Garden & Gun October/November 2019

Field Days MAKING MEMORIES WITH THE DOGS—BOTH YOUNG AND OLD—THIS FALL DAVID DIBENEDETTO Senior Vice President & Editor in Chief PHOTOGRAPH BY MARGARET HOUSTON One of the many delights of this job is getting reader mail. Whether you’re voicing opinions about our coverage (yes, I know it’s heresy to boil blue crabs around the Chesapeake Bay; nothing but steam for you all) or sharing a treasured family recipe, it’s a privilege to hear from folks who embrace this magazine with such passion. Over the past year, I’ve especially enjoyed swapping stories with a Garden & Gun reader named Sybil from Chester, Maryland. Our correspondence began when Sybil wrote, with good old-fashioned pen and paper, to tell me about the dogs she’d been fortunate to own in her life. There was…

Check Out Our New Book! Book: Jacqueline Stofsick My daughter, Rose, is lucky to have a number of strong women in her life. From her mom to her grandmothers, she doesn’t have to look far for role models. It doesn’t hurt that she’s also growing up in a region known for the original steel magnolias. Available October 29, our latest book, Southern Women, edited by deputy editor Amanda Heckert, includes more than a hundred inspiring stories of triumph, grit, and grace, featuring both icons and overlooked visionaries from around the region. It’s an incredible portrait of Southern women today, and I plan to make sure Rose has a copy on her shelf for years to come.…

CONTRIBUTORS “Bless his heart, Pat loved rich anything, even if a recipe didn’t call for it” Cassandra King Conroy on the late Pat Conroy, p. 36 Andrew Kornylak PHOTOGRAPHER He can handle dogs. He wrangled three of them for the April/May 2017 tenth-anniversary cover of Garden & Gun. But the Chapel Hill, North Carolina–based lensman Andrew Kornylak faced a new challenge when he photographed three different mammals—dog, horse, and man—on the plains near Isabel, South Dakota, for this issue’s cover. “I grew up riding horses, but ones built to work are another thing,” he says. “Patrón is a beautiful but rugged horse, and you could feel the energy coming off him. He radiates this sense of power.” Kornylak needed to channel that energy while also capturing the dog’s focus and…

LETTERS “As we say here in the South, ‘He was raised right, not jerked up’” PLENTY TO GO AROUND Reading the August/September 2019 issue, I marveled at a couple who collect buildings, laughed out loud at the naming of a dog, snickered at Elvis and creative cussin’, cried at the saving of a sea turtle, and got hungry from all the delicious food and drinks. All that before 8:00 a.m. Suzanne Perry Wright Bradenton, Florida Friends were coming over for dinner and I wanted to make something that celebrated the South. I love your magazine and really appreciate your online content, so I went to your website and did that thing great hosts advise against: tried a new recipe on guests. I went with the sheet cake recipe that includes…

Social Chatter GARDENANDGUN.COM AND BEYOND WE ASKED... What’s your best Thanksgiving tip? On Facebook and Instagram, we asked what makes your Turkey Day perfect. Give each sibling a task. It’s less work for Mama. Lesa L. Tatum Follow the Alton Brown turkey recipe. It takes a couple of days but works like a charm. Roger Davis You can never have enough Sister Schubert’s rolls. Anna Robertson All cell phones turned off and in a basket. @kyleeper123 Get fresh spices. They’ve lost their flavor after a year. Robert Hughes Football game on mute. @hsc_southbound Publix Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers. @juliemerendino A three-well slow cooker for keeping several sides warm. @johnetteh Polish grandmother’s antique silver. Cindy Lawson DeVore Cajun fried turkey. Beverly O’Hanlon Bourbon. Casey Armanino Reservations. Sarah Hunter ILLUSTRATION BY…

The Many Faces of Ray McKinnon THERE MAY BE NO MORE VERSATILE A SOUTHERN ACTOR, WRITER, AND DIRECTOR THAN THIS SON OF GEORGIA By Tommy Tomlinson Styling by Tanya Gill/ICONHOUSE; grooming by Andrea Pezzillo for Exclusive ArtistsPHOTOGRAPHS BY AUSTIN HARGRAVE INTERVIEW On film, Ray McKinnon has punched out George Clooney (in O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and been outcoached by Sandra Bullock (in The Blind Side). On TV, he played a doomed preacher on Deadwood and a crafty U.S. attorney in Sons of Anarchy. In real life, he owns an Oscar for The Accountant—a short film he wrote, starred in, directed, and coproduced—and a Peabody for Rectify, the TV series he created about a man wrongly imprisoned for nineteen years who returns to his hometown and tries to start over. That…