Welcome to Common Ground: A History of Southern Food

May 18, 2012 | (0) | Tagged with: southern food, southern food film

Common Ground, a feature length documentary film by Red Dirt Productions, will trace the path of Southern foods across the miles and centuries, from the shores of Africa and Europe to the New World. To understand how we came to eat foods such as cornbread and collard greens is to deepen our understanding of who we are as a people.

From the beginning in the American South, those who depended on the land for survival also relied on one another. Without Indian corn, the first colonists would have starved. The arrival of Africans brought foods now synonymous with home cooking in the south—peas, okra and rice— as well as the manner of preparing those foods—frying, stewing, and seasoning with fats. The Anglo-European penchant for pies and puddings gave rise to the Southern sweet tooth.

The stories of these people who shaped the core cuisine of the South are to be found not only in diaries and ledgers and cookbooks, but also in fields and kitchens and on Southern plates. These are the stories that Common ground will bring to light.

We hope you will join us on these pages as we explore Southern food and Southern folks.