10 of the Best North Carolina Recipes - Big Bear's Wife (2024)

FAQs

What kind of food did the North Carolina colony eat? ›

The harvests gathered by colonial farmers included an expansive number of crops: beans, squash, peas, okra, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, and peanuts. Maize (corn), and later rice and potatoes were grown in place of wheat and barley which were common European crops that did not take readily to eastern American soil.

Fun fact: the sweet potato is the state vegetable of North Carolina. Pick up a sweet potato pie from Sweet and Cozy Bakery just outside Charlotte, then sip on Town Brewing's Sweet Carolina Pie – it's brewed with sweet potatoes, vanilla and nutmeg.

Some Indigenous foods from our region include favorites like corn or cornbread, beans, squash, greens, field peas, tomatoes, chocolate, chili, sweet potatoes, turnips, pecans, pine nuts, rice, soups, venison, bison, game, fish, and stews.

Red Bird Puffed Peppermints — Lexington

Named for North Carolina's state bird, the cardinal, these soft, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth mints have been made by Piedmont Candy Company since 1933, when founder Edward Ebelein revived the brand from his previous business.

The scuppernong is the state fruit of North Carolina.

Animal bones found in cooking pits and trash dumps show they ate deer, bear, raccoon, opossum, rabbit, turkey, and turtle. Fish and shellfish—such as clams and oysters—formed an important part of these American Indians' diets. Archaeologists made one unusual find in Onslow County in 1995.

For lunch many colonists would have had bread, meat or cheese along with water, beer or cider. Most cheese making was done at home, and was very hard work. At dinnertime the colonial people might have had a meat stew, meat pies, or more of that porridge, and again beer, water or coder to drink.

Piedmont Candy Company

This candy outfit is rooted in Lexington, North Carolina history, established in the year 1890. Piedmont Candy makes gluten-free puffed mints and candies out of pure cane sugar. A variety of flavors are offered under the brand name Red Bird, from lemon to cinnamon.

What is NC State drink? ›

The General Assembly adopted milk as the official State Beverage on June 12, 1987. (North Carolina Session Laws, 1987, c. 347).

Pepsi. Pepsi-Cola got its start in New Bern, where pharmacist Caleb Davis Bradham invented the beverage in 1898 as a refreshing remedy for indigestion. Today, the Birthplace of Pepsi store stands at the same site where Bradham's Drug Store once operated.

The Latin phrase Esse Quam Videri, “to be rather than to seem,” was chosen as the North Carolina state motto by jurist and historian Walter Clark. After Clark drafted the bill in 1893, Senator Jacob Battle of Nash County introduced the bill to create an official state motto to the General Assembly.

The sweet potato has been North Carolina's official state vegetable since 1995, and North Carolina is ranked #1 in sweet potato production.