The Food We Eat, the Stories We Tell: Contemporary Appalachian Tables

by Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt (Editor), Lora E. Smith (Editor)

Blue Ridge tacos, kimchi with soup beans and cornbread, family stories hiding in cookbook marginalia, African American mountain gardens—this wide-ranging anthology considers all these and more. Diverse contributors show us that contemporary Appalachian tables and the stories they hold offer new ways into understanding past, present, and future American food practices. The poets, scholars, fiction writers, journalists, and food professionals in these pages show us that what we eat gives a beautifully full picture of Appalachia, where it’s been, and where it’s going. Courtney Balestier, Jessie Blackburn, Karida L. Brown, Danille Elise Christensen, Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Michael Croley, Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt, Robert Gipe, Suronda Gonzalez, Emily Hilliard, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Abigail Huggins, Erica Abrams Locklear, Ronni Lundy, George Ella Lyon, Jeff Mann, Daniel S. Margolies, William Schumann, Lora E. Smith, Emily Wallace, Crystal Wilkinson

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Essays, Folklore

218 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2019

Reviews

[Liz Matheny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best essay collection I’ve read in such a long time. Can’t wait to use many of these with my students!!

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may be biased 😜

[John Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wide-angle view of the food and culture of Appalachia. As a native West Virginian, the tales of mountain food made me hunger for soup beans and cornbread and pepperoni rolls while the stories of food from immigrants past and present informed me of the Appalachian of others. This is a good read for any Appalachian or any person who loves learning about food culture of America past and present.

[Melissa Helton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. There is a good variety of writers and pieces (some researched essays, some family memoir, some poetry). What I appreciate about this is how the editors seem to have made a deliberate effort to show some of the wide diversity of Appalachian food ways. It seems the first 50 years of Appalachian lit was just getting our regional voice acknowledged, by demanding the story of Appalachia be told by actual Appalachians, and now, in this 50 years we're trying to show the world that we aren't a homogenous, monolithic, one note region. That there is diversity and subtlety. That the Korean immigrant mother raising kids here is creating Appalachian food traditions as much as the mother whose family has been in the same county for 5 generations. A beautiful study of the region, and a reiteration of how important food is to culture, community, economy, families, and life itself.

[Georgia Herod · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays on two of my favorite topics--food and stories--caught my attention, beginning with the title--and intrigued me as I read poems, essays (both anecdotal and scholarly), and stories. The book stirred my appetite for both Appalachian foods and "foodways."
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In the past year or so, I’ve read (perused) several culinary arts books–they haven’t been merely recipe collections. Vivian Howard comes to mind with her lovely Deep Run Roots, filled with recipes, focusing on specific foods grown in eastern North Carolina, adding anecdotes associated with food origins and farm to table experiences. In other words, Foodways–a new word for me.

Initially I couldn’t find a definition of that word and wasn’t sure of it even after encountering the word in context a few times. My search led me to the following: “The food tradition or customs of a group of people, including a study of their culinary and nutrition practices, what they eat and why they eat it, the social practices related to foods as well as nutritional and culinary aspects of food.”

Or, simply “the eating habits and culinary practices of a people, region, or historical period.” It’s the intersection of food in culture, traditions and history. Just think of where you live and what foods grow around you–as an example, until I moved to southwest Missouri I’d never eaten or heard of watercress, poke greens, wilted lettuce, among other things.

After I finished reading this collection of essays focusing on “ways with food, etc.” in the Appalachian region of the U.S., I realized the book was a perfect example of the definition of “foodways.” Without a doubt, stories and food go together. How I love it when the eating is over, dishes are pushed back, and elbows rest on the table as those who share the table begin spinning the yarns passed on year to year and generation to generation–much like passing along great- grandmother’s recipes for cinnamon rolls or buttermilk pie.

[Christiana Lancaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

The South and Appalachia are often thought of as spaces filled with backwards hillbillies but this enjoyable collection of essays and poems show us a deep rich history and story of the diversity of Appalachia through the food and the tables folks gather around