Garden & Gun Magazine

48,133 Followers | @gardenandgun | Soul of the South.

The Funny Life of David Sedaris

Gut-busting laughs. Heartache. The North Carolina shore. David Sedaris weaves them all into a new memoirOne of the few writers in the world whose name alone can sell out Carnegie Hall, David Sedaris is widely considered America’s leading humorist. And though his new book, Calypso, does nothing but …

North Carolina

Beautiful to Boot

From their Dallas store-front, two sisters give traditional cowboy boots a stylish makeoverWhile other young women were given family heirlooms or jewelry for major life events, sisters Lizzie Means Duplantis and Sarah Means always received one thing: a new pair of cowboy boots. Starting in high …

Frank Lloyd Wright

Nectarine and Berry Cobbler

Extra juicy and with a secret layer of buttery dough, chef Maya Lovelace’s cobbler is a link to home“I feel like I’m a cultural ambassador,” says Maya Lovelace, a Beaufort, North Carolina–born chef who moved to Oregon six years ago after working with Sean Brock at Husk in Charleston, South …

Dessert

An Easy-Sipping Madeira Cocktail

A light-buzz summer drink perfect for the front porchConsider the Madeira and tonic the most surprising of Southern cocktails.First of all, Southern? Really? After all, Madeira comes from a set of exotic islands off Morocco—a dense and rich fortified wine crafted to prevent souring when ships …

Madeira

Madeira and Tonic

A low-alcohol summer sipper that quenches without consequencesIngredients3 oz. Rainwater Madeira (Broadbent recommended)4 oz. tonic water (Boylan Heritage if you can find it)1 long lemon peel garnishPreparationFill a tall collins glass with ice cubes, then add the Madeira and tonic. Stir lightly. …

Madeira

A Gusty Proposal

Whipping up some enthusiasm for one of life’s elemental pleasuresYears ago, in a little book about New Orleans, I wrote of my aspirations to become a French Quarter character known as Mr. Appreciate-a-Breeze Man. In a seersucker suit and a straw hat, and mopping my brow with a kerchief, I would …

New Orleans

The Power of Parker Millsap

One of Nashville’s most dynamic young voices turns it upJust south of downtown, Nashville’s Pinewood Social, a combo restaurant, bar, and work space, serves as a clubhouse for Music City’s creative set. It’s lunchtime, but open laptops outnumber plates on the rustic-chic wooden tables. A couple of …

Country Music

Southern Lake Escapes – Garden & Gun

Travel

Greers Ferry, the South’s Sporting Lake

Pristine waters brimming with blue-ribbon fish beckon anglers to ArkansasLAKE: Greers Ferry LOCATION: Cleburne and Van Buren Counties, Arkansas SIZE: 40,000 acres SHORELINE: 343 miles ELEVATION: 481 feetWHY WE LOVE IT: Greers Ferry Lake spread like two large inkblots spilled from a bottle when the U.S. …

Red River

Discover Alabama’s Lake Martin

The South’s social lakeLAKE: Martin LOCATION: Tallapoosa, Elmore, and Coosa Counties, Alabama SIZE: 41,150 acres SHORELINE: 880 miles ELEVATION: 491 feetWHY WE LOVE IT: If the beaches of Gulf Shores are Alabama’s front porch, then Lake Martin is its living room. The 41,150 acres of glistening water, …

Living Rooms

An Ode to Days on the Lake

Adventure, romance, wonder—a lifetime of memories shaped by the waterEvery few years, when I’m passing through my hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, I take a short detour from wherever it is I’m going and point my car down a vertiginous hill that opens onto a cul-de-sac called Lelias Court. …

South Carolina

Five Underrated Southern Lakes

Spend your next vacation exploring one of these refreshing watering holesCaddoLOUISIANA/TEXASJust enough sunlight streams through the cypresses rising out of Caddo Lake, a swampy ecosystem straddling the Louisiana–Texas line, to render the scene surreal. The area around the South’s largest natural …

North Carolina

The Old-Fashioned Allure of Lake Rabun

Turn back the hands of time in a quiet Georgia enclave at the South’s Mountain lakeLAKE: Rabun LOCATION: Rabun County, Georgia SIZE: 843 acres SHORELINE: 25 miles ELEVATION: 1,690 feetWHY WE LOVE IT: As you approach Lake Rabun, the decades seem to vanish right along with your cell service. A …

United Methodist

Explore Lake Travis, a Lone Star State Retreat

Luxe digs make savoring this Texas Hill Country recreational paradise a breezeLAKE: Travis LOCATION: Travis and Burnet Counties, Texas SIZE: 18,930 acres SHORELINE: 270 miles ELEVATION: 681 feetWHY WE LOVE IT: From a satellite’s view, Lake Travis looks like an emerald snake wriggling its way through …

Willie Nelson

The Untamed Heart of Lake Jocassee

Cool Blue Ridge waters feed this secluded lake—and the soulLAKE: Jocasse LOCATION: Oconee and Pickens Counties, South Carolina SIZE: 9,000 acres SHORELINE: 75 miles ELEVATION: 1,100 feetWHY WE LOVE IT: The kayak settles on a pebble-sand beach, with the sound of a contented sigh. Behind you lies Lake …

Hiking

A Goat Paradise in Georgia

Meet the farmer behind the goat cheese Atlanta chefs are ga-ga forMary Rigdon’s verdant patch of land, dotted with wildflowers and forty white dairy goats, is tucked in an industrial corner of south Atlanta. In this unlikely spot, beneath a thunderously loud flight path of the nearby world’s …

New Jersey

Inside Columbia, South Carolina’s Historic Hampton-Preston House

Columbia’s Hampton-Preston House and its grounds—built in 1818 on the corner of Pickens and Blanding Streets—survived General Sherman, a stint as the governor’s mansion, and four turns as various institutes of higher learning. But commercial real estate development during the mid-twentieth century …

Real Estate

Catching Up with Widespread Panic’s John Bell

The jam-band frontman on his new festival, favorite Southern eats, and the art of making a set listThe Athens, Georgia-bred band Widespread Panic first performed together in 1986 at what was then known as the Mad Hatter Ballroom. Now, more than thirty-two years later, the iconic Southern jam-band’s …

Americana

Writing America’s History

Season 3, Episode 3: Author Jon Meacham discusses writing about U.S. presidents, the Southern literary canon, and smoking cigars in the basementPulitzer-prize winning presidential biographer and Chattanooga native Jon Meacham has written books on the lives of Thomas Jefferson, George H. W. Bush, …

Winston Churchill

The Southern Name Game

Making sense of Southern appellations and sobriquetsI come from a long line of people on both sides of my family who named their children after folks they were actually related to. For this I am profoundly grateful. Had my mother made like, say, Gwyneth Paltrow and named me after a fruit, I might …

New York State

Okra’s Deep Roots

More than just the South’s signature pod, okra carries thousands of years of historyEditor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the G&G book S Is for Southern: A Guide to the South, from Absinthe to Zydeco. A compendium of Southern life and culture, the book contains nearly five hundred entries …

Thomas Jefferson

You Know Your Mama Is Really Southern If…

The endearing (and endearingly exasperating) traits and tactics of the Southern MotherYou probably think there’s no one quite like your mother. But survey a cross-section of Southerners, and some consensus starts to take shape about the ties that bind the women who raised us. Whether your mama’s …

Side Dishes

Behind the Merle Haggard Classic “Mama Tried”

A song for Mother’s DayWhen Merle Haggard was nine years old, his father passed away from a brain hemorrhage. Haggard’s two older siblings, Lowell and Lillian, were in their twenties at the time, which left Merle to be raised solo by his mother, Flossie, at their house in Bakersfield, California. …

Country Music

Non-Invasive Wisteria 101

Why native wisteria is a friend in the Southern gardenHave you spent half your life battling invasive wisteria? Don’t be discouraged—it has a 200-year head start. Wisteria sinensis arrived in America in 1816, while Wisteria floribunda was introduced to America in the 1830s. They were both brought …

Thomas Jefferson

Let the Good Times Crawl

This weekend, a New Orleans institution hosts the “Slowest Second Line on Earth”In addition to a potent milk punch and the country’s preeminent bananas Foster, the team at Brennan’s—the pink-and-green-clad culinary grande dame on Royal Street in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter—makes a …

Turtles

Mom Cooks Best

Chefs share the recipes their mothers and grandmothers taught them to makeThere’s a reason the Southern writer Rick Bragg’s book about his mother’s cooking is on the New York Times bestseller list. We Southerners treasure the memories of our mothers and grandmothers showing us how to make biscuits …

Food Preservation

Linda Louise’s Poppy Seed Dressing

A “sacred” (and delightfully easy-to-make) family recipe from Arlington, Virginia chef David GuasDavid Guas, the New Orleans-born pastry chef and owner of Bayou Bakery in Arlington, Virginia, and Lil’ B in Washington, D.C., long tried to re-create his mother’s “sacred” poppy seed vinaigrette. For …

Spices

Ma Ma’s Egg Custard Pie

Chef Alex Harrell learned this dessert from his grandmother, “Ma Ma.” Today, it’s on the menu at his New Orleans restaurant AngelineAs a child, Alex Harrell would visit his grandmother in Chipley, Florida, and he could count on her custard pie to be waiting in the fridge. “It was one of her staples …

Baking

Grandma’s Zucchini Bread

Charleston, South Carolina, chef Nate Whiting shares the recipe for his grandmother’s summertime stapleNate Whiting’s grandmother always made loaves of her spiced zucchini bread when the summer squash boom hit gardens—and it paired perfectly with Whiting’s childhood love of sweet cream butter. “I …

Baking

Mama’s Egg Salad

The secret ingredient? Durkee sauce, a tangy sandwich spread. “You’ll never open my refrigerator without finding a jar of it,” says Augusta, Georgia, caterer Vera StewartThe caterer Vera Stewart grew up in Macon, Georgia, where her mother’s classic egg salad was a staple. “We ate it between two …

Eggs