Kiss My Grits! They Are MIA in the South!

I grew up in South Carolina.

I just got back from spending over a week in my hometown.

I baked a few loaves of bread and discovered I love the addition of grits to my loaves. My childhood home had 5#of white grits unopened, a jar with some opened white grits, and a bag with some yellow grits already opened.

I decided I would pick some up to bring back to Chicago. And that's when I noticed that they were missing! I must confess I am not a fan of hot cereal and would not eat grits growing up. I still think the most appropriate place for oatmeal is in a cookie. That said, as a kidlet every grocery store had what felt like a whole aisle of grits to choose from, and I don't mean instant but I distinctly recall Quaker and Jim Dandy being in the Piggly Wiggly, Bi-Lo, and Winn Dixie.

This go round I noticed the mammoth Wal-Mart only had instant grits. I was surprised but figured no big deal I'll just head to Piggly Wiggly but the options were slim. Rinse and repeat at the Bi-Lo. They were also all missing Crystal Hot Sauce but that's a different post.

Later during my time there, we went to Whole Foods in Mt. Pleasant and I expected to have several options of fancy $20# choices for grits +bulk bins and no, no I didn't have blue grits, and indigo grits, and pink grits to choose from at all.

When I mentioned this to my sister she agreed that my memory was correct. Alas, no one is cooking this staple like they did when I was a kid either.

PS FWIW I did snag a bag of Carolina Gold Rice to bring home. I could have ordered it and had it shipped but something felt right about physically buying it there and hauling it back, despite the inconvenience .

That's funny that this came up now. Just this morning, I was looking to buy some stone ground grits and cornmeal for an upcoming dinner. I didn't even try to find them around here (I'm aware that Bob's Red Mill has products all over, but I was looking to try something else). I considered ordering from Anson Mills, but found their prices a bit precious.

After scouring LTH, I found an erstwhile mention of McEwen & Son's in Wilsonville, AL and placed my order there.

Cathy2 mentioned a similar phenomenon - a dearth of grits at various stops in Mississippi. In 2007.

In the process, I found a number of Southern purveyors mentioned here on LTH and elsewhere:

Food for the Soul aka Charleston Favorites
Weisenberger Mills of Midway, KY
Geechie Boy Mill of Edisto, SC (it was reported that these are also available in the freezer at PQM and they are definitely sold on Amazon)

Somewhere along the way, someone linked to a 2005 Tribune article which listed several more sources:
Falls Mill in in Belvedere, TN
Lakeside Mills in Spindale, NC
Nora Mill Granary in Helen, GA
Old Mill of Guilford in Oak Ridge, NC

Discussion here also led me to see that Baker Miller in Lincoln Square sell stone ground grits and cornmeal from local corn that people seemed to like. But I called them and while they said they usually have this to purchase, they were out right now and to check back later in the week.

Anyway, none of this is to undercut Ava's original point. Maybe these are not as readily available at your everyday grocery in the South as they may have been in the past. There seems to be no shortage of places that are still producing and selling stone-ground corn products, but it is done on a more artisanal basis with a premium markup or these seemingly throwback products are being produced in the historical context of a preserved mill.

In any case, maybe grits aren't quite the staples they had been - even in parts for the country where they were regularly eaten. Then again, I could be totally off-base. I could certainly see a dip in popularity of any grain that might take hours to prepare like I have read that the stone-ground variety might.

After all the research, I'm interested in playing around with them after learning some of the history.

When I make shrimp and grits down here near Nashville, I still work off a stock of polenta that I got at Tenuta's in Racine a few years ago that I portioned, vacuum sealed, and deep froze. I just tell people they're Yankee grits. I can't say for sure if I had somebody bring them down or Tenuta's shipped them for me.

yesterday, i almost ordered some intriguingly title 'bloody butcher' cornmeal and grits from wade's mill in virginia (established 1750!).....but the shipping was more than my order cost. that stopped me cold.
wadesmill.com