Turkey Tracks: Hominey Grill

Turkey Tracks:  December 15, 2010

Hominey Grill

If you are ever in Charleston, SC, do search out Hominey Grill, which is in the downtown area. 

I had the great good fortune of being taken there by Tara Derr Webb, who has already forgotten more about food than I will ever learn.  She grew up with our sons Mike and Bryan and fits, age wise, exactly between them.  Tara and her husband Leighton have only recently moved to Charleston.

Visiting Hominey Grill is just like it used to be when we all gathered at my grandparents’ dinner table in Reynolds, Georgia–a tiny town located south of the central part of the state.  It’s about 2 hours from Atlanta, and is an hour west of Macon.  Neighboring towns are Fort Valley, 12 miles across the Flint River and its swamp.  And, Butler, 8 miles to the west. 

Dinner was a large meal held in the middle of the day.  Supper was a much lighter meal held early evening.

When I grew up, Reynolds was surrounded by many small farms.  But, that all changed with the structural changes in farming over the past thirty years.  Most small farmers are gone now.  Georgia farming land is owned and farmed by big agribusinesses.

A summer day in Reynolds started with my Pop Pop coming through the side door with several large, flat baskets filled with vegetables and flowers from his garden out on the farm.  Pop Pop was a country doctor who also farmed.  He loved the land, and he loved to grow flowers and food.  The women would gather on the North Porch after breakfast and shell or snap whatever peas or beans had come into the house in Pop Pop’s baskets.  Grandmother would have already arranged the glads or zinnas and put them around the house.  Afterwards, we were free to pick blackberries for a cobbler to be served at dinner and/or go swimming in the pool the town fathers–Pop Pop among them–had built a few miles outside of town.  The pool had three wells of artesian water flowing into it all the time, and it was next to a creek that cut through the swamp.  When we got tired of swimming in crystal clear, very cold water, we’d fish in the creek.   Dinner was at noon, and we would be ravenous by the time it was served.

Eating at Hominey Grill brought all that back to me.

Here’s the first thing I saw when we drove into the parking lot:

 Here’s a picture of the front of Hominey Grill”

Here’s one of three blackboards on the walls inside.  This one lists the day’s vegetable sides:

Oh my, it makes me hungry just to look at it.  And I recall again that many of the vegetables came to the table swimming in local butter or served, as with tomatoes, with a side of homemade mayonnaise.  Meat was part of a meal, but not in huge amounts.   I do not remember ever eating a green salad at my grandparents’ table.   But greens were plentiful–turnip greens, collard, mustard greens.  I do not remember kale.  Fruit was generally eaten at other times of the day–except for strawberries which we ate with heavy cream and sugar when they were in season.  Dessert was special, and, often, something like a cake was served in the late afternoon during the winter holiday season.  No one was sick, and no one was fat. 

Thank you Tara!!!!  And, thank you Mike and Tami for taking me back for a second time over Thanksgiving.