okra. Issue 8, 2019 Preview

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Display Until April 30, 2019

Display until November 12, 2019

FOOD & FELLOWSHIP Keeping food traditions alive in Alabama’s Black Belt ON A ROLL Hand rolled cigars grown in the South

C U L T U R E

CONRAD & HINKLE A working legacy in Lexington, NC CASTING LIFE Up close and personal with blues legends

T

ISSUE NO. 8T

2019

the trip is just the start of the journey.

Shrimp Festival October 10-13

GULF SHORES & ORANGE BEACH TOURISM Alabama’s White-Sand Beaches Something extraordinary happens in a place where time slows down and the sugar white sand stretches endlessly for miles.

Oyster Cook-Off November 1-2 Songwriters’ Festival November 7-17

GulfShores.com/Keep-On-Summering 877-341-2400

WHO SAYS SUMMER HAS TO END?

This year, treat yourself to a second summer. It’s as easy as a trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast where the sugar-white sand stays warm and the turquoise waters still beckon well into fall. Claim your secluded spot on our beautiful, expansive beaches where the Gulf breezes gently blow long after the summer crowds have gone. Here, you can keep right on summering. And at reduced, off-season rates.

Fall is the perfect season to connect and slow down together. Off the beach, hike or bike miles of scenic backcountry trails that wind through nine different ecosystems. Kayak or paddleboard along quiet bayous. Go dolphin-spotting, take a dinner cruise, or unwind at a spa. Play a round of golf on one of our 14 challenging courses. Or, experience unique hands-on adventures at various attractions that explore the natural environment, cuisine, history and culture native to our area.

Romantic waterfront dining and local haunts offer the freshest Gulf seafood and legendary signature dishes. Festivals showcasing our unique cuisine and culinary reputation are also in full swing. Then there are the sunsets, which happen to be at their most stunning this time of year. You’ll find great rates on beachfront condos, hotels, colorful houses and cozy cottages dotting the shoreline that will make your fall escape even more appealing.

Start Planning Your Second Summer Now. Visit GulfShores.com to get started and get your free Gulf Shores & Orange Beach vacation guide.

GulfShores.com/Keep-On-Summering | 877-341-2400

52: FADING FUTURE

Tangier Island is in jeopardy of losing not only their shores, but their livelihood

62: FOOD & FELLOWSHIP Keeping local food traditions alive in Alabama’s Black Belt

STORIES

70: CASTING LIFE

This artist gets up close and personal with the blues

78: HORN ISLAND

Discover Mississippi’s unique and unspoiled island wilderness

88: DEARLY DEPARTED Cemeteries offer glimpses of those who lived before us

Photography by Tyler Darden

CHAPTERS EDITORIAL

TO DINE SOUTHERN

PG 8: EDITOR’S LETTER

PG 34: THE SOUTHERN TABLE

Where we find the Hidden South

A pimento cheese convert’s take on his mother’s fried chicken

PG 14: MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Coffee house in Richmond, Virginia is a shining light for those in need of a beacon

PG 39: GATHERINGS

PG 132: MAGEE’S SOUTHERN ACCENT

PG 46: ON OUR PL ATE

Serving heritage food at a garden party Chef Scott Serpas dishes up the tastes of summer

Filé gumbo and a miracle fiddle get together for an all together good time

PG 48: IN OUR GL ASS

Saint Leo’s Lounge delivers with a punch

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133

18 SOUTHERN COMFORTS

A ROAD LESS TRAVELED

PG 18: ON A ROLL

PG 122: WANDERING

Handmade cigars from the South

PG 22: BY SOUTHERN HANDS You’ll want these finds made by locals

PG 26: PAGES

Storyteller Eric Litwin wants to have a disco party....with you

PG 28: LISTEN UP

Discover new birding adventures on an old road along Mississippi’s Natchez Trace Parkway

100

New Orleans’ favorite sons, The Subdudes, are back with a new album

SOUTHERN SNAPSHOTS

PG 30: LOOK FOR

PG 100: ALONG THE ROAD

Mississippi songsmith and sonic advernturer Ben Ricketts

PG 128: FIND YOURSELF

What to do in Columbia, South Carolina

PG 133: SOMETHING ELSE

A wacky wonderland where the only thing ordinary is extraordinary

PG 138: WHERE WE WENT

Reece Farm and Heritage Center in Blairsville, Georgia is an ode to a farmer and poet

Keeping the family legacy alive at Conrad & Hinkle in Lexington, North Carolina

PG 106: SOUTHERN C HARACTER Mississippi’s “quacky” Daniel Magee

PG 110: L AY OF THE L AND

Our readers submit photos of their special Southern places and people

FRONT COVER

Cooling water on a hot Southern day.

Photography by i love images

5

home grown & off the grid map it out:

product list:

Find a Retailer Near You

CHAPTER 1

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

17

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

S T Y L E

ON A ROLL NEVER TELL A SOUTHERNER SOMETHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. THEY’LL JUST PROVE YOU WRONG Written by Julian Brunt Some things are just better by being Southern made. Lots of good examples

soil it is grown in, to the humidity during drying; but the final act of rolling

come to mind, like smooth Kentucky bourbon, Chattanooga Bakery made

the cigar is as important as any other step. That’s why Southern Tab tobacco

Moon Pies, sweet sorghum molasses, and Louisiana Tabasco are all easy ex-

is shipped to the Dominican Republic, where workers famed for their skills in

amples, but would you be surprised if I added cigars to that list?

cigar rolling make their magic happen. Michael is working to have his cigars

If you are a cigar aficionado, or perhaps even a sommelier of cigars, you prob-

produced completely in the South, but that may take a little while. Rolling

ably know that America hasn’t grown cigar tobacco, like Broadleaf or Sumatra,

is a complicated process, and it takes skilled hands to make it happen. A

for years, and that most good leaf comes

good torcedor, the Cuban term for a ci-

from Central America and the Caribbean.

gar roller, or “one who twists, “can make

But times do change, and Michael Peters,

a cigar in just a few minutes, but that’s

a Southerner through and through, was the

after years of practice. Hand rolled cigars

man to make that change happen.

are more expensive and use different

Michael was supposed to be a grooms-

kinds of fillers, the tobacco rolled inside

man in a friend’s wedding and wanted to

the cigar. Machine rolled cigars tend to

do something special. He decided the best

burn hotter and faster because they use

way to celebrate was by handing out great

stems and pieces. The binders, the leaf

cigars, Southern made of course. When

that actually holds the cigar together, are

searching for good cigars made with South-

different as well. Machine rolled cigars

ern grown tobacco he was met with laugh-

are held together with ground tobacco,

ter, no good cigar tobacco has been grown

whereas hand rolled use whole leaves.

in the American South for years he was told.

If you love a good cigar, you know that

At that moment, the gauntlet was thrown

there is a world of difference between

down and just two years later Southern Tab

the two.

was up and running making the very cigars

Cigars have different flavor profiles, just

Michael had dreamed of. Michael’s goal

like a good wine or bottle of bourbon. The

was to “create a premium hand-rolled cigar,

cigars that Southern Tab are making to-

filled with tobacco grown in the American

day, the American Sportsman, is a mild

South (not South America). And to save a

to medium cigar with flavors of nutmeg,

few American tobacco farms in the process.” All lofty goals, to be sure.

white pepper, oak, leather, almond, and finishes with a hint of sweet tea. Light

Today, Southern Tab cigars are made with tobacco grown in the Black Patch

one up, practice your retrohale, not inhaling, but letting the pressure in your

region of Kentucky, the Northern Piedmont of North Carolina and the Ches-

lungs force the smoke out of your mouth, and enjoy its complexity. Don’t rush

apeake region of Virginia, but it is not an easy process. Tobacco takes six to

through it, enjoy the moment.

eight weeks to mature from seedlings, then it is harvested and dried the old

Next year Southern Tab is working to introduce a new, slightly darker blend

fashioned way, hung to dry in wooden barns, which takes another four to eight

made with Georgia leaf and plans to create a new product line of loose tobacco

weeks, and only then are they bundled for shipment.

for pipes. As Michael puts it, these new products “will have tastes and aromas

Every detail of the process of making a good cigar is important, from the

indicative of the South.”

19

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

EVERY DETAIL OF THE PROCESS OF MAKING A GOOD IN, TO THE HUMIDITY DURING DRYING, TO

Top left: Inspecting dried tobacco leaves. Top center: Peters (l) and farmer Blake Pearson (r) planted Burley tobacco plugs on Pearson’s farm, Southern Cross in Meriweather Co., GA. It’s weather Co. GA Bottom center: Hand rolling is a complicated process, and takes skilled hands to make it happen. Bottom right: Hand rolled cigars are more expensive and use whole

We have no idea what the cigars the Native Americans smoked tasted like,

Most cigars are enjoyed in a moment of leisure, but Michael insists that

but cigars have been around for a long time. Tobacco was a gift to the Europe-

they are best in a moment of celebration. The classic Southern moments,

ans from the native people of Mesoamerica and South America, so we know

rare as they are, like the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, or the Masters

where it began, and we do have physical evidence in the form of ceramic

Tournament in Augusta, are made for a good cigar, but more everyday events,

pots that depict Native American people smoking tobacco. The enjoyment of

like a wedding, birthday or anniversary will do just fine. Southern Tab will even

tobacco quickly spread around the world after the arrival of the Europeans and

customize cigars for your special event, with a label announcing the occasion.

could be found in France as early as the middle 1500s.

20 okramagazine.com

ISSUE NO. 8

Southern Tab cigars can be purchased on-line but you can find a few re-

CIGAR IS IMPORTANT, FROM THE SOIL IT IS GROWN THE FINAL ACT OF ROLLING THE CIGAR.

the first Burley tobacco grown in Georgia commercially in over fifty years. Top right: 19th century tobacco curing barn being used in Quincy, FL Bottom left: Field of Burley tobacco in Merileaves. Machine rolled will contain stems and ground tobacco. Opposite Right: American Sportsman is a mild to medium cigar with flavors of nutmeg, white pepper, oak, leather, almond, and hint of sweet tea.

tailers in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky and Florida who carry

So, celebrate life when the moment is right. Moisten the head, rotate the

them, and I suspect more will join the ranks soon. Men’s haberdasheries and

cigar as you light it, then wait for a good red glow, puff lightly and enjoy. Pair a

Southern boutiques are where he is hoping to land.

good cigar with a good cognac, or a good scotch, but as long as we are promot-

Michael Peters took the challenge head on, even when “the experts” told

ing all good things from the South, why don’t you make that a good bourbon?

him it couldn’t be done. He was inspired by other entrepreneurs, like Jim Koch of Samuel Adams beer. When Koch was told a good American-made beer just wasn’t possible, he proved them all wrong. Isn’t that the Southern spirit?

southerntab.com

21

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CHAPTER 3

STORIES

51

Shifting Tides EROSION ON TANGIER ISLAND IS THREATENING TO WASH THIS TINY SPECK OF LAND AWAY Written by Jennifer Kornegay / Photography by Tyler Darden

Waterman and Mayor, James “Ooker” Eskridge spoke with President Donald Trump over the phone about the problem of erosion on the island.

Standing on one edge of Tangier Island with a wind-sculpted sand dune

rising waters, and the report focused on Trump’s high approval rating there.

at his back and small, slate-hued tongues of The Chesapeake Bay lapping

Wrapping up an on-camera interview with Eskridge, the reporter asked the

at the beach in front of him, Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge pulls a hand

mayor if there was anything he’d like to say to the president. “I said, ‘Yeah.

across his graying mustache as he explains how erosion is threatening to

I wanna tell him I love him like family,” Eskridge says. Someone on the

wash this tiny speck of land away and why he and others are seeking outside

president’s staff saw the story and passed it on to him. A few days later, the

assistance.

mayor got a call. “I was out crabbin’ when my son drove his boat out to mine

On its eastern side, the island is disappearing at the rate of 10 to 15 feet every year. On its western side, a seawall built in 1989 has successfully

and said, ‘You gotta get home and get by your phone cause the president wants to talk to you.’ I said, ‘The president of what?’”

stopped the water’s landgrab, according to Eskridge. “We went from losing

President Trump’s office had called the mayor’s office and found out he

25-30 feet a year to zero,” he says. “So, it works. If we get a seawall on the

was working his other job – like so many of the island residents, Eskridge is

other side, we’ll be good. We’re very savable right now.”

a commercial fisherman – so they left word that the president would try him

While the town of Tangier Island can’t afford this additional seawall, Eskridge is optimistic. A few

at home a little later. “I really thought it was a joke,” Eskridge says. “But I went home and sure enough,

“

years ago, this plight was a

not long after, my phone rings,

THIS IS HOME. WE LOVE THE PLACE. WE LOVE THE WORK WE DO HERE. WE DON’T LIKE TO ASK FOR HELP, BUT WE CAN’T DO THIS OURSELVES.

concern mostly confined to Tangier’s few hundred residents. Then, several events combined to point an interna-

I answer, and I’m talking to Donald Trump in my kitchen.”

Eskridge says the president expressed his gratitude for his

“

tional spotlight on the island, and living up to his nickname, which he earned as a kid with his imitation of his pet rooster’s call — “It came out

and the island’s support and then the conversation turned to the island’s pressing problem. “I told him we’re still savable and what was needed. We

sounding like ‘ooker,’ and then that stuck on me,” he says — Eskridge took

talked about how I and others here are not onboard with the idea of sea level

full advantage of the publicity, crowing into a news microphone to turn a

rise being the issue,” Eskridge says.

powerful gaze to Tangier’s dilemma.

It’s a position, shared with the public at large via the media, that has

It began with the 2016 presidential election. More than 90 percent of

brought mockery and even anger down on Eskridge and the island. The in-

the island’s residents voted for Donald Trump (and many still, including

tensity had many residents blinking in dismay. Eskridge’s office was flooded

Eskridge, remain vocal supporters of the president). Multiple media outlets

with negative phone calls and letters, one that said everyone there deserved

found this fact intriguing. While there’s no question that Tangier is getting

to drown. “A lot of people have come and tried to change our minds on

smaller, there is debate surrounding the culprit. It’s the position of Eskridge

Donald Trump and different issues like climate change, and I found out two

and many islanders that it’s due to erosion. Most outsiders believe a rise in

things, if you support Donald Trump and question climate change, you are

sea levels caused by climate change is to blame for Tangier Island’s shrink-

hated by a lot of people,

ing size. To them, an island populace slowing being drowned by climate

and I don’t understand

change who overwhelming voted for a president who continually questions

that,” Eskridge says.

the causes and effects of climate change was a paradox that begged further

“You can vote differ-

exploration. The media sent reporters and cameramen to the island in droves

ent and have different

to dig a little deeper.

opinions on something

In spring 2017, CNN sent a crew to the island to do a story on sea levels, pointing to Tangier as a visible example of the destruction coming from

54 okramagazine.com

ISSUE NO. 8

and still be civil with each other.”

Top left: Neighbors meet in passing to discuss the state of the island.

Top center: Fried rockfish and handcut potato chips make for a great lunch at Firsherman’s Corner restaurant on Tangier Island.

Top right: Little grass cemetery lots punctuated with a mix of stark white and weathered grey tombstones dot the island, epitaths long worn away.

Botton: Flags and signs showing his support are proudliy on display at James Eskridge’s crab shack..

Despite this ire, Eskridge is not resentful. And today, he’s less worried about the island’s fate. “Things have accelerated since the phone call with the president. We’ve been in touch with the Secretary of Interior, and we are talking to people we would not be talking to if I had not talked to the president,” he says. “We’re going to get a section of the needed seawall next year, so things are moving along.”

The controversy swirling around its uncertain future has garnered the very attention that many Tangier residents believe could save it, and this is only the most recently written chapter in this isolated island community’s complex tale. It is by no means the spot’s only item of interest, something residents have long understood, and visitors have known for decades.

See For Yourself While the closest mainland is Maryland, Tangier Island is part of Virginia.

It was discovered by Captain John Smith in 1608. Local lore says it was settled about 70 years later by a man named John Crockett and his sons, but records show the first Crockett came in 1778. (Crockett is still one of the predominant family names on the island.) While its dimensions measure small, its rich history and proud people loom large. Reports like the ones compiled since the presidential election seem to show the residents at odds with their surroundings, but on the ground, that’s not in evidence. The only way to get any real sense of what’s at stake and who’s affected is by going to see for yourself.

A ferry runs regularly from Reedville, Virginia, a small town that once boasted the country’s highest per capita income thanks to a plentiful menhaden fishery and the prosperous processing and sale of its oil. At the scheduled time (don’t be late!), the Chesapeake Breeze inches its way out of the harbor and into Chesapeake Bay. During the 90-minute trip, the friendly captain delivers a Tangier Island history primer with relative enthusiasm, considering he’s no doubt recited it thousands of times. He explains how the 3-mile long, 1-mile wide island, which is three-quarters marshland, was once home to 1,500 people. Over the last century, the population has dwindled to approximately 450. He talks about Tangier’s receding shores and echoes the mayor about erosion being the cause.

When the lesson is done, there’s little to do for the duration of the journey but let white caps Top: Fried soft shell crab and crabcakes at Fisherman’s Corner Restaurant. Here you’ll find not only a crab heavy menu caught fresh from the waters around the island, but regional specialties like Virginia ham.

Center: The Bay View Inn stands among rows of cottages lining both sides of the island’s narrow streets.

Botton: Sandra Parks, manager at the Tangier Gas and Oil Company for 29 years, tabulates charges for customer’s accounts..

breaking on the bay’s dark surface lull you into relaxation. As the ferry nears the island, a slim cross atop a sharp steeple stands in silhou-

ette against the clouds; pointing heavenward, this pinnacle of the Methodist church makes it the tallest building on the island.

Getting closer still, proof of the most popular work and the island’s economic engine comes into view. Cage-like crab pots are stacked on the docks, and boats bounce in the ferry’s wake. Most islanders are crabbers in the summer and some turn to oysters in the winter, pulling their living from the very waters eating away at their island. Crab houses, where crabbers interrupt blue crab molting to harvest prized softshell crabs, line the bay banks.

The islanders’ proficiency in this has made Tangier the softshell crab capital of the world.

Once on solid ground, a golf cart tour will give you bearings before you set off exploring on your own. Claudia Parks might be your guide. She’s lived on the island all her life and loves welcoming the up to 300 tourists who swarm it daily during peak season (May through September). It’s little wonder most islanders are glad to greet guests: Right behind the wealth taken from the bay, tourism is now a major source of money on the island, and it’s only been on the rise after the recent media attention.

Parks narrates as she drives, her tidbits and trivia tumbling out in an ancient accent that some say is as close to Elizabethan English as exists anywhere anymore. Some words come quick, others are stretched with every letter, particularly vowels, pronounced and prolonged. When she points to the rows of cottages packed close on each side of the island’s narrow streets, she explains the tidy porches and “yo-ards” are a byproduct of the great “pri-ade” that Tangiermen and their families take in their homes. “We care a lot about this place, as I said before,” she says. About is “aboy-ute.” Said is “say-ed.”

She continues with a short civics class. Tangier has its mayor and six-member town council and one police officer. “We don’t have a jail, but we are part of Accomack County, so if there’s any problems, the perpetrator gets one-way ‘boy-ate’ ride to the Eastern Shore,” she says. “We don’t have a lot of problems, but sometimes we do have issues with alcohol. It is a dry island, but if you know where to look, it can get awfully wet awfully quick.

Yes, ‘inde-ead.’”

For its diminutive size, the island has more than its fair share of gift shops and restaurants to appease and feed tourists. Hilda Crockett’s Chesapeake House, open since the 1960s, offers a family style lunch of crab cakes (packed with blue crab fresh-plucked from the water a stone’s throw away) and other regional

Top: The island is losing more than just feet of land every year to the water, young island residents are leaving for college, decreasing its population.

“They are very anxious to start lives on the mainland,” Claudia Parks says. “They come back a lot to visit us, but most of them don’t come back to live.”

Bottom: Exterior of the Tangier Oil and Gas Company, the island’s supplier of diesel, gasoline and heating oil.

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