.c. ps LEARBpous Food and Foodways Spring 2007 Produced by the North Carolina Museum of History On the cover: Soldiers from anti-aircraft artillery school get read)' to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at North Carolina's Camp Davis during World War II. Right: Pieces of Russel Wright's American Introduction: Dig in to North Carolina: A Culinary Modem dinnerware used in North Carolina. Made in 1939-1959, the pattern (considered radi¬ North Carolina’s Food 3 Crossroads cal for its time) became a national best seller. History by Amy Rogers Major department stores and ad campaigns featured it. Buyers chose from a rainbow of by Nancie McDermott colors and packaged sets designed for bridge L clubs, barbecues, children, and more. Images Your Food Has 1 courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of History. 5 Ancestors, Too HTrnnmi State of North Carolina by Kay K. Moss Michael F. Easley, Governor 4^ Menu of North Carolina Food Facts Beverly E. Perdue, Lieutenant Governor When Dinner Wasn’t Discovering What Native Department of Cultural Resources Quick and Easy 9 Lisbeth C. Evans, Secretary 11 North Carolinians Ate Staci T. Meyer, Chief Deputy Secretary by Courtney Hybarger by Dr. Patricia M. Samford Office of Archives and History Jeffrey J. Crow, Deputy Secretary Shortages, Substitutes, and 10 Breakfast with the President Salt: Food during the Civil Division of State History Museums 14 by Shirley Forties Willis North Carolina Museum of History War in North Carolina Kenneth B. Howard, Director by Thomas Vincent Heyward H. McKinney Jr., Chief Operations Officer 17 William J. McCrea, Associate Director History' of Infant Feeding Take Your Pick of by Dr. Ruth M. W. Moskop and Education Section Melissa M. Nasea B. J. Davis, Section Chief 22 North Carolina Apples Michelle L. Carr, Curator of Internal Programs by Sheri Castle Charlotte Sullivan, Curator of 18 Outreach Programs and Media Coordinator by Kay K. Moss Tar Heel Junior Historian Association Challenging the Chain Suzanne Mewbom, Program Coordinator Stores 20 Paula Creech, Subscription Coordinator 25 by Teriell Finley by Dr. Lisa Tolbert Tar Heel Junior Historian Doris McLean Bates, Editor in Chief Jane S. McKimmon and 27 Lisa Coston Hall, Editor/Designer by EvelynRuth Ragan Nancie McDermott, Conceptual Editor 28 the Greening of North Carolina Tar Heel Junior Historian 31 Association Advisory Board by Louise Benner by Suzanne Mewbom Annette Ayers, Mary Bonnett, Cris Crissman, Elaine Forman, Vince Greene, Lisa Coston Hall, Jim Hartsell, Jackson Marshall, Suzanne Barbecue: Still Smoking 34 Mewbom, Charlotte Sullivan 32 after Three Hundred Years and Civil Rights Do you need to contact the THJH editor? by Debbie Moose by Nancie McDermott Send an e-mail to [email protected]. THE PURPOSE of Tar Heel junior Historian magazine (ISSN 0496-8913) is to present the history of North Carolina to the students of this state through a well- balanced selection of scholarly articles, photographs, and illustrations. It is published two times per year for the Tar Heel Junior Historian Association by the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-4650. Copies are provided free to association advisers. Members receive other benefits, as well. Indiv idual and library subscriptions may be purchased at the rate of $8.00 per year. © 2007, North Carolina Museum of History. PHOTOGRAPHS: North Carolina Museum of History photography is by Eric N. Blevins and D. Kent Thompson. EDITORIAL POLICY: Tar Heel Junior Historian solicits manuscripts from expert scholars for each issue. Articles are selected for publication by the editor in consultation with the conceptual editor and other experts. The editor reserves the right to make changes in articles accepted for publication but will consult the author should substantive questions arise. Published articles do not necessarily rep¬ resent the views of the North Carolina Museum of History, the Department of Cultural Resources, or any other state agency. The text of this journal is available on magnetic recording tape from the State Library, Services to the Blind and Physically Handicapped Branch. For information, call 1-888-388-2460. NINE THOUSAND copies of this public document were printed at an approximate cost of $5,865.00, or $.65 per copy. NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF C U LTU RAL PRINTED WITH RESOURCES o SOYINK Introduction 7 to North Carolina's Food History rowing up in North Carolina a few the docks to fill our coolers with shrimp, oys¬ years ago—okay, make that more ters, flounder, and clams. We loved doing than thirty years ago—I thought business with local fishermen who knew about food a lot. I loved to cook North Carolina's coastal waters well and from the time I was big enough to worked them with skill and care. About help my grandmother make bis- halfway home, we would pull over at a road¬ her Orange County farmhouse side stand to buy cantaloupes and bushels of kitchen. I learned early on that when life's big ripe, fragrant peaches. We ate a few peaches moments came along, food was almost right away, but most of them made the trip always part of the picture. home to be I remember eating fried chicken, deviled transformed into eggs, creamed corn, and coconut cake at our pies, cobblers, family reunions, and hot dogs with chili, slaw, and luscious and onions at the Yum-Yum restaurant when jam for winter¬ we drove from our home in High Point to time biscuit Greensboro for back-to-school shopping. breakfasts. Before I could spell the word kitchen, I knew Nowadays that barbecue came with hush puppies and our drive to that tea was supposed to be iced and sweet. I the beach on knew that favorite sandwiches included Interstate 40 peanut butter and jelly, tomato, baloney, and goes quickly, pimento cheese. and we crank Autumn meant a camping trip to up the air- Doughton State Park or a drive along the Blue conditioning Ridge Parkway to enjoy the against the z™°3> :;:K; changing leaves. Riding heat. But the ^ofA^eZlTuS^ Collection' State NormcZZa home, we always stopped food story is to buy a jug of cider and a much the same. We still love going out for bushel of crisp apples for Calabash shrimp with tartar sauce, and we snacks and pies. still buy glistening, fresh seafood from Tar Summertime meant a vaca¬ Heel boatmen. My friend Fred Thompson— tion on the North Carolina who writes cookbooks and a weekly column coast. Back then, a beach for the News and Observer in Raleigh—consid¬ trip from High Point took ers North Carolina's seafood industry to be This blue metal Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox dates hours in the backseat of a one of its treasures and calls our state's fisher¬ from 1948-1955. Do you hot car with the windows men the last in the long tradition of hunters carry your lunch to school? Image courtesy of the North rolled down to catch the and gatherers. Their equipment and methods Carolina Museum of History. tiniest breeze. The heat did¬ combine old wisdom and tradition with mod¬ n't bother us a bit. We were ern technology and skills. Many follow a path looking forward to eating a picnic on the way learned from their parents and grandpar¬ and to feasting at the Sanitary Fish Market ents—knowledge gained from a lifetime of and Restaurant in Morehead City during our "reading" the waves and harvesting the stay. Before heading home we would stop by bounty from coastal waters. *Nancie McDermott is a food writer and cooking teacher whose new cookbook is Southern Cakes. Born in Burlington, THJH, Spring 2007 raised in High Point, and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she is a former middle school language arts and social studies teacher. A member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and resident of Chapel Hill, she served as the conceptual editor for this issue ^Tar Heel Junior Historian. Visit zviuw.nanciemcdermott.com. North Carolina's tables engines ready to roll out and help their neigh¬ have gotten bigger and bet¬ bors. On New Year's Day, I can go to Mama ter since I was a fourth- Dip's Kitchen in Chapel Hill to savor Mildred grader eating fish sticks on Council's traditional good luck meal of roast Fridays in the Tomlinson pork, black-eyed peas, and collard greens. She Elementary School cafete¬ cooks this meal in celebration of the ria. Today's Tar Heel Emancipation Proclamation that ended slav¬ kitchens serve up a feast I ery on January 1,1863. Born in Chatham could not have imagined as County, Council has a restaurant, mail-order a child. Thankfully, I still food business, and two best-selling cookbooks find many of the traditional that have made her famous. At Chinese New foods with deep roots in Year in February, I can sample noodles, our first two centuries as a dumplings, and fried rice at a community state. Mixed in is a deli¬ celebration at the State Fairgrounds in cious array of new foods, Raleigh. Friends who are Jewish share honey introduced by people who cake at Rosh Hashanah, the celebration that have come from other calls for eating sweet foods to set the stage for places to make North Carolina their home. a sweet year to come. In October I can eat Back in elementary school, I didn't know bread baked in celebration of Dia de los much about pizza, lasagna, submarine sand¬ Muertos at my local Mexican bakery. At the wiches, or smoothies. I loved spaghetti and end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of macaroni but hadn't heard of their Italian fasting and prayer, I can join my neighbors cousins: fettucine, linguine, or the fresh basil from Pakistan at a joyous feast of Eid al Fitr.