Stan Woodward returned to his home-state and to his family’s farming roots in Barnwell County to produce Barbecue and Home Cooking: Foods that make you Smile! for the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor (SCNHC). The SCNHC sought a way to provide heritage tourism in a four county farming region that offered visitors a direct experience with the folklife in the region. With family roots in this region, Stan suggested that the real treasure in the realm of folklife in the region were the folk heritage foodways dining sites that still flourished - homecooking and barbecue eateries where cooks were maintaining recipes and methods of cooking learned from ancestors who cooked in farm kitchens on wood stoves or in barbecue pits dug in the ground. A series of grants and sponsors made it possible to put in place one of the most comprehensive and well-documented folk heritage foodways projects in the United States. 

Working with folklorist, Saddler Taylor from the University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum, a folklife field research model was designed that would identify, authenticate and establish the existance of "folk heritage roots" at out-of-the-way dining sites in the four rural counties that make up Region 3 of the SCNHC - Aiken, Barnwell, Bamberg and Orangeburg. Traveling the two-lane farm roads with folklorist, Saddler Taylor, this documentary turned into a briskly moving and ever-surprising video journey for the viewer that makes you hungry and curious to meet the interesting people who live a rural life and enjoy the unbroken traditions and seasoning of local farm cooking that is still available at local eateries.  The result is a documentary that marks out a veritable folk heritage foodways "food trail" through the four-counties of Region 3 of the SC National Heritage Corridor.

Each tradition’s story and its special offerings were documented through the use of Mr. Woodward’s signature "first-person singular" style of hand-held, spontaneous camerawork, repeatedly taking the viewer into unexpected turns to end up in places pointed out as "the best" home cooking and barbecue eateries by local folks and the person at the gas pump. 

We drop in behind the scenes, getting up close and personal with owners and operators, cooks and customers to learn that what's on the buffet or menu and what dishes are deeply rooted in the folklife and foodways of the region's farm culture, kitchen wood stoves, and barbecue pits. Together, Saddler Taylor and Stan Woodward take us with them as they authenticate the stories of ancestral recipes, ways of spicing and cooking, and the inevitable "secret ingredients" that distinguish these restaurants as genuine South Carolina folk heritage foodway dining sites.

The documentary is complimented by a specially designed brochure with maps that help tourists locate the nearest South Carolina Folk Heritage Foodway dining sites to the stops and sites they plan to visit in Region 3. With these guides visitors to South Carolina and residents alike can discover one of America's most unique food trails with what amounts to "food museums" in a chain restaurant-dominated society. 

Original music by folk, blues and gospel musicians who perform in the SC National Heritage Corridor help make this video journey brisk and spirited.