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.
September 21, 1940 • This recipe comes from columnist Carol Dare’s neighbor — sort of. Dare asked for the recipe after she smelled the chowchow cooking next door, but the man simply informed her that he “cut up cabbage until he was tired” and “cut up green peppers until he cut his finger and then onions until his eyes started watering.” In regard to cooking time, “he cooked it until it was time to listen to his favorite news broadcast.”
Yield: 6 pints.
6 pounds Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 heads cabbage, finely shredded
4 large yellow onions, chopped
6 green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced
3 yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced
1 cup salt
½ gallon white distilled vinegar
6 tablespoons yellow mustard seed
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon celery seed
2 pounds light brown sugar
Place tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and bell peppers in a large bowl or food bucket. Cover vegetables with cold water. Stir in salt and let sit at room temperature overnight.
Drain the vegetable mixture in a colander and rinse well to remove salt.
Place vegetables in a large stockpot. Add vinegar, mustard seed, cloves, allspice, celery seed, and sugar. Cook on low heat for 1 to 2 hours.
— Recipe adapted by Lynn Wells
Memories of spuds are firmly rooted in one chef’s mind, just like the Watauga County potatoes she once unearthed.
The poignant voices of gospel music seem to rise from the soil of eastern North Carolina. The genre’s lineage is as rooted to the land as the crops growing in its fields.
In winter, when the weather is just right, water turns ethereally symphonic — if you stop to listen.
Far away from the summer buzz, Corolla quietens into a sleepy, seaside village during the winter. Here, on this strip of sand, visitors find themselves immersed in the northernmost reaches of our state’s coast, where the coldest season is a chance to celebrate solitude.
