September 17th – Eats on Main Street Food Tour

This year’s festival will kick-off with a special food tour of Historic Jonesborough on Sunday, September 17th from 1:00-4:00 pm. This delicious tour, aptly named “Eats on Main Street” will include six stops along Jonesborough’s Main Street with food tastings at each one. The food will relate to the current businesses and businesses from the Town’s storied past. Learn about Jonesborough’s history with food, step back in time and enjoy some fondue, experience the legendary pimento cheese that Lavender’s Market used to sell, and much more. The tour lasts approximately an hour. Tours are available at 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm, 3:00 pm, and 4:00 pm. Tickets are only $15.00 for this unique tour and can be purchased at Jonesborough.com/tickets or by calling the Visitors Center at 423-753-1010. Tickets must be purchased in advance. There are only twenty spots per time slot, so make sure you get your tickets early. This event is held rain or shine.

 

September 19th – Affrilachian Dinner with Chef T

The Heritage Alliance is excited to host Chef Torrece Gregoire (Chef T) of Union 41 restaurant at the Langston Centre on Tuesday, September 19th for a special Affrilachian Dinner as a part of the Taste of Tennessee Festival. The Taste of Tennessee is a weeklong event throughout northeast Tennessee that will highlight Appalachian foodways. Tickets for the Affrilachian Dinner can be purchased through the Town of Jonesborough’s ticketing website at jonesborough.com/tickets. You can also call 423-753-1010 to reserve tickets.
Chef T is a private chef, culinary artist, entrepreneur, and TV personality. In addition to always cooking up a storm, she has appeared on Hell’s Kitchen twice and Food Network’s Big Restaurant Bet. She is currently a chef at Union 41 restaurant in Bristol, VA. At a special dinner catered by Taste Budz at the Langston Centre in Johnson City, she will talk about the connections between African cuisine and Appalachian cuisine as well as her personal journey through the food world. Funds from the Affrilachian Dinner will help support the educational programs of the Heritage Alliance, like the Oak Hill School Heritage Education program, local history tours, and much more.

 

September 20th – Basic Fermenting: Sauerkraut Workshop

Please join the Heritage Alliance and Create Appalachia for a workshop on basic fermenting. No experience necessary!
Katie Hoffman, Executive Director of Create Appalachia and Appalachian foodways scholar, will lead this hands-on session. You’ll make a small batch of sauerkraut and Katie will share tips for fermenting other veggies, too. If you grow a garden, you’ll go home with some great ideas about how to preserve the vegetables you grow by fermenting them. You’ll leave with a small batch of kraut to tend, plus handouts that give you pretty much all the info you’ll need to ferment your own sauerkraut at home.
Katie will demonstrate first, then turn you loose to create a batch of your very own fermented goodness! We’ll supply the ingredients—you bring a sharp knife that’s large enough to cut a head of cabbage and a large cutting board. Also, please bring your own vessel. This can be a wide mouth half-gallon mason jar or a half-gallon stoneware crock. Don’t have a Mason jar? No problem! Bring something glass that’s cylindrical in shape, with a wide enough mouth that you can reach in to work on the kraut as it ferments.
Because she can’t help herself, Katie will probably also share with you some interesting stories about sauerkraut and how it fits into Appalachian history and culture. She’ll answer questions and also share tips and tricks, as well as ideas for using other veggies besides cabbage. Think beets, corn, radishes, snow peas, cucumbers, and green beans. The possibilities are endless!
Tickets for this workshop are only $20.00. With only 28 spots available, make sure you book your space early. Tickets must be purchased in advance. This workshop will take place in a pavilion in Persimmon Ridge Park in Jonesborough. It will be held rain or shine. Tickets can be purchased at jonesborough.com/tickets or by calling the Visitors Center at 423-753-1010.

September 21st – Cast Iron Clinic

A collaboration between The Heritage Alliance of Northeast Tennessee and Create Appalachia, this workshop features Katie Hoffman and Brett Tiller of Vintage Kitchen Cast Iron and Collectibles. Vintage Kitchen buys, sells, trades, and restores cast iron professionally. Katie and Brett will lead a discussion about selecting the right pans for your kitchen and show you how to clean and maintain your collection—old or new. They’ll bring their portable cast iron “museum” and share a bit about cast iron history.
Do you have a family heirloom or flea market find that needs a little cleanup? Bring it along and they may be able to tell you something about its age and origins, as well as whether it needs restoration. (And if you want them to do the job, they’ll give you an estimate!). Tickets for this workshop are $10.00 and are available at jonesborough.com/tickets or by calling the Visitors Center at 423-753-9580. There are 40 spots available.

September 24th – Taste of Tennessee Festival Showcase & Take the Cake

The Taste of Tennessee Festival will culminate in a Festival Showcase on Sunday, September 24th from 12:00-5:00 pm with vendors, food trucks, live music, and demos in the parking lot of the Jonesborough Public Library.
We will also host the second annual “Take the Cake” competition at 1:30 pm that day. Cake pieces will be available starting at 3:00 pm at Oak Hill School. Bring a donation for the JAMA Food Pantry for each slice of cake you’d like. Registration is open now for Festival Showcase vendors. Registration is also open for the “Take the Cake” competition for all three categories (Professional, Homecook, and Young Baker).
The Festival Showcase is free and open to the public.
The Taste of Tennessee is proud to partner with Create Appalachia on the festival this year. The Taste of Tennessee Festival is the recipient of an Arts Project Support Grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.