SFA FILM TO BE FEATURED AT OGDEN MUSEUM, JULY 20

The Southern Foodways Alliance is pleased that filmmaker Joe York will be in New Orleans this week for a special event at the Ogden Museum. MARSAW, York's film on 2005 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame winner Martin Sawyer, will be one of three featured documentaries on Thursday, July 20, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

To purchase MARSAW, contact sfamail@olemiss.edu. Proceeds from the sale of the film will go to the Gulf Coast Renaissance Fund, which is funding the Willie Mae's Scotch House rebuild.

To read more about SFA films by Joe York, visit the SFA films Web site:
http://www.southernfoodways.com/films.shtml
For information on the Ogden Museum, including directions, visit http://www.ogdenmuseum.org/

ORAL HISTORIES ON SOUTHERN BAKING TRADITIONS

Portions of an oral history project conducted by the Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia, with support from the Southern Foodways Alliance, are now part of our online archive. Click on the link above to read the interviews.

In addition to the interviews that appear on the SFA website, a full collection of more than thrity oral history interviews from the project are archvied in our permanent collection here at the University of Mississippi. Many thanks to the University of West Georgia's Center for Public History for helping to document the baking traditions of the South.

FOURTH OF JULY SCOTCH HOUSE WORK WEEKEND

A crew of a dozen or so SFA volunteers spent the long 4th of July weekend working on the rehab of Willie Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans. With John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford in the lead -- and John Besh and company of Restaurant August in New Orleans providing the midday fuel -- they framed the interior of the restaurant.

A report from Currence: "We made amazing headway this weekend. Did not complete the punchlist I had set up, but it was a little ambitious, so I am not close to disappointed. Wrote a whopper of a check for the concrete work and a decent one for the lumber. Now we can get the electrican started."

Stay tuned to this blog for more updates.

AND scroll down for an overview of the project.

HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR B-L-T?

The heat of summer approaches. And with the heat come homegrown tomatoes. Bursting with juice. Sweet and fluent. Paired with country-cured bacon and a sheath of iceberg lettuce, the whole affair layered between shingles of white bread.

Last year, at an event in Napa, California, chef John Currence of Oxford, Mississippi, threw down the gauntlet with a fine catfish BLT. We were impressed. So at the August 11-12 Camp Nashville we'll serve catfish BLT's from chef Sean Brock, a onetime Nashville resident now cooking at McCrady's in Charleston, South Carolina.

Though we recognize that the marriage of bacon, lettuce, tomato, and catfish is inspired, we are wondering how you accessorize and improvise your BLT's.

Thus this call for recipes.

Tell us your tricks. Share your embellishments. Send us your recipes and be sure to tell us a story of how and why this recipe came to be. We'll report back later this summer, just in time for the East Nashville Tomato Art Festival.

Please be sure to include your name and a contact address (e-mail and USPS address) with each recipe and story. Submitted entries may be published by the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi.

Send entries to:

Mary Beth Lasseter
Southern Foodways Alliance
Barnard Observatory
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677

or e-mail to sfamail@olemiss.edu

Deadline for submissions is July 21.

JULY 4 SCOTCH HOUSE VOLUNTEER WEEKEND

VOLUNTEER AT THE SCOTCH HOUSE ON JULY 4 WEEKEND

Have plans for your July 4 holiday? Volunteer at the Scotch House in New Orleans! Here's the deal:

We're recruiting semi-skilled laborers within driving distance of New Orleans to volunteer over the July 4 weekend. If you're available any part of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, we'd love to have you.

The caveat: plumbers are at work on the Scotch House. If they finish their job, we can do ours. If they don't finish their job, we can't do ours. We're waiting on pins and needles to hear of their progress. We want volunteers who are within driving distance, so--if necessary (and we hope not)--we can cancel at the eleventh hour and nobody will be stuck holding a plane ticket.

To volunteer, e-mail sfamail@olemiss.edu by Monday, June 19.

AND DON'T FORGET THE PICKLES!

Can't volunteer, but want to help? The pickle brigade has just a few jars of pickles left, and they'd like to sell them all. These pickles have been shipped all over the country, and--to date--pickle money has contributed almost $15,000 to the Scotch House rebuild.

ORDER SOME NOW! E-mail sfamail@olemiss.edu to place your order. Cost is $135/case, shipping included, with checks payable to the Gulf Coast Renaissance Fund. Volunteering and buying pickles? Then we'll get those pickles delivered to you in New Orleans over the July 4 weekend, and the cost is only $120/case.

On behalf of the SFA and the Seaton Family, we thank you for your interest.

EDIBLE SCHOOLYARD PROJECT IN NOLA

The Edible Schoolyard project is based on the very successful program founded by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley, California. The idea is to weave food and foodways throughout the curriculum. It has been very successful in Berkeley and we have Alice Waters' blessing to bring it to post-Katrina New Orleans--her first satellite program.

More information is available at the website, www.edibleschoolyard.org which describes the Berkeley schools project. This is an incredible opportunity for the right person. They will have the opportunity to build a program from the ground up, and work with a wonderful school and group of dedicated community people.