Appalachian food stories from Tennessee soil.
TennesseeFarmTable.com follows the people keeping Tennessee and Mountain South food traditions alive. Its episodes move from sorghum syrup and country ham to cookbooks, seed saving, gardens, family meals, and the stories carried with them.
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TennesseeFarmTable.com is a foodways show with its boots in Tennessee soil. It follows the cooks, farmers, authors, gardeners, and regional makers who keep Appalachian eating traditions in active use. Amy Campbell guides the conversations with a warm, hospitable rhythm. The episodes are less about trends than continuity. Sorghum syrup is explained as its own Appalachian sweetener, not simply a stand-in for molasses. Country ham becomes a story about age, smoke, chefs, Tennessee pride, and backyard knowledge passed down without fuss. Cookbooks open the door to family recipes, seasonal cooking, and the emotional weight of remembering who taught a dish. Gardening appears as both practice and culture, from seed saving and winter sowing to spring asparagus. The show also makes space for older rural memory. Stories about J.C. Holdway and family meals turn food into a record of generosity, poverty, teasing, loss, and community care. The tone is plainspoken and affectionate. It is not slick food media. It is closer to a kitchen visit, a farmers market conversation, and a local history segment folded together. The recurring pleasure is specificity. Listeners hear about dried apples, skillet heat, cornbread, chow chow, maple syrup, sorghum, ham, gardens, and the people attached to them. The show values the people who produce food as much as the finished dish. It also respects the women, grandparents, neighbors, and working families who preserved recipes by living them. Guests are given room to explain, remember, and occasionally correct common misunderstandings. The result is gentle but substantial. TennesseeFarmTable.com suits anyone drawn to regional food, Appalachian culture, agricultural life, and stories that treat ordinary ingredients as part of a larger inheritance.
Made for: For listeners who care about regional food, recipes, farms, gardens, and the cultural memory behind Appalachian cooking. It also fits anyone who enjoys unhurried conversations with cooks, growers, writers, and local makers.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by treating Tennessee food as a living network of people, seasons, places, and inherited skill. It gives as much attention to sorghum makers, seed savers, and family memories as it does to finished recipes.
An independently published radio show and podcast featuring the people of the state of Tennessee and surrounding states who produce, prepare, and preserve regional foods and agricultural products. Often with that Appalachian flair.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Amy Campbell connects Appalachian cooking techniques to the family memories and local knowledge that keep them useful.
Amy Campbell treats regional food as both practical knowledge and a record of lived experience. Her interviews move easily between technique and memory, giving guests room to explain how country ham is cured, why apple varieties behave differently when dried, and what separates…
Amy Campbell turns sorghum disputes and ham-curing humility into the neighborly food lesson you hoped existed.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
John Tullock talks Appalachian cooking, family kitchens, dried apples, and succotash.
Amy Campbell talks with John Tullock about his cookbook, Appalachian Cooking, New and Traditional Recipes, and the family kitchens behind it. Tullock grew up cooking with his grandmother, a memory that gives shape to the foreword he reads aloud.
Sorghum syrup gets a closer look through its flavor, making, and place at the Appalachian table.
Sorghum syrup belongs on the Appalachian fall table, and this episode gives it the attention that a familiar jar can miss. Amy Campbell introduces the tradition. Fred Sauceman follows the connections it has made for Dr.
A country ham maker credits the neighbors who shaped his craft and the chefs who championed it.
On Tennessee Farm Table, host Amy Campbell talks with Madisonville ham maker Alan Benton about aged country ham sliced thin like prosciutto. Benton gives chefs credit for seeing what they could do with it, then recalls the grandparents and neighbors who cured ham much the same…
Juanita Evans remembers her brother J.C. Holdway, the prank that hurt, and the family meals that brought people together.
A downtown Knoxville restaurant named J.C. Holdway leads Amy Campbell back to a recording she made with his sister, Juanita Evans, in 2016. Juanita remembers saving a dime, buying a packet of Kool-Aid and finding that her brother had filled it with dirt.
Family recipes, seed saving, and local events share the conversation.
Amy Campbell talks with Jimmy Proffitt about the recipes and stories in his cookbook, Seasoned in Appalachia. His grandmother's refrigerator rolls give the conversation a personal thread without making the recipe sound like a keepsake under glass.
Practical regeneration without easy answers.
Historian Jack Neely shares the story of Mary's Hot Tamales in Knoxville, as remembered by Fred Sauceman.
Host Amy Campbell interviews author John Tullock about his book 'Appalachian Cooking, New & Traditional Recipes' and the preservation of Appalachian foodways.
A podcast episode introducing a show dedicated to Tennessee food and agriculture, featuring a segment on sorghum syrup as an Appalachian culinary tradition with guest Ronni Lundy.
Vicki Baumgartner discusses the history of Dogwood Trails and the Bazillion Blooms initiative, while Alieson Bales shares about Bales Farms.
Host Amy Campbell welcomes spring with seasonal foods like Tennessee maple syrup and asparagus on the TNC Farm Table podcast.
A podcast episode introducing the Tennessee Farm Table show and its focus on food and agriculture with Appalachian flair.
Alan Benton says native Spaniards called his ham "incredible serrano" before he knew what prosciutto meant.
Amy Campbell links J.C.
Jimmy Proffitt explains why his refrigerator rolls use a damp towel, plastic wrap, and a week-long rise.
This episode promotes the Maryville Farms Market 20th Anniversary Celebration Dinner and Real Good Gathering 2025, featuring homemade pasta by DSB Provisions.
Host Amy Campbell introduces a Fourth of July weekend episode focused on grilling and cooking with fire, featuring chefs Joseph Lenn and David Olson.
A podcast episode exploring bluegrass music and traditional foods associated with Easter, featuring a host's personal reflections and recipes.
A podcast episode introducing the Tennessee Farm Table show and a cookbook from Bales Farms, featuring a song about farm-fresh food.