Following is an interview from 2022 with Rick Karle, the Sports Director at WBRC FOX6 in Birmingham, Alabama. He has a Facebook page, Rick Karle Good News, where he shares unique stories and then gives updates to the stories to keep readers informed.
I am thankful that Rick Karlee chose to do an interview/story about my life and the book, Harvest.
The Interview/Story by Rick Karle
“I never thought I’d read a cookbook from cover to cover. But the cookbook I just read is a bit different. Oh, there are simple recipes for biscuits and pies and cobbler and puddings. But this cookbook is about much more.Chelsea, Alabama’s Sandi Herron has done it all. Born in Mississippi and raised in Bessemer, her family has been her life.
So too has cooking. From Mamaw to Papaw and later passed down to her children Jonathan and Briana, family recipes and family adventures are everything.
Sandi Herron has worked for a Birmingham dentist. She’s worked as a graphic design artist. She ran political campaigns. She’s worked at Liberty Baptist Church.
Sandi Herron is also a gifted writer. So a few years back, it came to the now 70-year-old. She had survived breast cancer. She had been married nearly 50 years. Why not write a cookbook, but a cookbook with a twist?
In between all of the recipes that have been handed down through the years, why not take readers on a family journey over hundreds of years? And with that journey, why not include some entertaining stories about her family?
It was 2018, and her chemo and radiation treatments were behind her. Sandi felt renewed and wanted to leave a family history to both her family and to us. Thus, “Harvest: Recipes, Stories & Memories Of A Southern Family Heritage” was born.
Looking for a country cornbread recipe? You can find it in Sandi’s cookbook.
Looking for stories titled, “Three Sheep”, “The Watermelon Patch” and “We Need God More?” Sandi has you covered.
“Harvest” is a heartfelt adventure of Sandi’s times in the fields and times in the kitchen. In her story, “Mamaw’s Biscuits, Sandi writes:
“I enter Mamaw’s house through the back door and see her standing at the counter in her galley-style kitchen.Her hands are deep in a bowl of flour, making buttermilk biscuits.She is wearing a red plaid apron and a blue floral dress, both handmade by her.I place a kiss on top of her head.She smiles and asks if I would like a biscuit.I turn up the glass and drink the sour, creamy liquid as I watch her add buttermilk into the flour mixture without measuring.From the window I see Pawaw seated in a swing, whittling and whistling ‘Amazing Grace.'”
“My favorite is her chocolate pie. I know, because I found it earlier when I peeked under the aluminum foil cover. Truth be told, I tasted it- just a small sampling while no one was looking.”
“I just love to write”, Sandi tells me. “My mother passed in 2008 and I have lost two brothers. I’ve beaten cancer, and I’ve been blessed to have been married to Jerome for 48 years. Did I tell you we met at the Alabama State Fair? Now is the time to embrace a new adventure.”
Sandi Herron has lived a trying but blessed life. Today, her backyard Alabama gardens beckon her, and her family eats from the land. And now, she’s offering us family recipes along with stories that are very familiar to our own.
Cookies, cakes and banana pudding.
Stories of the Civil War and “More Peas, Please.”
“I’ll never forget those days so long ago”, writes Sandi. “I remember what it took for Mamaw and Papaw to put food on our tables. I remember when a trip to the grocery store was not an option. Those were the days.”
Those sure were the days, Sandi. And oh, how we love going back.
*You can learn more about Sandi’s book here:
Discover more from Sandi Herron - Life at Spring Meadows
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