When tasked with creating a historical timeline, choosing an area of focus was not difficult. Southern culture has a wide appeal to me, but narrowing that into a buildable timeline proved difficult. Apparently, I like it all. Food, however, is nearest and dearest to my heart. I would like to pretend that’s due to this strange time of quarantine, but, truth is, I love it regardless of what is going on around me.
In preparation, I pulled all my southern heritage cookbooks off my shelves —- Sean Brock’s two NY Times best sellers Heritage and South; Sarah Rutledge’s 1847 publication The Carolina Housewife; multiple books by Southern Living, including The Deep South Cookbook; and Nicola Taylor’s modern, southern-soul rendition, The Up South Cookbook. (Side note: If you ever get to eat at Brock’s restaurants McGrady’s or Husk in Charleston or Nashville, DO IT!)
I also looked to Gravy, one of my favorite podcasts. The host, John T. Edge, is a leader in the Southern Foodways Alliance and author of multiple books on southern food heritage, including The Pot Likker Papers. Robert Moss is also a prolific southern food writer and culinary historian with numerous works to draw from. And, thanks to my husband’s undying devotion to barbecue, I have read, listened to, and viewed more than my fair share of southern pitmasters, including James Beard Award-winning Rodney Scott of Hemingway, S.C. (Another side note: Scott’s original bbq pit is still serving in Hemingway and he’s also added a place on King Street in Charleston.)
These resources gave me a great jumping off point. I looked for these southern food leaders‘ websites, news articles, and talks. They had a lot to offer and made drawing together the timeline rather easy. It also took 10-times longer than it should have because I kept getting sidetracked with interesting anecdotal stories and facts. (I’m going to be full of fun facts the next time we have a cookout.) I had a difficult time limiting the number of items I wanted to share. I never even got to desserts!
Timeline JS is a pretty easy tool to use. I was intimidated by the idea of it, but after downloading the template and adding a few items, it was not difficult at all. It took me some trial and error to get the timeline embedded correctly in the blog. Several pictures had to be replaced several times before everything looked as it should. Now that I have got the hang of it, though, it is definitely something I will plan to use again. I would love to pair it with a GIS program to create timeline and mapping together to give a full visual of historical events and resources.
A foodie map and historic timeline through the south would make a great road trip one day. In the meantime, I will be recreating this particular timeline in my kitchen until it is safe to cease social distancing.
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