For nine decades, Our State has made its way into homes across North Carolina, the United States, and the world. To celebrate, every month this year, we’re paying tribute to the readers who inspire us, offering a taste of our earliest recipes, and revisiting old stories with new insights. Follow along to find out how our past has shaped our present.
All hail Ham and Faye Matthews, North Carolina cabbage’s best-known — and perhaps only known — ambassadors. In 1985, the Harnett County couple stirred the proverbial pot with Faye’s creative concoction of cabbage and, ahem, New Coke — pure blasphemy in the state that birthed Pepsi-Cola, but we’ll excuse it this time.
As usual, necessity was the mother of this invention. On July 17, 1985, Faye was preparing a pot of cabbage and needed to add liquid, but her foot was in a cast from an accident three months earlier, and the faucet was all the way across the kitchen. To avoid antagonizing her injury, she grabbed the nearest liquid she could find — a bottle of New Coke — and dumped it into the pot.
Not only did the soft drink eliminate the cabbage’s signature scent, but it also gave it an enhanced, fizzy flavor — the best cabbage that Ham had ever eaten, he claimed. “A good pot of cabbage with not a burp in the pot,” he told The State in January 1986.
Faye dubbed her creation “Mountain Caviar,” and the couple began traveling across North Carolina and Virginia, touting the cabbage-and-Coke recipe. Their pro-cabbage propaganda even earned them a letter of commendation from the state’s then-Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham, who praised their “superb efforts” as cabbage connoisseurs.
Of course, you can’t buy New Coke anymore, but Faye’s cabbage recipe would most certainly work with another soft drink. Perhaps Pepsi — we are North Carolina ambassadors, after all.
Tucked into a historic neighborhood, a backyard in Forsyth County holds hundreds of Southern wildflowers collected by one wild flower woman.
John Champlin has traveled across the state — and the nation — in search of hard-to-find spots that serve an unforgettable hot dog. After 11 years, what he’s discovered goes way beyond the bun.
In the early 20th century, textile mill owners sponsored baseball teams, providing entertainment for their employees and nurturing a passion for the game that’s been handed down through generations of North Carolinians.
Our writer reflects on where his love of vinyl began, and how the snap, crackle, and pop of a needle sliding across a turntable will always satisfy his soul.
