Carolina Shore - Fall 2018

CAROLINA shore

Fall & Winter 2018

EXPLORING COASTAL CAROLINA

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CAROLINA shore EXPLORING COASTAL CAROLINA

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

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contents fall/winter 2018

12 Eat Your Greens

Collards have long been a staple Southern food. Not only do they look great on the plate, but they’re good for us too!

16 The Bone Keeper

The Bonehenge Whale Center is under construction in Beaufort in partnership with the NC Maritime Museum.

22 Night at the Improv

A new Improv group in New Bern is quickly building a following one laugh at a time.

26 The Night Sky

Some Carteret County residents are spending their free time studying the night sky.

34 Sea Horses

Photographer Jared Lloyd has made a part-time home in Beaufort as he photographs Shackeford’s wild horses.

38 Southern Comfort

Morehead City’s popular eatery Floyd’s serves up the perfect comfort food.

44 Coast Guard Honored

Harkers Island residents come together to honor the Coast Guard and one of their own.

52 In Season - Carolina Apples

From the mountains to the coast, Carolina’s apple harvest is the perfect time to try a few new recipes.

58 Wool Works

Winters perfect, yet often misunderstood, fabric is always ready to chase away the chill.

62 Celebrating the Season

From Beaufort to Edenton - see how some area towns are ringing in the holiday spirit.

72 Preserving History

A lab at ECU is busy preserving artifacts from the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

78 This Southern Life 80 Up & Coming

Jared Lloyd photo

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Eat Your

GREENS Collards are a staple in the Southern states, especially during the fall. While they have made many a child turn their nose up a time or two, the thick, dark green leaves have a flavor we tend to grow in to. Perhaps it’s the more mature approach to our diet that comes with age, or the pull to embrace the Southern traditions of the older members of our family. Either way, collards are not only a colorful addition to the dinner plate, but a nutritious one as well. At only 35 calories per half cup, collards are rich in folate, calcium, fiber and vitamins E, A, K & C and have been linked to lower cholesterol levels. In addition, they have anti-inflammatory properties, are connected to liver detoxification and can boost our immune system. Seems our parents were right after all.

SOUTHERN COLLARDS 4 bunches of fresh collards 1 large white onion 2 smoked ham hocks 8 slices thick bacon, cooked and diced 1 tsp crushed red pepper 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar 1/4 pound butter 2 quarts chicken broth or water Salt and Pepper to taste Wash and stem collards. Carefully wash collards with cold water in sink or large basin, being sure to rub each leaf to remove surface dirt. Drain the vessel and repeat two more times, using fresh water. Shake off any access water. Stack and roll collards to easily cut into 1-2 inch strips. Fill pot with 1 1/2 quarts water or chicken stock and boil on low heat for about 30 minutes, covered. Slice onion in wide strips and sautĂŠ with bacon, butter and crushed red pepper on low heat so onions do not brown. Set aside. When collards are semi-soft and bright green, drain all liquid and carefully rinse in a colander with cold water. Pick ham hocks and return meat to pan with collards and remaining 1/2 quart water or stock and add the onion/ bacon mixture and vinegar. Simmer at a low boil for about 45 minutes, stirring as needed.

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NATURE & WILDLIFE

Bone Keeper the

C

oming across the new Gallant’s Channel bridge connecting Radio Island to Beaufort, a small white trailer is visible in the distance to the left just beyond some sailboats and a parking lot. It would be easy to assume that the trailer is some forgotten piece of the past, perhaps something that someone hasn’t gotten around to hauling away, but that couldn’t be farthest from the truth.

This unassuming little trailer is currently housing NC Maritime Museum Curator of Natural Sciences and marine mammal researcher/conservationist Keith Rittmaster’s workspace along with thousands of bones, artifacts, photos and memorabilia. Rittmaster has been heavily and passionately involved in the study and conservation of dolphins and whales (properly termed “cetaceans”) along the North Carolina coast for over three decades.

Stepping inside the small space it seems as if there could be no way several whale and dolphin skeletons could possibly fit inside, but they are indeed. Granted, not many are currently put together. Instead, they are safely stored along with dozens of binders full of photos of dorsal fins, jars of whale oil, drawers full of teeth and just about any other cetacean-related thing one could imagine.

With the need for space being quite evident and Rittmaster’s passionate spirit for marine mammal research and conservation, the dream of a designated space – a Bonehenge – has slowly become a reality.

Located off a side road at the base of the Gallant’s Channel Bridge, the Bonehenge Whale Center is currently under construction on a piece of land adjacent to property owned by the NC Maritime Museum. The space was purchased by the charitable nonprofit Carolina Cay Maritime Foundation for $33,000. Why not purchase the property through the museum? According to Rittmaster, that answer is simple – time. As many have experienced firsthand, going through government channels can unfortunately involve a fair share of red tape.

As it would seem, Rittmaster isn’t the only person in Beaufort and the surrounding area who sees the need for a greater focus on marine mammal research and conservation. Of the $300,000 fundraising goal Bonehenge has set to complete the building as designed, the halfway mark was surpassed by the first week of July 2018 after only nine months of fundraising. Though it is

16

CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

story by Rudi A. Shelor impossible to set a completion date, if donations continue to come in at the current rate, Bonehenge could be open for its first guests by spring or summer of 2019.

The plan is for a large two-story open area in the middle of the building with offices, labs and galleries surrounding the perimeter downstairs and along certain parts of the upstairs galley area.

Downstairs, there will be a lab for student and volunteer work that will be accessible from outside, as well as a volunteer desk and a room to keep the scissor lift which will be used to suspend, adjust and maintain skeletons from the roof trusses. Rittmaster’s office will be upstairs, along with a photo gallery and a small deck to allow for the drying of specimens.

The first featured exhibit of Bonehenge is intended to be the skeletal rearticulation of a 37-foot female humpback whale named Pitfall. In 2001, at the age of 3, she was hit by a large ship and washed ashore in Duxbury Beach, Mass. When Rittmaster was offered her remains, he eagerly said “yes” despite not having anywhere to display them at the time. Once assembled, Pitfall will hang in the middle of Bonehenge’s ceiling providing some excellent selfie opportunities.

Everything else will be determined along the way, including hours of operation for the site.

Ultimately, the scientist envisions an engaging place for research, teaching and learning.

He would also like to see an interface between the Maritime Museum and Bonehenge property, so much so that visitors don’t know that they are separate entities. Though unsure how this will ultimately be accomplished, Rittmaster thinks some landscaping, a gazebo and outdoor activities and displays would do the trick and encourage visitors to explore exhibits at both properties.

“It’s going to invent itself,” he said. “What I love is hearing people say ‘Oh Wow!’ It just energizes me. That’s what I want people to do in there.”

The desire to see a seamless connection between Bonehenge and the museum property is a feeling that is shared by the director of the NC Maritime Museums, Joe Schwarzer.

“The Bonehenge Whale Center currently being built by the (Continued on page 18)

(Continued from page 16)

Carolina Cay Maritime Foundation on property adjacent to the NC Maritime Museum’s Gallants Channel site is an outstanding project,” Schwarzer said. “Nelson Owens and foundation volunteers have done a remarkable job in developing and advancing this enterprise and everyone involved is to be commended.

“Currently, the museum is working with the foundation in hopes of developing an agreement that will allow Keith Rittmaster and his team to relocate to the center and continue and expand their nationally recognized research on marine mammals. This would be of enormous benefit to the program and of significant benefit to the museum and the community. The prospect of completing the center and having it available for ongoing research and educational

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

programs for the public is most exciting.”

The overwhelming response Bonehenge fundraising has received from the community indicates both a great need and a growing interest in the creatures who allow us to enjoy and live off their maritime habitat day after day.

According to Rittmaster, 34 different types of cetaceans have been observed along the North Carolina coast, more than any other state.

Dolphin watching – and yes, they are dolphins (typically bottlenose) not porpoises – may evoke pleasant images of walking along the beach at sunset and capturing a brief moment of nature’s beauty. But unfortunately for those dedicated to research and conservation, that is often not the image seen. Rittmaster and wife Vicky Thayer have dedicated decades of their lives to the

Marine Mammal Stranding Network. They respond to reports of dead, dying and entangled whales and dolphins to learn about the lives and deaths of the animals. Sadly, the cause, when able to be determined (which is only about one third of the time), is usually human-related and, more often than not, entanglement.

One of the skulls in that small white trailer belongs to a juvenile dolphin named Lionel. Once a necropsy (an autopsy on a nonhuman) was performed, it was apparent that Lionel had become entangled in monofilament, which is used for standard fishing line. Unable to free himself, he remained tangled as he grew and eventually his bones grew around the line. Ultimately, he starved to death, unable to open his mouth. While often difficult to hear, these stories give a face and a name to conservation and encourage everyone to be more aware of what they and others are doing in coastal waters.

Seeing entanglement become an increasingly common cause of death for dolphins, Rittmaster and Thayer began the Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program which provides an easy way for fishermen and beach combers to dispose of broken or unwanted fishing line. There are 42 recycling stations throughout coastal North Carolina and 12 in Carteret County along beaches and popular fishing areas. Since the advent of the program, Rittmaster and his volunteers have gathered thousands of miles of monofilament.

One of the longest-running studies Rittmaster has been involved with is the Dolphin Photo ID Project. He and his volunteers and peers (about 12 along the coast from Florida to New Jersey) regularly go out on boats in the ocean and estuaries in an attempt to find dolphins and photograph their dorsal fins.

Loads of information can be gathered from the pattern of notches along the dorsal fin. Not only can the dolphin be identified year after year (like tagging would allow), but it also allows researchers to monitor how the animals behave and evolve over time. They can document which dolphins appear in summer versus winter, who they associate with, how often they give birth, where they give birth. The photo ID project even aids in preservation through the monitoring of injured, diseased and entangled dolphins.

Rittmaster is quick to note that much of his research in done in partnership with other agencies, which he considers to be of the utmost importance in marine mammal research and conservation.

Institutions such as UNC-Wilmington, Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, the National Park Service, Nags Head Dolphin Watch, the Outer Banks Center for Dolphin Research, Duke Marine Lab, NOAA and NC State CMAST all work together to further the common cause. Whether it’s assisting each other with fundraising, writing papers/articles or borrowing artifacts, members of these organizations can always count on their colleagues. “We share information and resources, and we share them well,�

Rittmaster proudly declared.

There are many paths that Rittmaster could have taken throughout his career, but there is an evident passion for conservation, a genuine drive to learn more about the animals he is researching and an obvious interest in passing that knowledge on to future generations. When completed, the Bonehenge Whale Center will indeed be a center for science, although arguably its walls will also be filled with the same humanitarian spirit that has guided Rittmaster as he brought this impossible dream to life.

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TOPSAIL HOMES Magazine • July 2016

Plan your vacation at

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H A N D M A D E

O N E- O F- A - K I N D J

E

W

E

L

R

Y

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

NIGHT at the

Improv I

story & photos by Cole Dittmer

magine you’re curling, you know, the oft maligned Olympic sport, but in this case the ice is Kool-Aid, and the curling stone is SpongeBob SquarePants. How would you react to that scenario?

It sounds like a funny dream, but for the players in the Walk-In Bathtub improv group, it could be the next scene they perform. In fact, during a rehearsal for the New Bern group, this scenario did arise.

Formed in June 2016 by improv veterans and husband-and-wife team Jody Bledsoe and Kim Vaquilar, Walk-In Bathtub has performed its lively brand of long- and short-form improv at various locations around New Bern. Beldsoe and Vaquilar moved to New Bern in 2014 from Fayetteville, where they ran a community theatre group since 2002. Improv was a part of their Fayetteville community theatre, but now it is the sole focus of Walk-In Bathtub.

“I love the group mind, I love how you can take four or five people, put them on a stage where they have no idea what is coming,” Vaquilar said. “You throw a word at them and without any advance notice they can come together and form a scene.”

On this rehearsal night Vaquilar is playing host (think Drew Carey on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”) and directing the group of players at the New Bern Civic Theatre in preparation for what would be one of the group’s highest-attended performances.

The SpongeBob curling on Kool-Aid ice scene arises at the end of the

22

CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

rehearsal when a group of players has to describe the scene to another player using only gibberish and hand motions. In this instance, the player who has to guess what his teammates are trying to tell him is George Oliver, a New Bern lawyer.

For Jody Bledsoe, seeing that other side of the players from what they portray in real life is one of his favorite aspects of improv.

“We know each other outside of this of course … but when you are up there in a scene and the person next to you comes up with something completely off the wall your character changes,” Bledsoe said. “You become freer and wide open. You see people do things that, in real life, you know they wouldn’t do.”

Bledsoe and Vaquilar said the response in New Bern has only been positive.

“When you do improv, either short form or long form, you have to train the audience and most of the time it is something they have never seen before, but New Bern has been really great about it,” Vaquilar said. “The whole town has been interested in what it is and eager to support it.”

When it came time to find the players for the improv group, Vaquilar said they benefitted from New Bern’s strong community theatre scene. The result is something like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” but the cast members are usually friends, coworkers or neighbors of audience members.

While the group performs special shows at the New Bern Civic Theatre, its main stage is City Stage New Bern – formerly City Laundry – at 901 B. Pollock St. in New Bern. The group will perform there on Sept. 29, and Oct. 26. Those interested in attending can view the performance schedule on the City Stage New Bern Facebook page.

Vaquilar said she hopes anyone who attends one of their performances comes with an open mind and without fear of being brought on stage.

“Know that when you come to an improv show no one is going to drag you up on stage and make you be a part of the show,” she said.

“We do take volunteers for some games, but they are volunteers.”

Bledsoe said audience members should be prepared for a different kind of theatre experience.

“It is a different kind of theatre experience because the audience is shouting suggestions during the show, and that is actually encouraged in this format,” he said, laughing. “That is the tenor of it.”

Note: While all are encouraged to attend the Walk-In Bathtub shows, the material sometimes may contain language and content not suitable for younger audiences.

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SCIENCE

the

Night Sky

Doug Waters photo

O

story by Rudi A. Shelor

n the first Wednesday of each month, an unmistakably rare group of people can be found meeting on the second floor of the Webb Library in downtown Morehead City. Budgets and minute-taking aren’t the primary focus at this gathering, but rather the search for knowledge about outer space – stars, the moon and the millions upon millions of other objects with which we share the universe.

The Crystal Coast Stargazers astronomy club formed in the fall of 2016. Though the formal club is still rather young, many of its astronomy-enthusiasts and have been participating in various related activities for decades.

The group came together when founding member David Heflin approached Paul Terry, a ranger at Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach, about getting some fellow astronomy enthusiasts together regularly for meetings and nighttime sky viewings. Initially, Terry didn’t think there would be enough interest to start a club, but along came Lisa Pelletier-Harman, Rick and Becky Brown, Frank Angeli, Carol Reigle and Doug Waters and the Crystal Coast Stargazers was born.

Many of the club members can pinpoint a time in their lives which directly led to their interest in outer space. Member Brandon Porter has had an interest in astronomy since childhood. Growing up before the internet was the go-to source for everything, he relied on picture books and the occasional television program. His first telescope sparked an interest that never left him though and now, as an adult, he is an avid amateur astronomer who is thrilled to see that same interest in his own daughter.

Lisa Pelletier-Harman vividly remembers becoming fascinated with space exploration during the Race to the Moon of the 1960s.

“The first time I was able to see the mountains up close I was a goner and have been hooked ever since,” she said. “There’s nothing more satisfying than sharing someone’s excitement the first time they look through the scope. It takes me back to that moment in the 60s when I saw my first closeup view of the moon and I get to relive that excitement over and over.”

(Continued on page 28) NCCOAST.COM

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(Continued from page 27)

Doug Waters photo

By the summer of 2018, the club has grown to 32 official members with a core group of about 15 that attend most meetings, viewings and other events. They do, however, have about 100 people on their mailing list and new people come to check out meetings regularly so the club is steadily growing.

While the Wednesday meetings get routine club business out of the way, the true magic happens when the group makes the trek out to their viewing location in Otway. The Stargazer’s site is located at the North River Wetlands Reserve which is owned by the N.C. Coastal Federation, which graciously granted the group access.

The gravel road leading in to the North River observation site is lined with tall grass on either side and, to the chagrin of many, filled with the bird-sized mosquitoes that one would expect to find in any undeveloped area Down East. At one point some of the fields were cleared but now trees have begun to grow so they may eventually have to choose a different area on the reserve for viewing if the current one becomes too obstructed.

According to Pelletier-Harman, the loudest sound you hear out there on a viewing night is laughter – while they certainly take astronomy seriously, they ultimately are folks who not only enjoy a common interest but each other’s company as well.

The designation of a Dark Sky Site is given by the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting the preservation of the night sky through outreach, education and the encouragement of lessening light pollution.

While the North River Wetlands Reserve isn’t officially recognized

as a Dark Sky Site, it could easily qualify as one if an application were submitted to the IDA. The nearest Dark Sky Site to the Crystal Coast is located in Staunton River State Park in southern Virginia, only about 40 miles north of the North Carolina border or approximately 100 miles north of Raleigh. There is also an officially recognized site in North Carolina at the Blue Ridge Observatory and Star Park, 6 miles west of Spruce Pine and about 30 minutes south of Boone.

Eligibility requirements differ depending on what kind of space can be viewed from the site, including International Dark Sky communities, parks, reserves, sanctuaries, urban night sky places and dark sky friendly developments of distinction.

They not only have light pollution-related requirements (based on a realistic determination of how much access to a true “dark sky” an area will have), but also have land access requirements regarding who will be able to gain access to the area to enjoy the sky, if it is publicly or privately owned, an historic site or a nature reserve. As of July 2018, there are 100 sites throughout the world that are officially designated as International Dark Sky Sites Dark Sky status is determined by the Bortle Scale which ranges from 1-9, with 1 being the best and 9 the worst. The North River site is about a 4 which indicates that some objects are sometimes visible with the naked eye. On a clear night with proper conditions, the Milky Way as well as a few other objects can be seen without the aid of a telescope.

Though this growing group of gazers has done an excellent job of organizing events and community outreach programs, they have some outside resources at their disposal which they readily

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

Brandon Porter photo

take advantage of. One of the most prominent is the Night Sky Network (NSN), a crew of amateur astronomy clubs that is supported by NASA. NSN provides an excellent way for club members to maintain contact with each other via message boards and emails and also provides a wealth of resources for amateur clubs all over the world.

Members of the Night Sky Network have access to NASA educational materials and the network supports astronomy clubs by providing media, disseminating information and allowing clubs to network with one another. NSN even provides complimentary toolkits for clubs to use at later events. When the tools are put into service, the event can be classified as a Night Sky Network event, a prominent designation in the amateur astronomy world.

For Pelletier-Harman, the toolkits are an invaluable resource.

They make sharing what can be very complex information a more relatable and hands-on experience for those who attend her programs. Children who attend are especially fond of the toolkits as they allow them to learn by touching and doing, not just listening to a lecture or watching a presentation.

In addition to monthly meetings and the viewings in North River, the club assists with Astronomy Nights at the Fort Macon and Cape Lookout visitor centers. At Fort Macon, PelletierHarman participates in part of the program that takes place the second Saturday of every month.

The material she touches on varies but she tries to always utilize some interactive material to keep her audience engaged. These programs typically see a turnout of around 50 people in the winter to upwards of 150 in the peak summer season. Guests vary from homeschoolers and year-round students to tourists and people

from surrounding areas visiting for the day. Pelletier-Harman has even seen people drive all the way from Kinston or Greenville just to attend the program and turn around and drive back home.

A similar program is held at the Cape Lookout Visitors Center on Harkers Island that typically sees a smaller turnout (around 30) and is only held during the summer months.

During both events, time is set aside to (weather permitting) allow attendees to look through telescopes that have been provided.

People are also welcome to bring their own equipment and ask the club members questions or seek out advice on their telescopes or nighttime viewing.

(Continued on page 30)

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(Continued from page 29)

Pelletier-Harman carries the designation of being Eastern North Carolina’s first Solar System Ambassador. This means that she represents NASA and acts as envoy between NASA and the public and shares information about its programs and missions.

Her focus is on upcoming missions, activity on earth (weather, climate change, etc.) and educating those with an interest on what is going on in the world around them.

“The application process and training were very intense,” she said. “I was honored to be chosen from applicants around the globe to represent NASA and our club. There is a definite need in our area for hands-on experiences and with NASA’s backing and information I am thrilled to go out and work with the public. It’s been quite a rewarding experience and I am very excited about the adventures I will be able to share in the coming years.”

According to group members, the best time to go out for a viewing is a few days before or after the new moon (this is the phase of the moon when it isn’t visible). The group tries to schedule their events the Friday closest to the new moon.

The invisibility of the moon creates less light pollution and thus more ideal conditions for viewing stars and other celestial bodies. Unfortunately, one can do all the planning and moon phase tracking they please, but this is the kind of hobby that is 100% at the mercy of the weather. A perfect new moon phase is no match for clouds and thunderstorms.

The Stargazers have found, however, that viewing is much easier in the winter. The skies are clearer overall because of the lower humidity levels and less atmospheric interference.

Viewing objects in the sky is also heavily governed by time as the sky changes throughout the calendar year. It determines what you’re looking for (or what is viewable) and where to find it. The planets move at different speeds, so people may be able to see different ones at varying times of the month, but they’re not in the same position in the sky for too long.

The best time to view planets, according to club members, is when they are in opposition – that is, when the planet is lined up with the earth and the sun, making it appear much brighter and easier to see. The time when each planet is in opposition changes monthly and yearly.

Start with the basics. Learn the location of the North Star and the constellations, said the experts, and learn how to use a star map, binoculars and other equipment including telescope basics.

“The most important tip for beginners would be to find your local astronomy club and start going to events,” suggested Brandon Porter.

Many of the Stargazers don’t just go out on viewings but also do night sky photography and have captured amazing images of the celestial bodies that surround us. Starting off, a digital camera with a standard lens will do the trick and will allow one to capture beautiful images of the stars, Milky Way, moon and other objects that are relatively close in space.

Once comfortable with the camera, one may decide to move on to the next level – astrophotography. This involves attaching the camera to a telescope, making it possible to photograph things much further away, like Jupiter and Saturn.

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

Doug Waters photo

Getting Started

Looking Ahead The Crystal Coast Stargazers are busy planning for the upcoming Observe the Moon night as well as the 50th anniversary of the moon landing in 2019.

Observe the Moon is an annual event held each October to raise interest in astronomy. Events will be held across the country.

Although the club isn’t yet sure where they’ll setup this year, the programs typically involves setting up telescopes so those interested can stop in and get a closeup look at the moon.

For the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, the local club members would love to get on NASA’s calendar as one of the official 50th anniversary events. Excitement is almost palpable among the members at the potential for holding an event right here in Carteret County to celebrate and bring awareness to such a life changing moment in America’s history.

One may wonder what, in 2018, is left to learn about the heavens. With the advent of the Apollo program, Hubble, the Mars Rover and countless other space missions and unmanned crafts sent out, so much information has been collected over the past 50 years. However, one must also keep in mind that any knowledge currently possessed about the universe surrounding us initially began with a seed of curiosity and a drive to find out the answer.

That drive to find out more, to answer those countless “what ifs” is nowhere more apparent than in the Crystal Coast Stargazers.

It is encouraging to see their passion for science and learning and to find a group that not only takes such clear pleasure and pride in what they’re doing but has a longing to share the information with others and take beginners under their wing. Could the next big discovery be found on the second floor of the Webb Library on the first Wednesday of every month? Just as most things with space exploration go, the possibilities are limitless.

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Sea Horses C

story by Megan Dohm

photos by Jared Lloyd

lick, click-click-click, click, the camera’s shutter whirred quietly. All of the conditions were just right: high tide, a full moon rising just when the wild horses of Shackleford Banks decide to cross in front of the lens, a sunset with plenty of color still streaking the sky. One missing element, and it is not the image that photographer Jared Lloyd has been dreaming of for five years. When it all comes together, it is like catching lightning in a bottle.

Lloyd grew up on the coast of North Carolina and Virginia – the Inner Banks, the Outer Banks, and some of what he calls the four-wheel drive section of the beach near Carova. Maybe it’s the salt water that runs in your veins after living near the ocean, maybe it’s the year or two he spent hitchhiking around the United States between high school and college – but he puts off an unflappable, easygoing, infinitely practical air not often associated with artists.

Afraid that untold hours of rigid formal education would wring the love of photography out of him, Lloyd opted for a degree in environmental history, a degree that continues to inform his work as a wildlife photographer to this day. He explained that environmental history is about how human and natural history interact and influence one another (it is not, as it would be easy to assume, the history of the environmental movement). These studies gave him a deeper understanding of his subjects, their origins, and their place in the world from a broader perspective. After college, he dove head-first into photography, which has taken him all over the world – to remote Alaska, the Galapagos Islands, Peru and beyond – but he always finds his way back home. These days, he splits his time between Bozeman, Mont. (where he can have quick access to the Yellowstone ecosystem and all its biodiversity) and the North Carolina coast, where he can continue a years-long personal project.

The first time Lloyd visited the Rachel Carson Coastal Reserve was back in 2009, when he hauled a kayak down to Beaufort and circumnavigated the reserve.

This trip was followed by return trips at least once a year and a growing fascination with our coast’s wild horses.

In 2015 Lloyd partnered with fellow wildlife photographer/cinematographer Doug Gardner to begin creating a documentary about the horses. Since the project is self-funded, it’s been slow going, put together one small piece at a time.

For the last three summers, Lloyd has spent months filming from a home base in Beaufort. He says that an average day starts out too early, while the sky is still pitch black. Twelve cups of coffee brew while he packs up all of his video gear into (Continued on page 36) NCCOAST.COM

35

tough waterproof cases (“caffeine is crucial,” he says), then he drags it all out to his 24-foot Carolina Skiff and launches out at grey first light. He shoots until about 11 in the morning, when he packs up and heads to Beaufort to wait out the harsh midday light. While waiting, he recharges batteries, downloads the footage he got, and – if he’s lucky – snatches a few minutes for a nap. By 3pm he is back out on the water headed to the reserve, where he will shoot until just past sunset.

In addition to the logistics of documenting wildlife, now he has the additional challenges provided by video work: it’s exponentially more expensive, far more technical, takes longer to set up and requires more equipment.

“It’s a lot of trekking through the water, it’s a lot of pushing around in the mud, it’s a lot of sitting and waiting and baking and sunburning,” and (with a laugh), “it’s a lot of suffering through the Plague of the North Carolina coast, which is no-see-ums in my opinion. There’s the good and the bad of it, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

So a life of wildlife documentary is not just one of jet-setting, adventure and picture-perfect moments, not even on our beautiful coastline. What makes all of the slogging and toil worthwhile?

“I think it’s the story of the horses. It’s extraordinary to me,” said Lloyd. “I mean, I’ve had some pretty incredible opportunities to experience this world, and to experience wildlife all over the planet. From the Galapagos Islands to Alaska, I travel about nine months out of the year chasing down opportunities, chasing stories of wildlife to photograph and stuff. And here, right off the coast of North Carolina, in all of our backyards is probably one of the coolest and most extraordinary wildlife situations in North America.”

The story of this scrappy species is one of adaptation to beat

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

the odds, of animals much tougher than their romanticized image.

According to Lloyd, the species’ original habitat “could not be any [more] different” than the barrier island. And yet if you look across Taylors Creek in Beaufort, there they are, drinking the brackish water and grazing contentedly on tough coastal grasses. Whether you believe the old stories of Spanish shipwrecks bringing horses to our shores or a ship under the care of Lord Grenville unloading on its way to the first colony at Roanoke, the horses are a tangible link to the past.

You can visit and photograph this piece of natural history for yourself any day of the week; just take a kayak or a ferry over from Beaufort. In order to protect the horses and park visitors, it is state law to stay at least 50 feet away from the horses at all times and pets should be kept on a leash at all times. But that, Lloyd said, is why we have long lenses.

“That’s the most important thing – the safety and wellbeing of our subjects, before anything else, way before the actual photographs,” Lloyd explained. “The goal is to keep the animal always at ease … if an animal is responding to you, you’re not going to catch its natural behavior.”

Natural behavior and conservation is Lloyd’s goal morning after morning, as he treks through the water for another day of shooting. His aim is to show a remarkable species in their now natural habitat, exhibiting their usual behavior. To him, filming is a way of preserving a natural resource, and encouraging others to do the same. The horses are something of a natural miracle, one he hopes to show the world after years of blood, sweat, and salt water.

To watch a highlight reel of the footage shot so far or to help fund the documentary, go to seahorsesthemovie.com. For more of Lloyd’s work, visit jaredlloydphoto.com.

FOOD

Southern I

Comfort story by Amanda Dagnino

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

t’s a balmy August evening on the patio at Floyd’s 1921 and the sounds of laughter are wafting through the historic downtown Morehead City neighborhood. Perched on stools at the front of the ‘L’ shaped space are the contestants of “How well do you Know Your Person” an hilarious game show reminiscent of the “The Newlywed Game.” Ray Tillery, a popular Morehead City icon himself, is perfect as emcee. While the audience – a collective of people out for a great meal and those who have simply strolled down to the outside bar for an evening cocktail – are soaking up the live entertainment.

There are few places – if any – where one can be enticed to sit outside on an 85° evening, yet it’s hard to resist the patio at Floyd’s.

Its blend of upscale casual is welcoming to everyone, and its live music and creatively imagined entertainment are merely an added bonus.

Inside, the rooms of the historic Long House serve as one of

the town’s most popular fine dining establishments. While some walls have been removed, others have been left in place creating quiet nooks and private dining rooms that eliminate the noise found in wide open dining spaces. Despite its fine dining tag, there is something innately comfortable about Floyd’s. Tucked away off the main drag in downtown Morehead City, Floyd’s isn’t the loudest or the flashiest restaurant in town. There are no neon signs luring you in from the highway. Instead, since opening in 2005, the restaurant, and owners Floyd and Shana Olmstead, have developed a following through hard work and consistently delivering a great meal.

They pair are as different as night and day. Floyd, an introvert by nature, is quiet, soft-spoken and shy, until the discussion turns to food. Then, his excitement is palpable. Shana, on the other hand, is bubbly and outgoing – it’s easy to see how her career in hospitality management and marketing flourished.

Together, they are a perfect complement to one another. But they’re not resting on their laurels and dwelling on their perfect match – instead, they’re trying to decide what kind of sausage to add to the new charcuterie tray and which tables should be removed first from the restaurant for updating.

A Carteret County native, many will remember Floyd from his days at the old Royal Pavillion on Bogue Banks. It wasn’t his first food-related job in Carteret County – his first job was at the Town & Country in Morehead City where he cut meat at the age of 14. Later came a stint at the old Western Steer on Bridges Street, where First Citizens Banks is located today. He left the area soon after to study and explore his love of food before returning to work with David Greenleaf at the Coral Bay Club and spending 11 years at the Royal Pavillion, where he quickly developed a following, in part because of the popular German Nights.

It all, however, was ultimately leading to his namesake.

Over the course of several years the couple discussed the notion of opening their own restaurant. They looked at a variety of locations. But it wasn’t until they walked through the doors of the Long House that they were sure it would become a reality. Nikolas, which was previously housed in the former home, quietly went on the market. The signs weren’t even up outside, Shana said, when a realtor friend suggested they do a walk through.

It’s not on the water, which could be a big disadvantage for an eatery along the coast, and that was initially a concern, said Shana. But one evening, she found herself sitting in the back patio area at the Arendell Room, there was music playing and she was enjoying the company of friends and she had something of an epiphany. There was no water in sight.

“I like to believe that if you have a good product and provide good service, people will drive into the middle of the forest to find you,” said Chef Floyd, noting that you don’t have to be on the beaten path. In fact, sometimes it’s better not to be.

So the couple, visited the Bridges Street restaurant and Floyd said as soon as he walked in the door he started to write (Continued on page 40)

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(Continued from page 39)

his menu.

“It instantly reminded me of my grandmother’s house in New Bern,” said Floyd, reminiscing of the large family home where everyone gathered, the smell of home cooking permeating the rooms. “I could already smell the cooking.”

“And that’s exactly what we were looking for,” added Shana.

“We wanted something that would inspire him.” There was no other criteria that matter nearly as much – not even a water view.

Now, when folks talk about Floyd’s, it is the food that is mentioned, a combination of true Southern comfort food that people recognize and love blended with an element of classic French cuisine that Floyd. There is nowhere else in the area where one can find deviled eggs on the daily menu, nor a menu that has a more decadent serving of meatloaf. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find blackened tuna or macadamia encrusted grouper. The juxtaposition of fine dining and comfort food – from mac and cheese to jerk mahi and coconut shrimp – make it an ideal restaurant for family gatherings. Kids can grab a $10 burger while mom and dad can opt for something a little more refined. In the end, everyone goes home satisfied.

As plans for the restaurant were taking shape, Shana said Floyd was constantly focused on perfecting the menu. One night while in bed, she said, he sat straight upright from a dead sleep to announce “we’ll have hoisin grilled salmon with a plum Asian vinaigrette” before falling back into his pillow. Even in his sleep, his creative twist on comfort cuisine was taking shape.

“Now that can never come off the menu because he sat up in bed and said it,” she added with a laugh.

That seems to be the sentiment with much of Floyd’s menu.

While many restaurants change their menu with the seasons or during an annual break, but the Olmsteads have found that any change to the menu comes with repercussions. Many of the items of the m any have developed such a following that it makes it difficult to change it up. If Mr. Smith, who comes in every Tuesday night for a plate of meatloaf finds it’s no longer on the menu, he may decide not to come next Tuesday.

The answer was found through having a collection of nightly special features. It allows the chefs a chance to be creative and it also keeps that popular regular menu in place – much to the chagrin of local patrons.

“We have always believed and always defined ourselves as a ‘local’ restaurant,” said Floyd. “We know that local residents are our base. Doing good business and giving locals a reason to come in is a priority. The tourists are great, but that’s just a bonus. It is the locals that keep us open year round.”

To continue to serve the locals, and keep their staff employed year-round, the couple made the concerted effort to keep the restaurant open year round. It shuts down for a handful of days around Christmas, but other than that, they are there. It makes it challenging when they want to do renovations or updates to the building, but they haven’t found a challenge yet that didn’t have a work around. Currently, they’re redoing the table tops, and quietly, with little notice, tables are whisked out back, updated, and returned to the restaurant without anyone missing a beat.

Painting was done this summer on Sunday nights and Mondays

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

– the only day of the week the restaurant is closed.

“It comes back to the staff,” said Shana. “If we close, they don’t make any money either. Our staff have mortgages too, and families to support. We wouldn’t have this if it wasn’t for them. None of this would be possible. So we owe it to them to not close down – to stay open all year and to come up with new and interesting things that will keep bringing the customers back.

“We take our role as employers very seriously,” she added. “So when we have those days when we think we don’t want to get out of bed we just think of our employees. Here are these folks who work so hard at our request every single day. That alone would be enough to make us want to get moving.”

The staff now includes daughter Bella, 14, who started working at the restaurant this summer.

“The first night she was here, I looked out and she was carrying a waiter’s tray and all I could think about was her crawling through that room in her diaper when she was little,” said Floyd.

There is some magic to bringing children into the family business. Not only does it provide great work experience, but it can provide a platform for a variety of life lessons – from missing football games when no one else is available to work to the independence gained when both parents are tied up at work.

The couple is hands on daily at the restaurant. For Shana, who took the lead of the Hospitality and Culinary Arts program about 10 years ago, that means when she isn’t at her day job. While Floyd isn’t a staff member, he’s an active volunteer. Fellow chefs Charles

Park of Beaufort Grocery, Co. and Anthony Garnett of the Coral Bay Club join Floyd in preparing the Escoffier Chefs Dinner Series each year that helps send two culinary students to France for five weeks of study.

The restaurant also participates in the college foundation’s annual International Film Festival. Movies from Hungary, Kenya, Iran, Belgium, France and others are screened over the course of several months with options that include the movie along with a dinner from the country that the film hails from.

“It’s like German night exploded,” said Shana, hands motioning an animated explosion.

“They pretty much had us going around the world,” said Floyd.

“But that’s what keeps me motivated. We love a challenge. And I love being able to provide our staff with a challenge. To create new things and to learn new things – that’s what I love most about food.

When I stop learning, that’s when I’ll retire.”

Tack on the catering arm of the restaurant and there is little doubt of how busy this duo is. There are days that find them managing multiple weddings off-site while the restaurant is running at capacity. It makes for a full day, nobody will argue with that. But Floyd can’t stress enough how it is those challenging days that keep him motivated and excited.

“It just doesn’t feel like I’m going to work – it feels like I’m going to the playground,” said the chef. “I’m blessed to be able to do what I love. I’m having fun, every single day.”

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HISTORY

Oorah! Coast Guard Celebrated

M

ore than a dozen people spoke up and sounded off … extending their personal congratulations to a 100-year-old Coast Guard hero – retired Chief Ira Lewis of Harkers Island – at a special ceremony held

Aug. 18.

Hundreds more were in the audience, and they responded by giving Chief Lewis a series of standing ovations inside the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

The event was billed as U.S. Coast Guard Appreciation Day. And boy, howdy, the crowd was “proudern a peacock with two tails” to put their favorite son in the limelight. Chief Lewis had celebrated his 100th birthday on Aug. 2 and was the guest of honor during all the festivities.

The keynote speaker, newly retired Coast Guard Vice Admiral Dean Lee, said he wore his dress uniform, because he heard that Chief Lewis was wearing his. (Each still fit, but the younger man’s … ever so barely.)

“I dressed up just for you, Ira,” Adm. Lee said. “I am proud to know you. You are a remarkable man.

“The family told me that for your 99th birthday, you went out and bought yourself six new pairs of work gloves. That’s true optimism … and pure grit.”

Adm. Lee noted: “Chief Lewis stepped up to enlist and to serve in 1938; he’s a member of ‘The Greatest Generation’ (born between 1910-24), and he is one of the treasured watermen.

Those are the people who grew up on the eastern seaboard of the United States, an area that has produced more Coast Guardsmen than any other region.”

“They were willing to risk their own lives to rescue those in peril,” he said.

Back then, in 1938, the U.S. Coast Guard had two branches, the Cutter Service, with larger vessels that patrolled offshore, and the coastal stations of the Life-Saving Service, from which nineman boats were rowed through the surf to rescue mariners in trouble.

Ira Lewis signed on to be a surfman, for that was what Down East Carteret County boys-to-men were trained to do, since the first of four Carteret County Life-Saving Stations was established on Core Banks in 1888.

(The chief once told a reporter from The East Hampton

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

story by Mike Wagoner (N.Y.) Star, a weekly, family-owned newspaper, that he decided to join the Coast Guard because “I was sick of digging clams for five cents a peck and picking croakers.” Everyone knows that picking means scaling and cleaning the smallish fish.)

One of the ceremony speakers, Lockwood Phillips, chair of the Core Sound museum, commented on the rarity of one of Chief Lewis’ uniform patches, the crossed oars of the Life-Saving Service. “Only a few share that distinction,” Phillips said, “because the year after Ira joined (1939), the two branches were combined within the Coast Guard.”

Carteret County Commissioner Jonathan Robinson mentioned that back in the day, the motto of the U.S. Life-Saving Service was: “You have to go out; you don’t have to come back.”

Fortunately, Ira Lewis is one who came back … and came back … and came back some more.

One of the special recognitions showered on the birthday boy was a congratulatory letter from Admiral Karl Schultz, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. He offered praise to Chief Lewis for his “devotion to duty” and for providing a “legacy of leadership.”

Among the dignitaries attending the ceremony were North Carolina legislators Sen. Norman Sanderson and Rep. Pat McElraft. They presented Chief Lewis with a state flag that was flown over the capitol building in Raleigh.

Rep. McElraft summed it up pretty well when she told Chief Lewis: “We love you.”

And she planted a big smooch on his cheek. Those Ira Lewis blue-blue eyes popped wide open and then gave a wink, as if on cue … and a thumbs up sign.

A Birthday Kinship Bob Vogel, former superintendent of Cape Lookout National Seashore, sent personal birthday wishes to retired Coast Guard Chief Ira Lewis. The note was read at the Coast Guard ceremony by the current superintendent Jeff West.

Vogel, who has advanced to become the director of National Park Service’s Southeast Region, based in Atlanta, Ga., wrote, “Dear Mr. Ira: It may come as a surprise to you that we actually share the same birthday (Aug. 2), although I have a few more years (Continued on page 46)

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ahead of me until I turn 100!

“It’s not just anyone who receives a parade, a luncheon, accolades from hundreds of community members and a tribute from Vice Adm. Dean Lee! “You are indeed a very special man. I am just one of hundreds of people who have been touched by your service to our country, service to our community and service to your family. You have impressed me in so many ways – but the most incredible thing about you is that you can still fit into your U.S. Coast Guard uniform.” (Chief Lewis retired from active duty in 1959.)

“I am honored to call you my friend, and I will always treasure the times we spent together sharing stories. I look forward to seeing you again soon on Harkers Island. Best regards, Bob.” In his current capacity as an National Park Service regional director, Vogel is in charge of 70 sites based in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Harkers Island Boy Returns to His Roots G. Todd Nelson, a Harkers Island native, served as master of ceremonies at the event.

Upon graduation from East Carteret High School, he received an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

He told the audience the story of his very first day. “After taking us inside and shaving our heads, we came back out for the big event … we were standing there, and my mother rushed up and hugged some other kid.”

Nelson survived the embarrassment … and went on to serve 20 years as a Coast Guard officer, rising to the rank of Commander and filling key leadership and command positions. He earned a master’s degree in business from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.

While serving as the second in command at Coast Guard Group Fort Macon, the Coast Guard selected Nelson to attend law school to become a lawyer for the Coast Guard. Subsequently, he graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in the top 10 of his class.

As a member of the Coast Guard Judge Advocate program, Nelson’s law practice included prosecuting criminal cases, providing legal advice on Coast Guard missions and activities and advising Coast Guard service members and their families in their personal legal matters. His legal career in the Coast Guard concluded as the Chief Legal Officer at the Coast Guard Academy.

After the Coast Guard, Nelson “continued his passion for service and helping others” by becoming a teacher in the Carteret County Public School system. He expressed joy for being able to spend the next 11 years of his life “teaching, coaching and leading the area’s youth in the classroom and in life.” In 2016 he opened a law practice in Morehead City, serving all who call Carteret County and Eastern North Carolina home.

Our ‘Coast Guard Community’ Carteret County observed its 3-year anniversary as an official Coast Guard Community this past summer with the dedication of new signage, strategically located adjacent to primary roadways

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

leading into the county.

The new signs contain the words: “Carteret County: An Official Coast Guard Community.” Graphics include the county government seal and the Coast Guard logo. The look is both clean and colorful, as red is a dominant color for both the county and Coast Guard marks.

These new signs complement the existing “Welcome to the Crystal Coast” message and are mounted to the same posts.

The Commandant of the Coast Guard signed the document designating Carteret County as a Coast Guard Community on July 7, 2015, as only the second county in the nation to be so proclaimed.

(Camden County, Ga., was the first, earning its claim to fame on Jan. 23, 2014.)

There are now 24 municipalities across the country that have been declared Coast Guard Cities. These include two in North Carolina – Wilmington (July 25, 2003) and Elizabeth City (May 29, 2015).

The program recognizes those cities and counties that make

“Coast Guard men and women and their families feel at home in their home-away-from-home – an invaluable contribution to morale and service excellence. The Coast Guard is pleased to recognize those communities that have extended so many considerations to the Coast Guard family and their dependents.”

The Carteret County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and its Military Affairs Committee (MAC) took responsibility in 2013 to begin the laborious process of compiling a slew of materials to meet the stringent filing requirements.

It made sense for the Carteret County government to be the entity to submit the formal application, because the Coast Guard has stations and personnel on Bogue Banks – at Fort Macon, located east of the Atlantic Beach, and at Emerald Isle. There was widespread support from local governments and organizations all across the county to endorse the application.

“Chief Ira Lewis definitely provided inspiration to launch the campaign to seek Coast Guard Community status,” said David Heath, a member of the Newport town board, who was chair of the chamber’s MAC at the time.

“The modern U.S. Coast Guard evolved from the U.S. LifeSaving Service and those very first Life-Saving Stations in Carteret County, which were established at Core Banks in 1888, Portsmouth in 1894 and Cape Lookout in 1896,” Heath said.

“Chief Lewis dedicated his entire 21-year active duty career toward doing what Coasties do – protect our nation’s maritime interests in the heartland, in the ports, at sea and around the globe, defend our maritime borders and save those in peril. He personified the Coast Guard motto: ‘Semper Paratus – Always Ready’ for all hazards and all threats.

“Our favorite story is one that was shared by Christina Clements,” Heath said. “A Coast Guard spouse, Christina participated in the MAC and was also a chamber ambassador.”

Her husband is Michael Clements II, who was stationed aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Smilax, the “Queen of the Fleet,” homeported at Fort Macon. The Clements’ first-born child, a boy they named Rylan, was baptized aboard the Smilax on March 16, 2012.

One of the most ardent supporters of the county’s application to become a Coast Guard Community was Judge Doug McCullough of Atlantic Beach. (He retired from the North Carolina Court of Appeals in April 2017.)

He wrote and published “Sea of Greed” in 2008. The book is a true story of the investigation and prosecution of Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega.

“It all began under the cover of darkness on the night of July 7, 1982,” the author said, “when the two-member crew on a Coast Guard patrol boat out of Fort Macon boarded a suspicious shrimp trawler in Beaufort Inlet, setting in motion a chain of events that ended with the U.S. invasion of Panama, the overthrow of Noriega and the biggest drug bust in America.”

Judge McCullough says: “My admiration and respect for the men and women who serve in the Coast Guard is boundless.

The crews based here at Fort Macon and in Emerald Isle are true professionals and are firmly dedicated to serving and protecting our nation. They are heroes and great Americans.

“I am sure that all citizens of our great county will join me as we stand and salute them for their contributions for freedom and justice for all,” Judge McCullough concludes.

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51

IN SEASON

Carolina F Apples story by Amanda Dagnino

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

all in North Carolina can only mean one thing – apple season. For many families, an annual trek to the rolling hills of Henderson County to reap the bounty of the harvest has become a tradition, even for those who live on the coast.

Free of fat, cholesterol and sodium, apples may be the perfect food. At only 100 calories, they pack a nutritional punch. Rich in antioxidants, flavonoids and fiber, an apple a day may really keep the doctor away. Studies have also shown that it may in fact help us lose weight. With four grams of dietary fiber, about 17 percent of the recommended daily allowance, a medium sized apple is also a wise addition to the diet. Plus – they’re just plain good. Rare is the person who doesn’t like apples.

It’s the busy season at Coston Farm & Apple House in Hendersonville, where the fifth generation of Coston’s can be found running around the property. Like many of the farms that dot the mountain landscape, Coston’s also sells a variety of baked goods, cider, apple butter and candy as well as toys and household items. It’s more than picking apples with the family or grabbing a quick bag to go. There are picnic tables and a playground for the kids, a display of antique tractors make a perfect photo op and the rockers that line the porch that runs down the front of the building invite guests to take a load off and rest awhile. It’s a destination.

And that’s exactly what the family hoped to achieve.

According to the Blue Ridge Apple Growers, there are more than 150 apple orchards in Henderson County alone and more than

300 commercial apple operations throughout the state. Overall, North Carolina ranks seventh in apple production in the United States. The elevation, matched with its warm days and cool nights make Henderson County, which sits just near the Continental Divide, the ideal environment. Under normal weather conditions, the apple crop in Henderson County brings in more than $20 million annually.

Traditionally, the farmers would sell their apples directly to factories for processing with very little public interaction. Processing slowly moved out of the area and several large factories closed in the 1990s, including the Gerber factory in nearby Asheville. Farms were forced to change their approach.

“When the building was built back in the early 80s it was from the viewpoint that it would be a packing house, wholesale to retailer,” explained Lola Coston. “It was all open porch and apples were sold on pallets, mainly by the bushel. We’d sell wholesale primarily but, of course, people would come by and buy a bushel to take home for canning and preserving for winter. As the wholesale market changed, the apple growers had to change with it. We had to have an alternative and try to adapt as the market dictated – not just us, but all of the farmers, and most have found their niche.”

A former educator, Coston said she was eager to invite school groups for tours of the farm. They were always a hit and a handful of children would go home and lure their parents back for a visit to the farm over the weekend.

“Agritourism has really come into favor in the last 20 years and we see people now who want to come and spend the afternoon instead of coming by and grabbing some apples and going along their way,” said Coston. “Everything came together slowly – the gift shop area, the smaller bags. We developed recipes that have been handed down from favorite aunts and grandparents and began selling items which quickly became popular.”

And it’s still a work in progress, Coston said. But as the landscape has changed for apple growers, the family has been able to keep pace with that change.

“We are very blessed,” she said. “We have a lot of family support and we’re fortunate to have our children and grandchildren nearby.

You know how they say that it takes a village – well, it takes a village to be an apple seller, too.”

And as business has changed, so have the varieties of apples, which can be almost overwhelming. Popular currently at the Mutso, Cameo and Pink Lady – apples that aren’t necessarily lining the bins at the corner grocery store. At most sellers, however, samples are available making it easy to choose the perfect apples.

Of course you can’t go wrong with a Granny Smith, Winesap or a Honeycrisp for that perfect pie. Fujis, which are tart with just enough sweetness to make them versatile, are good for both baking and eating. If you’re looking for something sweet, try a Cortland or the popular Red Delicious which are perfect right from the tree.

When shopping, look for apples that are firm and free of bruises. Once you get them home, apples will live happily in the refrigerator, preferably in a plastic bag, for about two weeks. For larger quantities, find a cool, dark space with good air circulation, like a garage or cellar. While look great on the counter, according to the Blue Ridge Apple Growers apples stored at room temperature will soften about 10 times faster than those that are refrigerated.

Can’t eat them fast enough? The only option is to try out a few good recipes to find additional ways to make apples part of your daily diet.

Apple Cobbler

8 large tart apples, peeled & sliced 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon 2 large eggs 3/4 tsp salt

2 3/4 cup sugar 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder 2/3 cup butter, melted

Directions Heat oven to 350°. Evenly place sliced apples in ungreased 13x9inch baking dish. Mix 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in bowl and sprinkle over apples. Combine remaining cinnamon, flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder and salt in bowl. Mix until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apples. Pour melted butter over topping and bake 45-55 minutes, until lightly browned and apples are tender.

Apple Cake

1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup buttermilk 2 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup oil 1 egg 1 tsp baking soda 1 1/2 cups apples, chopped

Topping: 1/2 cup sugar 1 tbsp butter

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions Preheat oven to 325. Blend all ingredients except white sugar, cinnamon and butter, and pour batter into a greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle evenly over batter. Bake for 45 minutes.

Cinnamon Apple Chips

4 apples, cored and sliced 2 tsp sugar, if needed

2 tsp cinnamon Cooking spray

Directions Preheat oven to 200. Place sliced apples to a large bowl and toss in cinnamon and sugar. Spray a baking sheet and place apples flat on pan in an even layer, not overlapping. Bake about 2 1/2 hours until the chips are dry, but soft. Allow apples to air cool completely. Store in an air tight container.

Apple Dumplings

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 tbsp chopped pecans Zest and juice of 1 lemon 1 large egg

4 small tart apples 1/4 cup raisins 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 4 tsp butter 1 tbsp water

Glaze: 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar 1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsp butter

Directions For the dumplings: Preheat the oven to 375. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll pastry into a 12-inch square and cut into four 6-inch squares. Peel and core apples, and place one on each pastry square. In a bowl, mix brown sugar, raisins, pecans, cinnamon and lemon zest. Pile some of the mixture into the hollowed-out core of each apple. Top each with a teaspoon of butter. Whisk egg and water for a wash and brush the edges of the pastry square before folding over each apple. Press to seal. Brush with remaining egg wash and bake about 30 minutes, until apples are tender and pastry is golden.

For the glaze: Mix confectioners’ sugar, butter, lemon juice and 1/4 cup water in a small pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Brush on baked dumplings.

(Continued on page 54) NCCOAST.COM

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(Continued from page 53)

Apple-Cranberry Chicken

2/3 cup grape jelly 2 tbsp butter or margarine 1 large red cooking apple, cut into 2-inch chunks 1 medium stalk celery, sliced 1/2 cup fresh cranberries 3/4 cup Bisquick mix 1/2 tsp ground sage 3/4 tsp chopped fresh thyme 2 tbsp water 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Directions Heat oven to 350°. In saucepan, melt jelly and butter over medium heat. Stir in apple, celery and cranberries and remove from heat. In a shallow dish, mix Bisquick, sage and thyme. In another shallow dish, place water. Dip chicken into water, then coat with Bisquick mixture.

Spray skillet with cooking spray and cook chicken about 8 minutes, until coating is brown. Place chicken in ungreased 13x9 baking dish and spoon cranberry mixture over chicken. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until juice of chicken is clear.

Apple & Bacon Sandwiches 8 slices sourdough 12 slices cheddar 1 sweet apple, thinly sliced 3 tbsp mayonnaise

4 tbsp Dijon mustard 1 Granny Smith apple, sliced 12 slices bacon, cooked

Directions Spread mustard on one slice of bread and add three slices of cheddar, 4 to 5 apple slices, and three pieces cooked bacon. Top with another piece of bread. Repeat to make three more sandwiches.

Spread outsides of each sandwich with a thin layer of mayo. Grill over medium heat until sides are golden brown and cheese is melted.

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

CELEBRATING 90 YEARS

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57

Wool Works

HOME & GARDEN For eons, wool has been helping humans navigate the chilly landscape of winter. Scientists have found the warm fibers were woven into cloth in England as far back as the Bronze Age. The processed wool we know and love today, is quite a bit different than the raw wool of our ancestors. It has been scoured and carded, combed and spun into a yarn that is ideal for that perfect winter sweater.

New England was the first part of the country to develop a shearing and weaving industry – no doubt in response to the region’s harsh winters. Due to its popularity, however, there is never a surplus of wool in the United States. In fact in order to keep up with demand, more than 70 percent of manufacturers must import wool from other countries.

Despite its great insulation properties, wool has two things working against it. First – it can be challenging to care for – it requires special care and is prone to shrinkage. And then, of course, there is the itch factor which comes from the scaly exterior of the wool fibers. As everyone knows, not all wool is created equal, some fibers are softer than others, some are thicker and some are just plain luxurious. Overall, however, it is soft and warm, strong and sustainable and is used for everything from carpets and upholstery to blankets and socks. More recently, wool pads have been created to assist in oil spills, proving yet again how incredibly versatile the fabric is.

Types Wool – Today the term is used generically to describe any textile fiber that comes from a variety of animals, including sheep, goats and rabbits.

Lambswool – Refers to the pure, soft wool harvested the very first time a lamb is sheared, usually when they’re just a few months old. The wool is extra soft and is resistant to wrinkles.

Merino – Comes from merino sheep, which has a finer strand and smaller exterior scales – this translates to less piling and a softer, silkier finish.

Cashmere – Like merino, cashmere is a very fine fiber that creates lighter fabrics less likely to be itchy. Often seen as one of the more superior types of wool, cashmere doesn’t hail from sheep at all, but rather is trimmed form the soft downy undercoat on mountain goats. Traditionally only from cashmere goats, it is now harvested from a variety of breeds.

Pashmina – The word has come to represent super soft cashmere wool which hails from goats in the highest reaches of the Himalaya Mountains. It is often used for shawls which are still handspun and woven in parts of India.

Mohair – Shiny, soft and silky – mohair comes from the angora goat (which is easily confused with the angora rabbit). Like other wools, it doesn’t have any scales, thus producing a durable, soft fabric that is easy to dye and has a beautiful sheen.

Angora – This beautifully soft, lightweight, fluffy fiber doesn’t come from a sheep or a goat – it comes from the angora rabbit. In recent years, animal cruelty concerns about the harvesting of the wool have been raised by animal activist groups.

Alpaca – Durable and soft, alpaca has become more popular in the United States in recent years.

Containing no lanolin, it is considered hypoallergenic and it comes naturally in a variety of colors.

Care As with any fabric, it’s always important to read the care instructions in the garment before cleaning. Generally speaking, though, most wool products will do just fine on the wool or handwashing cycle of the washing machine with a gentle laundry soap.

To dry, shape and lay the garment flat on a dry, clean towel, away from direct sun and heating vents. A good dry cleaning is recommended once a year or so. Have some shrinkage? Experts recommend that some shrinking can be reversed by soaking the item for about 15 minutes in lukewarm water with a capful of hair conditioner.

Careful squeeze out excess water and lay on a towel to dry, slowly stretching it back into shape.

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Celebrat ing the season

Candlelight in

A

ll is calm and bright in Susan Creighton’s Edenton home, despite the grey drizzle outside. She settles into a cozy leather chair in front of her Christmas tree, already decorated and lit up in honor of the town’s annual Christmas Candlelight Tour, which is to begin that evening. By all rights her surroundings should be nearly frantic with activity, since she is co-chairing the event – but the only thing on her agenda is few last-minute arrangements made by phone.

“It’s like a wedding,” she confides. They’ve done all the planning, and now it’s going to happen, whether they are completely ready or not. On this weekend, the town’s population swells, its inns and restaurants fill, and its citizens welcome visitors from around the state.

Edenton is a village seated comfortably on the edge of the westernmost part of the Albemarle Sound. Its water, Spanish moss and historic houses are what initially drew Susan to the town almost 40 years ago. To her, they echoed her native Savannah. It seems that every resident plays some part in the weekend’s events –

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

Edenton

story & photos by Megan Dohm

volunteers have decorated the bridge with Christmas lights, baked massive batches of cookies, offered their horses and carriages and buses for free tourist transportation, and set up tents to shelter the candlelight crowds. For the days of the tour the entire town has been polished to a warm glow and the historic buildings draped in period-appropriate decorations by the Edenton Garden Club.

Since the official tour doesn’t start until 4pm, there is plenty of opportunity to explore daylight hours.

The Penelope Barker House is at the very end of main street, right on the water. Part museum, part gift shop and part tourism center, here you will find all the information you need for navigating the hamlet’s streets. You can also register for the tour here and sample the Edenton Historical Commission’s famous, deceptively sweet-but-potent eggnog from a silver punchbowl.

Susan admits they have had to restrict guests to one small glass after several “incidents.”

Follow the waterfront to find the Roanoke River Lighthouse, restored to its former glory and decorated simply for the bachelor’s Christmas that was common amongst lighthouse keepers. Across

the street is the symmetrical garden of the Cupola House, built in 1758 by a land agent who turned out to be corrupt and was kidnapped by an outraged band of clients who held him in the next town over until he promised to return the stolen funds (such are the newsy tidbits you will hear if you take the locally-guided trolley tour).

Swing open the heavy door of the Cupola House and the first thing that will brush your senses is the scents – first cloves and oranges, then steaming bowls of the world’s best wassail, then fresh greenery. If Christmas has a smell, this is it. The home has been restored to reflect the time of its more upstanding owner from 1777 onwards, Doctor Dickinson. Depending on the time of day you visit, live music may meet you as you walk up the stairs to view the Dickinson family’s recreated living space.

Just down the road, past the old church on the left and the post office on the right, is the Iredell House, home of the youngest man nominated to the original Supreme Court by George Washington. Tour the house, listen in on some skillful harpsichord playing and grab a snack off the Groaning Board (an antique buffet christened after the groaning sound it makes when laden with goodies).

Folks hungry for a full meal may want to stop in at the old drugstore on Broad Street for a sandwich and catching up on local goings-on from whoever is sitting next to you at the counter. Back near the waterfront, the historic courthouse hosts tours during daylight hours and caroling after dark. As the darkness falls and the caroling begins, the Candlelight Tour officially kicks off as well.

Trams escort visitors to the selected neighborhood (in 2017, it was homes on the sound – 2018 will feature historic homes near West Queen Street). Once there, a trail of people and flickering luminaries lead guests on the short walk from house to house.

When the tour started almost 40 years ago, a grand total of 75 people trekked through the selected abodes. In recent years they have seen as many as 2,300 in one weekend. While other events focus on Edenton’s history, this tour invites visitors into homes for a showcase of decorations, hospitality and visiting.

The houses on display range from tidy cottages to sprawling estates. Whatever the size, guests are welcomed by the homeowner (or a proxy) and filed through a (Continued on page 64) NCCOAST.COM

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designated loop to admire the greenery, lights and the marks of individuality that set each home apart. In one house, a 70-piece snow village lines a hallway on a series of tables – it’s nearing metropolis status, complete with a Starbucks and a taco shop. In other there are pieces of art painted by the owner or collected from the Hudson River Valley. For one homeowner, antiques reign supreme, while for the next, travel relics line the shelves.

One home’s outstanding feature was around back: a chicken coop seasonably strung with lights.

While wandering, visitors may bump into Susan or her cochair Clara Stage soaking in the beauty of their surroundings and thoroughly queen-beeing the situation.

Despite the flurry of activity that is December, kicking off the holiday season with the people of Edenton is well worth the time – and the drive. The town itself is reminiscent of the tabletop snow village – a capsule of old-fashioned buildings with light shining from each window, and people who care for one another and their town in a way that is at once outmoded and timeless. Sure, it is a normal town. There are quibbles and potholes and complaints, but there is also a quality that not many places can duplicate. There is a warmth radiating from the homes and people so merry that guests wish they could carry them with them through the holiday season and into the brave new year ahead.

The 2018 Christmas Candlelight Tour and historic open houses will be held on Dec. 14-15. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 on the days of the tour with discounts available for groups of 10 or more.

For additional information, visit ehcnc.org or visitedenton.com/ december-events.

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Celebrat ing the season

Hometown

A

Holidays

full range of holiday plans are already underway for downtown Morehead City sure to tickle your holiday spirit. From an art walk and chowder competition to the annual flotilla and tree lighting ceremony, Morehead’s collection of holiday events bring the community together in the heart of town.

“There is something for everyone this season in downtown Morehead City,” said Lisa Rueh, executive director of Downtown Morehead City, Inc. “Our businesses and restaurants have been hard at stocking just the right gifts, planning events, booking bands and decorating their businesses to make sure that you will enjoy your visit to downtown this season!”

Art lovers can kick off their holiday celebration from 2-5pm on Saturday, Nov. 24 with the Morehead City Christmas Artwalk.

Galleries and downtown businesses feature special demonstrations, promotions and refreshments. The Artwalk map can be picked up at participating galleries. Walkers are encouraged to stay in the area to shop and dine locally.

Return to the downtown area for a full slate of events on Saturday, Dec. 1, beginning with Breakfast with Santa at Floyd’s 1921 and ending with the annual flotilla. During the afternoon,

enjoy the annual Chowder & Cheer Crawl from 1-5pm at downtown eateries. Restaurant serve samples of both – a little chowder, a little cheer – and guests are asked to vote on their favorites. Tickets are $25 per person and go on sale Oct. 24. Warning – tickets are limited and this is always a sellout.

“Our restaurants really go all out in deciding which chowder to make each year! It is always a close vote for the winning title of who has the best chowder,” said Rueh.

“Chowder & Cheer is such a great event to showcase businesses and restaurants you may not have experienced before. The intent is that you will come back to enjoy these establishments throughout the year.”

Folks can wrap up the evening with carol singing with Santa and Mrs. Claus at 5pm at Jaycee Park, the flotilla boat parade about 5:30pm, slowly cruising its way along the waterfront and the lighting of the town’s official Christmas tree at 6. On Saturday, Dec. 8, the town’s Christmas parade marches down Arendell Street with floats, community groups, bands and jolly old Santa.

Learn more about the events, and purchase tickets, at www. downtownmoreheadcity.com.

Celebrating the Season in Beaufort

T

he Beaufort Historical Association will host its 10th Christmas Candlelight Tour from 5-8pm on Saturday, Dec. 8. The tour showcases Beaufort’s holiday hospitality and provides a rare glimpse into private historic homes, several inns, bed & breakfasts as well as churches, all elegantly decorated for the season.

In 2018, guests will be able to enjoy beautifully decorated private homes ranging in age from the circa 1885 J.B. Jones House to a modern Beaufort Penthouse on Front Street at what once was Mike’s Restaurant and Lodging. These private homes will represent a wide variety of Beaufort’s unique architectural styles from different periods of the town’s history.

The inns and churches on the tour include the Beaufort Inn, Inn on Turner, Beaufort One Harbor Church, The Lodge, Ann Street United Methodist Church, Ann Street Inn, Inlet Inn and Pecan Tree Inn. Also open for the tour this year will be the Cape Lookout National Seashore Visitors Center as well as the Beaufort Historical Association’s Josiah Bell House, circa 1825

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

Tickets and maps of the tour and information on the homes are available at the BHA Visitors Center at 130 Turner St. online at www.beauforthistoricsite.org. Christmas Candlelight Tour tickets are $16 per person. Guests will have the opportunity to stroll through candlelit streets or join the carolers aboard the BHA’s 1967 English double-decker bus for a free ride to their destinations.

Arrive early and enjoy the town’s annual Art Walk from 1-5pm.

The Art Walk begins at the Mattie King Davis Art Gallery located on the Beaufort Historic Site. Pick up a map there and stroll through town to get to know the work of additional artists just in time for Christmas. The Art Walk is free.

The Beaufort Historic Site buildings will also be open for free tours from 2 to 4pm. Those who want to see and learn more about the history of the town can take a narrated tour on the doubledecker bus at 11am and 1:30pm. Tickets for the bus tour are $10 for adults and $5 for children.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, call 252-728-5225 or visit www.beauforthistoricsite.org.

Celebrat ing the season

W

Enchanted Airlie

hile there’s no doubt that Airlie Gardens – the formerly-private botanical showcase purchased by New Hanover County in 1999 – is a treat to visit all year round.

Located in Wilmington, the 67-acre site features a walking path, historic structures, picturesque lakes and manicured gardens are enhanced by special programming and exhibits throughout the year. None of which are as magical as Enchanted Airlie, a near month-long holiday celebration that bathes the garden in holiday lights and invokes the Christmas spirit in young and old alike.

According to Janine Powell, director of donor relations, the annual tour was started in 2005 by board members who were eager to find a way for visitors to enjoy the gardens all year, even if the gardens weren’t in bloom. In place of blooms, the colorful scene is set by creatively displayed holiday lights. Hardscapes and buildings are draped, electric flowers fill the gardens and holiday scenes are set up, all bathed in the colors of the season.

The addition of food vendors – including hot chocolate – and visits by good old St. Nick make this a family-friendly experience that everyone will enjoy. Each year the display grows and adds something new for visitors to enjoy. Last year that came in the shape of a laser tunnel, which will return in 2018.

The walking tour covers about .5 miles so comfortable walking shoes are encouraged and people should dress appropriate for a winter evening. While trams run during regular tours, they are not in operation during Enchanted Airlie. All paths, however, are wheelchair accessible.

This year’s dates include Nov. 23 & 24, Dec. 1 & 2 and then nightly Dec. 7-22. Two tours run each evening, 5-7pm and 7-9pm. Tickets are $30 per carload and must be purchased in advance. They will be available online mid-October.

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

Celebrat ing the season

Masquerade: A Candlelight Christmas

T

ryon Palace, the recreated governor’s palace in New Bern, pulls out all the stops each holiday season, proving once again that the Georgian inspired showplace was the heart of North Carolina’s colonial aristocracy.

Visit with historic characters in period clothing, witness holiday vignettes spanning two centuries, and experience black powder fireworks on the South Lawn. Explore the grounds and buildings of Tryon Palace to travel from 1771 through 1835, and see how New Bern residents from different times celebrated the holidays.

Running from 4:30-9:30pm on two consecutive Saturdays, Dec 8 & 15, Tryon’s Candlelight Christmas is a site-wide event encompassing the palace, the grounds, and the historic houses nearby that help make up the grounds.

For this 38th annual event, each of the structure will showcase a different period in time: Governor’s Palace: 1771 – Experience the beauty, joy, and magic of the holidays as governor and Mrs. Josiah Martin invite guests into their new home for “Masquerade: A Candlelight Christmas Celebration.” To celebrate their first holiday season at Tryon Palace, the Martins are throwing a masquerade ball and guests have come from far and wide to experience a bit of fun and culture with elegant costumes and beautiful decorations based off of the four elements.

Stanly House: 1800-1801 – John and Elizabeth Stanly have recently moved into the impressive house John’s parents built.

It’s time for Elizabeth to put her stamp on the house, but there’s pressure on her to meet New Bern society’s expectations.

Dixon House: 1835 – The Dixon House wasn’t just home to the Dixon family, but also to Dixon’s apprentices. These boys and young men learned the arts and mysteries of tailoring from New Bern’s resident expert.

Commission House: Enjoy a visit with Santa, listen to Christmas music, write a Christmas card to New Bern’s first responders, and create your own Masquerade mask.

While walking around the candlelit grounds, be sure to catch the entertaining circus acts, fire eating, sword swallowing, and acrobatics of the Pickled Brothers Circus, the mysterious magic of 18th-century magician Rodney the Younger, the thrilling balancing act of Signora Bella, the joyous sights and sounds of the Tryon Palace Jonkonnu troupe, and much more.

Food will be available to purchase from food trucks located outside the palace gates and guests can stop by The Plucked Peacock Tavern to grab a seat and enjoy beer, wine and baked goods in a festive holiday setting. Also, warm up with hot cider and cookies from Mack’s Cider House in the Trades Building. Don’t forget to end your enchanted evening with a show of black powder fireworks on the South Lawn.

Holiday decorations at the palace will be up throughout the month of December and available for view on the regular daytime tour. And they’re definitely worth a trip. Boxwood wreaths are embellished with anything colonists would have been able to get

their hands on – holly berries, apples, dried yarrow, pomegranates and pheasant feathers, bouquets are made with oranges and pineapple feathers and rich satin taffeta is woven through garlands that line the mantels. All decorations are designed and constructed on site with the help of staff and an entourage of volunteers.

Candlelight is a rain or shine event, but fireworks may be cancelled during extreme weather conditions. Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for youth and generally sell out early. Learn more at tryonpalace.org.

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71

HISTORY

Preserving History Preservationists and Historians Strive to Gather and Protect the QAR Artifacts

I

story & photos by Megan Dohm

t was a November day in 1717, but it wasn’t the cold that made the French sailors quake. While sailing the warm Caribbean waters near the island of Martinique, their ship – a merchant-turned-slave ship named La Concorde – encountered fearsome enemies. By the end of the day, the majority of La Concorde’s sailors and their human cargo would be set on shore, watching with dismay as their ship disappeared into the horizon. La Concorde underwent some restructuring and was rechristened: she was then the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Six months after her rebirth as a pirate ship, she would be grounded by her captain, Blackbeard. For 278 years, she sat at the bottom of the ocean amongst the sand and silt, waiting to be uncovered.

When nautical archaeologist David Moore found out a copy of his research on the Queen Anne’s Revenge had been given to a treasure hunter, he was livid. Moore recounted his history with the ship in his office in the NC Maritime Museum in Beaufort, where he is now the curator of nautical archaeology. Although he spent his earlier days working on sites and artifacts in Florida, he now makes himself at home under a sloping roof, surrounded by books from floor to ceiling, blueprints, documents and mementos of past travels. It’s an office that would make Indiana Jones proud. By the time his work was handed off, his research had been building for over five years, starting with a school assignment at ECU. The project was writing up a prospectus, a paper delineating the details of an archaeological excavation; where funding would come from, who would work on it, what happened to the artifacts if they discovered a wreck, etc. Not being one for theoretical exercises, Moore put together information that would be necessary in the search for an actual wreck - the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Although he couldn’t get anyone interested in the project at the time, he kept his research alive and well, carrying his QAR file with him any time he visited a new archive. Philip Masters (the late founder and president of Intersal Inc.) first encountered Moore’s prospectus when filing for a state permit to search for a different wreck, El Salvador. He was literally walking out the door when he was called back by Richard Lawrence, then the head of the unit. There were some other 18th century ships Masters should keep an eye out for, Lawrence said, and he handed over a copy of Moore’s prospectus, which Moore himself had filed with the state just in case it should be of interest.

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

Masters read through the prospectus, intrigued by the idea of a pirate ship of such historical significance hidden so close to the coast. After doubling back and doing his own research, he ended up filing for two search permits with the Department of Cultural Resources; one for El Salvador, and one for the Queen Anne’s Revenge. He exchanged several phone calls with Moore (who was warming up to the idea) and other experts over years of getting things lined up for the search. Intersal brought on Mike Daniel - historian and veteran underwater explorer - as their director of operations, and in 1996 all was ready. On November 11, Intersal began surveying the waters around Beaufort Inlet. Just ten days later, on the eve of the anniversary of Blackbeard’s death, Moore received a call from Daniel.

“I think we found your wreck,” he said. “We’re sitting on top of a pile of cannon and a couple of big anchors out here. The cannon look right.”

Throughout twenty years of excavation, the site has continued to look right. Although there has not been one guidepost artifact that can provide a definite identification, as a body the recovered items tell the story historians expected if the ship was truly the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The find was announced to the public in March of 1997, and after a brief media circus, the official QAR Project began. Initially, conservation was based out of Morehead City. The UNC Marine Sciences building hosted a field office, and artifact storage was housed in one of the Carteret County Community College warehouses, where the college had kindly made a space that was tucked safely away from all of the fishing gear and large equipment.

Conditions for the QAR excavations are far from ideal, Kim Kenyon (QAR conservator and field director for the 2015 excavation) explained. On a good day, visibility underwater extends five feet. On the bad days, you can’t see your hand in front of your

face. This visibility issue actually prevented the Intersal team from finding the QAR on their first pass just outside Beaufort Inlet they had sent divers down in the same location, but they could not see the wreck just a few feet away. Visibility aside, a nautical archaeologist is at the mercy of the weather.

Kenyon’s colleague Erik Farrell added, “If you draw a Venn diagram of dive season and hurricane season, it’s a circle.” Oddly enough, hurricane season is still more stable than summer as far as high waves and heavy chop, two factors archaeologists must bow to. The months of all-day expeditions and finicky conditions have been well worth their while. So far, the excavation has uncovered 24 cannons, coin weights, pewter platters and plates, three intact onion-shaped wine bottles (a miracle, since you can pretty much frown at old glass and ruin it), thousands of musket balls, a few fragments of gold and mystery objects, crusted over with concretion and awaiting treatment. All of these objects help give us a better understanding of life aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, but as Moore pointed out, discovery is just the tip of the iceberg.

Each month in the field represents years of work in the lab, with artifacts under the care of Sarah Watkins-Kenney, lab director and chief conservator.

With her level of education and experience (a bachelor’s from Cardiff University, master’s City University in London, a doctorate in the works and 40 years of conservation work, including 10 years with the British Museum), one might expect English born Watkins-Kenney to be what our grandmothers would call “uppity”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Soft-spoken and down to earth, Watkins-Kenney has been leading the conservational charge since 2003. When she joined the project, there was not a proper lab – just a walled-off portion of a warehouse connected to one of ECU’s satellite research campuses outside Greenville.

Thinking through everything from concrete floors to glassware, Watkins-Kenney and her team slowly but surely started pulling the pieces of the lab together. Finding the necessary equipment was a scavenger hunt drawing from a mixture of sources: the original lab, ECU surplus, state surplus and purchase when there was enough funding. Because the research campus is in a designated wetland (affectionately referred to as The Swamp), they had to put a plan into place for waste disposal; nothing could simply go down the drain. After months of work, the lab was ready for the QAR project, which moved in fall of 2003. The following January, ECU – who Watkins-Kenney says has been wonderful throughout the whole process – put on a dedication, complete with a ribbon cutting and

cake. Since then, the team has been doing the everyday work that is required for extraordinary discoveries.

A mountain of paperwork is part of the daily routine of anyone in an academic pursuit. For Watkins-Kenney this includes grantwriting to make sure the project stays funded and communications with people up the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources chain in Raleigh, while for other members of the lab like Kenyon and Farrell it means typing up status reports about ongoing projects. Paperwork aside, each day conservators are working to remove concretion (a hard shell that forms around iron artifacts, and anything that happened to be near them). Whatever the size of a concretion, Farrell says that it gets broken down with the same tool, which is basically a miniature jackhammer with a tip the size of a ballpoint pen. Since a cannon could take up to six months with someone working on it for hours each day, the tool’s buzzing and a brackish but not unpleasant scent fill the lab at any given hour.

After concretion removal, artifacts have to go through the process of desalination – removing all of the salt the items have soaked in after three hundred years in Beaufort Inlet. If conservators were to simply remove the concretion and let the artifact dry out, the artifact would crumble into a salty pile of dust a few days later.

The process looks different depending on whether or not the artifact is metal, but the common ground is that the artifact must stay submerged in water, and that the process is gradual (a cannon can take up to seven years). Checking on the salt/chloride content of artifacts in desalination tanks is all part of the weekly happenings for the conservators.

The work of archaeological conservation – particularly for artifacts found underwater – is an interdisciplinary labor of love.

Just for finding the site, there had to be a mixture of history, cartography, geography and mathematics. In the lab, conservation is a mesh of minding the historical record and applying science.

“It’s great because it’s archeology and history, but you’re actually dealing with artifacts,” Watkins-Kenney said. “But to deal with artifacts, you have to have a science background to understand what’s happening to them and what you need to do.”

Take wood, for example. The team has one large piece of the Queen Anne’s Revenge - most of the rest of it was broken down by the warm water before she was discovered. If the lab’s team were to only bring it through the desalination process, the wood would become a mangled mess. Understanding what is going on with the (Continued on page 74)

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artifact down to a cellular level allows them to treat it properly, by impregnating it with a substance that will prevent the cells from shriveling up, keeping the wood as strong as it can be and ready for study. Each artifact passes through many hands and many spheres of knowledge. The career path of every conservator working on the QAR is a winding one with stops in different disciplines and other projects, but their combined experiences weave together into a tapestry of knowledge and ability – and contacts to call when they come across a surprise.

During a seemingly routine cleaning out of a cannon chamber, Erik Farrell found something he didn’t think was possible on a centuries-old shipwreck: mixed in with a black muck, he found fragments of paper. Farrell reacted as any self-respecting historian or conservator should: he swore profusely, then called Kenyon over for a second opinion. Since paper is delicate, it was imperative to treat it quickly and correctly. On the advice of paper conservators, they carefully separated the pages and allowed them to dry. This ran against the grain of how to preserve any other artifact, so much so that Farrell spent precious minutes going back and forth with the paper people, double and triple checking that they really meant what they said – but it worked. How does paper survive almost three hundred years underwater in the first place?

“It shouldn’t.” Farrell said. He went on to explain, “It’s pretty well sealed off. It must have been basically water tight for a while, and had time to concrete over without any kind of water flowing through there, and it must have been buried fairly quickly and not really gotten oxygen in. It’s a really particular set of circumstances to have this happen.”

Kenyon added that although they can’t confirm that the pages were in a book that was actually read by the pirates, the surrounding research revealed reading to be a common skill shared by sailors, challenging the stereotype of the uneducated runaway mariner.

After pouring over wills, court records and legal documents Watkins-Kenney found that when ordinary seamen passed away, they would leave behind their sea chest with their most precious earthly belongings – and often the chests were full of books. While Watkins-Kenney researched the reading habits of sailors, Kenyon took on the task of identifying the book the fragments came from.

She had a few clearly identifiable words, sixteen scraps of paper the size of a quarter or smaller, and literally volumes of reading through 17th and 18th century books, searching for the twin in print. After months of scouring everything she could get her hands on, Kenyon was typing up her report to say that the investigation was ongoing when she decided to double check a couple of books, one last time. She found her source: The first edition of A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World, Perform’d in the Years 1708, 1709, 1710, and 1711 by Captain Edward Cooke. The page fragments provide the first archaeological evidence of books aboard Blackbeard’s ship, and will help give historians a better idea of the life he lead. With the papers safely in the hands of conservators at the state archives (where they will undergo further testing and treatment), the crew at the QAR lab can turn their attention to upcoming projects.

In addition to her normal work of keeping the lab running, Watkins-Kenney is beginning to rework the QAR Project’s management plan to chart a course for a venture’s direction, priorities and approach – the one they are using has lasted since

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

1999, and Watkins-Kenney is hoping that the updated version will guide them through another 20 years of work and discovery. One looming task is to finish the excavation of the ship, which still has 40 percent of her contents on the ocean floor. At a depth of about 21 feet, the remnants of the Queen Anne’s Revenge are in relatively shallow water.

“Blackbeard had it for six months. Six months!” she repeats for emphasis. The ship was sailing for roughly seven years before that, and yet due to her infamous last owner she is not really seen for her whole history. Watkins-Kenney is excited to peel back the layers and see what the ship can tell us about herself, about the sailors and enslaved who lived aboard her for the years before Blackbeard, along with the world during Blackbeard’s era.

“It’s also interesting because you get things that they took from other ships as well, so there’s things on it from all over the world.

So it’s not just a North Carolina story, and that’s actually what’s so interesting is because a lot of people think shipwrecks are like time capsules. But that’s thinking of a ship as only itself. But in fact, a ship is like a keyhole, it’s like a window to the whole world, because they traveled. They give you a glimpse of the whole, the global picture, not just a little time capsule.”

This more complete picture of Blackbeard’s world is an emphasis of the newly-expanded Queen Anne’s Revenge exhibit at the Beaufort Maritime Museum. As 2018 holds the 300th anniversary of both the Queen Anne’s Revenge wreck and Blackbeard’s death, new landmarks and educational opportunities have opened across the state, showcasing the pirate and his impact on the state. Just

in time to mark the anniversary of the QAR stranding in June, a historical marker was placed outside Fort Macon, and the Maritime Museum hosted a symposium on the Queen Anne’s Revenge, her notorious owner and crew, and opened its extended exhibit.

The 850 additional square feet and broadened view of the world in which Blackbeard and crew lived will provide an experience rich with both specifics and context - and artifacts, of course. The archeologist/historian’s perspective is that these treasures are not meant to be hoarded securely away from view. They are meant to be shared, to let the public can enjoy their shared heritage, and to pique the interest of the next generation of readers, historians, explorers, archaeologists and conservators. As David Moore said, “We will be finding answers to questions for the next 20 to 25 years. Because so much of the material has either not been recovered yet, or what has been recovered, the vast majority of that is still locked up in concretion. And so that’s just going to take a lot of time to process. So there will be answers to questions we haven’t even thought of, that we haven’t even asked yet.” As questions and answers continue to fly we slip closer to a more robust understanding of the past, of its attitudes and ways of life - and therefore a better understanding of ourselves and the world we live in today.

The QAR Project Lab offers free tours at 10:00 and 2:00 the first Tuesday of every month. Call Lab Manager Courtney Page (252-744-6721) to register for a tour. For more information visit qaronline.org. For more on the Queen Anne’s Revenge exhibit, visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com.

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16 Atlantic Station, Atlantic Beach (252)247-7210

Featuring: Crystal Coast ‘Destination’ T-Shirts • Tide Clocks • Seaglass Jewelry Seaside signs & Wall Art • Gourmet Jam, Jellies, Sauces and Salsas Great Selection of Hats & Tote Bags • New Indoor & Outdoor Pillows Beautiful Yarns and & Knitting Supplies

since 1992

OPEN DAILY FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER & COCKTAILS The Clamdigger Restaurant is a tradition here on the Crystal Coast. We continue to offer some of the freshest seafood available, and we are also offering some healthier choices for breakfast, lunch, and daily specials. We also offer weekly dinner specials that feature our Calabash style seafood.

The Cutty Sark lounge has some of the best drinks in the area, all made right here with a terrific view of the ocean. Live entertianment starting Memorial day weekend through Labor day weekend on Friday & Saturday nights. Tiki bar open seasonally.

Open 7am-2pm Tues- Sunday

Dinner: 5pm-9pm Tues-Sat

To Go Orders 252-247-4155

RESTAURANT

Located inside The Inn at Pine Knoll Shores 511 Salter Path Road, Pine Knoll Shores, NC 28512

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77

This Southern Life

Carolina Gives Birth to Soda Stalwarts

W

orld War I had a dramatic impact on the soft drink industry in North Carolina. The war years presented a hardship to Pepsi-Cola but opened a window of opportunity for Cheerwine.

Pepsi was created in 1893 in New Bern by Caleb Davis Bradham, who owned a pharmacy downtown. At first, it was simply called “Brad’s Drink,” a flavored sugar-water sold at the soda fountain.

By 1898, the beverage had become known as Pepsi-Cola, as Bradham professed the drink with its secret ingredients was more than a refreshment but also aided digestion, known as dyspepsia.

Everything was going swimmingly for Bradham in the new 20th century. He formally formed the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1902, and by 1910, there were 240 Pepsi bottling franchises in 24 states. The company was on the move.

Beginning about 1917, however, during the peak of World War I, sugar rationing in the United States took a big bite out of Pepsi profits. The company tried using other sweeteners to make its syrup, but the taste was always inferior to the original. The future looked bleak.

About the same time, along came Cheerwine, a new soft drink product with a unique flavor.

When Kentucky’s Maysville Syrup Company, the producer of Mint Cola, went bankrupt, Lewis D. Peeler bought the company and moved it to his hometown of Salisbury in 1917.

That same year, Peeler purchased a recipe for a black cherry flavored soda from a St. Louis salesman who had come calling.

The formula was high in carbonation but low in sugar, ideal during the wartime sugar shortage. Peeler named his new beverage Cheerwine. “Cheer” was for the pleasure it induced, and “wine” was for its deep red or burgundy wine-like color.

After the World War I ended in 1918, sugar prices in the United States initially soared from 3 cents to 28 cents per pound. Pepsi’s Bradham gambled that sugar would only go up in price, so he purchased a vast inventory of sugar at top-dollar.

As the market corrected itself, Bradham realized he was in a serious bind and could not dig out. Pepsi-Cola went bankrupt in 1923. Assets were sold to Craven Holding Corporation. A merger with Old Dominion Beverage Company of Richmond, Va., formed the new Pepsi-Cola Corporation.

Over the years, the new Pepsi company soldiered on, becoming an international corporation, far exceeding its Southern raising.

So be it. Cheerwine, however, has stayed loyal to the South and takes great pride in being “the oldest continuing soft drink company still run by the same family.”

Peeler’s great-grandson, Cliff Ritchie is now running the show as CEO at Cheerwine. He said the company gets no respect as a soft drink manufacturer, because people think Cheerwine is some sort of a wine product. In 1992, The Wall Street Journal reported federal regulators “were accusing Cheerwine of encouraging teens to drink alcohol. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms quickly backed off after a preliminary investigation. A bureau spokesman

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

story by Mike Wagoner

acknowledged, “Cheerwine is wine like root beer is beer.”

Cheerwine’s centennial celebration in 2017 reveled in the fact that consumers in all 50 states across America now had access to Cheerwine products.

Jimmy Tomlin, writing for Our State magazine, doesn’t have the same enthusiasm for Cheerwine’s expansion. He said: “Here in North Carolina, we can’t help but feel a little possessive when it comes to Cheerwine, and that’s especially true for those of us who grew up drinking it. We’re proud to claim it as our own, and we’re not sure we want to share what we have … with anyone else.”

“Even as the soft drink reached all 50 states, there’s one thing we can claim about our Cheerwine that the rest of the country cannot. It tastes like home. It tastes like North Carolina,” he said.

Cheerwine has diversified. The company has teamed with Food Lion, the Salisbury-based grocery chain, to introduce Cheerwine ice cream products in Food Lion super markets, Childers noted.

Furthermore, she said, every now and then, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, also rooted in North Carolina, will produce a batch of Cheerwine Kreme doughnuts to sell in its stores for limited time.

Another North Carolina Staple Krispy Kreme Doughnuts came to Winston-Salem in 1937, relocating from Paducah, Ky. At age 18, Vernon Carver Rudolph went to work in a Paducah doughnut shop owned by his uncle who had purchased the business in 1933 from a French chef from New Orleans named Joe LeBoeuf. With the assets came the secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe. Seeking a larger market in which to base their operations, the family first moved its doughnut company to Nashville, Tenn.

In 1937, Rudolph set out on his own and arrived in WinstonSalem, where he rented a building across from Salem Academy and College in what is now historic Old Salem. His plan was to sell exclusively to grocery stores … but they smelled so good.

People began stopping by the little factory to ask if they could buy hot doughnuts. The demand was so great that Rudolph opened a retail business by cutting a hole in the wall and selling doughnuts directly to customers, marking the beginning of Krispy Kreme’s retail service. (It may have been America’s first “walk-up window.”)

Here’s the essence of Krispy Kreme: The dough goes through the company’s proprietary air-pressurized extruder and gets formed into perfect rings, which then must “proof ” for about 30 minutes.

Proofing occurs in the proof box as the doughnut shapes circulate up and down and round and round at a temperature between 95° to 100°.

Then, the doughnuts are allowed to dry off at least 5 minutes before frying. They are floated into shortening that has been heated to 375° for about 1 minute, before being mechanically flipped to let the underside attain a golden brown color.

Next comes the parade of doughnuts through the Krispy Kreme waterfall of warm sugar glaze. The chief baker commands that the “hot doughnuts” neon sign be flashed on, and everyone who is connected online begins streaming to their nearest store.

Experience North Carolina’s First State Capitol

252-639-3500 www.tryonpalace.org

Governor’s Palace • Gardens • NC History Center

252-639-3500 | www.tryonpalace.org Governor’s Palace • Gardens • NC| History Center

&

Up Coming Here, Birdy!

BHA Fall Events

The NC Coastal Federation is hosting its Fall Birding Cruises on the White Oak River from 10am-noon on Sunday, Sept.

16, Oct. 21 and Nov. 18. The popular cruises are led by local birding expert and federation board member, JoAnne Powell.

The two-hour cruises, aboard a covered ferry boat, will move through estuaries of the White Oak River and Bogue Sound and participants will have a chance to identify resident and migratory shorebirds, warblers, raptors and waterfowl. Participants will meet at the Hammocks Beach State Park Visitor Center in Swansboro at 9:45am and are asked to bring their own binoculars, as well as water and a snack. Be sure to dress for the weather. The program fee is $25. Visit nccoast. org/events to register, or call 252393-8185.

The Beaufort Historical Association is hosting a pair of events on Saturday and Sunday Nov. 17-18, sure to set the holiday tone for area residents.

From 9am-4pm on Saturday, Nov. 17, the BHA hosts its annual Jumble Sale, which transforms the historic site into an old-fashioned community market filled with vendors selling a wide variety of wares. Visitors can expect to find antiques and collectibles, fine art, pottery, crafts, holiday items, handmade jewelry, candles, books, homemade food and more.

Held rain or shine, it’s a great opportunity for holiday shoppers to find that one-of-a-kind gift and special bargains all in one location.

On Sunday, Nov. 18, the site changes the pace with its annual Community Thanksgiving Feast from 11:30am-1pm. The unique oldfashioned gathering of friends, neighbors and visitors allows participants to enjoy a sense of community while sharing a grand Thanksgiving spread donated by Beaufort restaurants.

For more information about either of these events, call the Beaufort Historical Association at 252-728-5225 or visit www. beauforthistoricsite.org.

Fall-ing for Chili The annual NC Chili Festival be held on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 19-20 in Havelock, and has a long history of raising funds to give to local nonprofit organizations in the community.

The festival is held at Walter B. Jones Park, Havelock and covers a two-day span of events and entertainment. In addition to the competitions and live music there will be arts and crafts, food and live entertainment throughout the festival grounds each day, along with displays from MCAS Cherry Point and the City of Havelock.

Crystal Coast Con The science fiction and gaming community is gearing up for the fourth Crystal Coast

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CAROLINA SHORE • FALL/WINTER 2018

Con. The convention will be held on Saturday, Oct. 13 at Mac Daddy’s in Cape Carteret. The one-day event is packed with door prizes, costume contests and sci-fi vendors.

Celebrity guests for this year’s convention include Hannah Levien from “Supernatural” and “The Magicians,” Rick Mora from “Twilight” fame, Bill Blaire from multiple “Star Trek” films and others. The event includes meet and greets, workshops, tournaments, giveaways and more throughout the day. The Crystal Coast Con runs from

10am-6pm and tickets are $20 in advance. Check out www. crystalcoastcon.com for a complete schedule of events.

Flying High On Oct. 27-28, the Carolina Kite Fest takes flight over the beach at Sands Villa, Atlantic Beach, thanks to its longtime organizer, Kites Unlimited. This free event brings kite enthusiasts from around the country to enjoy our uplifting fall breeze and mild temperatures. The festival runs from 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday, with a night fly slated for Saturday, weather permitting. Spectators can see kites of all shapes and sizes soar through the salty air.

As long as the wind cooperates, everything from team flying, extreme ascensions and drops, dragons, facets/boxes, sky skimmers and more are demonstrated. Youngsters will even have a chance to make a kite of their own – and if they’re lucky, catch a few tips from the pros. Be sure to take a camera, kite or both and watch these kites speckle the sky with color, size and creativity. For more information, call Kites Unlimited at 252-247-7011.

Down East Decoys Celebrating the heritage and craftsmanship of the region, Down East is host to two events kicking off the month of December. The annual Core Sound Decoy Festival and Waterfowl Weekend, both held the first weekend of the month, are the perfect events to learn more about the rural region of

Carteret County and check out the local artisans.

There is no shortage of talent, food or excitement at the Decoy Festival, held at the island’s only school, Harkers Island Elementary. The festival runs from 9am-5pm on Saturday, Dec. 1 and from 10am-4pm on Sunday, Dec. 2. The event features silent and live auctions, raffle tickets, competitions and the reason for the event, about 100 vendors and exhibitors. The annual festival is sponsored by the Core Sound Decoy Carvers Guild and more information can be found on its website at www. decoyguild.com.

At the end of the island, the fun continues with Waterfowl Weekend at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center. The museum opens its doors for two days of demonstrations, including boat building, decoy carving, live music, rtists and exhibitors, educational displays and programs, competitions and

Core Sound seafood. For more information about Waterfowl Weekend, call 252-728-1500.

Splash into 2019 Daring enough to brave the cold? Take a plunge in the Atlantic Ocean for a good cause.

The annual Penguin Plunge begins at 1pm on Tuesday, Jan. 1 in front of the Crab’s Claw restaurant, Atlantic Beach. This year, funds raised will be donated to Mile of Hope. The last Plunge was a chilly one indeed. About 350 participants raced into the 44°ocean with a wind chill of 16.5°. Registration is available on the website (www.penguinplunge.org) to help reduce long registration lines on the day of the event.

WinterFeasting As the campus looks forward to a new year, Tryon Palace swings back the doors to the NC History Center for a deep winter fundraiser. WinterFeast celebrates some of those things

we love most about the season, comfort foods and oyster roasts. Join chefs from around New Bern for a hearty down home buffet of steamed oysters, shrimp and grits, chowders and other seasonal favorites. This is a great chance to sample the fare of a wide variety of the area’s eateries and support the supportive Tryon Palace Foundation in a relaxed, casual setting.

WinterFeast is held at the NC History Center from 5:30-8:30pm on Friday, Jan. 25. This indoor/outdoor event gives guests the freedom to stay warm and toasty amidst the restaurant booths or socialize outside on Bate Commons at the oyster tables with picturesque views of the Trent River. Tickets may be purchased online at www.tryonpalace.org/foundation, by phone at 252-639-3500 or at the Tryon Palace ticket desk.

Celebrating Chocolate Each year confectioners from around the region come together for a weekend dedicated to chocolate. The annual Carolina Chocolate Festival takes over the Crystal Coast Civic Center Feb. 2-3 with vendors offering all things chocolate. Expect the ooey gooey confection in all shapes and forms, including a chocolate fountain, chocolatecovered fruit, cakes, truffles, tortes, bars, ice cream and cocoa beans. Sample and shop at a variety of vendors all with one common denominator – chocolate. The festival gives folks the opportunity to get hands on through everything from

baking competitions to chocolate pudding eating contests to the popular Chocolate Spa. The festival kicks off with the Cocoa 5K Fun Run, planned for 8am on the campus of Carteret Community College on Saturday, Feb. 2. Participants may register onsite prior to the race or in advance by visiting carolinachocolatefestival.com.

E.I. Marathon Get your running shoes ready and shake off the winter blues by prepping for the popular Emerald Isle Marathon on Saturday, March 30. This event begins and ends at the Western Ocean Regional Access and includes the full 26.2-mile marathon course; a 13.1-mile half-marathon run; as well as a 5K. Courses wind through various neighborhoods in the scenic western end of Carteret County before looping back to the beach access. Those interested can register via www.emeraldislerun.com or runsignup.com.

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