Her cookbook, The Gathering Place, offers recipes from their table.
Get Cooking Johnnie Sue and Soney Myers work as a team; he hunts and gathers and she prepares the meals.
Johnnie Sue’s bear meat won first prize at the Cherokee Indian Fair.
Seasons trout with ground sumac, a native berry that lends a lemony flavor.
Shared Winnings Top, Chief Michell Hicks and his wife, Marsha, are regular guests at the Myers’ table.
And just as early settlers and the Cherokee have done for centuries, the Myers store beans, okra, squash, tomatoes, and other vegetables for winter. Their canning shed contains a stockpile of colorful produce.
She uses wild blackberries in her cobbler.
Johnnie Sue’s cooking is a mixture of Southern Appalachian and traditional Cherokee cuisine. Her buttery corn bread is a recipe her grandson, Matthew, has perfected.
