Brunswick Stew Virginia Transcript
- Hear ye, hear ye.
- Be it hereby proclaimed by House Joint Resolution Number 35 that the following was affirmed in the Commonwealth of Virginia, February 1988, that Brunswick County, Virginia is the place of origin of Brunswick stew. And it was authorized at the serving of Brunswick stew on the Capitol Grounds during the 1988 session of a general assembly.
- Brunswick Stew is very special to Southside Virginia because it serves all types of rallies, they serve it for meals. People can buy stew from fundraising, for volunteer rescue squads, and fire companies, and clubs. They can take the stew and freeze it, it'll keep, makes a quick meal. And it's very tasty. And it's something most every family has in their freezer in Southside Virginia.
- And whereas throughout the Depression, this culinary delight fed the multitudes.
- Proud, we are proud to be from Brunswick County and proud to be a part of Brunswick stew. We've always enjoyed making the stew together and we feel like Brunswick County, Virginia is where it originated from, and we want it to stay that way.
- And whereas the legend of Brunswick stew has spread across America, giving rise to specious and wicked accounts of the origin.
- We do feel especially proud today. For one reason, I hope this will put a stop to these rumors that have started down in Georgia, that the stew originated down there in 1898. Well, of course, we all know that it didn't. It originated in Brunswick County in 1828 on the banks of the Nottoway River. And we are really proud today that the General Assembly is gonna recognize that fact. And we're gonna take that home and we're gonna hang our hat on it.
- And whereas these pernicious blasphemies must be stopped.
- Well, I just say that the folks in Brunswick, Georgia are absolutely wrong. The recipe and the taste of the Brunswick stew in Virginia has been far superior to that in Georgia for many years. As a matter of fact, it was 1828 when Brunswick stew was first introduced in Virginia, and Georgia didn't even know about it until many years later.
- And whereas the new Random House Dictionary, the bible of truth in literacy, recognizes Brunswick County, Virginia as the Bethlehem of Brunswick stew. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, that the General Assembly proclaims its pride in Brunswick County, Virginia as the place of origin of this astonishing gastronomic miracle. And thus, endeth the reading. ♪ Cluck old hen, you better not stop ♪ ♪ You gonna end up in my own stew pot ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, my eye's on you ♪ ♪ You gonna be cluckin' in the Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, cluck in the lot ♪ ♪ The next time you cluck you'll cluck in the pot ♪ ♪ Of Brunswick stew, diddly doo doo ♪
- Oh, I'm sure that in your research you've come across the controversy about the origin of Brunswick stew, and Brunswick, Georgia claims to be the originator. Apparently, I don't know if you've seen the kettle down there, 25-gallon pot on Highway 17 that has a plaque declaring it to be the pot in which Brunswick stew was first cooked in 1898. But, obviously, that's late in the story. And then, Brunswick County, North Carolina and Virginia are fighting also for the honors. But there's some documentation that this camp cook, Jimmy Matthews, invented Brunswick stew in 1828 for a hunting party. But in fact, there's an old world precedent for it.
- [Stanley] The first voyage of Columbus to the Americas was a 115-year-old memory when the Jamestown party reached Virginia in those three small ships. When they stepped ashore at the place they named Jamestown on May the 14th of 1607, after almost 21 weeks at sea, Captains Christopher Newport and John Smith and the 118 men who had sailed with them from England came face to face with the local residents, members of the Powhatan Tribe of Algonquin Indians. Accounts of their meeting differ, but this much is undisputed. The men from England had brought with them black iron kettles for cooking porridge, and the Indians, with a tradition of cooking in clay pots, introduced the settlers to several kinds of food made from maize, as well as many varieties of peas and beans, squash, and onions, which could fill their kettles and provide sustenance. In the woods and waters, the Native Americans harvested an astonishing array of meat and seafood, any and all of which could season the stew pot. There, on a river bank in the wilderness of Virginia, Old World and New World inhabitants thus brought together the ingredients that would come to feed the settlers of Colonial America. The year 1619 was significant for development at Jamestown. That summer, a Dutch privateer dropped anchor in the harbor and its captain sold the colonists about 15 indentured servants from Africa. European, and Indian, and African, White, and Red, and Black, male and female, free and slave, these were the human foundations of early Virginia Society. African slaves brought their own tradition of one-pot cooking, adding their influence to the English and Native American stew pots. Thus, from three worlds, one of the oldest most basic methods of cooking known in human history would lead to a tradition of black kettle, open-pot cooking of communal stews over wood fires. And the antecedents to the southern gastronomic delight known today as Brunswick stew were in place.
- [Stanley] Where are we going?
- Bones and Buddy's. ♪ Cluck old hen, you better not stop ♪ ♪ You gonna end up in my own stew pot ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, my eye's on you ♪ ♪ You gonna be cluckin' in a Brunswick stew ♪
- 'Cause this is the real thing, brother.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm.
- [Man With Stew] You'll never buy nothing on a shelf like this.
- It looks soupy though.
- Soupy? Look at that.
- It's supposed to be.
- It's just the right constituency. Look at that. Look at them lumps of delicious virgin chicken, look at that. Look at them homegrown butter beans. Look at that. Them chickens died with a smile on their face too, child. You can't find chickens that, I mean, they died for the cause, 'cause I love Brunswick stew. ♪ One-eyed lady with a lady with a run-down shoe ♪ ♪ One-eyed lady with a run-down shoe ♪ ♪ Eats ground hog, possum and Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Whack dam-ma-doodle all the day ♪
- It originated from a minister that we had here, Harry Byrd Jones, who came from Petersburg, and they used to make the Brunswick stew down in the country there, and he brought the menu, the recipe here.
- [Person] Wipe your back, Ron.
- That's the best I've ate.
- Is that right?
- It is, really is.
- [Stanley] Fellow says this is the best. What's in this? What is it?
- Got lima beans, and corn, potatoes-
- Then they got-
- Chicken, pork.
- [Person] Mississippi down there for a couple years.
- Your potatoes in here, and it's good.
- [Stanley] Where's the recipe from?
- Oh.
- Huh?
- It's a secret recipe.
- It's what?
- It's a secret recipe.
- [Stanley] Yeah?
- Don't hand this out very often.
- [Stanley] Whose recipe is it?
- It's Jimmy Gray's and Captain Jack's. ♪ Love fried taters and bacon ♪ ♪ Serve them when it's hot ♪ ♪ But I'm crazy about that Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Cooked in a cast iron pot ♪
- We read about it in the paper, Ms. Fearnow's Brunswick Stew Cook-off. And Mable and I are from Brunswick County and decided to come down and check it out. We've now tasted all the stew and we are ready to make our choice on what's the best Brunswick stew here.
- So you vote on this?
- Yeah, we-
- [Stanley] The public votes, is that right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah? And what-
- Uh-huh.
- Let me see the ballot here.
- Uh-huh. People's Choice Ballot, who's your favorite?
- [Stanley] Brunswick stew is a Virginia foodway steeped in tradition. Its legendary beginnings are in Brunswick County in the Virginia Southside.
- [Blanche] Some people will tell you that nothing ever changes in Brunswick County. Others, that it changes too fast. The truth is somewhere in between. It will remain, possibly forever, a warm, friendly community of people deeply attached to the land, united by more than a surveyor's county boundaries, and hoping, for the most part, to raise children as free, and honest, and self-determining as they are themselves. There's a great deal of wisdom, and humor, and truth in this group of people. Men and women of Brunswick have settled into a lifestyle marked by toil on the land and hard work, an abiding sense of interdependency and community, and a longstanding tradition of neighbor helping neighbor.
- When you look at this painting, I would like to see the viewer realize that this is a tradition that is now and has been a part of the lives of the people of this area. And it's a tradition that needs to be preserved. There's a real danger of small rural communities becoming more fragmented as people sell out or die off and other people move in. And you begin to lose that sense of connectedness that you took for granted all these many years. That's one of the purposes that the cooking of a Brunswick stew serves, is to bring people together.
- Well, I think it's wonderful for Brunswick County. It's a long-awaited event.
- [Stanley] You've come down to cover this?
- Oh, Brunswick stew, the birthplace of Brunswick stew, right?
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
- [Stanley] All right, thanks.
- Thank you.
- This is Margaret Traylor.
- Nice to see you.
- Hi.
- She's the chief coordinator of all Brunswick stew activities in Brunswick County.
- Nice to have you here.
- Oh, no, thank you, it's our pleasure.
- And you eat Brunswick stew?
- Yes, sir.
- We are here to dedicate this historic marker, there'll be six in total, proclaiming the history of Brunswick stew for all travelers who pass through our county. Ladies and gentlemen, here we are. ♪ Love fried taters and bacon ♪ ♪ Serve them when it's hot ♪ ♪ But I'm crazy about that Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Cooked in a cast iron pot ♪
- This is an account of the Brunswick stew, quote, "To Brunswick belongs the honor of originating the Brunswick stew, a dish not only of county and state, but also of national reputation, and a dish, moreover, that is found upon the daily board of the humble laborer, as well as upon the magnificent table of the epicure. Brunswick County is the home of good living, and the best of good living is an old-fashioned Brunswick stew. The Honorable I. E. Spatig, Brunswick County, Virginia, 1906." Colonel Creed Haskins was supposed to have had this retainer who cooked the stew, Uncle Jimmy Matthews. And he was supposed to have prepared the food when friends and political cronies, I suppose you'd say, and family members would come to hunt, or to fish, or to whatever they wanted to do along the river, just be together, as you say.
- Oh, well, I've been here and grandpapa would talk about it, about when we were small. And of course, I'm in my past middle 70's today, so I've been hearing it about 70, well, at least 65 years. My grandfather's grandfather, John Campbell, was a slave on the same plantation, Creed Haskins' plantation, with Jimmy Matthews. They worked as farm hands together, and they hunted together, fished together, they raised their families together, and made, well, and he assisted Jimmy Matthews when he made the Brunswick stew. We've always been in church with the Matthews family all my life at the White Rock Church, and I've known them all my life.
- [Stanley] And the Matthews family that you're talking about is the Thea Matthews-
- Yes.
- And William Matthews-
- Right.
- Who live in Alberta?
- Right.
- [Stanley] And they're direct ancestors of?
- Of Jimmy Matthews.
- Hello there.
- Hey, Buck, how are you?
- Good. How are you doing today?
- It's nice to meet you.
- Yeah. Buck, they're trying to get a good story on this Brunswick stew, how they started it. It started back here years ago. Yeah, where's Kate?
- She around here somewhere.
- You right. Come on, sit down. This is Steve Matthew's son. So it is a family affair. This Brunswick stew, it definitely started here with Jimmy Matthews.
- [Stanley] Did you help your father cook stews?
- Yeah, I helped him cook.
- [Stanley] And did he cook for Black churches or who all did he cook for?
- He cooked for all, White churches and Black churches.
- Is that right?
- Yeah.
- [Stanley] And so you learned to cook from him?
- Yeah.
- [Stanley] And did your sister, do you have a sister?
- Yes, I do. Her name is Sue Edmunds, live right across the road there. That's her.
- That's your sister?
- [Buck] Yeah.
- Daddy used to make stew. Six hens, 15 pounds of potatoes, five pounds of onions, five pounds of sugar, three pounds of butter, five pounds of fatback, four quarts of butter beans. Four quarts of tomatoes, four quarts of corn, one box of celery seeds, and one box of black pepper, three boxes of red pepper.
- [Stanley] Where'd that recipe come from?
- Ah, come from the stews. I took it, you know, got it from the recipe that he put in the stew. Things that he put in the stew.
- [Stanley] Okay, so you wrote that down.
- I wrote this down.
- [Stanley] Okay. Why'd you do that? What made you do that?
- 'Cause I wanted to keep it .
- [Stanley] Did he sit and tell you or what?
- No, I just learned from him, 'cause I used to help him a lot.
- I think it's important that people remember that Jimmy Matthews being a slave on Creed Haskins' plantation made the Brunswick stew and it gives value to, not only his children or his descendants, but for other descendants of other ancestors who lived at that time. ♪ Cluck old hen, you better not stop ♪ ♪ You gonna end up in my own stew pot ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, my eye's on you ♪ ♪ You gonna be cluckin' in the Brunswick stew ♪
- We call the stewmaster the man in charge and he's the one that ends up with the seasoning. And people buy stew by who the stewmaster is. So-
- [Stanley] They really follow a stewmaster?
- They follow a stewmaster. And if certain people like certain cooks to cook their stew. There's many recipes as there are cooks and a lot of civic clubs use it as a money making project. Most of the fire departments, some of the churches, homecoming, anytime somebody has a problem with an illness, somebody will say, oh, let's cook a stew and give the money to this benefit or that.
- [Stanley] If you were gonna suggest some stewmasters, I know I can't shoot them all, but just some that would be representative across the county, who would be some?
- [Margaret] Down 46 To Lawrenceville.
- [Stanley] There were many stewmasters spread across Brunswick County. I wanted to find those who had won against the Georgia competition during the Stew Wars. The first of these was John Clay Jr., a senior stewmaster who cooks in the Red Oak District at the north end of the county.
- There she goes. The first year we won this for the club, we got $500 and the next year was 3,000.
- [Person] 3,000, uh-huh.
- [John] Senator John Warner.
- [Person] Oh, is it? Yeah.
- Yeah, he was up there the second year and when I won the second year. Yeah.
- [Stanley] Was Natty proud?
- I don't know whether she did or not.
- [Natty] What?
- [John] When I won.
- Natty?
- Yes.
- [Stanley] Were you proud of him when he won that grandmaster? How did you feel?
- Oh yes. I felt I was a real proud wife.
- [Stanley] Yeah.
- All of them is empty boxes there to put the stew in tomorrow after we dip it.
- Get it on there-
- Give it a little good .
- [Stanley] So Palmer, where are we headed now? To get another pot?
- Yeah, we're going up to my mother-in-law's and pick up another pot just like that one right there.
- [Stanley] And where are you gon' put it?
- [John] You gon' ride with us, Stan, or you gon'-
- We're coming back to-
- [John] Or ride on the car with her?
- We're coming back to the community house where we gon' to cook the stews tomorrow, put these pots down and have 'em ready for in the morning.
- [John] Ooh, ain't no air conditioner on in there.
- [Stanley] Huh?
- Ain't no air conditioner on this thing.
- [Stanley] So where are you headed, John?
- I'm headed up to his, Mrs. Henry Clay's house to put the other pot on here.
- [Stanley] Is that where she keeps it?
- Yeah, right up at her house.
- We going to turn to the right.
- [Stanley] Okay.
- Go up to his wife's mother.
- [Stanley] How come this pot's up there? That's her pot.
- It's her pot and she just-
- [Stanley] It belongs to her?
- [John and Palmer] Yeah.
- [Stanley] How long she had it, Palmer?
- I don't know.
- Been had it...
- 40 years, I reckon. I reckon, yeah. We cooked a stew in it when Governor Albertis Harrison was inaugurated over yonder in Richmond, and the state trooper come over there, and took the pot of stew out up there to the Richmond folk.
- [Stanley] Is that right?
- Yes, sir. Him and, I hope, my brother cook it. He was a stewmaster at the time.
- [Stanley] Who was?
- My brother.
- [Stanley] I see
- When we cooking the stew tomorrow is to raise some money to give an organization, fire department and rescue squad, anything, every cent of money that we make is given away to some organization or another that need it. That's what the Ruritans is all about anyway, is helping out in the community. You've got to have your good helpers, don't, you can't get nothing done, and I can tell you that.
- [Stanley] Well, it sounds like it's important too for them to know how to cook that stew if you get down.
- And they can do it.
- Well, it's just a thing of everybody working together that's-
- Yeah.
- That's a whole deal.
- [Stanley] Where does she keep it Palmer?
- Out in this little shed outside here. If he could back it up here, we'd be extremely lucky.
- [Stanley] Is that your pot?
- That's my pot.
- What's the name of it?
- Well, it is just a pot, but it's got my name on it. It's got-
- It has your name on it?
- Yeah, it's got my name on it.
- [Stanley] What's it say?
- Just says Florence Clay.
- [Stanley] sHow long have you had that pot?
- Oh Lord, my husband bought that pot, he's been dead 30 years and he bought that pot 'fore he died.
- Is that right?
- Mm-hmm.
- Was he a stewmaster?
- Every, oh yeah. He was the head of John Clay, let me tell you. He's the one that cooked the stew for Governor Harrison.
- [Stanley] Oh, he was?
- He was.
- And what was his name?
- Henry. Was cooked right there under that carport. He was the Brunswick County man, you see, Governor Harrison, was from Brunswick County, and he knew Henry was a stew cooker. And he wrote him a letter. I have the letter in there that he wrote and asked him would he cook a stew for him to serve to his cabinet when he was there too before he was leaving office.
- Two feet, whoa!
- [Stanley] So this pot has a little bit of history to it.
- Oh yeah, the pot's got some history to it.
- Go down the way.
- [Stanley] How many stews do you suppose have been cooked in that pot?
- Oh lord. See, they cook lamb stews and Brunswick stews.
- [Stanley] Oh, they do?
- Uh-huh. And it's been used for cooking lard when people kill hogs back 30 years ago.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm.
- All right, let it slide on there.
- [Florence] Turn it around, let him see the name on the door.
- [Palmer] All right, I'm gonna swing it 'round.
- [Florence] See that right up there.
- Go up a little bit. Wait a minute, Palmer, I got it. We got some more to do up down. That's where tobacco's doing all up in here now. You can take pictures or the video of this here tobacco burning up.
- [Stanley] Are there still a lot of people who farm though for a living?
- No. Dairy farms and tobacco farms, that's about it. You got a few people that raise a lot of cattle.
- Mm-hmm.
- They-
- But it's not many farmers really that depend on it solely for their income. A lot of people work off the farm, which like I do. I have some cows, but I no longer raise tobacco. When I got a job in the post office full time, I stopped raising tobacco.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- And here the community house where we gon' cook the stew. Oh, he done put this cover on that thing, pot out.
- All right, now straighten back up. Keep going. Keep going.
- [Stanley] Tell me one thing. You won that Georgia contest hands down twice.
- Yeah.
- [Stanley] What is it about your stew?
- We just make better stew. We just make, the ingredients we put in the stew makes the stew.
- Now, the fella interviewed him at the first one and asked him what he put in it. And I said, "You can tell him everything you put in it, but just don't tell him the order we do it in."
- [John] That's exactly right, sure.
- It's a family secret here on some of the stuff, so.
- Yeah, my nephew in Richmond, his neighbor, he let him have a quart of the stew and he thought it so good. And so he'd come, his neighbor's coming out here and buy eight quarts with him tomorrow from Richmond. And they have stews and all that, but some of 'em said they just don't make no stew like we do.
- Iron pots are really very fundamental to cookery in this region. One of the things that makes this whole Brunswick stew thing even possible as a large dish is the fact that there were such things as these big giant kettles that would hold 500 gallons. And it was a perfectly natural thing to have a big kettle that you could then build this fire and put the kettle over the fire and start throwing all this stuff in there. And so cooking that much meant you had to feed a lot of people. The idea itself meant community, it meant family, it meant brotherhood, sisterhood, coming together. And so I see all that as symbolizing that unity around the social function of cooking and serving large numbers of people. You get those kettles out now, nobody cooks that way every day, this is ceremonial food. It is special occasion food. And so you see people come together in little towns and do that for fundraisers. And the kettle becomes the sort of representative symbol of what that community was like, and how it operated, how it functioned 100 years ago. And every time you bring it out, it's a reminder that there is this continuity with the past. So it becomes terribly important. It's more than just the stew.
- [Stanley] They used to use wood fires, didn't they?
- At one time they cooked with wood. We gon' to cover the end with water when we start. You'll see that in the morning. My son, he'll be here tomorrow. And these two gentlemen here, is manning stakes and us making the stew. You need seven or eight good men that know how to stir it, but it's a lot of 'em don't know how to stir a stew. You don't want the top stirred, you want the bottom of the pot stirred. When you do that, you know it ain't gon' stick. Good onion.
- [Stanley] What is this?
- That's your-
- What's this called?
- Community house. Community house.
- [Stanley] What happens here, John?
- Huh?
- [Stanley] What's it for?
- Anybody have dances, club meeting. We have our Ruritan meeting here all the time. Tomorrow, I'll get you right over yonder. And we got some trophies and everything over yonder in the corner.
- [Stanley] So what time should I meet you there?
- Four o'clock.
- [Stanley] Four in the morning?
- Yeah.
- All right. If you had to describe a stewmaster and what makes a stewmaster to somebody, what would you describe?
- Well, I'd say is the ingredients that you put in a stew, and the time you put 'em in there, and how you season them.
- [Person] Over there.
- [Stanley] John, how long you been doing this with your father?
- Ever since I can remember. I don't know the number of years. Ever since I was big enough to stir a paddle, he's had me out there working with him. Maybe he can tell you. I don't remember. It's been a while.
- [John] And put the fire right down there.
- What we're trying to do now is get everything in the pot and then get the water to boiling.
- [Person] Wash the pot now.
- And after we do that, then everything else comes in steps, you know.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- [Person] Hmm?
- I see where all the helpers are, in here.
- [Person] You all finished your job out there?
- Frankly, , bud.
- In the past, we've been starting early in the morning and work, we don't get through until later part of the afternoon. Now, we hope we could get started early like this. We finish up in time to-
- [Person] He's got something in there.
- Finish up around the middle of the day.
- [Person] See, look.
- This is our first try at starting this time of day.
- [Stanley] When does that stuff start to boil?
- [John III] That's beginning to boil right now.
- [Stanley] And now's the time you gotta really be careful about stirring it?
- No.
- Well, not right now. The time you have to be careful about stirring is after you the get bones out and the meat gets real thick in the pot, that's when it'll stick on the bottom. So you have to turn your heat down then. But you gotta watch it now to, you can't let it get too hot right now though, you'll scorch your hen, you know, the whole chicken, so.
- [Stanley] And the worst thing can happen to a stew is scorching it?
- That's right, or somebody throw grits in it.
- [Person] How are we doing?
- [Person] Right.
- [John III] And it's coming together now.
- [Stanley] It sort of changed color.
- Yep. Those tomatoes put some color in there. Every time's a little different. Sometimes you put tomatoes in first. Today, you put butter beans in first. Whatever the stewmaster feels like on that particular day, I guess, is what .
- [Stanley] Yeah, it all goes in there.
- Yeah, as long as it all gets in the pot.
- [Person] Yeah, there some bones. They're the best bones.
- [John III] You can see some bare bones in there now.
- [Person] Yeah, she coming apart there now. That red pepper will make it turn loose.
- Ruritan Club is for the community to make the money and to share it back with the community. And this is our biggest fundraiser, is Brunswick stews right now, so. And also lamb stews, we cook some of those in the fall of the year when it gets a little bit cooler.
- [Stanley] Now who would be a stewmaster for lamb stews?
- Mr. Gunn right there. You're looking at him right there, Joe Gunn.
- [Stanley] Yeah.
- Stan, I have an article about the first heritage festival that we had up in Brunswick County in 1988. This is the group that cooked that first stew. This is John as a winning stewmaster. This was in competition with the people from Georgia who were laying claim to the same, same thing. John came out first with the Ruritan Club helping. And the gentleman down there, Joe Gunn, he came in second in the thing. So actually, there was two members in our Ruritan Club-
- [Stanley] That won-
- He was-
- First and second place.
- [Palmer] First and second. He was cooking for his church.
- [Stanley] Wow.
- These are the stewmasters from Georgia as well as Brunswick County. Jeff Daniel here is the stewmaster when they went down there. And Jeff, Jeff won, he won the prize in Georgia one year.
- The thing that I think is very significant today is that the younger, very younger men of this church who are Daniels are out there with Jeff Daniel who is a stewmaster who is part of that family. And Jeff is, wouldn't want me to say this, but he's now getting up among the older, his hair's turning white like a lot of us, and he is passing on these recipes, the method of making it. And I think about the youngest one we had out there that was helping with it was around six or seven years old. Everything we've ever had around Rocky Run Church seems to have included this Brunswick stew in some way or other. When we have a fundraiser, Brunswick stew or the Brunswick sheep stew is a part of that. We have four of these at least every year, which helps us a lot in our giving for missions, and so many of our other projects. We're a very small church and we are in a county that is very economically low on the totem pole, I guess we can say. And this is one way we have of supplementing. It always has been the way in this county and in this church.
- [Person] That's y'all's mistake.
- [Person] No, it ain't.
- I told y'all the-
- I shoulda-
- Yeah.
- [Person] I shoulda stayed up too.
- And them boys will never, they won't forget that. They'll never and they enjoy it.
- [Person] Get out there in the Daniels-
- Got a lot of, you know-
- [Person] Tell you what's the truth.
- They got a lot of mess going on between 'em, you know, joking and you know. And that makes the time pass by and you don't realize you're doing it, really.
- [Person] Thanks.
- [Stanley] I'm shooting Daniels.
- Oh, come on.
- [Person] Oh my gosh.
- [Person] Don't you dare miss any Daniels.
- [Stanley] I'm trying not to.
- Hi.
- [Stanley] You're a Daniel?
- I'm Dennis and Maude Daniel's daughter, yes.
- [Stanley] And are you a Daniel?
- I'm-
- Close enough.
- I'm close enough, I'm a Lafoon.
- I'm a Lewis.
- [Stanley] You're a Lewis.
- Married to a Daniel.
- Yeah, glad to see you.
- Good to see you.
- I kept looking at you and trying to place you.
- [Person] Yeah.
- We have several stewmasters here with us today. We have our own Jeff Daniel is cooking stew out under the tent, and we'll be all eating that very shortly. We have Joseph Gunn here who is our sheep stewmaster. And John T. Clay Jr. over here who is the acknowledged Brunswick stewmaster from another part of the Brunswick County. It's, to me, very significant that we're having this stew today because Brunswick stew is also a part of our heritage, part of our history. This is where it started.
- Yeah, how's it going?
- [Person] Yes. It's time to eat.
- Yeah, how's it going?
- [Stanley] They say Queen Elizabeth won't let people watch her eat.
- [Person] What could you make when you-
- Mm.
- [Person] What kinda-
- Best. North Brunswick with a little pepper, red pepper.
- [Stanley] Mr. John, you don't have any stew.
- [John] I got stew.
- [Stanley] Oh, yeah, you do.
- Yeah, man, I got stew. I don't know where I'm gonna put all this.
- You know this old Brunswick stew ain't no good, is it?
- Yeah.
- Huh?
- [Stanley] Is that right? Well, why are you eating it?
- I don't know, just keep it from spoiling.
- [Fireman] Paging all Lawrenceville firemen, paging all Lawrenceville firemen. Don't forget your stew preparations tonight. Stew preparation tonight, seven o' clock.
- [Person] Make that switch better.
- [Stanley] What'd that say?
- He says Lawrenceville fireman, don't forget your stew preparations for tonight.
- [Fireman] Get your butt down here and peel-
- Get down here and peel these potatoes and onions. Right.
- [Fireman] He was being nice though.
- [Fireman] Yeah, he said it in a nice way. He said it nicer than we would.
- This is a replica of the trophy of the People's Choice Award that we won in 1988 in Brunswick, Georgia. We had one made up for all the participants so we'd have a memory to keep it home. And this is a little stew paddle that the Chamber of Commerce had made up here. So fits real good in there, in that little trophy. Smells good. Got a good flavor.
- Now-
- Be ready.
- [Stanley] Did you say that you don't put the juices in there with the corn?
- We did today 'cause we need to fill the pot up. It all depends on the moon how the pot, how the stew cooks up. Sometimes we do, sometimes we've got room for the juice. Sometimes we don't. Today, we did. It looks like today we're cooking on the, I guess, the left side of the full moon and the pots not gon' be as full even though we put in the same ingredients. It does happen.
- [Stanley] And when you cook on the other side of the moon-
- Other side of the moon-
- What happens?
- Sometimes you'll have to put running boards on the side, it'll actually, same ingredients, you'll fill it up completely full.
- It looks thick.
- It is.
- Time to start dipping.
- [Fireman] I'll take that, John.
- [John Clary] Yeah.
- [Fireman] How much more y'all got?
- [Fireman] About six.
- [Stanley] Is this your car?
- Yes, it is. How are you?
- [Stanley] There's no room for any people in there. It's just stew in there.
- And my granddaughter and daughter will be riding back with me to Richmond, so.
- [Stanley] How much stew do you have?
- I believe it's 120, about approximately 125 quarts today.
- [Stanley] Good Lord.
- Which is sort of the standard for us every time they cook. Whenever we get the date that the stew's being cooked, like myself, I put the word out at the office now and email, my sister does the same. And the employees, they let us know how much they want. We love coming home to Brunswick County to pick it up and take it back and-
- [Stanley] These are not all expatriate Brunswick County people-
- No, in fact-
- These are-
- Everyone that I'm taking, you know, 75 some quarts to and so forth, I'm the only one from Brunswick County, but we've introduced him to it over the years.
- [Stanley] You sorta like the stew missionary, aren't you?
- Well, you're a sister of John Clary stewmaster and growing up here too though. It's great, we have a lot of fun with it.
- Personally, I'm taking 24 with me right now.
- [Stanley] sIs that right?
- That's right.
- [Stanley] Do you always get stew from Lawrenceville Fire Department?
- Always, always, I support them 120%.
- Can't tell you what it is. So many intriguing things about Brunswick stew, you just can't pin down anything. Everybody has a different secret ingredient and we wish we could find out what they were, but they won't tell you what it is.
- [Stanley] Mr. Lucy, how did you come by all these secret ingredients?
- Well, let just a recipe that came through the Lucy family probably 50 years ago, 50 or 60 years ago. We've been using it. And we just still use it. It's always give us a good stew, so we continue to use it.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm.
- I think the color is is just about perfect.
- But what color are you looking for here?
- Yeah, we go down-
- Well, it's a good orangey brown-
- Kinda orange red.
- Kind of a-
- Orange red.
- We got it color coded and if you look at the texture of it, you see, it's got good fluid right now, but as you cook it on down, it'll thicken up.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- I think that the whole chicken to me still gives it a better flavor, we think. this is where we put all this paprika in here.
- [Person] Really? You mean, you want to stir and get some of all stuff on the bottom?
- [Person] Yeah, now, oh, this really thickened up.
- [Person] Yeah.
- [Person] That's the way it's supposed to be.
- [Stanley] Huh?
- That's the way it's supposed to be.
- [Stanley] Yeah.
- Other way is soup.
- That shows that it has some texture and character to it.
- We use the expression that you can eat our stew with a fork. Other people, you have to eat it with a spoon.
- [Person] And we've still got an hour of cooking today.
- Yeah, just about.
- Well, I always heard that if there's no fools, there's no fun. So anytime you're going to get a project going, you gotta have a little fun to make it go like it's supposed to. You know there's a whole art in the way you stir this stuff too.
- [Stanley] Show me.
- You have to stir it with finesse and everybody can't do that. Just train your camera on the paddle and watch the movement, and that'll tell the whole story. Yes, sir. See, you take a circle around to keep it from sticking on the side. If you want to be skillful, you go around the edge in a circle and then you go through the middle. You don't let it stick nowhere. And you use tender, love and care when you do that. Makes all the difference in the world. You go any place that they building a stew and it ain't sprinkled with a little bit of bull, don't hang around 'cause it ain't gonna be no good. A little bit goes long way.
- Well, this ought to be a good stew.
- I'm gon' tell you what sort it ought to be. I told you it was top of the line.
- [Person] Yes, ma'am.
- [Stanley] And somebody told me there were a lot of Joneses around your stew pot. Is that true?
- Really? I find that hard to believe.
- That's my brother Larry.
- That brother Neil.
- My son, Greg.
- Nephew, Sigma.
- And nephew, Sigma.
- So there are a few Joneses around here by chance.
- See, all of us are kin, except Reid.
- Yeah, but I'm an adopted member of the family, so that makes me kin right on. Right?
- He's a transplant here from Chesapeake?
- No, sir.
- Newport News?
- Norfolk.
- [Dick] Ah.
- [Stanley] What you got there? What you got?
- Future stewmaster.
- This is my grandson.
- [Reid] That is the future master there.
- J.G.
- [Person] There was a new one right below there.
- I believe he just woke up.
- [Person] You know anybody who-
- [Stanley] That's your son?
- Yes, sir. That's J.G., he's two years old.
- [Stanley] Is that right? Future stewmaster.
- Maybe so.
- I want to get this boy's hand on the paddle over there. 'Cause this is the grandson of the chief stewmaster and he's learning the trade this morning.
- You gotta put both hands on it now.
- [Reid] Your granddaddy gives ice cream money to people that stirs the stew.
- Well, Bethany Church was destroyed by a fire and they rebuilt the church from cooking stews, and donations stuff. And got the building completed and paid for. So they kept right on cooking stews. With Hugh McAden and Harold Gauldin is kind of heading the thing up and they cook at least the full Saturday in each month.
- Okay, that's all.
- That's all of them. Oh, ow, ugh. Ow.
- [Child] Oh wow!
- The Brunswick stew in Southside Virginia has meant an awful lot to a lot of people. After the church burned in December, 1989, along in January of '91, we decided that we going cook a stew and try to help pay for the church. But we were lucky enough that we didn't have to use any of the stew funds to pay for the building. But we decided we were going to cook the stews and do some charitable things in the neighborhood and help some needy people. And we've continued it now for six years. We've averaged about $1000 a month. So we've helped 12 or 13 different churches a little bit financially.
- Hugh, came to me and he asked me, he said, "Harold," said, "What is your opinion if we were taking cook a stew a month to try and raise some money for the, just in case, you know, they don't have enough money to pay for the church?" And I told him I'd be glad to. I could at least put that much toward the church as my time to help cook the stew.
- [Stanley] That's a lot though. That's 11 months out of the year you're working.
- Plus all the other stuff that we do do. But that's just minor thing for God's work.
- One of the first projects we did was to paint, patch up and fix up old Wooder's rundown house. That was one of the first projects that we did through the Stew Gang. And it doesn't make any difference to us what color or what denomination they are, yeah. Just for them to think that somebody cares, means an awful lot to 'em. And it means a lot to us to be able to do that for 'em. Out here, in this rural area, if you can take 12, $15,000 a year and help some of these needy people, it makes a big difference in their life.
- My mama and dad always told me if there was a will there was a way. And so far it's, whenever we cook one, we got the will and the way.
- [Stanley] How long you been helping with stews?
- This my first time.
- [Stanley] This is your first time?
- Uh-huh.
- [Stanley] You think you're gonna help again?
- Yeah, next time.
- Let me read you a poem that has something about Brunswick's stew in it. It's called "The Tryst." "Potato was deep in the dark underground, tomato above in the light. The little tomato was ruddy and round. The little potato was white. And redder and redder, she rounded above. And paler and paler, he grew. And neither suspected a mutual love 'til they met in a Brunswick stew." ♪ I got a gal on the side of Woody Mountain ♪ ♪ Heidi-ho, hiddle hum-ah-day ♪ ♪ She drinks Brunswick stew from a fountain ♪ ♪ Heidi-ho, hiddle hum-ah-day ♪ Hear ye, hear ye.
- Be it hereby proclaimed by House Joint Resolution Number 35 that the following was affirmed in the Commonwealth of Virginia, February 1988, that Brunswick County, Virginia is the place of origin of Brunswick stew. And it was authorized at the serving of Brunswick stew on the Capitol Grounds during the 1988 session of a general assembly.
- Brunswick Stew is very special to Southside Virginia because it serves all types of rallies, they serve it for meals. People can buy stew from fundraising, for volunteer rescue squads, and fire companies, and clubs. They can take the stew and freeze it, it'll keep, makes a quick meal. And it's very tasty. And it's something most every family has in their freezer in Southside Virginia.
- And whereas throughout the Depression, this culinary delight fed the multitudes.
- Proud, we are proud to be from Brunswick County and proud to be a part of Brunswick stew. We've always enjoyed making the stew together and we feel like Brunswick County, Virginia is where it originated from, and we want it to stay that way.
- And whereas the legend of Brunswick stew has spread across America, giving rise to specious and wicked accounts of the origin.
- We do feel especially proud today. For one reason, I hope this will put a stop to these rumors that have started down in Georgia, that the stew originated down there in 1898. Well, of course, we all know that it didn't. It originated in Brunswick County in 1828 on the banks of the Nottoway River. And we are really proud today that the General Assembly is gonna recognize that fact. And we're gonna take that home and we're gonna hang our hat on it.
- And whereas these pernicious blasphemies must be stopped.
- Well, I just say that the folks in Brunswick, Georgia are absolutely wrong. The recipe and the taste of the Brunswick stew in Virginia has been far superior to that in Georgia for many years. As a matter of fact, it was 1828 when Brunswick stew was first introduced in Virginia, and Georgia didn't even know about it until many years later.
- And whereas the new Random House Dictionary, the bible of truth in literacy, recognizes Brunswick County, Virginia as the Bethlehem of Brunswick stew. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, that the General Assembly proclaims its pride in Brunswick County, Virginia as the place of origin of this astonishing gastronomic miracle. And thus, endeth the reading. ♪ Cluck old hen, you better not stop ♪ ♪ You gonna end up in my own stew pot ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, my eye's on you ♪ ♪ You gonna be cluckin' in the Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, cluck in the lot ♪ ♪ The next time you cluck you'll cluck in the pot ♪ ♪ Of Brunswick stew, diddly doo doo ♪
- Oh, I'm sure that in your research you've come across the controversy about the origin of Brunswick stew, and Brunswick, Georgia claims to be the originator. Apparently, I don't know if you've seen the kettle down there, 25-gallon pot on Highway 17 that has a plaque declaring it to be the pot in which Brunswick stew was first cooked in 1898. But, obviously, that's late in the story. And then, Brunswick County, North Carolina and Virginia are fighting also for the honors. But there's some documentation that this camp cook, Jimmy Matthews, invented Brunswick stew in 1828 for a hunting party. But in fact, there's an old world precedent for it.
- [Stanley] The first voyage of Columbus to the Americas was a 115-year-old memory when the Jamestown party reached Virginia in those three small ships. When they stepped ashore at the place they named Jamestown on May the 14th of 1607, after almost 21 weeks at sea, Captains Christopher Newport and John Smith and the 118 men who had sailed with them from England came face to face with the local residents, members of the Powhatan Tribe of Algonquin Indians. Accounts of their meeting differ, but this much is undisputed. The men from England had brought with them black iron kettles for cooking porridge, and the Indians, with a tradition of cooking in clay pots, introduced the settlers to several kinds of food made from maize, as well as many varieties of peas and beans, squash, and onions, which could fill their kettles and provide sustenance. In the woods and waters, the Native Americans harvested an astonishing array of meat and seafood, any and all of which could season the stew pot. There, on a river bank in the wilderness of Virginia, Old World and New World inhabitants thus brought together the ingredients that would come to feed the settlers of Colonial America. The year 1619 was significant for development at Jamestown. That summer, a Dutch privateer dropped anchor in the harbor and its captain sold the colonists about 15 indentured servants from Africa. European, and Indian, and African, White, and Red, and Black, male and female, free and slave, these were the human foundations of early Virginia Society. African slaves brought their own tradition of one-pot cooking, adding their influence to the English and Native American stew pots. Thus, from three worlds, one of the oldest most basic methods of cooking known in human history would lead to a tradition of black kettle, open-pot cooking of communal stews over wood fires. And the antecedents to the southern gastronomic delight known today as Brunswick stew were in place.
- [Stanley] Where are we going?
- Bones and Buddy's. ♪ Cluck old hen, you better not stop ♪ ♪ You gonna end up in my own stew pot ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, my eye's on you ♪ ♪ You gonna be cluckin' in a Brunswick stew ♪
- 'Cause this is the real thing, brother.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm.
- You'll never buy nothing on a shelf like this.
- It looks soupy though.
- Soupy? Look at that.
- It's supposed to be.
- It's just the right constituency. Look at that. Look at them lumps of delicious virgin chicken, look at that. Look at them homegrown butter beans. Look at that. Them chickens died with a smile on their face too, child. You can't find chickens that, I mean, they died for the cause, 'cause I love Brunswick stew. ♪ One-eyed lady with a lady with a run-down shoe ♪ ♪ One-eyed lady with a run-down shoe ♪ ♪ Eats ground hog, possum and Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Whack dam-ma-doodle all the day ♪
- It originated from a minister that we had here, Harry Byrd Jones, who came from Petersburg, and they used to make the Brunswick stew down in the country there, and he brought the menu of the recipe here.
- [Person] Wipe your back, Ron.
- That's the best I've ate.
- Is that right?
- It is, really is.
- [Stanley] Fellow says this is the best. What's in this? What is it?
- Got lima beans, and corn, potatoes-
- Then they got-
- Chicken, pork.
- [Person] Mississippi down there for a couple years.
- Your potatoes in here, and it's good.
- Where's the recipe from?
- Oh.
- Huh?
- It's a secret recipe.
- It's what?
- It's a secret recipe.
- [Stanley] Yeah?
- Don't hand this out very often.
- [Stanley] Whose recipe is it?
- It's Jimmy Gray's and Captain Jack's. ♪ Love fried taters and bacon ♪ ♪ Serve them when it's hot ♪ ♪ But I'm crazy about that Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Cooked in a cast iron pot ♪
- We read about it in the paper, Ms. Fearnow's Brunswick Stew Cook-off. And Mable and I are from Brunswick County and decided to come down and check it out. We've now tasted all the stew and we are ready to make our choice on what's the best Brunswick stew here.
- So you vote on this?
- Yeah, we-
- [Stanley] The public votes, is that right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah? And what-
- Uh-huh.
- Let me see the ballot here.
- Uh-huh. People's Choice Ballot, who's your favorite?
- [Stanley] Brunswick stew is a Virginia foodway steeped in tradition. Its legendary beginnings are in Brunswick County in the Virginia Southside.
- [Blanche] Some people will tell you that nothing ever changes in Brunswick County. Others, that it changes too fast. The truth is somewhere in between. It will remain, possibly forever, a warm, friendly community of people deeply attached to the land, united by more than a surveyor's county boundaries, and hoping, for the most part, to raise children as free and honest and self-determining as they are themselves. There's a great deal of wisdom, and humor, and truth in this group of people. Men and women of Brunswick have settled into a lifestyle marked by toil on the land and hard work, an abiding sense of interdependency and community, and a longstanding tradition of neighbor helping neighbor.
- When you look at this painting, I would like to see the viewer realize that this is a tradition that is now and has been a part of the lives of the people of this area. And it's a tradition that needs to be preserved. There's a real danger of small rural communities becoming more fragmented as people sell out or die off and other people move in. And you begin to lose that sense of connectedness that you took for granted all these many years. That's one of the purposes that the cooking of a Brunswick stew serves, is to bring people together.
- Well, I think it's wonderful for Brunswick County. It's a long-awaited event.
- [Stanley] You've come down to cover this?
- Oh, Brunswick stew, the birthplace of Brunswick stew, right?
- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
- All right, thanks.
- Thank you.
- This is Margaret Traylor.
- Nice to see you.
- Hi.
- She's the chief coordinator of all Brunswick stew activities in Brunswick County.
- Nice to have you here.
- Oh, no, thank you, it's our pleasure.
- And you eat Brunswick stew?
- Yes, sir.
- We are here to dedicate this historic marker, there'll be six in total, proclaiming the history of Brunswick stew for all travelers who pass through our county. Ladies and gentlemen, here we are. ♪ Love fried taters and bacon ♪ ♪ Serve them when it's hot ♪ ♪ But I'm crazy about that Brunswick stew ♪ ♪ Cooked in a cast iron pot ♪
- This is an account of the Brunswick stew, quote, "To Brunswick belongs the honor of originating the Brunswick stew, a dish not only of county and state, but also of national reputation, and a dish, moreover, that is found upon the daily board of the humble laborer, as well as upon the magnificent table of the epicure. Brunswick County is the home of good living, and the best of good living is an old-fashioned Brunswick stew. The Honorable I. E. Spatig, Brunswick County, Virginia, 1906." Colonel Creed Haskins was supposed to have had this retainer who cooked the stew, Uncle Jimmy Matthews. And he was supposed to have prepared the food when friends and political cronies, I suppose you'd say, and family members would come to hunt, or to fish, or to whatever they wanted to do along the river, just be together, as you say.
- Oh, well, I've been hearing, grandpapa would talk about it, about when we were small. And of course, I'm in my past middle 70's today, so I've been hearing it about 70, well, at least 65 years. My grandfather's grandfather, John Campbell, was a slave on the same plantation, Creed Haskins' plantation, with Jimmy Matthews. They worked as farm hands together, and they hunted together, fished together, they raised their families together, and made, well, and he assisted Jimmy Matthews when he made the Brunswick stew. We've always been in church with the Matthews family all my life at the White Rock Church, and I've known them all my life.
- [Stanley] And the Matthews family that you're talking about is the Thea Matthews-
- Yes.
- And William Matthews-
- Right.
- Who live in Alberta?
- Right.
- [Stanley] And they're direct ancestors of?
- Of Jimmy Matthews.
- Hello there.
- Hey, Buck, how are you?
- Good. How are you doing today?
- It's nice to meet you.
- Yeah. Buck, they're trying to get a good story on this Brunswick stew, how they started it. It started back here years ago. Yeah, where's Kate?
- She around here somewhere.
- You right. Come on, sit down. This is Steve Matthew's son. So it is a family affair. This Brunswick stew, it definitely started here with Jimmy Matthews.
- [Stanley] Did you help your father cook stews?
- Yeah, I helped him cook.
- [Stanley] And did he cook for Black churches or who all did he cook for?
- He cooked for all, White churches and Black churches.
- Is that right?
- Yeah.
- [Stanley] And so you learned to cook from him?
- Yeah.
- [Stanley] And did your sister, do you have a sister?
- Yes, I do. Her name is Sue Edmunds, live right across the road there. That's her.
- That's your sister?
- [Buck] Yeah.
- Daddy used to make stew. Six hens, 15 pounds of potatoes, five pounds of onions, five pounds of sugar, three pounds of butter, five pounds of fatback, four quarts of butter beans, four quarts of tomatoes, four quarts of corn, one box of celery seeds, and one box of black pepper, three boxes of red pepper.
- [Stanley] Where'd that recipe come from?
- Ah, come from the stews. I took it, you know, got it from the recipe that he put in the stew. Things that he put in the stew.
- [Stanley] Okay, so you wrote that down.
- I wrote this down.
- [Stanley] Okay. Why'd you do that? What made you do that?
- 'Cause I wanted to keep it .
- [Stanley] Did he sit and tell you or what?
- No, I just learned from him, 'cause I used to help him a lot.
- I think it's important that people remember that Jimmy Matthews being a slave on Creed Haskins' plantation made the Brunswick stew and it gives value to, not only his children or his descendants, but for other descendants of other ancestors who lived at that time. ♪ Cluck old hen, you better not stop ♪ ♪ You gonna end up in my own stew pot ♪ ♪ Cluck old hen, my eye's on you ♪ ♪ You gonna be cluckin' in the Brunswick stew ♪
- We call the stewmaster the man in charge and he's the one that ends up with the seasoning. And people buy stew by who the stewmaster is. So-
- [Stanley] They really follow a stewmaster?
- They follow a stewmaster. And if certain people like certain cooks to cook their stew. There's many recipes as there are cooks and a lot of civic clubs use it as a money making project. Most of the fire departments, some of the churches, homecoming, anytime somebody has a problem with an illness, somebody will say, oh, let's cook a stew and give the money to this benefit or that.
- [Stanley] If you were gonna suggest some stewmasters, I know I can't shoot them all, but just some that would be representative across the county, who would be some?
- [Margaret] Down 46 To Lawrenceville.
- [Stanley] There were many stewmasters spread across Brunswick County. I wanted to find those who had won against the Georgia competition during the Stew Wars. The first of these was John Clay Jr., a senior stewmaster who cooks in the Red Oak District at the north end of the county.
- There she goes. The first year we won this for the club, we got $500 and that next year was 3,000.
- [Person] 3,000, uh-huh.
- [John] Senator John Warner.
- [Person] Oh, is it? Yeah.
- Yeah, he was up there the second year and when I won the second year. Yeah.
- [Stanley] Was Natty proud?
- I don't know whether she did or not.
- [Natty] What?
- [John] When I won.
- Natty?
- Yes.
- [Stanley] Were you proud of him when he won that grandmaster? How did you feel?
- Oh yes. I felt I was a real proud wife.
- [Stanley] Yeah.
- All of them is empty boxes there to put the stew in tomorrow after we dip it.
- Get it on there-
- Give it a little good .
- [Stanley] So Palmer, where are we headed now? To get another pot?
- Yeah, we're going up to my mother-in-law's and pick up another pot just like that one right there.
- [Stanley] And where are you gon' put it?
- [John] You gon' ride with us, Stan, or you going-
- We're coming back to-
- [John] Or ride on the car with her?
- We're coming back to the community house where we gon' to cook the stews tomorrow, put these pots down and have 'em ready for in the morning.
- [John] Ooh, ain't no air conditioner on in there.
- [Stanley] Huh?
- Ain't no air conditioner on this thing.
- [Stanley] So where are you headed, John?
- I'm headed up to his, Mrs. Henry Clay's house to put the other pot on here.
- [Stanley] Is that where she keeps it?
- Yeah, right up at her house.
- We going to turn to the right.
- [Stanley] Okay.
- Go up to his wife's mother.
- [Stanley] How come this pot's up there?
- That's her pot.
- It's her pot and she just-
- [Stanley] It belongs to her?
- [John and Palmer] Yeah.
- [Stanley] How long she had it, Palmer?
- I don't know.
- Been had it...
- 40 years, I reckon.
- I reckon, yeah. We cooked a stew in it when Governor Albertis Harrison was inaugurated over yonder in Richmond, and the state trooper come over there, and took the pot of stew out up there to the Richmond folk.
- [Stanley] Is that right?
- Yes, sir. Him and, I hope, my brother can cook it. He was a stewmaster at the time.
- [Stanley] Who was?
- My brother.
- [Stanley] I see
- When we cooking the stew tomorrow is to raise some money to give an organization, fire department and rescue squad, anything, every set of money that we make is given away to some organization or another that need it. That's what the Ruritans is all about anyway, is helping out in the community. You've got to have your good helpers, don't, you can't get nothing done, and I can tell you that.
- [Stanley] Well, it sounds like it's important too for them to know how to cook that stew if you get down.
- And they can do it.
- Well, it's just a thing of everybody working together that's-
- Yeah.
- That's a whole deal.
- [Stanley] Where does she keep it Palmer?
- Out in this little shed outside here. If he could back it up here, we'd be extremely lucky.
- [Stanley] Is that your pot?
- That's my pot.
- [Stanley] What's the name of it?
- Well, it is just a pot, but it's got my name on it. It's got-
- It has your name on it?
- Yeah, it's got my name on it.
- [Stanley] What's it say?
- Just says Florence Clay.
- [Stanley] sHow long have you had that pot?
- Oh Lord, my husband bought that pot, he's been dead 30 years and he bought that pot 'fore he died.
- [Stanley] Is that right?
- Mm-hmm.
- Was he a stewmaster?
- Every, oh yeah. He was the head of John Clay, let me tell you. He's the one that cooked the stew for Governor Harrison.
- Oh, he was?
- He was.
- [Stanley] And what was his name?
- Henry. Was cooked right there under that carport. He was the Brunswick County man, you see, Governor Harrison, was from Brunswick County, and he knew Henry was a stew cooker. And he wrote him a letter. I have the letter in there that he wrote and asked him would he cook a stew for him to serve to his cabinet when he was there too before he was leaving office.
- Two feet, whoa!
- [Stanley] So this pot has a little bit of history to it.
- Oh yeah, the pot's got some history to it.
- Go down the way.
- [Stanley] How many stews do you suppose have been cooked in that pot?
- Oh lord. See, they cook lamb stews and Brunswick stews.
- [Stanley] Oh, they do?
- Uh-huh. And it's been used for cooking lard when people kill hogs back 30 years ago.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm.
- All right, let it slide on there.
- [Florence] Turn it around, let him see the name on the door.
- [Palmer] All right, I'm gonna swing it 'round.
- [Florence] See that right up there.
- Go up a little bit. Wait a minute, Palmer, I got it. We got some more to do up down. That's where tobacco's doing all up in here now. You can take pictures or the video of this here tobacco burning up.
- [Stanley] Are there still a lot of people who farm though for a living?
- No. Dairy farms and tobacco farms, that's about it. You got a few people that raise a lot of cattle.
- Mm-hmm.
- They-
- But it's not many farmers really that depend on it solely for their income. A lot of people work off the farm, which like I do. I have some cows, but I no longer raise tobacco. When I got a job in the post office full time, I stopped raising tobacco.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.
- And here the community house where we gon' cook the stew. Oh, he done put this cover on that thing, pot out.
- All right, now straighten back up. Keep going. Keep going.
- [Stanley] Tell me one thing. You won that Georgia contest hands down twice.
- Yeah.
- [Stanley] What is it about your stew?
- We just make better stew. We just make, the ingredients we put in the stew makes the stew.
- Now, the fella interviewed him at the first one and asked him what he put in it. And I said, "You can tell him everything you put in it, but just don't tell him the order we do it in."
- [John] That's exactly right, sure.
- It's a family secret here on some of the stuff, so.
- Yeah, my nephew in Richmond, his neighbor, he let him have a quart of the stew and he thought it so good. And so he'd come, his neighbor's coming out here and buy eight quarts with him tomorrow from Richmond. And they have stews and all that, but some of 'em said they just don't make no stew like we do.
- Iron pots are really very fundamental to cookery in this region. One of the things that makes this whole Brunswick stew thing even possible as a large dish is the fact that there were such things as these big giant kettles that would hold 500 gallons. And it was a perfectly natural thing to have a big kettle that you could then build this fire and put the kettle over the fire and start throwing all this stuff in there. And so cooking that much meant you had to feed a lot of people. The idea itself meant community, it meant family, it meant brotherhood, sisterhood, coming together. And so I see all that as symbolizing that unity around the social function of cooking and serving large numbers of people. You get those kettles out now, nobody cooks that way every day, this is ceremonial food. It is special occasion food. And so you see people come together in little towns and do that for fundraisers. And the kettle becomes the sort of representative symbol of what that community was like, and how it operated, how it functioned 100 years ago. And every time you bring it out, it's a reminder that there is this continuity with the past. So it becomes terribly important. It's more than just the stew.
- [Stanley] They used to use wood fires, didn't they?
- At one time they cooked with wood. We gon' to cover the end with water when we start. You'll see that in the morning. My son, he'll be here tomorrow. And these two gentlemen here, is manning steaks and us making the stew. You need seven or eight good men that know how to stir it, but it's a lot of 'em don't know how to stir a stew. You don't want the top stirred, you want the bottom of the pot stirred. When you do that, you know it ain't gon' stick. Good onion.
- [Stanley] What is this?
- That's your-
- What's this called?
- Community house. Community house.
- [Stanley] What happens here, John?
- Huh?
- [Stanley] What's it for?
- Anybody have dances, club meeting. We have our Ruritan meeting here all the time. Tomorrow, I'll get you right over yonder. And we got some trophies and everything over yonder in the corner.
- [Stanley] So what time should I meet you there?
- Four o'clock.
- [Stanley] Four in the morning?
- Yeah.
- All right. If you had to describe a stewmaster and what makes a stewmaster to somebody, what would you describe?
- Well, I'd say is the ingredients that you put in a stew, and the time you put 'em in there, and how you season them.
- [Person] Over there.
- [Stanley] John, how long you been doing this with your father?
- Ever since I can remember. I don't know the number of years. Ever since I was big enough to stir a paddle, he's had me out there working with him. Maybe he can tell you. I don't remember. It's been a while.
- [John] And put the fire right down there.
- What we're trying to do now is get everything in the pot and then get the water to boiling.
- [Person] Wash the pot now.
- And after we do that, then everything else comes in steps, you know.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- [Person] Hmm?
- I see where all the helpers are, in here.
- [Person] You all finished your job out there?
- Frankly, , bud.
- In the past, we've been starting early in the morning and work, we don't get through until later part of the afternoon. Now, we hope we could get started early like this. We finish up in time to-
- [Person] He's got something in there.
- Finish up around the middle of the day.
- [Person] See, look.
- This is our first try at starting this time of day.
- [Stanley] When does that stuff start to boil?
- That's beginning to boil right now.
- [Stanley] And now's the time you gotta really be careful about stirring it?
- No.
- Well, not right now. The time you have to be careful about stirring is after you the get bones out and the meat gets real thick in the pot, that's when it'll stick on the bottom. So you have to turn your heat down then. But do you gotta watch it now until, you can't let it get too hot right now though, you'll scorch your hen, you know, the whole chicken, so.
- [Stanley] And the worst thing can happen to a stew is scorching it?
- That's right, or somebody throw grits in it.
- [Person] How are we doing?
- [Person] Right.
- [John III] And it's coming together now.
- [Stanley] It sort of changed color.
- Yep. Those tomatoes put some color in there. Every time's a little different. Sometimes you put tomatoes in first. Today, you put butter beans in first. Whatever the stewmaster feels like on that particular day, I guess, is what .
- [Stanley] Yeah, it all goes in there.
- Yeah, as long as it all gets in the pot.
- [Person] Yeah, there some bones. They're the best bones.
- [John III] You can see some bare bones in there now.
- [Person] Yeah, she coming apart there now. That red pepper will make it turn loose.
- Ruritan Club is for the community to make the money and to share it back with the community. And this is our biggest fundraiser, is Brunswick stews right now, so. And also lamb stews, we cook some of those in the fall of the year when it gets a little bit cooler.
- [Stanley] Now who would be a stewmaster for lamb stews?
- Mr. Gunn right there. You're looking at him right there, Joe Gunn.
- [Stanley] Yeah.
- Stan, I have an article about the first heritage festival that we had up in Brunswick County in 1988. This is the group that cooked that first stew. This is John as a winning stewmaster. This was in competition with the people from Georgia who were laying claim to the same thing. John came up first with the Ruritan Club helping. And the gentleman down there, Joe Gunn, he came in second in the thing. So actually, there was two members in our Ruritan Club-
- [Stanley] That won-
- He was-
- First and second place.
- [Palmer] First and second. He was cooking for his church.
- [Stanley] Wow.
- These are the stewmasters from Georgia as well as Brunswick County. Jeff Daniel here is the stewmaster when they went down there. And Jeff won, he won the prize in Georgia one year.
- The thing that I think is very significant today is that the younger, very younger men of this church who are Daniels are out there with Jeff Daniel who is a stewmaster who is part of that family. And Jeff is, wouldn't want me to say this, but he's now getting up among the older, his hair's turning white like a lot of us, and he is passing on these recipes, the method of making it. And I think about the youngest one we had out there that was helping with it was around six or seven years old. Everything we've ever had around Rocky Run Church seems to have included this Brunswick stew in some way or other. When we have a fundraiser, Brunswick stew or the Brunswick sheep stew is a part of that. We have four of these at least every year, which helps us a lot in our giving for missions, and so many of our other projects. We're a very small church and we are in a county that is very economically low on the totem pole, I guess we can say. And this is one way we have of supplementing. It always has been the way in this county and in this church.
- [Person] That's y'all's mistake.
- [Person] No, it ain't.
- I told y'all the-
- I shoulda-
- Yeah.
- [Person] I shoulda stayed up too.
- And them boys will never, they won't forget that. They'll never and they enjoy it.
- [Person] Get out there in the Daniels-
- Got a lot of, you know,
- [Person] Tell you what's the truth.
- They got a lot of mess going on between 'em, you know, joking and you know. And that makes the time pass by and you don't realize you're doing it, really.
- [Person] Thanks.
- [Stanley] I'm shooting Daniels.
- Oh, come on.
- [Person] Oh my gosh.
- [Person] Don't you dare miss any Daniels?
- [Stanley] I'm trying not to.
- Hi.
- [Stanley] You're a Daniel?
- I'm Dennis and Maude Daniel's daughter, yes.
- [Stanley] And are you a Daniel?
- I'm-
- Close enough.
- I'm close enough, I'm a Lafoon.
- I'm a Lewis.
- [Stanley] You're a Lewis.
- Married to a Daniel.
- Yeah, glad to see you.
- Good to see you.
- I kept looking at you and trying to place you.
- [Person] Yeah.
- We have several stewmasters here with us today. We have our own Jeff Daniel is cooking stew out under the tent, and we'll be all eating that very shortly. We have Joseph Gunn here who is our sheep stewmaster. And John T. Clay Jr. over here who is the acknowledged Brunswick stewmaster from another part of the Brunswick County. It's, to me, very significant that we're having this stew today because Brunswick stew is also a part of our heritage, part of our history. This is where it started.
- Yeah, how's it going?
- [Person] Yes. It's time to eat.
- Yeah, how's it going?
- [Stanley] They say Queen Elizabeth won't let people watch her eat.
- [Person] What could you make when you-
- Mm.
- [Person] What kinda-
- Best. North Brunswick with a little pepper, red pepper.
- [Stanley] Mr. John, you don't have any stew.
- [John] I got stew.
- [Stanley] Oh, yeah, you do. Yeah, man, I got stew. I don't know where I'm gonna put all this.
- You know this old Brunswick stew ain't no good, is it?
- Yeah.
- Huh?
- [Stanley] Is that right? Well, why are you eating it?
- I don't know, just keep it from spoiling.
- [Fireman] Paging all Lawrenceville firemen, paging all Lawrenceville firemen. Don't forget your stew preparations tonight. Stew preparation tonight, seven o' clock.
- [Person] Make that switch better.
- [Stanley] What'd that say?
- He says Lawrenceville fireman, don't forget your stew preparations for tonight.
- [Fireman] Get your butt down here and peel-
- Get down here and peel these potatoes and onions. Right.
- [Fireman] He was being nice though?
- [Fireman] Yeah, he said it in a nice way. He said it nicer than we would.
- This is a replica of the trophy of the People's Choice Award that we won in 1988 in Brunswick, Georgia. We had one made up for all the participants so we'd have a memory to keep it home. And this is a little stew paddle that the Chamber of Commerce had made up here. So fits real good in there, in that little trophy. Smells good. Got a good flavor.
- Now-
- Be ready.
- [Stanley] Did you say that you don't put the juices in there with the corn?
- We did today 'cause we need to fill the pot up. It all depends on the moon how the pot, how the stew cooks up. Sometimes we do, sometimes we've got room for the juice. Sometimes we don't. Today, we did. It looks like today we're cooking on the, I guess, the left side of the full moon and pots not gon' be as full even though we put in the same ingredients. It does happen.
- [Stanley] And when you cook on the other side of the moon-
- Other side of the moon-
- What happens?
- Sometimes you'll have to put running boards on the side, it'll actually, same ingredients, you'll fill it up completely full.
- It looks thick.
- It is.
- Time to start dipping.
- [Fireman] I'll take that, John.
- [John Clary] Yeah.
- [Fireman] How much more y'all got?
- [Fireman] About six.
- [Stanley] Is this your car?
- Yes, it is. How are you?
- [Stanley] There's no room for any people in there. It's just stew in there.
- And my granddaughter and daughter will be riding back with me to Richmond, so.
- [Stanley] How much stew do you have?
- I believe it's 120, about approximately 125 quarts today.
- [Stanley] Good Lord.
- Which is sort of the standard for us every time they cook. Whenever we get the date that the stew's being cooked, like myself, I put the word out at the office now and email, my sister does the same. And the employees, they let us know how much they want. We love coming home to Brunswick County to pick it up and take it back and-
- [Stanley] These are not all expatriate Brunswick County people-
- No, in fact-
- These are-
- Everyone that I'm taking, you know, 75 some quarts to and so forth, I'm the only one from Brunswick County, but we've introduced him to it over the years.
- [Stanley] You sorta like the stew missionary, aren't you?
- Well, you're a sister of John Clary stewmaster and growing up here too though. It's great, we have a lot of fun with it.
- Personally, I'm taking 24 with me right now.
- [Stanley] sIs that right?
- That's right.
- [Stanley] Do you always get stew from Lawrenceville Fire Department?
- Always, always, I support them 120%.
- Can't tell you what it is. So many intriguing things about Brunswick stew, you just can't pin down anything. Everybody has a different secret ingredient and we wish we could find out what they were, but they won't tell you what it is.
- [Stanley] Mr. Lucy, how did you come by all these secret ingredients?
- Well, let just a recipe that came through the Lucy family probably 50 years ago, 50 or 60 years ago. We've been using it. And we just still use it. It's always give us a good stew, so we continue to use it.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm.
- I think the color is is just about perfect.
- [Stanley] But what color are you looking for here?
- Yeah, we go down-
- Well, it's a good orangey brown-
- Kinda orange red.
- Kind of a-
- Orange red.
- We got it color coded and if you look at the texture of it, you see, it's got good fluid right now, but as you cook it on down, it'll thicken up.
- [Stanley] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- I think that the whole chicken to me still gives it a better flavor, we think. We'll put all this all this paprika in here.
- [Person] Really? You mean, you want to stir and get some of all stuff on the bottom?
- [Person] Yeah, now, oh, this really thickened up.
- [Person] Yeah.
- [Person] That's the way it's supposed to be.
- [Stanley] Huh?
- That's the way it's supposed to be.
- [Stanley] Yeah.
- Other way is soup.
- That shows that it has some texture and character to it.
- We use the expression that you can eat our stew with a fork. Other people, you have to eat it with a spoon.
- [Person] And we've still got an hour of cooking today.
- Yeah, just about.
- Well, I always heard that if there's no fools, there's no fun. So anytime you're going to get a project going, you gotta have a little fun to make it go like it's supposed to. You know there's a whole art in the way you stir this stuff too.
- [Stanley] Show me.
- You have to stir it with finesse and everybody can't do that. Just train your camera on the paddle and watch the movement, and that'll tell the whole story. Yes, sir. See, you take a circle around to keep it from sticking on the side. If you want to be skillful, you go around the edge in a circle and then you go through the middle. You don't let it stick nowhere. And you use tender, love and care when you do that. Makes all the difference in the world. You go any place that they building a stew and it ain't sprinkled with a little bit of bull, don't hang around 'cause it ain't gonna be no good. A little bit goes long way.
- [Stanley] Well, this ought to be a good stew.
- I'm gon' tell you what sort it ought to be. I told you it was top of the line.
- [Person] Yes, ma'am.
- [Stanley] And somebody told me there were a lot of Joneses around your stew pot. Is that true?
- Really? I find that hard to believe.
- That's my brother Larry.
- That's brother Neil.
- My son, Greg.
- Nephew, Sigma.
- And nephew, Sigma.
- So there are a few Joneses around here by chance.
- See, all of us are kin, except Reid.
- Yeah, but I'm an adopted member of the family, so that makes me kin right on. Right?
- He's a transplant here from Chesapeake?
- No, sir.
- Newport News?
- Norfolk.
- [Dick] Ah.
- [Stanley] What you got there? What you got?
- Future stewmaster.
- This is my grandson.
- [Reid] That is the future master there.
- J.G.
- [Person] There was a new one right below there.
- I believe he just woke up.
- [Person] You know anybody who-
- [Stanley] That's your son?
- Yes, sir. That's J.G., he's two years old.
- [Stanley] Is that right? Future stewmaster.
- Maybe so.
- I want to get this boy's hand on the paddle over there. 'Cause this is the grandson of the chief stewmaster and he's learning the trade this morning.
- You gotta put both hands on it now.
- [Reid] Your granddaddy gives ice cream money to people that stirs the stew.
- Well, Bethany Church was destroyed by a fire and they rebuilt the church from cooking stews, and donations stuff. And got the building completed and paid for. So they kept right on cooking stews. With Hugh McAden and Harold Gauldin is kind of heading the thing up and they cook at least the full Saturday in each month.
- Okay, that's all.
- That's all of them. Oh, ow, ugh. Ow.
- [Child] Oh wow!
- The Brunswick stew in Southside Virginia has meant an awful lot to a lot of people. After the church burned in December, 1989, along in January of '91, we decided that we going cook a stew and try to help pay for the church. But we were lucky enough that we didn't have to use any of the stew funds to pay for the building. But we decided we were going to cook the stews and do some charitable things in the neighborhood and help some needy people. And we've continued it now for six years. We've averaged about $1000 a month. So we've helped 12 or 13 different churches a little bit financially.
- Hugh, came to me and he asked me, he said, "Harold," said, "What is your opinion if we were taking, cook a stew a month to try and raise some money for the, just in case, you know, they don't have enough money to pay for the church?" And I told him I'd be glad to. I could at least put that much toward the church as my time to help cook the stew.
- [Stanley] That's a lot though. That's 11 months out of the year you're working.
- Plus all the other stuff that we do do. But that's just minor thing for God's work.
- One of the first projects we did was to paint, patch up and fix up old Wooder's rundown house. That was one of the first projects that we did through the Stew Gang. And it doesn't make any difference to us what color or what denomination they are, yeah. Just for them to think that somebody cares, means an awful lot to 'em. And it means a lot to us to be able to do that for 'em. Out here, in this rural area, if you can take 12, $15,000 a year and help some of these needy people, it makes a big difference in their life.
- My mama and dad always told me if there was a will there was a way. And so far it's, whenever we cook one, we got the will and the way.
- [Stanley] How long you been helping with stews? This my first time.
- This is your first time?
- Uh-huh.
- [Stanley] You think you're gonna help again?
- Yeah, next time.
- Let me read you a poem that has something about Brunswick's stew in it. It's called "The Tryst." "Potato was deep in the dark underground, tomato above in the light. The little tomato was ruddy and round. The little potato was white. And redder and redder, she rounded above. And paler and paler, he grew. And neither suspected a mutual love 'til they met in a Brunswick stew." ♪ I got a gal on the side of Woody Mountain ♪ ♪ Heidi-ho, hiddle hum-ah-day ♪ ♪ She drinks Brunswick stew from a fountain ♪ ♪ Heidi-ho, hiddle hum-ah-day ♪
