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Speaker 1: Welcome to this Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves

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Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you

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Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airwaves have to offer. All right, friends,

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Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some

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Speaker 1: stories to share, spam onions, grits and butter. I find

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Speaker 1: it very gratifying to see folks make it at home

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Speaker 1: what they used to buy at the store. I've always

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Speaker 1: said that life is cyclical, and eventually we go back

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Speaker 1: to where we started. Radio was first, then movies, TV,

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Speaker 1: and now podcasts are like video all over again. Watching

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Speaker 1: a podcast is like when radio turned into television. But

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Speaker 1: media isn't our focus today. It's homemade groceries, one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite subjects.

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Speaker 2: And I'm going to.

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Speaker 1: Tell you all about some things my brother Tim does.

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Speaker 1: But first I'm going to tell you a story. This

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Speaker 1: story comes from our friend Avery Settler Check, an aspiring

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Speaker 1: actor living in New York City. Avery is a native

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Speaker 1: of Jacksonville, Florida, and was blessed with a grandfather to

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Speaker 1: make some fond memories with this story. Speaks of food,

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Speaker 1: and food is kind of our theme today, sowing Avery's

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Speaker 1: words and my voice.

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Speaker 2: Here we go.

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Speaker 1: As a young boy, I spent much of my time

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Speaker 1: with my papa. My mom, a recent widow, nurse and

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Speaker 1: mother of three, could certainly used the help, and her

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Speaker 1: dad was one of the many people to answer that call.

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Speaker 1: He was an iron worker, a barber, a gospel singer,

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Speaker 1: a TV cameraman, and even an aerial photographer. He had

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Speaker 1: more jobs than a job fair and was retired by

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Speaker 1: the time I popped up, so he had plenty of

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Speaker 1: time and stories to share with me. Papa taught me

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Speaker 1: all of the cool things in life, like flea markets

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Speaker 1: and action movies and painting your own initials on all

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Speaker 1: you tools. Well of all the things he and I

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Speaker 1: did together, hunting was by far my favor. Each fall,

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Speaker 1: we'd pack up his camper, haul it up to the

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Speaker 1: club and set up shop. Then throughout the season he

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Speaker 1: would pick me up on Friday and take me to

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Speaker 1: the club where we would run dogs on Saturday before

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Speaker 1: I tailored it back for church on Sunday morning. I

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Speaker 1: loved every second of it. Riding on the toolbox, talking

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Speaker 1: on the c B, and holding my four ten in

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Speaker 1: anticipation of that big buck I just knew was coming

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Speaker 1: my way. But most of all, I love spending time

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Speaker 1: with him in the woods. However much I loved everything

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Speaker 1: else about these trips. Our crowd jewel was always food,

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Speaker 1: specifically our snacks while we.

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Speaker 2: Were out in the woods.

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Speaker 1: Papa loved food, especially anything fried and salted, and as

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Speaker 1: a growing boy, so did I. We would stop at

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Speaker 1: the only gas station for miles, and while we filled

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Speaker 1: up on ice for the weekend, we'd get an order

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Speaker 1: of three potato wedges. Now we only got three because

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Speaker 1: he swore they'd swell up in your stomach. I still

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Speaker 1: wonder if that's true. When we were hunting, though, we

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Speaker 1: were just about always eating, And I'm not sure if

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Speaker 1: that's the way the other guys did it, but that's

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Speaker 1: how we did. Before the dogs were even barking, we'd

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Speaker 1: break into the viany sausages and peanut butter and crackers

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Speaker 1: and free doos, not to mention the coveted you Hoo

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Speaker 1: cans that would be faulted with a bologna sandwich for

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Speaker 1: lunch and a cookout for dinner, and that's how it

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Speaker 1: went for us. As much as we loved hunting and

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Speaker 1: took it seriously, the opportunity to eat a snack and

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Speaker 1: talk was the main event. One day, Papa and I

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Speaker 1: had the rare occurrence of hunting and a stand together

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Speaker 1: running dogs was the perfect high energy version of hunting

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Speaker 1: I needed as a kid, lots of commotion and movement,

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Speaker 1: no major need for being total quiet. Hunting up in

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Speaker 1: a stand meant that I, as a hyperactive eight year old,

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Speaker 1: had to be completely still and quiet for multiple hours.

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Speaker 1: It's this exact reason that on this day my grandfather

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Speaker 1: and I sat in what we called the condo stand.

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Speaker 1: The condo stand was a completely boxed instructure, high off

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Speaker 1: the ground with the drawstringed wooden flat windows and bolted

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Speaker 1: and swivel chairs, perfect for a kid and this disabled grandfather.

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Speaker 1: As always, Papa brought a knapsack of snacks and with

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Speaker 1: the first hour or so we tried to be good,

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Speaker 1: but the wind was whipping and we were cold and bored.

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Speaker 1: To better enjoy the moment, my Papa declared chow time.

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Speaker 1: On this day, I, ever, his provisions were running a

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Speaker 1: little low and from the bag he procured a sleeve

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Speaker 1: of saltine crackers, a can of spam, an onion, and

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Speaker 1: a bottle of hot sauce. Now I had never had spam.

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Speaker 1: I was a fan of veiny sausages, and I looked

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Speaker 1: at him with a look that said.

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Speaker 2: Papa, what is this about?

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Speaker 1: He looked back at me, equally dumbfounded with the options

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Speaker 1: we had, and shrugged his shoulders with a mischievous wealth,

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Speaker 1: we might as well and smile with a fancy flourish.

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Speaker 1: He opened that can of spam and began to prepare

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Speaker 1: our olders with his pocket knife. He peeled back the

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Speaker 1: onion and began cutting small pieces to lay on what he'd.

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Speaker 2: Created before us.

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Speaker 1: He topped that cracker off with spam, onion, and tabasco,

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Speaker 1: and with a slightly worried look he had to be

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Speaker 1: wanting to try. He got one and we toasted the

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Speaker 1: two together and then set them down the hatch. Then

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Speaker 1: the strangest thing happened, to our surprise and delight, it

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Speaker 1: was good. It was like a Michelin star restaurant in

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Speaker 1: our very own hunting stand. We started laughing out loud together,

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Speaker 1: not caring a liqu about the hunt, and eventually ate

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Speaker 1: the whole can of spam.

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Speaker 2: One cracker at a time.

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Speaker 1: We laughed the whole way home, and for weeks laughed

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Speaker 1: recounting that story to others. Over the years, we laughed

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Speaker 1: about that day, saying, man, we must have been starving

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Speaker 1: or something. As I grew up, Papa's health got worse,

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Speaker 1: and although we still spend lots of time together, we

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Speaker 1: weren't able to hunt anymore. Now I'm an adult, living

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Speaker 1: worlds away in New York City, pursuing my dreams, and

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Speaker 1: I think back on those days. Often I were spent

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Speaker 1: with my grandfather in the woods, eating food, swapping stories,

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Speaker 1: and sometimes hunting a deer. There, my grandfather taught me

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Speaker 1: about life. I asked him things I was too afraid

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Speaker 1: to ask my mom, and I learned how a man

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Speaker 1: should view the world. But most importantly, I had someone

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Speaker 1: to listen to me, someone who told me he was

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Speaker 1: proud of me and let me know how much he

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Speaker 1: enjoyed spending time with me and how much he loved me.

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Speaker 1: My grandfather has to mention now, and it can be

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Speaker 1: difficult to have conversations because he will always ask me

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Speaker 1: things like where do you live? Repeatedly? But one thing

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Speaker 1: he always remembers with ease is our hunting trips. If

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Speaker 1: I bring up the spam to him, a big smile

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Speaker 1: lights across his face and he says, boy.

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Speaker 2: We sure were hungryuldn't we?

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Speaker 1: And according to Avery Settler check of New York City,

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Speaker 1: that's just how that happened.

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Speaker 2: Avery.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you sending in that story. I liked it

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Speaker 1: from the first time I read it, and I've been

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Speaker 1: saving it for just the right time. That's a story

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Speaker 1: that fills my heart thinking about y'all filling your bellies

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Speaker 1: with a spam and onion cracker. Thanks buddy. We were

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Speaker 1: having breakfast at Joe's Diner and sheared in Arkansas, just

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Speaker 1: me and my brother Tim. It's a spot that's about

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Speaker 1: halfway between where each of us live and the spot

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Speaker 1: closest to that point where a man can get a

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Speaker 1: platter of eggs, sausage, biscuits, gravy, and a bowl of

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Speaker 1: grits that'll fill your crawl well enough so that your

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Speaker 1: next meal will be called supper. The waitress calls us honey,

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Speaker 1: laughs at our dumb jokes, and keeps the coffee smoking

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Speaker 1: hot while we entertain ourselves with whatever the meeting has

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Speaker 1: been called for normally just an excuse to share a

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Speaker 1: mail together and laugh. We were having an in depth

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Speaker 1: discussion on timeless topics that are important to us and

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Speaker 1: should be important to everyone that cares about the quality

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Speaker 1: of their lives and the pursuit of happiness in America,

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Speaker 1: and that topic was grits. Historians agree that folks have

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Speaker 1: been grinding corn as long as eighty seven hundred years

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Speaker 1: before the reason we have Christmas. The evidence comes from

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Speaker 1: Central America and Native American tribes in the southeastern portion

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Speaker 1: of this nation that were grinding corn down to a

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Speaker 1: coarse powder that we now call cornmeal. Contrary to the

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Speaker 1: beliefs of a few folks from New Jersey who were

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Speaker 1: blatantly lied to by an Arkansas duck guide over thirty

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Speaker 1: years ago, there's no such thing as grit fields or

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Speaker 1: grit bushes.

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Speaker 2: If that reference is to.

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Speaker 1: O'bsecure for you slipped back to episode one seventy three

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Speaker 1: of This Country Life entitled Grits, Rhinos, Monkeys and Ducks.

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Speaker 2: That shit is clear, that right up.

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Speaker 1: But grits have been a staple in our diets forever.

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Speaker 1: I don't remember a time when they weren't available at

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Speaker 1: home or just about every place. We just worthy of

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Speaker 1: sitting down to have a meal that served breakfast. The

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Speaker 1: waitress brought out our food a company by two bowls

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Speaker 1: of grits that were still bubbling hot from the stove,

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Speaker 1: and we looked at one another and Simon tanously said,

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Speaker 1: they'll thick it up in a minute.

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Speaker 2: To eat their own.

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Speaker 1: But it's customary and our family to eat grits with

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Speaker 1: a fork and running grits they just won't fill the bill.

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Speaker 1: So while we waited on the grits to thicken, we

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Speaker 1: dove into our breakfast. In our conversation, I need to

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Speaker 1: bring you some of the grits I've been making. Hold

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Speaker 1: on there, Timmy, you've been making your own grits. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: butter too. And for the next hour we talked about

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Speaker 1: all this stuff he was doing at home that was

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Speaker 1: better than going to the store. And it opened up

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Speaker 1: a whole new list of questions I had for how

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Speaker 1: he was doing it now obviously to everyone now, even

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Speaker 1: the duck hunters. New Jersey grits are made from ground corn,

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Speaker 1: but not just any corn. There are six major types

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Speaker 1: of corn grown in the US. Dent corn is primarily

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Speaker 1: used for livestock, feed, fuel, and corn starch. Podcorn is

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Speaker 1: a wild variety and the corn that modern day corn

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Speaker 1: was derived from. Sweet corn is what we mostly eat

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Speaker 1: when it's prepared on the cob, and flour corn for

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Speaker 1: making corn flour, pop corns for popping, and flint corn,

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Speaker 1: which is what works best for making grits, homney, and

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Speaker 1: corn meal. But before the corn police issue warrant from

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Speaker 1: my wrist, what I just stated is that the exact

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Speaker 1: law of the land, there are just the major types

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Speaker 1: of corn, and there are varieties within those types that

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Speaker 1: cross over for each type of use. Tim's favorite corn

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Speaker 1: to us to make his corn meal and grits is

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Speaker 1: a variety called butcher red, which is a dent corn

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Speaker 1: that has a beautiful, deep red color. Some even refer

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Speaker 1: to it as bloody butcher red, regardless of what you

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Speaker 1: call it. He showed me a picture after picture of

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Speaker 1: the process he uses and the gristville.

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Speaker 2: He does it with.

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Speaker 1: It's an electric stone grinder he bought off the anterwebs,

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Speaker 1: and when he first told me he bought it online,

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Speaker 1: I thought that kind of took some of the nostalgia

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Speaker 1: out of it. But I quickly realized that the Google

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Speaker 1: search of today is no different really than posting up

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Speaker 1: in the country store and asking the propriety for something

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Speaker 1: they didn't have, but they could order it for you.

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Speaker 1: Tim's raising his own corn too, from seed to cob.

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Speaker 1: It keeps him busy, and what could be more rewarding

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Speaker 1: than growing your own corn bread? I dare say nothing,

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Speaker 1: but as good as those grits were that had finally

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Speaker 1: cooled to the point of a few degrees south of

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Speaker 1: molten lava, Tim said, the grits he made it home

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Speaker 1: were ten times better, and it turns out they're better

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Speaker 1: for you. Consuming fresh stone ground corn in any form

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Speaker 1: preserves the vitamins and minerals and the nutrients that are

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Speaker 1: lost over time to degradation. Here's the process that Tim

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Speaker 1: uses now. Once he picks the corn, he drives it

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Speaker 1: out for about a month. There are several ways to

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Speaker 1: do that, from just hanging the corn in the shuck

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Speaker 1: out in the sun, to removing the shucks and drying

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Speaker 1: the cobs in a controlled environment, which is what he does.

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Speaker 1: He said he can keep the bugs out of it

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Speaker 1: and allow for proper drying without the chance of it

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Speaker 1: getting mulled. By using his designated corn drying room. Corn

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Speaker 1: drying room. You built a corn drying room, now, dummy,

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Speaker 1: I keep it in the guests bedroom with the ceiling

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Speaker 1: fans set on Hurricane I put all the cobs in

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Speaker 1: the laundry basket and stir them around every few days

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Speaker 1: so I know that they're all getting there.

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Speaker 2: Ah okay, I got you.

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Speaker 1: Now, after about four weeks of pamper in the guest's bedroom,

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Speaker 1: he'll take the corn that's sufficiently dried and run it

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Speaker 1: through a corn sheller. Now his is an old, antiquated

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Speaker 1: handpired apparatus that he has mounted on a wooden box

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Speaker 1: to catch the colonels once the sheller removed it. It's

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Speaker 1: pretty sporty to watch for anyone that's ever wondered how

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Speaker 1: that process works, and you can see it demonstrated about

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Speaker 1: a million times on the University of YouTube just by

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Speaker 1: searching it up. The cob is fed down through the

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Speaker 1: top and a gear that was exposed teeth knocks the

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Speaker 1: kernels off and fall into the bottom of the box,

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Speaker 1: while the cob is eventually turned and run out the

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Speaker 1: back to fall on the outside. Mister Lester E. Denison,

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Speaker 1: the Connecticut got the first patent on a corn sheller

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Speaker 1: in August of eighteen thirty nine. The one Tim has

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Speaker 1: is a David Bradley brand. It's made out of cast

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Speaker 1: iron and was manufactured from around nineteen hundred to nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty nine. Series and Roebuck bought the company in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ten and eventually started churning out garden tractors instead of

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Speaker 1: corn shellers. You can find them on the internet, yard

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Speaker 1: cells and flea markets in perfect working order. Should you

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Speaker 1: decide to grow, dry and grind your own corn, now,

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Speaker 1: if garden is your limiting factor, you can buy corn

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Speaker 1: that's ready to grind that someone else has already drived

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Speaker 1: and removed from the cob by the sack full. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you're wondering what the yield is, Tim said that

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Speaker 1: he averaged about four cobs to the pound of shelled corn.

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Speaker 1: His gristmeal is electric and has two options for making

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Speaker 1: the cornmeal. The wheels that grind the corn are called burrs,

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Speaker 1: and he has stone burrs and steel birds. Stone birds

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Speaker 1: are said to be slower because they aren't uniformly smooth

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Speaker 1: like poly steel is, and most commercially ground corn is

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Speaker 1: done with steel birds because it's faster, more efficient, and

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Speaker 1: can produce a finer grind. Traditionally, stone ground corn retains

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Speaker 1: the nutrients of flavor, and the steel burs may literally

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Speaker 1: squeeze it plumb out of it. And after adjusting the

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Speaker 1: space between the birds and multiple trips between them, Tim

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Speaker 1: finally got his setting that he prefers. But the ground

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Speaker 1: corn is still not one hundred percent uniform, and what

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Speaker 1: he did next was pretty cool. Took an old tea

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Speaker 1: strainer and poured the ground corn in it and shook

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Speaker 1: it back and forth, sifting the smaller grind into another

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Speaker 1: container while keeping the larger ones in the strainer. The

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Speaker 1: small ones he uses for his corn meal and the

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Speaker 1: larger one he uses for grits. Tim said that when

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Speaker 1: he makes corn bread from that corn meal and takes

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Speaker 1: it out of the oven, it has a blue or

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Speaker 1: a purplish tint. I looked that up when I got home.

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Speaker 1: It's not that I don't trust my brother, It's just that,

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Speaker 1: like President Reagan said, good policy to have is to

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Speaker 1: trust but verify. It turns out he wasn't kidding. Turning

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Speaker 1: purpleness from the presidence of what's called anthos, which changed

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Speaker 1: color with heat. Now what's an antho cyan? And I'm

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Speaker 1: glad you asked. It's just the pigment that causes colors

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Speaker 1: to be colors, and in this case it's what makes

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Speaker 1: butcher red corn. Red grits are just bowled corn until

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Speaker 1: you add salt, black, pepper, and butter. I could do

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Speaker 1: without pepper if I had to, I wouldn't like it,

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Speaker 1: and the more peppers are better for me. But the

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Speaker 1: other two, man, they are mandatory. Not letting Tim's comment

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Speaker 1: of my making my own butter, slip asked him what

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Speaker 1: critter he was milking to churn since he didn't have

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Speaker 1: a cow. He ignored that question and showed me a picture.

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Speaker 1: It was a nineteen fifties Jim Dandy electric churn that

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Speaker 1: he bought at an online auction. I don't know what

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Speaker 1: I'd ever seen one. I've seen regular churns, and I

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Speaker 1: even participated in the churning with my maternal great grandmother,

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Speaker 1: Lizzie Watanita Beard Play, so we called Mama Player. She

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Speaker 1: was born in eighteen ninety three and might have stretched

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Speaker 1: to five feet tall, but it would have been a

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Speaker 1: pretty good stretch to get her there. I can remember

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Speaker 1: thinking I was grown standing beside her, and she died

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Speaker 1: when I was seven. She never broke one hundred pounds

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Speaker 1: her whole life. I don't remember her ever wearing anything

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Speaker 1: except cotton dresses and apron and those little faded blue

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Speaker 1: cats shoes, unless, of course, it was Sunday and it

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Speaker 1: was a fancier dress and leather shoes.

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Speaker 2: But she had a porcelain.

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Speaker 1: Stone ware churn that set on the back porch. The

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Speaker 1: handle and dasher was worn thinner around the middle by

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Speaker 1: the countless trips up and down, by years and years

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Speaker 1: of churning. It was an arduous process, the one that

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Speaker 1: was both necessary and part of farm life. By the

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Speaker 1: time I hit the ground in nineteen sixty six, my

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Speaker 1: mama player had an electric churn, but she kept the

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Speaker 1: old one around and let me take a turn at it.

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Speaker 2: When I was just a pup.

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Speaker 1: We would feed the chickens from the feed. She towed

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Speaker 1: it in her apron, holding the bottom edge up to

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Speaker 1: the form of pocket.

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Speaker 2: Then we gathered eggs and headed back to the house.

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Speaker 1: She'd already milked the cow by the time I made mustard,

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Speaker 1: and it had been set long enough for the cream

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Speaker 1: to rise to the top. That's where that sin comes from,

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Speaker 1: if you didn't already know. The cream is then skimmed

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Speaker 1: off the top and poured in a churn, and then

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Speaker 1: a dash or handle is brought up and down into

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Speaker 1: that cream, agitating the cream until a portion of it

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Speaker 1: solidifies and turns into butter. And the liquid that's left, well,

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Speaker 1: that's butter milk. I catch a lot of greef from

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Speaker 1: my Yankee friends at me Eater when I referred the

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Speaker 1: whole milk as sweet milk. But if you've ever tasted buttermilk,

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Speaker 1: you'll know where that comes from. I didn't make it up.

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Speaker 1: It's a label for whole milk that I've heard all

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Speaker 1: my life. My daddy hated it, but he would buttermilk

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Speaker 1: right out of the ice box.

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Speaker 2: Pretty sure.

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Speaker 1: I told you all about that in episode one twenty

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Speaker 1: nine Hauling. Hey, it's a good one you should listen

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Speaker 1: to if you haven't. But I've seen him come in

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Speaker 1: from the barn that we just filled with square bells

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Speaker 1: and the blistering heat and chug buttermilk straight from the

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Speaker 1: jug while I was gulping water from the kitchen sink

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Speaker 1: as fast as it would run out of the spigot.

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Speaker 1: Look it gives me the ev GeV is just thinking

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Speaker 1: about it. But if you didn't know how all of

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Speaker 1: that went down and where buttermilk and butter comes from,

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Speaker 1: consider yourself educated. Tim said he wasn't using the churn

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Speaker 1: he was using a big upright kitchen aid mixer. But

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Speaker 1: he's also minus of cow, so he buys whole heavy

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Speaker 1: whipping cream from the store raw if he can find it.

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Speaker 1: Starting out with two cups of cream, and you'll wind

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Speaker 1: up with about three sticks of butter and a cup

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Speaker 1: of fresh buttermilk. The process is fairly simple by letting

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Speaker 1: the large wists do all the churning for you, allowing

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Speaker 1: you to concentrate on other things. But don't stray too far.

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Speaker 1: You can literally have all that done in less time

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Speaker 1: than it took.

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Speaker 2: Me to tell you about it.

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Speaker 1: I watched the lady on YouTube knock it out in

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Speaker 1: about fifteen minutes. Just search for making homemade butter and

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Speaker 1: you'll get all kinds of recipes and instructional videos. Now,

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Speaker 1: to me, the neat thing about making your own grits

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Speaker 1: and making your own butter isn't limited to just the

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Speaker 1: production of healthier foods and the satisfaction of providing something

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Speaker 1: better for your family. It's the education that I got

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Speaker 1: from doing just a minimal amount of research into something

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Speaker 1: that's now obscure, that was once commonplace in almost every home.

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Speaker 1: These things are simple, but they're important to pass on

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Speaker 1: to the folks who are going to be picking out

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Speaker 1: our nursing homes one day. Now you add a child

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Speaker 1: or a grandchild into the mix when you're doing these projects,

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Speaker 1: and who knows, y'all just might find your own spam

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Speaker 1: and onion salmon. As always, thank you for listening to

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Speaker 1: us here on the Beggars Channel, and I have an

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Speaker 1: update about this country life merchandise from our gal on

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Speaker 1: the Prowl Reeve Hansen. Folks, we're not months away. As

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Speaker 1: I reported in Era last week. We're supposed to have

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Speaker 1: the first ones this very month. I'll be sure and

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Speaker 1: keep you posting and who to blame if it don't happen.

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Speaker 1: But until next week. This is Brent Reeves signing off.

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Speaker 1: Y'all be careful