- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 4,360
My voice leaves me around this time of year, those who talk to me on the phone normally ask if I am sick. “Its Fair time” I reply. I’ve worked the NC State fair in the honeybee exhibit for about 3 years now. Every day I climb into a cage full of our favorite little pollinators, and talk about bees while working the hive, while educating the public with bee and stinging insect facts. Now, the first year I started this at the fair, I remember taking a break outside, and between all the farm animal smells and the grease from the fair rides, I caught a faint smell of a camp fire. Trying my hardest to locate it, I soon found myself in the “village of yesteryear” section, where two camp fires were set up and various cast iron cookware was strewn all about the are. Behind the flames, tending to the fire and carry’in on, was a demonstrative southern lady by the name of Maw Hutto. Though she wasn’t able to feed the public the food she was making, the storytelling woman was able to feed the workers. There I sat, tired as a dog at the end of the night, and she took one look at me and said “You must be a worker, come yonder and park your carcass next to the fire.”
I made good friends with Maw, as I sat there and listened to her stories and watched her work the fire like an artist on a canvas. She taught me about good camp fire cooking. This year, I brought my dutch oven (the one Ashley gave me) and learn as much as I could. So Maw Hutto and her Niece, Cindy, a cordial woman and cook master, went about tutoring me in the fine art of dirt cooking.
Links to video:
http://www.wral.com/entertainment/video/3806239/
Link to Story:
http://www.wral.com/entertainment/story/3804714/
Here is a pictorial of the last week:
At the fair, tending bees.
Maw Hutto doing what she does
As we gather around the cauldron, I can’t help but wonder how many people have actually ate from such a device before. Most people associate witches with said pot, not food.
Coals a plenty. I learned a lot about the heat properties of hickory and oak.
Go ahead, challenge this wonderwoman to a biscuit cook off. I dare you.
Maw sounds the alarm as the fixins are ready.
The Log cabin or tic-tac-toe formation of wood yielded the best cooking coals
The beater axe, dedicated to chopping pinewood, lighterknot, pine heart, fat wood, whatever you may describe it as. You just simply can’t use a good axe on this wood.
I made good friends with Maw, as I sat there and listened to her stories and watched her work the fire like an artist on a canvas. She taught me about good camp fire cooking. This year, I brought my dutch oven (the one Ashley gave me) and learn as much as I could. So Maw Hutto and her Niece, Cindy, a cordial woman and cook master, went about tutoring me in the fine art of dirt cooking.
Links to video:
http://www.wral.com/entertainment/video/3806239/
Link to Story:
http://www.wral.com/entertainment/story/3804714/
Here is a pictorial of the last week:
At the fair, tending bees.
Maw Hutto doing what she does
As we gather around the cauldron, I can’t help but wonder how many people have actually ate from such a device before. Most people associate witches with said pot, not food.
Coals a plenty. I learned a lot about the heat properties of hickory and oak.
Go ahead, challenge this wonderwoman to a biscuit cook off. I dare you.
Maw sounds the alarm as the fixins are ready.
The Log cabin or tic-tac-toe formation of wood yielded the best cooking coals
The beater axe, dedicated to chopping pinewood, lighterknot, pine heart, fat wood, whatever you may describe it as. You just simply can’t use a good axe on this wood.
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i love good ol' country cooking...
) I'll be the district rep responsible for Raleigh/Durham. You'll have to give me some pointers 
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