[upbeat music] - All right, ready?

- [Cameraman] And action.

- Okay, here we go.

- [Elizabeth] Coming up next on "Best of Our State."

- We were taught you would never, ever, ever have dessert after going to eat seafood.

The exception was this lemon pie.

- [Elizabeth] Chef Bill Smith can't make enough Atlantic beach pie.

- They can't believe how good it is, all right, well that's, that's neat.

But they go on and on about that, and I mean, there's not much else you can say, I mean, it's good, it's really good.

[bright music] - [Elizabeth] Hugh Morton's beloved Grandfather Mountain becomes a state park, and we remember the most patriotic man in North Carolina.

We dip into treasured stories for a look at all the beauty and character of North Carolina.

[bright music continues] Hello, I'm Elizabeth Hudson, editor in chief of Our State magazine and your host.

[lively music] Wanting to recreate a coastal dessert from his childhood memories, Chef Bill Smith masterfully captured the essence of Atlantic Beach in every bite.

- I've never had anything go viral before, but it was inescapable.

I was supposed to be at Atlanta Food & Wine, I was in the pork tent and I was moved to the pie tent immediately after that, which meant I had to make it for like 7 million people, you know?

[chuckles] Well, I grew up in New Bern, didn't travel much farther than the beach, which was about 30 miles away, Atlantic Beach is where we went.

My grandmother had a house at Marshallberg every summer.

Her mother was a German immigrant, so their food was not all southern, you know, they had lots of things that we didn't have routinely in Eastern North Carolina, one of which was tripe.

And she would bread it and fry and butter it and tell us it was fish and shut up and eat it, and we did, so I love tripe now, so.

[chuckles] - [Cameraman] I don't know what tripe is.

- It's the lining of a cow's stomach.

My grandmother, she was a very good cook.

I learned more from her without knowing it than anywhere else.

She cooked a big lunch, it was the custom once upon a time that your big meal was in the middle of the day.

So every weekday, she would cook this huge lunch for whoever in the family could go there.

The best thing I learned from her honestly was that your food was always supposed to be good.

That expectation has helped me a lot here.

No shortcuts, you know.

I would just think back to what was good to me then, and it is Southern, in fact, and so, that's my Southern, Eastern North Carolina.

It's what I knew, black-eyed peas and collards we always have, a corned ham, which is very, very specific to Eastern North Carolina.

Soft-shell crabs, shrimp and grits we always had, which was sort of a signature dish here.

The founding chef, Bill Neal, was from South Carolina and that was a fisherman's breakfast he grew up with.

The thing that has caused the most stir, I remember this pie that they used to serve, and in fact still do, I think, at the seafood houses along the coast.

[bright music] You know, I did a little research and put one together, sort of found something that sounded like what I remembered and so I thought, well, hell, I'll just put it on the menu here.

That sort of stopped everybody in their tracks.

People want to know how to make it and then they learn how easy it's to make, and then I hear that I have made them look like a chef because they presented this pie and it was so good and that even they could make it.

This recipe is actually two recipes and you make the crust and then you make the filling.

I think that's fairly typical, but in any case, for this crust, for one pie, I use a sleeve and a half of saltine crackers, and by that, I mean, sleeve out of the box like this.

And if I'm making a bunch, which I do a lot in the restaurant, I use the food processor, but if you're just doing one, you might as well use your hands.

To each pie crust, I add three tablespoons of just plain old sugar.

This crust doesn't need the sweetness of sugar, but I discovered that if you add sugar, that it browns a little better and it holds together a little better.

So that's like a chemistry thing going on.

I left this butter out to soften at room temperature, it's easier to work with, and it's a half of a cup of butter per crust, more or less.

[bright music continues] I don't know, I sort of just do this till I get sick of it and then I decide it's ready to go into the pie pan.

It's not quite like dough, but it sort of is.

And then I just use my knuckles to sort of force it into shape.

It's just like you're doing a cookie crust pie, it's exactly the same thing, only we're using saltine crackers, which is the key to this pie's uniqueness.

There we go.

I have my oven at 350 and I have my rack in the middle.

Then we're gonna bake it for 16 minutes.

The thought was, for some reason, I'm not sure why, 'cause it doesn't make any sense when I think about it, but we were taught you would never, ever, ever have dessert after going to eat seafood.

The exception was this lemon pie and it was like you'd drop dead if you ate ice cream or something, I don't know what the deal was.

And my mother still, she said, "I believe that still, I don't do it."

- [Cameraman] Have you ever tested the theory?

- No, but my Aunt Mary-Catherine did, she in fact went and they had went and had fish and then they went to the Dairy Queen and got milkshakes and sat there and waited to fall over and they never did, so I remember her talking about that.

But anyway, so there was this pie.

It doesn't have to be real brown, but you want it to show a little bit of color.

Okay.

I think any sweetened condensed milk will work.

This is the kind that was sold around the corner at the Latino grocery store.

You need four egg yolks for this.

And I always do this with my hands, which creeps a lot of people off, but it's honestly the quickest way.

[bright music continues] Now it's very important to completely mix this because if you don't, you'll find later, once it's cooked, that there are all these little egg fibers, egg yolk fibers running through it.

And although I don't think it's harmful, it's sort of unappetizing.

So I really lay into this for a second.

[bright music continues] In restaurants, you're always looking for ways to avoid waste.

So the using of day old juice is one of the things I'm often faced with figuring out.

But in this case, pie, so we have both lemon and lime juice.

So in this instance, it's half and half, but I have done it with all of one and that was a half a cup total.

You do not have to wait for this crust to cool to fill it.

So I'm gonna put this back in the oven.

It takes about the same amount of time to bake the filling as it did the crust.

[bright music continues] Rachel Crook was the woman who owned it, hence the name, but it was like a fish market and then it was a barbecue joint briefly.

In 1982, it opened as it is now, more or less.

[upbeat music] It's almost like a cartoon, isn't it?

It's like...

I don't know where, most of it, it was started before I got here.

So, but all this stuff gets added, and it's going, like that duck is new.

There are a lot of pigs, even though we don't actually make barbecue, we serve barbecue, so we're known for barbecue, even though we don't make it.

The last thing I need is a barbecue pit back there, you know.

There's a pig on the roof, obviously, and that's sort of our logo is a pig.

The art changes all the time, it changes once a month and that's cool.

They're local artists, they sell stuff off the wall all the time.

And I actually, I used to buy a lot of it, now my house is too full, there's no room for anything else.

See the edge of the crust has colored up nicely.

A little bit of bubbling on the top.

Here is the finished product.

It's had time to set up, it's cold, it's chilled, you can see it's very crumbly, there's nothing you can do about that, so don't worry about it.

Fresh whipped cream on top, a lot of it.

Coarse sea salt and then a sprig of fresh mint, and off to the table it goes.

Sweet and sour and salty are a good combo, and this is just the perfect balance of those things, perhaps.

They can't believe how good it is, "Oh, this is so good, I can't believe this."

All right, well, that's neat, but they go on and on about that and I mean there's not much else you can say.

I mean, it's like, it's really good.

So anyway, I can never take it off the menu now, it'll always be on the menu here 'cause people get mad.

[gentle music] - With a vision to safeguard its majestic allure and protect the diverse wildlife that call it home, the transformation of this iconic landmark into a state park was an inspired decision.

Grandfather Mountain offers visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in an abundance of awe-inspiring vistas, natural wonders, and miles of hiking trails.

[gentle music continues] - [Narrator] It's almost like it's been there forever.

Grandfather Mountain, the granddaddy of North Carolina tourist attractions.

Nearly everybody in our state remembers a trip to Grandfather sometime in their lives or certainly recalls having seen a picture of or by Hugh Morton, the man who shared his mountain with the world.

[soft music] - [Hugh] Grandfather Mountain has been in my family for over a hundred years.

- [Narrator] Recently, however, Grandfather Mountain has undergone a significant change.

One that will secure the enjoyment of its natural attractions for future generations and help carry on Hugh Morton's legacy.

- [Hugh] Grandfather Mountain is gonna be preserved in perpetuity in its wild, natural state.

- [Narrator] In 2009, 2,600 acres of backcountry, Grandfather became a North Carolina State Park.

The for-profit company that once managed the mountain has been transformed into a nonprofit, the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, and will continue to manage the iconic features that the attractions 250,000 or so annual visitors picture when they think of Grandfather Mountain, right beside the new state park.

- Grandfather Mountain State Park will be unique from a lot of state parks, you're not gonna drive through your typical front gate of a state park, like your typical entrance.

We've got two accesses to the backcountry trails, one is at Boone Fork parking lot, which is actually on the National Park Service property along the Blue Ridge Parkway, the other one is along Highway 105 outside of Foscoe that will be operated completely by the state park.

- [Narrator] Hikers seeking the backcountry experience will pay no fees, and there are no organized facilities, like camp or picnic grounds.

Visitors who wish to drive to the top of Grandfather will pay the entrance fee as usual at the front gate along Highway 221.

Sweeping views draw visitors up the mountain, where most often the destination is the spectacular mile-high Swinging Bridge.

[bright music] Grandfather Mountain also is known for its wildlife habitats that show off native species in their natural settings, and it's that natural setting that people come to see.

[bright music continues] On a clear day, Charlotte's tall buildings are visible in the distance.

- Grandfather Mountain is the most spectacular mountain in the southeast United States.

There are higher mountains in North Carolina, but there are none that are as abrupt and as dramatic as Grandfather Mountain.

We just rise so quickly that our views are true 360 degree views.

In addition to just the landscape, this is a really unique place, in terms of the combination of plants and animals that live here.

- [Narrator] It's in the backcountry where you will most likely encounter these unique mountain inhabitants, and naturalist Jesse Pope it seems knows them all, plus just about every rock and crevice on Grandfather's wild side.

- So when you're hiking up the profile trail, you'll encounter a lot of different ecological plant communities.

But two of the most obvious are the Cove Forest.

The first one was a mesic cove, Dutchman's Pipe Cove.

[water trickling] Very lush, lots of mosses, very moist, lots of herbaceous plants that occur there in the valley.

But once you step out of the mesic cove across the ridge into an acidic cove, you'll notice a lot of rhododendron, much less understory herbaceous plants.

[birds chirping] Another very interesting habitat type on Grandfather is a boulder field forest.

A lot of water flows underneath the boulders, and after a couple rainy days, you can hear the water flowing, even though you can't see it.

[water trickling] Something else that's kind of neat there is the trees.

You can see these really, really long root structures that are going over boulders just to reach what small amounts of nutrients they can get from the soils.

[bright music continues] Well, this is what they call a metaconglomerate wall.

This would've been formed in a stream bed, in a mountain formation that pre-existed the Appalachian Mountains.

When continents of Africa and North America collided, it uplifted the Appalachian Mountains and also uplifted these ancient creek beds.

[bright music continues] - [Narrator] Hikers who make it up to Shanty Springs may be startled to learn that the cool pool of water they sip from there actually makes up the headwaters of the Watauga River, which flows west toward the Mississippi.

And barely half a mile over the ridge, they'll discover where the Linville river begins and water that flows toward the Atlantic.

[water rushing] To see all this for yourself, you'll have to get out and walk, and that can be a daunting task, even on the best of days.

- I think the first thing I would advise people if they're coming to the park, especially for the first time, is that they should be prepared for rugged hiking, strenuous activity.

You really need to be wary of the weather.

[bright music] - [Penn] There are extremes on the mountain itself every day, it's always about at least 10 degrees cooler at the Swinging Bridge than it would be at the gate.

[bright music continues] Whatever the extremes may be, it never is extremely hot.

The warmest temperature that we've ever recorded on Grandfather Mountain is 83 degrees.

[bright music continues] On the other hand, last winter, we had one stretch of seven or eight days when the windchill at the bridge never got above minus 20 degrees.

- [Narrator] Few people get to experience these winter extremes, but Grandfather's backcountry can be amazingly beautiful if you're willing to invest the time and energy to get there.

[bright music continues] The spectacular beauty that blooms in spring is made even more so by the mountain's peculiar geology, - [Penn] Well, there are a number of plants and animals that shouldn't be here, they shouldn't be this far south.

It's because of the combination of our elevation, our particular geography, and the fact that we were sort of an island during the last ice age.

[bright music continues] Then, when the glaciers retreated, they adapted to this place.

There are a number of species that either only live here or that only live here and in a few other places.

- [Jesse] We're located in the transition zone between northern and southern plants and animals.

And because of that, we have a great biological diversity.

We have southern species that, you know, range all the way down to Georgia, South Carolina.

We have northern species that go all the way up to Maine and Canada.

[water trickling] We have about 72 species of birds that nest here, that call this place home.

This is also a very important stopover habitat for migrants that go further north from here.

[bright music] - [Narrator] Although some have thought Hugh Morton himself came up with the name Grandfather for his mountain, it actually goes back to the 1700s, perhaps this view off Highway 105 from Boone of what looks, to some anyway, like a reclining old man with a beard inspired the name.

- [Jesse] But the less known profile, which is an upright profile view, which you can see all those same features very well.

And some people argue that that was the original profile view of Grandfather Mountain.

- [Narrator] It's reassuring that Grandfather is still a grandfather, and even though the backcountry management is changing, visitors are not likely to see much physical change.

- Grandfather Mountain State Park will continue to protect and preserve those elements and that when people come to this park, that's what they're going to expect to see, a remote backcountry, more wilderness type of area and experience the elements and nature in its really raw form.

- We're looking forward to working hand in hand with the North Carolina State Parks.

Also, the fact that we're now a nonprofit corporation means that every dime of everybody's admission is gonna be used on the mountain to help preserve it and to better show people what there is to offer.

- [Narrator] Which, of course, is plenty, from drive to the top of Grandfather Mountain, to the more rugged and wild state park backcountry.

The only question now is, when may we expect you?

[bright music continues] - In the 1960s, John Andringa fell in love with collecting the American flag, a passion that would shape his life for decades to come.

Over the years, his collection grew to more than 130 flags, each one a unique artifact that told the story of how our nation grew and evolved over time.

John died in 2019, but his legacy lives on, as we remember and honor The Flag Man.

[majestic music] - I never knew that it had a name for collecting flags, I just said I collected flags, and I was doing a flag program up in Shelby one time and the pastor said, "Well, we have somebody different with us today, we have a vexillologist."

And I thought, "Good, I'm not doing the program."

And then I found out vexillologist was a person who collects flags.

I tried counting when I was up the attic, I just gotta have too many.

I must have well over a hundred, I don't know how many.

I felt that I wasn't given these flags just to let 'em sit packed away in a cedar chest, take it and use it, that's what they're for.

Try and promote our country, and that's basically what I'm doing.

This is known as the Taunton flag, Taunton, Massachusetts, which was a place where the British had a stronghold.

Colonists met under a big oak tree to show their defiance of the British rule.

The British cut down the tree figuring that would stop their meetings.

They took the British flag and wrote "Liberty and Union" across the bottom, stuck it up on a pole and kept right on with their opposition to the British government.

As our country grew, this flag became very popular and it's called the Grand Union Flag.

George Washington was inaugurated under this flag, as he was standing up in the boat, crossing the Delaware, he should have been carrying this flag, not the Betsy Ross flag, and paid tribute to the two countries being formed into one grand union.

[bright music] Congress proposed and approved an amendment which said the flag of the United States shall be 13 stripes, alternating red and white, and 13 stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation, and this flag was called the Betsy Ross flag.

It's the only flag in the world that can change, as we add a state, we put another star.

This is the flag that Francis Scott Key saw when he was on the ship in Baltimore Harbor.

He was just an apprentice lawyer, he was assigned that task of negotiating for the exchange of prisoners.

The negotiations broke down, so he had to stay on the ship overnight.

Got up early in the morning, went up on the deck to look at Fort McHenry and he saw the flag was still flying, and he was so impressed that he wrote like a poem and it was called "The Star-Spangled Banner".

He designated the flag as The Star-Spangled Banner.

Our flag is the only flag in the world that is the subject of its national anthem.

[bright music continues] I try not to collect other things, but I've been given everything from beach towels to flags and everything you can think of in between that has a flag on it.

I don't know how many coasters we have around the house, and pictures on the wall.

The relatives see things with a flag, so they send them to me and every room seems to have a flag in it.

[gentle music] Very old flag is from 1877 to 1880 and it has 38 stars.

Originally, they were just changing when the state came in the union, but it became so cumbersome because states would come in now, and then two weeks later, and everybody wanted their star in the flag.

So then they decided to make a rule that the flag would not change until the 4th of July after a state joined the union, and that's the way it still is.

A big part of our country's history was made and recorded under this flag.

This flag is what was the longest flying flag, it lasted for 47 years.

It was the flag of World War II and World War I.

That was when I was in high school, and they put a flag on Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima.

When that happened, we were really very proud they put that flag up there.

We have a country that we should be very proud of.

I'm just happy if I can go and talk about our flags.

I'm on Keep Gastonia Beautiful and I believe litter is contagious.

If the street is partially littered, you'll see how fast it gets to be a mess.

But if somebody picks it up, nobody will be too quick to throw something down, and that's the way patriotism is.

Since I started putting the flag out here, I think everybody on the street ends up and has one out on Memorial Day, they wonder why I put mine out so early.

John Andringa, and I'm known as The Flag Man in North Carolina.

[bright music] [soft music] - [Elizabeth] Thank you for joining us for "Best of Our State".

We have enjoyed sharing North Carolina stories with you.

See you next time.

- Later, my parents started taking a beach house out on Hatteras Island, which is where my great-grandmother was from, although we have no family there.

Her stepfather, I think it was, was a lighthouse keeper, but not at Hatteras, at a place called Oliver's Reef, which was, it was out in the water, there was no land under it.

So she grew up, she talked about growing up with no dirt.

She lived in the lighthouse, but she had to go by boat to do anything, including go to school.

And that's what she did, she grew up, when she played, she sat up on the thing at the top, you know, there was no ground to play in under, there was no yard, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

- [Cameraman] She had some stories.

- She did, she was quite remarkable.

She was a very good cook too, by the way, which is why I think I learned more from her without knowing it than than anywhere else.

You know, I never cooked when I was little, I had no interest in it that I recall.

But I was around her all the time and she cooked a big lunch, it was the custom, once upon a time, that your big meal was in the middle of the day, right?

So her house was right downtown, and so every weekday, she would cook this huge lunch for whoever in the family could go there, you had to let her know.

So when I was in junior high school and stuff, I would always go to her house for lunch every day.

And it was like you sat down and had table manners and she had tablecloths and China and the whole bit, every single lunch, it was amazing, it was lots of food.

And often there would be a guest, the priest would be invited over, the monsignor would come or somebody, whoever, and it could be 10, 12 people.

And she did it until she was well into her 80s, I think.

- [Cameraman] Did you ever assist her in the kitchen or?

- No, no, I didn't, I watched, but I never did, no, I never cooked them, never boiled water, I don't think, until I was quite old, you know?

No, never once, but I was interested in it and the best thing I learned from her, honestly, was that your food was always supposed to be good.

- [Narrator] More information about Our State magazine is available at ourstate.com or 1800-948-1409.