Jennifer & Matt Curtis

JENNIFER & MATT CURTIS

Photographer: Sayer Photography Wedding Planner: Maggie’s Farm

These frequent fliers are often galavanting across the globe for work or play, but enjoy the comfort of their love nest in Raleigh. It was fitting, then, that Matt would propose on the couple’s front porch — with a wine bought at a Parisian cellar, no less. They enjoyed a rustic, whimsical garden-themed wedding at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Jennifer’s hometown of Southern Pines, and moved the party outside for the reception at the Weymouth Center. Guests closed out the night in a clear tent beneath the stars, as the band played a soundtrack to the couple’s next great adventure.

Ceremony: Emmanuel Episcopal Church Reception: Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities | Dress: Liancarlo Shoes: Badgley Mischka Bridesmaids: Monique Lhuillier Flowers: Maggie’s Farm Hair & Makeup: Brittani Baca | Cake: The Bakehouse | Catering: Elliott’s on Linden | Rentals: Ward Productions | Entertainment: The Adrian Duke Project | Cocktails: Reverie Cocktails

Shooting Star

Whether capturing images of golf or war, no one did it better than Pinehurst photographer John Hemmer

By Bill Case

The grammar school dropout was forever on the move. There were times he bolted into the darkroom of his employer’s photographic studio to hide from an approaching truant officer. More often, the errand boy ran pell-mell to the offices of New York City newspapers and magazines, lugging a pouch stuffed with the newsy photographs of the day snapped by the studio’s owner, Edwin Levick, and his seven assistant photographers.

The success of Levick’s photographic services business depended on speed. The first good images of a newsworthy event to reach the syndicated media were the ones most likely to be published, and pay off. So, Brooklyn-reared John Hemmer — the dropout, the errand boy — learned long before he clicked his first shutter that, in the photography trade, there was no substitute for being in the right place at the right time.

In 1910, when Hemmer was just 18, one of Levick’s assistant photographers incorrectly loaded the powder in the flash lamp of one of the cameras. The magnesium powder could be nasty stuff. Careless photographers were known to set rooms, or even themselves, on fire. The resulting explosion singed the face of a supervisor, who fired the assistant on the spot. Hemmer was standing nearby. The agitated boss thrust the camera at the teenager and commanded, “Get some pictures, Hemmer!” He didn’t stop for 60 years.

With a working knowledge of photography gained from Levick, a transplanted Englishman, and his agency’s other cameramen, Hemmer raced around New York again, but this time with cameras and equipment in tow instead of a satchel. Like Mozart to music, he took to the work immediately. The cutthroat world of syndicated photography wasn’t for the timid. Veteran competitors told him to “get lost,” but the feisty Hemmer couldn’t be bullied. “If I didn’t fight back, or think up new tricks, I went back without any pictures, and that was a sure way to get fired,” he said later. His determination was fueled by an innate self-confidence. Hemmer told The Pilot’s Mary Evelyn de Nissoff that, during his New York days, when he arose each morning, he “felt like shouting from the housetop, ‘I’m John Hemmer!’”

The sharp-elbowed photographers were forever conjuring up new methods to scoop one another. Hemmer recalled the novel way his well-heeled competitors from Hearst Publications covered the arrival of major ships. “The Hearst boys started using carrier pigeons to relay their film from the press boat back to the city, and their pictures were usually in print by the time the rest of us got back to the dock,” Hemmer said. The system, however, had its flaws. There were times, Hemmer chuckled, when the pigeons “circled the ship and lit on the mast.”

As the agency’s junior photographer, Hemmer was often sent to what Levick, a premier maritime photographer, considered secondary assignments. One was golf — a sport barely out of its infancy in America. Hemmer’s first tournament was the 1911 U.S. Amateur, held at the Apawamis Club in Rye, New York. His golf photos were barely noticed until the 1913 U. S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. The routine assignment became a godsend when a 20-year-old amateur and former caddie at the host club, Francis Ouimet, emerged the winner. Ouimet’s unlikely playoff upset over the British duo of Ted Ray and the incomparable Harry Vardon, written about some 90 years later in the book The Greatest Game Ever Played, jump-started more than just golf in America — it jump-started John Hemmer, too. His photographs of Ouimet’s victory at Brookline were in high demand. Suddenly, Hemmer found himself catapulted into the upper ranks of the game’s photographers.

When an important golf tournament popped up on the schedule, Levick would turn to Hemmer. In the early days, Hemmer and his fellow shutterbugs seldom strayed from the clubhouse until the players finished their rounds. The winners lined up for pictures. “No one had ever thought of going out on the course until one day I got interested in seeing what I could photograph out there,” Hemmer recalled. He began lugging his bulky gear, 60 pounds or more, onto the course to capture images of key shots, revolutionizing tournament photography. Respected by his colleagues, Hemmer became the first president of the New York Press Photographers Association.

Though the German-Irish kid from Flatbush had an expertise in sports photography, he swore off baseball after an unnerving experience at the Polo Grounds. Hemmer was in the process of shooting the Giants’ star pitcher (and future Hall of Famer), Rube Marquard, warming up on the sidelines. Suddenly Marquard fired a fastball that whizzed close by the photographer’s head. “Don’t you ever take my picture again!” warned the irate southpaw, who harbored a superstition, shared by many of the era’s ballplayers, that photography constituted a sort of black art that could bring ill to those who consented to have their picture taken.

Hemmer married Anna Flynn in 1918, just prior to serving in World War I as a Signal Corps cameraman attached to the American Expeditionary Force Siberia. This forgotten theater of “The Great War” involved the efforts of 7,950 Army officers and enlisted men to protect the equipment and supplies the United States had sent to the Tsarist regime from being seized by the Bolsheviks. The Expedition also assisted the Czechoslovak Legion in its evacuation from Russia. By all accounts, Siberia’s bleak tundra made for a miserable posting as the freezing soldiers continually faced shortages of food and supplies. Hemmer experienced a  harrowing encounter crossing Siberia by railroad: “The train broke down. It was 60 below outside,” he recalled. “I tried to go out and make pictures of the train in the snow, but I couldn’t. The wolves wouldn’t let me off the train.” Hemmer managed to emerge from his war service unscathed, and in 1919, returned to his New York job with Levick. In 1923, John and Anna celebrated the birth of their son, John L. Hemmer.

In July, 1924, following the death of Pinehurst photographer Edmund Merrow, Richard Tufts approached Levick in search of a photographer for the resort’s Mid-South golf tournament, to be held in late October. Tufts also needed a man for a number of Pinehurst events scheduled for March. Levick agreed to provide a cameraman for both, then failed to produce one in October. A disappointed Tufts wrote that the no-show for the Mid-South breached “very definite arrangements.” Levick cavalierly dismissed the blown assignment as being not worth the trouble. “It would have to be more tangible than just a single tournament to justify even an assistant at Pinehurst,” he responded.

While Tufts may have seethed at the offhand treatment, Levick nonetheless possessed working relationships with all of the Eastern newspapers. Tufts decided to let the agency cover Pinehurst’s March 1925 events as planned.  On March 23rd, Levick advised the resort owner that his selected assistant was on route to Pinehurst, assuring him, “My assistant, John Hemmer, who will cover the assignment, knows golf thoroughly and has been with us now some sixteen or seventeen years.”

Four days after Hemmer’s arrival, Tufts wrote Levick. “We are very favorably impressed by him [Hemmer] and are looking forward to good results from his work here.” Though Hemmer’s first stint in Pinehurst was brief, it was long enough for the buttoned-up Tufts to conclude that he wanted the New Yorker back. Always on time, nattily attired in dark suit, white shirt, vest and tie, and attentive to Tufts’ desire that photos be promptly forwarded to resort guests’ hometown newspapers, Hemmer quickly ingratiated himself with the boss. The guests liked him, too. Easygoing behind the camera, Hemmer’s mugging and quips never failed to bring a smile to those he was photographing. And Levick promised Tufts that his assistant’s Pinehurst pictures would be displayed in even more  newspapers the following season.

By July 1925, Tufts was inclined to cut out the middleman. He suggested to Hemmer, “if you feel you are in position yourself to give us good publicity we might be interested in making arrangements with you rather than Mr. Levick on somewhat the same basis.” He also suggested that Hemmer consider spending the entire winter season (October to May) in Pinehurst, promising that he and connected persons in the community could funnel plenty of business his way.

Enchanted by Pinehurst, Hemmer leaped at the offer. He advised Tufts that he was making arrangements with a firm to place Pinehurst photos “not only in the metropolitan papers, but all through the east, west, north, and south.” Soon, John, Anna and John Jr. were snugly housed in Pinehurst’s Laurel Cottage, where the Given Outpost is now — the cottage was razed in 1934 to make way for Pinehurst’s post office. He opened “Hemmer’s Photo Shop,” initially in the Harvard Building, thereafter at the Carolina Hotel.

The diversity of Pinehurst, Inc.’s activities afforded Hemmer a wide variety of subjects for his lens. Photographing sporting activities like golf (particularly the North and South tournaments), shooting at the gun club, tennis, gymkhanas and horse racing constituted the bulk of his work. Hemmer took a raft of  publicity pictures at the Tufts’ brand new golf course at Pine Needles, including several of Donald Ross hitting shots. The many celebrities that found their way to Pinehurst couldn’t leave town without posing for Hemmer. Images of the Tufts’ agricultural operations, like the piggery and the farm’s cattle, were snapped by Hemmer’s all-seeing camera. Leonard Tufts (Richard’s father), proud of  his renowned Ayrshire cattle breeding operation, even suggested to the photographer that if famous people like Will Rogers or Gloria Swanson were in residence, “you should get a picture of them milking the old cow” — Leonard’s prized Ayrshire he lovingly named Tootsy Mitchell.

Hemmer also created a remarkable series of photographs  featuring  Pinehurst’s African-American caddies. Colorful loopers with sobriquets like “Dr. Buzzard,” “Hog Eye,” “Calvin Coolidge” and “Dr. Hawk” captured by his weather-beaten camera make up a collection of images that ranks among the Tufts Archives’ most cherished. Hemmer’s horseracing photos drew particular admiration given his uncanny ability to snap galloping steeds with all four hooves airborne. Hemmer also arranged for his Pinehurst photographs to be transformed into postcards. The dissemination of the hand-colored cards, designed to portray Pinehurst’s peaceful and idyllic atmosphere, provided an invaluable boon to the resort’s promotional efforts.

A February 1926 article in The Pilot gushed, “Mr. Hemmer . . . has beaten all previous records for the number of Pinehurst pictures published during a season. Every real newsstand in America puts out some paper every day exhibiting specimens of Mr. Hemmer’s art and genius. He is giving this section the highest type of publicity it has ever enjoyed.”

During summers, Hemmer would return to New York, where he continued the hunt for newsworthy subjects. He found a good one on a cloudy morning in May, 1927 at New York’s Roosevelt Field, where a sandy-haired Midwestern pilot named Charles Lindbergh was preparing to take off in his daunting attempt to make the first aerial crossing of the Atlantic. Learning that Lindbergh had completely exhausted his funds in preparing for the epic flight, a sympathetic Hemmer passed the hat among the assembled media types in order to scrape together sufficient cash to buy sandwiches and a thermos of coffee for the young flyer’s journey.

Much like Forrest Gump, Hemmer seemed to always be on hand, playing a contributing role at historically important events. His timing was once again impeccable at  the 1930 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club where Bobby Jones’ 8 and 7 victory over Eugene Homans provided the last of his four major championship victories that year. Later Hemmer would say that photographing Jones’ Grand Slam was his greatest thrill.

In Pinehurst, Hemmer immersed himself in civic activities. He became commander of the local American Legion post and a director of the Chamber of Commerce. Though never a golfer himself, Hemmer did gain a reputation as a crack gin rummy player and inveterate hunter of arrowheads. After Laurel Cottage was razed, Hemmer moved his family across the street to  Cherokee Cottage (behind the Theatre Building and now the site of the Maples Building). Hemmer’s reputation continued to grow. Bob Harlow, American golf’s greatest promoter, and the founder and publisher of Golf World magazine, would write in 1938, “John Hemmer is the best newspaper photographer in America, and has been for a number of years. He has the rare combination of being a great artist with the camera, a fine judge of news values in what the editors of the tabloids call the ‘pix,’ and he can write captions with any headline scribe and hold his own.”

Why Hemmer decided to curtail his work in Pinehurst and join the New York Daily News prior to World War II is something of a mystery. Hemmer adored  Pinehurst and had become a fixture in the community. With the Great Depression not yet in America’s rear view mirror, a slowdown in business at the resort may have been a factor. Maybe he missed the bustle of the big city, or perhaps the Daily News offered financial terms Hemmer couldn’t refuse. In any event, he kept a foothold in Pinehurst, visiting often and taking an occasional assignment. He also retained ownership of the Hemmer Photo Shop, placing talented 34-year-old Emerson Humphrey in charge of operations.

Whatever his reasons, Hemmer’s return to New York made for the most exciting period of his career. Once World War II began in earnest, he was frequently aloft, miles out over the Atlantic, in the Daily News’ single-engine airplane, snapping photographs of ships burning, listing or sinking from the deadly effects of U-boat torpedoes. The newspaper, Hemmer mused, “never sent us out unless the weather was terrible.”

In his efforts to obtain front page-worthy  photos, Hemmer sometimes went too far. He often encouraged the pilot of the Daily News’ craft to repeatedly circle a wrecked ship for “just one more shot.” Invariably running low on fuel, on one occasion the pilot was forced to ditch the plane in the ocean. Photographer and pilot were safely rescued, and Hemmer somehow managed to keep his speed-graphic camera and plates dry.  Pushing the envelope brought Hemmer and the Daily News trouble when the paper published a 1941 aerial photograph of a war-damaged British battleship limping into New York’s harbor, raising the ire of an incensed secretary of the Navy, who felt wartime censorship regulations had been violated.

Sometimes his risk-taking resulted in memorable images of the war. His aerial shot of the British vessel King George V’s, arrival (with British ambassador to the United States Lord Halifax aboard) in the Chesapeake Bay won Hemmer the “Best Photographic Award” of 1941. Wendell Willkie, the recently defeated Republican candidate for president, presented the award.

Missing “sand in his shoes,” Hemmer returned to the tranquility of Pinehurst in 1944, residing full-time at Cherokee Cottage. Emerson Humphrey moved on, opening a photo shop in Southern Pines, and Hemmer relocated his studio to an outbuilding adjacent to his cottage.

Dividing his time between performing his usual photography work in Pinehurst and new employment with North Carolina’s State Conservation and Development organization in Raleigh, Hemmer became the official photographer for the state. For half of the year, he would blitz North Carolina, “from Manteo to Murphy,” as he put it, taking promotional photos. “We made some enemies along the way,” he would later admit, “because if the weather happened to be bad so that we couldn’t take color pictures in a certain place, we had to move along to the next place anyway.” His award-winning work continued to bring Hemmer into contact with notable personalities. Covering the theatrical production of The Lost Colony on the Outer Banks, Hemmer snapped several photos of the tall, amiable young man playing the role of Sir Walter Raleigh — a little-known actor named Andy Griffith.

His promotional pictures of North Carolina appeared in newspapers and magazines throughout America. Son John Jr., who followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming the photo editor of the Tucson Citizen newspaper, said his father effectively became the state’s ambassador, and that he “lived and breathed North Carolina.”

But golf photography remained the go-to staple of Hemmer’s work. Raleigh News & Observer reporter Joe Holloway said, “The eyes belonging to Johnny Hemmer have focused cameras on more golfers than any eyes in the world.” Golf World’s Harlow turned the camera around on Hemmer, making him the cover boy of a 1951 edition of the magazine.

Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, Hemmer was every bit as much a fixture in Pinehurst as the Putter Boy statue. He made friends with another generation of Pinehurst residents, including Gen. George C. Marshall. Lifetime Pinehurst resident Nancy Smith participated in equestrian events in her youth and was a target of the veteran cameraman’s lens, especially at the Sunday gymkhana events held adjacent to the Carolina Hotel. “I think of him with a smile on his face,” recollects Smith.

His outward affability masked pain, both physical and psychic. Wife Anna died in 1960, and Hemmer remained a widower the rest of his life. While in New Jersey, photographing the 1961 transfer of the U.S. Battleship North Carolina from the United States to the state of North Carolina, Hemmer fell off of a raised platform and was laid up for weeks after severely damaging his side, and breaking several bones. In another mishap, he was kicked in the leg and face by a thundering thoroughbred in an effort to rescue a fellow photographer who had meandered onto the track in the midst of a steeplechase race. The accident accentuated the deterioration of Hemmer’s vision, a problem that gradually increased in severity as the ’60s unfolded.

Though slowing in his 70s, Hemmer remained the resort’s go-to photographer. Requiring assistance in his photo shop, he hired a 14-year-old Pinehurst High School schoolboy, Don McKenzie, in 1966 to help out after school. Laboring  in Hemmer’s darkroom, pasting captions onto photos, escorting his mentor to the Southern Pines’ railroad station to arrange for shipment of photos to Northern newspapers, and toting battered equipment to assignments, McKenzie absorbed much about the photography business.

And though young McKenzie had yet to take a picture, he learned about photographic composition by observing his boss taking golf course photos at the Pinehurst resort. “Mr. Hemmer was the only one allowed to drive his car on the courses, and I would go with him to help set up,” McKenzie remembers. “When he took golf course pictures, he usually had something in the foreground, like a tree limb, then a middle ground — usually  the subject of the picture — then something that caught your eye in the background, maybe the clubhouse.”

McKenzie also marveled at the veteran cameraman’s ability to take great pictures with out-of-date equipment. One ancient camera had reached a stage where it was letting unwanted light into the picture frame. Rather than purchase a replacement, McKenzie says, “Mr. Hemmer simply taped over the opening where the light was coming in and the camera worked just fine.” McKenzie’s experience with Hemmer helped inspire him to embark on his own lifelong photographic career in Southern Pines.

Despite the loss of acuity in his sight, Hemmer kept taking pictures throughout the ’60s. But it became a losing battle. Blindness was rapidly approaching. Around the time that the Tufts family sold the resort to the Diamondhead Corporation (1970), Hemmer snapped his final picture, ending a 45-year association with Richard Tufts and Pinehurst, Inc. For a while, Hemmer was able to remain in his Cherokee Lodge home. Longtime Pinehurst resident Bonnie Mosbrook recalls him in dark glasses waving his white cane high over his head to alert approaching motorists that he was intending to walk across a village intersection.

Failing health forced Hemmer into the Sandhills Nursing Center in December 1973. His son arranged for the sale of Cherokee Lodge in March of 1974. Less than two months later, the home was destroyed by fire. His former photography studio was salvaged, though it, too, was eventually razed. Though no longer part of the action in Pinehurst, he was far from forgotten and a stream of tributes flowed his way. When the World Golf Hall of Fame was established in Pinehurst, its photo room was named the “John Hemmer Gallery.” A Hemmer trophy for the year’s best golf picture by a news photographer was also instituted. On his 85th birthday in 1977, the Given Memorial Library’s Tufts Archives arranged a “Hemmer Exhibit” of his photos.

After five years in the nursing home, Hemmer’s funds were exhausted. Friend and legendary fellow North Carolina photographer, Hugh Morton. rushed to his rescue, organizing a fund so that Hemmer could meet his expenses. Among those chipping in were Gov. Terry Sanford, Andy Griffith, and the White House News Photographers.

John Hemmer passed away on October 6, 1981, at age 89 but, housed in the Tufts Archives, 85,000 of his photographs can still see the light of day.  PS

Pinehurst resident Bill Case is PineStraw’s history man. He can be reached at Bill.Case@thompsonhine.com.

East Meets West Down South

The house of a thousand stories chronicles a career abroad

By Deborah Salomon    Photographs by John Gessner

They met in a used furniture store in Columbia, South Carolina. Catherine was looking for a dresser. John was seeking distraction. He was from splashy Miami, “When it was young and empty.” She was from Albemarle — a doctor’s beautiful daughter raised in a gracious Southern home with wraparound porch, shaded by magnolias. Their life, a magic carpet ride through far-away kingdoms, plays out in a brick house on Massachusetts Avenue, attributed to society architect Aymar Embury II and Louis Lachine, an engineer associated with the Highland Pines Inn who, in the 1920s, built 10 spec houses near the  resort hotel.

Now, this one runneth over not with Southern heirlooms but Asiana, Africana and a Marco Polo-worthy trove. John and Catherine Earp display more than a painting here and a table there. As a Ford Motor Company executive in the 1990s John was posted worldwide, primarily in Asia. “What we have collected is more about memories than things,” he says. Still, shipping their massive collection from posting to posting and finally to retirement in Southern Pines boggles the mind.

But with Ford footing the bill, why not?

John was in the Army when he met Catherine. After discharge, he started with Ford in Cincinnati, Ohio, then Kansas City, Missouri, soon moving into the glamorous motor sports division. After two years, company hierarchy tapped him to open a new market, as director for Ford Motor Company in Korea.

“Is there a cookbook for that?” John asked.

No, but you’ll figure it out, the suits replied.

Catherine’s reaction: “Korea . . . where’s that? But I was excited, not apprehensive at all.”

Neither had a passport.

Off they went, first to a fabulous hotel for two months, then to an equally fabulous house overlooking a river, where they lived for two years.

The house needed furniture. Ford provided a $15,000 allowance. Catherine and John were already auction hounds. Oreos were an underground prize but in Korea they found “markets” similar to famous Les Puces (Fleas) in Paris. “The Koreans wanted everything new and modern; they weren’t interested in their grandmothers’ stuff,” Catherine discovered. This younger generation unloaded gems of the simple, practical Korean style — notably a stunning high-rise armoire in the living room, heavy chests meant for blankets and sleeping mats elsewhere. Some pieces, like the living room sofa with a teak frame, were made-to-order with distinctively Korean lines.

Then came Japan and Thailand, more markets, more décor finds.

Western eyes blur Asian styles. The black lacquer cabinet in the dining room is actually a Chinese wedding chest, functioning like an American hope chest where brides stored linen gifts. Catherine points out her many elephant motifs emblematic of Thailand, beginning with 10 carved specimens parading across the living room mantel. Fronting a stretch of small-paned windows, vaguely British along with the coffered ceilings, stands a row of alabaster Buddhas from a Burmese monastery. Exporting them required untangling red tape with government ministries. “It’s a sign of respect to Buddha,” John says. “Having them here is a rare thing.”

But because they lived in several Buddhist countries, “We also have a reverence for him,” Catherine adds.

Bells, bells everywhere — from cow bells to temple bells to elephant bells — some massive, made from iron, stand in the foyer, while others, more delicate, are displayed in a glass-fronted curio case. Catherine has positioned her collection of Japanese dolls throughout the house. These armless, legless painted wooden kokeshi (some with bobble heads) look like precious bowling pins, too tall and heavy for cuddling. But the most fanciful objet d’art is a miniature “spirit house” resting on a fern stand in the dining room. Like birdhouses, these carved structures with spirals and wings erupting from walls and roof are placed outside the home, to welcome beneficial spirits.  “Our real house in Thailand looked just like that,” Catherine says.

Their real house in Southern Pines has a circular floorplan; a tour begun in the large foyer tracks through the living room, dining room, kitchen, two dens/offices and back to the foyer without retracing a step. The original room designation remains a mystery. Catherine believes the two offices off the foyer might have been bedrooms with a bathroom, perhaps used as overflow accommodations by the Highland Inn. Outside, a terraced garden, fountain, pond and trellis covered with Confederate jasmine speak more North Carolina than South Korea.

The second floor, with lower ceilings and fewer moldings, suggests the house was planned for entertaining, with architectural details concentrated downstairs. Here, Catherine appreciates having enough wall space to display their art collection, including several waterscapes, some painted on lacquer, from Korea, where commercial fishing flourishes.

The kitchen had been enlarged and renovated by a previous owner who added a vaulted ceiling paneled in pickled wood — more Western than Eastern. However, musky olive green walls, a black enamel farm sink and sculpturesque gas cooktop mounted on the island impart an Asian flavor — except for statuettes of saints, brought from Central America, looking down from atop a cabinet.

Beyond the kitchen is a practical feature rarely seen in either classic or contemporary residences. A door opens into a hallway to the laundry, garage and stairs to the former maid’s quarters, now a private guest suite with heart pine floors, dormers, built-in drawers and claw-foot bathtub, all accessible without entering the house itself.

If Catherine loved Asia, South Africa left her positively ecstatic, perhaps because they lived on a predator-free game preserve where gentle kudus ate out of her hand, over a backyard fence. “The animals! You see these wonderful animals everywhere!” she says. Art and artifacts throughout the house, including zebra wallpaper in an upstairs bathroom, memorialize this experience.

“Africa changes you,” imprinting not just your house, but your soul, John says. Catherine felt closer to the earth from having lived there. “It’s just magical — both the animals and the people.”

John and Catherine enjoyed a lifestyle reminiscent of British colonials learning folkways from servants and drivers — not all positive. “Africa made me look at poverty differently,” Catherine says. “Our housekeeper taught us never to waste food, not a scrap.”

“Yet the people fought through poverty. They didn’t act poor. They were industrious,” John observes.

In 2013 the Earps (yes, he’s related to Wyatt, distantly) chose Southern Pines — and this house — for their retirement because Catherine’s sister lives down the street. Reason enough, without the existential link. For a decade or more the sturdy brick Weymouth residence was known as the H.H. Pethick house. Henry Pethick served as U.S. vice-consul in Saigon, in 1919. He then became a Standard Oil executive in China, returning only when Japan began bombing Canton, according to a Sept. 1937 edition of The Pilot. Mrs. Pethick had come back a year earlier, undoubtedly with household souvenirs. When the Pethicks sold the house in May 1945, a front page story described it as “one of the most attractive and elaborate residences in Southern Pines.”

No mention, however, of serene ghosts floating about in fine silk garments, waiting patiently for their ship, piloted by the Earps, to sail home.   PS

Bull Session

By Astrid Stellanova

Queen Elizabeth and Ted Kaczynski. Willie Nelson and Billy Joel. Karl Marx and Malcom X. Tina Fey and Adele. Cher and Bono (U2 front man, not Cher’s late ex husband Sonny). That’s right, Star Children: These are Taurus babies who are all just a tee-ninesy bit intense and take to a stage, pulpit, or even the witness stand like a ducky takes to a daisy. The emerald? A pretty intense birthstone that makes it just right, don’tcha think? This is a month to end bad juju, make amends, dream bigger and dazzle with a smile. Ad Astra — Astrid

Taurus (April 20–May 20)

Sugar, you could be on your deathbed arguing about the guest list for your own funeral. Sometimes you are a pragmatic soul. At others, you go psycho over some little detail that flips you out and trips all the circuits. Take yourself for a little lunchtime walk or get your hands in the soil. Let nothing come between you and your joy this month.

Gemini (May 21–June 20)

If you don’t do anything else, accept a gift that is offered to you. Ain’t going to change the person who always gets you riled, so just live and learn, and move up the line. You’re a natural trendsetter, who will find yourself making an imprint. The second act of your life was always meant to be especially important.

Cancer (June 21–July 22)

Lordy! You started out saying you wanted to risk it for the biscuit, then you backed down. Don’t let anybody stop you this time — make your mind up to put some steel in your backbone, Honey. You have given much more than you’ll ever take — your moment has come and the reward is deserved. Also, say yes to that trip.

Leo (July 23-–August 22)

It won’t take a slide rule for you to calculate how many hours you have wasted on the wrong partner. It seems you overcommitted. Now, just try a little undercommitment. Sugar, I’m just warning you that you have been dropping the bucket down the wrong well. Your reward is waiting in an unexpected location.

Virgo (August 23-–September 22)

If you were just honest about it, being uppity is not working for you. By your standards, paper towels are white trash, too. Why don’t you practice a little more acceptance, because all this social maneuvering, posturing and aspiring just makes you look silly and feel lonely. And you don’t handle lonely.

Libra (September 23-–October 22)

A confession is overdue. There is something you need to stop carrying on your shoulder ’cause it’s not yours to bear, Love, and you don’t need to carry it one more step. Confront the person you think you wronged and make amends. They will surprise you, and your health will improve afterward.

Scorpio (October 23–November 21)

You are spending more time alone than is usual, and maybe you like your own company. Make it your business to reach out, Honey, and touch somebody, just like the commercial says. Few people know you have a doozy of a secret. Open up. They can handle it, Love.

Sagittarius (November 22–December 21)

The greatest adventure you ever took started at your front door. Only you understand what that means. Home is everything to you nowadays — far more than to most (and far more than to typically far-flung you!). It is also where you are finding your calm center in a very turbulent, topsy-turvy time. Rest up, Honey, because the adventure isn’t quite over.

Capricorn (December 22–January 19)

In your fantasies about the life you shoulda-coulda-woulda had and the path you didn’t take, there is always one particular dream on your mind. It has haunted you. This is a good time to take a step in realizing that dream, even if your rational self says it’s nuts. It ain’t. And, best of all, it ain’t too late, Sweet Pea.

Aquarius (January 20–February 18)

You are having a phase of intense dreams that reveal issues and concerns helpful in your daily life. In many ways, you have been dreaming of the most meaningful and best ways to move forward. Keep a close record of those reveries for May and notice key information that your mind is offering.

Pisces (February 19–March 20)

Shew, you crossed the wrong person and they have not let it go, have they? You sure did poke the bear and now you are living to regret it. Give ’em a good bottle of whatever they like to drink or take them some blossoms, but for garsh sakes, end this thing! They may be wrong but holding out ain’t worth it.

Aries (March 21–April 19)

Last month, you were given a birthday present that startled you and you haven’t quite figured out its meaning. That may be a good thing. Someone you don’t love in quite the same way as they feel toward you has been trying to worm their way into your heart. If you go there, it will flame out fast and cause more heartburn than passion, Baby.  PS

For years, Astrid Stellanova owned and operated Curl Up and Dye Beauty Salon in the boondocks of North Carolina until arthritic fingers and her popular astrological readings provoked a new career path.

A Highland Fling

The rich legacy of the Scots

By Haley Ray

Even with directions, it’s easy to miss the graveyard deep down a small, unmarked Carthage dirt road. The worn stones are quiet. The only sounds are the earth beneath your feet and the air in the pines above. The Old Scotch Graveyard is worth the trip. It’s a glimpse into Moore County’s past; a snippet of the people that lived here hundreds of years ago and the world they helped shape.

Here lies Alexander McCaskill

Born on Isle of Skye Scotland

Village of Dunvegan

1760

Brother of Angus

Died March 18, 1840, Richmond County

The grave of Alexander’s brother, Angus, lies right next to his own. Not all the stones are readable; some are crumbling, others have fallen over, some plots are unmarked. The gravestones that are discernable usually provide the Scottish village of the man or woman’s origin. Bill Caudill, director of the Scottish Heritage Center at St. Andrews University, says it was a cultural custom commonly practiced by the early migrant Scots in America.

“This identity is very strong here,” says Caudill. “How many ethnic groups do you know that place on their tombstone where they came from and when they came from there? That’s telling you that these people had a sense of belonging. They were here, and they made a new livelihood for themselves, but they always belonged somewhere else. That’s the sense these people had of who they were, and that they still belonged in Scotland.”

Moore County had a large number of those early Scottish immigrants, most hailing from the Highlands of northern Scotland, and dubbed Highlanders (as opposed to the Lowland Scots of southern cities like Edinburgh). Drive through the village of Pinehurst and plenty of Scottish surnames adorn street signs: McKenzie, McDonald, McCaskill, Blue, Shaw, Ferguson, Caddell. While heavily concentrated in the small boundaries of Pinehurst proper, similar road names are scattered across the Sandhills as a tribute to the old, powerful families.

“There’s a lot of subliminal things, a huge amount of subliminal things that nobody would know if it wasn’t really pointed out for you,” says Caudill. “When I say that, I’m talking about historic sites, old family cemeteries, street names.”

The Scots presence extends deeper than Scottish flags on front porches, a Lion Rampant on a license plate or a few family names on street signs. The depth of the influence is framed by the fact that the North Carolina Scottish settlement was the largest Highland settlement in North America until the latter quarter of the 19th century.

The popular, more romanticized version of this great migration tells of shiploads of rebel-hearted Scots washing up on the shores of Wilmington in the 1740s and spreading throughout North Carolina, opting to settle in the American colonies rather than face persecution by the English after the failed Jacobite rebellion in their homeland. Having defied their king, Highlanders had no option but to flee — North Carolina or bust.

The shiploads of Scottish immigrants who flooded into the Wilmington port followed the Cape Fear River deeper into the state, and into the Sandhills. The motivations behind the large-scale emigration are often misrepresented or misunderstood. The dramatic version of events is referred to in history books as the “Theory of Exile.” Scholars mused that the Brits had a master scheme to exile unworthy residents to the colonies after Prince Charles Stewart failed to reclaim the English throne with Scottish — mostly Highland — support.

But, their great escape from the glens and moors of the Highlands had less to do with vengeful persecution than economic changes and a growing population. Although the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden — the deciding clash between the English and the Jacobites that ended the Scottish rebellion in 1746 — did contribute to the exodus, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Caudill says the exile theory can be credited to the writings of one man, William Henry Foote, a minister who wrote about the history of North Carolina from a Presbyterian perspective. Researchers and historians who dug deeper into the records found that the story of the British transporting large numbers of people to work in the colonies was largely inaccurate.

“It didn’t happen. Simply did not happen,” says Caudill. “First off, the people that were transported were taken to prison after Culloden by the government forces. Most of them, that were not paroled, were taken to places like the West Indies and Barbados. Colonies like that. Because of our trade routes, some of those people perhaps may have ended up here. But most of them, no.”

The dismantling of the exile theory begs the question of why, then, did so many Scots leave their beloved country? Moore County native Douglas Kelly also tackles the question of the Theory of Exile in his book Carolina Scots: An Historical and Genealogical Study of Over 100 Years of Emigration. Both sides of Kelly’s family descended from the Highlander immigrants in North Carolina, and he took an interest in his family history at a young age. He explains that before the Battle of Culloden, the clan system was the operating hierarchy in the Highlands of Scotland. Lowland culture more closely resembled that of Britain, although it retained distinctly Scottish characteristics.

The Scottish defeat at Culloden Moor helped dismantle the traditional clan system, but social and economic changes drove the breakdown, and thus migration out of Scotland. Before the Jacobite Rebellion, clan chiefs were the supreme commanders and owners of the land. Below them were the tacksmen, who were leased “tacks” of land from the chief to sublet to farmers on a year-to-year basis. Kelly says the tacksmen were the wealthy middle class, often relatives of the chief. Peasants and poor farmers, also called crofters, made up the lowest level. Tacksmen were paid a fee from the chiefs for managing the land and to ensure the farmers had the tools they needed to tend it.

“Well before Culloden, as early as the 1740s, there was coming pressure on the upper middle class, on the tacksmen,” he says. “Some of the chiefs and lords were getting advice that they were costing too much. It wasn’t religious persecution.”

Shutting out the tacksmen to save money was discussed in the 1730s, but never actually happened, Kelly says. Still, they knew their position was in jeopardy. Following the Scottish defeat at Culloden, the English enforced the 1746 Act of Proscription, which disarmed the Highlanders and instituted punishment for the wearing of traditional Highland dress, including kilts. There is no doubt the oppression contributed to the pressure and panic clans felt, but it is far from the sole reason for the migration. The Theory of Exile fails to include the rising rents, famine years, and increasing population that had citizens, especially tacksmen, scrambling to charter a ship to the Americas.

“The handwriting was on the wall,” says Kelly. “The tacksmen knew their position was threatened in Scotland economically. They decided to emigrate. North Carolina had a Scottish governor, Gabriel Johnston, at that time. He wanted to get Scottish Protestants to settle his colony because North Carolina was far behind South Carolina and Virginia (in population). They were richer. We were considerably underpopulated, so he wanted to get Scots. He contacted some wealthy tacksmen in Argyll, the McNeals and the Clarks, and told them if they would set up a party of emigrants, a colony, he would give them free land in what is now Fayetteville and Moore County.”

So, Scots boarded ships and crossed the sea. The first colony arrived in 1739, seven years before the battle heavily credited for the relocation. Although there are records of Scots arriving before 1739, this colony marked the start of the governor’s Old World recruiting. In addition to free land, Johnston exempted the incoming settlers from taxation for 10 years and allowed them to serve as magistrates and judges. It was a braw deal. Some of Kelly’s family arrived in this settlement, which docked in Wilmington or Brunswick and took smaller boats up the Cape Fear River into Fayetteville.

The Fayetteville colony was a large one, but eventually the settlers were pushed out to make room for Fort Bragg. There are numerous historic sites on the Fort Bragg base that are no longer easily accessible to the curious visitor. You need to make an appointment with Dr. Linda Carnes-McNaughton, archaeologist and curator of the Fort Bragg Cultural Resources Program. Some sites will always remain off-limits for civilians. Carnes-McNaughton estimates that 80 percent of the Fayetteville colony was Scottish, and the historic sites reflect their presence.

“It was predominatly white European settlers moving into the area,” she says. “So when the Scots came, the first things they built were churches. They built schools because they wanted to continue to educate the next generation. That’s why some of the churches are so old, like Barbecue and Longstreet. Building a church and a school went hand-in-hand.”

The Blue family, of the historic Blue Plantation in Aberdeen, also had large tracts of land in Fayetteville before relocating. Carnes-McNaughton says only the Presbyterian churches still stand, some dating back to 1757. She takes many descendants of settler families on tours, and provides access to old documents, as they piece together their family history.

That Scottish sense of self was strong enough to shape the culture and attitudes of the Sandhills in a way that lingers today. Southern Pines resident Jane McPhaul is a proud descendant of those settlers, and heavily involved with preserving the culture and history of her ancestors. She says that placing a large importance on family, church and education is one legacy they left behind. Kelly, Caudill and McPhaul all believe that the area’s famous Southern hospitality, and a close-knit community, may to some degree be credited to the early Scots.  

“You might more broadly say that this is throughout the South, but there’s a sense of kinship here that is much more akin to what you would find in Scotland of old, as opposed to what you would find in other places,” says Caudill. “Here in Laurinburg, everybody knows who everybody’s family is and how they were related. So there was an extended sense of kinship that sort of likened itself to the clans.”

Kelly, who still has family in the Highlands and has lived in Scotland, grew up in a Presbyterian household, hearing Gaelic, learning to work the fields at the Blue Plantation, and listening to family gossip as a popular form of entertainment — a true Scot tradition. Some of his family from the Isle of Skye came to visit Moore County years ago, which he says really brought the similarities to light. Highlanders broadly define themselves as hospitable to strangers, hardworking and unpretentious — North Carolina traits.

“When they were here, they said the spirit is so much like the Highlands of Scotland. The humor, even the way people walk was similar, so they were amazed,” he says. “This sounds self-serving, but in general there’s a courtesy and kindness. It was always generally non-pretentious.”

Along with the importance of church, family and education, many rituals survive. The Highland Games, in both Laurinburg and Grandfather Mountain, is one popular tradition, attended by Scots and non-Scots alike. Bagpipers play at community events. The Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan, an annual ceremony held in a church to bless the clan tartans, is another. Today, the kirkin’ is continued for descendants to celebrate and honor their national and religious heritage, and it’s a ritual McPhaul habitually takes part in.

“We do the Kirkin’ o’ the Tartan at Brownson Church. We’ve done it at The Village Chapel many times, and many of the churches around here do this,” she says. “We have banners. So you’ll take your tartan banner, and generally the men will walk it down the aisle during the kirkin’. It’s something that’s cherished.”

Many of the original Scottish families remain in the area. One reason may be the family land the settlers likely received from Gov. Johnston. Kelly says that the eldest sons inherited the land and had a strong incentive to remain, keeping the family name in the Sandhills.

Jesse Wimberly, a Highlander descendant and outreach coordinator for the nonprofit Sandhills Area Land Trust, says the unique ecosystem is another reason they remained. Many Scottish immigrants, including Wimberly’s family, made their money by extracting pine, turpentine and tar from the native longleafs for the shipbuilding industry. He says that the flora of the pines wasn’t disturbed by the turpentiners. The diverse environment of the Sandhills also made for good hunting, another tradition they continued from their homeland.

Although the breadth of information available on the original Scottish settlements is seemingly endless, data is still missing. Caudill says there is no exact number on how many Scots arrived on the coast of North Carolina, because ship records are available for just part of two years. Historians can only guess at the number of arrivals, which they place somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 before the Revolutionary War.

“There’s academics in Scotland who know more about our settlement and community than most history professors at UNC,” says Caudill.

For newcomers to the Sandhills the Scottish influence likely begins and ends with golf, and beloved golf course designer Donald Ross. Less well known is that the Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald resided in Richmond County in the 1770s with her tacksman husband, Allan. Still revered in song and folktales, MacDonald earned her celebrity by assisting Prince Charles Stewart in escape from the English after the rebellion failed.

Davidson College was founded as a Scottish college in 1837 and two Scots from Fayetteville were the first heads of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Behind the Chick-fil-A on U.S. 15-501 is the grave of Kenneth Black, hanged for housing Flora MacDonald after revolutionaries burned her house to the ground. The MacDonalds, who eventually returned to the Highlands, were loyalists to the crown during the American Revolution, as were many of the Scottish in America.

John MacRae, a Scottish oral poet largely unknown outside of academic circles, resided in Carthage after leaving Scotland in 1774. Caudill has a book of his poetry sitting in his office.

“John MacRae is the only voice of these people in their own language. He wrote poems and songs that were transmitted in the oral tradition that have been collected by folklorists all over the world, wherever there are Gaelic settlements. And they were written in Moore County. And nobody knows about them, except for the scholars,” Caudill says.

McPhaul works to preserve the historic Mill Prong House in Red Springs, and continues the annual family reunion they call the gathering of the clans. She can trace the route her ancestors took up the Cape Fear River. “We honor ancestry, we don’t just know about it,” says McPhaul. “It is a heritage that means a great deal.”

Generations removed, the ties still bind. PS

Haley Ray is a Pinehurst native and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate, who recently returned from the deserts of Southern California

Braking for Local Asparagus

Spring is the most ephemeral time of the year, so it pays to cook completely in the moment

By Jane Lear

Asparagus season is in full swing, and a good thing, too, for the vegetable is one of the home cook’s greatest allies. It can be steamed, boiled, sautéed, stir-fried, roasted or grilled. It comes elegantly thin or fat and juicy. It’s impressive drizzled with vinaigrette, and served as a first course; as a side to chicken, fish, ham, pork, or beef; or worked into pasta primavera, risotto, or an omelet or frittata. It is delicious hot, chilled or room temperature. It swings from simple, even austere, presentations (salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon zest) to more complex ones (in a stir-fry with other spring vegetables, for instance, or tucked into a creamy lasagne) without losing its presence.

And even though it is now found in the supermarket produce aisle pretty much year-round, most of us greet our local crop as something special, eating it with joyous, unabashed greed for the four to six weeks it is available. That is why it’s a good idea to buy plenty; I usually allot at least a half pound or more per person. On the off chance there are any leftovers, they’re delicious the next morning, warmed through and dipped into a runny soft-boiled egg.

Some people prefer pencil-thin spears, and others like them thick. The difference in circumference is due not to the relative maturity of the spears, but a combination of factors, including the age of the plants from which they were harvested (the thinner the spear, the younger the plant), cultivar and sex. Female plants produce fewer, larger spears; males give a much higher yield of thin to medium spears.

I tend to seek out asparagus that’s on the plump side because of its succulent, almost meaty, texture. I also find it easier to deal with. Skinny asparagus may look sophisticated on the plate, but during cooking, it can turn from tender to mushy in about a millisecond, and attention must be paid.

All that aside, go for whatever asparagus, whether thick or thin, is the freshest, because it doesn’t keep well. Look for firm, tightly closed tips with a beguiling lavender blush, scales (or leaves, botanically speaking) that lie flat against glossy stalks, and woody ends that are freshly cut and moist. The asparagus in our markets is typically green, but purple cultivars are becoming increasingly available; those are especially nice raw in salads, because when cooked they lose their color, which can range from pale mauve to deep purple. The white asparagus that is more common in Europe is simply prevented from turning green: The growing spears are continually banked with soil to keep them in the dark; that way, they don’t produce chlorophyll.

Cooking asparagus is staggeringly simple, and my basic method is as follows. First, rinse the asparagus well to remove any sand or grit (trust me, it’s there) and pat dry. Snap off the tough ends (or cut them if the spears are very thick), and peel the stalks if the skin is fibrous.

In a large skillet, lay the asparagus lengthwise, tips facing in the same direction, in an inch or so of salted water. Bring the water to a gentle boil and cook the asparagus until it is barely tender; the tip of a knife inserted in a spear should meet a very slight resistance, and if you pick it up in the middle with tongs, it should bend slightly. Thin spears take just a few minutes and more robust spears a bit longer. Once you’ve prepared asparagus this way, you can go in any number of directions. Below are two favorites.

A Homey Asparagus Supper for Two

I cobbled together this dish one rainy spring evening a few years ago, and was really proud of myself — until I realized the revered English food writer Nigel Slater had beat me to the punch. “A rubble of cooked, chopped pancetta, and especially its melted fat, makes a gorgeous seasoning for a fat bunch of spears,” he wrote in Tender: A cook and his vegetable patch. And how.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Using the basic method outlined above, cook a bundle of medium to large asparagus until just barely tender. Meanwhile, melt a generous tablespoon of unsalted butter in an ovenproof skillet or sauté pan over moderately high heat. Add an enjoyable amount of chopped pancetta or bacon and cook until golden. Remove from the heat.

Scrape the pancetta and the fat in the pan to one side and add the asparagus. Spoon the pancetta and fat over the asparagus, then sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Put the pan in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted, 5 minutes or so.

Asparagus Mimosa for Four

This recipe, which can easily be doubled, is a wonderful way to kick-start a dinner party. The asparagus is delicious warm or at room temperature, and the sieved hard-boiled egg is more than a pretty topping: As it absorbs the vinaigrette, it fluffs up like the yellow mimosa blossoms that punctuate winter in Provence. The richness of the egg yolk also gentles the vinaigrette and gives it body.

Cook about 1 1/2 pounds asparagus as above. Cut 2 hard-boiled eggs in half, then press them through a sieve into a small bowl. Whisk together about 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon minced shallot, and a dab of smooth Dijon mustard. (A little minced fresh tarragon would be nice, too.) Add coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Whisk in 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (use a mild oil, not a peppery Tuscan one). Toss the asparagus in a small amount of the vinaigrette, and reserve the rest. Parcel out the asparagus among four plates, spoon the rest of the vinaigrette over it, and sprinkle with the sieved egg. Et voilà!

Asparagus on the Grill

By the time May rolls around, we all want to spend as much time as possible outdoors, not standing over a stove. Luckily for us, the technique of grilling really concentrates the singular sweetness of asparagus and overlays its vegetal purity with a little smokiness. Grilled asparagus is delicious as is or with a garlicky mayonnaise.

“When you put just-picked asparagus on a hot grill, they are so juicy they actually jump as they start to cook,” Andrea Reusing once told me. The acclaimed chef-owner of Lantern, in Chapel Hill, and the restaurant at The Durham hotel, in downtown Durham, is extremely deft with seasonal ingredients, and the below recipe is from her book, Cooking in the Moment.

Andrea Reusing’s Charcoal-Grilled Asparagus

Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill. Count on 8 to 10 asparagus per person as a side dish or as the focal point of a salad. Keeping all the tips pointing the same direction, toss the asparagus with olive oil, a generous amount of salt, and some freshly ground black pepper. When the flame has died down, the coals are completely covered with ash, and the grill is very hot, grill the asparagus (in batches if necessary). Cook 2 to 3 minutes per side until fragrant, lightly marked, and vibrant green on the outside, and juicy and tender on the inside.  PS

Jane Lear was the senior articles editor at Gourmet and features director at Martha Stewart Living.

PinePitch

Live After 5

Nothin’ says summer in the Carolinas like beach music, and on Friday, May 11, Live After 5 is ushering in the summer with The Catalinas, “America’s Premier Beach Band.” Since 1957, The Catalinas have been entertaining audiences with their top-quality sound and onstage energy.

This free event begins at 5:30 p.m. and the fun continues until 9 p.m., providing not only music for your dancing and listening pleasure, but also activities for the kids. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets and picnic baskets — but please, no outside alcoholic beverages. Beer, wine and nonalcoholic beverages will be available for purchase, in addition to great local food trucks. Live After 5 will be held at Tufts Memorial Park, 1 Village Green Road W., in the village of Pinehurst. For more information, call (910) 295-8656 or www.vopnc.org.

Free Plant Clinic

The Moore County Master Volunteer Association is hosting a free plant clinic at the Walmart Supercenter on Saturday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to noon. The master gardener volunteers have many hours of training and experience dealing with plants that thrive (or at least survive) in the Sandhills and the issues confronting local gardeners like sandy soil, a wide variety of diseases and insect pests, and hot summers.

So if you’re having problems with a plant, bring a sample or photo for diagnosis to the Plant Clinic, just outside Walmart’s Patio and Garden Center. Or, if you’d like advice about what to plant where and how to care for your plants, stop by and get some advice. Walmart is located at 250 Turner St., Aberdeen. For more information, call (910) 947-3188.

The Power of the Press

On Wednesday, May 2, the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities invites you to a riveting and timely conversation with Frank Daniels Jr. and David Woronoff. Daniels is the retired president and publisher of Raleigh’s The News & Observer and current chairman of The Pilot. Woronoff is The Pilot’s publisher. Both of these men have led their newspapers to excellence: Daniels’ N&O won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1996, and Woronoff transformed The Pilot into a 21st-century media company that produces not only the highly regarded newspaper, but the immensely popular magazines PineStraw, O.Henry and Salt.

The event begins at 2 p.m. and is free to the public, but reservations are required. Weymouth Center is located at 555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines. For more information and reservations, call (910) 692-6261 or email Mgweymouth1@gmail.com.

Shakespeare in the Pines

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 1—3 and 8—10, the Uprising Theatre Company is bringing Shakespeare back to Tufts Memorial Park. The Company will present his most popular comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which intertwines the stories of six hilariously farcical actors, four love-struck teenagers, one royal wedding, and the infinite magic and mayhem of some woodland fairies as they navigate the enchanted forest.

The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and general admission is free. A VIP table for six can be purchased for $450 and includes a bottle of Champagne, an assortment of gourmet appetizers and a bottle of red wine. These tables are close to the stage and offer maximum viewing. Tufts Park is located at 1 Village Green Road in the village of Pinehurst. For more information, call (541) 631-8241 or visit www.uprisingtheatrecompany.com.

The Rooster’s Wife

Sunday, May 6: Richie and Rosie. Richie Stearns and Rosie Newton are steadfastly old-time and thoroughly modern, performing songs with universal and timeless messages. Cost: $15.

Sunday, May 13: No Fuss and Feathers. Catherine Miles and Jay Mafale, Karyn Oliver and Carolann Solebello serve up a dynamic, cohesive cocktail of delicious harmonies, infectious rhythm and spontaneous hilarity. Cost: $15.

Thursday, May 17: Open Mic night. Free to members. Annual memberships are $5 and are available online or at the door.

Friday, May 18: Edgar Loudermilk Band, featuring Jeff Autrey. Traditional bluegrass led by a unique voice, accompanied by stellar players. Cost: $10.

Sunday, May 20: Robby Hecht and Caroline Spence. Robby Hecht is a modern folk musician-of-all-trades, joined tonight with Caroline Spence, a young troubadour from Charlottesville, Virginia. Cost: $15.

Sunday, May 27: Hank, Pattie & The Current. Two of North Carolina’s veteran bluegrass musicians join forces with some of the Triangle area’s most versatile musicians to create modern, American, acoustic music. Cost: $15.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and music begins at 6:46 at the Poplar Knight Spot, 114 Knight St., Aberdeen. Prices stated above are member prices. Annual memberships are $5 and are available online or at the door. For more information, call (910) 944-7502 or visit www.theroosterswife.org for tickets.

Vincent

The Sunrise Theatre will present the film Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing, part of the Exhibition on Screen series, on Thursday, May 17. This award-winning documentary showcases Van Gogh’s iconic works and delves into the life of an artist as troubled as he was brilliant and prolific.

Denise Baker, artist and retired professor of art at Sandhills Community College, will introduce the film with commentary on Van Gogh’s work and influence on the world of art. The presentation begins at 10 a.m. Tickets are $10, or $15 for both this film and Loving Vincent, which will be shown at the Sunrise on May 24. The Sunrise Theater is located at 250 N.W. Broad St. in Southern Pines. For more information, call (910) 692-8501 or 692-3611 or visit sunrisetheater.com.

Meet the Authors

At 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, Elaine Neil Orr will present her new book, Swimming Between Worlds, at The Country Bookshop. The story, set in Winston-Salem in the 1960s, revolves around Tacker, a young engineering student, and Kate, a recent college graduate, both grappling with disturbing aspects of their past. They meet a young African-American boy and find themselves at the center of the civil rights struggle. Orr, an English professor at N.C. State, grew up in Nigeria.

On Saturday, May 19, at 2 p.m., South Carolina native Margaret Bradham Thornton, author of Charleston, immerses us in an entirely different world. In her second novel, A Theory of Love, Thornton takes us to such glamorous places as London, St. Tropez, Milan and Tangier in a story about a French-American businessman and a British journalist who struggle to maintain their marriage as well as their individuality.

The Country Bookshop is located at 140 N.W. Broad St., Southern Pines. For more information, call (910) 692-3211.

The Carolina Philharmonic

Internationally renowned violinist Natasha Korsakova returns to the Carolina Philharmonic for its Season Finale Symphonic Salute on Saturday, May 19. Known for her perfect technique, bold style and charisma, Korsakova will capture your hearts in a virtuoso performance that includes selections from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. The program also includes such Americana favorites as Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Maestro David Wolff will lead the orchestra in this rousing conclusion to a season that has brought Broadway stars, international opera singers and a piano prodigy to the Sandhills.

The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. at Owens Auditorium at Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road in Pinehurst. Tickets range from $30 to $60, with discounts for military ($25) and students ($11). For information, call (910) 687-0287 or visit www.carolinaphil.org.

In Bloom

Pollinate your taste buds with elderflower syrup

By Tony Cross

The first time I sipped from a cocktail with elderflower liqueur in it, I think I said something to the tune of, “What the hell is that?” It was every bit as delicious as it was foreign to my taste buds. I was dining at a fantastic restaurant in Chapel Hill (it closed soon after, sadly) about a year before I got behind the bar, where I was bitten by the cocktail bug. That liqueur, St. Germaine, was all the rage at the time. Until recently, I haven’t come across anything comparable that’s available here. That changed when I received an email from a buddy of mine who reps for a wine company in Raleigh.

A year ago, I received the exact same email from my wine rep friend: “The Elderflower Syrup Is Returning,” it read. I didn’t respond right away or write myself a reminder. By the time I remembered, all of their cases had been sold. Not the case this year — no pun intended. I drove to Durham just to grab a bottle from another restaurant (a big thank you to Patrick over at Guglhupf Bakery, Café & Restaurant). Then I placed an order for 24 bottles of my own. I’ll explain why shortly.

Nikolaihof Elder Syrup is a pure, aromatic, non-alcoholic syrup that should be a new staple in your refrigerator. Nikolaihof is located in the Wachau region in Austria. It also happens to be the oldest wine estate in the country, dating back to 470 A.D. The elderflowers grow all over the estate’s property, run by the Saahs family. They blossom once a year in late spring. This gives the family only a couple of days to pick them, when they are “perfect.” Getting the flowers to this point includes a serious commitment to biodynamic farming. According to their tech sheet, “The Saahs plant and harvest according to the moon calendar and use homeopathic treatments for the grapevines and other plants.” After they are plucked, the elderflowers are steeped in a simple syrup, allowing the aromatics and rich flavor to extract into the sugar water. I love the results. Yes, the syrup is sweet, but there are little nuances that give it character. The info sheet I received about the syrup notes that flavors of “lychee, grapefruit, and pear” are present. I get a little pear and lychee, but I also taste a floral funkiness. Don’t get it twisted; this is not a bad thing. The floral funk is slight, and there’s just enough of it to say “hello.” That’s what does it for me.

When trying the syrup for the first time, I recommend adding 1/2 to 3/4 ounce to sparkling water with a squeeze of lemon. That alone is one of the most refreshing drinks I’ve had in a while, especially in the heat. It’s great for someone not imbibing alcohol but wanting to take part in the festivities. If you’re graduating to alcohol, add 1/4 ounce to your next glass of dry sparkling wine. Put the syrup in your flute first, then top off with sparkling wine. Take a swath of lemon peel (a grapefruit peel works nicely here too), express oils over the champagne flute, and add the peel.

If you’re going to try this in a cocktail, there are myriad spirits and styles awaiting you. Start with sparkling water and add vodka or gin; a blanco tequila or mezcal; or whatever you have in mind or on your shelf. Some of my favorite creations were mistakes or created in one try. Give it a go. The only place you can grab a bottle will be Nature’s Own. I got a couple of cases because only 3,500 bottles are produced each year (bottles, not cases).

Below is something I created the day I picked the bottle up in Durham. Actually, it’s a remake of a remake. When I finally got around to bartending a year after trying my first elderflower liqueur cocktail in Chapel Hill, I wanted to recreate it at my bar. What I’m sharing is my version of that cocktail, but using the Nikolaihof syrup. Different specs, different drink.

The Mysterious Vanishing of Holunderblüten

2 ounces Plymouth Gin

3/4 ounce lemon juice

Scant 1/2 ounce Nikolaihof Holunderblüten syrup

1/4 ounce rosemary-infused simple syrup*

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, and shake until tin is ice cold. Double-strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

*Rosemary-infused simple syrup: Add 1/2 cup sugar to 1/2 cup water in a pot and stir over medium heat. Once sugar has dissolved, add three 4-inch stalks of rosemary. Once cooled, transfer to a container. Seal, and refrigerate overnight. Remove rosemary the next day.  PS

Tony Cross is a bartender who runs cocktail catering company Reverie Cocktails in Southern Pines.

Celebrate Sauvignon Blanc

Drink your herbs, minerals, melons or limes

By Angela Sanchez

I love all types of wine. Rosés, whites and reds. For several reasons, one of my all-time favorite whites is sauvignon blanc. I like dry tart fruit, minerality, acidity and interesting flavor profiles in white wine. I also like a wine that is a chameleon, widely different in style depending on where the grapes are grown and the wine is produced.

Sauvignon blanc, meaning “wild white,” originates in the Loire Valley and Bordeaux, in France. Today it is grown all over the world with some 250,000-plus vineyards from France and Italy to New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and the United States. It is distinguished in character from other well-known white wines because of the many styles it takes on and flavor profiles it gets from aromatic compounds, called pyrazines, found in the grapes themselves. In regions where the grapes are picked early, the flavors are more lime, Granny Smith apple and malic acidity. If they’re picked later when the grapes are riper, it produces more melon, apricot and pear aromas and flavors, rounder with a bit more structure.

Growing regions that give the wines short oak aging produce sauvignon blancs with a hint of vanilla and coconut aromas. In France, a sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley, which has a continental climate, is racy, herbaceous with lime and tart green apple flavors. It is also distinguished by its minerality that comes from the chalkiness of the soil. The climate, soil and location give it its “terroir.”

In New Zealand, the wine can range from having lime, asparagus and green apple notes to melon and white peach with an underlying herbaceousness of dill and basil. The best are those that blend grapes from both the North and South islands that vary widely in geography and distinguishing characteristics. Think of painting on a blank canvas. If you used all one color — a vineyard that produces grapes with racy acidity and lime character — you would get a nice painting. If you use a blend of similar colors that all possess something that makes them distinctive — a coastal vineyard offering peach and bell peppers and a vineyard from a high elevation that offers gooseberry — you get a painting that has depth and contrast.

Travel to South Africa and you will find one of my favorite sauvignon blanc characteristics, capsicum, the green bite in jalapeños. Wine maker Neil Ellis says it is a result of the minerals and compounds in the soil that was once an ocean bed, coupled with the cool days and high elevations of the vineyards. Lemongrass and basil are common characteristics, too, making these wines great with the Cape Malay style of cuisine — a blend of Indonesian, Malaysian and East African cooking. Think super aromatic curries from spice and herb blends.

So, what pairs with this crazy chameleon of a wine? Believe it or not, asparagus. Good thing it’s fresh out of our Sandhills farms this time of year. Grilled chicken and pan-roasted halibut with herb sauce made with dill and basil are great pairings. Zucchini, spring onion and dishes with a little spice are perfect. As for my favorite, cheese, try an aged English cheddar. A more classic pairing is goat cheese made with an eatable bloomy rind tasting of earthiness and grass with a tangy bite. A little age gives this style of cheese a softer, creamier, spreadable texture. North Carolina-made examples are Paradox Farm Hickory Creek and Goat Lady Dairy Sandy Creek. The former is a beautiful labor of love resulting in a creamy camembert style; the other bears a distinctive vein of blue vegetable ash under the rind and down the middle.

The first Friday of May is International Sauvignon Blanc Day. Grab some friends and a few bottles of sauvignon blanc from around the world, pair it with delicious goat cheese from right here in North Carolina and enjoy.  PS

Angela Sanchez owns Southern Whey, a cheese-centric specialty food store in Southern Pines, with her husband, Chris Abbey. She was in the wine industry for 20 years and was lucky enough to travel the world drinking wine and eating cheese.

The Edible Schoolyard

More than just a cute idea

By Jan Leitschuh

The Power of the Garden — it can teach food literacy, bring people together, and teach respect for food as well as the challenges of growing it. In the garden, place-based learning makes it real, relevant and oh-so-remarkable. from “Musings from a Garden Educator: Sowing the Seeds of Wonder!” by Kathy Byron

April showers might bring May flowers, but local veggie gardens thrive, too. From parsley to asparagus to sugar snap peas, Swiss chard to radishes, strawberries to baby salad greens and green onions, a veritable cornucopia of nutritious produce is coming to fruition.

In schoolyards scattered across Moore County, a different sort of kitchen garden is prospering right now. Picture a successful produce gardener — does the image of a child come to mind? Yet the gardeners are children. Come spring — and, a bit later, autumn — one of the most productive crops might actually be the cultivation of young minds.

“The kids are the ones who plant the gardens,” says Kathy Byron, a former pediatric nurse, longtime Moore County Master Gardener Volunteer and director of the innovative Good Food Sandhills program, an entity of Sandhills Community College (and formerly, the FirstSchool Garden Program). “We use those things they grow for food activities and nutrition education, inside the classroom and out, in school and after school. And then we operate in the community.”

Over more than a decade, deploying the principles of The Edible Schoolyard model, “we outfitted over 61 percent of Moore County schools with school gardens, so over 4,000 kids have access to a school garden,” says Byron. “Currently, we have intensified these efforts in two of our schools that have the highest percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch programs. We have honed our current efforts down to the most high-need youth. “

School gardens tap an innovative principle. “An environment-based education movement — at all levels of education — will help students realize that school isn’t supposed to be a polite form of incarceration, but a portal to the wider world,” writes Richard Louv, author of the best-selling book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Byron would add “and wiser nutritional choices” to the wider world idea.

Louv, Byron and others are at the forefront of an awareness that children need a connection to nature. This awareness has historical echoes. “Man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; [the Lakota] knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too,” said the Oglala chief and Native American author Luther Standing Bear, who lived from 1868 to 1939.

Leaving the confines of a school classroom and the climate-controlled halls, elementary students file out into the garden feeling the sunshine on their face and the breeze in their hair. The smell of sweet lavender fills the air, with the ever-constant din of traffic on 15/501 as the background noise for this outdoor classroom. Students’ happy banter, combined with a skip in their step, just confirms their excitement to be in this living laboratory! — “Musings from a Garden Educator”

These gardens generally take the shape of a raised bed or three. Filled with nutrient-rich soil and compost, they can be planted with seasonal vegetables. Planting “season” can happen all year, with collards, kale, spinach (under covers) and parsley in the winter. Cool season veggies such as radish, green onions, peas and salad greens can be added at the appropriate time, followed by a special warm-season planting. That produce is harvested for food-insecure families. In the fall, the cycle begins again, with cool-season veggies.

“Often, we plant butternut squash in summer to harvest in the fall and use through the winter. We use a lot of butternut squash,” says Byron with a laugh.

Fig trees, blueberries and muscadine grapes are also planted in the surrounding garden area. Besides seasonal vegetables and perennial fruits, every garden is planted with perennial herbs and a pollinator garden.

Pollinators and other beneficial insects become our friends and collaborators in making the garden healthy, full of life and amazement. Respecting spiders, ladybugs and assassin bugs as warriors in this ecosystem are some of their first lessons about respect of living things in the garden. Starting from the ground up — soil becomes the medium for planting seeds and seedlings, searching for microbes and inspecting under the microscope to see the world beyond the naked eye. Adding soil amendments such as blood meal and bone meal expands their understanding of nutrients plants provide us through the food we eat. — “Musings from a Garden Educator”

Math and science lessons have been held in the school gardens on nice days. Science and language activities hold interest while practical lessons slide in on the breezes of enthusiasm. “When truly present in nature, we do use all our senses at the same time, which is the optimum state of learning,” writes Louv.

They dig deeper into science and math through hands-on learning activities that allow them to use garden trowels, stinky fish fertilizer, Chromebooks for research. They cuddle chickens and extract DNA from a strawberry. Fractions are fascinating when making garden recipes like veggie tortillas, kale pesto or solar cooked pizza. We congregate around the picnic table to discuss the day’s activities, break into small groups and gather tools for our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Lessons. They fan out throughout the garden with a purpose to complete tasks that enrich their learning in real time. The garden is the premier STEM tool — as old and diverse as humankind and Mother Earth. — “Musings from a Garden Educator”

Movement is an essential component of learning, argue many experts. “A generation of children is not only being raised indoors, but is being confined to even smaller spaces,” writes Louv. “Jane Clark, a University of Maryland professor of kinesiology . . . calls them ‘containerized kids’ — they spend more and more time in car seats, highchairs, and even baby seats for watching TV. When small children go outside, they’re often placed in containers — strollers — and pushed by walking or jogging parents . . . Most kid-containerizing is done for safety concerns, but the long-term health of these children is compromised.”

Children’s health is a big driver for Bryon. School gardens are more than a cute idea, she argues. The stats are sobering. In 2007, North Carolina ranked fifth in the nation for childhood obesity; 42 percent of Moore County students were overweight or obese. Facts such as these moved the pediatric nurse in Byron to action. She observed that Moore County is populated by many low-income communities struggling to access healthy food. 

Over a decade later, Byron’s food concerns remain: “Things move slowly. One in four children in N.C. is food-insecure. And despite being an agricultural state, we are eighth in the nation for food insecurity. We work deeply in schools with free and reduced lunch programs, in low-income, high-needs schools. One of our principals noted, we bring experiences to children they would get nowhere else.”

Her work extends to developing local food systems addressing food justice in under-served communities. Through Sandhills Community College Continuing Education, Good Food Sandhills provides a holistic approach to linking the environment, healthy food and people from seed to table, classroom to community.

Respect for life, environment and one’s community evolves naturally as children explore and assimilate the implications of the web of life.

“Passion is lifted from the Earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save . . . the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature,” says Louv. “We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole.”

“Planting, tending, harvesting and tasting what is grown in the garden changes a child’s relationship with food. It broadens their palate, ties it to their heritage and makes them a partner in the growing process. It is their broccoli, their kale, their radish…and they love it! As Cicero (106 B.C. — 43 B.C.), Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer and orator so eloquently put it . . . If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” — “Musings from a Garden Educator”

For more information on school gardens, or to volunteer, contact Kathy Byron at kbyron@nc.rr.com. PS

Jan Leitschuh is a local gardener, avid eater of fresh produce and co-founder of the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative.