My friend Jessica and I had the opportunity to teach a letterpress class at Penland last year. For one glorious week we got to immerse ourselves in Penland’s unique studio culture. Somehow these folks seem to have figured out the secret to bringing out an artist’s best work.

Step one: put them in a beautiful, rural setting (with spotty phone/wifi so as to avoid distractions).

Step two: provide them with top-notch studio equipment—

—and lots of work time to get sucked into the deep end.

Step three: take care of their basics human needs.

Room and board are part of the deal at Penland—but while the housing is simple and spare, the food sure ain’t. I wrote “three squares a day” in my sketchbook, but it’s really more like “three dodecahedrons a day.” Just like a hearty meal might sustain a farmer on a harvest day, I think the secret to creative genius might just be a piping hot bowl of cheese grits and a dish of apple Brown Betty.

This Yankee is here to tell you: you can’t beat Southern cookin’ for surviving a long day in the studio.