The range of sundries that Scott and Lindsay Meyer produce on their Jacksonville farm not only support other small family farms, but also speak the region’s dialect fluently—a ruby-red Mayhaw shrub, Creole tomato jelly, rice-flour fish batter. This year they introduced pecan oil, made by cold-pressing raw Georgia pecans, and then…well, then mostly getting out of the way. “I decided that to make an oil that really captured the flavors of Georgia-grown pecans, I needed to simplify the process,” Scott says. The finished product has a pleasingly light and ethereal taste, with only a fleeting suggestion of nut—Scott employs it both for finishing salads and pan-frying fresh fish. But his favorite use? “Drizzle it over some micro greens, add a pinch of salt, toss it up, and graze like a buffalo.” Not only is the oil versatile, but it’s also better for you—high in omega-3 fatty acids, and lower in saturated fats than either olive or corn oil.
>Pecan oil, $30 from congareeandpenn.com
MORE MADE IN THE SOUTH:
> Food winner: Milton’s Local
> Food runner-up: The Naked Pig Meat Co.
> Food runner-up: Congaree and Penn
> Food runner-up: ’Chups Craft Condiments
See all winners and runners-up
Wayne Curtis is the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails and has written frequently about cocktails, spirits, travel, and history for many publications, including the Atlantic, the New York Times, Imbibe, Punch, the Daily Beast, Sunset, the Wall Street Journal, and Garden & Gun. He lives on the Gulf Coast.
