Over the last nine years, Shane Mitchell has braved snakes, fire ants, floods, rallies, marches, protests, pageants, and near heat stroke to write the essays contained in this book. From grits to tomatoes to peaches to okra to rice to onions and beyond, she's tracked down the history of southern fruits, vegetables, and grains in the oddest of odysseys. The Crop Cycle is the culmination of her long journey and quest to better understand the South's tangled love affair with food – 11 crops and their stories, presented in the order they were published. And of course, we've saved something delightful for dessert - a very special story at the end that has never been published.
