal at Imagine is complete without a giant slice of three-layer cake with buttercream or a slice of rich, Biscoff-topped, dairy-free cheesecake.

2158 Young Avenue

46 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

The Liquor Store This Instagram-ready cocktail bar is housed inside an old liquor store on Broad Avenue, hence the name. The old neon liquor store sign still beckons patrons inside, but the interior boasts a modern diner vibe. Plant-based options abound here, and many meaty dishes on the menu can easily be veganized. When you order the veggie burger, you’ll get a Before the Butcher plant-based patty pressed thin and fried on a griddle and served with shoestring fries.

But that same patty and vegan cheese can be subbed on the Liquor Store’s patty melt. There’s a house-made vegan chorizo, which can be added to the street tacos or to the meat-free Cuban Platter of black beans, plantains, and rice.

2655 Broad Avenue

LuLu’s This all-vegan bakery co-op inside Puck Food Hall specializes in sourdough and sources as many ingredients as possible from local farmers. Their beloved sourdough starter is used to create fluffy sandwich buns, hearty country loaves, chewy bagels, and more. They’re only open for breakfast now (but lunch options are coming soon!), so stop in some morning to try the Brekky Sandwich with tofu egg, creamy cashew cheese, and smoky beet-carrot bacon (made with locally sourced root veggies) served in the aforementioned buns. In the mood for something sweeter? The moist-yet-crumbly cinnamon coffee cake is perfect alongside a mug of Dr. Bean’s coffee (also located inside Puck Food Hall).

409 South Main Street

Pho Binh Pho Binh may be best known for its Midtown-famous lunch buffet, where, in pre-pandemic times, you could load your plate with as much crispy fried tofu as your heart (or stomach) desired for less than $10. But, with COVID-19 still raging, this beloved, family-owned Vietamese restaurant is open only for takeout. No worries—Pho Binh’s dry-fried, tangy Lemongrass Tofu is on the carryout menu, and, when you order to go, they send you home with enough tofu for several meals. Buffet lovers who are looking to try something new should check out the Vermicelli Tofu—the perfect mix of hot and cold with warm, dry-fried tofu and cool rice noodles (vegans, request to substitute peanut sauce for fish sauce).

1615 Madison Avenue

ediblememphis.com 47

RP Tracks RP Tracks claims their BBQ Tofu Nachos are world-famous, and, while that cannot be verified, we’re certain they’re Memphis-famous. Crispy, saucy tofu chunks, black beans, tomatoes, lettuce, and salsa top seasoned cantina-style tortilla chips in a massive dish large enough to feed two adults. Pro tip: If dining alone, ask for the chips on the side so your leftovers don’t get soggy. Those famous nachos aren’t the only vegan option at Tracks. Diners can opt for a Beyond Burger with all the fixings or a Beyond Sausage topped with black bean chili. Every meal at Tracks should begin with the Buffalo Tofu Wings starter, served with Imagine Vegan Cafe’s house-made ranch dressing.

3547 Walker Avenue

Pizzeria Trasimeno Pizzeria Trasimeno in Crosstown Concourse specializes in authentic Neapolitan pizza, made with simple, fresh ingredients and baked at high temperatures in two wood-fired ovens imported from Naples, Italy. They don’t carry vegan cheese, but the vegan Pizza del Giardino shines without it. This loaded pie is topped with a garden of veggies— arugula, asparagus, artichokes, tomatoes, red onions, mushrooms, kalamata olives, fresh spicy pepper blend, roasted garlic, capers, and a balsamic reduction. Pizzeria Trasimeno is currently open for carryout or delivery only, but you may enjoy your carryout pizza on their patio (if you do, order a refreshing aperol spritz from the bar) or inside the Crosstown atrium. Ordering-in tip: Get the pizza delivered, and make your own seasoned olive oil for crust dipping.

1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 181

Raw Girls If you’re looking to reset your diet and get back on track with healthy habits, the Raw Girls have you covered. Their whole-food, plant-based food trucks offer a daily menu of both raw and cooked vegan meals. The organic Taco Salad with tomato salsa, homemade guacamole, and spicy walnut meat over a bed of mixed greens is a best-seller, and the Hummus Toast (served with sprouted hummus and raw sun-dried tomato bread) is an uber-healthy spin on a classic. All entrees are best followed by an order of the guilt-free Raw Oatmeal Cookies, made with oats and coconut oil.

The Raw Girls also offer medicinal mushroom broth, hot soups, and cold-pressed juices. Be on the lookout for a Raw Girls brick-and-mortar location—coming soon downtown.

242 South Cooper Street 5502 Poplar Avenue 48 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

Slider Inn As the name would suggest, Slider Inn specializes in tiny sandwiches, several of which are vegan (or easily ordered vegan). The Vegan Triple B is Slider’s take on the classic veggie burger with a patty made from black beans, beets, and brown rice (topped with avocado and sprouts). There’s also a falafel burger with house-made chickpea patties and black bean hummus (vegans, ask them to leave off the yogurt sauce). Or go old-school with the Nuts & Berries, featuring good old-fashioned peanut butter and strawberry jam. The real vegan star at Slider Inn, however, is the vegan wings — a combination of fried tofu and fried cauliflower, tossed in buffalo sauce and served with house-made vegan ranch. All items should be properly washed down with a frosty Jameson Slushie.

2117 Peabody Avenue, 363 Mulberry Street

Stick ’Em The former Blue Nile Ethiopian Kitchen is now the brickand-mortar location for the popular Stick ’Em food truck.

Blue Nile/Stick ’Em owner Ermyias Shiberou merged his two restaurant concepts under the Stick ’Em name to streamline his business, so now you can find a selection of kabobs and Ethiopian favorites in one place. The Tofu Skewers are made with generous chunks of chewy fried tofu that may just be the best tofu in town. Those are served with your choice of fries, grilled veggies, or salad (or any combination of the three). Stick ’Em no longer serves the spongy injera bread that’s ubiquitous with Ethiopian fare, but the Tofu Tibs (a vegan spin on Ethiopian beef tibs) are still on the menu, as is the Veggie Platter with red lentil stew, collards, and cabbage (now served with rice in place of injera).

1788 Madison Avenue •

Love in Your Mouth Cane Rum, Lime, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Grenadine, Egg White

Try this cocktail and more at Pontotoc Lounge.

314 S Main St., Memphis, TN 38103

ediblememphis.com 49

ROAD THER APY

FORAGING AND FARMING FOR A TRULY LOCAL BEER An interview with Marika Josephson of Scratch Brewing Company

BY STACE Y GREENBERG PHOTOGR APHS BY RICHARD L AWRENCE

50 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

S

cratch Brewing Company is a farmhouse brewery in southern Illinois. It’s about five miles from the Shawnee National Forest and about a three-hour drive from Memphis. At Scratch, they take their name seriously—making beer from things they grow or forage; baking their own sourdough bread, pretzels, and pizza dough; growing many of their pizza toppings; and even raising the goats that provide their cheese. It’s a beautiful place to drink beer and enjoy a meal—not to mention it's by far the most interesting beer I’ve ever tried. Dry-hopped pawpaw, anyone? Basil ale? Fig leaf black ale? They even have an entire line of mushroom beers.

Visiting the brewery was my last road trip prior to COVID-19, and I had a chance to interview co-owner and head brewer Marika Josephson to find out how she got into brewing and what inspired her to start the Scratch Brewing Company.

Edible Memphis: Where are you from?

Marika Josephson: I grew up in San Diego, although I haven't lived there since I was 18. I moved to southern Illinois about 11 years ago. [Co-owner] Aaron Kleidon is from southern Illinois, and the brewery is on a portion of his family's land in Ava. He moved away for several years but moved back right when I moved to the area, and we met through the homebrewing community.

What’s it like being a female brewer in the industry?

Despite the growth and new competition in the industry, the craft beer community is still an incredibly warm and welcoming one. Women brewers are definitely the minority, but you can find women in many other aspects of the brewery and the business. I think women do have to work harder to be seen in the industry. Most people default to beards when they ask questions and make assumptions about the brewers. But we need more women who love beer to be part of the community to change people's perceptions.

Describe the relationship between you, Aaron, and the farmers.

Aaron was doing all of our gardening and farming when we first opened. After a couple of years, when the business had expanded, he just didn't have the time to do it anymore.

Luckily, it was right then that Kris [Pirmann] and Adriane [Koontz] fell into our lives. They were just finishing a sabbatical managing Henry's Farm up north and were moving back down south and ready for a change. They really expanded what we were growing here and have helped process thousands of pounds of produce over the years. They've become an indispensable part of our brewery.

What’s your background?

I have a BA in English and a PhD in philosophy. Aaron has a BA in photography. We both have a liberal arts background but a passion for beer. We've also both been fortunate to travel a lot.

Aaron always says that a little bit of all of the places we've been has ended up in our brewery. I studied abroad in Italy in college and am fluent in Italian. Our pizza oven was partly an homage to some of the great pizza I had there. Aaron studied in Austria and traveled a lot while working for an airline in Aspen. We wanted the brewery to be a place that conveyed the special aspects of this region, much as we experienced while traveling in other parts of the world.

What are the benefits and challenges of brewing beer from only the things you grow or forage?

Limiting ourselves to ingredients we can find in this area has challenged us to look at plants in a different way. It's obvious to look at a strawberry plant and see the fruit and harvest the berries.

It's less obvious, however, to think about the leaves, or even the green tops. It's less obvious to look at a rose bush and think about how to use the roots for brewing or to see a maple tree and think about using the bark. But that's what we've trained ourselves to do when we see plants—we see the whole plant. We wonder how flavors change throughout the seasons. We look out our window and see what's available in the winter and wonder how we can utilize a plant best during that time of year.

How/when did you start brewing beer? How did you get the idea for the Scratch brewery?

I started brewing beer when I moved here. I finally had the time and space to be able to do it. Aaron had been brewing since he lived in Colorado. We were both experimenting with brewing beer that utilized ingredients that were growing in southern Illinois, whether they were wild or farmed. As we started brewing together and deciding on our location, we realized that those were the beers we wanted to produce commercially, and we wanted to make them the heart of our business.

What are some of your favorite beers you’ve brewed?

One of my favorites is our Chanterelle Biere de Garde. It was the first beer we put into bottles and a beer we make every year if the chanterelle mushroom harvest is large enough. I love the base style—it's a malty, French-style farmhouse ale that ferments at lager temperatures so it's crisp and has a cellared character that we enhanced with mushrooms. But chanterelles also have a distinctive buttery, apricot flavor, and they come through beautifully in that beer. The beer smells like a basket of freshly harvested chanterelles picked in the summer.

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Do you see a lot of tourists in the brewery, or mostly locals?

We get a good mix of local and travelers—more travelers as our beer has become more well-known outside of our area. We love the mix of people you may find drinking here at any given time—farmers, hunters, students from the university, travelers from all over the country and even the world. Some amazing conversations are had out here.

What is the southern Illinois beer scene like, and how do you fit in or stand out?

We have a slowly growing beer community. Our region is fairly large; it's often considered to be the line from about I-64, south, so that encompasses East St. Louis all the way down to Cairo and as far east as Shawneetown and the border of Indiana and Kentucky. In that vast swath of country, a number of breweries have opened in the last five years. Down near us, within about an hour's drive, there are around five breweries, and everyone is making different beer, so you will certainly have a different experience anywhere you go. We're the only brewery focused specifically on local ingredients.

When is a good time to visit?

We're open year-round, and our beer list is constantly changing, so you will have interesting and unique beer any time you visit. To really enjoy our outdoor space and beer garden [which is the only space open now], the spring and fall are a beautiful time to be here. •

52 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

SCR ATCHBEER.COM OPEN FRIDAY-SUNDAY OUTDOOR SERVICE ONLY

WEIRD MEMPHIS

DIP FOUNTAIN Quarantining with our very own Memphis-style waterfall

BY JULIA MCCLOY • ILLUSTR ATIONS BY JIM STEFFAN

Q

uarantining has left us a lot of time to be alone with our thoughts. To think of who we are and who we want to be.

To become better people. To tackle the things our current therapist recommends we tackle and to tackle the things that our last therapist said to tackle. And, since we’re months in, why not try to tackle the things our very first therapist recommended.

Sure.

Alternatively, we could spend hours trying to determine the best way to eat Memphis-style cheese dip. (Something, surprisingly, none of our therapists ever spoke to us about.)

We recommend the latter.

During these “unprecedented times,” we also recommend disregarding all of TLC’s sound advice—“don’t go chasing

54 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

waterfalls”—and bring the closest thing to a waterfall you can into your house. And then fill it with Memphis-style cheese dip.

And eat that cheese dip.

The waterfall we chased: a chocolate fountain from Bed Bath & Beyond. Presumably part of the “beyond” section of the store.

Although I could see how a chocolate fountain might fit snugly into a certain bathroom theme.

The Memphis-style cheese dip we chose: Tom’s Tiny Kitchen.

It is a new favorite because of how good it is. And because the package doesn’t have an offensive picture of a Mexican on it. Not even on the bottom. I looked.

The three-tiered, chocolate-turned-cheese fountain came in the mail, and we eagerly tested it out. We started by using only

two tubs of Tom’s to fill it. With two people and four dogs, we assumed that was more than enough cheese dip. And we assumed that you shouldn’t let the same cheese dip run for weeks. You shouldn’t just let it run and take little bites as you come in from the yard every evening. Or stick your finger in the stream on the way to do laundry. Or put your morning coffee mug under it to add a little “cream” to your daily caffeine boost.

Because the cheese dip would go bad. Perhaps really bad. And that would outweigh the benefits of easy access to cheese coffee.

Two tubs may be enough for two adults and four dogs (who were waiting patiently for the whole damn fountain to explode and for it to rain cheese dip). But it was not enough for the fountain. Or, rather, the fountain turned two tubs of cheese dip into a frothy, air-bubble-filled mess. Similar to the consistency of a McDonald’s milkshake that is forgotten in a hot car.

If you have ever returned to a car-warmed McDonald’s milkshake, you know that you immediately questioned the four states of matter (is there a fifth?) and threw it the hell out. With the chocolate cheese fountain, we just added another tub of Tom’s, and it was fine. But it was a ton of cheese dip.

That we ostensibly needed to eat in the next few hours.

The dogs were up to the challenge. And they showed us by circling the fountain like sharks.

Generating a tornado in our kitchen like kids swimming all in the same direction in a pool trying to make a backyard hurricane. Or some kind of natural disaster.

In our home, the palpable feeling of oncoming disaster is what we call ambiance. It was time to eat the cheese dip.

Did the cheese dip taste better out of the fountain? No. Did it taste worse? No. Did it taste the same? I can’t be certain. I’m not a cheese scientist.

But I can tell you it was messier. There was a lot of finger licking. And paw licking.

(Fingers by people and dogs. Paws just by dogs.)

And, reader, it was loud. Very loud.

Which is something I didn’t know to ask about or research. Rookie mistake, perhaps. Although Bed Bath & Beyond had ample time to warn me on the hundreds of coupon mailers they have sent me each week since I was born. But they didn’t. So I think it is a little my fault and mostly Bed Bath & Beyond’s fault. Specifically the “beyond”

section of their enterprise.

My suggestion to Bed Bath & Beyond: Stick to the beds and baths and leave the beyonds to scientists and astronauts. People who can dedicate years and years of their lives to important noble, scientific pursuits, like making cheese fountain motors quiet.

As I said, we ordered a loud fountain. It made an unpleasant sound. Somewhere between a groan and a grind.

In our home, a constant groan isn’t what we call ambiance.

The groaning and the oozing ounces of cheese dip were a lot of pressure. We couldn’t eat all of it. And, due to the pandemic, we were alone to try.

It became a metaphor for our situation: working a lot, going nowhere, and being wasted.

And we’d also like to remind you that the fountain was groaning.

But sticking chips in and out of a waterfall of cheese was way easier than working through those therapy issues, so there’s that. And so I would recommend it if you are bored and lonely and hungry and there is a global pandemic.

Even if it was a fool’s errand—because everyone knows that the best way to eat Memphis-style cheese dip, to really enjoy the pornographic jiggle of cold cheese in somewhat liquid form, is to eat it with a spoon directly from the container. At 2 a.m. Draped in refrigerator light. Half-drunk with one sock on.

ediblememphis.com 55

GET SOCIAL

Insights from our Instagram page PHOTOGR APH BY MADELEINE O’ TOOLE

Activist KEEDRAN FRANKLIN has combined his love of community and coffee with The Check-In, a coffee truck that can primarily be found at 1798 Winchester Road but also pops up around town. The house brew is Guji Mane, and Keedran's specialty drink is the Candy Corn, which has a subtle sweetness. Drink prices at The Check-In top out at $4.25. If you're hungry, try one of the weekday lunch specials offered by Cold Cuts at the Court. The Check-In has plans to offer breakfast and dinner in the future.

Keedran is raising funds to launch a brick-and-mortar location in Whitehaven. The idea is to provide living-wage jobs to hard-to-employ youth and to offer a gathering space for working-class Memphians, community activists, senior citizens, people of color, and disenfranchised youth.

Follow The Check-In on Instagram @thecheckinmem to see how they're growing.

OPEN DAILY

6:30a to 2p

56 edible MEMPHIS • FALL 2020

MOSA ASIAN BISTRO

FARM AND FIG CATERING

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.

Farm and Fig offers take-and-bake meals, fresh breads, and event catering. We build on recipes nurtured by time by using old-school, family recipes and adding creative, new-school twists to them. Our recipes do not discard tradition, but relish it and add pieces of our journeys.

mosaasianbistro.com 901.683.8889 850 South White Station Road

MEMPHIS FARMERS MARKET The Memphis Farmers Market is a weekly, nonprofit, outdoor marketplace featuring local farmers and artisans. The market showcases locally sourced produce and food items, as well as locally produced kitchen and garden arts and crafts from the Mid-South region. The market strives to educate the community about eating local, nutrition, and food choices. Enjoy live music and weekly themed events and fun programs.

farmandfigcatering.com 901.483.8282 800 South Cooper Street

edible

MEMPHIS

MARKET PL ACE

SOUTH MEMPHIS FARMERS MARKET The South Memphis Farmers Market, an initiative of The Works, Inc., has been a food oasis in South Memphis for over a decade, offering fresh produce, staple foods, and free, nutrition-based cooking classes. Visit the outdoor farmers market this summer, open Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. somefm.org 901.505.0221 1400 Mississippi Boulevard

CHARLIE VERGOS RENDEZVOUS The Rendezvous now has outdoor alley seating and delicious desserts and is taking reservations for parties of any size. Come downtown and dine with us. Open for curbside, to go, and dine in (indoor or outdoor). Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

memphisfarmersmarket.com 866.348.2226 South Front Street and West GE Patterson

These locally owned businesses and Memphismade products make our city a better, tastier place.

THISTLE & BEE

BALA'S BISTRO

WAFFLE CREAM

Thistle & Bee’s social-justice enterprise is a nonprofit business that’s part of a two-year residential program for women. It starts with women making products and learning to care for bees. The choice of bees and honey as the center of our business model is no accident.

Every bee in the hive has a place and a purpose, working together for the good of the whole.

Bala’s Bistro is a traditional African restaurant known for its wonderful ambiance and wide variety of delicious and diverse cuisine. Our mission is to delight our guests with flavorful cuisines from around the world. We specialize in African and American cuisines, serving the very best of both worlds to our customers. No matter what you are craving, be assured you can find something to enjoy on our diverse menu!

Waffle Cream is a unique dessert shop that serves flavored waffle ice cream sandwiches and other special treats. You can also come here to get an apple pie-stuffed waffle or even a waffle stuffed with barbecue brisket and baked beans! Oh, and let us not forget our Nice Creams—milkshakes packed with donuts, honeybuns, and more!

thistleandbee.org 901.410.1418 P.O. Box 111607

balasbistro.com 901.509.3024 2160 East Raines Road

hogsfly.com 901.523.2746 52 South Second Street

ilovewafflecream.com 901.590.2550 999 South Cooper Street, Suite 103

ediblememphis.com 57

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