Episode 3732

- [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is made possible in part by.

- I'm Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham. Here in Cookville, Tennessee's college town, we are bold, fearless, confident, and kind. Tech prepares students for careers by making everyone's experience personal. We call that living wings up. Learn more at tntech.edu.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways. Discover Tennessee's adventure, cuisine, history and more made in Tennessee experiences showcased among these 16 driving trails. More at TNTrailsAndByways.com.

- This time on "Tennessee Crossroads," we'll visit the state's oldest bakery still going strong in Tracy City. Then meet a talented watercolor artist over at Memphis. We'll enjoy a dining adventure in Sewanee and finally revisit the day of the solar eclipse in Nashville. That's our lineup of this edition of Tennessee Crossroads. I'm Joe Elmore. Thanks for joining us. They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. In our first story, Miranda Cohen travels to Tracy City to meet the owner of the oldest bakery in the state. And while she's there, she learns how the owner is savoring the success of the original family founders.

- [Cindy] We are at Tennessee's oldest family owned bakery. We are at Dutch Maid Bakery, started in 1902 by John and Louise Baggenstoss.

- [Miranda] There are a few places and people in Tennessee who need no introduction. Since 2005, Cindy Day has been the owner of the famous Dutch Maid Bakery here in Tracy City. It's the oldest family owned bakery in the state of Tennessee and the 13th oldest bakery in the country.

- They bought this lot, and they built the first bakery in 1902, and they had six boys. They lived upstairs and they worked downstairs, as with many European families that moved to America, and all six of the boys grew up inside the bakery. They all learned to work and to work very, very hard.

- [Miranda] The picturesque views from the Cumberland Plateau reminded the family of their home back in Switzerland. They started baking and feeding the growing community.

- [Cindy] When I bought the place, the original recipes, there was like this huge shelf full of all these notebooks, and some of them that was the most remarkable part was some of them were handwritten in German.

- [Miranda] During the early 1900s, the bakery thrived in the booming town of Tracy City. When duty called, all six Baggenstoss boys gladly went to serve their country. They all came back and went to work in the bakery. Thanks to hand deliveries, horse drawn wagons, and the newly installed railway, breads and cakes from the bakery were sent all over the state and even to 17 different countries.

- And in the '70s, that was when our famous fruitcake really took off.

- [Miranda] Once selling 30,000 fruitcakes a season, and Cindy uses the same tried and true recipe today.

- We're just honored when we use those old mixers to remember that many went before us and used those old mixers and that old dried fruit, the raisins and the dates and the cherries and the pineapple and all that going into it. So, yep, there's a lot of memories in that. I learned if a recipe calls for real butter, you should use real butter. If it calls for real heavy cream, you have to use real heavy cream. So we do all of those kind of things. We use real dark rich cocoa, you know, like we use all of the things that make it the best. Cinnamon rolls is like my number one favorite thing. It's an easy basic scratch recipe, but I love it. I make cinnamon rolls about every day,

- [Miranda] Every day, Cindy and her staff are still hand rolling and proofing the same breads they baked back in 1902, including the chuck wagon bread and the salt rising bread.

- [Cindy] We also make a variety of sweet breads that they didn't necessarily make back then. Like, we make like pistachio almond, we make a chocolate raspberry.

- [Miranda] But today she is also serving up hearty breakfasts, old-fashioned sandwiches, and plated lunches.

- So we do eggs, omelets, pancakes, french toast, and you haven't lived till you've had french toast on our bread. It's so delicious. And, today, we're making chicken and dumplings, and green beans, pinto beans.

- One day a man walked into the Dutch Maid bakery and asked Cindy Day about the famous whiskey cake. Well, Cindy didn't know they sold a whiskey cake, but, in fact, they did. Years before, this particular man used to buy about 250 cakes for his employees. So Cindy consulted her very famous and very old recipe books, and sure enough, she found a recipe for the whiskey cake. And as soon as Tennessee made putting moonshine in baked goods legal, she solved that problem. The Dutch Maid Bakery is once again a hub and a meeting place in Tracy City. Even the mayor, Stacy Hutchinson, likes to indulge.

- Well, I'm a native here. This has been here my whole life. I can remember coming in as a kid getting some cookies, and now I bring my granddaughter. We come in and get cookies, and the chess bars are my favorite in that department.

- [Cindy] It means so much to me when people come in and then they tell me that they remember this when they were a child. I wanna be that link between the past and the future. I think that when I first bought the bakery, I did not realize what I was really getting into. I just felt like it was an old business that was important to Tracy City. But I didn't realize how important it was to Grundy County and how important it is to Southeast Tennessee and the whole state of Tennessee. I've tried my very, very best to keep it as much authentic, but yet into where we need it to be to survive.

- Thank you, Miranda. Well next, we're heading west, where Laura Faber found a wonderfully talented watercolor artist in Memphis. One who claims the Bluff City is part of her success secret.

- So we are at Whitney Winkler Art Studio and Shop. It is my retail space where I can share my art with people that walk through the doors and work at the same time.

- [Laura] You won't find an easel inside the studio of Memphis artist Whitney Winkler.

- [Whitney] I usually say I'm an artist, and I specialize in fine arts, prints, textiles, and like functional art, useful art.

- [Laura] Because she uses a lot of water when creating, she works best on flat surfaces. The result is works of art that are fluid and dreamy with gorgeous palettes of color.

- [Whitney] So I started in watercolor, any like fluid paints, So I love watercolor, I love fluid acrylic. It's basically just, it's acrylic that's not thicker. You know what I, you know what I'm saying? Ink, all of those are really my faves. I do a lot of mixed media work, so I've started adding some oil pastels and some gold leafing to my stuff. I use graphite. I really have fun with a lot of mediums, but the base of everything I do is like a fluid, like a fluid painting.

- [Laura] Whitney started painting when her children were newborns and she needed an escape. While she's always been creative, she is self-taught.

- [Whitney] I really don't love to look at a lot of technique either because I feel like it's not really my personality to like read directions. For me, the reason I've been able to branch out in so many ways is I don't have a lot of inhibition or a lot of fear. Like, I'm okay to fail, and I throw away a lot of paintings.

- [Laura] Whitney branched out into textiles after a suggestion from a customer.

- So often the things I create are things that they asked for. Like, especially once I started to make the textiles, they were like, "Do you have this?" Like, and I'm like, "No, but let's do it." So listening to them, responding to what they're asking for, but still getting to do that with my own creative license. Like, I don't ever feel like I'm sacrificing creativity to do that. When scrunchies came back in, somebody was asking for scrunchies, and we were like, but now I'm like, "I can't imagine life without scrunchies."

- [Laura] Charlotte Turtle, the graphic designer for the team turns Whitney's artistry into a printable pattern for fabric.

- [Charlotte] So I take Whitney's paintings and scan them in high resolution, and then I take almost like scissors, cut out each piece of the design, and lay it out into a pattern so that the fabric is repeating so our seamstresses can make something from them.

- The team also includes several seamstresses. They take the textile patterns and create what customers want and original products too. Today, bows are on the agenda with Whitney's pattern. Probably the biggest corporate collaboration that Whitney has had so far has been with international retailer Anthropologie. They asked her to create a pattern for their travel collection, a clutch, a passport holder, and this luggage tag. They also love her designs of states. They asked her to do a print for the state of Texas, California, and New York, which they eventually put on coffee mugs. Price point is top of mind for Whitney. If it's not affordable, she and her team don't make it. She is known for her beautiful prints of states, cities, and stadiums, her textiles, and the flecks of gold in everything.

- [Whitney] We still add gold by hand to every print. So every last print that comes out of the studio is embellished with, so it has that hand added touch to it. And so I think people, like they're getting something at a great price point, but something that's still really special.

- [Laura] She does commissioned work, sells online, and out of her gallery, a space that also features work from other local artists.

- [Whitney] I have a passion for lifting up other small businesses. So a huge vision of this shop going forward was, it was never just gonna be me. Like, I always wanted to grow and include small businesses because I know just as much as the next person in this world, like, it is everything to be represented. So it's just a joy for me to buy these products. I own all of these products. I don't put the risk on them. I put the risk on myself. It's a joy to me to support them and to say, you know, I wanna represent you in whatever small way that I can.

- [Laura] Like most working artists who are able to make a living by creating, Whitney is grateful, and credits two things for her success.

- Absolutely, I'm so grateful. I credit, honestly, I credit Memphis for being like this. I gotta talk Memphis up because Memphis is a city that is ready to rally around good things. Like, it is a great place to come and live and start a business and people are excited to cheer you on. And I don't know that this would've worked in a different city. Delegating and letting other women run with what they're good at and not putting that all on myself, it's exponential. Like, because then it kicks me back to be able to paint and create and be the visionary. And so those two things, I am so grateful, Memphis and then my team. It's delightful.

- Thanks, Laura. If you exit I-24 at Monteagle, now you could turn left and enjoy some great hiking at South Cumberland State Park. Or if you're hungry, you could turn right towards Sewanee and enjoy a surprising fusion of Mediterranean and American cuisine. Folks come up here to Monteagle Mountain, a few miles from Sewanee for different reasons. Some come to hike on one of the many hiking trails. Others come just to relax in a vacation rental. Still others come here to eat thanks to a place called La Bella Pearl's. La Bella Pearl's offers a fascinating fusion of Mediterranean and American cuisine, a combination that's attracting locals and visitors alike. The menu is the brainchild of chef and co-owner Tom Anderson, whose first food memories were a visit to a country club his grandmother co-owned in South Florida.

- As a child, I used to run through the kitchen and tasting stuff and getting smacked, so food has always been a part of my life.

- [Joe] A life dedicated to crafting gourmet dishes and restaurants throughout the US and the Caribbean. After several stents in Nashville, Tom moved to the area and partnered up with another local food veteran, Cynthia Krueger.

- He has professional training. I just have a lot of years on my feet.

- [Joe] In July, 2020, Tom and Cynthia assumed ownership of this place, confident that they had the right stuff to make it work.

- How you guys doing over here?

- How are you?

- Oh, I'm good. Tom had a huge following when he came up here, and I had a huge following. And it's just, we've really never lacked for customers.

- [Tom] We are both passionate about what we do, and, of course, you know you have that little ruffling going on sometime, but it's all in the best interest of the business and maintaining that consistent quality in our food. We do it right. This is haloumi cheese from Cyprus. We cook from scratch. Everything is made up in-house from fresh ingredients. It makes you fall in love with food.

- [Joe] The restaurant has both lunch and dinner menus. We joined the Friday lunch crowd, and the first stop for many folks is this colorful antipasto bar.

- [Tom] It's a Mediterranean antipasto salad bar.

- [Joe] It's beautiful.

- [Tom] It has all the favorites from the Mediterranean with inclusions of some American.

- [Joe] In the kitchen Chef Tom performs his culinary magic with nonstop precision. Creating lunchtime favorites like garlic shrimp and pancetta with linguini, whiskey run, which is a chicken breast and baby bella simmered in whiskey wine glaze. Other favorites are the wild caught snapper filet covered in lemon tomato sauce. Then there's the signature flatbread pizza. Not to mention assorted sandwiches, salads and soups, including Mediterranean style minestrone.

- [Cynthia] You have to love what you're doing. You know, if you're in the kitchen as a job, you'll never make it. You have to love and have a passion for food.

- [Joe] While La Bella Pearl's has a strong local customer base, word has spread to cities like Huntsville, Atlanta, and, of course, Music City.

- [Tom] We have a lot of business out in Nashville. We even have people who fly into the small airport just to dine with us. It's nice to see you guys. And one of the thing I do, I manage to go out and touch base with my customers to make sure they're okay, they're doing fine, everything tastes great. And I think that's part of having a restaurant. You gotta touch base with your customers.

- We love Chef Tom and Cynthia. They're like family. It's like coming to somebody's home and just joining them for a great meal. A much better meal than we could cook at home, for sure.

- [Joe] And no restaurant family is perfect without a support staff that shares the owner's vision.

- We have such a good staff and people that can relate to them, and our staff remembers their names, remembers what they want.

- Everyone's really friendly. So it's like a party, isn't it?

- [Joe] A party for the pallet. Well, local customers seem to think so, and that's what it's all about for someone like Tom Anderson, a man who's craving for culinary perfection is a total way of life.

- [Tom] It's like a high, you know? You take the raw ingredients, you create this wonderful dish, your customers love it. What more can you ask for?

- You probably heard about the solar eclipse that's coming up on April 8th. Well, Tennessee won't see a total eclipse this time, but you know what? We did seven years ago. Danielle Allen takes a look back at that momentous day.

- [Danielle] The date, August 21st of 2017.

- Happy eclipse day, everyone.

- [Danielle] The occasion, one of the biggest celestial events in US history, a total solar eclipse. Derrick Rohl knows a thing or two about solar eclipses. He's the planetarium manager at the Adventure Science Center. They spent more than a year preparing for this event.

- These days we can actually predict them within one 100th of a second. And so that's one of my favorite things about science is the fact that we can predict this isn't all that new, but we are predicting them better than ever, which lets us prepare even more science experiments that we can try once we know that they're happening.

- [Danielle] Scientists have been predicting solar eclipses for a long time, but we didn't always understand this phenomenon.

- [Derrick] Now, when it first happened, people maybe didn't know it was coming, and they would have all sorts of great stories that they would tell. Whether it's a serpent consuming the sun, or a dragon chomping some bites out of the sun, or, you know, anything that they can do to scare these sort of monsters away in the sky. Once we learned to predict them a little bit better, it scared people just a little bit less.

- [Danielle] When the big day arrived in Nashville, there was definitely no fear, only excitement.

- We're coming in.

- Have a nice day.

- [Danielle] Folks flock to the Adventure Science Center and watched an awe as the sky darkened. Oh, it was a really amazing to be down here and watch the solar total eclipse. Everyone was cheering as the sky got darker and the sunset was beautiful. I don't have to tell you, you saw it all. So right now I'm actually talking to Madeline. She's nine years old and she came all the way here from Michigan to experience the solar eclipse. So, Madeline, how was it watching the eclipse?

- It was awesome, but the cloud blocked the way. So it was not what I expected, but it was still super duper cool.

- Is this your first time seeing a total solar eclipse?

- Yes.

- Yeah, I know you said it wasn't what you expected, but what part did you like the most?

- I liked when it was completely black and me and my friends were so excited.

- [Danielle] Nashville won't see another total solar eclipse for quite a while. So what should you do with all that leftover excitement?

- [Derrick] So rather than people maybe saying, okay, science was nice and moving on, sort of the contrary happens with an eclipse and people become what we call eclipse chasers and start to actually travel all around the world. I know people who charter cruises or work with airlines to reschedule and reroute flights just to fall in that shadow one more time.

- [Danielle] We met one of those total solar eclipse chasers at the Adventure Science Center, but Gary Parkinson didn't travel to Music City by air or sea. He came to Nashville on a bike. So how far did you travel to be here today?

- I traveled 9,300 miles so far to be here. I've traveled on this bicycle through 37 states. When I started out, my goal was to do all 48 before the eclipse. I didn't quite make it. I've got 11 more to do, and I'll finish those up in the next couple of months.

- So how did you start chasing eclipses?

- I became aware of this particular eclipse when I was 13 years old. In 1967, I saw a list of future eclipses and realized that this one was gonna go coast to coast and that was special. So I've been waiting for this for 50 years.

- [Danielle] Okay, if taking long rides to chase solar eclipses is not your style, just take a quick journey to the Adventure Science Center. This is a place where you can take in the wonders of science any day of the week.

- We're all about inspiring curiosity and igniting and, you know, really inspiring people to continue to explore careers in science for young kids, but also to really just embrace the kid and everyone and, you know, and to have everyone explore the science. So we're not just for kids anymore either.

- [Derrick] The Adventure Science Center plans to create an area devoted to preschoolers, and they regularly host events for those of us who are long past the play date phase. But this is not the only way students can get hands-on science learning. David Lockett is a middle school STEM teacher who also happens to be a NASA solar system ambassador. This is a national volunteer program that educates communities about space exploration and science in general. David also gives his time with other teaching projects.

- We've got two National Science Foundation projects we're working on. One is called IDATA and that is Innovators Developing Accessible Tools for Astronomy. This project enables vision impaired and blind students to better understand our galaxy, whether it's 3D printing, whether it's tactile astronomy, we want all students to experience astronomy just as we do. Another project is the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program. This project involves American astronomers, teachers, and educators visiting different observatories in Chile in order to make astro-tourism available to the masses. We want everyone to have that astronomy knowledge. So what better way than to not only be a national part of this, but a worldwide part of it as well. Who's heard of solar energy before?

- [Danielle] David believes it's important for children to explore. He hopes that experiencing the total solar eclipse sparked curiosity in his students.

- Well, you know, after the solar eclipse, I want the learning to continue. I don't want it to stop. I want it to be a pathway to bigger and more broader science terms. You know, I want students to say, "Wow, now that I know a little bit about the eclipse, maybe now I can research something else. Maybe now I can truly understand why certain planets are gassy, why certain planets are rocky, why certain planets are liquid?" I want them to come away with a better understanding of our solar system.

- [Danielle] The total solar eclipse of 2017 was a once in a lifetime event, but it may have laid the groundwork for a lifetime of learning.

- Eclipse on three.

- [Many] One, two, three, eclipse.

- Okay, that my friends is all she wrote for this edition of "Tennessee Crossroads." Thanks from joining us. In the meantime, go to our website, tennesseecrossroads.org, where you can download that PBS app, and we'll see you next time, take care.

- [Announcer] "Tennessee Crossroads" is made possible in part by.

- I'm Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham. Here in Cookville, Tennessee's college town, we are bold, fearless, confident, and kind. Tech prepares students for careers by making everyone's experience personal. We call that living wings up. Learn more at tntech.edu.

- [Announcer] Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways. Discover Tennessee's adventure, cuisine, history and more made in Tennessee experiences showcased among these 16 driving trails. More at TNTrailsAndByways.com.