“The South is different, even in the way it smells. The honeysuckle that weaves around a picket fence post and the fat blackberries or dewberries full of chiggers and rattlers growing wild along a hot and dusty Mississippi Road. Here, grand Georgia pecan trees on family land outlive their owners; Satsuma, hickory, or pear trees dot backyards. It’s as if the trees, fields, flowers, fruits, and vegetables, etched into the southern psyche, have crept into everything we bank.”
That lyrical writing is from a new book by Anne Byrn. “Baking in the American South” contains 200 recipes, as well as stories that address the joys, hardships and complexities of the region’s history.
The book began in the same place that most things begin. “It came out of my mother’s kitchen, here in Nashville,” said Byrn.
As she began to piece together a comprehensive story of Southern bakers, she realized that the story was far more multifaceted than she originally thought, and the book grew to include 14 states and two and a half centuries worth of lore. The book addresses slavery, immigration and the complicated relationship between food and a post-Civil War South.
Anne Byrn and Lois Reitzes of “City Lights” recently sat down to discuss the making of the book and the histories that it entails. More can be found on Anne Byrn and her new book at her website: https://www.annebyrn.com/baking-in-the-american-south.
