Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023 - 79

FLAVORS
LEFT PAGE TOP TO BOTTOM: Yields of 50 to
60 pounds of tomatoes per plant are common on the
Baker Family Farm.
Tomatoes on the Baker farm are grown in structures
called high tunnels.
THIS PAGE LEFT TO RIGHT: Heritage Kitchen's
Belgian waffles are topped with blueberry compote.
Brad Shepherd and Daryl Royse opened Whitesburg's
Heritage Kitchen in 2015.
Heritage Kitchen's Greek salad with fried chicken.
BRAD SHEPHERD
Heading slightly southwest from Whitesburg, we discovered
Tommy's Rootbeer Stand in Barbourville, owned
by Heather Mills, a former psychologist with the Knox
County School District, and her husband Matthew, a
pawnbroker. Tommy's is an old-style drive-up restaurant.
The parking lot holds 15 vehicles, and carhops take
your order.
Tommy's is known for its rootbeer floats but even
more so for its hot dogs, which are two for a dollar every
Wednesday.
" We're going to continue that price as long as we
can, " Heather Mills says. " This is a poverty-stricken area,
and we want to help out our community by offering
good quality but inexpensive meals. "
Those hot dogs, no matter the price, hold a place in
Eastern Kentucky history. The chili that tops them has
been made by five generations of the Mitchell family
since 1929. Tommy's uses the storied chili in a variety
of other ways, too: on chili cheese fries, on tater tots, on
taco salads and as chili and crackers with grilled cheese
sandwiches.
About 18 miles southeast of Barbourville, in the DeWitt
community of Knox County, is the Baker Family Farm.
Except for a few years between the 1950s and 1969, the
farm has been in the Baker family since right after the
Civil War.
We first met Grant Baker and his mother Judy at the
annual convention of the National Sweet Sorghum Producers
and Processors Association in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee,
where Judy was giving away her sorghum cookies.
They have gained quite a reputation across Eastern
Kentucky.
The Bakers plant nearly three acres
of sorghum cane in a typical year. In
the fall, they boil the juice down to
create an outstanding sorghum syrup,
not too light and not too dark. They've
been making sorghum syrup since
1975, and in addition to her soft cookies,
Judy adds it to her dried apple stack cakes, popular
items at Kentucky farmers markets.
BRAD SHEPHERD
But the Bakers are perhaps even better known for
their tomatoes, purchased by restaurants and supermarket
chains from across the country at a produce auction,
held three days a week all summer long, in Lincoln
County, Kentucky.
The Bakers grow Red Deuce, Primo, and Carolina
Gold tomatoes. They are planted in the ground in " high
tunnels, " structures of metal and plastic measuring 32
by 96 feet.
Grant explains that these particular varieties were developed
for high tunnel growing. He says the plants only
reach a height of about three feet, but they are heavy
producers.
" We often get 50 to 60 pounds of tomatoes per plant, "
he tells us, adding that these are number-one grade tomatoes
with no blemishes.
" They have to be picture-perfect, " he says proudly.
" Most customers can't tell the difference between ours
and a garden tomato. "
And that's saying a lot, in a region known for its love
of tomatoes at midsummer.
Fred and Jill Sauceman study and celebrate the foodways
of Appalachia and the South from their home base in Johnson
City, Tennessee.
MAY/JUNE 2023 79
FRED SAUCEMAN
Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023

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