Greenville Magazine Fall 2018

Greenville LIFE in the EAST

FALL 2018

Duplin Winery makes a splash in Rose Hill, NC

INSIDE:

The Hammock Source • Smashed Waffles • Duplin Winery • Clary Sage • First Flight Vodka

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Greenville: Life In The East

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On the cover

46 years.

3 generations.

450,000 cases of wine.

A sweet taste of eastern North Carolina Read more on page 20

contents Laidback 08 business 15

A smash hit

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Sweet success

30 Ready for 40 takeoff

Smells like money

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

Note from the Editor

Publisher John Cooke Editor Mackenzie Tewksbury Contributing writers Michael Abramowitz, Kim Grizzard, Ginger Livingston, Maya Jarrell Photographers Juliette Cooke and Molly Mathis Advertising managers Elizabeth Semple and John Powell Advertising representatives Katie Forlines, Kevin Gallagher, Christina Ruotolo, Alan Skirnick and Rubie Smith Creative Services Jasmine Blount, Brandi Callahan, Alex Ezzell, Jessica Harris, Tim Mayberry, Dawn Newton, Victoria Privette Layout Lora Jernigan and Samuel Alvarado

Greenville: Life in the East is a publication of The Daily Reflector and Cooke Communications North Carolina.

Contents may not be reproduced without

IN THE E D E A

Enjoy,

T AS

M

the consent of the publisher.

There’s a certain sense of pride I think that comes with where an individual is from. It becomes a part of who you are, understandably.

The people, places, and culture never really leave you, even if you leave them.

For example, I’m from Baltimore, Maryland. Well, right outside of Baltimore to be exact.

Or in other words, home of the self-proclaimed best Chesapeake Bay blue crabs, lacrosse and Michael Phelps. And berger cookies. And the Ravens, the Orioles — the list goes on.

But if you dove deeper, you’d find there are little pockets of hard working people who have created things they’re proud of.

In high school, I spent most of my summers working at a family-run snowball stand, which is a Baltimore summer staple. That family — who have owned the stand for nearly four decades — are some of the most humble, hard working people I know. They’ve built the stand from the ground up.

Also, if you open up your spice cabinet after reading this, I’d be willing to bet a lot of you have at least one product from McCormick Spices.

And if you do, do something for me: turn it around and look at the back of the label. What you’ll find is that it’s all made in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Boom! That’s where I’m from.

And just like most things, we’re proud of it.

The same can be said about North Carolina. From the outside looking in, it could be known as the state that produces delicious barbecue or where the Wright Brothers are from. But those on the inside know it’s really home to some truly impressive, creative and original products produced by loyal, hard working folks.

That’s why I’ve chosen to spotlight some of the things you can only find right here in our backyard in this magazine.

This is: Made In The East.

Mackenzie

M

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Greenville: Life In The East

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Fall 2018

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Laidback

BUSINESS Family provides hammock hub for the east

L

ife’s a beach for the Perkins family of Greenville, even this far inland. You could say Walter Perkins III learned how to swing through life from his father, Walter Perkins Jr., founder of The Hammock Source, the world’s largest hammock manufacturer.

Perkins, CEO of The Hammock Source, describes his father as “an entrepreneur on steroids.” Take his penchant to take things apart and rebuild them better for example. That’s what the Greenville native did more than 47 years ago when he was a tobacco buyer and his mother asked him to buy her a hammock for the family beach cottage while on a business trip to South Carolina.

“Dad thought, ‘Why should I have to travel all the way to South Carolina to get a hammock?’ So while there he bought two, one for the beach house and one to take apart so he could learn to make one himself,” Perkins said.

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

By Michael Abramowitz Greenville: Life in the East Photos by Juliette Cooke

The Hammock Source legend has grown since 1971 and the business has continued to expand in Greenville, based on the Perkins family reputation for quality craftsmanship and style. At its 280,000-square-foot plant, the company now manufactures five hammock brands, outdoor relaxation products, sturdy beach-style seating, tables and chairs and the founder’s prize discovery, the Real Deal Brazil Hat, a line of hats and bags handcrafted in a remote small town in equatorial Brazil from recycled canvas tarps that once stretched across the beds of cross-country cargo trucks.

The hat was immortalized by actor Woody Harrelson, who gave cool a new meaning when he wore one in the 2009 blockbuster movie Zombieland.

“My father always had new entrepreneurial ideas, finding ways to use our scrap lumber and other materials to make things like planters, dollies and other little products,” Perkins said.

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Greenville: Life In The East

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The company’s hammock collection includes Pawleys Island (the inspiration for the company’s first hammocks — Perkins bought the company and its brand in 1997), Hatteras Hammocks, Nags Head, Key West and Castaway hammocks, each with its own distinct style and appeal. The Nags Head line is sold from three retail locations along the Outer Banks.

The feel and allure of coastal life is woven and hand-crafted into their hammocks, adding a certain “panache,” as Perkins says, but they all originate in Greenville.

Walter Perkins

We’ve had good local employees and have been able to fly with them, so we’ve stayed right here in Greenville and the company grew up here.

“Greenville’s been good to us,” Walter Perkins III said. “We’ve had good local employees and have been able to fly with them, so we’ve stayed right here in Greenville and the company grew up here.”

Company president Jay Branch was a direct beneficiary of Walter Perkins Jr.’s entrepreneurial fervor.

“He once put an ad in the paper looking for cypress knees (the cone-shaped protrusions that form from the roots of the trees) to make lamps, and I had lots of them on our farm when I was a kid, so I contacted him. That’s how we first met,” Branch said.

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

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He has been with the Perkins family business 41 years and saw how the elder Perkins used the city’s employment resources to make his business thrive.

“In the very early years, Mr. Perkins hired students to work part time, when the factory was located on Clark street in the tobacco district,” Branch said. “That was our whole labor force at the time. We were afraid to move from that location at first because most of the students walked to work.

While a few ECU students still do seasonal work at the “new” plant, located on Industrial Drive north of the Tar River, most of the approximately 150 employees are a diverse array full-time craftspeople, women and men who spin, weave and texturize the durable synthetic rope (cotton is not the best material for rope used for outdoor furniture products) on which the hammocks and swings hang, manufacture stuffing for the mattresses and pillows they make from recycled soda bottles, fabricate wooden and steel hammock frames and custom-finish furniture pieces from “lumber” made from recycled milk cartons.

It’s a different kind of work than the scientific industries being touted for Pitt County, but just the same, capable workers are prized for growth in this kind of manufacturing, too, Perkins said.

“We’re a low-tech manufacturer,” Perkins said. “You don’t find many people who can weave and sew anymore, so we train them. I think we get forgotten in this

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

push for high-tech economic development growth. It’s great that so much is being done to attract all these high-tech businesses, but at the same time, more can be done to help manufacturers like us and marine manufacturers to get trained people.”

Jean Strickland, one of The Hammock Source’s veteran craftspeople, has been weaving hammocks and chairs for about 30 years and still loves her work.

“I’ll be here forever; I love it,” Strickland said. “I like to see people do things naturally with their hands rather than by machine, and I like training new people how to do this. It’s complicated to learn, but once you do, you love it. And it makes me feel good to know that people use these products to relax in.”

Perkins sells his hammocks on the global market and knows that shipping some of his manufacturing needs oversees could save the company expense,

Fall 2018

but won’t compromise the integrity of his products for profit.

“Our customers want American-made products with extremely high quality, and that’s what we produce here in Greenville, and we’ll continue to do that,” he said.

[Fun fact: At one time Hammock Source made a big killing in the pizza delivery bag business for the Domino’s Pizza company, when pizza delivery was still in its infancy, Perkins said. They dropped the line when the technology became easily reproduced.]

The company founder still comes to work filled with ideas and energy, but now leaves most of the leadership and operational responsibilities to his son and Branch.

“When he walks in for a brainstorming session, there’s no telling what direction it will take,” Branch said. “We have to stay focused and pick out the best ideas from among the hundreds he has.”

Greenville: Life In The East

“But they’re better equipped to understand today’s technology than I am,” Walter Perkins Jr. said. “They’ve grown up with it.”

Despite all the talk about rising sea levels and the possible loss of coastal land, Perkins and Branch don’t worry too much about the possible impact that might have on their business.

“There’s still going to be a coastline, no matter where it’s at or how it changes,” Perkins said. “I don’t think people will ever run from the coast. They might build in a new way, and we’ll be here to make something new for them.”

The company’s fascinating story and the full line of products available at The Hammock Source can be viewed at the website www.the hammocksource.com or call 252-758-0641 to speak with a company representative.

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Fall 2018

A

smash HIT

Two eastern NC men find success in untapped market

By Maya Jarrell Greenville: Life in the East Photos by Juliette Cooke

W

hen Hunter Harrison and Justin Cox met over coffee one night a few years ago, they intended to discuss app ideas, not come up with a new and innovative business model.

However, upon parting that night, the friends and colleagues had a plan to take the dessert market by storm with Smashed Waffles.

Hunter Harrison holds half a dozen Smash Waffles creations

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rison said. “You’ve just got to start it and see what it evolves into. At the very beginning, at the inception of the concept, we were almost anti-cafe. We were like ‘well let’s not do it with a restaurant, let’s just do delivery. That’s who we are and that’s who we will always be.’”

Now, however, the guys behind Smashed Waffles have come full circle and are hoping to open up two more cafes, one in Cary and one in Wilmington, by the end of 2018.

igh ale G

R

ordering them and we really had no means to fulfill orders. We were just trying to gauge the market and see what happens.”

From there the duo transitioned to delivering waffles out of a commissary kitchen. This turned into opening a food truck, which lead to opening their first cafe on Dickinson Avenue and then just recently opening their second cafe in Raleigh.

“I think ever ything about it has changed to a certain degree, and that’s really the case with most startups,” Har-

Greenville: Life In The East

n ree vil

le

“The conversation, in its origin, was about how we could take a restaurant or food concept, and bootstrap it, and start it with minimal money and just see what happens,” Harrison said. “We left that conversation that night and I said ‘I will go and try to create the branding and the online presence,’ because that’s what I had a little bit of background in. Justin left the conversation and went to create some recipes.”

After mulling over their respective tasks for about a week and a half, Harrison and Cox reconvened with five waffle recipes and a fully developed website.

“From there we had a fully functional website, we had a recipe, we had a brand, so the next step for us was to market test,” Harrison said. “We made up some waffles and went and delivered them to some local businesses. As soon as we dropped off the waffles at businesses people started

Fall 2018

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Although the business has grown and changed in many ways, Smashed Waffles has stayed true to the business philosophy that Harrison and Cox developed during that first week of planning.

“I think that anytime you start something like this you get a lot of demands,” Harrison said. “‘Hey, y’all should do smoothies,’ or ‘you should do different types of food,’ but really our philosophy on it is we want to be really really good at what we do.

“We feel like we’re really really good at waffles, and we went all in on coffee,” Harrison said. “We have really premium

18

coffee which we are able to trace the origin back to. Those are the two things that we’re focusing on. Really good waffles and really good coffee, and that’s who we are.

That’s our identity, and there’s no reason to be anything else.”

In addition to the opening up of more store fronts, another thing that has changed about Smashed Waffles is the environment that the very first cafe is nestled into.

“We signed a lease pretty early on to get on Dickinson, and a lot of people thought we were crazy, but we really saw a lot of opportunity,” Harrison said. “We went Greenville: Life In The East

down there, we looked at the space several times, and we looked at the area and said ‘ok, we know where it is now,’ but we saw where it potentially could be in the next 12 to 24 months, and we were willing to bet on that area.”

Smashed opened in 2016, making it one of the first store fronts to open up in the business renaissance currently going on on Dickinson Avenue.

“There were obviously a couple of other businesses already down there, but very few, and since that time it has really picked up,” Harrison said. “I would say that we are in a very small group of other Fall 2018

businesses that maybe ushered in a transition, and I’m hoping that it will continue to transition into something really special.

I think it has just as much opportunity, if not more, now than when we first looked at it.”

When Harrison and Cox first visited Dickinson Avenue they had a clear vision of the potential of both their business and Dickinson Avenue as a whole, and Smashed Waffles has certainly helped both of those visions become a reality.

“We envisioned kind of a young professional, fun culture that was a little off the beaten path to a certain degree, but just a had really cool vibe that the city needs,” Harrison said. “I’ve lived here my entire life, I’ve never left, which is really crazy to say, but I really wanted to help usher in what I would like to see for the area. It’s really starting to become what people like me and other people my age enjoy.”

Hunter Harrison presses waffle dough onto an iron as he prepares for customers

Bethany Maciaszek, General Manager at Smash Waffles in Greenville, adds sprinkles to the top of a Smash Waffle Ice Cream Sandwich

Fall 2018

Greenville: Life In The East

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SWEET

success One family’s fight to create one of NC’s largest wineries

By Mackenzie Tewksbury Greenville: Life in the East Photos by Molly Mathis

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

There’s an old, English saying: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

But some folks down in Rose Hill, North Carolina — a farmin’ town — beg to differ. They believe the true secret is grapes.

Muscadine grapes.

In the form of wine, that is.

You see, in 1996, a “60 Minutes” special reported that a glass of red wine is actually healthy for you.

Fall 2018

Greenville: Life In The East

Jonathan Fussell, a junior at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1996, was walking down Franklin Street when he spotted his father on the front page of The News and Observer.

“N.C.’s favorite grape may be good for the heart,” the headline read.

And just like that, Duplin Winery went from selling 8,000 cases a year in 1995 to about 18,000 in 1997, and about 300,000 in 2017.

It was truly what the Fussell family calls their “turning point.”

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TOWN

Rose Hill isn’t exactly a town you think of when you hear the word “tourist.” But, that’s exactly what it pulls in — over 200,000 visitors almost every year. A number that seems astronomical for the town that only 1,628 people call home.

“Welcome to Rose Hill. Home of the world’s largest frying pan,” a sign reads as you enter the town.

From Greenville, you’ll take Highway 13 towards Wilmington for about 80 miles.

You’ll likely pass signs promising a “cool, sweet, easy” experience in Rose Hill.

You’ll turn onto Main Street.

You’ll drive in from the town of Magnolia, and House of Raeford’s “Big Ed” will greet you as you drive. It looks like a skyscraper, but it’s a feed mill.

That’s when you know you’ve made it to one of the top agriculture hot spots of the state.

“This is a farmin’ town,” Jonathan says as he drives down roads he knows by heart.

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It’s a town where people grow up working hard, just like Jonathan did. It’s where people plant their roots. It’s a simple town where people are proud of what they have; where people say hi to strangers on the street. It’s by no means a town that is a typical North Carolina vacation spot. It might be on the radar of those passing through it to get to their vacations, but even that seems to be a stretch. If you want to see the World’s Largest Frying Pan, you’ll drive about 2 miles past Big Ed. The small-town community cooks

fried chicken on it twice a year — they’re darn proud of it.

But before you even get to that, you’ll pass what many would call the biggest tourist attraction of their town.

Duplin Winery. A building you’ll likely miss even if you’re driving the speed limit.

It’s not flashy. It’s modest — just like those who built it from the ground up.

But it was built by demand. A demand for something better, something cooler, something…

Sweeter.

R

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Greenville: Life In The East

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THE

early years Duplin Winery is, and always has been, rooted in family.

The Fussell family, almost all East Carolina University alumni, have owned and operated the winery from the very first inception of it in 1972. That’s 46 years, three generations, and gallons and gallons of wine. Some ups and some downs. A lot of grapes, a lot of gritty, dirty, to the bone hard work. But a whole lot of love.

Brothers David and Daniel Fussell, with a mission to better themselves and their family, created Duplin Wine Cellars, Inc. out of a necessity. The brothers planted 10 acres of muscadine grapes in an agreement with Canandaigua Wines, a large winery in upstate New York.

The winery promised the Fussell’s $350 per ton of muscadine grapes — grapes thought to make the best sweet wines in the world.

But, during that first year, the grape industry took a monstrous hit, causing the cost of grapes to plummet from $350 per ton to $150.

The Fussell’s would’ve lost money just trying to sell to Canandaigua Wines.

In other words, the Fussell’s had a whole bunch of grapes and not a lot to do with them.

But they desperately needed something — anything — to salvage their livelihoods.

So, they had a decision to make. It was jelly or wine.

“We were good ole southern Baptist boys, we don’t drink wine,” Jonathan, co-owner and son of David Fussell said.

“But we converted.”

David and Daniel were committed.

They dove head first into the business, with no plans of looking back.

They interviewed leading wine makers from pre-Prohibition about the ins-and-

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outs of wine making. They researched, long and hard.

They borrowed money from their father, “Big D.” They worked day in and day out. Trying to avoid Sundays, of course.

They bottled their first bottle of wine, the Carlos bottle, in 1975.

“It probably wasn’t any good,” the family jokes, but to this day they can still be found behind a glass casing in what was the first ever warehouse, now a part of their retail store.

And with little — if any — knowledge about making wine, they embarked on the journey that turned into one of the largest wineries in the South.

It was unexpected. It still is.

“A blessing,” as Jonathan says repeatedly about the success.

But it wasn’t easy.

THE

good, THE bad, THE ugly There were good years, bad years and down-right ugly years.

Years that held promise; years that required hope and perseverance; years that almost forced the family into bankruptcy.

But one thing is for sure: the Fussell’s never gave up on the dream.

They bottled wine in mason jars they bought from Rose Hill Trading Co. beGreenville: Life In The East

cause they couldn’t afford wine bottles.

They corked the bottles by hand. They licked the labels to stick them on the bottle.

They stomped the grapes themselves. It’s as homegrown as it gets.

Not long after that first year, the state of North Carolina Department of Commerce wanted to promote wine makers from North Carolina, and declared that wine made from N.C. grapes would get a tax break. The Fussell’s were able to keep bottling wines and selling them for a bit cheaper than other wineries. The business grew exponentially — from 20 cases in 1977 to nearly 44,000 cases in 1983.

Fall 2018

Call it fate, serendipity, or just plain luck.

Whichever you chose, something was working.

The family borrowed money to open a brand new wine facility about half a mile down the road, where they were able to make and bottle thousands and thousands of cases of wine.

But, as it normally does, their luck ran out. In 1983, a group of lawyers came down from New York City and ruled the tax break unconstitutional. The price of Duplin wines hiked, and they just couldn’t compete with big-box wineries.

Fall 2018

For this small, family-run business, it was detrimental.

They lost their house trying to keep the business running. They sold all of their good equipment.

It was a fight. But that’s what this family was used to. So they kept on fighting.

Days looked a bit brighter when 60 Minutes aired a special that said red wine is actually healthy for you. People took notice, and they flocked to Duplin County for some sweet, chilled wine.

Campbell University — “good ole’ southern Baptist boys just like us,” Jonathan said — used some of Duplin’s grapes Greenville: Life In The East

for a study of their own, in which they found out that red muscadine grapes have seven times more disease fighting antioxidants than European ones.

In August 1996, Duplin Wines landed on the front page of the Raleigh News and Observer.

Bingo for the Fussell family and Duplin Wines.

“The busisness just skyrocketed,” Jonathan said.

The company has boasted double digit growth since that study.

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GOOD OLE

southern

HOSPITALITY Jonathan Fussell talks long and slow, cracking a joke whenever he can.

“Welcome to Duplin Wines!” he says loud and proud to every customer that walks through the front doors.

He’s dressed in a purple Duplin Winery shirt. He’s got a bald head; he never leaves the house without his hat and his sunglasses. He hops into his white truck and a book on tape automatically starts playing from his stereo. Sand still lingers in the backseat of his truck from his recent family trip to Carolina Beach, one of their favorite things to do.

He’s on his way to Duplin’s second facility: a massive production center where they press the grapes and make the wine — the one they built in the “good years.”

It’s home to one of the largest grape pressers in the country.

It’s where Jonathan spent much of his childhood. He’s co-owner of Duplin Winery, along with his older brother, David Fussell Jr. Jonathan manages the restaurant and visitor center, while David supervises the wine-making.

David went to East Carolina University, like the rest of the Fussell family; Jonathan chose UNC. David worked at the winery; Jonathan left with plans to be a lawyer.

He never dreamed of coming back to

26

work for the winery. It just wasn’t making any money back then, he said. The company had 3 employees when he left for college: his brother, his dad and one other woman. They couldn’t afford to pay him. They could barely afford to pay the employees they had — his dad didn’t even take a salary at the winery.

He was going to attend law school. Instead, he returned back to Rose Hill for good in 1998. He was the Duplin Winery’s sixth employee.

“I was cheap help,” he said. “It was the worst thing that happened, but the best thing that happened.”

He doesn’t know what it’s like to be a banker, an accountant, a doctor or a lawyer. But he doesn’t care. Rose Hill is home.

“I don’t know anything different — this is my home,” he said. “I tried to study and figure out what other people are doing, but this is what I’ve done my whole life.”

He might’ve been making wine his entire life, but the 38 year old doesn’t even call himself a winemaker.

“All I’m here for is to help folks have fun.”

MODERN

days

Jonathan and David bought the winery from their dad in 2009.

They didn’t make their last payment until this past May. It makes them officially the second pair of brothers to own Duplin Winery.

Greenville: Life In The East

What was once a six-employee company now employs about 168 people, all of whom Jonathan greets on a first name basis as he passes them. Nearly 30 of them are Jonathan’s next of kin in some way.

The winery does well — now. But Jonathan said he took that for granted.

“I got cocky, in a way. No matter what we did, the Lord just blessed and us and we were growing.”

But in 2011, grocery stores were suffering due to the recession. Food Lion, one of their major distributors, had to raise the price of Duplin wines. The company took yet another blow.

They started August of 2011 up 18 percent, ended the year up only 6 percent.

They started 2012 down 38 percent.

“We were like, ‘We’re getting our butts kicked here.’”

Times were changing, Jonathan said, and they had to change with them. But how?

They started doing trade shows, events, upping their marketing, and they ended the year only down 2 percent.

And then, they made an even bigger jump. They decided to go where the people are.

They opened a second location in Myrtle Beach, about 130 miles from Rose Hill.

It was tough, brutal work, and one of only two times Jonathan has ever cried while going to work.

“But, I did have off on Sundays.”

Fall 2018

THE

process September 1 marks the start of grape season — the busiest three weeks of the year. They work from dusk to dawn every single day. If that sounds like a lot, that’s likely because it is. But it’s a piece of cake compared to what he’s used to.

“When I was a kid, we pressed grapes all day and night for seven weeks,” Jonathan said. “We processed 400 tons a season. But now we press around 16 thousand tons a season.”

And before most of us even think about drinking our morning coffee, folks at the winery have likely been awake for hours, pressing grapes and getting them ready

Fall 2018

for the long process ahead.

Jonathan walks visitors through the facility, passing massive steel presses holding up to 5,000 gallons of wine. They look staggeringly huge, but Jonathan says they are the smallest ones.

Around the corner stand about one hundred and thirty tanks, home to nearly 30,000 gallons of wine each, all in different stages. Conveyor belts move quickly behind them, Another mile down the road you’ll find the vineyards. There are grapes as far as the eye can see — about 140 acres of grapes just in the experimental vineyard.

It takes four years for the grapes to completely mature. These grapes are in the second year.

Greenville: Life In The East

They’ve got a long way to go before they make it into the bottles and in the hands of die-hard Duplin supporters, but it’s not hard to know when they’re ready. Not for Jonathan, at least.

“As soon as I get off the interstate, I’ll know,” he said.

Making as much wine as the Fussell’s do would be overwhelming to the average person.

But the Fussell’s don’t see it that way.

To them, it’s just another day.

Another day of making what they call some of the best sweet wine in the world.

27

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Fall 2018

Greenville: Life In The East

29

SMELLS LIKE

money Cash Crop has farmers seeing purple

By Kim Grizzard Greenville: Life in the East Photos by Juliette Cooke

30

Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

Some sage advice: Stopping to smell the flowers isn't always such a good idea, and stopping to pick them can be even worse.

Those lavender and white blooms carpeting lush fields in late spring and early summer are tempting. But clary sage is a crop that is best appreciated at a distance.

“You do see a lot of folks stop that are passing through, especially heading to the beach, that aren't local folks. They stop, pick flowers.

They're so pretty,” Bertie County Agriculture Agent Jarette Hurry said, laughing. “But they get out and throw them away before they get too far down the road.”

That smell has been likened to everything from sweaty socks to a wet dog and even a litter box. But to farmers in eastern North Carolina, it is the sweet smell of success.

Northeastern North Carolina is the mecca of clary sage-production.

As much as 97 percent of the clary sage in the world is grown in nine counties in the region, including Pitt.

Danny Perry's family has been farming in Bertie County for four generations. Until seven years ago, Perry and his sons mostly grew tobacco on the sandy soil of their farm near Colerain. Today, those oncegreen fields have turned purple.

Fall 2018

Greenville: Life In The East

31

32

Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

Greenville: Life In The East

erry Hi

ll

Fall 2018

“But it was enough that the price came down,” he said. “... Then they moth-balled the whole thing.”

In the late 1970s, as other profitable uses for clary sage began to emerge, both the crop and the company made a comeback. The sage, it turned out, produces a waxy substance known as sclareol, which proved useful in helping give scents staying power.

As a fixative for fragrance, sclareol proved to be a cheaper and more abundant alternative to ambergris, a substance that is produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.

In 1978, Avoca began processing a few thousand acres' worth of clary sage to create sclareolide. A few years later, a move from phosphate to enzyme-based laundry detergents proved to be a game-changer for Avoca.

“They (enzyme-based detergents) will clean your clothes, but they smell like dirty socks,” Peele said, laughing. “All of us buy detergents based on what the clothes smell like. Fragrance companies have figured that out.”

Remember the laundry detergent commercial that shows a man on the beach, pining away for the woman who left him?

Holding her scarf to his face, he breathes in and says, “What? She washed this like a month ago! How's a guy supposed to move on.”

That advertisement, promoting “the long-lasting scent of Gain,” is Peele's favorite commercial.

“That is the greatest commercial in the world because that is really our product,” he said. “We don't get any credit for it, but

Danny Perry's family has been farming in Bertie County for four generations.

Until seven years ago, Perry and his sons mostly grew tobacco on the sandy soil of their farm near Colerain. Today, those oncegreen fields have turned purple.

M

“A lot of guys that have grown tobacco in the past grown sage now,” Hurry said.

“It's really been the biggest money-making crop around in northeastern North Carolina outside of tobacco, the largest income generator. “ So how did sage blossom in what has traditionally been tobacco country? The truth is tobacco helped to plant the seeds.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company began planting clary sage in Bertie County as early as the 1960s.

David M. Peele, president of Avoca, a Merry Hill company that processes the sage, said clary sage was originally intended to be a substitute for Turkish tobacco, one of three types of tobacco used in an American-blend cigarette.

When the price of Turkish tobacco skyrocketed in the 1950s, R.J. Reynolds sought a cheaper alternative. Chemists working to find a suitable substitute zeroed in on clary sage.

“That was the whole premise of why they started this business,” Peele said of the company, which now has more than 100 full-time employees, in addition to seasonal workers.

In the early 1960s, R.J. Reynolds only grew and processed about 20 or 30 acres of clary sage at the facility, which was considered to be top secret. “(It was) somewhat of a bluff,” Peele explained. “(Reynolds executives) said, 'We're prepared today never to buy another pound or kilo of Turkish tobacco because we have this substitute.' They built this plant over here but they weren't running it anywhere near the capacity it would take to feed the tobacco world.

33

that's our product.”

The use of sclareolide in laundry detergent has produced a tenfold increase in the demand for the chemical preservative, bumping northeastern North Carolina's acreage of clary sage from about 2,500 to 25,000 per year. It also expanded the growing area from Bertie, still the largest producer of clary sage, to surrounding counties.

One reason to spread the wealth is the potential threat of hurricanes. Clary sage, which is planted in August, can be taken out by fall storms.

“Anytime after Sept. 25, we can't replant clary sage. It's too late.” Peele said.

“That's one big problem we have , so we protect ourselves.”

Ironically, it was a hurricane that moved the Perrys to begin growing clary sage. Hurricane Irene in 2011 devastated the family's tobacco crop, leaving only a handful of rows standing in 35 acres.

The Perrys had crop insurance, but the settlement was not enough to make ends meet.

34

“What they paid me was a joke,” Danny Perry said.

Although he had worked in tobacco since he was 6 years old, Perry decided it was time to give it up.

“I'm still trying to get out of debt from it but this has helped.,” he said of clary sage. “This has carried us. It's basically saved us.”

Hurry said the sage grows well in the sandy soil of Bertie County, which in the last eight to 10 years has seen an increase in the number of farmers contracting with Avoca to grow sage.

Peele said the relationship between the company and its growers is built on trust.

The company has its own seed producer and provides seeds to the farmers.

“There are other areas of the world that try to grow clary sage, but we're unique in that we have the total supply chain,” he said.

“We have to trust you to grow the crop and you have to trust us to buy the crop because there is no other place on the face of this earth that they can sell that prodGreenville: Life In The East

uct. It has to come here.”

Perry's sons have both held jobs at Avoca, which hires dozens of college students each summer during peak season.

On the farm, clary sage is a year-round crop, planted in August and harvested the following June.

“It's a very tedious crop,” Perry's son, Brandon, 25, said. “You're always busy doing something.”

The Perrys have grown up to 300 acres in a year. This year's crop is 180 acres of beautiful, bitter-smelling sage.

“If you get a little rain shower and ride by, you can really smell it,” Brandon said.

Standing beside a sage field ready for harvest, he joked that a sage farmer who stopped in a local cafe for lunch “stunk up the whole restaurant.”

It may not smell like roses, but sage farmers are laughing all the way to the bank.

“We should have started growing it a lot sooner,” Brandon said. “I think it smells good. Smells like money.”

Fall 2018

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READY for

Takeoff First Flight Vodka soars to new heights

By Ginger Livingston Greenville: Life in the East Photos by Juliette Cooke

40

Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2018

WINTERVILLE — The owners of a local vodka distillery say a pending move to Farmville will take their product to new heights.

Wes Shepherd, owner of Kitty Hawk Stills, produced his first batch of vodka about two years ago in a warehouse space turned distillery off Forlines Road.

Today First Flight Vodka is sold by 70 ABC Boards across North Carolina. He’s now tapping into the experience he gained as a restaurant franchise owner so First Flight can soar.

Fall 2018

While in college he joined a partner and opened the second Jersey Mike’s Subs in North Carolina, the 26th location in the nation. Today, Shepherd owns 10 locations in eastern North Carolina and there are 1,500 restaurants open or in development nationwide.

“All of that journey brought me here,” Shepherd said.

He formed Kitty Hawk Stills in 2012 with the intention of making small batch vodka. He was reading articles and seeing television accounts of small distilleries Greenville: Life In The East

opening and he was intrigued.

“I thought that’s a pretty cool thing and there weren’t a whole lot of people doing it in North Carolina, or anywhere, at that time in 2012,” Shepherd said. It took him back to his college years, when he brewed his own beer.

“It was microbrew quality, good stuff, but it was in small batches, mostly ales,” he said. Shepherd, now 47, contemplated opening a microbrewery but at the age of 23 he didn’t think he could get the financing needed to purchase the necessary

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equipment. Also, most people hadn’t developed a taste for microbrews.

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AL CI “Fast forward 15 years later, people are ER M M CO accepting that flavor of traditional, microbrew beer and fast forward 25 years to Acreage 750,000 APPROX. 11.26 ACRES of cleared it’s normal. People are asking land at intersection of now Hwy 264and & Mozingo Rd. Also has road frontage on Stantonsburg Rd. General industrial, for that instead of the Bud Light,” he said. light commercial use. Call Keith 215-0015. #74708 Shepherd said he wasn’t going to let a FEATURE second opportunity pass him by.

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Fall 2018

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Fall 2018

Greenville: Life In The East

are taking a grain, adding yeast and water to it, and fermenting it out,” Shepherd said. “Take the fermented liquid, put it in a steel container which is heated to 180, 185 degrees and the spirit comes out as a vapor which is condense using a cooling tube with water surrounding it to condense down to the spirit.”

The test was creating a brand.

W

determine what building and safety codes had to be enforced.

He had to get an engineer to design a blending room, where the distilled alcohol is mixed with water, producing the final product, and to ensure the space had proper fire proofing.

Creating the actual vodka was easy, Shepherd said.

“When you are making a spirit you start pretty much with a beer, the same concept where you

intervi

lle

brown liquor. It can be used in all types of drinks. Just add fruit to it or you favorite mixer,” Shepherd said.

He took the process slowly, paying for the equipment out of his own pocket as his went through the state permitting process. He did hire a consultant to help him with the federal permits.

The real challenge came in finding the right location for the distillery, he said.

He wound up renting space in a storage facility located on Winterville. Shepherd said the owner had had a soft spot for an entrepreneur facing monumental state and federal regulations.

The town of Winterville had to consultant with the North Carolina Department of Insurance and its fire marshal’s office to

43

Wes Shepherd, owner of Kitty Hawk Stills

“Instead of making it Wes’s vodka I wanted to make it something unique,” he said.

Shepherd started thinking about his other life’s passion - aviation - and North Carolina’s place in history as the location of powered, sustained and controlled flight. Playing off North Carolina’s slogan as “First in Flight,” First Flight Vodka was born.

“There are lots of things people can claim to be first at but I can tell you no one in the world can claim first flight other than North Carolina,” said Shepherd, who held a pilot’s license until 10 years ago when a medical condition grounded him.

As he thought about different aspects of aviation and how it could be incorporated into his brand, the image of the red flight safety tag that are attached to covers and pins that protect aircraft parts but have to be removed before takeoff kept coming up. The tags say “remove before flight” and he liked the concept of remov-

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ing one to open a bottle. He also decided to use a red bottle because all other vodka was sold in clear or blue bottles.

‘I just liked the color. I think it stands out on the shelf,” he said. “When somebody can’t remember the name they can say, do you have that red-bottle vodka?”

Shepherd delivered his first product, three pallets of vodka, each containing 192 cases with 12 bottles per case, to the N.C. Alcohol Beverage Control Commission’s distribution warehouse in December 2016.

Pitt County Alcohol Beverage Control Board was the first to sell First Flight, followed by Carteret County and then Dare County, where the Wright Brothers launched their historic flight.

Dare County started selling the vodka in April 2017 and today is the largest seller of First Flight vodka.

“These are businesses in North Carolina and we want to help them the most we can,” said Ted Toler, general manager Greenville: Life In The East

of Dare County ABC Board.

Within the last 30 days, which included the Fourth of July holiday, busiest week of the year at Dare County’s ABC stores, First Flight sold 25 bottles, about the same amount as other North Carolina produced vodka’s, Toler said. Sales data suggests its popular among vacationers.

“They want to see what’s made locally.

We only have one truly local that’s made product on the Outer Banks,” Toler said.

“We want to promote any distillery in North Carolina. We can’t sell all of them but we do have a decent selection of North Carolina products and try to promote them as much as we can within the law.”

Out of about 1,100 items, Toler said his stores have 27 separately listed spirits produced in North Carolina.

About a year ago, Farmville businessman Bert Smith received a bottle of First Flight vodka.

“I thought it was really unique and I was interested in where it came from so Fall 2018

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Greenville: Life In The East

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Greenville: Life In The East

I took the opportunity to come over and see his operation,” Smith said.

Smith is a member of The Farmville Group, a collection of businessmen leading revitalization efforts in that community. After meeting Wes, sampling his product and seeing his production space, Smith said he knew he was on to something.

“I said man, this is a really cool product and a really cool concept but you need a better storefront than what you have,” Smith said. He had the perfect space for Shepherd, a 116-year-old former horse stable located across from Plank Road Steak House.

“There is a lot of interest in small batch distillers that are hand-crafted, hand-bottled and use local products. We plan to sort of piggyback on that concept,” Smith said.

They are currently working with Farmville officials to secure proper permitting and to renovate the space for distillery operations. Once he’s in the space Shepherd will have to apply for a new state distiller’s permit and amend his existing federal permit.

The changes will also him to offer tours and tastings.

“That will definitely be happening there more so than here,” Shepherd said. “I think we are going to see a lot more spontaneous people stopping in. We’ll probably have one or two days a week where we’ll keep visitation hours, hours open to the public.”

Shepherd, who earlier this year delivered his sixth pallet of product to the state, is temporarily halting commercial production until the move is complete.

Although he isn’t producing product to sell, Shepherd is still hard at work. He is finalizing a recipe for “Duneshine” a moonshine he hopes to launch with the next two years. He also hopes to start experimenting with rum.

Both men are excited for First Flight’s next chapter.

“We will work together and take first flight to new heights,” Smith said.

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