A Little News

I didn’t intend to do a series on my favorite things, but why not. It’s my blog after all and that makes me the boss, after a fashion. I don’t seem to be making any money at it so I can’t pay myself, but I guess the fact that you folks are out there reading reading is pay enough and that is pretty good wages. Anyway, on with the show. Since we are now talking about my favorite things, let me introduce you to Boss Hill. I guess he has a real name, but I have never heard anyone call him anything but Boss so we will go with that.

Boss has a big stew every spring at his home near Elkmont, Alabama. If you have never heard of Elkmont, don’t let it bother you. It is a little town about a stone’s throw from the Tennessee-Alabama state line just off of Interstate 65. It is a little southern town with all the fancies and foibles that go along with being a little southern town. Boss Hill is one of the celebrities of the community. I am sure that it doesn’t hurt Boss’ status that he doesn’t charge for his stew. You come, you wait in line, you hear some music and you eat free until your belly is content or until the stew is gone.

The real hook is that Boss makes goat stew. It is the only place I know of where you can have a bowl of goat stew. I have never seen it on a restaurant menu anywhere and there are some weird dishes on restaurant menus in the south. For those with a gastric uncertainty toward the goat stew, Boss also makes a more traditional chicken stew and beef stew but if you ever get there, at least try the goat stew. It is better than you think.

The real payoff for me is not the stew even though I really like to eat. The payoff is all the excellent people who show up that I get to photograph. There was one fellow who was a volunteer cook who kept up a non stop stream of conversation with anyone passing by whether he knew them or not. He parsed his conversations with stories of his wife, God bless the poor woman, who he claims is a bit of a hefty cook. I am pretty sure he was telling these stories because his wife was not actually present. The man himself seemed to have enjoyed a bit of her cooking over the years. If there were ever a tall tale to be told or heard, this is the guy to look for.

This is a political year in Alabama so there were any number of politicians who came to get a bowl of stew and to spread their message which always ended in a flier being passed and the statement, “I sure would appreciate your vote!” That is not one of my favorite things but it is impossible to talk about Boss Hill’s stew without the politicians. They are as much a part of the mix as the salt and pepper are in the stew.

Speaking of the cooking. The food prep starts at 4a.m. I was not there for the beginning. I arrived at the lazy hour of 7a.m. to begin my work and was chided by the cooks for being so late. There were five large cauldrons of stew boiling and bubbling by the time I arrived with a lively banter around the pots. If the stew could be flavored with words then these pots would be the best tasting stews in the world because the cooks, all long time volunteers with Boss, kept up a salt and pepper barrage between one another all morning. One poor man had the misfortune to have been born in the North which made him the target of more than a few barbs. He has lived in the South most of his adult life so he took it all in stride. When Boss Hill finally deems the stews ready to serve everyone present pauses for a moment to bow in thankful prayer and then the eating begins and my work is done. Except to sit down to a steaming bowl of stew myself.

About the photos: Well, what do you say. They were shot with Nikon D2H and D2Hs bodies and either a 17-35mm or 80-200mm lens all available light. It just comes down to finding light that is not too contrasty to produce an image. Oh, and I had to make sure not to spill stew on the cameras. That makes a mess.

Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.