OKRACAST: Worldly Tastes

Okracast

Welcome to OKRACAST, the podcast of the Southern Foodways Alliance! Our first stop this week: the Farmers' Market Store in Oxford, Mississippi. Short on local buttermilk or first-of-the-season corn? How about fresh goat meat or fermented black bean paste? Liz Stagg and Frank Coppola have served a diverse clientele since 2004, making the Farmers' Market Store a fixture in the town. Next, we serve up a sample of Rien Fertel's interview with Sylvester Collins, owner of Collins Dream Kitchen in Jackson, Mississippi. After countless years cooking in several Jackson-area restaurant kitchens—at times working as many shifts as two or three people—the mother of four saved enough to finance her own establishment, a small takeout joint. Twenty-seven years later, she’s in a bigger space, one with a buffet counter, dining room, and enough wall space to fill with Christian devotionals and the portraits of the men and women who guided her here. Hungry patrons will find smothered turkey necks, ham hocks, and meaty spaghetti; fried chicken, baked chicken, and cracklin’ cornbread. Now 74 years old, Ms. Collins doesn’t do much of the cooking, but she still seasons each and every plate that comes out of her Dream Kitchen. Visit www. southernfoodways.org for more.