- The carefully curated food trail showcases the traditions and flavors of the Mississippi Hills while connecting people to the community and supporting sustainable agriculture.
The Federal government has designated places where historic, cultural, and natural resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape. Unlike a national park, National Heritage Areas (NHA) are large populated landscapes. NHAs collaborate with communities to highlight local interests, including the region’s historical sites, as well as the needs of communities, making heritage relevant to today’s world. There are 55 designated National Heritage Areas in the United States.
One of those is the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area, which represents a distinctive cultural landscape in 19 northeastern counties in Mississippi, as well as portions of 11 other counties at the intersection of Appalachian and Delta cultures.
For food lovers and travelers, the Mississippi Hills Farm to Fork Foodie Trail will lead you on a delicious journey through the area’s best food destinations, from farmer’s markets to charming cafes. With the belief that food is the best way to experience a new place, the carefully curated food trail showcases the traditions and flavors of the Mississippi Hills while connecting people to the community and supporting sustainable agriculture.
From the most authentic local cuisine prepared by country cooks, skilled chefs, and artisanal producers, the Foodie Trail will take culinary adventurers from street food to fine dining. But the food is just the vehicle to learning and experiencing the history, traditions, and even the techniques of how the food you are eating is made. In visiting the many local markets and shops, you will discover interesting ingredients and products that are unique to each place.
Plan plenty of time to travel the Foodie Trail, as there are many interesting stops along the way.
For example, Daisy’s on the Square in Houston not only serves as a coffee shop and diner, but as an upscale restaurant on the weekends that serves steak and seafood. It is also home to a bed-and-bike hotel.
Southern Cultured Creamery in Pontotoc is a local, on-farm creamery that sells non-homogenized cream-top milk and artisan cheeses from happy cows.
At Hickory Heal Farm in Houston, medicinal herbs, teas, veggies, are grown and livestock including pastured chickens, pigs, sheep, mini and full-size jerseys, and grass-finished cattle is raised.
Hickory Heal Gardens, located on the farm, is a native woodland plant sanctuary of the United Plant Savers Network, with the purpose of protecting, educating, and reestablishing medicinal plants in Northeast Mississippi. The owners of the farm aim to feed their family, friends, and neighbors mentally, spiritually, and physically with good things.
Neon Pig in Tupelo is an old-school butcher shop, a fresh-never-frozen seafood shop, a food bar, and they have one of the best craft beer selections in Mississippi. Each week they butcher a whole cow from Homeplace Pastures.
Neon Pig strives to bring old-fashioned goodness back into the food industry – with homemade, handmade, house-cured meats.
Commodore Bob’s Yacht Club in Starkville’s Cotton District is an upscale restaurant, described on their website as “the kind you would expect to find in some ritzy urban setting.”
Owner Brady Hindman describes it as a “contemporary style restaurant that focuses on elevating casual cuisine to a higher standard, serving unique dishes using innovative recipes.” While he sources locally grown produce, Hindman’s place is anything but a standard meat-and-three.
Blue Truck Coffee in downtown Macon was founded in 2021 in an historic old service station. They offer a full line of specialty coffee drinks and breakfast including homemade yogurt, cinnamon rolls, kolaches, croffles, specialty breads, and stone ground grits from Kemper County’s legendary Sciple’s Water Mill.
Coffee and Cars is an event held the first Saturday of each month – folks can bring their vintage cars or trucks to display and enjoy fellowshipping with other classic car lovers.
That’s just a sampling of the many stops on the Mississippi Hills Farm to Fork Foodie Trail. See the complete list of Foodie Trail locations as well as suggested itineraries on the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area’s website.
Susan Marquez
