SOUTHBOUND
Recently, we were lucky enough to do a behind-the-scenes shoot at Southbound -- a fresh, locally sourced, southern-inspired restaurant in Historic Chamblee, Georgia. This farm-to-table fine dining experience, set in a stunning space, serves as the perfect weekend eatery for brunch, lunch or dinner.
QUICK ABOUT: Located in a renovated mercantile factory on the train tracks, Southbound's food is a celebration of the farmer; paying homage to southern heritage through seasonal table bounty. Their goal is to create a bucolic combination of flavors that excite, but never overshadow the fresh, local ingredients. View their delicious menu here. Southbound is also available for private events as their century-old building is rich in both history and rustic elegance, lending itself well to a variety of functions and event designs.
THE PEACH TRUCK
In Fine Feather aims to be your go-to guide on Georgia's ever-evolving health and wellness community. During our blogging adventures the past few months, we have traveled all across the state to showcase the movers, shakers and makers of small business in health and wellness. Today's post, The Peach Truck, features our neighbors just north who share a love of our favorite Southern staple.
ABOUT: It all started when a boy from way down in Georgia fell in love with a girl from way up in the North. The blissfully happy couple moved to Nashville where the boy couldn’t wait to share everything he loved about life in the South. The city obliged with the heat and the porch, but after searching every single market, the boy couldn't find the big, rich juicy peaches he grew up eating. What became known as the “peach problem” only had one solution; driving over 300 miles to pick his girl the perfect Georgia Peach. Love at first bite. They then decided to share this love with their new city so they traded in their car for an old truck and sold fresh fruit by the bagful. Nashville fell in love too. Within five weeks, the city consumed over 10 delicious tons of peaches. Today the boy, the girl, and The Peach Truck happily share their peach passion with locals and fellow fruit enthusiasts across the country.
Name + City: Stephen + Jessica Rose. Currently living in Nashville, TN
Inspo for your business? The Peach Truck is proud to be the Nashville arm of Pearson Farm in Fort Valley, GA. I (Stephen) grew up eating peaches right off the tree so I knew what a peach should taste like. The summer of 2012, we brought our very first crop up to the city, set up with our truck in front of Imogene + Willie and the rest, as they say, is history.
Favorite peach-inspired recipe? Peaches have long gotten caught in the dessert category. They’re so much more diverse than that. The Peach Caprese salad is a summer staple at our house.
What has been the greatest reward about beginning PT? We often sit back and talk about how shocked we are at our lives. We get to do what we love, work with people we love, and add to the flavor of our city. We couldn’t be more fulfilled doing something other than we are right now.
Favorite part about the South: The people. Anytime you get a little ways out of the city, you’re reminded of the pace of life that so many people live. It’s an exhilarating reminder to slow down, and take in the simplicities of life.
Photos by: Jamie Clayton.
HUGH ACHESON: RECIPE FOR CHANGE
As you may or may not know, I work in school nutrition for the state of Georgia and Haley is a professional photographer. Both of us, through our work, are able to travel and explore unique opportunities to meet influential leaders within our industries. This month I was honored to sit down with restaurateur, author and Top Chef Judge, Hugh Acheson, during the Georgia Organics Conference in Athens, Georgia.
Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Hugh Acheson is the chef/partner of the Athens restaurants; Five & Ten, The National, the Atlanta restaurant Empire State South, and the Savannah restaurant The Florence.
His cookbook titled A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen, won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Cookbook in the field of "American Cooking" in 2012. Read below for our interview on what he has to say about better farms and flavors in Georgia.
On the Farm-to-Table Movement:
We’re in a farm-rich environment in Georgia – how do we celebrate that? I want to celebrate the farmers by having them harvest beautiful produce that we actually consume, in both our homes and restaurants. We’re at the point where farm-to-table is a co-optable term – it can be used for marketing and it can resound as not very true most of the time. We’ve never actually marketed the restaurants as farm-to-table. Instead we’ve just always walked the walk, rather than talk the talk. We support our local environment the best we can, every day. It’s what we do.
On Farm to School:
Georgia is doing a great job of implementing the farm-to-school program – we have definitely made great strides but unfortunately school lunch is not something that can change overnight. The important thing is to keep moving forward and to keep making progress. There is more of an interest in food policy than there was ten years ago, which is good, but there is still a ton of work to be done.
On re-thinking Home Economics:
The idea is this: for a long time, home economics was very gender-specific and focused on how to maintain a home. Simultaneously, over the past few decades, we have become accustomed to the concept of convenience, i.e. soup in a can, frozen dinners, etc., which infiltrated our culture and our lifestyle. There is an entire generation that has almost lost the art of cooking. So my goal, as a father of a 10 and a 12-year-old, is to help reshape the requirements for family and consumer sciences. Let's equip children who will turn in to college students who then turn in to working adults, to be able to prepare their own meals and have basic life skills. By teaching these skills, we’re going to make a big threat to the 'happy meal' – and that’s the end goal. (Read more here)