“One of the finest food-connected advertising slogans I’ve ever encountered adorned jars of a popular brand of cane syrup, Dixie Dew, which was a standard on our family table when I was a boy. Printed on the label affixed to the quart jars were these words: “Covers Dixie like the dew and gives a biscuit a college education.”
—Jim Casada – “Wild Fare & Wise Words”
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a signed copy of Jim’s book “Wild Fare & Wise Words.” The book is filled with tasty recipes and includes more than a few turkey dishes which seems appropriate for Thanksgiving week. To be entered in the giveaway leave a comment on this post. *Giveaway ends November 29, 2019.
Tipper
p.s. The winner of “More than Moonshine” is Gigi who said: “It sounds like I was home there for a minute Tipper. I to had to pluck the feathers off the chicken. Gosh it was so good when momma fixed this. A real treat cause we didn’t get this often. So it was special. As they say finger licking good. Thanks Tipper!”
The winner of “Rough Weather Makes Good Timber” is Paula Rhodarmer who said: “It is so hard to think of the pain our ancestors had to endure. It seems like when I am sick I am also motivated to give more to medical missions. There are people in the world today with no real access to medicine for common diseases.”
Paula and Gigi-send your mailing addresses to me at blindpigandtheacorn@gmail.com and I’ll get the books to you.
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Nothing in the world is better than a hot biscuit with melted butter and sorghum poured over it. My Grandpa used to have a sorghum mill and made sorghum for anyone that had cane and would grow his own and make sorghum that I thought was the best in the world.
Can’t believe how my grandmothers made scratch biscuits two or even three times a day. Don’t recall Dixie Dew, but do remember Karo on the table. And REAL maple syrup.
When I started reading the comments I was thinking how much I’d like to have a couple of biscuits hot from the oven right this minute. By the time I finished reading about all the syrup memories, I was craving pancakes. And I’ve already had supper and a big chocolate-covered cookie for dessert, so it’s not like I’m in need of another meal! 🙂
Would love to add this book to my library. Jim’s recipes are always great!
i would certainly share my recipe for salt rise. if anything epitomizes appalachia, it is salt rise bread. it’s quite a process so i will check with blind pig to see how to go about it. right after thanksgiving!
I remember Dixie Dew syrup. We didn’t have it very often because we grew cane and had molasses. Put home churned butter on a hot biscuit and pour all the molasses that would stay on it and it was better than cake – unless the cake had chocolate icing.
Oh, I would love to win a copy of Jim’s wise words and wild recipes. We will have wild turkey for Thanksgiving. Bounty from the spring turkey hunt. Our trail camera pictures show a good supply of Jakes that should be nice Toms next spring. So much fun turkey hunting. Love the gobble sound. Gets your heart racing.
Would love to have the copy of Jim’s book. Love your Blind Pig site.
Tipper,
We had a Frost this morning, and my computer screen started working about 3 hours ago. Until then, it would just blink and it wouldn’t lite up. It’s always something! I been here about 32 years, so I imagine it has something to do with the plug-ins, but I know nothing about Electricity.
Mama and Daddy use to send me and Harold up the Railroad Tracks to Hub and Lori Holloway’s to get a jar of Syrup. That stuff was real thick, and we knew better than to drop it, cause it would’ve busted into pieces. Mama and Daddy added real butter to theirs, but me and Harold wouldn’t eat a bite. It looked alright, but we had other things to eat. …Ken
My Dad worked for the highway department when I was a child. Every once in a while he would be “gifted” with a big jar of molasses. Mama would fix homemade biscuits and butter, and when the biscuits came out of the oven, we would slice them and fill them with butter to melt. Then open them up and pour those molasses on them. Talk about good eat’n!
Haven’t heard of Dixie Dew Cane Syrup ,that slogan is well thought up 🙂 . Taking a pause in my today’s Thanksgiving day prep, to read all,I read myself hungry haha, hungry to know what Jim’s growing up syrup might have taste like, hungry for a plate of Karo Syrup with a slab up butter pressed all through , slathered on a hot biscuit …”ain’t” it so good when the butter, thick sorghum, or syrup drips all over your fingers, but that’s ok, you take care of that right quick…. yep, I have read myself hungry.
That slogan makes Dixie Dew syrup sound really good. My grandparents always had molasses and honey that stayed on the table. Of course, they ate biscuits for at least two meals a day. I enjoy Jim’s comments, and I’m sure I would enjoy his book, especially the recipes.
Just want to aay a BIG THANK YOU TIPPER for the book. I will cherish it. I love reading anyway. God Bleas you for all you do.
There have always been a few old timers around in my part of the woods that grew cane and made syrup every year. That’s usually what we had on the table. But sometimes we had to buy some. I can remember Brer Rabbit and Johnny Fair brands. Sometimes breakfast was fresh cow’s cream mixed with some syrup or mollassas and sopped with a biscuit. I bet I’ve sopped 500 miles if you include the red eye gravy that was sopped too.
Remember Karo syrup but never heard of Dixie Dew. Sounds interesting. Would love to have this book. Have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving.
I remember Bobwhite too and it seems like I have seen in in a store fairly recently. None of the pancake syrups taste very good to me–they are really thin.
I have made my own with sugar, water, and maple flavoring–turns out pretty good at least better than “boughten”.
Butter, karo syrup or Molasses, with cat head biscuits were always a treat breakfast as a child growing up. But thinking back it probably was as much a treat for our mother reducing the prep time for the meal.
We couldn’t afford boughten syrup most of the time. Mommy would make sugar syrup which I think was sugar and water with a pinch of salt and drop of vanilla. She’d boil it until it thickened a little and pour it over split biscuits. If she had cocoa powder she would add that and call it chocolate syrup. I didn’t care for the plain syrup but the chocolate was superb.
Dixie Dew must have been before my time or I would have remembered that slogan. Karo syrup didn’t have a slogan as far as I remember, but there was always a jar on our table. Folks use it for baking now, but we loved to sop it up with a biscuit for our breakfast.
I remember bobwhite syrup, don’t know if it’s made anymore. It was a thick syrup unlike the watery syrup karo makes now.
When I grew up “soppin’ syrup” it wasn’t Dixie Dew, but Mama’s homemade “maple” syrup made her biscuits taste like they had at least finished high school!
i love jim casada’s way with words. when i was growing up in alabama, our favorite syrup was diamond joe.
i just baked 12 loaves of salt rise bread for our thanksgiving. some for the table and the rest to take home!
Never heard of that! Do you care to share the recipe for your thanksgiving ‘salt rise bread’?
Dad always loved sorghum syrup he ate it every morning on his toast and several other things and Mom loved to raise her own Thanksgiving turkey and even had a few she would sell.
Those old slogans bring back memories of simpler days. I don’t really know that they were better, but when we look back we tend to peel most of the ugly off leaving only the good. Some of those old slogans such as the Hadacol slogan “We had a call it something” and “finger lickin’ good” are just memorable. Thanks to Jim for his post, and I might add his posts are among my favorite on the BP&A.
My Dad kept a Tin of King’s Syrup after we quit making Molasses, he would whip butter in it and eat it on a hot biscuit which was always a staple for his breakfast,