 
Raising Sand Nobody, with the possible exception of producer T Bone Burnett, could have imagined that the pairing of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for the album Raising Sand would have resulted in such a successful melding of sounds. Plant, the former Led Zeppelin frontman, and Krauss, the leading voice of contemporary bluegrass, prove music has no barriers. A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, the album is like some bizarre chemistry experiment gone horribly right. (robertplantalisonkrauss.com) Architect John C. Williams, New Orleans, Louisiana Spend any time speaking with John C. Williams and it’s evident that Brad Pitt and his Make It Right Foundation would have had a hell of a job finding anyone more qualified to rebuild New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward. The designer of Emeril’s New Orleans, K-Paul’s, and a pending $200 million development along the Mississippi oversees an international team of world-class architects from Los Angeles to Ghana—all intent on reanimating New Orleans’ most devastated neighborhoods. Williams is entranced by a vision of a Lower Ninth Ward of solar- and wind-powered homes with bioswales and vast new wetlands as barriers and filters for storm water. It’s a monumental task. Pre-Katrina, seventy-two churches stood in the Lower Ninth Ward. Today there are seven. Only 1,200 people live in a ward once home to 18,000. “There are meetings every week, and one-tenth of their people always go,” he says. “They’re hugely tenacious. They know they’re carrying the other 17,000 on their shoulders.” (williamsarchitects.com) Art Gallery Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas When it comes to running a gallery, the true “art” of it is having a portfolio of artists stretching from, say, Albert Bierstadt, George Bellows, and Winslow Homer all the way to Peter Reginato and Frank Stella. Which means Meredith Long & Company may be the South’s best. It has the reach, clientele, and tasteful aesthetic that have lifted it above the rest for more than fifty years. “We started championing American art in 1959,” says Meredith Long, the gallery’s proprietor. “There were a few galleries doing it in New York, but we were the Lone Ranger here in Houston, and the city has always supported us.” Currently hanging at the gallery is the annual Fall Sporting Exhibition, which includes John Martin Tracy’s oil-on-board classic Red Heads and Ogden Pleissner’s evocative watercolor On a Scottish Grouse Moor. (meredithlonggallery.com; 713-523-6671) Artist John Folsom, Atlanta, Georgia Paducah, Kentucky, native John Folsom says that when he first moved to Atlanta in 1999, he never imagined that his ethereal landscapes and treescapes might one day grace the walls of the town’s iconic Fay Gold and Lowe galleries. But with even a cursory browse through what he and Gold simply call his painted photographs, it is clear that Folsom’s spellbinding work marks the rise of a new Southern star. Folsom follows a tradition of hand-coloring photographic images that dates back to nineteenth-century artists like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. “All my work is kind of tied up in romanticism, or in romantic ideals about the landscape,” he says. In the series Lure of the Lowcountry, he put those ideals into astonishing practice using the landscape of Palmetto Bluff, a conservation-oriented community near Beaufort, South Carolina. “There were live oaks everywhere and all this dense lushness. I felt lost in all of it—like I was moving through a painting myself.” (johnfolsomonline.com) Author Hillary Jordan, Tivoli, New York Eight years ago, freelance advertising copywriter Hillary Jordan penned a short tale for her creative-writing class at Columbia University. It recounted a family’s struggles and triumphs during a single year spent living on a farm in Lake Village, Arkansas. Jordan’s teacher suggested she delve further into the tale. Seven years on, Jordan published Mudbound, a searing look at life through the eyes of six residents—three black and three white—of Jim Crow–era Mississippi. The book recently won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction, an award founded by Barbara Kingsolver to recognize debut novels that deal with issues of social justice. As Jordan painstakingly researched the time and place of her farmers and sharecroppers, fact and fiction blurred, prompting the risky approach of having her black characters speak in their own voices. “I almost talked myself out of doing it,” she says, “but one of my teachers, Maureen Howard, said, ‘You can’t be afraid of your own book.’” (hillaryjordan.com) Bar Greenhouse Bar, Nashville, Tennessee Partially hidden behind a fence and across the street from the Green Hills Kroger southwest of downtown Nashville, the Greenhouse Bar looks like a haven for gardeners. But for the initiated, it’s the region’s most friendly and unpretentious saloon. And it was once a greenhouse. “I remember coming here with my parents to get flowers,” says barkeep Ryan Adair. “Now the vibe is the same, but the purpose is different.” With a full selection of drinks, a welcoming attitude, and a solid menu, the Greenhouse opens every night at 5:00 and closes at 2:00 a.m. “or when it’s just not worth it to stay open any longer,” Adair says. That kind of chilled-out attitude transfuses the place, and once you’re inside the Greenhouse Bar, it will engulf you as well.(615-385-4311) BBQ Craig’s Bar-B-Q pork sandwich, De Valls Bluff, Arkansas Southern barbecue (is there really any other kind?) isn’t so much a style of food as it is an obsession. Regional variations have their own cult-like followings. Vinegar, tomato, or mustard based? Wet or dry? Slaw on or off? Noun or verb? Do yourself a favor: Forget all that and get over to De Valls Bluff, Arkansas (pop. 783), about ninety miles west of Memphis. Follow the heavenly smell of sizzling swine to Craig’s Bar-B-Q, off US-70, and order up a sliced pork sandwich (size: jumbo). If you had to eat a BBQ sandwich every day for the rest of your life, this would be it. (870-998-2616) Beach Valle Seco, Puerto Colon, Venezuela Tucked in a series of sandy, vest-pocket bays where the mountains of Venezuela’s Herni Pittier National Park kneel to the Caribbean is a bead chain of isolated, have-it-all-to-yourself beaches reached only by fishing launch from the harbor town of Puerto Colon. The best of the lot is Valle Seco, a white crescent of perfect sand. A small reef protects half the beach, and, behind that, cacti give over to palms that eventually end in vertical mountainous rainforest. Most days, you will be all alone. (turpialtravel.com;011-58-243-991-1231) Beer Starr Hill Dark Starr Stout, Crozet, Virginia If you had a nickel for every microbrew with a Southern twist, you could buy a fine bottle of bourbon. Skip the fly-by-night brews, and order a bottle of brewmaster Mark Thompson’s Dark Starr Stout. The beer, a classic Irish-style dry stout, has garnered four medals at the Great American Beer Festival and one at the 2008 World Beer Cup for Starr Hill Brewing. We’ll drink to that. (starrhill.com; 434-823-5671) Boat Native Watercraft Ultimate Series, Greensboro, North Carolina Time was when the only kayaks on southern coastal waters were paddled by hippie types looking to find nature on never-ending journeys down the Intracoastal Waterway. These days kayakers are taking to the water in record numbers, and most of them are toting fishing rods. Among kayak makers, Native Watercraft in Greensboro, North Carolina, has been a (nonmotorized) engine of innovation since its founding in 2006. The Ultimate series boasts a distinctive tunnel hull stable enough to stand in and pole. Best of all, there’s no gas tank. (nativewatercraft.com; 336-454-8385) Bonefish Lodge Tiamo Resort, South Andros, Bahamas As bonefishing locales go, South Andros Island in the Bahamas tops most worldwide lists. And no Andros digs compare with the seven-year-old eco-resort Tiamo. While Tiamo is not wholly devoted to bonefishing—it’s also a top-drawer spot for snorkeling, sailing, and just plain beaching it—the folks there will arrange daily bonefish charters and then welcome you home with a cool drink or a bottle of local Kalik beer at expedition’s end. Tiamo has eleven secluded and fully screened bungalows—with huge hammocks and sofas—all arranged around a main lodge and a Caribbean-themed restaurant. In fact, life at Tiamo is so easy you’ll likely forget that its electricity is 100 percent solar-generated and the effluent from its luxe bathrooms is composted. The only way to get there is by launch from a nearby charter airstrip or (if you’re flying out of Nassau) a retro-cool seaplane that pulls right onto the beach. (tiamoresorts.com; 242-471-8087) Bookstore Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi One of the last true literary bookstores standing, Square Books—on Courthouse Square in Oxford—was a humble operation when Richard and Lisa Howorth opened it in 1979. But even then it carried just the right literary mix and cultivated customer allegiance through old-fashioned service, which earned it some important friends: Willie Morris, Bill Ferris, Barry Hannah, William Styron, Rick Bass, John Grisham, and the late, great Larry Brown, to name just a few. Before long, it had a national reputation as a reader’s—and a writer’s—hangout that kept its focus on ferreting out the right titles to slake the University of Mississippi’s literary thirst. Today there’s also an annex to the store—Off Square Books—plus a café on the second floor with great veranda seating. And on Thursdays there’s even a local radio show from on-site called Thacker Mountain Radio. Take that, chain stores. (squarebooks.com; 662-236-2262; 800-648-4001) Bourbon Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve, Louisville, Kentucky Age, Kentucky know-how, and a recipe dating back four generations make this top-shelf bourbon a prized commodity. For those in the know, fall is the best time to snap some up. The company releases the majority of its stock in September. (oldripvanwinkle.com; 502-897-9113) Chef Sean Brock, Charleston, South Carolina Hard to argue that Sean Brock of McCrady’s isn’t one of the hottest and most innovative chefs in the Southeast. But recently he’s also become something of a farmer. Last fall, Brock thought he might put to the test the two years he had spent donating labor to local farms by leasing a three-acre plot of oak- and pine-ringed farmland on Wadmalaw Island. Brock and his co-workers had no idea that the project would completely transform their most basic notions of how food arrives on a table. “From three acres, we’re getting ten times the food we can cook,” he says. “We might use fifty pounds of heirloom tomatoes a week, but last week we harvested five hundred.” The pesticide-free fields are worked on a volunteer basis by the McCrady’s crew. Not only do they get to take the fruits of their labor home, but the customers too can take home extras. Brock has also just bought fourteen pigs to raise. “We wanted to be able to set ourselves apart,” he says. “But also the best way to control the quality of your products is to grow them.” (mccradysrestaurant.com; 843-577-0025) Cocktail Martha’s at the Plantation Passion Fruit Mint Julep, Nashville, Tennessee Some traditionalists, upon any suggestion of messing with the classic mint julep, will most likely harrumph vigorously and protest that such an egregious act is a recipe for disaster. But they probably haven’t tasted the passion fruit variation served at Martha’s at the Plantation, a restaurant at historic Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville. The drink is made with (gasp) vodka, passion fruit mix, and fresh mint grown on site. Even owner Martha Stamps was a little leery of it when a former manager came up with the idea. “I’m from Nashville, so I thought this is not a julep unless it has bourbon in it,” she says. But the concoction has won her and her customers over. Just don’t try to order one in Kentucky. (marthasattheplantation.com; 615-353-2828) Collectible Caines Boys Decoys, Georgetown, South Carolina When the Caines boys, Jerry and Roy, were growing up in Georgetown in the fifties, their grandfather Hucks’ hand-carved duck decoys were no big deal. “We used to tie strings around their necks and drag them from our bicycles,” Roy says. Little did they know that, decades later, collectors would be shelling out six figures at auctions to own one of the legendary Hucks Caines decoys. Today the brothers have started a new legacy. After spending most of their lives as commercial fishermen, the two began carving their own decoys in 2005. Must be something in the blood. They took home two ribbons at their first show and have been dominating the competition scene since. Somewhere, Grandpa Hucks must surely be smiling. (cainesboysdecoys.com; 843-546-7812) Conservationist Dana Beach, Charleston,South Carolina Part of Dana Beach’s brilliance in two decades of conservation work was realizing early on that you can’t go it alone. Beach, director of the Coastal Conservation League, understood that the consistent grumblings he heard about sprawl, cultural displacement, and pollution along his beloved coastal plain could be channeled into action. Beach made it a goal to help those most affected by potentially bad decisions—rich, poor, black, white, hunter, fisherman, farmer, and tree hugger—to organize and recognize that their ultimate goals might be very similar. “What began as a small group of friends and allies focused on threats to iconic places on the coast has evolved into an almost unbeatable alliance of powerful organizations,” Beach says. “Each works within its own arena of expertise, but they are bound together by a common passion.” (coastalconservationleague.org) Cookbook Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose Chef Martha Hall Foose trained at one of the finest pastry schools in France, but her Southern roots continue to inspire her. Published earlier this year, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea (Clarkson Potter) takes readers on a guided tour of culinary byways through the author’s native Mississippi Delta, with a mix of both recipes and homespun stories along the way. From her take on classics, such as fried chicken and banana pudding, to the nouveau-Southern catfish ceviche, the book offers pure bliss for anyone with a taste for Southern fare (even Yanks). Work your way through the recipes, or simply pour yourself one of Foose’s Mailbox Cocktails, take the book out on the porch during a cool evening, and soak up some true Mississippi flavor. (marthafoose.com) Designer Natalie “Alabama” Chanin, Florence, Alabama Costume designer Natalie Chanin returned to her native Florence, Alabama, in 2001 after twenty-two years that had carried her from Austria to New York. She produced a short documentary film called Stitch—the story of rural America through those who sewed and used quilts—and was so impressed with the characters she met along the way that she decided to launch a local artisan-based clothing, jewelry, and furniture company called Project Alabama. She termed the collaborative effort “slow design” and modeled it after the Slow Food movement. The company helped earn Florence the moniker Fashion Capital of the South from the New York Times and became so successful ($5 million in sales in 2005) that Chanin’s partners decided to outsource Project Alabama’s work to India. Chanin promptly left, relaunching under the name Alabama Chanin. “It just seemed like this was not all over,” she says. “I and the other people in the community just felt that it’s really important to be here. Florence is a wonderful place to raise my two-year-old daughter, and I’m just so lucky to be able to run this kind of business. That’s one of the beauties of the South. I’m continually amazed by all the fantastic people I meet.” (alabamachanin.com) Developer Vince Graham, Charleston, South Carolina In the last decade, concepts like “smart growth” and “new urbanism” have become a religion for opponents of the kind of development that has transformed millions of southeastern acres into soulless suburban sprawl. A handful of headstrong developers such as Vince Graham, founder and president of the I’On Group, looked at centuries-old towns like Charleston and Savannah and determined that the most enduring communities are not designed around a twentieth-century worldview of drive-through windows, cul-de-sacs, and rapacious consumption of land, but are those broad-porched places where people can walk, meet their neighbors, and find common ground in parks and wooded and open space. “I want to create more opportunities for people to choose from when considering where and how they live,” Graham says. “The dominance of car culture has constrained our thinking and stifled our creativity. New technologies and building materials are part of the solution, but restoring a walkable, human scale to our neighborhoods is an essential first step.” (iongroup.com) Documentary The Order of Myths William Faulkner wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Never is the past more alive than in Margaret Brown’s outstanding 2008 documentary, The Order of Myths, on Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. Brown peers under the ornate masks for a look at the inner workings of the country’s oldest Mardi Gras celebration, dating back to 1703. Even today, the festivities are run by two main organizations, one black and one white, each with its own king and queen, parades, and pageantry, which coexist in a sort of uneasy truce. Although pointed, the documentary doesn’t preach or oversimplify. It stands as an extraordinary glimpse into an old tradition and the haunting legacy of slavery and segregation.(theorderofmyths.com) Equestrian Center Virginia Horse Center, Lexington, Virginia In 1985, noting an uptick in the regional “equine economy,” the Virginia legislature established the Virginia Horse Center outside the city of Lexington. It’s proved an inspired notion. Today, the 600-acre, 1,200-stall facility (with nineteen show rings) has an estimated 420,000 visitors yearly, making it the East Coast’s premier equestrian spot and the gleaming centerpiece of Virginia’s $1.5 billion horse industry. It’s staffed by many of the nation’s top trainers, and there’s even a therapeutic riding center for training riders with disabilities. (horsecenter.org; 540-464-2950) Farmers Alex and Betsy Hitt, Graham, North Carolina Since harvesting their first crops outside of Chapel Hill in 1982, Peregrine Farms’ Alex and Betsy Hitt have had a far greater impact on Southern agriculture than their four or so acres of heirloom tomatoes, asparagus, lettuce, and flowers would indicate. In 2006, the Hitts were awarded the Patrick Madden Award for Sustainable Agriculture. But the couple were not only among North Carolina’s pioneers in the South’s burgeoning organic and sustainable agriculture movement, Alex also took a board position on the Tobacco Community Reinvestment Fund, a nonprofit that helps tobacco farmers transition to other crops and replace lost tobacco revenue. This year, the effort has expanded to all North Carolina counties. “The interesting thing about tobacco is that it’s been [managed] kind of like a communist country. They were told how much to grow and then dropped it off and went away,” says Alex. “Now they’re farming sod, vegetables, grapes, organic grains, and even fish—and selling straight to grocery stores or the public.” Flower ‘Cajun Blue’ fan flower Recent droughts have forced gardeners to begin looking for plants that can withstand hotter, drier conditions without wilting like an old corsage. For many, a new cultivar of the fan flower called the ‘Cajun Blue’ has been the answer. A 2007 award winner at the University of Georgia Trial Gardens, the ‘Cajun Blue’ produces dense blue-purple blooms and is as tough as it is eye-catching. Tony Glover, a horticulture agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, says fan flowers get prettier all summer. “Many other types get washed out by July.” Fried Food The Little Dooey’s fried ribs, Starkville, Mississippi Southerners have made a pastime of dropping perfectly tasty—and sometimes seemingly bizarre—victuals into a vat of hot grease and pulling out the latest deep-fried fad (fried cheeseburgers, anyone?). But the folks at the Little Dooey have struck upon an enduring gustatory creation—deep-fried ribs. The recipe: Take smoked ribs, dip them in batter, dredge them in flour, and—you guessed it—deep-fry the suckers. Voilà! The Little Dooey’s version of Southern fusion. (littledooey.com; 662-323-6094) Game Fish Redfish These days, redfish seem to be everywhere throughout the South’s coastal regions. But only a few decades ago, commercial fishing wiped out redfish populations and threatened to demolish the stock. Thankfully, a small group of recreational anglers in Texas decided to fight back. They formed the Gulf Coast Conservation Association (now the Coastal Conservation Association) in 1977 and began a grassroots Save the Redfish campaign. By 1981, the group had succeeded in enacting net bans and gaining game-fish status for redfish in Texas. Chapters in other states soon followed, and the redfish recovery stands today as one of the best success stories in marine fisheries conservation. “It’s been a tremendous turnaround,” says Ted Venker, CCA’s director of communications. “You don’t ever want to take your eye off the ball and declare total victory, but clearly the measures that were put into place have been working.” (joincca.org) Golf Course Origins Course, Watersound Beach, Florida Talk about getting back to your roots. Threaded through the coastal wetland marshes and native woods of the Florida Panhandle, the Origins Course returns golf to its Scottish heritage. Similar to the courses of the Auld Sod, Origins’ demanding six-hole course (which can also be played as a nine-hole executive course or a ten-hole par three) was designed by Davis Love III and his company, Love Golf Design, to make a round of golf there both fun and fast. Which doesn’t mean it’s putt-putt easy. Bunkers, berms, and swales are ever-present—there’s even a bunker in the middle of the third hole’s green. “We wanted to make a course that was forgiving for beginners and families wanting to play together, and could be played in the time you have when you get home from work in the afternoon,” says Origins’ general manager, Will Hopkins. Best of all, the course takes up less land, which means less water and fertilizer are required to keep it green. (originsgolfclub.com; 850-231-7600) Horticulturist Jenks Farmer, Beech Island, South Carolina They call seventh-generation South Carolinian Jenks Farmer the Crinum King because of his efforts to return to the gardens a hardy lily considered by most Southerners a roadside weed. “Southerners are gardening more,” he says. “They’re more sophisticated and they really like the historical connection of crinums.” Farmer, owner of LushLife Nursery, is the former curator of the botanical gardens at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia. For the past six or so years, though, his obsession has been a twenty-five-acre botanical garden at Moore Farms along South Carolina’s Pee Dee River. “We’re making what they call natural swimming pools— ponds that will filter themselves—using native elderberry with an exotic plant called Chaste tree and mixing in a native purple aster and some creamy colored lilies. We have this incredibly diverse flora in the South, and we need people with creativity to inspire us to use the things that grow in our own woods.” (lushlifegarden.com) Hot Sauce Old St. Augustine Datil Pepper Sauce With names like Liquid Lava and, um, Butt Twister, it often seems like hot sauce has become more about attention-grabbing labels than culinary artistry these days. But for a more sophisticated take on spicy sauce, look to St. Augustine, Florida, the epicenter of the universe for datil peppers. These little yellow peppers pack plenty of heat but with a distinctive sweet flavor, and locals will tell you they don’t grow the same anywhere else. Try Old St. Augustine. The sauce features datil peppers in a base of carrot juice with lime, garlic, vinegar, and a few secret spices. For devout fireheads, the Snake Bite version provides some extra kick. (tasteofstaugustine.com; 904-829-1109) Hot Ticket Florida-Georgia game, Jacksonville, Florida If college football is a religion in the South, then the Florida-Georgia game is its massive tent revival. The storied rivalry will take on added oomph this year, as preseason polls have both teams ranked in the top five. Not to mention that little bench-clearing incident in 2007—when Bulldogs players rushed the field in celebration of their first touchdown—that still has Gator fans smarting. The Dawgs went on to win the game, but Florida has dominated the series since 1990, winning fifteen of eighteen. Unless you’re a season ticket holder, seats for the November 1 game will be hard to come by, but the tailgating at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party goes on for days. Hotel 21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Kentucky Before arriving at 21c, prepare to have all your tired notions of hip turned on their heads. As much a museum devoted to twenty-first-century contemporary art (hence the name), with exhibits by such noted artists as Chuck Close, Andres Serrano, and Judy Fox, 21c is a five-star boutique hotel. Its quirky-yet-stellar hospitality extends to individual guest-room iPods loaded with thousands of songs and round-the-clock concierge service. But what’s most fun during a visit is just wandering around: Sculpture, video art, photos, and paintings tastefully adorn every likely spot in this always sleek ninety-one-room sanctuary. At night the staff moves around a battalion of human-size—and fire-engine red—penguin sculptures, by Cracking Art, so the place is different every morning. You may wake to find one outside your door, peering down from the rooftop, or in the elevator. (21chotel.com; 502-217-6300) Juke Joint Po’ Monkey’s Lounge, Merigold, Mississippi Down an unmarked dirt road off Highway 61 stands a ramshackle testament to a bygone era. Where once juke joints dotted the rural landscape, Po’ Monkey’s Lounge now remains as one of the last true jukes left in the Mississippi Delta. For almost fifty years, Mr. Po’ Monkey himself, Willie Seaberry, has run the place, which is housed in an old sharecropper’s shack and officially open only one day a week. No fancy cocktails or flat-screen TVs to be found here. Just plenty of great food, blues, and true Southern hospitality. (662-514-7488) Landscape Architect Chip Callaway, Greensboro, North Carolina With a 1,000-garden résumé, Chip Callaway tills a deep green line between the past and the future. In addition to working at the home of Alexander Graham Bell and the Colonial Williamsburg Inn, Callaway has lately spent time in Manteo, North Carolina, to garden for Andy Griffith, and is currently working on the gardens at Wharton Place Plantation on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The plan is to re-create portions of the plantation’s more than two centuries of botanical history. “We’ll use a lot of boxwoods,” he says. “They were very popular in the colonial period. And I’ve just become fascinated with heirloom plants—things that have sort of gone out of style. I love flowering tobacco—and annuals. You have to have something that will grow in the heat and drought of the South.” He’s also been raising old-fashioned plants like cleomes and larkspurs from seeds. “When you do that, you break down some of the hybridization, so you never know what you’re going to get. It puts you back in touch with the earth.” (chipcallaway.com) Museum Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans hasn’t had it easy lately. But finally, with friends and communities rejoining and banding together, the city is resurging. And leading the charge, with the largest and most comprehensive collection of Southern art in the world, is the Ogden Museum of Southern Art at the University of New Orleans. With work by hundreds of artists—and featuring the talents of such regional luminaries as Charles Hutson, Benny Andrews, and Will Henry Stevens—the museum is now dedicated to “the rebuilding of the culture, landscape, and community of New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and those areas affected by the hurricanes of 2005.” To accomplish this, the Ogden Museum is making itself a cultural foothold for the region by continuing its knowledge-broadening efforts in visual arts. To help with morale, the Ogden hosts events such as “Sippin’ in Seersucker” and “Ogden After Hours” as well as an ongoing multipart program called Building Solutions that examines building a hurricane-proof New Orleans and Gulf Coast. Who says art can’t be restorative? (ogdenmuseum.org; 504-539-9600) Nursery Woodlanders, Aiken, South Carolina There’s your standard upscale garden store, and then there’s Woodlanders. Opened in 1980, Woodlanders began by promoting the cultivation of native plants at the store and in a unique catalogue; then, it expanded its inventory to more than one thousand species of rare and hard-to-find plants, vines, trees, and shrubs for Zones 8 and 9, meaning they’re suited to the region’s warm weather. “These days, we’ve got shipping customers in Japan and Australia—the strangest place we’ve probably shipped to is Thailand—but mostly we concentrate on customers in our home region,” says Woodlanders’ Bob McCartney. “Over time our interests change, so we change our inventory. We’re in this for the fun.” (woodlanders.net; 803-648-7522) Podcast Southern Gardening Sounding a bit like Jim Nabors, Norman Winter greets listeners of his daily audio podcast with an inviting “Hello, gardeners” before launching into his latest two-minute treatise on larkspur or purple gomphrena. A horticulturist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and a newspaper columnist, Winter has been doing the show on local radio for thirteen years. He ventured into the podcast realm in 2006. Gardening aficionados can subscribe to the segments for free via iTunes. The shows are also available on the MSU Web site. (msucares.com/news) Poet Natasha Trethewey, Atlanta, Georgia In 1966, Natasha Trethewey was born to a white father and a black mother, married illegally, in Gulfport, Mississippi. In 2007, the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair of Poetry at Emory University was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for a book titled Native Guard. The work ties Trethewey’s memories of a biracial childhood and the 1985 murder of her mother by an ex-husband together with the nearly forgotten service of a regiment of black soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War. Trethewey is determined that her memories be felt by future generations. She writes in “South,” “I returned to a country battlefield…where the roads, buildings, and monuments / are named to honor the Confederacy, / where that old flag still hangs, I return / to Mississippi, state that made a crime / of me—mulatto, half-breed—native / in my native land, this place they’ll bury me.” (houghtonmifflinbooks.com) Preservationist Gaston Callum, Raleigh, North Carolina In the mid-1990s, Gaston callum began to photograph old, abandoned plantation homes and farmhouses—just walking right in without permission. “It doesn’t take long before you start wanting to learn the history,” he says. “Once I got to know the owners, and learned whether they were planning to tear them down or hoped to give them away for restoration, I decided to keep going.” Callum started Southland Historic Preservation, a nonprofit group that shines a spotlight on these disappearing structures in hopes that they’ll be bought and restored. The obstacles can be daunting—from rotten heart pine to those who feel that homes built with the help of slave labor are not worth restoring. “But those slaves were building something—the craftsmanship was incredible,” says Callum. “The houses they built have survived numerous hurricanes. When we tear them down or let them fall, we’re not doing anyone any favors.” (southlandhp.org) Public Garden Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia In the summer of 1930, on a weekend picnic near Pine Mountain, Georgia, a couple named Cason and Virginia Callaway found a perfect, bright-red flowering azalea. Identified by Virginia as a plumleaf azalea, it proved inspirational. Before long, Cason, a textile manufacturer, purchased 2,500 acres in the area. As Cason kept buying and improving outlying farms, Virginia worked with landscape architects Gilmore Clark and John Leon Hoffman to sculpt and direct the landscape into southwest-Georgia perfection, including more than 20,000 new trees and shrubs. The fruit of their labors opened to the world in 1952; it officially became Callaway Gardens a decade later and has since grown to more than 13,000 acres. It’s now a sporting paradise, but the place’s heart remains Virginia Callaway’s exquisite botanical showpiece—plus the John A. Sibley Horticultural Center, and the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center, where more than one thousand butterflies live amid tropical plants. (callawaygardens.com; 706-663-2281) Quail Plantation Wynfield Plantation, Albany, Georgia At Wynfield Plantation the pleasure is in the details. If you’re looking to enjoy Wynfield at its best, go with a program called the split hunt. Split hunt visitors arrive in the morning; then they indulge in a fried-chicken, pork chops, and mashed potatoes lunch. At 2:00 p.m., after a game of cards or a rest in a private guest lodge, it’s time to climb into custom-fitted Jeeps with guides, dogs, and shotguns, then bounce around Wynfield’s more than 2,000 acres of grassland and scrub pine. When the afternoon hunt ends, it’s time to mosey back to the lodge for courtesy-bar cocktails or, maybe, down to Wynfield Plantation’s private lake for some bass fishing. This is followed by a regionally anchored dinner, prepared by Wynfield’s full-time chef, Rowe Jackson. The next morning, after a breakfast buffet, the three-hour hunt begins promptly at 9:00. Then, by the time lunch is over, the guides have cleaned and vacuum-sealed your birds and placed them, flash-frozen, in portable coolers that sit awaiting your departure. (wynfieldplantation.com; 229-889-0193) Restaurant 5 & 10, Athens, Georgia Embracing a dress code “from Speedo to tuxedo,” the 5 & 10 injects down-home modern into Southern classics. Named for a five-and-dime that once stood on the same lot, the 5 & 10’s menu shifts daily, with a few stalwarts, such as Frogmore stew—a tasty spawn of a Lowcountry boil and bouillabaisse—always available. “When we opened, we wanted to be a community restaurant that cared about good bread and good wine and good food,” says chef/owner Hugh Acheson. “I come from a fine-dining background. I was running away from that as fast as I could.” Luckily, Acheson didn’t get too far. Try the roasted asparagus covered with a poached local egg and warm bacon vinaigrette, followed by the “bronzed” redfish fillet in lemon emulsion. Such dishes earned Acheson Food & Wine’s 2002 Best New Chef award and, more recently, a 2008 James Beard nomination for Best Chef Southeast. There’s a fine, rangy wine list, too. (fiveandten.com; 706-546-7300) Shooting Course Barnsley Gardens Resort, Adairsville, Georgia One of four shooting schools in the country operated or owned by Orvis, and open year-round, the Orvis Shooting Grounds at Barnsley Gardens can help any level shotgunner improve his or her skills. Instructors teach the English Churchill method of instinctive targeting, and no class is larger than four students. Visitors work on stance, footwork, and swing and lead on either a seventeen-station sporting-clays course or a five-stand course that closely resembles a real hunt. “Everybody who comes here will improve their shooting,” says instructor Cody Jones. “People who come out to shoot will see a lot of clay; they’ll get a lot of practice in the course of a lesson. And, mostly, it’s a lot of fun.” (barnsleyresort.com; 770-773-9230) Smoke Kentucky Gentlemen Cigars, Lawrenceburg, Kentucky Along with fine bourbon, bluegrass, and baseball bats, add fine cigars to the list of Kentucky’s contributions to humanity. Established in 2004 by native Allen Mobley, this line of premium hand-rolled cigars features tobacco aged in, what else, bourbon barrels, lending just a hint of Kentucky flavor to the sticks. Mobley, who rolls the cigars himself, is also experimenting with growing his own Cuban seed tobacco, which he hopes might one day provide a new opportunity for Kentucky farmers. (kentuckygentlemencigars.com; 502-839-9226) Spa Guerlain Spa at the Regent Hotel in Bal Harbour, Florida After checking into your private room and changing into a robe,the first thing that happens at the Guerlain Spa is a footbath-massage with a view of the Atlantic. You may feel guilty for such an indulgence when our economy is going south, so to speak, but then again you may not. At the Guerlain Spa, it’s easy to forget your troubles in 10,000 square feet of ethereal environment overlooking blue Atlantic waters. There are world-famous facials and skin treatments, consultations, and a spectrum of massages: shiatsu, reflexology, deep-tissue, lymphatic drainage, pre- and post-natal, and—for the guys—even a firming abdomen treatment. It’s the ultimate in luxurious care for visitors in search of refuge—financial, spiritual, or otherwise. (regentbalharbour.com; 305-455-5411) Sporting Community Blalock Lakes, Newnan, Georgia Inside private Blalock Lakes—3,000 wooded acres, 45 minutes southeast of Atlanta—discerning sportsmen finally have their own enclave. It has 399 home sites surrounding a trio of bassy lakes totaling more than 180 acres, and roughly half the community’s total acreage is set aside for recreation. Blalock Lakes owners pick their own fun: an equestrian center with miles of riding trails, a hunt club and large hunting preserve with clay-shooting courses, or a boathouse and marina. “We wanted to get away from golf-course community thinking,” says manager Thornton Mallard. “And when we found this piece of land, with its uniquely hilly topography arranged around these lakes, well, a Southern sporting community made sense.” (blalocklakes.com; 770-683-7100) String Band The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Raleigh, North Carolina The Carolina Chocolate Drops drew a diverse crowd of Charlestonians to their feet during an outdoor concert at the College of Charleston near the end of Spoleto Festival 2008, and it was somehow appropriate that Barack Obama had managed the same feat on the same stage just a few months earlier. But an even more telling sign of this African American string band’s social reach came when it blew the lid off Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. North Carolina natives Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson and Arizona transplant Dom Flemons lay down searing Southern roots music almost punk in its blistering yet studied delivery. But rather than homilies of rebellion, the Drops preach peace, interspersing oral histories of the minstrel and family-based roots of songs like “Genuine Negro Jig.” “I moved to North Carolina for music and opportunity,” Flemons says. “I wonder whether I would have found such opportunity in the past. Things have definitely changed, and I’ve not found much trouble in the South. But plenty of people had lots of trouble before me.” (carolinachocolatedrops.com) Tie Pelican Coast Neckwear, New Orleans, Louisiana You can tell a lot about a man by his tie. Sort of like his shoes. Only softer. And completely functionless. Anyway, if you have to wear one, why not pick a design that says something other than “I’m a stuffed shirt”? Pelican Coast ties feature coastal and Southern themes, such as oysters, magnolias, and, of course, pelicans. Introduced by fourth-generation New Orleans native Virginia Rowan and her family in 2007, the line began as a philanthropic endeavor to benefit wetlands conservation but has rapidly morphed into a style success. “People are buying them not knowing anything about the wetlands, just because they’re fashionable,” Rowan says. Either way, 20 percent of proceeds go to the America’s WETLAND Foundation, dedicated to preserving and restoring Louisiana’s coastal landscape. That’s our kind of tie. (pelicancoastneckwear.com; 504-722-0438) Trail Alabama Scenic River Trail For paddlers, boaters, anglers, history buffs, or anyone with a taste for outdoor adventure, Alabama just got a little sweeter. This year marked the grand opening of the Alabama Scenic River Trail, the longest single-state river trail in the country. Stretching for a staggering 631 miles, it begins on the Coosa River, near the Georgia state line in northeastern Alabama, and heads southward across multiple rivers and lakes, through the bayous of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta and along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay before reaching its end point at Fort Morgan and the Gulf of Mexico. Plenty of access points along the route provide for shorter day or overnight trips, but for an epic journey, gear up and tackle the whole damn thing. Shouldn’t take more than about, oh, forty days or so by canoe (give or take a week or two). (alabamascenicrivertrail.com) Toy YOLO Original Stand-up Paddle Board The paddle-surfing wave is sweeping up everyone from beach-going families to hard-core flats anglers. These hybridized surfboards allow riders to stand upright while using a long single paddle to glide across the water’s surface. “Pretty much anyone can do it,” says John Denney, co-owner of East Coast Paddle Surfing in Jupiter, Florida. “But the feeling is just unbelievable.” The 12-foot-by-31-inch YOLO (You Only Live Once) board is an excellent choice for a stable, all-around model, whether you’re looking to shred frothy waves or simply take in the view while “walking” on top of a glassy inshore creek. (yoloboard.com; 850-622-5760) Web Site The Southern Foodways Alliance, Oxford, Mississippi If food is a window into culture, the folks at the Southern Foodways Alliance, an offshoot of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, are throwing open the shades. Their Web site is a virtual repository of information, including event listings, city guides, and a regular newsletter. But it’s the group’s documentary work, including its own films and its oral history project, that associate director Mary Beth Lasseter is most proud of. “We’re using food as a lens to tell larger stories,” she says. The organization provides it all for free, so visitors can browse to their hearts’ content. (southernfoodways.com; 662-915-5993) |
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