[piano intro] - Next, on North Carolina Weekend, join us from Morganton as we celebrate Mountain Splendor.

We'll visit Old Orchard Creek Farm in Lansing, Iron Key Brewing in Columbus, and Pisgah Fish Camp in Brevard.

Coming up next.

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

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

[upbeat music] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ [upbeat music continues] ♪ - Hi everyone, welcome to North Carolina Weekend.

I'm Deborah Holt Noel, and this week we are celebrating mountain splendor.

Right now, I'm in Morganton, the gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains, where you'll find diverse public art, breweries, restaurants, and a natural playground perfect for all things outdoors.

Or you can relax inside with a nice cup of coffee and something to read here at Thornwell Books.

We'll explore more of Morganton throughout the show, but first, blueberry season is right around the corner and we found a charming farm in Lansing where you can pick your own blueberries and stay overnight.

Let's check out the amazing hospitality at Old Orchard Creek.

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

You 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.

- 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 said we've owned it, we became stewards of the farm in 2003.

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.

- So, 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 the best trout, some of the best trout fishing in the state.

It's just, it's a brilliant, 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.

[upbeat music] - So I'm 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.

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 Chopper 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.

And 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.

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

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 over look it, and there's probably, I don't know, 100 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.

[upbeat music] - Old Orchard Creek Farm is at 410 Swansie Shepherd Road in Lansing.

To book your stay, give them a call at [336] 384-1599 or visit them online at oldorchardcreek.com.

And don't forget, their general store also in Lansing is open daily.

If you could picture happiness, it might look like a candy shop.

Well, that's what Sarah and Craig Merrill thought when they opened this place here in Morganton, but this candy shop is different.

Inside you'll find Sarah's original paintings, Craig's homemade fudge, and all things Christmas all year long.

They call it Merrill's Mischief.

Here's why.

[upbeat music] - How you doing today, sir?

- [Sarah] This store is called Merrill Mischief.

- Rocky Road's the favorite today.

- Yeah.

- So, Merrill is our last name.

And we knew that we wanted to open a store that was full of a lot of fun.

We weren't quite sure what that was gonna be.

So, we figured mischief covered everything.

- You know, crazy, Wonka type of stuff.

I do offer a sample of our fudge.

We make it right here in the store.

- The idyllic setting of downtown Morganton certainly lends to the charm of this sweet shop, which continues inside with wall to wall joy.

- So, it goes candy, Christmas year round, and we do have Halloween and some other fun stuff, and then we have the fudge in the back.

And we wanted the candy, because I just really wanted a fun place for kids to come.

- [Narrator] And they mean kids of all ages.

- From toddler right to senior citizen, we love to see the smiles.

- And I like the candy, because of the price points too.

A little kid can come in with a dollar and go out with something fun.

- [Narrator] You name it, they've got it.

From old time candy to the latest and greatest.

- [Craig] And we do our own freeze dried candy now - It tasted like fun on my taste buds.

- [Narrator] It sure does.

And for those who enjoy shopping for Christmas decorations year round, Merrill Mischief does not disappoint.

- And I always go on everything that says Christmas store.

- [Narrator] The artwork, Christmas, or otherwise was hand painted by Sarah.

- So, some of it's really quirky and kind of weird and some of it's really fun.

Some of it's a little more serious, you know, like lighthouses and barns.

Just fun places that give people good memories.

- [Narrator] And then there's their homemade fudge.

- It's so delicious and it makes the store smell amazing.

- [Narrator] That's due to Craig's talent for perfecting the sweet, rich confection.

- [Craig] These recipes are some of mine and some of my friends.

- [Narrator] You see the Merrills moved to North Carolina from Vermont, which is why you'll also find plenty of foods from that state in their store, but it's the recipes Craig learned there that have proven the most delicious here.

- A good buddy of mine asked me before I left Vermont, if I could help him out at, you know, a couple falls at his country store and make him fudge, and I said, "Sure."

- And we have a lot of fun with it.

You can create different flavors of fudge.

A lot of people think it's just chocolate.

It's not just chocolate.

- And then a question I get a lot too is what's your favorite?

And I say, "Well, we talking breakfast, lunch, or dinner?"

So, I try to change up fudges every two to three weeks, depending on the season, Seasonal fudges and this and that.

So, a lot of these are on the counter quite often.

The Dark Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt, that one right there was a finalist in our state magazine.

Maple Kissed Sweet Potato Pie where I use over a pound of sweet potatoes in one batch.

I've got maple syrup in there, I've got spiced pecan in there.

- There's a lot of different ones.

In some with sriracha.

- Nice little kick to it.

- Unique flavors you don't see everywhere.

- Jalapeno, people look at the jalapeno like, wow, jalapeno, I don't know.

And they'll try it and it's a delayed heat and they're like, and it's very calm and it's like, wow, that's beautiful.

And all my fudges too, I make fudge pretty much every day.

I don't stockpile fudge in the back.

So, everything I make is fresh and that dictates what I do on Monday.

I'll be back in Monday making more fudge for Tuesday when we open back up.

So, other than the fudges that you see on the counter here, my dark chocolate covered cherries, which are very popular.

My turtles, which if you see my turtles and we call 'em sea turtles, they're very large or I do fudge-covered Oreos.

- [Narrator] The Merrills think everything tastes better with fudge, just like they believe life in general is just a little bit sweeter with a candy shop in it.

- I just love seeing people's faces when they come in and seeing all the different things.

It's really, it's kind of selfish, 'cause I love it.

It makes my day.

- Merrill Mischief is at 105 East Union Street in Morganton and they're open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 to 05:30.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 475-4975 or visit them online at merrillmischief.com.

Right in the center of Morganton is a gorgeous old courthouse built in 1835 and you know, no one wants to go to prison unless perhaps they're serving cold craft beer and hot patty melts.

Well, producer Clay Johnson and his videographer, Eric Olson, found an old state prison in Polk County where the inmates are now customers and they gladly turn themselves in.

[gentle upbeat music] - [Chris] This is the actual North Carolina State Prison building.

- [Narrator] This old prison is now Iron Key Brewing Company in Columbus.

- This is the area the prisoners were kept, two sections.

If you look down here, you can see where the bars were cut out of the floor, and if you look up, you see the orange and the holes in the beam, that's where the bars went into that beam.

We tried to keep everything original, original windows, 13-inch walls, original front door, original back door.

- [Narrator] Even the original iron key.

[door thudding] [door squeaking] - And this is solitary confinement.

There are two cells, they are separated.

This is one of the cells in solitary, and this is where the prisoners slept, if they decided to misbehave somewhat.

This was the original mess hall from when the prison was operating.

- [Narrator] Iron Key now uses it as an event center.

- There is a lot of work still to be done down here, but we will eventually get there.

- [Narrator] The prison opened in 1932 and operated until the late fifties.

Balliew and Brewer Dave Erb partnered with Bob Bundy of Tryon to purchase the property in 2019 and opened the brewery the following year.

- He took the steering wheel, and he just started driving.

And not only did Bob have a vision, he had the drive and he knew how to get there.

And just a very impressive man.

- Bundy's widow and the original partners are the team that runs the place.

- Everybody in the front of the house, we are together.

Everybody in the back of the house together, the ownership team, together.

It's all a teamwork concept.

It's not me, myself, I, it's we.

And I love that about this place.

- This is a sample of our hazy IPA, we call it Jailhouse Juicy.

- [Announcer] Erb calls Iron Keys beer American style with a German influence.

The brewery serves up 14 different beers with names like Big House IPA, Conjugal Cultch, and Lockup Lager.

- Everybody has a different flavor profile that they like and what we try to do is provide enough options that they can find something they like on our menu.

- [Narrator] Autumn McCormack is the lead brewer in a male-dominated profession.

- I get looks, you know, "Oh, you're the lead brewer here."

I'm like, "Yeah, you dang right I am."

- [Narrator] McCormack says, she's always seeking customer feedback.

- I tell people, you know, I want you to not only tell me what you like about the beer, but any kind of criticism that you may have about the beer, because I want to know what the general public likes.

- [Narrator] The food menu is pub style with favorites like the patty melt on sourdough with bacon and the blackened chicken sandwich.

- [Chris] I think we take it to a different level.

I really feel strongly about our food.

- [Narrator] At Iron Key, the servers are the guards.

- They've tried to get me a warden shirt and I'm like, look, you know, I wanna be a little more incognito than that.

[camera fluttering] - [Narrator] The customers are the inmates.

- This is so unique.

How many places can you go that says this used to be a state prison?

And all beers are named after something related to that.

[camera fluttering] - We like the place, we like the people here.

We have found so many new friends here.

- [Narrator] Iron Key Brewing Company is a prison people go to just to escape.

- [Chris] I want people come in, have a good time, drink some good beer, have some good food, go home happy?

- Iron Key Brewing Company is at 135 Locust Street in Columbus and they're open Wednesday through Sunday.

To view their menu, check them out online at ironkeybrewing.com or give them a call at [828] 802-1045.

Guatemalan culture in North Carolina?

You bet, Morganton has a very large Guatemalan population and now anyone can experience it.

Let's join producer Rebecca Ward as she takes us to a coffee shop and indoor soccer field all in one at Little Guatemala.

[upbeat music] - We really wanted the community to want this place.

- Lots of people travel to Guatemala and spend money for an airplane ticket, but just right here in Morganton, North Carolina, you can come and experience Guatemalan culture, the real deal.

- We have soccer, [players screaming] we roast coffee, [machine whirring] we also have a coffee shop, [coffee splashing] we do have a restaurant, arts and crafts, and chocolate.

So, those are some of the things that we do.

♪ Hey!

♪ [Christian speaking in Spanish] [Christian speaking in Spanish] [upbeat music] - I went to Guatemala for two years to work with a group called the International Justice Mission.

We had the whole two years that I was there in Guatemala to get to know one another.

I came back to the United States and he came and proposed and we got married in Antigua, Guatemala at the end of that year.

We got here end of 2009 and we knew that some Guatemalans lived here, but we did not know that 20% of the population of this town is Guatemalan.

[Speaker speaking in Spanish] - I think we've counted at least seven different Mayan dialects spoken here in Morganton.

And so, that was really important to us.

Starting little Guatemala is making it a place where the community at large could come together so these friendships can start.

[Speaker singing in Spanish] [Christian speaking in Spanish] [Christian speaking in Spanish] [Christian speaking in Spanish] [upbeat music] - We picked all of those things, the coffee, chocolate, soccer, restaurant, and crafts, because those are some of the top things that were mentioned.

Also, they're just iconic things from Guatemala.

If you think of Guatemala, those easily are some of the very first things that come to your mind.

[Christian speaking in Spanish] [Christian speaking in Spanish] - A lot of people don't actually consider where their chocolate bar came from.

We source the cacao bean from Alta Verapaz in Guatemala.

Here we have dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate bars.

We make other specialty chocolate items here and there for the holidays, but yes.

[Christian speaking in Spanish] [Christian speaking in Spanish] - [Everyone] Little Guatemala!

[upbeat music] - Little Guatemala is at 810 East Union Street in Morganton and they're open from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm every day but Monday.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 475-6593 or go online to littleguatemala.com.

When Dan Hawkins decided to open a seafood restaurant in the mountains, folks laughed at him.

But now, 50 years later, the Pisgah Fish Camp just outside of Brevard is still going strong.

[upbeat music] - We are a family seafood restaurant, founded in 1968 by our father, Dan Hawkins.

He came here to the county in 1948.

Got to know people fairly quickly.

So, he and a business associate were traveling down in the Charlotte area and they stopped to eat at a fish camp.

Upon leaving, his friend said, "Dan, you should open one of these in Brevard."

And he did.

[upbeat music] - We're on the doorstep to the entrance to the Pisgah National Forest.

Lots of waterfalls, some of the finest camping, fishing to be found.

It's a beautiful area and where you experience all the seasons.

So, anytime of the year that you choose to come, there's gonna be an appeal that will draw you here.

Obviously, it's started out as fried food driven, but over the years, you know, we have acclimated to other things.

And we do have the basics that we started with, but we've also, we do a lot of grilled red grouper, shrimp and grits items that people wouldn't necessarily associate with a fish camp.

- I started just like everybody in my family, we started as kids.

You know, my dad started the restaurant, gosh, almost 60 years ago now.

We were 10 years old, cooking hush puppies back in the kitchen.

That was my first job.

- We started with household refrigerators, and I was 12 years old.

So, every day after school I'd come down and wash dishes until we got done.

So, that's basically the start of the the Pisgah Fish Camp.

We have a very extensive menu.

We have combination plates.

The most popular would be flounder, the calabash-style shrimp.

We have catfish, we have rainbow trout, we have grouper, we have salmon, we have gulf shrimp.

We try to source our items as much as we can locally.

- I've been coming to Pisgah Fish Camp as long as I can remember, which is at least 55 years.

It's like coming and having dinner with family.

And if you want greens, like collared greens, this is the place.

With the hush puppies, oh man, that is out of this world.

And today, I'm probably going to have oysters, recommended high.

- The Fish Camp is not just a business in Brevard, it's one of the cornerstones of the community.

Also, and this comes from my dad, his attitude always was that we have to be part of the community.

We can't just open our doors and serve people fish.

We have to be involved in the civic life of the community, the charitable life of the community.

We have to try to do everything we can every day to make Brevard a better place.

And that's something that my brother and my sister and I try to do.

[upbeat music] - I'm 74 years old, and I have eaten at the fish camp, oh, I guess since I was in my early twenties.

They are like family.

It has always been one of Brevard's landmarks I would say.

[upbeat music] - We've been blessed with the longevity here of 55 years.

And we see customers come in and folks that work here know their name, know their children if they're sick, if they're having issues or just things going well in their life that someone knows something about them.

And to be able to come in and share that around a table while having a meal, I think we've been blessed to be able to provide that table for that.

- This is a chowder, a chicken corn chowder.

They make their soups so dang good.

I just ordered shrimp and grits to follow this.

The staff here are so sweet and they're so good at their job.

You feel welcome here.

- The cooks are excellent, the service is beyond reproach, and the people that own it are just good people in this community that work in this community to make it a better place.

- Doing things for your friends, and that's kind of been our approach all these years, you know?

And it started with dad, that was dad's biggest thing, 'cause he loved people, and he loved to make people happy.

He loved to see people, and we do too.

- The upper wall here has a quote that said, people said that he was crazy for coming this far out of town.

And that refers to Dad when he came out of Brevard, and three miles out at that time was a long way.

They didn't think he was going to survive down here in the boondocks of Pisgah Forest.

We managed to make it work.

- Pisgah Fish Camp is at 633 Deaver Road in Pisgah Forest, just outside Brevard, and they're open daily for lunch and dinner, beginning at 11:00 am.

For more information, give them a call at [828] 877-3129 or visit them online at pisgahfishcamp.com.

Here at the Courthouse Square, you can catch live music concerts every Friday night throughout the summer here in Morganton.

So, be sure to check it out.

And that's it for tonight's show.

We have had such a good time here in Burke County.

Wanna thank the folks at the Visitor Center for a beautiful tour of the city.

And if you've missed anything in tonight's show, 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 continues] - [Announcer] Funding for North Carolina Weekend is provided in part by Visit NC dedicated to highlighting our state's natural scenic beauty, unique history, and diverse cultural attractions.

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

[upbeat music]