A mess of greens: Southern gender and Southern food

280 Pages·2011·15.464 MB·English

by  Engelhardt, Elizabeth Sanders Delwiche

A Mess
of Greens
U
Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt
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Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt
A Mess
of Greens
U
Southern Gender
and
Southern Food
The University of Georgia Press
Athens and London
Portions of this book appeared earlier, in different forms, as “Writing That Old Moonshine
Lit,” Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. 13, Issue 1 & 2, Spring/Fall 2007, copyright 2009 by
the Appalachian Studies Association; “Beating the Biscuits in Appalachia,” in Cooking Lessons:
The Politics of Gender and Food, edited by Sherrie A. Inness, Rowman and Littlefield, 2001; and
“Canning Tomatoes, Growing ‘Better and More Perfect Women,’” Southern Cultures, Winter
2009, copyright 2009 by the Center for the Study of the American South, and are reprinted
here with permission.

© 2011 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Designed by Mindy Basinger Hill
Set in 11/15.5 Garamond Premier Pro
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.

Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 15 P 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Engelhardt, Elizabeth Sanders Delwiche, 1969–
A mess of greens : Southern gender and Southern food / Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-3471-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8203-3471-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-4037-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8203-4037-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Food habits—Southern States—History. 2. Food—Social aspects—Southern
States—History. 3. Cooking, American—Southern style—History.
4. Women—Southern States—Social life and customs. 5. Southern States—Social life and
customs. 6. Southern States—Social conditions—History. I. Title.
GT2853.U5E64 2011
394.1'20975—dc23 2011012367

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-4187-3
For my mother, Betty Whitmire Delwiche,
whose macaroni and cheese recipe it really is

U
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contents
acknowledgments
ix
introduction
Whose Food, When, and Why?
Longing for Corn and Beans
1
chapter one
Moonshine: Drawing a Bead
on Southern Food and Gender
21
chapter two
Biscuits and Cornbread: Race, Class, and
Gender Politics of Women Baking Bread
51

chapter three
Canning Tomatoes:
Growing “Better and More Perfect Women”
83

chapter four
Will Work for Food:
Mill Work, Pellagra, and Gendered Consumption
119
chapter five
Cookbooks and Curb Markets:
Wild Messes of Southern Food and Gender
165
conclusion
Market Bulletins:
Writing the Mess of Greens Together
193
notes
205
bibliography
235
index
259
acknowledgments
I volunteer with a leadership group for at-risk girls in West Virginia.
Whether we are dining around a campfire or at a picnic table, no meal at High
Rocks begins without a round of “gratefuls,” in which anyone is free to offer
thanks to anyone or anything that happened during the day. Having grown
up around a southern table whose meals started with a blessing, gratefuls feel
a lot like saying grace, except they have a better sense of humor. Inevitably,
gratefuls range from the serious to the silly. Book writing, for me, amasses the
same range of thanks.
First and foremost, I am grateful to the people around the region who left
their stories and recipes to history and who became the subjects of this book.
I am amazed by their resourcefulness and courage. Included with them are the
librarians and archivists who helped preserve those documents—and without
whom my research would have suffered. I especially thank Andrea Cantwell
and the staff at the University of Arkansas, Shannon Wilson and the staff of
Berea College’s Hutchison Library, everyone at Mississippi State University’s
Special Collections and University Archives, staff at the Southern Histori-
cal Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Boyd D.
Cathey and the staff at the North Carolina State Archives, public librarians
at the Chattanooga Public Library, Henry Fulmer and the rest of the South
Caroliniana Library, and volunteers at the Henderson County Genealogical
and Historical Society.
My academic home, the Department of American Studies at the University
of Texas at Austin has hosted both quirky meals and my quirky projects. I
am deeply grateful to be around the table with Bob Abzug, Cary Cordova,
Janet Davis, Steven Hoelscher, Randy Lewis, Nhi Lieu, Stephen Marshall, Jeff
Meikle, Julia Mickenberg, Naomi Paik, Mark Smith, and Shirley Thompson,