Stacy Lyn Harris
Southern lifestyle guru, television host, celebrity chef, best-selling author and speaker Stacy Lyn Harris
wants her readers to pull up a chair, hear some funny and poignant stories, and incorporate her unfussy,
delicious recipes into their special occasions and daily life. After all, like the title of her new cookbook
states, food is the “Love Language of the South.”
“I don’t go to my home and kitchen expecting perfection,” Harris writes in “Love Language of the South.”
“It’s simply the place I go to return to what matters most: my family, my faith, and spending my days at
home in the South. Time I spend cooking is time spent loving. And that’s why I call it my love language.”
In addition to being a best-selling author of three books and host of “The Sporting Chef” on The Outdoor
Channel, Harris is also the founder of the popular Stacy Lyn Harris blog. The Alabama native and mother
of seven has grown a following with her simple approach to sourcing and preparing meals – often
including wild game and ingredients from her garden.
Her philosophy goes back to her childhood and lessons her grandmother and mother reinforced about
food and connecting with people. Harris grew up with career-minded parents, so she has long known the importance of fast, accessible meals. Her grandmother always told her: “Food is more than just something to eat; relationships’ stick’ when built around a table of good quality fresh food.”
She got her law degree, got married and started practicing. Her new husband was passionate about
hunting, and Harris was anxious to find ways to connect with him and his hobby. She remembered her
grandmother’s words about food being more than a meal and her mother’s advice, “If it’s easy, maybe it
isn’t worth doing.”
His passion became her passion, and she took aim at discovering the most creative and tasty ways to
cook up her husband’s harvest. Harris experimented with ancient techniques to tenderize the meat and
make it succulent. She learned to utilize the meat in creative ways including her famous three-meat chili
and venison and wild boar tamales.
Harris never thought she would embrace wild game and fresh fish and remembering the early days of
her 30-year marriage is part of what inspired “Love Language of the South.” She knew the traditional recipes could be reimagined and elevated.
“Food prompted memories, and the memories prompted the food for the book,” Harris said. “It was a
chaotic organization that eventually fell into place.”
Chapters have titles including: Southern Hospitality; Farmers Markets and Backyard Gardens; Hunting,
Fishing, and Loving Every Minute; Carwashes, Cook-offs, and Potlucks; A Good Man Is Hard to Find; and
Banana Pudding and Pie: Reasons to Fight in the South.
Her writing and television career evolved with her family and their homesteading journey. Harris left her
job as a lawyer to raise her seven children, along with a garden full of vegetables and a few happy
chickens and bees. Her experience on the land led to an arsenal of information about wild game,
sustainability, cooking and gardening, which she shared in her first four cookbooks:
- Tracking the Outdoors In (2011)
- Wild Game: Food for Your Family (2012)
- Recipes & Tips for Sustainable Living (2013)
- Stacy Lyn’s Harvest Cookbook (2016)
- Gourmet Venison DVD: Tasty Field to Table Recipes (2013).
Publications spanning Southern Living and Healthy Living to Glamour featured her fresh, innovative
candid cookery. Harris’ wildly unique perspective, delivered in plaid and camo with a heavy splash of girl-next-door charm, scored her a hosting position on “The Sporting Chef” TV show. More than 2.4 million viewers tune in to watch her slice and dice their favorite ingredients and offer easy tips for approachable meals.
Dubbed “A New Breed of Cook” for cooking food that is natural, sustainable and delicious, her recipes
are described as “rustic and comfortable, but with a certain elegance perfect for entertaining.”
With multiple cookbooks and cooking shows celebrating Southern charm, lifestyle and seasonal, fresh
protein, Harris is just getting started bucking the ordinary.
She’s showing the world that Southern culture is more than bless your hearts with a side of sweet tea. It’s also a family Sunday dinner of crispy fried chicken with a side of caramel cake so simple that even her newlywed self could execute it to perfection.
They are, after all, recipes for a happy life.
The Homesteaders of America Conference 2024
TOPIC: TBD
Date: October 11th-12th, 2024
2024 Homestead Women’s Retreat
TOPIC: TBD
DATE: November 8-9, 2024