It is going to take me weeks to express the joy, inspiration, and love I found at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium.  (And it will take a lot longer to lose all the weight I found. Strange what a side of pork and a case of beer can do to the body… just kidding – well maybe.)

Here you find a few images from after the opera.  These students were amazing, inspiring, and just plain great to work with. Visit iTunes U to have a listen for yourself and stay tuned for more on Dori Sanders and her life’s work – the peach, Shirley Sherrod on “40 Acres and a Mule,” Elizabeth Engelhardt on “Tales from the South’s Forgotten Locavores,” organic cotton farming in Georgia, Sean Brock on “The Return of the Olive,” and the beauty of pimento cheese – a small selection of the weekend highlights…

A big thank you to the Southern Foodways Alliance, John T. Edge, Joe York, Angie Mosier, the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and Lynton Hopkins for his warm welcome and impromptu lecture on the Order of the Benedictine and how that pertains to mincing shallots in a modern day kitchen.

It was one of the most beautiful weekends of my life and I am already looking forward to next year.
xoNatalie