Southeast Tennessee food tour a real mouthful

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The Tennessee Food Tour includes stops at several wineries, farms, apple orchards and much more.

The Tennessee food tour begins at Delano, about 140 miles north of Atlanta. There you'll visit Delano Community Farm Market, the Mennonite community's market which sells homemade jams and relishes as well as fruits and vegetables. Patrons are asked to dress modestly.

Apple Valley Orchard's bakery and store sells fried pies, strudel and cakes for sale year-round.

Shultz Farm Foods has been in the Shultz family since 1902, making it one of a handful of century farms in southeast Tennessee.

The Sweetwater Valley Farm's cheddar is made from milk from their 700-plus cows. In season, calves fill the pens, gazing curiously at visitors on the farm's tour. Daily tours are free. So are cheese samples which range from smooth mild cheddar to tart reserve aged cheddar.

Muscadines form the base for many of the wines produced by the wineries in Southeast Tennessee. A native grape, muscadines have been found to contain more reservatrol than other grapes. Reservatrol is thought to lower cholesterol.

Savannah Oaks Winery's tasting room is in a restored 1840s cantilevered barn.

The Morris Vineyard and Tennessee Mountain Winery is set amid muscadine vineyards with a view of distant mountains, stretching all the way to North Carolina.

Ocoee Winery owner Steve Hunt makes about 5,000 gallons of wine a year.

Savannah Oaks Winery hostess Mary Poteet serves customer Bonnie Carr a glass of Red Muscadine.

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

In addition to its commercial operations, Benton's Smoky Mountain Hams cures hams for local customers. They bring the pork, it's tagged with the customer's name, and the ham is cured along with the ones for sale.

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The Tennessee food tour begins at Delano, about 140 miles north of Atlanta. There you'll visit Delano Community Farm Market, the Mennonite community's market which sells homemade jams and relishes as well as fruits and vegetables. Patrons are asked to dress modestly.

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