[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," join us from Hubs Farm in Sampson County as we celebrate autumn across the state.

We'll go on a draft beer crawl in Winston-Salem, and taste chicken mull in Bear Grass.

Coming up next.

- [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music ends] - Hurricane Helene recently devastated entire communities in Western North Carolina.

We have some mountain stories in this episode, but please keep in mind that these stories were prepared several weeks ago, and tragically, conditions have changed.

However, we wanna support our mountain communities, and they will need your tourism support to help rebuild.

But please be patient.

It may take a while for this hard-hit area to recover.

Hi everyone.

Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend."

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week, we are welcoming autumn all across our state.

Right now, I'm at Hubb's Farm just outside of Clinton in Sampson County.

Hubb's Farm is a fifth-generation family farm that started an agritourism venture back in 2008.

Now it's home to a corn maze, hay rides, even singing chickens.

We'll meet the owners a bit later in the show, but first, autumn is a popular time for beer lovers, with events like October Fest, right?

Well, craft brew enthusiast Jason Frye was a little thirsty, so he went on a craft draft crawl in Winston-Salem.

Here's what he found.

- Welcome to Winston-Salem.

I'm here to explore the city's Craft Draft Crawl.

[upbeat music] All of these breweries are in such a close proximity.

Within a mile-and-a-half radius of downtown, we have nine breweries.

You can stop by Hoots, a funky owl-themed bar in the West End.

If you're a football fan or a soccer supporter, you can swing by Small Batch.

They're a Liverpool FC official fan club site.

I'm gonna stop by four breweries today that are housed in historic buildings across downtown.

[traffic whirring] Foothills, on the West End of downtown, in a former car dealership showroom, keeps 10 taps flowing and serves up tasty bites in their brew pub.

These guys were the first microbrewery to come to Winston-Salem, and they really set the stage for the beer scene.

Core beers like their Hopium IPA and People's Porter have been on draft since day one.

But Sexual Chocolate, their imperial stout, has had beer fans lined up around the block for release day for years.

We are lucky because the new release of Sexual Chocolate is on draft.

- It was one of the first, like, home brews I ever made back when I was getting into the beer business, and then once we opened Foothills and the alcohol laws has changed in North Carolina to allow higher alcohol beers, we just, we wanted to make it.

This is the Bourbon aged version, aged in Woodford Reserve barrels for about eight months.

- Cheers.

- Cheers to you.

[upbeat music] - Oh, that's a beautiful beer.

No wonder people line up around the block for it.

[footsteps thudding] [uplifting music] You'll pass through murals, galleries, and art collectives here in the downtown Arts District.

We're on our way to Fiddling Fish.

This brewery is dog friendly.

Their beers are inspired by the Grateful Dead and by other musical acts.

They have a really vibrant scene and one of the best indoor-outdoor spaces in all of downtown.

We're talking with Stuart Barnhart, one of the co-owners, along with his cousin Dave.

Stuart, my understanding, this used to be a tobacco auction house, is that correct?

- Yes, I believe it was built around 1939.

Winston-Salem is obviously well known for its tobacco history.

- It is a tobacco town.

- We're just a few blocks away from R.J. Reynolds headquarters behind us.

They built the town.

All the farmers would come in and bring their tobacco here at auction.

- You've got this great colorful flight.

What do we have here?

- Yeah, so these are some of our flagships we have year-round.

We've got, starting out with the lightest, you got our Buena Vista Blonde, and then we've got our bestseller, That Fish Cray, and then we've got our Ardmore Amber, which is just a great, well-rounded American amber.

And then we've got our Raspberry Currants Wild Sour.

- What's wild about it and what makes this beer distinct from the other three?

- Yeah, so these are all made with the typical brewer's yeast.

This yeast actually comes from paper hornets nests and bees nests.

They've kind of found this wild yeast that produces lactic acid during fermentation.

- [Jason] Okay.

- And so that's actually what's giving it the sourness.

- Let's jump in and let's see what this is like.

Near perfect beer.

That's fantastic.

I love that.

[upbeat music] Hey!

You only need to walk two minutes to cross the street and belly up to the bar at Wise Man Brewing.

- Over the years that we've been open, we have brewed over 250 styles of beer.

- That's incredible by itself.

- What we have here today is our Outraged Daughters red Irish ale.

This is a two-time gold middle winner at the Great American Beer Festival.

So I just think it has a beautiful, like, slightly nutty finish.

It's very crushable, as my son would say.

- Let's see.

Ooh.

[upbeat music] Oh, that's crushable, indeed.

All the breweries we visited today on the Craft Draft Crawl are housed in historic buildings, and yours is no exception.

- It was a warehouse, a historic warehouse from the 1920s, and the Angelo Brothers ran it.

And this was essentially the Costco before there was Costco.

- [Jason] Yeah.

- This is where all the wholesale was done for a lot of the restaurants and bars in Winston-Salem.

I mean, you're looking at the original brick, you're looking at the floor.

- I love that.

I love that connection to Winston-Salem, to Winston-Salem's history.

It's the bones of this building are the very bones of the city itself.

- [Mike] We did do one kind of new-fangled thing, which, on top of this roof, it's covered with solar panels.

All of our energy for production is solar generated.

- [Jason] And that's really future-forward, and I think that that was a really wise move by you guys.

- [Mike] Well, thank you.

I like the way you worked that in.

[upbeat music] - Winston-Salem is called the City of Arts and Innovation, and Incendiary shows off both with their beer selection.

Their robust list of IPAs compliments a roster of porters, stouts and seasonal brews.

We're here with Chris Straus from Incendiary, who's poured us a couple of great drinks.

Chris, what do you have for us today?

- So we have one of our flagship IPAs, the Shift series.

It's the same mash bill, and it's a shifting hop profile, which is where the name comes from.

So you'll see all these different colors designated with it, and that just kind of identifies the different hop profiles.

Today we have the shift blue, which is mostly Mosaic hops.

[upbeat music] - Oh, that is a great beer.

That tropical note is really dead on.

Oh, it's full of these great tropical flavors.

There's a little guava, a little papaya on there.

That's really nice.

- And it takes a subtle hand to elicit a lot of those flavors, especially when you're using the same mash bill.

That shows a lot of talent and restraint coming outta your brew house, great job.

- Yeah, and these are 8.1%, and they do not drink like a heavy IPA.

So, like, they can be a little dangerous if you have too many of them because they are so drinkable, even for how high ABV they are.

This is the Dulce Muerte.

It is an imperial stout.

It's 11.3%.

It is our Mexican chocolate cake stout.

[upbeat music] - Oh, you're right, that smokiness comes right through.

Ooh, what's a beautiful beer.

We are in the old Bailey Power Plant, and where we're actually sitting outside, this was the former coal pit, and all of that goes on to inform the Incendiary name.

- Originally, these trestles that are right behind us, they kept them kind of for the historical aspect.

So the trains would actually come in on these trestles, drop the coal in this pit right where we're sitting.

It'd get conveyed into boiler room, and that's where they burned the coal to produce all of the power that supplied the buildings for R.J. Reynolds around it.

And it is called Bailey Power Plant because it was originally owned by the Bailey Brothers Tobacco Company.

And then R.J. Reynolds purchased it.

My grandfather used to work in this building.

His dad was a railroad engineer.

- [Jason] Maybe your great-granddad would've dropped some coal off here.

- Probably.

We got our name just paying homage to the history of the building because this was a really important company in the development of Winston-Salem.

- [Jason] Cheers to you guys.

Can't wait to dive back into another sip of this beer.

- Yeah, go for it.

No one's holding me back.

- No.

You can really get a feel for downtown Winston-Salem on the Craft Draft Crawl.

From the historical buildings to the funky art everywhere, it's a cool place to come discover for yourself.

[upbeat music] - To find out more about the Winston-Salem Craft Draft Crawl, go to visit Winston-Salem.com.

[cheerful music] [cheerful music continues] I'm with John and Tammy Peterson of Hubb's Farm in Sampson County.

Folks, this is a huge, incredible place.

How did it all get started?

- We started 17 years ago, and actually, it was one of those things where we were just looking to create something for our community.

And so somehow between John and I, he had never been to a maze, we created, well, we'll just do a maze during the fall.

- And to this day, we still can't remember who had the idea to do it.

And we were looking at other ideas.

- So we started, it was Hubb's Corn Maze.

And we quickly figured out, the potential for families and for our family was so much more than a maze.

And so we just- - [Deborah] Decided to make something amazing.

- Amazing, so we said, "To heck with Hubb's Corn Maze.

Let's call it Hubb's Farm."

- [Deborah] So what have you added?

What kinds of things can people do on the weekends here?

- [John] So we have added things like mega slides.

We have added, you know, jute pillows.

We have a combine ride called Cranky the Combine, but we have got all types of stuff.

- [Deborah] Now, I hear you have an apple cannon.

What is that?

- Apple cannon is something pretty neat.

We've had a small one to begin with, but we actually moved it back toward the back, and we've got three, and it shoots apples and it's all sorts of targets.

We've got a old school bus painted with targets on it.

We've got a couple of old cars out there they can shoot apples at.

And the best thing about it is when you shoot the apple and it splats.

- [Deborah] Well, tell me about the corn maze.

I understand that's grown.

- It has been a challenge this year.

As everyone knows, mother nature's in charge of this game, so we had to replant our maze, so it's a little behind, but I think a lot of the farms are the same way in our area with all the rain we had back in Debby and before.

But we've worked with a company out of Idaho called MazePlay, and they're our designers and actually come to the farm.

Originally, they used to cut the maze out with a tiller and they're using GPS programming, but now they actually plant the maze.

They have six heads on the planter and some are on, some are off, and when he gets done, it's growing the actual design.

So he's been doing that for four years.

So this year's was probably our most intricate maze.

We did a tribute to Toby Keith 'cause he passed away this past February and he was such a good person, especially with the military.

- [Deborah] Certainly.

- And so we did something, as far as we know, is the first time, and we added color in the maze.

We planted red zinnias.

So in his portrait in the maze, he's actually holding a red solo cup.

- [Deborah] So what are visitors saying when they come?

[children shouting indistinctly] - You know, over the last 17 years, I don't know, but one day that I've not been on the farm, I think John's been on the farm probably every day that we've been open.

When people leave from here, I want them to say, "That was so cool.

I felt like it was clean, it was organized, it was safe."

And our reviews and the folks that keep coming back, that's what they say.

And when they walk in these gates, they are ready to, they probably got a smile on their face, and when they leave, I want 'em to have a smile on their face.

- And the kids to pass out in the car from being tired.

- [Mary] Oh, there it is.

- [Deborah] My dog.

- That's probably the best thing.

They were like, "Oh my God, we weren't bad."

- [Deborah] That's the mark of a good time.

- And it was, the child fell asleep as soon as they left.

- [Deborah] I love it.

To visit Hubb's Farm, head to 10276 North US 421 in Clinton.

For their fall season, they're open Wednesday through Sunday, starting at 10:00 am.

To buy a ticket, go to hubbsfarmnc.com, or give them a call at [910] 564-6709.

[upbeat music] - [Linda] We started this business in 1990, and we've been going like this since day one.

[upbeat music continues] We have the best French toast, big old fluffy, fluffy pancakes.

- We come a few times a month.

This week, we've been here for three days in a row.

Every time we come, we're getting biscuits.

- Flo's has the best cheese biscuit.

I've been eating it since I was maybe about six.

- The biscuits are huge.

That's why Flo called them cat head biscuits.

They're huge.

- Because they're big as a cat's head.

The biscuit full of hoop cheese is oozing out of it, when you open it up and it strings out of your biscuit bowl.

Ooh.

- Texture's fantastic.

You get a little bit of a crusty edge sometimes if you order one well done, but you still get that fluffy tender texture inside, and that hoop cheese is just wonderful.

- The Hobo, we got the Hobo biscuit.

- It is a scrambled eggs with cheese, crumbled sausage in it.

Tastes like home.

- You know, the line looks really long, but it's some of the most efficient service you can get.

I'm in and out here quicker than I can go to a Bojangles with much more down home food.

- The service here is excellent.

Everything is drive through, and as you're pulling around in the drive through, they have girls that come out and take your order.

So by the time you get to the window, you can go ahead and pick up your food.

- Hey, how you been?

No grits today, babe?

That's it?

So one egg and cheese, two pancakes with bacon, and a regular-sized lemonade.

Thank you, babe.

Be right back.

- Well, we only take cash, but we have a ATM.

We've never been set up for debit machine.

It just takes so long because we're so fast paced.

Some people, they come up here and when they get to the window, they're just amazed.

They just sitting there and watching, like, "Oh my God, look at them go."

[upbeat music] - We have cheese and plain.

You can order cheese biscuits by themselves, or you can take a cheese biscuit and build a buffet.

- Uh-huh, yeah.

You can get just a plain cheese biscuit or you can have any kind of meat on it.

We got tender loin gravy, smothered tenderloin gravy.

We have the best fried tenderloin you'll ever eat.

The bread we use is what makes it so good.

And it's real tenderloin.

We pull our tenderloin every morning.

It is fresh tenderloin every day.

We got patty link and smoked sausage.

- Mama had a lot to do with having our sausage be special, and it is special because she told them 32 years ago, "I want this much sage in a biscuit, and I want this much meat, and just a tiny bit of pepper.

Not too much so to burn their mouths up."

We just want everybody to enjoy it, from a child right on up to the grandfather.

[staff speaking faintly] [uplifting music] Mama had a following, people came to see her and to eat her biscuits, 'cause she had worked at three other places over the years before we opened Flo's, and I just got tired of seeing her work everywhere else.

And I just asked her, I said, "Mama, we need to open a place so you can have your own place, so it can be Flo's Kitchen, so it can be your kitchen."

My grandmama taught my mother how to make biscuits and how to cook.

Like, we killed hogs, and she learned how to make sausage from killing hogs.

Her legacy was teaching everybody and being just a good soul to everybody.

And if anybody asked for a recipe, she didn't try to hide it.

She'd tell everybody.

She'd tell the world.

[uplifting music] [staff member speaking indistinctly] - [Terri] Flo's means everything.

It's my heart.

- Flo's was built on love.

Everything that we do, we do for each other, for all our customers.

They're the most important thing in the world.

I said we can all stand here, but if we don't have customers, they're what makes us.

They're the ones that bring us all together.

[uplifting music continues] - Come on down the Flo's where everybody goes.

[uplifting music continues] - [Deborah] You can find Flo's Kitchen at 1015 Goldsboro Street South in Wilson, and they're open Tuesday through Saturday from 4:00 am to noon.

To place your order, give them a call at [252] 237-9146, or find them on Facebook.

♪ It's a banjo on my knees ♪ - I told you there were singing chickens here.

You know, autumn is the perfect season for outdoor festivals, and there's one in Bear Grass, a small community in Martin County, where they celebrate chicken mull.

We sent Seraphim Smith to check it out.

♪ Sing this song, do that ♪ [cheerful music] - [Seraphim] When the morning air gets crisp and the leaves begin to turn colored in Eastern North Carolina, the sweet little town of Bear Grass, the laden and snowy blooms of cotton holds a huge down-home style celebration, the Chicken Mull Festival.

But what is chicken mull?

- Chicken mull is dish that is really very unique to us.

- Chicken mull was something that came out of necessity, came out of Depression Era.

- Probably originally started because it was a way to really make a lot for a little amount of money.

- [Seraphim] The cooking of chicken mull actually happens the day before, at the Fire and Rescue station of Bear Grass.

It's there that firefighters cook off 730 pounds of chicken thighs.

[cheerful music] Soon after, this small town of 89 people get together to carefully pull all the meat off the bones.

[rooster crowing] Early the next morning, it's festival time, and the firefighters gather at the back of the community house to finish the chicken mull preparations, all 160 gallons of it.

- When I growed up and come up on chicken mull, it was just crackers, chicken, and chicken stock.

That's pretty much, and then everybody's got their way.

They wanna add things to it.

You know, boiled eggs, some put corn in it.

The way we growed up in Bear Grass here was just chicken and crackers.

- [Seraphim] In fact, today's chicken mull will use 80 boxes of crushed saltines.

- Some put, you know, Cajun seasoning or crushed red peppers also in it, to just give it color.

It's all in what you want.

- My grandfather, Samson Hodges, he lived here in Bear Grass.

He taught a lot of the people in the community how to make chicken mull.

It was a meal of necessity.

Came outta Depression Era times, so it was using what you had to make do, and he could feed a large group for very little money.

He had the big pots.

I grew up sitting in the truck watching him at Ruritan Club sales, and it was basically a large washtub-sized tub that all the farms had.

- In the old days, when tobacco was being wood fired, the person had to tend the fires all night to keep it at a steady temperature.

And so they would put a little pot on, cast iron pot, put a chicken in it, and start cooking it.

And then they would start adding crackers, and then people in the neighborhood would go and sit with that person that was tending the fires.

And so every time somebody else came, they threw a few more crackers in the pot and added a little more chicken.

And it just, you know, was a social event, so to speak, even though you were working.

- [Seraphim] The mull taste a lot like chicken pastry.

[cheerful music] - Hmm.

This is so yummy.

[cheerful music continues] - I'm all about some local flavor and trying new foods.

Let's check out what other culinary creations can be found at today's fair.

This is a collared sandwich made with lacy cornbread.

[cheerful music continues] The sausage is made just down the road.

When you come to the Chicken Mull Festival, be sure to stop by at the Boy Scouts tent and get yourself a sausage dog.

[cheerful music continues] The bluegrass, or should I say, Bear Grass music, will be sure to get you in the festival spirit.

[upbeat music] Kids will love the inflatables and all the other activities geared to entertain them.

This is a wonderful family-centric festival.

- [Visitor] Oh, yeah.

- [Seraphim] Be sure to stop by and see the petting zoo.

And don't worry, this fella isn't going into the chicken mull.

- Good to see everybody out today for our fourth annual Youth Poultry Show.

We have Miss Susan Tyre.

So we got a fantastic judge here today, young ladies here to show their roosters.

[cheerful music] - About how many people come to this chicken festival every year?

- Well, we've had mostly around 5,000 each year.

I think today might be exceeding that.

- [Seraphim] Seems like it.

- Yeah, today I think we've had an exceptional crowds.

- Thank you so much for having us to your Chicken Mull festival.

We have had a fabulous time.

- Let me tell you, we are so happy that you're here.

We are always excited when PBS shows up.

We are.

- [Seraphim] Bear Grass is brimming over with small-town charm.

And while the town is known for chicken mull, it's the wonderful people that will have you coming back for seconds.

[cheerful music] - [Deborah] The Chicken Mull Festival is Saturday, October 26th in downtown Bear Grass.

That's in Martin County.

For more details, visit their website at chickenmullfestival.com.

Well, that's it for tonight's show.

And by the time you see this episode, these corn stalks around me will have grown up to offer a real corn maze adventure.

We've had a wonderful time here at Hubb's Farm in Sampson County.

It's a great place to bring the family for a real autumn experience.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, remember, you can always watch us again online at pbsnc.org, or find us on our YouTube channel.

Have a great North Carolina Weekend, everyone.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music continues] [upbeat music ends] - [Announcer] Funding for "North Carolina Weekend" is provided in part by Visit NC, dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

From the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains across the Piedmont, to 300 miles of barrier island beaches, you're invited to experience all the adventure and charm our state has to offer.

[uplifting music]