Tag Archive | Lincolnton NC
Muscadines
The pop and a burst of juice make muscadines one of the traditional treats of late summer As published in Carolina Country, September 2013 Ray Hoffman, my father and muscadine mentor, has been cultivating his passion for muscadines all of his life. Even though arthritis sometimes limits the time he can spend in direct care, […]
Blackberry Winter, THEN Spring
Published in the Lincoln Herald, April 2, 2013 My aunt, Mary Rhyne, relied on the sun and moon signs to tell her when to plant, a worn copy of Blum’s Almanac always by the phone. She also tracked foggy mornings in August to declare the number of snowy days we would have in the coming […]
Norman and Brenda Helms Make Molasses the Old-time Way
As published in the Lincoln Herald, Oct. 16, 2012 Is it the romance of doing things the way our parents and grandparents did it, or is it out of respect for them that we do some things the same way they did? Maybe it’s as simple as nature and the change of seasons that compels […]
Ray Hoffman Shares the Fruit of the Vine
As published in the Lincoln Herald, September 21, 2012 Even though the biscuits were fresh from the oven, 10-year-old John Ray wasn’t answering his mother’s calls to supper. He was high in a tree eating wild muscadines. When one of his older sisters was sent to fetch him, the only indication of his hidden location […]
Railways, Boarding Houses, and Ham
When trains were the only mass transportation, commerce was dependent on the rails for both freight and workers. So the workers came from everywhere to work in the cotton mills, and there were many in the area around the turn of the century. The Carolina and North-Western Railroad ran from Chester, SC, to Lenoir, NC, […]
The Tale of the Tale – Serving Stories With Biscuits and Bacon
As published in Lincoln County View, November 2012 Returning to Lincolnton after 30 years away can be a bit like entering a different dimension. For example, I’m learning that in Lincolnton, my hometown and home to some of the greatest people on earth, the truth is never quite what it seems. Soon after I moved […]
Home on Walker Branch 