Related: Read about the history of hoop cheese, and how to make your own slightly fancy grilled cheese.
Mike Pate bought some peaches with his fourth and final $158 paycheck from Dixie Yarns cotton mill and turned it into $300 in two days at his own makeshift farm stand, a station wagon borrowed from his dad’s car lot, parked at an intersection. Today, his business has grown into an indoor market/outdoor nursery with plants, homemade cakes, a hot bar, an in-house butchery, and staples like bread and cheese — including hoop.
6411 Raeford Road
(910) 426-1575
patesfarmmarket.com
A lot of folks in the Trinity community grew up shopping at Trindale Foods, familiarly called “the little store.” When owners Jeremy and Amanda Shelar purchased the business in 2024, they accented the interior with sheets of metal from the roof of a 100-year-old tobacco barn and added decorative antiques and traditional foods like hoop cheese to replicate the feel of an old general store.
11143 Archdale Road
(336) 431-3044
facebook.com
At Stone Bros. & Byrd, owner George Davis displays the original slicer used to cut hoop cheese when the store first opened 115 years ago. photograph by Alex Boerner
Opened in 1910 as Byrd Bros., this garden store still displays its original hoop cheese cutting board, patented in 1905. “It was nothing more than a scale,” owner George Davis says, “where you could put a roughly 22-pound hoop of cheese on it and follow the scale, and it would tell you how much you were cutting pretty accurately.”
937 Washington Street
(919) 682-1311
stonebrothers.com
When you see three cows made from 5,000-gallon milk tanks in downtown West Jefferson, you know you’ve arrived at Ashe County Cheese. After picking up hoop cheese, squeaky cheese curds, and other goodies inside the shop, visitors can watch cheese being made from the viewing room at North Carolina’s oldest and largest cheese manufacturer.
106 East Main Street
(336) 246-2501
ashecountycheese.com
The fourth-generation family market opened in 1938 on North Main Street in Kernersville. Today, John Crutchfield focuses on North Carolina-made products — like Homeland Creamery milk and ice cream and Chad’s Carolina Corn popcorn — and house-made products, like their own pimento cheese.
245 North Main Street
(336) 993-3434
mustenandcrutchfield.com
The influence of a mother’s love — and sometimes her recipes — can be found in restaurant kitchens and on plates in dining rooms across North Carolina.
The oldest hotel in North Carolina was saved from the wrecking ball and has returned to its former glory on the square in downtown Burnsville.
For one family, summiting Stone Mountain is a tradition that strengthens the bond between parent and child.
When a young chef met an aspiring farmer, the two formed a friendship as strong as their love of the land and all it provides.
