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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
W
inter in the south has such a vast array of temperatures. We could be shoveling snow in Kentucky or laying on the beach in Florida. At my home in Alabama, there could be frost on the roof in the morning but 80 degrees by 3 p.m. The key in the south is to dress in layers. In this issue, we wanted to tell you about my grandmother, Janie Greene. Growing up, she taught me how to be a lady but also to enjoy the beauty of nature. She encouraged me to always be ready for an adventure and coached me on how to look stylish while going on the adventure. She taught me how to throw dinner parties but also how to take pictures. Janie loved writing and photography. She published four books. I visited her today and she grabbed my hand and didn’t want to let go. I didn’t want to let go either. When I was younger, I took her talent for granted. Now, I think back to the time that she bought me my first camera and took me on a trip to Africa where she taught me how to use it. Great memories. We will explore the world of our Scottish heritage and even learn a few recipes that some friends from Scotland have shared. If you can’t tell, I love a good hat! And I was so excited to learn all about ML Provisions in Mississippi. I think it is such a cool concept that she makes a hat for you and you get to bring items that are meaningful and personal to you to put on the hat. That is talent! Growing up, I knew that burning was necessary to the farm and hunting
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Publisher: Katie Waldrep Content Editors: Leslie Anne Jones & Joan McLendon Budd Layout & Design: Denise DuBois Advertising Sales Manager: Meagan Thorne Advertising Sales: Darlene Spears & Taylor White Graphic Designer: Brad Beasley Contributing Writers Katie Waldrep Katharyn Privett-Duren Mary Dansak Marian Carcache Kristina Bain Hendrix Thomas Jackson Joan McLendon Budd Leslie Anne Jones Denise DuBois
On the Cover ML Provisions Custom Hats. Gabby Thorton Photography Winter 2023 • Volume 2, Number 1 Magnolia and Moonshine is a product of Magnolia Greene, Inc. in Seale, Alabama
land around me. But in this issue Aidan Cornelison explains why this is necessary for the land. And how cool is it that she is a woman! Growing up in Alabama and Georgia, I always heard of Mardi Gras in Mobile and New Orleans, but a few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Tampa during Gasparilla. Wow! That was some party! We tell the story of what Gasparilla is, and if you ever get a chance to go, I would definitely recommend it. Thanks for coming along on this journey with us. We hope to keep spreading adventures, traditions, and memories. Katie Waldrep Publisher Magnolia and Moonshine MagnoliaandMoonshine.com
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MAGNOLIA & MOONSHINE FALL 2022
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Gesus Palomino candied jalapeños can be used in so many different ways in the kitchen or in the bar. From marinating, appetizers, main dishes, cocktails...the list goes on and on!
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10 Janie M. Greene, A Love of Photography
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Katie’s Picks Fireside Dining ML Provisions: Creating Exquisite Custom Hats Phylicia Hooper: Giving Advice and Sharing God through Humor on Social Media
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Digital Dos and Please-Do-Nots Robert Burns Night: A Traditional Scottish Celebration Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival Gasparilla: Like Marriage of Mardi Gras and New Orleans, It’s a State of Mind
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Brooks and Collier: Four Generations of Inspiring Products Burning the Land Jeptha Creed: Mother-Daughter Duo use Bloody Butcher Corn to Create Unique Flavors Matter of Time Mama Said: Time, Slow Down
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62 Chip North, Kentucky Architect
86 Jeptha Creed 42 Robert Burns Night 51 Farrier & Artist
28 ML Provisions, Custom Hats
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Mee t the Writers Jennifer Stewart Kornegay
Mary Dansak
Marian Carcache
Freelance writer Jennifer Stewart Kornegay lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and writes about a variety of lifestyle topics for national and regional publications (including Garden & Gun, Southern Living, The Bitter Southerner, The Local Palate, Conde Nast Traveler, Modern Farmer, Food & Wine, okra, Good Grit and more), but she’s happiest telling stories that highlight the ways we’re all connected.
Mary Dansak is a tree-hugging, dog-loving writer living in Auburn, Alabama where she has spent most of her life, save a seven-year stint in Boston where she finished college, began her career in education, and met and married her husband Joe. Now a retired science education specialist, Mary writes a weekly column, “From the Green Notebook,” which can be found in the newspaper The Auburn Villager. Her stories and essays appear in a variety of anthologies and literary publications. Mary is a member in good standing of the Mystic Order of East Alabama Fiction Writers, a group of six wild women who write, read, podcast, and find beauty in the details. Mary and Joe have three adult daughters, a son-in-law, two wildly entertaining granddaughters, and three funny little dogs. Mary welcomes feedback and can be reached at maryfdansak@gmail.com.
Marian Carcache grew up in rural Russell County, Alabama, but has lived in Auburn for most of her life. Retired from Auburn University, she teaches American and Global Literature and Creative Writing at Southern New Hampshire online. Her stories have appeared in various literary journals and anthologies, and Under the Arbor, the opera based on her short story and for which she wrote the libretto, appeared on PBS stations nationwide. Her collection of short stories, The Moon and the Stars, and her novella, The Tongues of Men and Angels, both published by Soloman and George Publishers, are available on Amazon. She has one son, John David, and several four-legged children.
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Katharyn Privett-Duren
Kristina Bain Hendrix
Tom Jackson
Katharyn Privett-Duren is an English professor and writer of Creative Nonfiction. She and her husband founded Little Halawakee Farm in rural Alabama, a micro farm that focuses on sustainability and organic practices. She is also a proud grandma, her most beloved role of all.
Kristina Bain Hendrix, a Georgia native, graduated from Auburn University with a Bachelor’s in English Literature. Her lifelong love for design and art led her to study for a graduate degree within a new interior design graduate program Auburn had launched in 1999. She was the first graduate student in the program, and she hopes she didn’t ruin it for everybody. She is married and lives outside of Athens, Georgia with her husband and Smokey, a difficult and irascible cat.
Tom Jackson scored dozens of state and national awards while performing for newspapers in Washington, D.C., Sacramento, California, and Tampa, Florida. A University of Florida alumnus, Tom splits time between Tampa and Cashiers, North Carolina, with his wife of 40+ years, college-age son, and Spencer, a yappy Shetland sheepdog.
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Katie’s Winter AGGSKAL Heated Vest,USB Charging Lightweight Heated Jacket with Battery Pack Included, Heating Clothing for Men Women
I am a very cold natured person so anything that can keep me warm is a winner in my book. This rechargeable heated vest is perfect to put on for an extra layer when the temperature dips down. Buy it at: a.co/d/6U0tKwH
Veil Spark Half-Zip - Shop Modest Activewear and Apparel
Even in the cold months, I still love to take a walk outside. The half zip top is so comfy. I can wear it for a workout or wear it to the grocery store. And I love the length of the top! It covers in all the right places. Buy it: www.veilgarments. com/products/spark
Ladies Low top Snake Boot King Ranch® Edition - Lucchese
Signature Soup Pot | Le Creuset® Official Site Any kind of homemade soup is my favorite dinner on a cold winter night. Le Creuset makes a fabulous soup pot that I love to use. Buy it: www.lecreuset. com/signature-soup-pot/ LS2514.html
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These fashionable boots are perfect for quail hunting. The brandy color and the detailed stitching are beautiful to look at but they will also keep me safe from no-shoulders when the temperatures start to warm up. Buy it: lucchese.com/products/ ladies-low-top-snake-boot-kingranch-edition
ROOBZE™ | Dog Drying Coat – Roobze For those of you that know me, you know that I love my animals! So, when I saw roobze, I had to try it out immediately. They are the perfect dog robe for my precious pups when they get out of the bath. They dry my dogs quickly and my fluffy friends don’t seem to mind having the roobze on. Buy it: roobze.com/products/drying-coat
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Picks TheraICE Hot & Cold Therapy Head Cap The Thera ice cap is a wonderful new product that can be used cold or hot to help ease headaches caused from stress to migraines . I have only tried it as a cold head wrap, and it truly helps relieve a headache. The wrap fits right around my head and blocks out any light. Give it a try! Buy it: www.theraicerx.com
LAKE | Women | Pima Cotton Pajamas | Hydrangea Pima Long-Long Set My sister introduced me to Lake Pajamas, and I have loved them for several years now. They make a lot of styles of the comfortable pajamas, but long sleeve/long pants are my favorite weight and length for winter. The pima cotton is very soft and helps me sleep at night! Buy it: lakepajamas.com/products/ hydrangea-long-long-set
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Magic TPR Suede Brush Shoe Cleaning Brush I hate it when my Uggs get dirty and this magic suede brush helps clean them. I simply brushed it along my boots, and they look almost new again. Buy it: a.co/d/04gdF6w
The Phoenix Starter Kit – PureWine The Phoenix pure wine filter seems like it helps with a wine headache. I am very sensitive to red wines and this product claims that it removes histamines and sulfites. These are the things that cause headaches, stuffy nose, and skin flushing. Buy it: drinkpurewine.com/ products/the-phoenix-starterkit-1
Mini Lolita Sequin Hooped Earrings Gold | Mignonne Gavigan The mini Lolita Hoop earrings are the perfect accent to any outfit. I love a traditional gold hoop but this adds a little more jazz without being over the top. Buy it: mignonnegavigan. com/products/mini-lolitahoops-gold Winter 2023 | 9
“I WOULD RECALL IN MY HEART AND MIND THIS BEAUTIFUL SCENE OF DANCING GOLDEN LIGHT” Story by Marian Carcache In the first chapter of Janie Moore Greene’s first book of photographs and reflections, Dancing Feathers, she mentions that “the fragrance of gardenias from the vase beside [her] desk fills the room” as she admires the “plate-sized white magnolia blossoms nestled in the green leaves of the century-old trees” outside her window. Whenever I think of Janie, I think of gardenias. Several times over the years, I’ve written her a note to announce and celebrate the first gardenia bloom in my own yard, remembering a party she hosted when I was still a child, a memory of hundreds of gardenia blooms she decorated with, and their intoxicating scent that filled the night air in Jernigan that evening. Janie is a Renaissance woman. In addition to being a writer, photographer, and naturalist, for much of her life she grew roses, hosted elegant parties, traveled the world, and brought joy in various ways to her friends and family. She also came to an understanding about life: that most of us are “afraid of stillness and quiet,” that “becoming one with a flower, a
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leaf, a bird, a butterfly” gives way to beauty and truth, “to a symphony being played upon the inner regions of [the] soul.” Born in Pineview, Georgia, she moved to Columbus when she was nine years old and lived there until she married Roy Greene, who practiced law in Phenix City, Alabama. It was my good fortune to meet the Greenes, and their children, when they moved to Jernigan to renovate “the Craig place,” the antebellum house that became their home in the late 1950s, when I was around five years old. When that house was destroyed by fire in the late 1960s, the family moved a few miles away to the historic Greek Revival BassPerry house in Seale. Although a devoted wife and mother of four, Janie broke the mold and expanded the role of what young women might aspire to in the time and place she inhabited. In addition to being a wife and mother, she also wanted to write, to take photographs, to raise sheep. One of my favorite stories from Dancing Feathers describes how, after returning from a photography trip to a Florida rookery to capture pictures of egrets and herons, she learned from now-famous artist, Butch Anthony, a young boy at the time, that those same birds visited an old pond right there
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in Seale every year. When the time came for the birds to arrive in Seale, Janie, Butch, and Betty and Junior, a couple who worked on the Greene farm, packed up the camera equipment and waded through slippery swamp and tangled vines to view the beauty. Janie ends Dancing Feathers with a piece of wisdom she gained from that outing: “One need not travel to distant places to find beauty. It is at our fingertips. The “dancing feathers” are right before our eyes.” In her second collection of photos and reflections, Dancing Petals, Janie shifts her focus from the birds in the sky to the wildflowers beneath our feet. Still, as with the birds, she grounds herself in the natural world, in the simplicity of the miraculous ordinary, the humble wildflowers we take for granted and walk among daily. Like Thoreau, Janie realizes that “Heaven lies under our feet, as well as over our heads.” There is more focus in this volume on personal experiences she treasures, starting with her childhood in Georgia and extending through her later years, as wife, mother, and grandmother. Among the “bouquets of memory” she shares in Dancing Petals is an early recollection that took place on an April day in 1938, during the Depression, under a 100-year-old Magnolia tree when she was a six-year-old. Her mother is telling her and her friends where to find violets and Easter lilies, teaching her daughter to “delight in simple things,” a lesson the artist has always held dear. In another chapter, Janie relates a dream she had while down in Florida on what she thought had been a disappointing trip. In the dream, she is picking up beautiful diamond and emerald jewelry from the sand. Within the hour after awakening from the dream, while photographing lilies that still had the morning dew clinging to them, she realized that the trip had not been that bad after all, and that the wildflowers she had captured on film in the early morning light were, indeed, “exquisite jewels from the earth … treasure waiting to be discovered.” Dancing Petals concludes with a plea to end clear-cutting the forests:
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“The forests are not wildflowers,” Janie argues, “but they set the stage for many wildflowers to grow. … We should and could get back to the land,” she continues, “grab a handful of earth … and return to our blessed, sacred earth.” Journey Into Africa (2001), Janie’s third book interweaves stories of a safari she, her daughter, Lynne, and her granddaughters went on to Africa with memories of an earlier trip there with her husband years before. Her photographs capture exquisite birds and animals – including elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, hyenas, jackals, and lions – living their beautiful lives in the wild. And her words share lessons she learned there about the sacredness of all life. Janie told me once that when she was young she had a recurring dream of being in a wooded area, walking among “big cats.” That story thrilled and enchanted me, and it never left my mind as she related memories of actually being among lions, cougars, cheetahs, and caracals. In one of her many passages that describe Africa as “holding her enchantment and focused fascination,” she writes, “The wind began to wail through the tall trees, sounding like our winter winds at home, and I hoped that every time I heard those wailing winds again in Alabama, I would recall in my heart and mind this beautiful scene of dancing golden light … I knew I had lived in one of my heart’s most magical moments.” Janie opens her last book of photographs, Dancing Wings (2010), with a memory from her childhood: watching the butterflies in her grandmother’s rose garden. Though this volume contains fewer of her own words, it features even more exquisite photographs, this time of winged beauty: moths, dragonflies, and butterflies, often among vivid flowers. She reveals that winged creatures have captured her attention all of her life, remembering her fascination as a child with Elnora Comstock, the heroine of The Girl of the Limberlost who searched for cocoons in the swamps to sell to pay her school tuition. As an adult, Janie even bought cocoons and raised some of her own butterflies.
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Dancing Feathers
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Dancing Petals
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Safari animals
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Dancing Wings
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Baby animals
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Birds on a wire at sunset. 22 | Winter 2023 www.MagnoliaandMoonshine.com
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fireside dining
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This winter, while the wind howls, the rain pours, or the snow falls, lighten your spirits with a candlelit, fireside dinner. The setting: Armorial gold-encrusted rim charger by Chelsea House. Dinner plate: antique Bohemia Royal Ivory made in Czechoslovakia. Salad plate: Royal Cauldon King’s Plate bone china made in England. Sterling flatware and ornate gold-trimmed stems atop a white lace placemat.
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ml provisions CREATING EXQUISITE, CUSTOM HATS WITH A PERSONALIZED TOUCH
Story by Katharyn Privett-Duren
Mary Landrum Pyron’s journey is one born of fate and an adventurous spirit. On April 6th, 2016, this Ole Miss graduate placed her first hat (one made of straw) upon her head and forged into the world as an expedition chef and caterer in Wyoming. One morning, as she stood over roughly twenty pounds of bacon sizzling over an open fire on that Western Mountain, the smoke began to distress that straw hat with a thick patina. And so, she bought another hat, and then another, until one day it occurred to her: “All I can think about are hats.” Mary Landrum’s passion had taken root, destined to grow into what is now ML Provisions. Five years later, she returned to her family’s timber farm in Mississippi ready to forge her new life as a custom hatter. Right from the beginning, Mary Landrum knew that she didn’t want to be just another shop on a town square. Rather, her shop resides in the 175-year-old barn on family land, nestled between a pond and a horse pasture. It is, she is quick to note, a destination spot—but more, it is an experience for those folks who are in search of their own handcrafted
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hat. When asked why she doesn’t ship, Mary Landrum speaks of how very personal this crafting can be: “Some people have broken their nose so many times, it’s no longer a straight line. I want the hat to align the proper way with your features. Also, colors and the nuances of shade just don’t show up correctly on digital media.” Here in her shop, Mary Landrum seams and shapes the raw hat body to her customers’ heads, taking care to involve them in the process. And there are stories to be spun here. One of the pieces of equipment she uses is from 1860: weighing in at 1,260 pounds, it is a rare find amongst small hatters. Mary Landrum describes the felting process as a bit like spinning cotton candy, an artistry that creates these 100x rabbit, 50x rabbit/beaver blend, and 100x beaver hats. Each crafting is highly specialized, right down to the accessories. Mary Landrum’s own hat sports a square nail from the old barn, a spur from a bird she hunted in Hawaii, a hand-tied fly from a friend, and a rattlesnake rattler. As she says: “I’m a really big hunter and I love to cook, so anything I harvest, I’ll also use.” When pressed, she admitted that any hat without a feather is just bad luck, and encourages her customers to choose one to truly top
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Mary Landrum Pyron (opposite) creates custom-made hats in her shop, ML Provisions. Each one is hand-crafted specifically for each customer, and she encourages everyone to top the hat off with a feather. Photos by Gabby Thorton Photography.
it all off. Yet, the personal touch that means the most to her is a tiny stick figure drawn by her father onto her own hat, an image that hails back to the notes he would leave her as a child. Whether it be a traditional Cattleman crease or a short fashion fedora, ML Provisions starts with an open crown and follows each customer’s vision to the end product. The process is more than worth it, for if you abide by the proper care instructions, these hats can last a lifetime. And while they can be worn to everything from a wedding to a Christmas party, these handcrafted hats can put in a hard day’s work. When asked if it bothered her that one of her creations might get a little dirt and sweat on them, Mary Landrum gave a hearty: “Oh, heck, no! They’re made and meant to be worn, from the farm to nicer functions.” In fact, you won’t find this hatter running around bare headed often: “If you see me without a hat, something’s wrong. I don’t wear a hat to church and I don’t wear one to a wedding unless it’s appropriate.” For the only custom felt-hat maker in Mississippi, that seems fitting. Even as her work has created so much joy and purpose for her, Mary Landrum likes where she’s landed and does not want to outgrow her shop. Nor does she want to lose sight of why she started, back when her goal was to sell four quality one-of-a-kind hats per month: “If I was only another shop on a town square, it wouldn’t have this
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experience. When folks bring in their loved one’s personal items for inclusion in this craft, they tell a story. I want to keep the passion of that, the fire for it all.” And while that experience happens primarily in her beloved shop, Mary Landrum does do shows, or pop-ups, where she can shape and design her hats on the spot. These work especially well for bridesmaid luncheons or groomsmen gifts, although ML Provisions is ready to consider other events when needed. Her sister, Elizabeth, has come in part-time to help in this endeavor, setting folks in the right color and size before they are shaped. In the end, family and the great state of Mississippi have been the foundation for Mary Landrum’s purpose, work, and dreams. For now, she is content to spin hats deep within the Hospitality State. While she was hesitant about moving back all those years ago, she’s grateful for the way it all turned out: “If I hadn’t been raised the way I was, if I hadn’t gone to that small high school, if I hadn’t gone to Ole Miss, or if I hadn’t gone out west, I would never be where I am today. Whether this thing lasts for the next ten minutes or the next hundred years, I’m glad I took that chance of starting my business— right there in the midst of Covid. I’m just happy that I get to wake up and do this every day.” Indeed, so is every customer that walks out of her shop, custom hat in hand.
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Whether it be a traditional Cattleman crease or a short fashion fedora, ML Provisions starts with an open crown and follows each customer’s vision to the end product. Pictured are a few of the unique hats Mary Landrum Pyron has created. Photos by Gabby Thorton Photography.
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Mary Landrum Pyron makes hats to fit each of her customers. She makes them that way so they fit a person’s features perfectly. She also includes items that are special to each customer, noting that her hat includes a square nail from the old barn, a spur from a bird she hunted in Hawaii, a handtied fly from a friend, and a rattlesnake rattler. Photos by Gabby Thorton Photography.
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phylicia hoo per GIVING ADVICE AND SHARING GOD THROUGH HUMOR ON SOCIAL MEDIA Story by Denise DuBois Phylicia Hooper is a 34-year-old social media personality who brings life lessons for women, including a powerful gospel message, in a fun, oftentimes hilarious, way. She was born and raised in Texas and loves to sing country music. She is also determined to overcome stereotypes about her childhood. Phylicia’s mother was a drug user and involved in prostitution. Her father has been in prison her entire life. She was raised by her grandmother, who Phylicia said did the best she could. She knew from an early age that she would break generational curses. “I did not want to follow in the footsteps of my mother and father,” she said. “I made a conscious decision at a young age that I would just be different and do the best I can in life and use the gifts God has given me to break the cycle.” As a Christian woman, she has a positive outlook on her life and wants to use the doors God has opened for her to spread His word and make people laugh at the same time. She has more than 8,000 followers on Instagram and more than 286,000 followers on Tiktok. Find her across social media platforms @phyliciadshea. Her Top Five Thanksgiving Rules in the Southern Household video went viral. Now, she talks to Magnolia and Moonshine about her social media life and the content she releases. Q: What made you begin to release content on social media platforms? A: When Covid started, it forced a lot of us to sit with ourselves. I know I had all these different talents, and I wanted to utilize all of them. TikTok became such a great outlet for that. I think it’s a wonderful platform for creators. It allowed me to showcase everything I had – to be brave and put myself out there. I literally use it as a virtual resume for myself and pray that one day God is going to open the door from those videos, from me singing, or whatever it is. A lot of people tell me or have told me “You should just pick something.” I can sing. I can act. I can speak. I do makeup. People try to tell me to pick something and focus on that. I told my pastor if God gave me all of these gifts, He wants me to use every last one of them. So, whatever I can do with each and every gift I have, I want to do that. You don’t have to pick. God created each of us unique. Some people may have one or two talents. Some people may have fifteen. Use them all. God says in His word your gifts will make room for you, so I started to believe that. I put myself out there. I’ve gone viral several times now and have been posted on different celebrity pages. It’s such a blessing to me because all of my life I’ve never really felt seen or heard. Sometimes I still feel that way because I’m still waiting for God to open the door that will lead to success in what I truly desire to do. Those desires have changed. I used to just want to be famous and be a household
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Phylicia Hooper has more than 8,000 followers on Instagram and more than 286,000 followers on Tiktok. She shares advice through humor. name. I would still love that because I have a lot of things I want to do for people, but now I want to do it for the Lord. I no longer desire to be the next Beyoncé. I just desire to be a great Christian influencer who does all these things in the name of Jesus. My joy is literally to make people laugh. If I can make people laugh, that is the joy of my heart. People will message me and say they were having a horrible day. “I saw this video, and I’ve been laughing for 10 minutes.” That is a privilege and an honor for me to put that out and pour into people in that way. I’m so grateful and cannot let anyone stop me from continuing to do that. I think it’s great to laugh. I think there are too many uptight Christians, and laughter is good. I feel like Jesus laughs at a lot of things I do. Q: You address Christian girls in a humorous way. How do you come up with that content and is it from daily life or conversations with friends? A: Sometimes I literally sit down, cut the camera on, and see what I come up with. I rarely have something planned and thought out. I get an
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“I’VE GONE VIRAL SEVERAL TIMES NOW AND HAVE BEEN POSTED ON DIFFERENT CELEBRITY PAGES. IT’S SUCH A BLESSING TO ME BECAUSE ALL OF MY LIFE I’VE NEVER REALLY FELT SEEN OR HEARD.” - PHYLICIA HOOPER
idea and start talking and see what happens. I’m trying to get better at laying things out in writing and then filming. It makes my life a lot easier. But most of the time it’s an idea that comes to me, and one that I think would be a great topic. A lot of the skits I do are real life situations and conversations I’ve had with God. I’ve had conversations with God about my love life, or lack thereof, weight loss, and different things. I literally just try to bring humor to it. One thing I love is when I put out a video and someone says, “this is hilarious, but I am convicted.” That’s the goal. The goal is to let you know there is a message, and I want you to laugh. I want there to be laughter in the midst of the message. Conviction and laughter, those are the goals. I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve been on one date in my life (at the beginning of 2022). I’m not one who people tend to listen to for relationship advice because I’ve never been in one, but what I tell people is that God used a donkey in the Bible to send the message. He can use whoever He wants. Some things in relationships are common sense. I don’t have to have ever been in a relationship to know that the Lord doesn’t want me abused. He doesn’t want me mistreated. He doesn’t want me used. He doesn’t want me out of His will. If anyone is trying to take me outside of His will through sex, money, or anything else not like Him, I know that’s not a relationship for me. That doesn’t require experience. It requires knowledge of the word of God. Q: Priscilla Shirer commented on one of your posts where you were imitating her. How did that feel? A: I love Priscilla so much. In my head, she is my other mentor. I have the greatest mentor in the entire world. She is my entire heart, and I love her. But Priscilla Shirer is my imaginary mentor in addition to the real one. The real one, I don’t tell people who she is. There’s no greater human on earth that God could have given me. But I love to imitate Priscilla. I started doing it one day randomly at church. People were like, “you sound just like her.” I made a video, and she saw it. Her sons actually commented on it, and the oldest said “you literally sound just like her.”
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After that, I said let’s do this. I started imitating her. I was so happy when she loved it and laughed. She’s shared me on her page a couple of times. It’s an honor to imitate someone like her. Q: How did you come up with your Thanksgiving Rules video? A: So, Mother Hooper is a beloved character of mine. I was thinking of something for her to talk about. Those are my actual real rules. If I had to make Thanksgiving rules for my house, those are the rules. Like the pumpkin pie is silly, but I don’t eat it. I prefer sweet potato. They apply to me, my life, and how I grew up. Surely, I’m not the only one. At first, I was going to call it rules for the Black southern family. Every culture has their thing. I can tell you for most Black people, those are the rules. I was going to label it that. But then I thought it was more of a Southern thing as well. I thought it would be much better if I did it as my character because it adds playfulness to it. I always have the intent to be playful, lighthearted, and non-offensive, but some people are just itching to be offended these days. Q: What is it like putting yourself out on social media? A: I could not have handled going viral two or three years ago. I was not spiritually mature enough, for one, but I didn’t love myself enough, as well. I was very insecure. Now, I still struggle with insecurity from time to time, just like I’m sure everyone does. But I am light years ahead of where I was three years ago. Trolls would have run me off the Internet because of my weight and other things. People are evil (and boldly evil) behind a keyboard. I’ve had very vicious comments about weight and skin tone. But the difference that sustains me is my close relationship with the Lord and a wonderful support family, church, and mentor. My relationship with God has gotten so much better to where now I don’t let the few negative comments affect me over the thousands of comments of people telling me I’ve made their day. The devil wins if I let those negative comments get in my spirit and sit there. I used to focus on the
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A CHEERFUL HEART IS GOOD MEDICINE, BUT A CRUSHED SPIRIT DRIES UP THE BONES. PROVERB 17:22
negative ones and they would really bring me down. Then I started to pray about that, and my attitude got better and better every single day. I realized when you have dreams and goals, this is what comes with it. When you put yourself out there on the Internet, this is exactly what you’re gonna get. You have to either suck it up and bare it, or you let it break you. If I have this much talent gifted to me, and I put it out to the world, I have to be ready for things like that to come. But when you’re rooted in the word, when you have a great support system, when you have a strong mind and thick skin that comes over time, then you can deal with it. You can handle it. I was created for this. Also, one thing my pastor said is that we’re not here to be celebrated. I understand there will be those negative comments. There will be people who don’t celebrate me - who make fun of me, but they have no power. That’s what I choose to remember: I’m called. I’m chosen, I’m covered in the blood. I’m gifted these things by God, and no devil in hell can stop that. I am reminded daily of Isaiah 54:17 … that no weapon formed against me will prosper. Q: Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share? A: One thing I want people to know, especially when it comes to social media and you following me is that I’m not just here to make you laugh. I’m also here to very much give you the word of God. If you’re here to
just laugh and that’s it, I’m probably not the person you should follow because I’m also called to give a word. There will be times when that supersedes me posting a video to make you laugh. If something is on my heart to give you, and it’s a serious matter, I have to give it to you in a serious way. I’m not just here to entertain you. Also, I feel like I’m a walking billboard for people to know that you don’t have to be what you came from. You are not your circumstances. You are not your mom. You are not your dad. You are not your family. You are not your past. You are not the circumstances that came against you. So, whatever it is that God has brought you through in your life, He brought you through it as a testimony. He brought you through it to make you stronger and to be able use your real-life trials, tribulations, and sufferings to help and bless other people. Whatever your story is, use that for the glory of God. I am not a statistic. I don’t have to be a statistic. I made a choice, and I am not an advocate for people who walk around using their current or previous circumstances as an excuse for their current situations. We are in a free country. This is the greatest country in the world. We have so many opportunities. You wake up every day to be who you want to be. You can choose to allow your circumstances to bring you down, or you can choose to rise above them, be an example to show people that no matter what you have dealt with, God can and will bring you through.
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Digital Dos and Please-Do-Nots Story by Sally Anne Sessitte The greenery is put up, or you’re getting to it, and the last of the leftovers have been scraped into the trash. The pantry is stocked with well-intentioned protein powders and the dark liquor and ritz have been shoved over to make room for green juice and wasa crackers. The calendar has rolled around again, which means soon we will swing into celebration season. We’ll have baby showers and wedding showers and welcome suppers and any other excuse to fill the house with fresh flowers - even if they are mostly from the neighbor’s yard. Remember when you could come in a friend’s side door and look at her cork board or fridge over a glass of sweet tea (or wine in a sweet tea glass for good friends), and immediately know which parties she was going to by the display of colorful paper invitations? So helpful for borrowing clothes and gossiping purposes. Y’all know your mama
knows that one lady - bless her heart- who even would see a wedding shower invitation and go on and send the happy couple a wedding gift just to wrangle that guilt-invite. Those days are gone - corkboards now are mostly just handprint art and school conduct reports. “Spirited” and “Minds other people’s business” mean exactly what you think they mean. Paper is out friends, and digital is in, whether we’re happy about it or whether we are hogtied kicking and screaming. If it’s not a wedding, these days, the invitation will probably come on the phone or the computer. And the photos will be online. So let’s be southern about it - if this digital thing is here to stay, we’ll need some “dos and please-donots” to avoid digital drama. A picture tells a thousand humble brags. Let’s just not. If you wouldn’t brag about it in adult Sunday school, think twice about posting it. Haul out Nana’s fur and enjoy every bite of that blue-cheese-crusted
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filet and all the brandy alexanders - and the lighting really is so good in those New York City steakhouse booths - but keep it between you and your traveling friends. While we’re on this topic, a word about the cheers boomerangs. Well, three words. No thank you. The only cause for pause before the meal or the matcha latte is the blessing, and surely that’s all we need to say on that topic. Absolutely bring your kids’ friends on trips - it really cuts down the vacation spankings. But, if you decide to post a precious ski lift photo from the trip, go ahead and crop the friends out. It’s true that kids need to have thick skins and we have all been told everyone cannot be invited to everything - but you know your mama would never let you go to school and talk about who you are bringing to the beach. Even if they are “minding someone else’s business,” let the kids learn to be thickskinned from some yankee’s aggressive instagram. Bless their hearts, they don’t know what not to post. If you’ve been invited by text, and you respond asking who else will be there, you better be setting up a neighborhood carpool to the party and offering to drive it. A thank you note is better than a thank you text but the more important part is this: a thank you text is better than no thank you at all.
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Can we all agree to stop this thing where if we don’t actually open the emailed invitation, the host somehow thinks we haven’t seen it? Even elder millennials are onto this and it’s just as tacky as not responding. Treat that Paperless Post as politely as you would a cardstock-with-ribbon invite, and respond. No southern hostess has ever stuck to a catering guideline for drinks or food, Lord knows we’d end up running out of something. Respond timely anyway - you don’t want the hostess borrowing extra place settings from her mother-in-law, thinkin’ y’all are coming and then you not show up. If you’ve forgotten to respond, a simple apology and “is it too late for me to say yes” is the best way to ask for some timeline grace. On the hosting side, if you send those invitations by email, go on and do that “check in” text or call to the friend who hasn’t responded. This little act of grace can save all manner of unintended consequences. You may have spelled her email wrong, or she may respond by calling you and sharing some heavy things she’s had on her plate that you hadn’t had any clue about. Giving grace is the secret ingredient that makes it work. Looking for ways to give grace is always right. As with most things southern, it’s never about the rules, and always about the people of it.
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Robert Burns Night A TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH CELEBRATION
Story by Joan McLendon Budd and Marian Carcache
Many southerners can attribute much of their culture and tradition to Scottish ancestry – a subject we hope to explore more in depth in a later issue. But for now, we’re focusing on a very special Scottish tradition – Robert Burns Night - considered Scotland’s second national day, St. Andrew’s Day being the first. For over 200 years, Burns Night has been celebrated on his birthday (January 25th) and usually includes an evening of dining and merry making, which often can get a little raucous as the evening wears on with the recitation of Burns’s poems and tributes, and the refreshing of drams of Scotch whiskey. But while Burns Night is clearly a national Scottish tradition, it’s also celebrated annually around the world. Many of you may have even hosted a Burns Night dinner … or at least been privileged to attend one. And while this writer has never had the privilege of either, the
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publisher and editors of Magnolia and Moonshine were treated to a formal Scottish dinner last summer in a remote Scottish country house located in the Cairngorms mountain range in the eastern Highlands of Scotland. That magical evening became the inspiration for this article. If you’ve never attended a Burns Night, then you should know that the occasion has a prescribed order of events that are customarily followed. The evening begins with a bagpiper in traditional Scottish attire (including kilt, sporran, and ghillie brogues), piping the guests into the dining room. When all have arrived, the hosts’ welcome is followed by Burns’s own words as the official blessing for the meal: “Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit.”
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Chef Mark Heirs presents dinner during the formal Scottish meal. Pictured is the formal dining room at the Candacraig House. The room decorated and covered in traditional Scottish tartan fabric. Then, the actual celebration begins. The haggis (the real star of the evening and possibly Burns’s favorite dish) is piped in on a silver tray carried by the chef and placed on the table before the host. A guest then recites Burns’s famous address “To a Haggis.” Immediately following the recitation, the haggis is ceremoniously stabbed to signal the official start to the meal. A typical Burns Night meal includes a nourishing supper of cock-a-leekie soup (broth with leeks, spices, and a thickener such as pearl barley, oatmeal or rice), followed by haggis (a pudding containing sheep’s heart, liver, and lungs, onion, oatmeal, suet, and spices mixed with stock), neeps (turnips), tatties (mashed potatoes), and drams of Scotch whiskey. Following the meal, cranachan the traditional dessert (made from crunchy oats, raspberries, butter, sugar and double cream) is served. In addition to the meal, many activities surround the observance, including ceilidhs (Scottish dancing), singing, toasts, and readings from Burns’s work.
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While Magnolia and Moonshine’s dinner was not a true Burns Night, many of the traditional dishes were on the menu – prepared by internationally renowned private chef, Mark Heirs. If in the future you find yourself at a Burns Night celebration, it might be prudent to remember the following lines from “To a Louse” by the famous Scottish bard himself: “O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us, An’ foolish notion.” English translation: “Oh, would some Power give us the gift To see ourselves as others see us! It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion.”
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Above: Katrina Stratton with her family, Colin Morrison and Olivia Morrison, on Lonach Day for the Highland Games. Colin is seen in Forbes clan highland regalia - one of the two clans at Lonach. At right: Scottish dish of haggis, neeps and tatties served traditionally on Burns night.
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A Scottish bagpiper pipes in the haggis. Opposite: The Robert Burns Monument at Brig O Doon, Alloway, Ayr, Ayrshire in Scotland.
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AUTHENTIC CLOOTIE DUMPLING As most of the recipes can be found online or in specialty cookbooks, we choose to leave you with a very special recipe from Audrey Stratton of Aberdeen Scotland, our Scottish friend Katrina Stratton’s mum. We were thrilled when she offered to share her authentic, Scottish recipe for Clootie Dumpling with us. Katrina explained to us that a “clootie” is a piece of muslin cloth. Clootie Dumpling 1 lb sieved plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 2 tsp mixed spice 6 oz breadcrumbs 20 oz mixed dry fruit 2 cooking apples grated 1 carrot grated 2 eggs whisked Zest and juice of 1 lemon 8 oz brown sugar 8 oz shredded suet 8 oz treacle Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together with milk. Place the muslin cloth in boiling water and then wring out. Lay cloth flat and flour well. Place the mixture in the centre of the cloth then gather up the sides and tie securely with string leaving some space for the pudding to swell. Place in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 5 hours. Remove from pan and plunge in cold water for 10 seconds. Place in a bowl untie the muslin place a plate on top of the bowl and invert.
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ROBERT BURNS, NATIONAL POET OF SCOTLAND Story by Marian Carcache Born January 25, 1759, in Alloway, near Ayr, in the southwest part of Scotland, Robert Burns had minimal education before his family’s financial concerns required that he find work as a farm laborer. It was during his farming period that his first love, Nelly Kirkpatrick, encouraged him to write poetry and song. Burns, like his father, was a tenant farmer - not unlike many early southern farmers of Scottish ancestry. The relentless work of farming taught Burns to take pleasure where he could, and also to have disdain for moral codes set forth by the well-to-do. The charming young man had quite a reputation with wine and women, as well as with poetry and song. He fathered at least eight children with five different women. He did marry Jean Armour, who is the mother of his twins, in 1788. At one point, Burns planned to leave the rough farm life behind in favor of a new life in the West Indies, but his growing popularity in the U.K. as the unschooled “Ploughman Poet” influenced him to choose Edinburgh instead. A short time after relocating there, he was embraced by society and feted as a luminary. Unfortunately, his celebrity status did not bring financial independence, and Burns was forced to take a job as a tax collector in order to pay his bills. He did, however, continue to write. He also edited an edition of Scottish folk songs to which he contributed over 100 of his own works. Though he wrote over 500 poems, he is best known, perhaps, for having written “Auld Lang Syne,” “Red, Red Rose,” “Tam O’Shanter,” and “To a Mouse.” On July 21,1796, Burns died at the young age of 36 of rheumatic heart disease, a malady he had suffered with since childhood. He was buried at St. Michael’s in Dumfries, supposedly while his wife was giving birth to his ninth child. Now considered the National Poet of Scotland, the unschooled poet’s influence has been farreaching. The title of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men was inspired by Burns’ line about how “the best laid plans of mice and men” so often go awry. More recently, Bob Dylan credited Burns with inspiring his own creative work. Michael Jackson was quite interested in Burns’ work before his own untimely death. According to a reliable source, Jackson had planned to write a musical about Burns’ life, but later decided to turn the poet’s work into show tunes.
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Mark Rikard is a farrier, photographer, and philosopher. Pictured are several pieces of his work.
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farr ier and artist
JUXTAPOSITION OF SKILLED LABOR AND FINE ART Story by Mary Dansak
When my girls were young, we adopted a horse named Charcoal. Charcoal lived out at the farm where I’d grown up, and his owner Mark was mighty generous to give us full access to his horse. The girls called Mark a cowboy; he looked and acted the part. I might have called him a farmhand. In reality Mark was a farrier who was just starting his business. We were all disappointed when that business picked up and took him, and his horse, away from the farm to the big city of Birmingham. Soon after I received a Christmas card. It featured an elegant line drawing of a horse with a red nose. “Merry Christmas, from Mark,” I read. He hadn’t just sent it, he’d drawn it. As I turned the card over in my hand, a realization began to dawn on me. Mark was not your typical farmhand, cowboy, or farrier. There’s not much more fun than smashing stereotypes, is there? Today I’m happy to introduce you to Mark Rikard: farrier, photographer, philosopher. He’d scoff at that last word, though he’s drawn to the philosophy of the Stoics of Ancient Rome. And when I told him I wanted to chat, he asked that I call him after 8:00 pm to talk. “I’m not philosophical until after 8,” he joked. I particularly wanted to talk to Mark about the juxtaposition of his art and his work as a horseshoer. While I can only assume he’s a brilliant farrier based on his successful business, I can attest that Mark’s photographs are beautiful. From romantically inclined insects to sunlit city skylines, he captures the harmony and beauty, hidden or on full display, wherever his lens lands. “Talk to me about how your artistic eye affects your work,” I began, not sure how our conversation would go. “It’s a blessing and a curse,” he said immediately. “A blessing in that horseshoeing, like design, is all about balance. You’re working with symmetry, shapes, and precision. But it’s a curse because as an artist, it’s hard to know when to stop.” “You want everything to line up,” he said, “you want to force perfection on the horse.” But as we all know, horses and other beasts have their own biomechanics, their own genetic codes, their own individual bodies. I understood Mark’s tension, with the artist eventually giving way to the biology of the horse. “At that point I just have to say I’ve done my best. The horse is comfortable.” The balance of the shoe on the hoof, the balance of the hoof and the animal, the balance of the artist and the farrier all work together throughout the Birmingham area in barns where the light streams in through wooden slats and lights up a kitten sitting on an anvil, or where mornings are so cold the breath from the horse hangs in the air. I imagine it gets downright crowded in Mark’s mind. Mark didn’t set out to become a farrier. Following in the footsteps of his graphic designer parents, he studied art and design at Auburn University. After his first year of college, he worked at the stables at
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Callaway Gardens for a summer job. “It was there I got bit by the horse bug, plain and simple,” he said. “I fell in love with the whole lifestyle.” After graduating, Mark entered the world of art as graphic designer, first in a graphic design studio and then at West Point Stevens, all the while creating political cartoons that got him in trouble with the locals. While he enjoyed his entry into the art world, he had a strong sense that he was in the wrong time, the wrong place. It crystallized one night when one of his farmer friends said to him, “You’re a graphic artist? I thought art was something you did on the back porch to entertain the children.” It was then that Mark developed a lasting cynicism about the lack of acceptance of art. When West Point Stevens offered to send Mark to New York City he turned them down, finding work in a saddle shop in Seale, Alabama instead. The owner of the saddle shop was also a farrier, which provided him a steady income. Mark was inspired. “I thought if I could be around horses and make a good living then what the heck?” With that, Mark was off to Montana to horseshoeing school. Within two years, his business, Horseshoeing Unlimited, had a full clientele. With his area of expertise in Hunter/Jumpers, Eventing, and Dressage disciplines, Mark works with all types of horses except “gaited, draft, and those with bad manners.” Despite his success as a farrier, he never put the camera away. Admittedly, this sometimes interferes with his job. “I’m all right brained,” he explains. “Sure there’s steel and biomechanics, but my brain is focused on form and shape. Then there’s my ADD yelling, ‘Hey! There’s a bird!’ Or maybe the sun’s coming down lighting up the horse’s silhouette. The shoe can wait.” “If you had to do it all over again, would you become a farrier?” Usually when you ask this question, folks gush and say they wouldn’t change a thing. It took me aback when Mark said no. “It’s hard on your body. Most farriers have short careers.” Mark’s been kicked and bitten, he’s tripped backwards over a dog and knocked himself out hitting his head on an anvil; he’s had carpel tunnel surgery and should have had elbow surgery. If he had to do it over, he’d pursue professional photography, working for a publication like National Geographic. “When you grow up in a world with no mentors for your dream job, in my case photography, no one to show you the ropes, it remains a dream,” he said. There was no bitterness in his voice, no wistfulness or trace of sadness, just a matter-of-fact description of a dream he’s turned into a beautiful hobby. Day after day, Mark balances his work and his photography, as well as a myriad of projects including restoring his late grandparents’ house and building furniture, with pragmatism and grace, embracing the tenets of the Stoics whether he realizes it or not. To see more of Mark’s photography, and get a bit of philosophy as well, you can follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ mark.rikard.
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Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival Story by Jennifer Stewart Kornegay It’s said that art imitates life, so it’s no surprise some of the South’s most popular and prolific artists working today depict our region’s flora and fauna and the hunting, fishing and other wildlife sports that connect us to them. Many Southerners live to cast a line for a trophy bass or trout, draw a bow on a big buck and follow trusty dogs through a windswept field, ready to take aim at a covey rise. In response, Southern artists capture the wonder of these landscapes and the thrill of these pursuits in clay, oil, pencil, acrylic, wood, watercolor and more. In celebration of these activities and the artistic expressions that memorialize them, Wetumpka, Alabama, hosted its first Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival this fall. While an exhibit featuring Alabama wildlife art called “Arts Gone Wild” was on display at Wetumpka’s Kelly Fitzpatrick Memorial Gallery (nicknamed The Kelly) from September 27-November 19, on November 5, the day long Festival took over a tree-shaded park on the bluffs above the Coosa River that sits on the edge of Wetumpka’s historic (and recently revitalized) downtown. Containing 20 artists and their works, the tent greeting Festival guests at arrival was a riot of color, texture and creativity. Oak leaf hydrangeas danced on a canvas at Vaughn Pursell Spanjer’s booth. Potter Bett McLean added final embellishments to an earthen mug, explaining her sgraffito method. Jim Brown’s detailed prints of flounder, redfish and bream introduced visitors to Gyotaku, a Japanese printing process where he applies ink to fish bodies before pressing them onto soft paper to create the life-like, almost anatomical, images. Timothy Joe’s bright depictions of Alabama birds — barred owls, bald eagles, woodpeckers and swallow-tail kites — looked ready to take wing. And Andrew Lee, renowned for rendering beloved sporting dogs in oil, watercolor and pencil sketches with such skill you can almost see a pointer’s snout twitch, chatted about his love of the hard-working animals with fellow canine lovers. Wood carvings, baskets woven from kudzu vines, jewelry fashioned from seaglass and more filled every corner, with artists happily sharing insight into inspiration and their techniques, and a few even plying their craft for onlookers. Strolling among and around them all was a feast for the more than 5,000 art and wildlife enthusiasts who attended, but this area was only one aspect of the event. Music, food trucks, art projects for kids and animal encounters courtesy of the Alabama Wildlife Federation were also on the agenda, as was a taste of the culinary arts with Birmingham chef Chris Hastings. Admired for his commitment to seasonal and local ingredients in his restaurants, Hastings is also an avid hunter. In several cooking demos throughout the day, he applied his deft touch to wild game, cooking dishes over open fire.
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Festival guests were treated to live-action art too, when Oxford, Mississippi’s famed Wildrose Kennels showcased the Wildrose Way, a development and training method that yields sought-after sporting dogs. British labs, transformed from rambunctious, unruly animals to perfectly behaved outdoor adventure companions, demonstrated the results of Wildrose’s process, retrieving and releasing on whistle command to the delight of the crowds. Despite all the event’s offerings, they were not the only attraction. Wetumpka itself brought its own appeal. The Festival came on the heels of an exciting two years in the little city. In July 2020, Wetumpka found out it had beat more than 2,600 other small towns to be selected by popular renovation experts Ben and Erin Napier for a “makeover” to be chronicled in their “Hometown Takeover” television show. The couple gave the city’s downtown and historic district a facelift over six episodes that aired on HGTV starting in May 2021. The effort had a ripple effect, energizing other businesses to open or renovate. In the wake of the show airing, the revived and refreshed shops, parks, eateries and more, combined with the city’s natural beauty and hospitality, have drawn tourists by the thousands from all over the globe. Wetumpka natives have been just as thrilled by the city’s recent progress, folks like artist Jeanie Edwards, who had a booth at the Festival and grew up in Wetumpka but now lives and works in Highlands, North Carolina, where she owns a gallery that exhibits her bold, sometimes whimsical, animal portraits. “It’s definitely not the town I grew up in, which is not a bad thing,” she says. “I think that the growth that Wetumpka has experienced in the last couple of years is crazy impressive. I love to see how it’s grown and how it is slated to continue to grow into the future.” Keeping that momentum going downtown and shining a spotlight on The Kelly (the small but mighty museum dedicated to internationally acclaimed Wetumpka artist Kelly Fitzpatrick), is one reason event founders the Smoot Harris family and the City of Wetumpka decided to put the Festival on. “The main purpose of the event was to celebrate arts and wildlife and bring people to downtown Wetumpka,” says The Kelly’s executive director Jennifer Eifert. All involved agree the inaugural Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival was a success, so a date has already been set for next year, which excites artists like Edwards, who stresses how wildlife art feeds our collective craving to better understand the natural world. “Everything that happened in 2020 forced us to get outside and experience wildlife and nature again. We went camping. We went hiking. We went for walks, and I believe as a human race, we discovered outside once again,” she says, “I absolutely would love to see more events like this not only because I’m a wildlife artist, but because why wouldn’t we want to celebrate nature and all of its beauty and glory.”
SAVE THE DATE Mark your calendars for November 11, 2023, the next Wetumpka Wildlife Arts Festival. In the meantime, watch The Kelly on social media @thekellyfitzpatrick or visit thekelly.org for details. www.MagnoliaandMoonshine.com
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Music, food trucks, art projects for kids and animal encounters courtesy of the Alabama Wildlife Federation were all things to enjoy at the festival. There were more than 5,000 art and wildlife enthusiasts who attended.
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Festival guests were treated to live-action art too, when Oxford, Mississippi’s famed Wildrose Kennels showcased the Wildrose Way, a development and training method that yields sought-after sporting dogs. Birmingham chef Chris Hastings, admired for his commitment to seasonal and local ingredients in his restaurants, is an avid hunter and applied his deft touch to wild game, cooking dishes over open fire. 60 | Winter 2023 www.MagnoliaandMoonshine.com
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Chip North, Kentucky Architect Story by Kristina Hendrix
From curtsy-inducing grand manors to earnest and joyful vernacular styles, Chip North, of North{dwell} Fine Residences, in Louisville, Kentucky, creates honest and reverential reinterpretations of early southern Architecture styles. Principal Designer and Owner, North’s technical agility forms a strong base for his architectural stories that include and embrace the tricky elements of Southern culture. In expressions of precise, classical theory, his expertise and focused execution from form-to-form is evident in every project; projects that not only honor architectural fundamentals but also bring a “bon vivant” inclusivity to their vision. He embraces the technological advances that have allowed more room for his firm to focus on issues like sustainability and a reduced environmental footprint. He creates with a vision that is informed through a profound understanding of regional history, and an eye for the future. As an architecture student, Chip studied at the Insituto di Palazzo Rucellai, in Florence, Italy, in an immersive architectural program hosted by Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, where he later received a degree in architecture, one of two he attained. Another graduate program took him to London, where he studied urban planning in concert with the
Mayor of London’s office, a key component in his commitment to not only building healthy and thriving communities, but restoring neglected ones as well. The library of knowledge North has acquired through his studies at home and abroad, along with his work experience in Historic Preservation and Restoration, and the “New Old House” movement, shows a maturity not often seen in young architectural careers. His collaborations marry the vision of historical integrity with the need to build for the times in which we live and the specific needs of his clients. His work is informed with a deep appreciation of architectural detail no matter if it is intricate and grand, or beautifully simple. His firm doesn’t compromise in their commitment to build responsibly, with historically accurate re-imagining and gently-placed new construction. This suggests Chip might have a bit of the purist in him. It is remarkable how North’s artistry strikes an emotional punch as well. One of his project photos features a room that is reminiscent of a smoldering, sherry-sipping duchess dressed in deep, velvety red. Another dwelling, straight out of a Tibetan forest monastery, is a guru siren’s call, so peaceful it makes you yearn to go inside, do a little yoga, have some tea, and never, ever leave; Each space deeply reflective of the inhabitants. You don’t have to ask him to share his philosophy, nor the influence that drives his
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Shown are photos of Chip North’s projects provided by the architect.
passion …his work shows you everything you need to know without ever saying a word. But I am going to ask him anyway. Married and a father of two, photos with his wife and their two young children are, well, joyous…like his designs. I call Chip on a Tuesday morning and am immediately charmed. He has an open, easy-going manner and we launch right into his studies overseas, in Florence, Italy. “Studying architecture in Italy helped my work immensely. The lesson Italy offers, I think, for any student of the arts, is durability…and I didn’t fully grasp what this meant until I was actually there seeing the Pantheon, or the Duomo in Florence. All of these examples are sublime in person, but the reality is the endurance, the strength of the design and the actual construction - it’s just awe-inspiring. To recognize that longevity, but to also recognize those concepts of composition, shadow, color still in play within our modern age is incredible.” While in Italy, he and his fellow students studied and spent a great deal of time in Leon Battista Alberti’s 15th century Palazzo Rucellai. He recalls, amused, “We were occupying these incredible Renaissance rooms, untouched since the 16th century, studying underneath classical frescoed ceilings, but sitting in modern plastic classroom chairs. It was surreal.” On trips to Spain with his wife, Chip introduced her to the work of Antoni Gaudí and his sui generis style. “I really love that, though she has never studied art or design, she could appreciate and love the beauty within the architecture as much as I do. There is a universality to architecture; humans have always responded to it and vice versa.”
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Growing up in Tampa, Florida, North lived in a 100+ year old house in Hyde Park, a nationally recognized historic district. His family’s history in Florida stretches back 7 generations, so this sense of Florida & Southern history permeates his work. North also attributes his early love of building and design to his parents and older sister, all creative people. “Fortunately, I had a family who exposed me to art, design, architecture, all of those things, as a young child…I was really interested in history and building early on. We would explore old houses together, and they would take me with them to antique shops where we would dig around and find cool old stuff. I’ve just always appreciated how well-crafted old things are houses included.” North mentions his love of the Mediterranean Revival, prevalent in South Florida with its iconic red clay tiles, the plaster and stucco walls, a genre created by Addison Mizner, one of the foremost domestic architects of the early 20th century. He has great admiration for him, someone he calls “quite a character.” “During the 1920’s, Mizner changed the look of Florida, even to this day. His building styles were very highly detailed, but designed and constructed in a way that responded to their coastal environment and the salty humid air. So many of his great homes have survived several hurricanes in fact and that style just became so iconic and instantly recognizable.” Closing up our interview was hard; there were so many more questions I wanted to ask him, but Chip North has very little time these days. I did ask him one more thing: how has fatherhood changed his workstyle? “Early days, just really early days,” he laughed. “I used to be a nightowl, but not anymore. I’ve adjusted to brighter mornings.”
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Chattahoochee River along the Phenix City Riverwalk
The Longest Urban Whitewater Course in the World - The Only Dual State Zip Lines - 10 Obstacle Multi-level Aerial Adventure - Treetop Zip Course - 18-hole Riverfront Disc Golf Course - 20 Miles of Scenic Riverwalk - Guided Fly Fishing www.MagnoliaandMoonshine.com
You'll be Hooked
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gasparill a
LIKE THE MARRIAGE OF MARDI GRAS AND NEW ORLEANS, IT’S A STATE OF MIND
Story by Tom Jackson Gasparilla – Tampa’s 100+ years old celebration - began with a prank during the local 1904 May Day celebration. As the story goes a bevy of horse mounted businessmen, disguised in be-jeweled pirate regalia (rented from New Orleans, of course) came crashing into Tampa’s May Day celebration. Weaving their steeds among the floats of the Floral Parade, the rowdy lot of about 400 — the charter class of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla lead by the legendary Jose Gaspar a/k/a Gasparilla the Pirate King — declared that they had claimed the city for themselves, and would have for their spoils a queen and assorted maidens from among Tampa’s fairest and finest. Week long appearances of the masked marauders culminated in an unmasking at the week’s final and most prestigious ball — where the rapscallions turned out to be, *GASP*, representatives of Tampa’s upper crust. Now, 119 years later, Gasparilla is something almost magical in the life of the city. Reduced to mere numbers, Gasparilla season, stretching from
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the dawn of the new year through mid-March, is an economic powerhouse, generating upwards of $40 million from a string of events visited by roughly 1 million people. In truth, however, Gasparilla is far more than figures on a spreadsheet, or even simply the crown jewel of the city’s busy winter calendar. It has its season, all right - a bustling series of sun-washed fun, games, and culture that surround the main event - the cannons-booming arrival of the good ship Jose Gasparilla II and the boisterous pirate parade on the last Saturday of January. In actuality, Gasparilla’s rascally, seize-the-gusto attitude lasts year round, seasoning Tampa’s culture, adding to the city’s strut, and feeding its saucy personality. Gasparilla lurks, always. So much more than just an interval of money-changing frivolity, like the marriage of Mardi Gras and New Orleans -it’s a state of mind. That’s an impressive legacy for someone who (probably) never existed. Not that any members of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla would ever admit to such, no matter how much evidence historians pile up. For them, Jose Gaspar, Gasparilla the Pirate King, was the original, genuine Capt. Jack
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Sparrow, a “hearty old swashbuckler with courtly manners and possibly, just possibly, mischievous habits.” For YMKGers, the tale of Spanish nobleman Jose Gaspar is too rich with adventure to dismiss as fiction: A high-ranking Spanish Royal Navy officer and councilor to King Charles III, Gaspar was expelled from court over an ill-advised romance that led to charges (unfounded, of course … unless they weren’t) that he stole the crown jewels. Beating a hasty exit, Gaspar and his mates commandeered the Floriblanca, a Spanish warship, and fled across the Atlantic for a lucrative life of piracy that lasted some 30 years. At last, the folklore goes, in 1821 with the USS Enterprise (initially mistaken for a British merchant ship by the pirates) bearing down in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s southwest coast—Gaspar, vowing not to be taken alive, wrapped himself in his ship’s anchor chain and threw himself overboard to rest eternally in Davy Jones’ locker. Never mind that countless researchers have unearthed exactly zero evidence of the existence and exploits of the pirate Gasparilla. So it is, as with any beloved legend, Jose Gaspar’s saga continues to wield an outsized influence on Florida’s west coast. Remove Gaspar/Gasparilla from local folklore, and maybe the glue that binds the region dissolves and exits with Tampa Bay’s next low tide. Krewes, invasions, parades, festivals, football bowl games, and charities are all gone. Without the tales of Jose Gaspar, the two-time Super Bowl champion NFL team surely would not be the Buccaneers, had the league seen fit to expand to Tampa in the first place. Minus the legend of the gentleman swashbuckler, Tampa would be the Oakland of Florida, Newark with a sunburn, Biloxi without the charm. With him, Tampa soars with swaggering ambition pushing achievement: downtown spires shooting for the sky, a world-class arena at the heart of a bustling entertainment district, a thriving riverfront cultural center, and a classy theater district in a single building. And serving it all, an international airport ranked No. 1 for traveler satisfaction by J.D. Power. So, OK, Virginia, maybe Gasparilla the pirate is 90 percent fiction and 10 percent marketing genius. So what? With the apocryphal sea wolf as its inspiration, once a year, Tampa unfurls the Jolly Roger, dons its puffy pirate shirt, clinches a mug of grog in one hand, plastic beads in the other, and a cutlass in its teeth. Then, with one eye patched and the other eye gleaming, the town that owes its enviable distinction to the picaroon-whowasn’t lets its inner rogue run wild. For the record, Mayor Jane Castor says, “Gasparilla is pure Tampa: historic but ever-changing, sometimes crazy and always fun.” That fun begins a couple of weeks before the invasion with the ceremonial subduing of a U.S. Navy ship — the museum ship SS American Victory, permanently docked in Tampa’s Channelside District — by small boats comprising the Ybor City Navy. Following a brief battle involving water hoses and the brandishing of loaves of Cuban bread, the Navy ship surrenders to the Alcalde of Ybor City, hired by Gasparilla to leave the city defenseless. Thus emboldened, a few days before the invasion and parade, Ye Mystic Krewe pirates kidnap Tampa’s mayor, and to the delight of onlookers and local media, demand the city’s surrender. Sternly, the mayor refuses, casting the pirates out. They depart, grumbling and proclaiming they’ll be back to take what they came for. Like clockwork, on the appointed Saturday morning, they make good on their threat, churning across Tampa Bay and up the channel on the Jose Gasparilla II, a fully rigged, 147-foot flat-bottomed ship (christened in 1954 with, appropriately, a bottle of Jamaican rum). With tugboats propelling her along and colorful flags flying, the ship full of pirates clogging the deck, hanging from the rigging, and laying waste to 100 cases of beer (while
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Gasparilla season, stretching from the dawn of the new year through mid-March, is an economic powerhouse, generating upwards of $40 million from a string of events visited by roughly 1 million people. testing the capacity of the onboard restrooms) makes its way to the Tampa Convention Center, escorted by a flotilla of small private craft numbering in the hundreds. Once docked, around noon, the pirates spill out; again, the pirate captain demands the mayor hand over the key to the city. That business completed, the Parade of Pirates, a four-mile-long affair of conquest along Bayshore Boulevard, commences with dozens of area krewes joining YMCG. Strolling beside or riding one of the nearly 90 floats, leering brigands and their ladies fair fling necklaces of colorful beads, gold doubloons, and other souvenirs to a cheering throng annually estimated at 300,000, making it the third best-attended parade in America (trailing only the Rose Parade and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade). While organizers urge bead-flingers to take care with their aim, countless necklaces sail over the crowd into Tampa Bay. Divers annually retrieve beads by the hundreds from the bay’s mucky depths, but they miss a lot, a fact exposed twice in recent years when hurricanes Irma and Ian sucked water from the bay, exposing its sparkling bottom. Area residents get a taste of the pirate hijinks to come the Saturday before the invasion and Parade of Pirates with the Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza, billed as a family-friendly and ostensibly sober event. Unlike Invasion Day, no alcohol is sold along the parade route. The offspring of krewe members join their parents aboard floats as junior pirates-in-themaking. The final parade of the season, the Sant’Yago Illuminated Knight Parade, winds through Ybor City in mid-February, usually two weeks after the Parade of Pirates. But wait. There’s more. Among the more notable events of Gasparilla season are the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, the Gasparilla Distance Classic (a footrace), and the Gasparilla Film Festival. Expanding the pirates’ footprint into December, the Gasparilla Bowl college football game is played at Raymond James Stadium a couple of days before Christmas. Over the years, Gasparilla has grown and matured to the point that it offers something for everyone, making the words of a beaming Mayor Curtis Hixon from 1950 as accurate now as they were then: Gasparilla, he said, is “Tampa’s greatest day of joy … but also the city’s most important medium of goodwill.”
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Area residents get a taste of the pirate hijinks to come the Saturday before the invasion and Parade of Pirates with the Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza, billed as a family-friendly event. The offspring of krewe members join their parents aboard floats as junior pirates-in-the-making.
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broo ks and coll ier FOUR GENERATIONS OF INSPIRING PRODUCTS
GREG & KIM 3rd Generation
By Denise DuBois Four generations have worked to make Brooks and Collier, located in Huntsville, Alabama, what it is today. The store began as a Feed and Seed in 1946 on Brown Street in Downtown Huntsville. T.E. Brooks and Ernest Collier wanted to bring Purina feed to the city. At the time, Huntsville was a sleepy cotton town. The store was successful, and in the 1960s, the duo expanded their business and moved to a larger location on Washington Street. By the time Earnest decided to retire, T.E.’s son Billy had joined the business. In 1968, Billy Brooks purchased Brooks and Collier. “It was real farm based back in the 70s,” said Greg Brooks, Billy’s son. “There were a lot of big farmers, and everybody did business on credit.” Greg remembers going to the store as a young boy. The family even used the store’s address for school. He remembers his dad cooking breakfast in the apartment above the store. It was furnished as if someone was living there. “School employees would come and inspect it, give them a wink, and let it slide”, he said. Greg probably had other ideas on what he wanted to do with his life, but the family business sticks with you. “It gets in your blood, I guess,” he said. “My son, Foster, is in it now. It just sucks you in.” In 1985, the store was moved to its current location on Meridian Street. In 1987, Doris, Billy’s wife, opened a second location. Billy added a garden center and began selling trees, shrubs, and planters along with his seed. They also introduced outdoor furniture and a mix of indoor accessories. Greg took over in 1993. He and his wife Kim renovated the building, expanded the nursery, and began traveling the world to bring one-of-a-kind pieces to the store. “We try to entice people to buy things they haven’t seen anywhere else. We bring fresh and new items in a friendly atmosphere. We create an environment here that helps customers see the pieces in their space,” Greg said. “I enjoy the furniture part of it. We hunt for the unusual.” And his customers become like family. “It’s less transactional and more about relationships. It’s crazy how many folks I’ve got that are really good friends that I may never have met if it weren’t for the business,” he said. Now that Foster is working there, Greg hopes he’ll take over one day soon. “I’d like to go fishing,” Greg said.
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LUCY
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FOSTER 4th Generatio
IVY
Brooks and Collier is celebrating 75 years of bringing unique indoor and outdoor decor to Huntsville, Ala. The store opened in 1946 and has four generations of family members serving customers. Brooks and Collier specializes in indoor and outdoor furniture, one-of-a-kind pieces from all over the world, grills, plants, lighting, and so much more. Pictured far left: Earnest Collier, T.E. Brooks, and Billy Brooks pose for a photo. At left: a young Greg Brooks sits on his father Billy’s shoulders in front of the Washington Street store. Photos provided by Greg Brooks. Above: The third and fourth generations of family now run the store. Photo by The Scout Guide Huntsville.
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Foster Brooks, the next generation of Brooks to take over the family business, shares his tips for making your garden and flowers winter ready. 1. Tackle the weeds! “Before a cold winter, usually the south finds weeks with much rain. With that comes many weeds. Tackle the weed boxes to keep the beds looking fresh.” 2. Out with the debris. “Get all the debris out of the base of boxwoods, the crown root does not like this time of year.’ 3. Insecticide. “You can apply systemic insecticide this time of year to get ahead of the upcoming season for insects.” 4. Thin it out. “Thinning out boxwoods this time of year to let more light in is never a bad idea. This will help for a healthy growth in future.” Pictured are plants from Brooks and Collier’s greenhouse.
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burning the land
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A MORNING WITH AIDAN CORNELISON, WILDLAND FIREFIGHTER Story by Mary Dansak Recently I found myself sitting on the porch talking with my friend Aidan Cornelison, a Wildland Firefighter with the Talladega National Forest. While I thought I understood the basics of what she did, I learned there was much more going on in her world than putting out fires. Fire is considered one of the “Four Threats” to the health of the nation’s forests, the others being invasive species, loss of open spaces, and unmanaged recreation. Still, much of Aidan’s work with the Forest Service involves setting fires. Far from an arsonist, Aidan and her crew maintain the health of our forests through prescribed burns. “Fire is a natural component in Alabama forests,” Aidan explained. “It’s part of the ecosystem, like flooding, drought, and wind events.” Integral to the nutrient supply as well as the structure of a forest, fires from lightning strikes are part of an ancient and robust life cycle of an Alabama forest. “We can’t rely on lightning, however,” Aidan said. “We don’t have a lot of expansive areas here where a fire can just burn and burn and put itself out naturally. Alabama has more private land, and so many structures we don’t want destroyed. We still want the ecological benefits of burning, so that leads us to a prescribed fire, sometimes called a controlled burn, which is the intentional burning of a specific piece of forest for our specific management objectives.” I was impressed with Aidan’s quick and exact definition of a prescribed fire. It turns out Aidan is a fire leader, meaning she not only manages crews but has an active role in fire leadership and education. As the name implies, a prescribed fire has just that: a prescription. This prescription includes those things fire managers can control, such as the crew, the equipment, the area to be burned, and the timing; but also things they cannot control like relative humidity, wind, temperature, and other weather parameters. If any part of the prescription is not in line, the burn will not take place. “We don’t want a fire to burn too hot and get out of control, or burn too cold and not accomplish our ecological objectives for the burn,” she added. “We want to simulate a natural event in a safe environment.” Most of my understanding of prescribed fire was as a firesuppression tool, with regular clearing of the underbrush reducing the chances for raging wildfires. Of course, there’s more to the story. Aidan explained that regular burning returns precious nutrients to the soil, making a healthier home for native plants. Some seeds need bare soil to germinate, with fire providing such a landing spot. Fire creates open spaces for sunlight to reach seedlings. Even our beloved pitcher plants need fire to reduce competition and to release nutrients from the bogs. “We’re a fire adapted species ourselves,” Aidan said. “Imagine a beautiful piece of land. Maybe it’s a prairie full of wildflowers. Maybe
an open park with trees spread out, or a tract of forest you can walk in. These are all fire-maintained landscapes. Even our food crops evolved in fire-managed ecosystems.” My eyes focus on the woods behind Aidan. Our wooded acre is barely walkable. After 20 years of neglect, invasive species have taken over, with Autumn olive being the one I detest most. Although this property, being inside the city limits, is not a candidate for burning, Aidan and her husband Joseph Jenkins, also a certified Wildland Firefighter, have taken on the task of restoring a parcel of overgrown rural family property with fire. “Walk me through the succession,” I say. Aidan describes the property before burning as a degraded woodland, with no place for animals to forage, a severe invasion of non-native plant species, and a generally unproductive forest. “One of the most difficult things about fire management is that the places that need fire the most are the most difficult to burn,” she said. “Unfortunately, people have historically planted invasives that impede fire like Autumn olive, wisteria, and privet.” While the native plants are fire-adapted, meaning they will burn while benefiting from fire, these invasives are usually fire resistant. When their canopy gets big enough to shade out native forbs and grasses that would carry the fire, it cannot travel through the forest. Thus, before fire can do its work, the fire crew has to cut back the heavy brush and prepare the land for burning. Aidan is handy with a chainsaw. “Now imagine an area where the mid-story is opened up, allowing sunlight to come through. With sunlight, the native grasses grow, and now the area is ready to burn.” I smile, looking forward to the next step. If all goes as planned, the restoration burn will clear up those thick-stemmed branches of the invasive plants. While appearing as an unattractive, burned forest, in time we will see the return of native plants like red buckeye, American bluehearts, purple passionflower, and other wildflowers. That of course means a return of animal species who feed on these plants as well. I feel enthusiastic anticipation of this place she describes. Aidan continues our time-travel journey, explaining that with more sunlight reaching the forest floor, and soils enriched by nutrients, trees will begin to grow. However, over time leaf and pine litter will build up, thicker and thicker, and we may see the return of invasives like the dreaded Autumn olive. “Fire is not a one-time thing,” Aidan reminds me. “Just as it would be in nature, a fire-adapted ecosystem is cyclical.” The spark in Aidan’s eyes as she talks about the restorative property of fire is bright. “I love what I do,” she says. “There is a primal satisfaction in working with fire.” “I’m always listening to fire,” she concludes. “You have to be a student of fire to work with it.”
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Aidan Cornelison, a Wildland Firefighter with the Talladega National Forest, talks about the ecological benefits of a prescribed burn.
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Aidan Cornelison explained that regular burning returns precious nutrients to the soil, making a healthier home for native plants. Some seeds need bare soil to germinate, with fire providing such a landing spot. Fire creates open spaces for sunlight to reach seedlings. Even pitcher plants need fire to reduce competition and to release nutrients from the bogs.
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Jeptha Cree d
MOTHER-DAUGHTER DUO USE BLOODY BUTCHER CORN TO CREATE UNIQUE FLAVORS Story by Denise DuBois From “ground to glass” - the family motto at Jeptha Creed distillery in Kentucky. Owned and operated by mother-and-daughter duo Joyce and Autumn Nethery, Jeptha Creed sits on 64 acres of farmland cultivated in the natural grown ingredients used in all of their products. Those products include bourbon, vodka, moonshine, and limited-edition brandy. What they can’t grow themselves, they get from other farms in the area, but the secret to their success is the corn. “What makes us stand out is our corn,” said Joyce. “We grow all the corn we use. It’s an heirloom variety called Bloody Butcher Corn. It makes the alcohol different. It has a beautiful, unique flavor profile you can’t get with yellow corn. It has an earthiness. It makes me think of Kentucky soil. When I smell the bourbon, it puts me in a happy place where I think of blue skies and white clouds, green grass and sunshine.” The duo admits they’re a bit of control freaks. That’s why they want to grow their own ingredients. It allows them to experiment, and over time those experiments are aging up in such a way that they can taste the flavors that come from their efforts.
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As for the vodka, they make original, honey, blueberry, hot pepper, and coffee flavors. “The hot is the top selling vodka,” Autumn said. But for her favorite, she gravitates more toward the blueberry because it’s more versatile in a cocktail. All their vodka is naturally flavored, with no added sugar – something that Autumn thinks makes them unique. Jeptha Creed’s moonshine also comes in different flavors, including cinnamon, blackberry, apple pie, and lemonade. While some of the flavors of moonshine do have added sugar, all of them are still naturally flavored. The family has been in the farming business for generations. The Nethery family owns around 1,000 acres throughout Shelby County, which includes the distillery property and their home farm. The 64 acres that make up the distillery property are covered in crops that are producing the grain, corn, fruits, and other ingredients that will go straight into the Jeptha Creed bourbon, vodka, moonshine, and brandy. The lines of trees are not just to provide a scenic touch. They bear apples, pears, pecans, apricots, and cherries. There are rows and rows of budding raspberries, figs, kiwi, blackberries, blueberries, chocolate
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Mother-and-daughter duo Joyce and Autumn Nethery own Jeptha Creed, a ground to glass distillery in Kentucky. They use Bloody Butcher Corn to make their spirits.
mint, peppermint, spearmint, strawberries, and basil—even beehives for honey. Joyce, with a passion for chemistry, earned her Master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Louisville’s Speed Scientific School. For 15 years, she worked as a process engineer in industrial scale distillation. She then spent a decade teaching high school chemistry and physics before her husband Bruce’s dream of opening a distillery reignited her passion for the distillation process. Autumn spent a year at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, studying the craft with some of the best distillers in the world to truly ignite her passion. Now Autumn is among the youngest distillery owners in the country. Using what she learned traveling abroad with Semester at Sea, as well as through her studies at the University of Kentucky, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in
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marketing, Autumn’s dream is to expand Jeptha Creed’s reach into every state, while still maintaining the “family feel” that the distillery is known for. “The whole family is involved, and everyone is contributing to the business. We all get along, and it’s a lot of fun to be able to do something that is so iconic to Kentucky,” Joyce said. That’s what she loves most about the business – working with her family. Autumn agrees that today, there are more women in the business than a decade ago, but she added that everyone she has met wants everyone to succeed together. “We all work together and make sure everyone succeeds,” she said. Both love the history of the farm and being part of Kentucky’s history of bourbon. They aim to continue being authentic to the area and making the best “ground to glass” spirits for their customers.
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Jeptha Creed sits on 64 acres of farmland cultivated with the naturally grown ingredients used in all of their products. Those products include bourbon, vodka, moonshine, and limited-edition brandy. It is located at 500 Gordon Lane, Shelbyville, Kentucky 40065.
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APPLE SAUCED 2 Bottles Jeptha Creed Apple Pie Moonshine 1 Gallon Apple Cider 16oz Brown Sugar Simple 10 Dashes Ne Oublie Black Walnut Bitters Cinnamon Sticks
Build into a crock pot on low heat. Introduce 2-3 cinnamon sticks and allow to warm, stirring occasionally. Serve in a mug and garnish with a cinnamon stick.
BLOODY BUTCHER TODDY 1.5 oz Jeptha Creed Bottled-In-Bond Rye Bourbon .5 oz Jeptha Creed Cinnamon Moonshine .5 oz Lemon Juice 2-3 tbsp Honey 4-5 oz Hot Water
Combine spirits, lemon, and honey in mug. Stir in the hot water and continue stirring until all of the honey has dissolved. Our Take: I was excited to make this drink because we’ve had several freezing days this winter. I was ready to get warm. I had to go on a little hunt for the walnut bitters, and I’m not sure if the kind of apple cider I used would affect the taste, but I assembled it confidently. I waited (rather im)patiently for the fragrant cider to heat in my crockpot so I could fill my mug. I may have even spooned it out with a ladle for the first taste. At first, the applely warmth was all I could focus on, but then the richness of the moonshine came through. The bitters were a nice touch, and I love adding a cinnamon stick to any drink this time of year. It was delicious and reminds me of sitting by a fire in the cold air, my breath making a little puff. That is the perfect time to sip on this delicious Apple Sauced cocktail. I made way too much and bottled the rest and put it in the fridge for another cold night.
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Our Take: I tasted the bourbon first. Yall, it’s strong, and I liked it. I also took a little sip of the moonshine before I added it to the toddy. The cinnamon filled my mouth with its hot flavor. I used local honey, too, because of its health benefits. I frequently add local honey to my hot tea in the morning, and I was excited to try it in this drink. All the ingredients made the bourbon smoother. That’s fantastic for someone who thinks bourbon is too strong for them. I didn’t taste much of the cinnamon in the moonshine. It was more of an after taste with the warmth of the drink. This flavorful toddy is unlike anything I’ve ever sipped, but I’m officially a fan of warm cocktails! I’ll enjoy it all winter along with a good book and wrapped in a warm blanket.
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matt er of time Story by Katharyn Privett-Duren
For all it’s worth, New Year’s Eve meant very little to me until my hair began to fade to white. Oh, I loved the bubbles of champagne and the sparkling reprieve from winter’s bluster, but as an academic: I knew that there was a decided lack of evidence for the theoretical solidness of time. And so, as the midnight hour struck and drove bursts of confetti into the night air of Alabama, I would toast to the whimsy of the tradition and retreat to my bed, post-haste. Somehow, time marched on as I slept, regardless of my faith in it. Certainly, humankind noted these moments to cure the abstraction of it all, marking them in order that they might harbor memory, life, and meaning. Kierkegaard would have approved of my position, I knew, and so I stopped celebrating the first of January altogether. And then, I found my gran’s watch. It had been tossed amongst the pins, cocktail umbrellas, and the bits and pieces of living that held no tangible value after her death. My fingers stretched the elastic band, an act born of tactile memory, as I was transported back to 1960-something: her hand on mine, quieting my squirm against a church pew, the steady tick of her watch counting down the minutes to freedom. She had worn it while making biscuits, shoved far up her forearm to avoid the fluff of flour. Her finger had tapped its circular glass window to measure my contractions, little beats against the hours that would bring forth her first great-grandchild. Embedded just at the winding post was a flit of gray string, marking a hasty retreat from her favorite sweater—perhaps, I hoped, just after hearing the phone ring on her way back from the garden. Was it me on the other end? I wished it so with all of my heart. Her weathered Timex had stopped marking her work, her coffee time, and her soap opera rituals at exactly 6:30. I wondered if she had known that moment, if she had thrown it into a drawer in hopes of repair, if it had slipped into the soapy water of dinner dishes, if she had loved it too much to dispatch it altogether. The blur between the life that it had marked and its journey to my own hand was a rough saccade, and when it finally became still, my memories flushed into the space and filled it with the sweetness of her. A chronostasis of sorts
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had hitched up the buckle and bump of all that had been, mending the wound with the smell of bread and butter, cedar and hand salve. And in that moment, all that had been of her nestled neatly in the palm of my hand. I never attempted to mend the watch. Time had wound down for my gran, leaving the rest of us to mind the hour. And yet, it remains in my jewelry box, somehow louder in its permanent pause. It is of no consequence that the arms of my gran’s watch no longer pull themselves together, nor apart. They had done so for long enough, winding their way through the pulse of her life with no regard to the waning of it. I inherited only a broken clock—a technological artifact created to tame an otherwise chaotic life. Yet, it was within this silent relic that life was captured in all its minuteness. Whether it be sunwise or widdershins (the olden terms for clockwise and counterclockwise), the spin of a clock’s hands reaches towards the places along the way where we have loved, lost, and stood against the rain. It is only in the noting of its passage, I now concede, that time becomes exquisitely, viscerally real. As the countdown begins to tick across the leftover tinsel and ribbon of another December, I find myself traversing back through the hills and valleys of the past. My own clock chimes against the dimming of the day, pulling me further into almost forgotten Januarys. In that pendulum swing toward a shiny, unmarked calendar, I can hear the ticking of my heart—and with it, the echo of all those who have loved me. In the end, I will honor my southern roots. As the world rings in 2023, I will lay out platters of cocktail shrimp and spoon chicken salad into miniature phyllo cups. Our tree will still be all aglow, providing the only real light as my husband attempts to avoid the emergency room by popping the first cork into my favorite kitchen towel. Someone will beg for sparklers in those last breaths before the clock strikes twelve, and we will gather in the dark of the yard to count: ten, nine, eight . . . We will shout it together, in widdershins fashion, until sunrise brings us back again. Somewhere between that moment and the next, our laughter will leave something of itself—breadcrumbs of a sort—for my children to follow back into the past and find us there. And I hope that with everything that I can muster. Even so, the Gregorian calendar doesn’t hold much weight for me as I grow older. I continue to be unconvinced that we have somehow wrangled time into neatly numbered boxes through which a measured continuum can, or even would, exist. It is (I maintain) only a beautiful dream. And yet, for just one night, the gears and spindles of that dream will find safe harbor in our hearts, carving the downbeat of those who have come before. There, if winter’s wind is benevolent, the call of “Auld Lang Syne” will ask us to remember the vestiges of yesterday before they are swept away by an alarm clock and the worry of morning. We will lean into those fresh hours, brushing our stretch against the sky, as if painting a memory for someone else to hold. It is a worthy endeavor. For, as a broken watch once taught me, it’s only a matter of time.
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Winter 2023 | 93
mama said
TIME, SLOW DOWN Story by Leslie Anne Jones
Nothing quite marks the passage of time like a child’s birthday. One minute you’re cradling them in your arms, rocking them at 3 AM. The next you’re telling them no you can’t wear makeup to church. You look back over pictures and see how much they’ve aged. And how much they’ve aged you. The other day, I was speaking to a friend and said, I can’t believe my daughter is about to be five years old! She paused, turned to me, and said Leslie Anne, you’ve been a mama for FIVE years! A mama for five years. That put it into perspective. It feels like just yesterday, I arrived home from the hospital with her, shocked that they would just let me leave with a baby. I had no idea what I was doing. Five years later and I still don’t really. But you learn along the way. And just when you think you’ve got one thing figured out, you enter a new phase and have no idea what you’re doing all over again. Mistakes have been made, but hopefully, I got some things right too. The old saying is true. The days are long, but the years are short. Ask any mom, 42 or 92, and they will tell you the same thing. Five years. Wow. I look back at those pictures from the hospital. Press my finger down to play the Live Photos on my phone. Hear her little squeaking and the first words I spoke to her in the delivery room: “I love you so much.” That has never changed. And never will. No matter the passing of time.
94 | Winter 2023
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Winter 2023 | 95
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