Episode 4003

- [Narrator] Tennessee Crossroads is brought to you in part by:

- [Narrator 2] Some of our biggest checks have also made the biggest difference. The Tennessee Lottery, proud to have raised more than $7.5 billion for education. Now that's some game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator 3] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways, where adventure, cuisine, and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tnvacation.com.

- [Narrator 4] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.

- This time on "Tennessee Crossroads," we head to Cookeville and a one-stop shop for healthy meals. We'll meet a Nashville artist who will brighten your day. We'll visit a state park just north of Memphis, and we'll go way back to get a taste of a Southern delicacy in Watertown. Looks like some adventurous eating to me. Howdy, everyone. I'm Ketch Secor, welcoming you back to another episode of "Tennessee Crossroads." Have you ever had a craving for a great cup of coffee and a morning pick-me-up, but you're trying to make better health choices? Well, in our first story, Miranda Cohen travels to Cookeville to meet a farmer and an artist who have teamed up together to make sure you can do both at Meg's Bread.

- [Miranda] This vibrant space in Cookeville is bustling and filled with the aroma of freshly baked goodness. This is Meg's Bread. The idea for this organic scratch-made bakery started out simple enough. Luke Yoder was a farmer growing fresh vegetables. His wife, Meghan Borland, was an artist; a sculptor, to be exact. And one day, she decided to try her hand at baking homemade bread.

- It's very similar to clay, dough is. It's just the same tactile experience.

- [Miranda] Meghan and her husband Luke started selling Meg's Bread at the local farmer's market, and they knew they were onto something very special.

- Took those first loaves to the market and they sold so well, we could see instantly it was like, "Okay, people are really into this. There's a real need for this. Hey, let's start a bakery. There seems to be room for that in Cookeville."

- [Miranda] And the community of Cookeville, and well beyond, agreed. Meg's Bread is now in this spacious brick-and-mortar on Cedar Avenue, and the menu has expanded to include sweet and savory pastries, and so much more.

- Like our hand pie is a pastry dough, and it has a jam. We make cook-down jams and fill it with that, and then make icings that go on top. So when strawberries are in, we have strawberry jam, and we do have some that are year round, like the chocolate hand pie is really popular.

- [Miranda] They say you eat first with the eyes. And it is easy to see the artistic influence of these talented creatives in every bite.

- It's more sensory. I think sometimes food, you know, but it's like if it looks beautiful, then, it's your smell and then how it first tastes when you eat it. We try to have options too at our bakery of a gluten-free thing or a vegan cookie just so someone, there's something for everyone.

- [Miranda] The racks of freshly baked organic breads are packed with flavor, but start from the same base. Freshly milled flour means more active enzymes and a better and better-for-you result.

- And all our bread that we make is sourdough. So it's a really important aspect to both how it's fermented and how it makes it more digestible for your body, but then it's also the flavor. And it's not a really strong sour flavor, but it's this really kind of fresh, just a slight acidity to it that is part of what makes it so delicious.

- We call it our mother in the bakery, and we say, "If she's not happy, no one's happy." But it is, it's just a nice intuitional thing of baking that, it just makes things all kind of more connect.

- [Miranda] In fact, you can taste a hint of sourdough in the aromatic croissants and cinnamon rolls. The bakery items became so popular and such a staple for the community, Meghan and Luke wanted to offer something more, so they opened a cafe.

- So we have a menu of eight or nine sandwiches that are always there. We have one or two that we switch out seasonally.

- Freshly baked bread straight from the oven will sandwich together organic chicken salad, slices of turkey, ham, and leafy greens, plus a wide variety of unique soups and salads. When they want the very freshest, finest ingredients for their sandwiches and baked goods, they don't have to look far, but that wasn't always the case. They realized there was a need for a great grocery store right in their own community. So in between the bakery and the cafe, they opened up the West Side Grocery Store.

- [Owner] Missing was a really good organic grocery store where you could get good year-round organic produce, local products, natural foods.

- Eria Keilar is the general manager of the West Side Grocery.

- So a lot of our organic produce we try to source locally. And that just helps, you know, the community around us. And it just makes it so much better knowing the face of like where it comes from.

- It's a real pillar of the community and of our week. We love that the groceries come from local farms and that we're supporting a local business. Really, the people here are also what make it. They are fantastic staff. We always, we go for a few minutes and we end up chatting for half an hour.

- It's also just realizing it's this thing bigger than just Luke and I. And, you know, even there's 37 people I think who work here now. And that alone, it's like, it's a community of people who, some of us say that we're here more than we are at home. You know, like this is our second family.

- Megan says a lot, but it's like, it's our way of giving a hug, you know, to somebody of just like fresh loaf of bread that's warm, you know, baked off daily. It's an important part of a community. It's always been, the bakery has always been part of a community.

- Well, thanks, Miranda. Hey, who says eating healthy can't taste great? Well, next up, it's art that makes you smile, colorful and bold, and who can't benefit from a dose of happy these days? Laura Faber took the crew to the art studio of Ginny Elder to see how she creates her masterpieces.

- In my art studio, which is my favorite place to be, I paint because I have to. I love acrylic. Acrylic is very forgiving. And you can paint something, and if you don't like it, you can paint over it, or if you mess up a little bit. It's just very forgiving. It dries very quickly.

- [Laura] Almost every day you can find Ginny Elder in her basement studio in Nashville. On this day, she's creating a piece specifically because "Crossroads" is here.

- I'm also going to make y'all participate.

- [Laura] What? You're going to what? It's a big, bold floral acrylic on campus titled "Floral Crossroads," and eventually will be displayed at a gallery show Ginny has coming up.

- What you see is almost like a base layer. And then I'll go on top and I'll add pattern, and I'll add, and then I'll come back on top of that. It's usually a three or four-tiered thing. If you look at some of my paintings, you can see kind of like a red outline. It sort of makes it punch. And so I outline it in red, and then I usually come back after that and cover a lot of the red. But a little bit of it shows through and it just kind of adds a great feel to the piece.

- We all get to add some pattern and texture to the piece, and continue to watch Ginny work. Growing up in Mississippi, Ginny didn't have access to art classes in school, though she did take some private classes.

- It's just kind of always been a part of me to be creative, and it was just celebrated. I couldn't make mistakes. It was just a great place to explore and create.

- [Laura] Her first true art classes were in college where she majored in graphic design and fine art at Mississippi State. Ginny came to Nashville for a graphic design job, but grew tired of being confined by the commerce of it all.

- I need freedom. I think artists need freedom to be able to explore. And I mean, artists, art is great not because people have colored in the lines. Art is great because they've colored outside of the lines.

- [Laura] decided to go out on her own.

- Ron York is kind of a well-known name in Nashville, and he had a gallery called Local Color Gallery. And I started showing there, and this was before I had children, so over 28 years ago. I usually paint on canvas or wood, like a wood panel. And I've gotten to where I really love layering. I love pattern, and I love layers. So I started adding patterns to sort of give a depth to it. Southern, bold, almost graphic, not, maybe modern, but whimsical. A lot of people say whimsical. A lot of people, when they'll see me in an art show, they'll say, "Your stuff is so happy."

- [Laura] Ginny paints what's around her. She's done several versions of Nashville's Batman building, a trip to the beach inspires beach things. A hike inspires butterflies and landscapes.

- I could paint florals all day long. I love florals. I, again, they just make me happy. There's so much color. There's so much intricacy, and every flower is different. Every color is unique, and I could paint flowers all day long.

- You can always shop at Ginny's Home Studio, but she also participates in art shows and gallery shows like this one all over the state. And the great news about that is you're exposed not only to Ginny's art, but a collective of artists she collaborates with.

- [Speaker 1] Kate, what do you think of this one? Do you think that looks good there?

- Cuts of paper.

- At Stacy Beam's Gallery in Green Hills, the artist circle of Nashville gathers for a show. Some do plein air paintings, some more sculptural, others expressionistic, and even op art.

- How do you make it? What is it?

- So I paint with ink on synthetic paper.

- It's a learning experience, and it's a collaboration of all of us coming together. You just get to a point where you're like, "I need community. I need someone else around me that thinks like I do, like a crazy artist."

- [Laura] They are all fantastic.

- I just see the reflections and the light on the kids, the sunlight. Like, I feel the warmth.

- Also on display, the painting Ginny created for our "Crossroads" shoot.

- This one, we actually started while "Tennessee Crossroads" was at my house. I was downstairs painting. They wanted to film me painting, and then I let them participate in the painting. So they got to put some of the pieces because there's, again, there's collage pieces. And these are all hand painted collage pieces.

- That's paper.

- Yeah, that's hand painted paper. And then some collage pieces aren't, but I mean, it took me a week.

- [Laura] While Ginny is grateful to be a working artist, the goal is really to create beauty, to explore and push boundaries. Is it still a thrill when people buy your stuff?

- Oh my gosh, yes. Every day. Yes. There's the gamut of emotions. So the first thing is, I sit in my studio by myself and I paint. And part of me, and I think every artist probably feels this, it's like, "What am I doing?" Like, "Does anybody care about this?" "Is this worthy of," you know, "Is this any good?" It's always an honor. It's always an honor. It's an honor to go to a friend's house that has purchased a piece, and to see. It's like you like that enough that I painted to hang that on your wall. It's just an honor. It feeds me. It makes me want to paint the next thing.

- Hey, thanks, Laura. I feel happier already just seeing those paintings. Well, in our next segment, we're off to West Tennessee. That's where photographer John Guider visited Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, and brings us this story from just north of Memphis.

- Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park is a beautiful park. It's a 12,539-acre state park, and we do border the Mississippi River. It's about 20 square miles. My name is James Wilkinson. I'm the park manager here at Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park. We're right outside of Memphis and Millington area. And just being a place to be able to get, for people to get away from the hustle and bustle of life of that fast pace. They can come out, sit out in nature, and enjoy. Originally, this park was run under the Department of Interior under National Park Service as a national recreation area back in the '30s. Back during the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the WA projects, they worked here at this park. There is an old group camp that they actually stayed at while they were working in this area. And they planted trees as well as other to work on the erosion issues. And then in 1944, federal government turned it over to the state of Tennessee. So we are located on the Chickasaw Bluff. And so what's really nice about that is we do have the 200-foot bluff, so it really does make it unique. And a lot of people, we get that from a lot of folks that travel through that say, you know, "I was expecting this place to really be flat." And so, it's great. And we tell them, "Hey, go down here, drive through, take this trail," and, you know, so that they get out and can see some of those areas. I've been here at Meeman-Shelby for about 23 years. I've always wanted to be a park ranger. When I was real young, we'd always go to either Realfoot Lake State Park or Harris Landing State Park, and just meeting the rangers and all that just made me want to be a park ranger one day. I love every aspect of it. I like getting out and talking to people, finding out how they're, how they're doing, where they're from, and just getting to know people as well as just finding out everything and being able, you know, to be able to help support our folks to make sure that everything is nice, professionally kept, clean as well, and making sure that they have the supplies that they need, as well as interpretive supplies to make people's trips and visits enjoyable. My favorite season, I love the fall season when the fall colors occur. Just great to see all the different colors that we have with our beautiful forest. Wintertime is nice as well. You know, we get, last year, we had snow on the ground, so it's kind of nice to see. In springtime, we do have our wildflowers that come up, and so we will do hikes as well as; it's a great place to see a lot of our wildflowers. Being on the Mississippi River, we are a pathway for migratory birds. And so it's a great opportunity here to see a lot, many different species of birds that come through. People come out to our park for many different reasons. They come out for hiking, walking their dogs. We have over 20 miles of hiking trail. They come out for visiting, coming together with family and friends and visiting together. Also, they come out for camping, staying overnight. We have six rental cabins, which are located right on the banks of Poplar Tree Lake. We also have one group camp that will sleep about 136 people. And we have a newly-renovated 48-site RV campground. We do rent some jon boats. We also rent kayaks, single in tandem. We also, on Poplar Tree, we also allow people bring their fishing boats out, and they will fish for bass, different, lots of different species. While you're visiting our park, you will see many different types of wildlife. You'll see different species of owls. You'll see hawks. You will see, you might even see a bald eagle that's flying or fishing out of Poplar Tree Lake. I hope that y'all come to see us and visit with us, whether you're staying in our facilities, renting, or just coming out for a day's hike, or a program. Thank you, and look forward to seeing you.

- Hey, thanks, John. Great, stunning photos as always. Well, now it's time for our "Retro Crossroads" segment of the week, this time from our third season. Now, Joe Elmore always made it the mission of this show to root out stories about interesting, unusual, and out-of-the-way places. And this time, it all led to a down home Southern diner with an honest-to-goodness Southern delicacy.

- [Joe] This gourmet getaway takes us to the crossroads of Highway 70 and 267 to Watertown, Tennessee, population 1200. When you think of Southern delicacies, foods like fried chicken, barbecue ribs, or maybe country ham come to mind. But it's a little more, well, unusual gastronomical delight that attracts people to this town, and they'll be here soon. You see, it's Chitlin' night in Watertown, and we're here to get a taste of the inside story. Our final destination is here: the Snow White Restaurant. And this is where the owner and Chief Chef Kenneth "Fats" Haynes slow cooks about 220 pounds of his prized chitlins.

- I think there's some chitlin eaters all over the country. They just, people just don't fool with fixing them. You know, they're a lot of trouble. Mine comes in frozen, so it's a process throwing them out. Then you got to cut them up, pick the fat out of them, and clean them, you know? They still, little corn and stuff still in them when you get up.

- [Joe] Oh, boy. So you clean them real well, we hope.

- Well, like, they say don't clean them too clean.

- Oh, I know you introduce a lot of people to your fried chitlins, and, well, how about one more?

- Yeah, I'm going to give you a shot at it.

- [Joe] Okay. You think I'll like it?

- I might let you cook some of them.

- [Joe] Uh-oh. Some of the chitlins are cooled and battered for frying. The rest are just boiled. These are ready to eat. The fats, these have all been battered.

- All been battered, ready to deep fry.

- Ready to deep fry. All right, let's see how you do it.

- I just pick them up my hand and-

- Wow, that's hot. Can I try this?

- Yeah.

- Thank you, sir.

- Get it all over.

- They feel great.

- All right. A chitlin challenge is not to be taken lightly. So I decided research was in order. So by 6:00 PM, the place was filled with customers ready to pay $6 for all they could eat. Well, I've always heard the best way to learn about the quality of a restaurant's food was to ask the help about it. And Sandra Haynes here has been here since the first chitlin was served. How do you like them?

- Oh, I don't like them, but everybody else does.

- You don't like chitlins?

- No.

- Have you ever tried them?

- I just don't like them.

- Shame on you.

- I know.

- They are delicious. Better than last year. Much better.

- Do you guys come here just about every time they have chitlins?

- Well, we try to, especially on a cold night.

- [Joe] You really like them?

- These are better on a cold night.

- [Joe] Raymond Ferris is the official chitlin taster who never stops tasting.

- I tasted them this morning. They were just right.

- Now your friends are eating them fried, but you got a big bowl of boiled chitlins. Is that the only way you eat?

- That's the only way I eat them.

- You eat another one then before you eat.

- You'll eat two bowls?

- How do you describe the taste of chitlins to somebody who's never had them before?

- Well, they got kind of an odd taste. They're greasy, but you got to like them to eat them.

- Do you have to try them yourself to really know what it's like to have chitlins?

- That's right.

- I guess I'm getting ready to try them. Soon, waitress Willomino was bringing me big servings of homemade beans, slaw, cornbread, and yes, fried chitlins. Before I eat this, do you eat these?

- No, I don't.

- You don't, how can you be a true Southerner and not eat chicken?

- I'm not a southerner, I'm a Yankee.

- Okay. Here we go. I think it calls for ketchup first. You sure you don't want to try this first? It's not bad.

- Yeah, wait a minute. We need to try some of these boiled ones.

- Boil ones?

- Boiled.

- Well, I think you use a lot of hot sauce. A lot of hot sauce. Oh, me. That took intestinal fortitude, folks. This was your initiation into chitlin eating, right?

- This is the first time.

- [Joe] Okay, what's the verdict?

- Verdict is, I don't believe I order any more boiled ones. I might try some fried ones again sometime, but no more boiled ones. Every time I've been down to eat, take a buyer of this good slaw, I smell that wrong when I have to back up a little bit.

- [Joe] Chitlins are a throwback to the days when hungry farm families ate everything on the hog but the squeal. Today, they're a delicacy for devotees who don't mind where they come from as long as they can come here for a fix. Oh, in case you don't know where they come from...

- It's the goods.

- [Joe] And so while some gut reactions are adverse, for others, a night at Fat's place is, well, hog heaven. At each month, Chitlin Night is the main event in this town, and a lot of fun for all. Well, just about.

- Oh my goodness. Joe Elmore for the win taking one for the team back in our third season with those chitlins. Well, folks, that's all the time we have for you this week, but thanks for joining us. Be sure to visit our website at tennesseecrossroads.org to see more stories and to leave us a video message for our 40th anniversary. We'll see you back here next time.

- Hey, I'm Azal Khan, audio engineer in Nashville for the past 20 years. And I just want to wish "Tennessee Crossroads" a happy 40th.

- I'm Hayden Summers from Nashville, Tennessee. Happy 40th Season "Tennessee Crossroads."

- [Narrator] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by:

- [Narrator] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over $7.5 billion we've raised for education, providing more than two million scholarships and grants. The Tennessee Lottery, game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator 2] Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways, where adventure, cuisine, and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tnvacation.com.