Southeast Tennessee food tour a real mouthful

From Delano to Cleveland, Tenn. — Green hills roll to gray-blue mountains, nearly invisible in midsummer’s haze. Corn grows lush. Farm stands dot yards. Tail-wagging dogs loll in the cool dirt under black walnut trees.

Southeast Tennessee is in my bones — literally. I grew up nearby, eating corn, okra, strawberries and string beans from this rich soil. Even after 20 years away, Tennessee tomatoes taste better than any others.

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see caption/Lisa Lowe Stauffer / Special

Allan Benton, owner of Benton’s Smoky Mountain Hams, still cures hams using his family’s simple recipe of salt, sugar, pepper, smoke and time.

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Lisa Lowe Stauffer / Special

Muscadines are the base for many regional wines. These globes are at Tennessee Valley Winery.

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Lisa Lowe Stauffer / Special

Watch cheese being made at Sweetwater Valley Farm if you visit on a Wednesday.

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Lisa Lowe Stauffer / Special

Delano Community Farm Market, run by the Mennonites, sells homemade jams, relishes, fruits and vegetables.

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Lisa Lowe Stauffer / Special

Apple Valley Orchard’s bakery has mouth-watering fried pies, strudel and cakes for sale year-round.

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Today, agricultural traditions here have grown into agri-tourism. From award-winning wines to apples to hams cured the old-fashioned way, travel through southeast Tennessee has something for every palate.

Beginning at Delano, we’ll follow U.S. 411 north, then cross over to Loudon and complete the loop back to Cleveland along U.S. 11.

DELANO

Savannah Oaks Winery

Savannah Oaks Winery, with 12 acres of muscadine vines, has been open to the public since 2002. The Davis family welcomes visitors with samples of their wines as well as locally produced summer sausage and cheese.

Every fall, they hold a grape stomp. “Picture the old ‘I Love Lucy’ episode,” says Mary Poteet, one of the Davis daughters. “It’s just like that, with people stomping around in the grapes.”

Customers are loyal to Savannah Oaks. Jim and Bonnie Carr regularly make the drive from Maryville to buy a case of their favorite wine, Home for the Holidays. “It’s a front-porch sippin’ wine,” says owner Bruce Davis. “A mix of muscadine and Concord grapes.”

The tasting room is housed in an 1840s cantilevered barn, and the grounds are often used for weddings.

Delano Community Farm Market

A mile down the road, behind Savannah Oaks Winery, is a Mennonite community with a terrific market. Baked goods, fruit, vegetables, homemade jams, relishes and soaps are available at reasonable prices.

The neat garden rows next to the market are tended in the same plain way that the Mennonites lead their lives. Farming is done by horse and plow and hand-weeding.

In July, there were at least six types of tomatoes, including heirloom varieties, all priced at $1-$1.50 per pound. Green-striped watermelons, pole beans, peppers, corn and other seasonal produce were all bargains. The market, open through October, asks customers to dress modestly when they visit.

MADISONVILLE

Benton’s Smoky Mountain Hams

Since 1973, Allan Benton has supplied top-quality ham and bacon to customers who stop by, phone in orders or dine at restaurants in Knoxville and Gatlinburg.

Using his family’s simple recipe of salt, sugar, pepper, smoke and time, Benton’s Smoky Mountain Hams cures pork the old-fashioned way. Hickory and applewood smoke permeate the air, even in the salesroom.

The bacon and ham taste like I remember from childhood — rich with smoke and salt — with none of the chemical aftertaste of modern processing. Benton’s pork comes from closely controlled sources in the Midwest.

“I take all the organically raised ham I can get,” says Benton, “and the rest is grown on pasture instead of concrete.”

When Benton bought the smokehouse from its original owner, he had 15 competitors within a 250-mile radius. Today there’s one competitor, but Benton’s Smoky Mountain Hams is the only one still doing all the work by hand.

LOUDON

Tennessee Valley Winery

Just off I-75, the Tennessee Valley Winery overlooks rolling hills leading to the Tennessee River. Since 1984, its vineyards have been growing muscadines and other grapes, producing sweet wines to suit the tastes of local customers. The Red Muscadine is a local favorite, with its lingering taste of sweet ripe muscadines.

Over the past 24 years, its wines have won more than 800 medals. Recently, the Late Harvest Cynthiana wine took a gold medal at the Wines of the South competition. This wine has the rich raisiny taste of port.

Events at the winery include Music on the Mountain (12 dates between April and October) and Oktoberfest on Nov. 1.

SWEETWATER

Sweetwater Valley Farm

Cheddar is its specialty, made of milk from the Harrison family’s 700-plus cows, mostly Holsteins, but some Jerseys, too.

In July when I visited, there were lots of calves, staring curiously at us from their pens. Each cow consumes 100 pounds of feed plus 50 gallons of water to produce 8 to 10 gallons of milk per day. They are fed plenty of grain, but they also get pasture time to graze when the weather is cool enough.

Tours of the farm are free and given daily. Cheese is made on Wednesdays and visitors can watch from the large window in the gift shop. On other days, a video shows the process.

Cheese samples are free and range from smooth mild cheddar to tart reserve cheddar aged more than two years. Other cheddars have added ingredients, such as basil or pepper. Sweetwater Valley Farm cheese is available at the gift shop and sold at select gourmet stores in the Southeast.

ATHENS

Mayfield Visitors Center

If you’re traveling with children, the Mayfield Visitors Center should be top priority. Free tours show how milk and ice cream are made, including the machine that makes ice cream sandwiches. No samples, but after the tour you can purchase ice cream at the stand outside.

Striker’s Premium Winery

Striker’s Premium Winery was founded by Stanley Striker. He came by his interest in wine from his grandfather Luigi Theodori, who emigrated from Italy as a little boy. Theodori’s 1925 wine press is displayed on the porch outside the tasting room.

Striker’s signature wine is Athenian Red, a light wine made of Steuben grapes. It’s also known for mead, made with honey.

Shultz Farm Foods

Wade and Cecileia Shultz, with their son Russell, farm nearly 500 acres in the gentle hills outside Athens. The farm has been in the Shultz family since 1902, making it one of a handful of century farms in southeast Tennessee.

In July, the Shultzes were busy picking green beans and blackberries for local customers, but in the fall, when their 16 varieties of apples ripen, the market opens for visitors. Field trips, fresh apples, fried pies, apple butter and even apple stack cake are available beginning in late August.

Shultz can ship orders, too. His farm is still a low-tech business, so customers phone in orders for pickup or shipping.

CHARLESTON

Tennessee Mountain Winery

Tennessee Mountain Winery’s tasting room is set amid acres of muscadine vines, framed by hills leading east to Starr Mountain. A friendly but low-key brown dog greets arrivals outside, and the Morris family welcomes visitors into the tasting room, opened in 2007 and still smelling of new wood.

The Morris family grows its own muscadines and blueberries for wine. In season, fresh blueberries and muscadines are available for purchase.

Hobby wine makers can place orders for pounds of fruit and buy wine making supplies here, too.

Tennessee Mountain Winery’s popular wines include red muscadine and blueberry, both smooth, sweet and redolent of fat, sun-ripened fruit.

CLEVELAND

Ocoee Winery

Owner Steve Hunt makes about 5,000 gallons of wine a year, buying the grapes and fruit he needs.

His Red Muscadine wine recently took a bronze medal at the Wines of the South competition, but his best-seller is Ocoee Red, a Concord blend.

The tasting room and Martha’s gift shop overlook U.S. 64. A recently built covered pavilion provides a pleasant space for larger groups to have wine tastings.

Hunt also sells a nonalcoholic muscadine juice. It tastes like fresh muscadines, only without the pesky seeds and sour skin.

MUSCADINES: HEALTH FOOD

In recent years, scientists have found that the skin and seeds of muscadines contain high levels of resveratrol, a phytochemical thought to lower cholesterol in humans. Science has touted red wine as high in resveratrol, but muscadine wine has been shown to provide at least twice the resveratrol of other red wines. So the Southern tradition of sipping sweet muscadine wine is a healthy one.

Why sweet wines?

For centuries, families in the South have made wine with local fruit, including red and white muscadines, catawba grapes, strawberries and blueberries. In Tennessee, wineries still concentrate on sweet fruit wines, a decision driven by tradition and economics.

As in many parts of the South, Tennessee’s counties often have laws regarding alcohol that hark back to Prohibition.

Tastings are free at the wineries profiled here. By law, they’re not allowed to sell full glasses of wine, nor are they allowed to ship without a distributor — which would more than halve their profits.

So they make wine in small batches, design it to suit the taste of customers and tourists who can come to the winery to buy their favorites, and sell it at $10 to $15 a bottle. Sweet wines made with native fruit sell the best. It’s an economic choice, and the sweet wines keep them in business.

Apple Valley Orchard

With 8,000 trees growing 22 varieties of apples, its own cider press and an in-store bakery, come fall this place is hopping.

In July, early-season Lodi apples were available. Lodi is a tart apple and makes a delicious pie.

The bakery and store operate year-round. Fried apple pies, apple fritters, whole pies, apple butter and other local specialties tempt visitors’ taste buds. Wagon rides and tours are available August-October, and the Cleveland Apple Festival is Oct. 20-21.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

The Tennessee food tour begins at Delano, about 140 miles north of Atlanta. To get there, take I-75 north to Calhoun, and take Tenn. 163 east to Delano. The tour covers a 90-mile loop, from Delano along U.S. 411 north to Madisonville, then east to Loudon and back south along U.S. 11.

Where to stay

• Sleep Inn. $75-$80 per night. 600 N. Tennessee Ave./U.S. 411, Etowah. 423-263-4343, www.sleepinn.com.

• Black Bear Cove Resort. Accommodations range from recreational vehicle sites to luxury lodge suites to three-bedroom cabins. $32 a night for RV sites. $150-$250 for lodge suites, each including a hot tub and fireplace. By late fall, one-, two- and three-bedroom cabins will be available, $200-$250 per night. 5842 Highway 30, Benton. 1-866-438-4399, www.blackbearcove.com.

• Ocoee Mist. A 40-acre farm with camels, llamas and other animals. Guesthouse has four rooms, each with its own entrance and bathroom. $89-$98. 821 Parksville Road, Benton. 1-888-541-9583, www.ocoee-mist.com.

Where to eat

• Dairy Barn. A local favorite for soft-serve ice cream, root beer floats, sundaes and hot dogs. Cones and specialties, $2-$6. 1108 Congress Parkway S., Athens. 423-745-2286, www.dairybarn.com.

• Country Patch Restaurant. The decor’s not impressive and service is cafeteria-style, but the fried green tomatoes, turnip greens, barbecue pork, cucumber salad and other Southern dishes are great. Menu changes daily. Meals, $5-$6. 711 S. White St., Athens. 423-745-6104.

• Carmichael Inn Cafe. In the 1810 log cabin Carmichael Inn, chef Gregory Gross serves innovative sandwiches such as a fried green tomato BLT or Cumberland Grilled Cuban on asiago artisan bread. 600 Hackberry St., Loudon. 865-408-9727. Across the corridor, the Wharf Street Coffeehouse fills an 1850s river warehouse. Sandwiches, $6-$8. Coffee, other beverages and ice cream, $1.50-$4.

• Mayfield Visitors Center. A huge single scoop of Mayfield ice cream is $1.50, a double scoop $2.50. Ice cream sandwiches and other novelties are 50 cents each. 4 Mayfield Lane, Athens. 1-800-629-3435.

• Tic Toc Ice Cream Parlor. Homemade ice cream and coffee. Cones and specialties, $2-$6. 504 Grove St., Loudon. 865-408-9867.

• Black Bear Cove Resort (see address above). Chef Vincent Somerbille, using local produce, offers a full lunch and dinner menu, including specialties such as roasted pear and chicken salad, steak and ribs. Entrees, $8-$26.

Information

• Southeast Tennessee Tourism Association, www.southeasttennessee.com.

• Mississippi State Muscadine Research: www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov97/musc1197.htm.

• Apple Valley Orchard, 351 Weese Road S.E., Cleveland. 423-472-3044; www.applevalleyorchard.com.

• Benton’s Smoky Mountain Hams, 2603 U.S. 411, Madisonville. 423-442-5003, bentonshams.com.

• Delano Community Farm Market, 146 Needle Eye Lane, Delano. southeasttennessee.com/www/docs/753.1357.

• Mayfield Visitors Center, 4 Mayfield Lane, Athens. 1-800-629-3435, www.mayfielddairy.com.

• Morris Vineyard and Tennessee Mountain Winery, 346 Union Grove Road, Charleston. 423-479-7311, www.morrisvineyard.com.

• Ocoee Winery, 5365 Waterlevel Highway/U.S. 64, Cleveland. 423-614-5100, www.ocoeewinery.com.

• Savannah Oaks Winery, 1817 Delano Road, Delano. 423-263-2762, www.savannah-oaks-winery.com/default.asp.

• Shultz Farm Foods, 245 County Road 603, Athens. 423-745-4723; tinyurl.com/64khla.

• Striker’s Premium Winery, 480 County Road 172, Athens. 423-507-8816, www.southeasttennessee.com/www/docs/753.1361.

• Sweetwater Valley Farm, 17988 W. Lee Highway, Philadelphia. 1-877-862-4332, 865-458-9192; www.sweetwatervalley.com.

• Tennessee Valley Winery, 15606 Hotchkiss Valley Road, Loudon. 865-986-5147, www.tnvalleywine.com.