Even the Most Southern of Mommas Can Support Their Newly-Veggie Kids

Just to quickly explain, I am alternating from the environmental aspect of veggie-ness back to my personal stories of being a vegetarian. The back and forth style really express the dichotomy I have experienced becoming a vegetarian for environmental and personal reasons. I was raised in a small town in south Georgia called Douglas where vegetarianism and veganism are thought of as foreign ideas. If Americans are perceived as meat-centric, than Southerners are doubly or even triply so!

Growing up, my family was very Southern Baptist in a culinary sense. If you have never been acquainted with that type of family, then what I mean by culinarily Baptist is that we went home every Sunday after church to a fried chicken dinner with all the fixings. Now, my Momma is renowned for being an excellent cook throughout the community and cooked in the style in which she was raised. A typical post-church dinner meal was made in this manner:

Step One—Cut up and deep fry a whole chicken (or roast, cube steak, pork chop, etc.).

Step Two—Make a gravy with the remains of the oil that the meat is fried in by adding flour and water. This gravy should be poured over an accompanying starch like rice or taters (potatoes for the Yankees reading this).

Step Three—Vegetables are be prepared with a meat added to them for ‘seasoning’. One can use ham hock, turkey neck, bacon, or even bacon grease!

Step Four—Make biscuits (which are thankfully veggie-safe) or Jiffy corn bread (sadly non-veggie).

If you carefully observe this meal, even the vegetables are not vegetarian. This is the way I ate on a regular basis and I later learned to cook in this manner as well. Considering my family’s consumption history, I was nervous to tell them, and my Momma in particular, about my decision to cut meat from my daily diet. Surprisingly, Momma reacted in a completely different way than I thought she would. I had imagined there would be lots of laughter and scoffing when I ‘came out’ to her, but she had a grave look on her face. I can’t remember word-for-word what she said, but this is the general gist. “Jessie, anything you choose to do that improves yourself, I fully support. I need to eat more vegetables, too.” I was floored and grateful at the same time.

The Thanksgiving after I became a vegetarian was very different than I dreamed it would be. I envisioned my family gorging on a savory feast while I scrounged for cranberry sauce and rolls. Thankfully, Momma had been doing her research and was delighted to find a bouillon that contained no animal product. With this new item in her repertoire, she created her vegetarian versions of cornbread dressing and dumplings with veggie broth. I was so touched by both her open-mindedness and adoption of new ways to cook. Momma had always used her cuisine to express love, so I thought that would change when my eating habits changed. I love being wrong in this case!

Secretly, I think she believes I am nuts for giving up marshmallows. HA!