Friday, October 23, 2009

Homesick no more

By the time you see this post, I will be in The Homeland. The homeland of good friends, good food, and good family, including this guy:


 Yeah, I know I'm handsome

The hottest invitation in town? That would be this one:


Rain, rain, stay AWAY!

And don't forget this little event, either:


I leave you with this poem from the utterly amazing Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue. I can never say enough about this series from the Southern Foodways Alliance. This one explores barbecue in every way possible, through the most interesting anthropological, social, cultural, and political perspectives. What it comes down to is, it makes me homesick. No need to be homesick this weekend, though.

To family, history, tradition, and the meaty stuff that holds it all together:

Barbecue Service
by James Applewhite

I have sought the elusive aroma
Around outlying cornfields, turned corners
Near the site of a Civil War surrender.
The transformation may take place
At a pit no wider than a grave,
Behind a single family's barn.
These weathered ministers
Preside with the simplest of elements:
Vinegar and pepper, split pig and fire.
Underneath a glistening mountain in air,
Something is converted to a savor: the pig
Flesh purified by far atmosphere.
Like the slick-sided sensation from last summer
A fish pulled quick from a creek
By a boy. Like breasts in a motel
With whiskey and twilight
Now a blue smoke in memory.
This smolder draws the soul of our longing.

I want to see all the old home folks,
Ones who may not last another year.
We will rock on porches like chapels
And not say anything, their faces
Impenetrable as different barks of trees.
After the brother who drank has been buried,
The graveplot stunned by sun
In the woods,
We men still living pass the bottle.
We barbecue pigs.
The tin-roofed sheds with embers
Are smoking their blue sacrifice
Across Carolina.

4 comments:

  1. Can't wait! Nothing like an Adams' family get together :) See you soon!

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  2. Mmmmmm barbeque, and Southern Foodways Alliance. I want to go to the symposium next year so much. I missed out this year by vacillating on whether I should go or not.

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  3. So glad you got some good quality home time. And the nephew cuteness factor is out of control! xx

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  4. Awesome! Especially the poem. Going to pass it along to my favorite pig cooker. He'll love it. Hope you had fun in NC.

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