by Jefferson Currie II

You see, David Cecelski was supposed to go down to Lumbee Homecoming with me, because I over-researched my final paper in his class last fall. The paper showed up little late and now I owe him a trip to Robeson County. Since David, in his words, “punked out” on this trip, you’re stuck with me. I hope you enjoy it.

Lumbee Homecoming is held on the weekend around July 4^th in the Robeson County town of Pembroke, in Southeastern North Carolina. Although “homecoming” is held near Independence Day it’s not solely a celebration of our nation’s birthday. Homecoming is kin to the church tradition, a time when Lumbee and Tuscarora Indian folks who stay off, like me, come back to visit their mamas, daddies, grandmas, granddaddies, cousins, and friends. The festivities run throughout the week with an art auction, the Miss Lumbee pageant, and a golf tournament, but this year the real action began at 10 AM on Saturday, July 5^th, with the parade. Since my crew and I left the house a little late we slid down a back street and parked in the ABC store parking lot, and walked up towards the center of Pembroke. The parade was just getting started and we were in time to see the Florence, South Carolina, Shriner clowns, local politicians in SUVs, Indian pageant princesses in convertibles, and Lumbee tribal leaders on floats. People shouted up at the floats to friends and cousins while they rolled by at a crawl, and everybody seemed to clap and show their respect when a float carrying military veterans passed. My favorite part of the parade was the Lumbee Legends rap group booming their latest song from a tricked-out SUV, followed up a few minutes later by the gospel sounds of the band from the Rock Church. After the parade, we circled back around town and moved the car over to the Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot.

At Lumbee Homecoming, there is a powwow over on the quad at UNC-Pembroke, where you’ll also find the Museum of the Native American Resource Center, housing exhibits about the history of the Lumbee community and American Indians in general. My group and I walked up Prospect Road and by the massive show of classic cars, lined up with their hoods open for engine gawkers. Booths were set up all over town with people selling things like Harley Davidson and Lumbee Homecoming t-shirts, hand-sewn throw pillows, hand-made hair bows, woven pine needle baskets, and carved bread bowls. We headed over to Beadz & More and bought a bracelet for a three-year old with a dollar burning a hole in her pocket, and the Committee to Re-Elect Judge Jeff Moore knew our blood sugar was low and offered us a free bottle of water and a cupcake. Lavender Locklear thought she could eat it all in one bite (see picture), but I was a little clumsy and fed most of mine to the fire ants.

That cupcake just made me mad so I threw young Lavender on my shoulders and walked over toward the Lumbee Regional Development Association offices, where people were set up in tents and trailers selling all sorts of local goodies. Lumbee folks eat what everybody else eats in Southeastern North Carolina and Northeastern South Carolina: Southern fare like pork barbecue, chicken and pastry, potato salad, and cream corn accented with a couple of regional dishes like pork liver hash and chicken bogg. Now, I didn’t see any liver hash, a dish of minced pork liver and rib meat seasoned with black and crushed red pepper, but I don’t see it much these days. I guess that one day I’ll have to figure out how my Aunts Alice and Nurze used to make it so good. I did see chicken bogg, and that’s some fine eating. A bogg is chicken, rice, smoked sausage, and some spices cooked down to a bog consistency—you know kind of thick. And it’s yellow, BRIGHT YELLOW. Somehow, most of my early memories of eating chicken bogg are associated with death. Mr. J. C. Locklear would always bring a big pot over to my family’s house when somebody died, and I remember sitting with a bowl of bogg on my lap feeling more content than the situation allowed. But I didn’t come to homecoming to eat chicken bogg. I came for something that is so local that I’ve never seen it unless a Lumbee was making it, in Robeson County. I came for the collard sandwiches.

I don’t know exactly how collard sandwiches got their start, that’s all legend these days anyway, but I do remember the first one I had at the Lumbee Fall powwow a few years ago. I was so excited that someone had the vision—and it had to be some kind of vision—to combine three of my favorite foods: collards. fried corn bread, and fatback/whiteside. Wow! Think of it; what is the South, what is my childhood, but endless meals of greens, corn, and pork?. And with the invention of the collard sandwich, why would I ever have to eat another meal, ever again? Give me some blackberry or peach cobbler for dessert and some sweet tea to wash it down, and I got all my food groups covered. I scoped out all the booths that offered the collard sandwich and decided that the long line at Ms. Dorsey Hunt’s place with the big airbrushed sign advertising “Homemade Ice Cream, Collard Sandwiches and Chicken Bogg,” would offer up the best of Homecoming. I stood in line and paid my five dollars and was handed green and gold goodness wrapped in a tin foil pouch. And it was good: the two pieces of corn bread about the size of my hand were fried crispy on the outside and just soft enough on the inside. Sandwiched in-between were the juicy collards and a nice piece of fatback (on the bone). I devoured the sandwich.

I talked a while with the proprietor of the collard sandwich stand, Ms. Dorsey Hunt from the Prospect community, and she promptly introduced me to her husband, Mr. Glen Hunt.

Ms. Dorsey introduced me to the cooks, Willie F. Bryant Jr., Larry Barton, and Connie Ree Locklear, and the servers, Jackie Faye Locklear and Bettie Jo Barton.

Ms. Dorsey even threw in a hello from Arree Bryant, Carla Locklear, Jennifer Hunt, and Donavon Hunt, who were all working hard on this hot day taking and filling orders for the Homecoming crowd. Everybody was very gracious and I took a few pictures while we chatted about how folks outside of Robeson County have never heard of collard sandwiches. I’m sure glad I have. It seems that Ms. Dorsey has the collard sandwich, and will travel, to a fair or festival near you. If you want to know how to reach them, let me know. I’m sure they’d be glad to fill your belly like they did mine.

If you want to see a few more pictures of some food and fun at Lumbee Homecoming, check them out on flickr at, http://www.flickr.com/photos/28420620@N07/.

Photos by Jefferson Currie II

by David Cecelski

I don’t know why, but that heat wave last week made me want soul food something terrible. So one of those 100 degree afternoons I went looking for a plate of ribs or barbecued chicken, greens and cornbread. You can find good soul food all over Durham, but I went toward Fayetteville Street because there are just so many good choices there.

First off, on the way to Fayetteville Street, I stopped at Terry’s Country Kitchen at the corner of Cornwallis and South Roxboro. Terry’s has everything—plates of chopped barbecue, fried and baked chicken, meat loaf, pork chops, chitterlings, pig feet, ribs and all kinds of other down home specials. She serves them all with two vegetables (collards, cabbage, candied yams, fried okra, etc.) and hushpuppies or “flap jack” cornbread. She fries fish on Fridays and Saturdays and she calls her deviled eggs “angel eggs.” What’s not to like?

Only thing was, Terry and her crew decided that it was so hot—102 when I showed up—that they just couldn’t bear to fire up their ovens and fryers. They had only been serving sandwiches all day. I told Terry I’d see her some other time.

* * *

My next stop was New Visions of Africa, a Halal soul food joint at 1306 Fayetteville St., a block north of N.C. Central. At New Visions, I always like the chicken curry and the stewed goat, both of which are served with yellow rice and a choice of 2 vegetables. But again, I had no luck. When I got there, the café’s owner had decided that he just couldn’t take the heat any more. He was closing down for the day, maybe the week, he told me. He said come back late next week, when he’d have stewed goat again. I probably will, but I still needed my soul food fix for the day.

Downcast, but ever hopeful, I headed for The Know Book Store and Restaurant at 2520 Fayetteville. At last, people not afraid of the heat. The Know is a lovely place, full of great literature, community news and, right now, the city’s best collection of Barack Obama buttons and t-shirts. Presided over by the warm-hearted spirit of owner, writer and community activist Bruce Bridges, the little café has mighty fine soul food. Sitting at a table beneath posters of Malcolm X and Ella Fitzgerald, I reveled in a plate of barbecued beef ribs, collards and black-eyed peas.

The Know is a great spot for vegetarians too. The cooks don’t season their vegetables with pork and they have veggie burgers and other meat-free fare daily. You can also get fresh-squeezed lemonade and wonderful desserts, including some amazing banana pudding and Rhonda Muhammad’s bean pies. On Friday evenings, the Know also hosts live jazz acts in the dining room, hosted by WNCU-FM’s old jazz DJ and my friend from days long past, Larry Thomas. The Know is a sweet place, one where everybody will feel at home. On a hot summer day, it’s one of the places that make you love Durham.

* * *

Where would I have gone if the Know’s cooks had succumbed to the heat, too? On Fayetteville Street I’ve just scratched the surface when it comes to soul food. If you start at the south end of the street, by Hillside High School, there’s also the legendary Dillard’s Barbecue, home of a mustard-based barbecue sauce and a big buffet of soul food dishes. My favorite veggie special there: the carrot casserole. I could make a meal out of it. In business since 1962, Dillard’s is at 3921 Fayetteville St.

Moving north, you’ll hit Roy’s Country Kitchen, much beloved by the older set, and then, a block past the Stanford L. Warren Library, the Red Onion Restaurant (home, I hear, to some good poetry slams) and C’s Soul Food in the Phoenix Crossing Shopping Center, as well as probably half-a-dozen chicken and fish fry joints over the next 2 blocks.

Then, if you stay on Fayetteville St. past the Hayti Heritage Center (the old St. Joseph’s AME Church) and cross the Durham Expressway, you’ll soon find another place I love at the corner of Hood Street—J.C.’s Kitchen. The big mural on the side of J.C.’s says it all: “The Food is Sanctified, so you’ll know that you’ll be Satisfied.”

J.C.’s has everything—ribs, chicken, ox-tails, pork chops, etc. The only thing I’ve had there is the fried fish and grits for breakfast, an old dish that you can’t find just anywhere.

Another place I like way too much is next door at 102 Hood Street, between Fayetteville Street and Oldham Towers. Wingz and Things is a worth a visit just to spend a few minutes in the company of W.T. Wilkerson, the proprietor. W.T. calls all the ladies “Baby Doll” and brings a smile to everybody’s face. I love his soul food and street food—fried chicken, barbecue, fried fish, chili and hot dogs and hamburgers.

What really endears me to Wingz and Things is the way W.T. adorns his menu with people’s names. He’s got a special named after every one of his five daughters: Pet, Zora, June, Lexus and Tasha. But he didn’t stop with his daughters. You can also buy “Lucy’s Samosas” there—Lucy is W.T.’s ex-girlfriend. She’s from Kenya and she taught him how to make samosas. There’s also Jet’s Barbecue Sandwich—Jet is one of W.T.’s employees. (Check out the photo of him and W.T. in the window.)

Finally, there’s the “Boe Specialty”—a 5-piece chicken wing dinner. Boe apparently eats at Wingz and Things every day, so W.T. thought that he deserved a special named after him. The little note next to his special—“Eat like Boe, Look like Boe”—makes me want to meet Boe.

photos by David Cecelski

by David Cecelski

Tonight at our beaver pond my mother and I picked our first wild blackberries of the summer. We had been waiting for the berries to ripen for weeks. We were afraid that, once they finally turned black, the birds might get them all before we could eat any, but we needn’t have worried. The birds had mercy on us and the vines were laden down with sweet, delicious berries. We stood in the brambles and picked until we had scratches all over our hands and arms, but no regrets.

The blackberries at the beaver pond made me think of an old, traditional blackberry recipe that I first learned from Maude Ballance, a friend’s aunt and one of the finest cooks on Ocracoke Island. A couple years ago, she told me that, when she was a girl, there was a big blackberry thicket in a cow pen across from the Ocracoke Fire Hall. “You had to go in there,” she said, “and when you see the cows coming, you run.”

“We’d go blackberrying early mornings and get them and then we’d go home and wash them, put them in a pan and dry them out,” she told me. “Mama would take flour and water—you don’t put any shortening in your flour—and roll it out on a napkin. Then she’d take a handful of blackberries and put it in and roll it up. You could put them in a big pot of hot water and boil them for about 5 minutes or you could put them in the oven and bake them.”

“Then you make egg sauce to eat over them,” she said. “You take the white of an egg and beat it real stiff. Then you take the rest of the egg and mix it in. Sugar to your own taste, and [add] some vanilla flavoring, and beat it and it’ll be just as creamy and it’ll go over your dumplings.”

In the old fishing villages between Ocracoke Island and North River, blackberry dumplings are a quintessential summer delicacy. They’re still made today, though you do have to work a little harder to find blackberry thickets than you did when Mrs. Ballance was a girl.

Of the recipe’s origins, nobody is really sure. Generally speaking, Ocracoke’s cookery was shaped by long-forgotten trade routes and a self-sufficiency born of being located 25 miles off the mainland. In some of the island’s other recipes, you can taste the flavors of the English coast, especially Devonshire and Cornwall, where many of Ocracoke’s 18^th-century colonists first went to sea. Maybe that’s the source of blackberry dumplings, too.

by David Cecelski

One of my favorite fish markets is Tryon Palace Seafood Market in New Bern. I was there just yesterday. This little fish market is located in the shadows of Tryon Palace, the restored residence of one of our colonial governors, and just across an empty lot on the Trent River that used to be the site of the Barbour Boat Works, a shipbuilding company that made wood-hulled mine sweepers during the Second World War—wood hulled so that they would not set off the magnetic triggers on underwater mines.

With the historic district one block north, the downtown business district a block east and one of the state’s oldest public housing projects a block-and-a-half west, this little fish market gets customers from all walks of life. There’s also a senior citizens’ high-rise public housing project downriver a little ways. At lunchtime I like to watch the procession of sons and daughters bringing their mommas to Tryon Palace Seafood’s grill for a fried fish plate or a shrimp burger. I always seem to meet interesting people there.

Ed McGovern, Tryon Palace Seafood’s owner, is a former chart boat captain and commercial fisherman. He deals mainly in the bounty of the Lower Neuse River estuary. Right now he’s got crabs, shrimp, hogfish, croaker, perch, porgy (menhaden) and probably a few things I’ve forgot. He knows his suppliers. If Ed is out of, say, hard crabs, he’ll tell you, “Well, Jim’s checking his traps now. He’ll be here around 2—you want to come back then and see what kind of luck he had??”

The fish market’s fry joint is first class. Farris Slater is Ed’s long-time cook (see photo) and he turns out some real tasty plates and sandwiches—fried fish, shrimp, oysters, scallops, crab cake and soft-shell crab. This time of year, I always get the soft-shell crab sandwich. Nothing costs more than $7.00, and the to-go plates come with Cole slaw, French fries and hushpuppies.

* * *

While you’re in New Bern, you might want to visit a few of my other favorite local places: I love the New Bern Farmers Market and it’s only a short walk across the railroad tracks from the Tryon Palace Seafood Market. One of my favorite vendors there is an older gentleman who sells homemade chocolate-covered roast pecans and almonds. My momma, my wife and my daughter love them.

My other favorite is the produce booth run by Kelton and Vera Moore (see photo). The couple has a farm in Blounts Creek, in Beaufort County, and I buy their new potatoes and sweet potatoes every chance I get. The farmers market is located at 421 S. Front Street and is open Saturday mornings all year from 7 AM to 1 PM.

* * *

If you’re in New Bern this time of year—June or July—you might also want to drive across the Neuse River bridge and visit Nelson Blueberry Farms, a fixture in the little town of Bridgeton, on NC 17, since 1939. My father used to carry us to their pick-your-own fields when we were children, but they also sell large flats of blueberries for a reasonable price, $20 as of last weekend when I was there. Our elderly neighbors back home drive 30 miles to Nelson’s every summer, pick 70 to 100 pounds and freeze them to eat all year—and they’re not the only ones.

* * *

I also have a soft spot for two little cafes in New Bern. The first is the Cow Café, the little dairy shop owned and operated by the Maola Milk and Ice Cream Co., the local dairy since 1935. Billing itself as the town’s only “four hoof café,’ the café is a little kitschy for me, but my children loved it when they were little. We even celebrated one of my daughter’s birthdays there, probably when she was six or seven years old. The ice cream is good, but the cow-themed décor and souvenirs are over the top. Once located adjacent to the Maola dairy, the café is now downtown: 309 Middle Street. That’s only 2 or 3 blocks from the fish market.

Also in New Bern, I highly recommend The Food Palace Restaurant and Catering, a soul food café at 806 Queen Street. I love the ribs, the greens and pretty much everything else there. The proprietor, Barbara Lee, is a local civic activist, a long-time city councilwoman for the 5^th Ward, and president of the gospel choir at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. She’s also a great cook.

I’ll never forget how, when my father was dying, he was hospitalized for two or three weeks in New Bern. My mother wouldn’t leave his hospital room, so I’d stop by the Food Palace and pick her up a plate now and then so she wouldn’t have to depend on the hospital cafeteria food to sustain her spirit. I’d walk in and Ms. Lee wouldn’t even ask me what I wanted. She’d just hand me a plate and say, “That’s what your mama needs today”—and she was always right. Then, on the way out the door, she’d always call out, “I’m praying for your daddy, baby.”

I’m telling you right now—a 40-year-old man likes it when you pray for his father. He likes it when you call him “baby” too.

photos by David Cecelski

by David Cecelski

My mother and I were driving home from the farm this past Sunday. It was really hot, almost 90 degrees, and we were tired from the highway driving and all the beach traffic. We needed a break and something cold. As we drove through US 70 in Smithfield, the seat of Johnston County, we turned onto South Brightleaf Boulevard and there was an oasis in the desert: Hills of Snow, a snow cone shop in a giant blue, snow-cone shaped building in the corner of a fried chicken joint’s parking lot.

The line was long. Young and old, black and white and brown were all there, and you could immediately tell that Hills of Snow’s brand of snow cone resonates with traditional Latin American paletas and other fruit ices. The shop’s sign prominently advertised bola de nieve (literally “snow ball” in Spanish) and crema de nieve (“snow cream”), and a lot of the customers we met were Mexican immigrants. The whole town seemed to be there though, and everybody was enjoying a snow cone.

Hills of Snow’s menu lists 99 flavors and 10 sizes. The shop has everyday flavors like vanilla and strawberry, but also boasts exotic tropical fruit flavors, including guava, mango, papaya, passion fruit, guanabana and tamarind. There was something for every palate—spearmint, pear, blackberry, watermelon, butterscotch, peanut butter, and on and on. And a lot for the youngest set, too: tutti frutti, maraschino cherry, green bubble gum, cherry lime-aid and a whole lot more. I am still wondering what flavors called “Tiger’s Blood” and “Fuzzy Navel” taste like.

My mother and I got three #6s. They’re not the cheapest—that would be the 75-cent #4s. (They go up to #32 sizes for $5.00.) Our #6s—$1.25 each, the second smallest size—were just right for us. We shared a vanilla snow cream, a cantaloupe and a mango.

Our snow cones were spectacular: the ice was delicately shaved, not crushed, like most snow cones, and the flavors were exquisite: the essences of mango and cantaloupe. The best one, my mother’s vanilla snow cream, really did remind me of homemade snow cream. They were so good that they made us forget the heat, the long drive, and our weariness. We sat in front of the shop and watched little children splashing water in a fountain and we slowly savored our snow cones, an unexpected mercy on such a hot day.

In addition to Hills of Snow’s regular flavors, there are 5 sugar-free flavors (cherry, grape, peach, pina colada and strawberry) and 9 snow cream flavors, including Dreamsicle Snow Cream and Wedding Cake-N-Cream. The snow creams are 50 or 75 cents extra, depending on the size. For 75 cents extra, you can also get a choice of 3 snowball toppings—Eagle Brand condensed milk, marshmallow crème and whipped crème.

PLACES TO VISIT NEARBY: Millie’s Hot Dogs, directly across the street. Take-out hot dogs, hamburgers and country cooking plates. Also, the Ava Gardner Museum, just around the corner at 323 E. Market St. Dedicated to the Hollywood starlet who grew up on a tobacco farm in Brogden, 8 or 9 miles southeast of Smithfield.

photos by David Cecelski

by David Cecelski

These are photographs from a school field trip to Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove. I was just chaperoning the trip for my friend Bob Robinson’s class of sixth graders, but I ended up weeding an asparagus bed, picking garlic and killing potato bugs. On a lovely spring morning, I thought it was the loveliest place in the world, just so green and fertile and well taken care of.

The garden is located on Lonesome Road, a mile or two out of the little community of Cedar Grove in northern Orange County. Frank Bahnson, a former Duke Divinity student who is the garden’s manager, told the children that the garden started with a murder, the shooting of a local storekeeper. That murder shocked the little rural community. It led to a prayer vigil in the parking lot at the Cedar Grove United Methodist Church, where a hundred people prayed for healing and unity and did a lot of talking about how to restore a sense of community to Cedar Grove.

That was three years ago. Today Anathoth Community Garden is the embodiment of that yearning for community healing that was first expressed at the prayer vigil. What began with a death has become a garden. Life out of death, the heart of the New Testament. Sponsored by the Cedar Grove United Methodist Church and located on 5 acres of land donated by a local African-American woman, the garden is run by approximately 80 members who each commit to working several hours a week in exchange for a share of the produce raised in the garden.

Anathoth is more than a gardening cooperative though. The gardeners carry fresh vegetables to local people, mostly the elderly, who might otherwise go hungry. They hold workshops on organic gardening, stewardship and other gardening topics. And there seems to be a job there for everyone—church members, old local families, new Latino residents, students from N.C. State and Chapel Hill. Most help in the garden, but some also helped build greenhouses or the new children’s playhouse. One group of local church women has also been constructing a nature trail on the edge of the garden. They adorned the trail with native plants rescued from construction and clear-cutting sites where they would have been destroyed. Again, life out of death.

Anathoth also hosts interns, lots of church groups, and students of all ages, from those in pre-school to those in divinity school. All are given a chance to explore the Biblical call to stewardship of the Earth and to discover how to grow food in a way that strengthens their connection to the land, to the community and to God.

A big believer in learning by doing, Frank Bahnson puts them all to work. He had our 6^th graders doing everything from turning compost to picking strawberries. While we were there, a vanload of folks from a local group home came to help out too, something that they do twice every week, so we also got to visit with them a little bit. Frank and the garden’s interns rewarded the children with strawberries—the sweetest ever—and freshly-picked garlic bulbs to take home.

To learn more about Anathoth Community Garden, check out its web site, www.anathothgarden.org.

by David Cecelski

To the Hardee’s Bunch—Carl Allen, Sid Baker, Truitt and Georgia Blackwood, Harper and Mary Bloodworth, Eugene and Barbara Elliot, Ed and Ann Evans, Ralph and Chris Hayes, Ruby Hicks, Ray and Christine Howard, Jimmy and Millie Ingold, Lewis and Joyce Luxton, Al Mann, Willard and Ruby Mize, Roger and Inez Pendergrass, Harold and Francis Pickett, Alfred Poe, Earl Puckett, Emmit Rheu, Rev. Everett and Oma Lee Smith, Selma Stone, Marguerite Ward, Herman Wilkins and Marvin Winstead.

My neighbors, Roger and Inez, got married at a Hardee’s. Until I heard their story, I had never really considered Hardee’s one of the more romantic places in town, but now I know better. Turns out that you can say a lot of bad things about fast-food chains, but you can’t say that they’re strangers to neighborliness or community or love.

At the time of their wedding vows, Roger was 80 years old to the day. He had lived in the Lakewood neighborhood in Durham all his life. He grew up on Chapel Hill Street, near the end of the city’s first trolley line. When he was a boy, his first job was at the Lakewood Amusement Park, “the Coney Island of the South.” There you could find carousels, a roller coaster, swan boats, arcades and a casino, all where Lakewood Shopping Center is now. That first job, by the way, was re-setting the pins at the park’s bowling alley, a task that was done by hand in those days.

Roger worked at the Wilmington shipyards during the Second World War. When he returned to Durham, he made a living as a milk deliveryman for the Long Meadow Dairy, then as a butcher and yardman. Roger had a job every day of his adult life, he’ll tell anybody. He believes in working hard, working steady, and John Deere machinery. Roger also takes pride in a job well done and he believes in helping his neighbors. I know that firsthand.

Roger and his first wife, Frances, were married 46 years and raised 3 children together. He lost her to cancer in 1986.

Inez was a country girl from Johnston County. Like so many others, her family moved to Durham to work in the tobacco factories during the Great Depression. They brought country ways with them. They kept a big garden, canned fruits and vegetables, pickled cucumbers and made biscuits. She started working at the American Tobacco Company in 1939 and retired from the company 38 and ½ years later.

Inez and her first husband, Fred, were married 46 years. She lost him to a cerebral hemorrhage in 1990.

Time passed. After they lost their spouses, Roger and Inez went through a lot of mourning and loneliness. Then, one day in 1993, eight years after his first wife died and four years after her first husband died, Roger asked Inez out to dinner. At first, she was reluctant. She had not dated since Fred’s death and she was 75 years old. Roger was 76, but very, very persistent.

Roger and Inez weren’t strangers. They had known one another for half a century. The Lakewood neighborhood was small. Nearly everybody knew everybody else. Roger’s home was only 2 blocks from Inez’s. And they both belonged to the Lakewood Baptist Church, a short walk from both their homes.

Their first date was dinner at a restaurant in Roxboro. Eventually, Roger accompanied Inez to breakfast at the Hardee’s on Chapel Hill Road now and then. She had started going there after her husband passed away. Every morning at 7 AM, except Sunday, she and a few neighbors walked the mile and a half to Hardee’s to visit with a regular crowd of friends.

Over the years, the “Hardee’s Bunch” included more than thirty people, though most mornings the crowd was closer to 15 or 20. Some of them had worked at American Tobacco with Inez. Some were neighbors. Some attended Lakewood Baptist. For most, it was just nice to be around folks, who, as they say, “spoke the same language.” Some came into their 90s.

At first, Roger only came occasionally. He was still mowing yards all over that side of Durham and he liked to get an early start. But Hardee’s was a good place for him and Inez to spend time together and he eventually became a regular.

Over coffee and biscuits, Roger and Inez and their friends talked and laughed and told stories. They shared news about children and grandchildren, who was in the hospital, and the state of the nation. On birthdays, they always brought a cake and had a little party. They kept it up for years: five or six days a week, 52 weeks a year.

One thing led to another. Before long, Inez found herself getting married in the place where she and Roger saw their friends and had spent so many good times together—Hardee’s. It was New Years Day, 1998, Roger’s 80^th birthday. Inez had prepared a birthday cake for Roger and brought it to Hardee’s that morning.

Inez didn’t know it, but Roger had been making plans for more than a birthday party. The day before, he had bought a wedding ring from one of the Hardee’s Bunch, Marvin Winstead, a co-owner of Lambert Jewelers. He had their old minister, Rev. Everett Smith, one of the Hardee’s regulars, ready to do the service.

Next thing they knew, Roger and Inez were exchanging wedding vows. They said their “I do’s,” they kissed, their friends cheered. There was biscuits, coffee and birthday cake for all. They had already lived good, long lives, but many years of Hardee’s breakfasts still lay ahead of them, though of course they didn’t know that at the time. Now Roger is 90 and Inez is 89 and, honest to goodness, they are living happily ever after.

by David Cecelski

The glory of Carolina Beach is its old boardwalk. It’s a romantic place, where people of all ages share dreamy summer evenings. I was there last Saturday night and walked under a bright, near-full moon by the old arcades and pool hall, past the bumper cars, the Bingo parlor and the Methodist church’s puppet theater. I window-shopped at the t-shirt stores and poked my head into two of my favorite local bars, the Silver Dollar, there since 1956, and Loretta Guntner’s Surf Side, on the boardwalk since 1971.

According to legend, Beach Music was invented right there. As the story goes, in the late ‘40s, a local fellow named Chicken Hicks got tired of the music playing on the jukebox at the Tijuana Inn, one of the boardwalk’s dance halls. Chicken went over to Sea Breeze, the African-American beach resort just north of Carolina Beach. At that time, Sea Breeze was home to a dozen fish-fry and barbecue joints, a lot of them with dance floors and juke boxes. Chicken brought back a bunch of R&B records and the white folks at Carolina Beach went wild. Throngs of white beachgoers were soon crowding the Tijuana, the Plaza and other boardwalk clubs to hear the “new music” and to dance “the shag” to its intoxicating rhythms.

Though there is much lore and legend about the boardwalk, its heart is undoubtedly an unpretentious little donut shop. In business since 1939, Britt’s Donuts serves only one kind of donut, but they are absolutely irresistible—the best I’ve ever had anywhere. Always served fresh and hot out of the oven, the deliriously sweet glazed confections are made from a secret family recipe concocted by H.L. Britt, the donut shop’s founder. They just melt in your mouth.

Mr. Britt sold the shop to one of his former employees, Bobby Nivens, in 1974. Everybody agrees you’ll never meet nicer people than the Nivenses, and now a third generation of the family is running the shop and keeping Britt’s Donuts a Carolina Beach institution.

The other night, the whole town seemed to be there. A crowd of island kids had skateboarded up to the boardwalk for a Britt’s donut. Teenagers on dates were sitting at the counter. A few guys just off charter boats were in line, as well as a crowd of middle-schoolers fresh from a baseball game. An older island couple out for a stroll came by while I was there, and there was also an old couple from High Point introducing their grandkids to Britt’s for the first time, apparently continuing a family tradition.

You can join the crowd at Britt’s any time from 8:30 AM to 11 PM, 7 days a week. And while you’re there, be sure to look on the wall opposite the counter. You’ll find a photograph of Chicken Hicks.

photo by Vera Cecelski

by David Cecelski

It is May now and my thoughts turn to Currituck Sound and May peas. The mainland of Currituck County is one of the few places in the state where May peas are a highlight of gardening and cookery. The humus soils and gentle, coastal climate there make for good growing conditions for those tender and oh so sweet English garden peas that are only available for a few weeks this time of year. Old timers down there have been dreaming of them for weeks, and so have I.

The classic Currituck Sound way of preparing May peas is this:

Boil roughly equal amounts fresh May peas and very tiny fingerling new potatoes until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes. Use just enough water to cover the vegetables. A few minutes before the potatoes are done, add flour dumplings (flour, salt and water) and serve. The dumplings usually break up enough to make a nice gravy, though some cooks like to add a little flour or corn starch to the broth as thickener. Old-fashioned cooks often boil the peas and potatoes with a little ham or salt pork, which makes the dish a real centerpiece of a dinner.

Tommy Grandy, a Currituck County farmer and the local agricultural extension agent, used to run a produce stand at his and his brother’s farm in the Grandy community. The other day, Tommy told me that his May pea customers sometimes asked him if they could walk into the fields next to the produce stand and dig their own new potatoes. They were seeking the tiny, incredibly tender, thumb-sized new potatoes, smaller than any farmer would usually sell, to cook with their peas. They understood that the tenderness of both the May peas and potatoes is what makes the dish the stuff of dreams.

Asparagus also flourishes along Currituck Sound this time of year. Tommy, who is 62, told me that his mother often prepared asparagus just like she did May peas: she’d cut up the stalks, boil them with new potatoes, salt pork and dumplings and make almost a stew or soup out of them.

Asparagus grows so well in Currituck County that my friend Barbara Snowden often cuts asparagus stalks out of roadside ditches. A very gifted school teacher who retired a couple of years ago from Currituck High School, she told me that she often finds asparagus in ditches next to farm fields where it was once grown. She cut some asparagus out of a ditch just last week, she told me the other day.

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This time of year, you can usually find May peas and asparagus at a host of produce markets and farm stands in Currituck County. Most are located along the heavily-trafficked NC 158 corridor that brings beachgoers down from Virginia to the Outer Banks. Fresh May peas are just starting to show up at Tar Heel Produce in Powell’s Point, Powell’s Roadside Market in Moyock, and Morris Farm Market in Barco and probably others.

You can also find fresh, local May peas in the other counties north of Albemarle Sound—Camden, Chowan, Gates, Pasquotank and Perquimans. Here’s a list of produce markets and farm stands in those counties where you might find them. I’ve selected the most likely candidates from a longer list that was published last year by the Master Gardeners of Chowan, Gates, and Perquimans counties, in conjunction with the local N.C. State Cooperative Extension Service. Tommy Campbell, the Ag. Extension agent in Elizabeth City, sent it to me.

Before you go, be sure to call the operators. You don’t want to waste a trip if you have your heart set on a particular crop like May peas.

CAMDEN COUNTY

• Poor Boy’s Roadside- Linda Bray, (252) 338-0240, Belcross Road at Hwy158, Belcross, Apr.-Dec., Mon - Sat 9 am – 6 pm.

• Poor Man’s Fruits & Vegetables- Ed McPherson, 859 N 343, Camden, 771-8123, Self-Serve Honor Market.

• Southside Produce & Plants-Wayne Long, 102 Hwy 158 E, Camden, (252) 338-3099, Seasonal Mon-Sat10am-5:30pm, Sun1-5pm.

• Ward’s Greenhouse- Dustin Ward, 1375 N 343, South Mills, (252) 771-5211days, (252) 312-5008 evenings, Apr.-Sept., Tue-Fri 9-3, Sat 9-1.

• Williams Farm Market- Franklin Williams, N 343, South Mills, 8am-8pm (252) 771-2647.

CHOWAN COUNTY

• Edenton Farmers’ Market—South end of Broad St. near the waterfront, Edenton, (252) 482-3708. Every Sat morning, 8 am-12 am, April-Oct.

• Pigs Plus Farms - Louis W. Nixon, 311 Evans-Bass Rd., Edenton. (252) 221-8645, Apr. 20- mid.-Aug, Mon-Sat., 8 am-5 pm.

• Somerset Farm - Frederick & Jeannie Inglis, 5038 Somerset Lane, Edenton. (252) 482-2987. Mid.-Apr. - Oct., Wed. afternoons and Sat. mornings. (I know these folks—real good people. But be sure to call first to check availability.)

• The Garden Shack- Eddie & Dodie Evans, 930 Virginia Rd. (Hwy 32), Edenton, (252) 482-1100, Year round Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat 8 am- 4 pm.

• W. R. Bunch Produce– Joyce & Keith Bunch, 2833 Rocky Hock Rd. also at Hwy 32 S at Soundside Rd., Edenton, (252) 221-4594. Mid-May thru Thanksgiving, Mon. –Fri., 8:30 - 6, Sat., 8:30am-4pm.
  

GATES COUNTY

• Eason Farms- William Donald Eason, 311 Bosley Rd., Sunbury, (252) 465-8233, End of Apr. thru May. Call ahead for days & hours.

PASQUOTANK COUNTY

• Bright’s Delights Produce- Shel & Margaret Bright, 1156 US 17 S., Elizabeth City, (252) 338-6421, 9 am-5:30 pm Mon-Sat, year round.

• Brothers Farm Market- Bobby & Almarie Brothers, 1154 Perkins Lane, Elizabeth City, (252) 335-5760, Mon-Sat 8 am-dusk, Sun., 1pm-dusk.

• Once Again Collectibles & Produce- Ron & Melanie Boswell, 1673 Morgan’s Corner Rd., Elizabeth City, (252) 771-9950, Apr-Dec, Mon-Sat 9-7, Sun., 12-6 pm.

• Warrior’s Ridge PYO strawberry patch—Terry Cooper, (252) 338-1125 or 312-8671. Near the corner of Body Rd. and Nixonton Rd. Mid-May to early July. Call for days and times.

• Addie’s Acres— Jeff Spear, (252) 331-5871, 401 Jackson Drive (off of Main Street extended), Elizabeth City.
  

PERQUIMANS COUNTY

• Belvidere Berry Farm - Shelly Monnseratt & Michelle Sawyer, 1315 Belvidere Rd, Belvidere, (252) 297-9967, Mid-June –Sept., Mon. -Sat., 8 am-6 pm.

• Big C’s Produce - C. W. Overton, Hwy 17S at corner of E. Bear Swamp Rd., Hertford, (252) 333-5043, end of Apr. – Sept., 7days/wk, 10 am – 6 pm.

• Jesse Byrum’s Produce-Jesse Byrum, Located at Larry’s Drive In, Hertford, (252) 221-8634 after 8pm, Year round, weather permitting, Mon-Sat., 10 am-6 pm.
  
  
• Looking Back Farms/Perry’s Farm– Ken & Ben Haines, 589 Chinquapin Rd., Tyner, (252) 426-2218. Call for hours and availability.

• Mike’s Produce- Mike Rethford, Harvey Pt Rd, toward Albemarle Plantation about 2 miles on the left. Hertford, 426-7288, Year round, Tues.-Sat., 10 am-6 pm.

When I talked to Tommy Campbell the other day, he was especially excited about the recent opening of new produce market and pick-your-own farm not yet on the list. The new place is called Holly’s Melting Pot Produce and Market, and is located at 1668 Ocean Highway N. (Hwy. 17 N), next to Gospel Park, in Hertford, Perquimans County.

Tommy says that Holly Wang Riggs, a local farmer’s daughter, is highlighting traditional local vegetables and cooking, but also really emphasizes Asian vegetables and cuisine. She’ll be carrying May peas and May pea sprouts, a mainstay of much Asian cooking and a delicious addition to a salad, sandwich or stir fries.

Another good place to get May peas is the Pasquotank County Farmers Market, in Elizabeth City. The market is located downtown at 315 Pritchard Street and is open on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 8 am to 4 pm, from May to Christmas Eve.

Not very often, but now and then, you can also find May peas at local cafes. I’ve had some wonderful May peas and new potatoes at Johnnie’s on NC 158, near Sunbury, in Gates County, and Barbara Snowden says that, once in a blue moon, you can also find them at one of her favorite Currituck County restaurants, BJ’s Carolina Café, in Jarvisburg.

One last place I like to go for asparagus is Martin Orchard and Vineyard on Knotts Island. It’s out of the way, but worth the trip: you can take the state ferry from Currituck village to the island and see the sites of the grand old hunting clubs on Swan Island and Bell’s Island in the distance during the crossing.

Once you’re on Knotts Island, you can tour the Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge and visit the marshlands on the island’s north end. Both are great places for bird watching. The Martin Orchard and Vineyard, roughly 2½ miles from the ferry landing, is about the prettiest place on Earth: there are vineyards and peach and apple orchards and you’re right on the edge of Knotts Island Bay.

by David Cecelski

Yvonne Cecelski at Jean’s Berry Patch

My mother and I went looking for strawberry fields today. We found them at Jean’s Berry Patch, a pick-your-own farm in Chatham County. The fields were crowded with customers picking the ripe red fruit. We picked a bucketful in 20 minutes. My mother enjoyed being on a farm again. At times, she’d pause from her picking, stand up in the field and just breathe in the country air. Once, she looked out over the acres of red berries, the blue sky and, on the other side of the road, fields of light green spring wheat waving in the breeze. “It’s like a picture,” she said.

Ronald Copeland

After our berries were weighed and paid for, we crossed 751 and walked around Apex Nurseries, a venerable old plant nursery also owned by the Copeland family, the proprietors of Jean’s Berry Patch. Ronald Copeland, the company’s president, invited my mother and me to walk around the grounds. His grandfather, Dell S. Copeland, founded the nursery in 1918. At that time, the family lived in the Ebenezer community, 10 miles south, next to what is now Jordan Lake.

The Copelands moved the nursery to NC 751 in 1961. Today the business has 40 full-time employees and 70 acres of ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials. Jean, Ronald’s wife, started Jean’s Berry Patch, in 1980. They cultivate 8 acres of strawberries and Ronald Copeland, a perfectionist to the core, can talk all day about the right combination of fertilizer, soil, water and weather that it takes to make a sweet strawberry. And they are sweet this year, that’s for sure.

At Apex Nurseries, my mother and I walked across rolling hills of weeping willows, crepe myrtles, red cedars, Japanese maples, azaleas, irises, verbenas, phloxes, and hundreds of other beautiful plants. They nearly took our breath away. On our way home, we stopped by the company’s office to thank Ronald Copeland for letting us wander the grounds and we bought a bog sage and some brilliant red dianthus to take to a friend.

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Jean’s Berry Patch is located just off NC 751 on Lewter Shop Road. The farm’s web site is www.jeansberrypatch.com and the phone number is (919) 362-5800. Just look for the signs and the antique steam engine. There are probably a couple hundred pick-your-own strawberry farms in North Carolina now. To find one near you, check out the N.C. Ag Department’s “North Carolina Farm Fresh” web site at www.ncfarmfresh.com/farms.asp.

photos by David Cecelski