Editorial
Front Page - Friday, May 7, 2010
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Sweet Potato Cornbread Judged A Winner
Pettus L. Read
You can tell you are in Tennessee this time of the year by the number of festivals that are being held across our volunteer state. Spring, along with fall, is a wonderful time to celebrate the changing of the season after “Ole Man Winter” ran us all indoors over the winter months. It also gives us rural types a real good reason to get out and enjoy the celebration.
Those of us who are native Tennesseans have the unique desire to want to hold festivals that honor food, animals or some type of produce. It must be in our nature, because if you check the coming events section of most of our reading materials you will find the majority of our festivals support those three areas of our culture. We honor the mule, bird dog, fainting goat, bee, horse, cornbread, strawberry, poke sallet, soybean, cotton, catfish, apple, peach, molasses, kudzu, pig and many others too numerous to mention in this limited space.
Being one who really enjoys this time of the year, I’m glad all these festivals occur and urge others to pull on their favorite
T-shirt and head out this weekend to see some type of Tennessee festival at its best.
Being somewhat of a specialist in good country cooking, I was invited back this year for the fourth time to be a judge at the 14th Annual National Corn-bread Festival for the 4-H Division Cook-off in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. If you have never attended the National Cornbread Festival, then you had better plan to be there next year, because it is the event of a lifetime.
For a cornbread lover like me, just to savor the smells and tastes of everything “cornbread” in one day’s visit was almost more than I could stand. And then, to have the opportunity to taste the ten best recipes of cornbread out of over 100 entries from 4-H members from all parts of the country and this state, you had to know that I was in “country cook’n heaven.”
I got VIP parking, a large rosette judge’s ribbon and several goodies from festival cook-off sponsors Lodge Cast Iron Cookware and Martha White. For a southern fat boy, what more could you ask for? But, the greatest part of the day was meeting and judging the contest for 10 of the most creative 4-H members you would ever want to meet.
They were each fourth graders, and they all had just as much determination and skill to compete as the adults, who would bake their goods during the afternoon national contest.
The contest is held early in the morning and each contestant has to prepare their own recipe on a stage before hundreds of watching festivalgoers. After mixing their ingredients, they bake their cornbread creation on stage for the judges. They are judged on appearance, creativity, presentation, cooking techniques, product color, shape, crust, texture and most importantly of all, flavor. And by the way, they must prepare their recipe in cast iron cookware. As I always say, “Anytime you encounter cornbread made in a cake pan, you’re dealing with imposters.”
The ten cornbread dishes I tasted that day were all really good and trying to pick a winner was tough. I ate enough cornbread that day that all I had to do for supper that night was drink water and swell.
This year’s winner was Gordie Cartwright all the way from Gant, Ala. Gordie’s winning dish was “Sweet Potato Cornbread.” And, it was like eating a thanksgiving meal without the turkey.
Second place was Seth Widick from Whitwell, Tenn. with an “Upside Down Cornbread Pizza” mixture that would make a full meal for any hungry family.
Ashley Helen Stewart from Belvidere, Tenn., made “Sas Squash Big Skillet Cornbread” that contained squash, of course, and was a dish that had a flavor that would require you to return for seconds. Ashley is going to make someone a real good chef someday.
During the festival you can tour the Lodge plant located in South Pittsburg, see hundreds of arts and crafts, watch the cook-off, go down Cornbread Alley and basically have a really good time. At least more than 40,000 people attend the event each year.
Maybe someday they will let me judge the big contest or even enter the Celebrity Cook-off. Just don’t put me up against those 4-Hers. They are good at what they do.
Hope to see you next year in South Pittsburg.
Pettus L. Read is Director of Communications for the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. He may be contacted by e-mail at pread@tfbf.com.
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