Reading: Georgann Eubanks

Telling the stories of twelve North Carolina heritage foods, each matched to the month of its peak readiness for eating, in The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods Through the Year, Georgann Eubanks takes readers on a flavorful journey across the state. She begins in January with the most ephemeral of southern ingredients-snow-to witness Tar Heels making snow cream. In March, she takes a midnight canoe ride on the Trent River in search of shad, a bony fish with a savory history. In November, she visits a Chatham County sawmill where the possums are always first into the persimmon trees. Talking with farmers, fishmongers, cooks, historians, and scientists, Eubanks looks at how foods are deeply tied to the culture of the Old North State.