EDITOR’S LETTER

What started as a dream has turned into a reality.

Even though we’ve printed 12 issues, we still find it hard to believe it’s really happened. It started out as something we only talked about. What if we…What about…We could… There were so many “what abouts” it was hard to decide. We are friends, born and bred Southerners, and we love our South. Our professions have always been in the creative field, so we knew whatever we decided to do would have to be visually beautiful, interesting and, most importantly, Southern. But what would that “Southern” look like? Once we landed on a magazine, it became pretty clear to us that we wanted to be “real”. We wanted to tell the stories of the real people in the South. We would only tell stories from within the South. There’s so much here, why would you need to go somewhere else for a story? You know, when you listen, you find out people

“NEVER LIMIT YOURSELF BECAUSE OF have the most interesting stories. And it’s not

OTHERS’ LIMITED IMAGINATION; NEVER just the people. The places where we live are so

LIMIT OTHERS BECAUSE OF YOUR OWN charming, beautiful, and interesting. And let’s LIMITED IMAGINATION.” not forget the many “interesting” things to see. Mae Jemison There is so much great food to eat, whether you want to make it yourself or go try a new place to dine. And we know, everything about the South isn’t great. But it’s still our South and our story as Southerners. While we are committed to a better South, we felt it was important not to lose sight of our diverse culture and its traditions. It’s who we are. It’s where we’re from and where we live. And we decided to celebrate all of this on its pages. But what would we call our magazine? It needed a name to reflect its Southern roots. What’s more Southern than okra? So, here we are–okra. Real Southern Culture. We literally started from nothing. Looking back, it was obvious we didn’t know as much as we thought we did. But we kept moving forward, spurred with the desire to create something we loved, and hoped y’all would, too. When the first issue was released, y’all bought it and subscribed and told us how much you loved it. Then we found out we were named in the top 20 Hottest Magazines Launched in 2017. It seemed validation and we kept moving forward. So, here we are. With the printing of this issue, we begin our next 12. Yes, it’s sometimes hard to believe we’ve done it, but when you dream anything is possible.

Scott Speakes // Publisher Genie Gaither Jones // Editor-in-Chief

CHAPTER 1

SOUTHERN COMFORTS