The Food Principle

<Jim> All right, you ready?

Because this is going down.

Are you ready?

<Ronnie Tartt> I'm ready.

My mama taught me how to cook, baby.

<Jim> Can I be one of your kids too?

(laughing) From grits to gold and farming to food trucks, how a new generation of Appalachians are reaching back to their roots to show us a brighter road ahead.

<Mohsin Kazmi> When you consider culture and biodiversity, they're the same thing, and if you take the culture out of a region, it's like taking the biodiversity out of the region.

<Jim> In this episode of the Food Principle.

For 20 years, I've used food as a catalyst to connect travelers with local culture around the world.

Yet, food does even more than connect us.

It also plays a pivotal role in some of our greatest challenges.

Now, I'm on a quest to learn from leaders in the vanguard of these battles.

All using the power of food to plant a better planet.

I'm Jim Kane, and this is The Food Principle.

music peaceful music Is it hubris to believe that a taste of stone ground grits can lead to increased crop resilience?

That a family's generation's old meat sauce recipe can showcase Appalachia's hidden potential?

Or that a food truck can drive conversations on culture and biodiversity?

Or is it simply a renewed sense of pride in the region's deep roots that's now bubbling up in America's original melting pot?

fiddler music Nestled in the mountains of Western North Carolina is the home and mill of David Bauer, whose unassuming project Farm & Sparrow seeks to reignite the role of the community mill and landrace grains grown in Appalachia.

David got his first taste of baking while apprenticing for famed oven mason Allen Scott, the chance to bake out of a legendary brick oven first drew him to Appalachia where he became enamored by the area's small mountain farms.

Eventually he realized his vision for baking bread entirely from locally grown grain milled in house and fermented with native yeast.

fiddler music ends <David> There used to be thousands of mills across the south and in the mountains that processed corn for a handful of families.

Where a mill like ours comes into significance is it creates the infrastructure upon which families can again begin cultivating their own corn and have a mill that they can bring it to.

bright music You can see the system here where the bean is essentially using the corn as a trellis and for whatever reason it does really well.

When you get right here, when the bean vines essentially anchor onto the corn plant itself.

<Jim> Yeah.

<Jim> Boy, that's really wrapped around there.

David works with farmers to develop and grow landrace grains, especially corn.

These semi-wild varietals quickly adapt to the local conditions where they're planted, creating a diverse pallet of flavors while strengthening crop resilience.

<David> The variety is called Tuxpeno.

It's the main variety of corn that we've been growing for six or seven years now.

It's beautiful, isn't it?

<Jim> It's almost like a rusty orange.

<David> Look at that translucent glow to it.

I mean, that's health.

<Jim> Gorgeous.

<David> We grow these varieties because they're very reflective of the environment in which they grow.

They respond to the soil.

They respond to the weather.

They respond to the planting season, and ultimately they respond to whatever selections that are being made by the farmer themselves.

<Jim> And is the end goal with the flavor of dish that you end up making with this?

<David> Partially to produce something that has a beautiful flavor that expresses the place and to create a sense of ownership amongst farmers and amongst homesteaders and amongst gardeners of, this is my corn.

It is an expression of where I live.

<Jim> Where did this all start?

This raising corn, raising rice in this area.

<David> In many ways, like, what I'm doing right here is what the Cherokee did for thousands of years.

It's just a concept that's become largely forgotten within the last hundred years.

<Jim> Diversity of crops helps with the resilience of the crops in the face of climate change or disease.

Is that something you're focused on as well?

<David> We had a farmer that we worked with who was losing one out of every three corn crops.

As it is every year, category four hurricane blowing in across the Carolinas.

I got a phone call from the farmer who was growing the Tuxpeno crop, and he was like giddy with excitement because he said the corn was down in a three county area almost completely, except for this crop of Tuxpeno corn, which was standing tall, ankle deep in water.

<Jim> David invited me to prepare some landrace grits and taste the difference for myself.

So he harvested a few ingredients from around the homestead and headed to the kitchen.

Right out of the chicken, huh?

Still warm.

<David> Yeah!

mellow music Just spoon in one cup of the grits.

<Jim> It's going to sound ridiculous, but it smells to me like popcorn, right?

<David> Yeah, toasted.

We're kind of bringing out the toasty qualities of it.

Corn has a lot of different flavors.

A teaspoon of salt.

Then we're going to add five cups of boiling water.

<Jim> When I think of the grits that I've had in the past, they're kind of known for not being very flavorful themselves, but kind of carrying the taste of whatever you throw into it, usually.

<David> The vehicle.

<Jim> The vehicle.

<David> There's almost an expectation amongst folks that grits themselves are going to be bland and plain and almost a bit like stale tasting.

One way that you can kind of bring out that flavor a little bit while cooking grits at home is to use just a tiny, tiny pinch of baking soda.

By changing the cooking liquid into an alkaline, the flavor is going to be transformed and you're going to start to get flavor elements coming out that I'm more reminiscent of masa or tortilla, and the color is going to start to transform from the corn too.

<Jim> Wow.

<David> What was a light yellow kernel will become a deep orange kernel and those flavors are going to start popping out.

<Jim> Maybe there's a stigma of grits as sort of being looked down upon food.

You're trying to change that perception.

Do you think there's some parallel to that between the perceptions of Appalachia in general?

<David> What the world now knows of grits is this very kind of plain, simple, white, bland food, and so in the same sense that the story of Appalachia and all of its diversity has really been watered down.

I think the story of grits and even the end product, the grits, in many ways has been watered down over the past hundred years.

mellow music <Jim> All right, we're ready.

<David> Into the pan.

(sizzling) It was really very practical for families to grow their own corn on a small scale, process it on the farm, take it to the local mill to get milled, and when they'd come back from the mill, they would have two products in their hands.

A bag of grits and a bag of corn meal.

Grits from our corn, egg from our chickens, some tomatoes, onions from our garden.

<Jim> All right, so taste your grits first by themself.

The opposite of bland.

Yeah, it's a mouth punch.

It's nice.

This has reminded me of that comment when you had that first bite of real grits, how it changed your thinking.

<David> I met an older farmer.

He sent me home with a bag of grits.

I cooked them on a Sunday morning, not expecting it to be anything that special and was blown away by the rich bouquet, like the aroma coming off of the bowl.

I couldn't believe it.

I would say from the moment that I had that bite of grits, I knew that the way to express terroir here in the mountains was through corn.

I think that you can't really connect with your food without connecting with other people, not that you can't really connect with other people without connecting through food.

upbeat music <Jim> Tucked into the southwest corner of West Virginia, McDowell County is considered remote, even for those living in adjacent counties.

It's a land as rugged as it is beautiful.

That's where I went to meet Jason Tartt, a small farmer and former military contractor who returned after years of living away to the childhood home he calls, The Camp.

<Jason> It's getting ready to get hot out here.

Your roots aren't going to make it.

Just transplanted some kale.

In about a few months, these are fall crops, so it's about that time of year to get the cold weather stuff in.

So that's what we're in the middle of right now.

My name's Jason Tartt, small farmer here in McDowell County, West Virginia.

This is where we call home.

This is where I was born and raised, and one of the most beautiful places in this country.

I think Appalachia, in general, is largely overlooked and underappreciated, so we are here to bring that spark back and put eyes on this place again.

Just really down here trying to help grow the economy, grow the community.

We've obviously got enough bad things going on that's been well publicized, so just doing what we can to right the ship.

(machine whirring) <Jim> What is this area producing in terms of... Help paint a picture of that.

<Jason> The beauty of it is for agriculture in Appalachia, we don't have to reinvent anything.

You talk about medication, people have been getting medicinal herbs out of these mountains forever.

Fruit trees grow naturally here.

Nut trees grow naturally here.

So these mountains produce a lot of things we're just simply not taking advantage of.

We just accept it as it is and enhance it, make it better.

We can do it in a environmentally friendly way very easily here.

The folks that were here living off the land and doing these things have passed on or older now and just can't do it anymore, so we just have to go back again, return to our roots, go back to what our ancestors were doing here, and the land will speak to us.

We have to understand how to cooperate with nature as opposed to bending nature to what we want it to be.

<Jim> A lot of African Americans that used to be here in Appalachia have left to certain urban centers, but putting that long lens back on, help me understand what is the contribution of black Appalachians over the course of the last couple centuries here?

<Jason> It's been enormous for the entire country, but particularly Appalachia has a rich African-American history.

You had black communities that were thriving and that was because the resources and the money were circulating in those communities, and after integration, that kind of went away.

But even African Americans don't understand that we have ties to this place.

We help build this place.

I would love to attract African Americans, particularly back to this region because I believe people, for whatever reason, don't believe that African Americans have any ties or influence here, and that's a big mistake.

So I'm hoping that we can attract folks back here and help us to rebuild this.

I think diversity, I think inclusion, all of those things are important and we need that approach to fixing this problem.

<Jim> For Jason and his family, The Camp is more than a farmstead.

It's the heart of a deep-rooted, multi-generational community where the values of respect, hard work and generosity are all part of its DNA.

<Jason> When I was a kid back in those days, we called this The Camp.

When I was young, racism was very much felt, so this was our place of safety.

It was a beautiful community.

You had a lot of elderly people around, so respect was big.

These folks were strong people, tough people.

They lived off the land to the extent that they could.

Fruit trees, gardens, hog pens on the hill, chicken coops on the hill, a goat here or there.

So they made it happen.

They did what it took to survive.

They shared, so someone went hunting and got a deer or something, they would share that with the community here.

So that's just how things were back in those days.

<Jim> Jason hopes The Camp will serve as a beacon to others, especially African Americans, while showcasing Appalachia's hidden potential as a model for forest farming and food entrepreneurship.

<Jim> What's your dream going forward?

<Jason> To get people to realize the greatness of this place and to rebuild, to bring this place back to what it once was and better.

It's obvious we're much more than coal, and that's what I want this community, the country to understand, is Appalachia, West Virginia is more than coal.

We'll eat this meal one bite at a time, but so far it's working out really well.

We're very encouraged about where things are going, so the next 10 years, we're going to put this place back on the map.

upbeat music <Jim> For farmers to fully benefit from the abundance of their land, Jason believes growers can be involved in multiple links of the value chain.

That's the inspiration behind Appalachian Gold, brand showcasing Appalachian ingredients and its first product, Mama's Meat Sauce, a generation's old family recipe, and the pride of The Camp community.

<Jason> Creator of Mama's Meat Sauce right here.

<Jim> All right, you ready?

Because this is going down.

Are you ready?

<Ronnie> I'm ready.

I'm ready.

My mama taught me how to cook, baby.

<Jim> Can I be one of your kids too?

(laughing) <Jason> So food has always been a big deal.

It always was one of those things that could bring people together.

So we came up with the Appalachian Gold brand.

The history of this sauce and where it came from, it was born out of hardship.

It's born out of struggle.

And for African Americans there was no running out buying this or buying that.

It's use what you have or find something to make it work.

This is something that this entire community is taking pride in because my great-grandmother, everyone came from miles around to experience her food, and that's where Mama's Meat Sauce was born out of.

We're working on a couple other product lines as we speak, because Appalachian Gold is just what it is.

We're sitting on a gold mine here and no one's talking about it.

No one's bringing awareness to what we have here, and it's time for that to stop.

<Jim> Well, Jason told me about the story of Miss Alberta and this sauce that she used to make up.

It's been in your family a long time.

<Ronnie> Yes.

<Jim> Why'd you decide to let the secret out and make a product out of it that other people can taste?

<Ronnie> We just decided to see what it can do, and so far everybody loves it, so let the world love it.

When mama would come out and fix that barbecue sauce, everybody would talk about it.

It was that good, but I never dreamed that all of this little bit of thing would come out so big.

<Jim> Jason was sharing with me that the vision for this is to come out with a whole line of products under the Appalachian Gold brand.

<Ronnie> Yes.

<Jim> What's coming next after meat sauce?

<Ronnie> You know what?

After today, I actually think I'm going to talk to Jason about making some salad dressing because really the salad dressing that you all had, it was made out of this sauce.

<Jim> Looks like you have one more project, Jason.

<Jason> Yes, we do.

We have several Jim, we have several.

(laughing) Growing up here, you meet some of the most likable people that you're ever going to meet, but we take pride in that.

If you grace our doorstep, we want that to be a beautiful experience for you.

We're God-fearing people, and of course, we want that to be portrayed to anyone we come into contact as well.

Talking is just one thing, but actually showing kindness and love to your neighbor is a very difficult thing to do for most people anymore.

And in this case, we're giving folks something to talk about moving forward, so we feel very good about that and holding on to that part of who we are is just good, generous, family oriented, loving people.

<Ronnie> I know you like the chicken.

Let's see if you like the sauce.

<Jim> I took a thigh this time.

I'm going to go all around that chicken.

<Ronnie> Okay.

Get some wings on there too.

(laughing) <Jim> That's next.

<Ronnie> Okay.

All right then.

<Jason> You talking about conservation.

Personally, I think that Appalachia can be very instrumental in paving the way forward for agriculture in the whole country because we've got an opportunity to do something here the right way, and hopefully that can be replicated.

Preserving the beauty that you see, preservation, conservation, and just making sure that we're doing things in an environmentally friendly way.

<Jim> Growing on the land in a way that doesn't destroy it.

<Jason> Absolutely.

fiddler music <Jim> From McDowell County, I headed south to Abingdon, Virginia, home of the Pakalachian, a food truck that celebrates biodiversity and sparks conversations on culture through a delicious mashup of Appalachian and Pakistani cuisine.

Mohsin and Katlin, the husband and wife co-owners try to incorporate biodiversity education into every aspect of their lives, having converted much of their own property into an edible ecosystem.

<Mohsin> This is a huge one.

This is autumn olive.

This is like an invasive that has runners.

<Jim> Autumn olive.

<Mohsin> Super invasive.

It's a... <Jim> Is this the same that I'm seeing?

<Mohsin> Yeah, you can tell by the silver and... <Jim> Do I have permission to pull this thing out then?

<Mohsin> Sure thing.

<Katlin> So the roots system...

The thing about a autumn olive is their root system makes them almost impossible to kill off.

<Katlin> They are... <Jim> Oh wow.

Man, this is...

They produce these really tiny berries.

Really tall astringent berries that drop and they super produce every single year.

<Mohsin> And it actually is a remnant of coal mining because when they did mountaintop removal, one of the ways that they would reduce erosion is planting these.

<Jim> I was going to say...now, when I just pulled this thing out, have I taken care of this particular autumn olive or is it still... <Mohsin> This much of it is still left and it will sprout from that.

<Jim> Wow.

<Mohsin> It's crazy.

Southern Appalachia is one of the most biodiverse places in the United States.

We have really focused on trying to make our area an educational place that also supports the food truck.

We serve Pakistani and Appalachian fusion food and we try to source all of our food locally.

We just love feeding people in the region that we live in.

We didn't date for very long.

We got married and one of the ways we got to know each other was she feed me and I would feed her.

<Katlin> Yeah!

That's how this food truck started, legitimately.

He was making food he grew up with, I was making food I grew up with, and then it would go together and it was like, leftovers were great.

<Katlin> Curry Me Down South <Mohsin> Combining the leftovers.

is leftovers that we made up.

<Jim> I've been hearing about this, Curry Me Down South.

I want to hear more.

I...really want to try it is what I really want to do, to be quite honest.

<Katlin> We can make that happen.

<Jim> Can you guys get granular on what's in there?

How do you do it?

<Mohsin> We said when we started this truck, let's start with this.

This is Curry Me Down South, and what that is mashed potatoes and curry.

<Katlin> The Appalachian brings an element of unknown to an element of comfort and things that around here, people eat every day.

So it's just enough comfort, just enough familiarity to try it.

<Mohsin> And it's cool because we're not changing our recipes.

We're not making it palatable.

We're making it familiar enough.

<Jim> While Katlin and Mohsin prepared their famous Curry Me Down South, I got to try an Appalachian pawpaw, a tropical tasting fruit native to North America that Mohsin used to make a lassi, a popular drink in Pakistan.

<Mohsin> Pawpaws are North America's largest native fruit.

They really shouldn't exist.

They have a custardy tropical flavor to them, and they've survived in the hills of Appalachia and going all the way up north into New York for thousands of years.

<Jim> That is a strange combination.

It's nice.

<Mohsin> If you add - <Jim> Almost like a banana pineapple.

<Mohsin> Yeah.

I remember when I first read about pawpaws, I must have been like 17, and I said, one day I'll find a pawpaw tree in the woods.

I'll stumble upon it.

And now it's like I got my own holler full of pawpaw trees that I can find and share them with all our friends.

<Jim> That's good.

<Mohsin> Biodiversity is becoming homogeneous because of invasive species.

Our business climate is becoming homogeneous because of larger companies coming in the way of very vibrant, interesting places.

Appalachian culture at its essence is one of the great cultures of the United States when we're kind of looking for an identity and we're looking for, especially in food, how can we do it?

Appalachian culture is one of them.

<Jim> The most powerful way of, sort of expressing those roots, that Appalachian pride that you were talking about, why is food the vehicle?

<Katlin> I think that ideas spans time.

People come together for a meal historically throughout time, and it tends to be the, maybe not the easiest way to bring people together, but the most necessary way to bring people together, because at the end of the day, everybody's got to eat.

<Jim> Great cultures and great foods have always had a mixture and a crossroads in cross pollination, right?

<Mohsin> Sure.

Absolutely.

When you consider culture and biodiversity, they're the same thing.

And culture is only made stronger with diversity and supporting what that culture might be.

And if you take the culture out of a region, it's like taking the biodiversity out of the region.

<Katlin> We work this food truck with our family.

It's a 12-foot truck.

I mean, you're bumming butts with my grandpa.

That's no lie.

And to hear him say Pakistani words about what he's serving is the best thing ever.

Like "Pakoras are up!"

and we're like, you would've never said pakora.

You would've never said the word prior to this food truck.

<Mohsin> It's amazing to be able to learn about all of these individual cultures and how they all kind of come together in what we now sometimes carelessly refer to as Appalachian.

With biodiversity, it's 10 times more complex than you think.

With culture, 10 times more complex than you think.

What we take for granted is something that had to be developed and worked on because of interchange of cultures.

<Jim> And I would add 10 times more rich than you think too.

Unless, until you experience it.

<Mohsin> Woo, that looks good.

<Jim> Guys, thanks for inviting me into the kitchen, for inviting me into your home.

I'm not going to say much because I really want to taste this, but thank you.

<Katlin> You're welcome.

You're welcome anytime.

<Mohsin> Thanks for coming by.

I think the beauty of Curry Me Down South is its something that starts with mashed potatoes and curry, but by the time it's all said and done, it's been completely mixed into each other and eaten.

And I think that's a great analogy for how we view this food truck in this region and how we view what we're doing in terms of culture and food and mixing the two.

<Katlin> So much so that at the end of it, you don't know wish is which, it's all the same.

fiddler music begins <Jim> Katlin mentioned that between work and raising a young family, little time remained for leisure, but that if there was ever a need and a purpose, time could always be made.

When we heard that our friends at Cane Kitchen in Whitesburg, Kentucky were celebrating their fourth anniversary as a commercial and relief kitchen, and that extra hands were needed to help serve the community, it didn't take long to round up many of the new friends we met in Appalachia who each made the two to three hour drive to pitch in.

Despite the suffering and stereotypes inflicted by decades of outsider exploitation, Appalachians are determined to write their own narrative as they forge a new future.

One in which forgiveness and grace partners with cultivation and care, where deep roots and diversity are celebrated, and where communities rise together hand-in-hand with stewardship of the land.

fiddler music closing music