Theodore Peed's Turtle Party: An article from Southern Cultures 18:2, Summer 2012: The Special Issue on Food

By Bernard L. Herman

'There's only one piece of white meat in him and that's his neck. The rest of the meat is dark meat. If you fry it, it's still like a white piece of meat, like a chicken breast. The rest of it looks like a chicken leg."

This article appears in the Summer 2012 issue of Southern Cultures. The full issue is also available as an ebook.

Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.

• Language: English
• Publisher: UNC Center for the Study of the American South
• Release date: May 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469600338

Bernard L. Herman

Bernard L. Herman is George B. Tindall Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies and Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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ESSAY

Theodore Peed’s Turtle Party

by Bernard L. Herman

There are no invitations to Theodore Peed’s turtle party, just a general awareness of the date and place and the understanding that family, neighbors, and friends inclined toward a game dinner are welcome. Snapping turtles are the big draw, and collecting enough for the event is a community project. The party is just my thing for my friends, he says. True enough, but it is also Peed’s celebration of community and his recognized place in it. Photographs courtesy of the author.

Two events mark the fall social season on the lower Eastern Shore of Virginia—H. M. Arnold’s Bayford Oyster House Bash and Theodore Peed’s Turtle Party. Venison barbecue anchors the late September menu at Bayford; an array of snapping turtle dishes, including fried turtle with 50 weight gravy, tempt the attendees at Peed’s. Potluck dishes, savory and sweet, supplement the spread. For several years the two events occurred on succeeding weekends, but the stamina required for attending both, much less hosting them, exceeded the energies and dedication of all but the passionately committed. Eventually Arnold and Peed, longtime friends, agreed to a longer recuperative interval. On a bright, warm, windy morning in the changing days of mid-October, 2010, and three weeks after the Bayford Bash, Peed and his family were deep into turtle party preparations.

Theodore Peed is a generous and impressive man with an operatic laugh. Lean, muscular, and energetic, he moves easily through cooking tasks. His salt-and-pepper hair and beard lend him a patriarchal air, and he speaks with a voice to match—a richly deep and rumbly voice that resonates part growl, part oratory. Everything I do is simple, he says. You don’t need to be fancy just to cook good. Peed savors big flavors, too. Recalling the longed-for taste of bitter greens, he declares, "That first bite will knock