Grillshare
I have a wonderful idea that came from the kindness of my friends and neighbors. I bought some bison dogs from Iron Bison, a local farm. However, I don’t have a grill. My neighbor has a propane grill outside his shed and I borrow it for less than an hour to grill the hot dogs and a pepper. So my idea is to have a grill share for the neighborhood.
Shandys
My new favorite summer cocktail is a shandy. What’s a shandy?! A shandy is beer mixed with a lemon or a lemon-lime flavored beverage. A bartender friend gave me a quart of watermelon shrub, and I mixed it with a wheat beer. Then I had a cucumber simple syrup which pairs nicely with an IPA and a splash of lemonade. Here’s a recipe for a Mean Shandy that includes bourbon.
How Watermelon's Reputation Got Tangled In Racism
I have often joked that the vegetable kale has a great publicist. Everyone is eating kale now. However, watermelon has the worst publicist. After the Civil War, watermelon provided a way from the formerly enslaved to make a living. Then white southerners changed the narrative by using imagery to show watermelon as a symbol for Black poverty. Read Nneka Okona’s piece for the full story.
Movers and Shakers
SluttyVegan is taking over Atlanta with her food truck and philanthropy. Black and Mobile is expanding outside of Philadelphia.
Auntie Nah
Tearing down racist symbols (like Aunt Jemima) without tearing racist systems (like redlining) means we are not having the same conversation. I walk by a Confederate monument in Forsyth Park here in Savannah. I don’t really think about it; however there’s another monument of Haitians who fought in the Revolutionary War. I wonder about those men who fought for another country and some became free men. Can we get a musical about them?
Books
Check out my Bookshop list of books about food.
Podcast
The volume is low, my apologies. Turn it up and listen to my 4th of July podcast.
Have a delicious week,
Nichelle