[piano intro] - Next on "North Carolina Weekend," greetings from Lumberton as we highlight the perfect stop spots.

We'll go berry picking in Lansing, sample ice cream in Asheville and ciders in Cedar Grove.

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.

- [Announcer] Funding for the North Carolina Year of the Trail Series is provided by.

- [Announcer] SECU Foundation.

Proving how contributions from SECU members can generate the support needed to make a difference across North Carolina in the areas of housing, education, healthcare and human services.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music fades] - Welcome to "North Carolina Weekend" everyone, I'm Deborah Holt Noel and this week we are highlighting the perfect stop spot.

These are places to visit whenever you wanna hop out of the car, stretch your legs and see something new.

Right now I'm in downtown Lumberton.

The actual midpoint between New York and Florida and the perfect place to stop on a long drive, but Lumberton offers a lot more than that.

Here you'll find a scenic river walk, a restored vaudeville theater, some beautiful murals and compelling history.

We'll explore more of Lumberton throughout the show, but first it's blueberry season and we found a charming farm in Lansing where not only you can pick your own blueberries, but you can stay overnight.

It's called Old Orchard Creek and they offer amazing hospitality.

[upbeat music] - The experience that people have when they arrive at Old Orchard Creek I'm sure is much like the experience that we had when we came here.

We have a little bit of trepidation about coming up a single lane dirt road, up into a mountain valley that looks like it has a dead end and it does, which is the blueberry field.

People just camp out and hang out by the creeks and really just have an amazing time.

- My name is Walter Clark.

I'm co-owner of Old Orchard Creek Farm, here in Lansing, North Carolina.

- And I'm Johnny Burleson, the other co-owner of Old Orchard Creek.

We can't imagine being any other place.

Old Orchard Creek is a historic Appalachian farm that dates to the 1880s.

It has had a you-pick blueberry operation for close to 75 years.

We've owned the farm since 2003.

I say we've owned it, we became stewards of the farm in 2003.

- Place like this, you really never own.

You're caretakers for a short period of time.

We are lucky to be caretakers of this place.

We have two cottages here on the property, both are vacation rentals.

One of the cottages actually was built in the 1950s.

We renovated that house completely after we bought the farm.

And the other cottage we built from the ground up.

- The General Store was sort of a COVID project.

We decided to make branded jams and dry goods, labeled or branded to the farm Old Orchard Creek.

And it was very popular and we thought, well, we should probably have a storefront.

And we found an old building that was for sale.

It was the old, original General Store in the local adjacent town of Lansing.

And we bought that building and opened what we call a modern general store.

It's a coffee shop.

Walter curates an amazing book section.

- I think the community's really excited about it.

We're excited about it.

Lansing is one of the places that people say there is an energy vortex.

I mean, what you see when you come to Lansing is a small town that was a railroad town but there's Big Horse Creek, which runs right through town.

- It has some of the best trout fishing in the state.

It's a brilliant spot.

So Molley Chomper is a local cidery here in Lansing and we've had a very close relationship with them really since the beginning.

- So Tim Arscott, I'm one of the owners and the lead cider maker here at Molley Chomper.

Molley is a fictitious goat.

When we planted apples and got the farm, we thought we would get some goats and the folks that sold us the apple trees that we had first put in place said that getting goats is a really bad idea 'cause they would eat all of our apples.

Well, we met Johnny and Walter picking blueberries on their farm before we actually started the cidery and we had the idea after chatting with them, why don't we do a blueberry wine or a fruit wine using the blueberries?

We had no idea what to do with blueberries, but we decided we'd ferment the berries like a red wine, where you ferment whole fruit, and it turned out to be a really delicious cider.

It's got lots of blueberry flavor, it's a beautiful color.

I think it's just a great showcase of the fruit from the farm.

- One of their first batches of apple cider was made from, basically, gleaned apples from our 300 apple trees that are not in production, but they still have good product for cider.

So they gleaned those and really made one of their first batches of cider.

So we've kept that relationship.

- And one of the really fun things about our relationship with Molley Chomper is that you see the blueberries being harvested here in the field.

They go to Molley Chomper and they're made into something and they come back to us in the form of cider.

It's one of the wonderful things about farming is seeing something that's harvested on your farm, it's sent someplace, it's made into something and it comes back as a different product.

And one of the wonderful things about living in a local community where you can actually see that sort of thing happen.

And one of the most special things about walking out the door here is being able to walk out on that second story porch and you can hear the creek running through the apple orchard which gave the farm its name, Old Orchard Creek.

Walking out that door at sunset and watching the sun set to the west is just spectacular.

- When I walk out the front door to drive to other work in some other part of the state, I look at the orchard of apple trees that you step right into it, you overlook it, and there's probably, I dunno, a hundred trees there.

I look there and I always look to the left up to the blueberries, up to the top of the ridge and just the length of that view reminds me of why I'm going to work, to be able to take care of this place.

- Old Orchard Creek Farm is at 410 Swansie Shepherd Road in Lansing.

For more information about berry picking, rental cabins and the General Store, visit their website at oldorchardcreek.com.

Isn't this a beautiful mural here in downtown Lumberton, with its Great Blue Heron and Venus fly trap, you'll definitely wanna stop for a selfie here.

You know, sometimes the perfect stop is when you want a real farm to table meal.

And Clay Johnson found such a place in Columbus where the garden feeds the diners.

It's called "The Rural Seed."

- [Clay] John Wilson and his wife Adrienne have a passion for cooking.

- [John] But it's just been a lot of fun.

- [Clay] Carl Pleasants has a passion for growing on his three and a half acre family field.

- [Carl] We try not to waste anything around here.

So I use what I've been given.

- [Clay] The Wilsons met Pleasants while working at a restaurant together.

When the restaurant closed down, they lost their jobs.

- We started talking about farming and he said, "Wouldn't it be fun to have a restaurant one day?"

And I said, "No."

[laughing] - [Clay] But in March, 2018, the three opened one up anyway.

In Columbus.

It's called "The Rural Seed."

- [John] I'd like to say it's upscale comfort food sometimes and it just depends on what we're feeling.

Depends on what's at the farmer's market or what we have coming out of our field.

- [Clay] The field, just three miles away, where Pleasants grows fruits and vegetables for the restaurant.

- It also gives us a little bit more leeway to grow the things that we use and grow the things that we want to serve and enjoy.

It's nice because you actually get to see an end product straight from the beginning to the end.

- [Clay] The radishes you saw Pleasants picking are part of the black bean hummus appetizer.

- It's utilizing a lot of the vegetables that come from our garden and we do a nice pickling after we've grilled it.

So it gives it a nice refreshing, tart taste to it.

- [Clay] The shrimp and grits uses local and regional ingredients along with New Orleans Tasso ham.

- And then we saute that off with onions, spinach, shallots, garlic, white wine and, of course, fresh North Carolina shrimp.

- [Clay] The Caitlyn Burger is a six ounce ground chuck patty.

- Along with a caramelized onion and Monterey jack cheese, bacon, fried onions, all nestled between an Annie's Bakery, sesame-crusted bun.

- The Caitlyn Burger is named for nearby Caitlyn Farms where "Rural Seed" gets all of its beef.

- We're an animal welfare approved farm.

So we have a pretty high standard for animal health and care and people can just ride by our farm and see that our cows are happy and that we're not ruining our land that we keep our cattle on.

That's like one of our biggest priorities is to be good stewards of the land.

- [Clay] And stewards of consumers, too.

Caitlyn cows are hormone and antibiotic free and grass fed.

- And we want local businesses and consumers to be the ones that are supporting us and buying our products.

- [Clay] And Caitlyn Farms returns the favor.

- So we really like going to restaurants like "The Rural Seed" where they're sourcing stuff from local businesses all over the county and other counties.

- [Clay] So when you go to "Rural Seed" to eat, do you eat, you know?

- I've had the Caitlyn Burger, yeah.

- [Clay] "Rural Seed" partners with nearly 20 local suppliers to stay true to its farm to table commitment.

- That relationship with the farmers is really cool because we've met a lot of young farmers here in the community that are making differences, are trying to make a difference in their community by raising sustainable beef, sustainable pork, chickens.

And it's really neat to see the movement and to be a part of it.

- [Clay] Wilson wants his customers to taste the difference.

- [John] I want them to experience freshness.

I want them to experience that difference between what a fresh vegetable tastes like and what a frozen vegetable tastes like.

- We know the food's real and that it's fresh and that it comes from local farms and it's really delicious.

[upbeat jazz music] - [Clay] "The Rural Seed" also goes local with musical performances every Saturday night.

This western North Carolina band is called Zendetta.

[upbeat blues music] - They're supporting local musicians, the same way they support local farmers.

And they're good.

- Yeah, really good.

- [Clay] It's all part of the takeaway for "Rural Seed" customers.

- [John] I want the customer to feel like they experience something different in a small town.

- "The Rural Seed" restaurant is at 322 East Mills Street in Columbus and they're open for lunch and dinner, Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM and Sundays from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 802-1097 or go online to theruralseed.com.

This is the Carolina Civic Center, opened in 1928 to vaudeville acts and silent films.

Now it's a home for live theater, music and a Christmas themed holiday show that's very popular.

Be sure to check it out when you visit Lumberton.

Now, friend Chelsea Goodnight was looking for a new experience and she found the perfect taste sensation at "Botanist and Barrel" in Cedar Grove.

- "Botanist and Barrel" is a sense of place.

We are focused on terroir.

It's about showing local fruit, local agriculture, it's about showing native yeast.

We want people to be able to experience both the land and then the beverage that comes from the land.

- Our cider is really, I think, a very thoughtful beverage.

Nothing is added in and nothing is taken away.

- We're old world cider makers with new world tendencies.

- [Kether] We keep it wild, we keep it raw.

It's fresh, unadulterated, good cider.

- We're trying to shift the way people look at what southern cider and southern wine can be.

And we think of ourselves as being hyper-local.

So everything we use is coming within a 200 mile radius of our farm.

We do a lot of barrel-aged ciders.

We cross the lines between brewing and wine making in a lot of the techniques that we use.

- We're not just hybrid in terms of like we make wine and we make cider, but we're really kind of blurring the lines between those two things.

We wanna surprise you.

We wanna bring you something new and fresh.

There's no rules here.

- [Chelsea] In a place where anything goes when it comes to taste, you'll want a tour guide.

Meet Amie Fields, the South's only cider sommelier.

- Hello!

- [Amie] Hey there.

- Hi, I'm Chelsea.

- Hey, I'm Amie.

- [Chelsea] Hi, Amie.

Nice to meet you.

I am new to cider.

I would love to have a taste.

- [Amie] Would you like me to pick some stuff out for you?

- [Chelsea] Yes, that would be great.

- Awesome.

Cool.

So I think I'm gonna start you out with one of our flagship ciders.

This is the Less Is More Pet Nat cider.

It actually predates champagne and.

- It's delicious.

- We bottle it in a primary fermentation while it still has a little bit of sugar left and then it continues to sparkle in the bottle naturally.

- Yeah, no, I love that.

It's very crisp and easy to drink.

It drinks a lot like a champagne, I would say.

It's kind of what it reminds me of, is that in line you mean?

- [Amie] Yeah, you can call my cider champagne all day.

I like that a lot.

- It's the champagne of ciders.

- So in making really small batch ciders, you can really play around with things and find different flavor profiles that I never thought that cider could make.

- So we've produced over 120 different ciders over the last two years.

- [Kether] Yeah, pretty much if you can ferment it, we will.

- [Deric] We have made a hundred percent pineapple wine.

We've made cherry wine, blueberry wine, blackberry wine, peach wine.

We all treat them with different expressions, so different barrels or different light-handed wine making, nudgings in the right direction.

- We've used honey barrels and maple syrup barrels.

- [Deric] Sauternes barrels, pinot noir barrels sea salt barrels, ex bourbon, maple syrup barrels.

- [Kether] Gin barrels, rum barrels, whiskey barrels.

- And the barrels themselves give the guideline to how we think when it comes to flavor.

- Each batch is a unique batch and we embrace that here at "Botanist And Barrel."

- [Chelsea] After discovering the many ways I can toast to my health, I'm happy to say that even the most complex ciders are easy to enjoy.

Come check them out.

- Botanist and Barrel is at 105 Persimmon Hill Lane in Cedar Grove and they're open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 6:00 PM.

For more information, give them a call at [919] 644-7777 or go online to botanistandbarrel.com.

As you may know, 2023 is the Year of the Trail here in North Carolina and we've been highlighting some great trails to take a walk.

Producer Clay Johnson actually found a couple of friends who love to hike around Fort Macon.

Let's check it out.

- [Michelle] The weather turned out perfectly.

- Oh yes.

The beach is beautiful today.

I moved here three years ago and I've always come to Fort Macon State Park to the beach.

I never realized there was a walking trail and I had some friends that introduced me to the trail, so my daily walking then turned into walking the trail here every day.

- [Clay] After Melinda Bridges was introduced to this trail, she then introduced it to her good friend Michelle Edwards.

- [Melinda] The trails are fabulous, so well designed, manicured and you never know what you're gonna see on the trail.

- [Clay] The 3.3 mile trail borders Bogue Sound on one side, offering marsh views.

- [Michelle] I like this particular trail because of nature.

It's very soothing.

You exercise for stress relief and I think with the birds and the sounds, it's a calming trail to walk.

I'm ready to see the ocean.

[nature sounds] - It's exercise.

You've got hills, it's a workout.

So you get nature, you get a workout at the same time and then you see the beach.

The ocean looks so beautiful today.

- It is hilly.

So being here on the beach on the coast where it's usually flat a lot of people like the challenge of those few hills.

The trail changes as you go through the ecosystem, so it's a gorgeous trail.

- [Clay] The trail surrounds the park centerpiece, Fort Macon.

- [Randy] It's amazing.

It's a really neat fort.

- [Clay] It's strategically located.

- [Randy] There's an inlet here coming into a deepwater harbor.

So Fort Macon is built here on the tip of the island to control what ships come to the harbor and what ships leave the harbor.

- [Clay] The fort was built in the early 1800s and protected the inlet and harbor in the Civil War and Spanish American war with cannons that could fire cannonballs three to six miles.

North Carolina purchased the property from the federal government in 1924 and turned it into a park, but it was back in action as a fort again during World War II.

- [Randy] North Carolina was one of the hardest hit states during World War II by the Germans, the U-boats.

- [Clay] Now the fort stands like a sentry over the parks beaches.

One beach borders Beaufort Inlet and the other borders the ocean.

On the ocean side, there are picnic tables and a beach cabana with showers and restrooms.

- [Melinda] One of my favorite places.

You can go to the beach, you can step back in time and explore history.

And now with the walking trails, you can explore nature at the same time.

- Fort Macon State Park is at 2303 East Fort Macon Road in Morehead City.

And like all of our state parks, it's open daily and it's free to the public.

And for more information about the Year of the Trail, go to greattrailsnc.com.

This is "Exploration Station," a nonprofit children's learning center in downtown Lumberton and it's a great place to take the kids.

And you know, another great place to take the kids that is also a certified perfect stop spot is ice cream.

And we found a place with a beautiful mission, to offer amazing ice cream served by amazing people.

Let's pay a visit to Howdy's Homemade Ice Cream in Asheville.

[upbeat music] - Howdy Ice Cream is about providing jobs for disabled adults and inspiring others to do the same, so that they can achieve their potential, too.

It's also about bringing happiness into our community.

We started Howdy Homemade Ice Cream, first and foremost, because of our own daughter who has autism.

And so we learned about Howdy in the fall of 2019 and I flew to Dallas, visited with the owner and said, "You know, I think this is the right fit for our business."

Hi, welcome to Howdy's - Hi, welcome to Howdy's.

- You know, as parents of a disabled child, when they finish high school it's a very daunting thought in your mind as to now what?

What's gonna happen?

And rather than sit back and wonder who's gonna provide a solution for our daughter, I think Betsy and I said, "You know what?

Maybe we're the ones we've been waiting for."

Let's do this.

Let's bring this to our community, help our daughter and help others, too.

- Howdy Ice Cream is.

What they did is set up a community where disabled adults are valued, appreciated, trusted.

And this is a place where they thrive.

They feel like they belong, they're comfortable and they're happy.

I can't tell you how much it means to all these adults to have a place.

They have a purpose every day.

They have work and they're appreciated.

And I think the community also appreciates them.

- We have a shop we're really proud of and excited about and it's a place you're gonna come and you're gonna smile.

But we also have a very active catering business.

We've been to churches, companies, nonprofit organizations.

We're throughout the community, Yancy County, Buncombe, Henderson, Transylvania, we're everywhere.

Tonight, we're out at Biltmore Lake.

We go out at Biltmore Lake every Friday and bring ice cream to the members of that community.

- I really like Howdy Ice Cream.

It's really good.

And it's awesome that they can come to your neighborhood.

It's really nice.

- So what we're selling here at Howdy is all of of my recipes and it's made in the back.

It's homemade, super premium ice cream.

And some of our best sellers are chocolate velvet peanut butter cup, peppermint crunch, vanilla fudge brownie.

And we also have a couple of dairy free options and one of the most exciting offerings we have, that we decided to introduce because we're in Asheville, kind of one of the micro brewery capitals of the United States, we decided to introduce flights.

And so you can get four flavors, two ounces per flavor, and that's an ice cream flight here at Howdy.

- One, it's great ice cream.

We've been trying with them for about two months now.

Second thing is what they stand for.

They represent a group of people that probably coming up through school were laughed at, were pushed at, were just looked down on and they're helping 'em get a career.

These kids are making a living and they're proud of it and they're excited about it.

And I can support that every day.

- My first check.

- [Mom] Oh!

No way.

What do you think about that?

- Puppet?

- [Mom] You got money?

- Yeah.

- [Mom] Oh my goodness.

How you feel about this check?

- Happy.

- [Mom] You do?

Oh my goodness, you're a grown woman now.

- I know, Mama.

- [Mom] Making all your money.

- Yep.

- [Mom] My goodness.

- I'm making a lot of money.

- [Mom] I'm so proud of you.

- I know.

[both laughing] - Lots of things are good and important about Howdy Ice Cream, but two the most important things are the fact that the shop is an accessible place of employment for everybody that works here.

And it's a supportive and inclusive community.

- I work here at Howdy's and I can do pretty much about anything.

I just like it 'cause they have disabled people like me that work here.

- I think what we're about is trying to dramatically increase the opportunity for disabled adults in the workplace.

You know, 82% of disabled adults do not work.

And we believe a big reason for that is lack of opportunity.

So we're here to give them that opportunity and show what they can do and that we hope that inspires others to do the same.

- Howdy Homemade Ice Cream is at 64 Long Shoals Road in Arden and they're open Tuesday through Sunday, beginning at noon.

For more information, you can call them at [828] 747-9174 or go online to howdyavl.com.

This is the Museum of the Southeast American Indian located on the campus of UNC Pembroke, just a few miles from downtown Lumberton.

This area has been home to Native Americans for thousands of years and native people have played a major role in shaping Lumberton, culturally and politically.

The museum has some truly fascinating artifacts and well worth a visit when you're stopping in Lumberton.

And that's it for tonight's show.

We've had a great time here in Lumberton, definitely the perfect stop spot whenever you're traveling.

And if you've missed anything in today's show, just remember you can always watch us again, online at pbsnc.org.

Have a great North Carolina weekend everyone.

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music fades] - [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.

[piano outro]