- [Announcer] This is a production of PBS, Charlotte.

(bright guitar music) - [Host] Everyday companies, big and small, create thousands of food and beverage products across North Carolina.

Everything from beer to cakes, to chocolates, and everything in between.

But only a few of these products achieve regional, national, and even international notoriety.

If you travel to Tar Heel State, there's a pretty good chance you've come across Cheerwine, Mt.

Olive Pickles, Ashe County Cheese, or Mrs. Hanes' Moravian Cookies.

Join us as we explore the origins of these unique North Carolina products and the people behind them.

That and more on this episode of Trail of History.

(theme music) (bright country music) Across the United States, there's a cornucopia of unique food items and brands out there to tempt just about every taste bud.

Products that deliver a wave of nostalgia with every bite and every sip.

Here in the Old North State, some of these products might be considered ambassadors of flavor to the nation, and even the world.

The companies behind them create jobs, contribute to the local economy, and bring their hometowns a sense of pride.

(happy guitar music) Salisbury, North Carolina offers a quintessential small town feel, right down to the soda fountain at Fuller's Market.

- [Justin] All right, so we're gonna make a Cheerwine float.

The first thing you need is some good vanilla ice cream.

- [Host] A real sweet treat with hometown roots.

- Next step.

Gotta have the glass bottle.

- [Host] Justin Wells owns Fuller's Market and says this burgundy red soda is synonymous with Salisbury.

- [Justin] Cheerwine.

You can't go anywhere without hearing it or seeing it.

Out of town people, they want to know what is it and what makes it so different.

And what we have to tell 'em is "try it".

(happy guitar music) - [Host] At this plant in Charlotte, tens of thousands of bottles and cans are filled with Cheerwine each and every day.

- [Joy] With that high speed technology we have, we were able to produce over a thousand cans a minute.

We were producing over 500 bottles a minute.

And so it's really neat to see how Cheerwine's evolved over the past 100 years.

What started as a very manual process, to now is this very sophisticated production facility we have.

- [Host] Joy Harper knows a bit about this famous North Carolina brand.

- Cheer wine is something I've always been passionate about.

I've always grown up around the brand.

- [Host] And Cheerwine is in her blood.

- LD Peeler, my great great grandfather, started Cheerwine back in 1917, in the basement of his general store.

Before Cheerwine, he began distributing a beverage called Mint-Cola.

And he had the distribution rights in the Salisbury area.

Well, World War I hit and there was a national sugar shortage.

So the Mint-Cola company actually went out of business.

Through his knowledge of how to make Mint-Cola, he began experimenting with different flavors.

By using a unique cherry flavor, as well as some other flavors, he developed Cheerwine.

- [Host] And when Lewis D Peeler needed a name for his cherry soda creation?

- [Joy] Cheerwine was started during a time when beverages were often named after the alcoholic beverage they resembled.

So you may think of root beer or ginger ale.

So Cheerwine is a burgundy red color, somewhat resembles a red wine.

And the cheer comes from its bubbly and cherry taste.

(bright music) - [Host] Cheerwine is still family owned, and at their Salisbury headquarters, they proudly display a bit of their history.

- [Joy] We do have some of the original bottles from 1917 and the way you tell it's an original one, it has a cherry etched in the neck of the glass bottle.

It's just really neat to see how Cheerwine's evolved over the years.

- [Host] An evolution a full century in the making.

- [Joy] The business was very small, kind of right in Salisbury and surrounding areas, then it just expanded out from our core.

Cheerwine glass bottles are now available across the US.

And then our main packages, like 12 packs and two liters, are primarily available in the Southeastern US.

- [Host] A national brand with North Carolina roots.

Roots proudly on display in Salisbury.

- [Joy] As you walk through downtown Salisbury, you'll see some of the original murals, our original building is still standing there today.

It is really neat to know that that's part of us and we hope he's, of course, proud of what we've done with the company and what the brand is today.

- [Host] Back at Fuller's Market, owner Justin Wells offers Cheerwine fans more than tasty treats made with Cheerwine.

- [Justin] So we have their T-shirts, hats, license plates, can coolers, tailgate chair.

Anything with Cheerwine on it, we've probably got it.

- [Host] He says the towns loyalty to the brand runs deep.

- [Justin] I think what makes Cheerwine so big is their involvement in the community.

Now for me, growing up playing little league baseball, after your game, you got a Cheerwine and a hot dog.

There was no bottled water.

There was no Gatorade.

There was no Coke or Pepsi.

Your options were Cheerwine, or you didn't have anything to drink.

- [Host] Brands and products come and go with the times.

But Joy Harper feels Cheerwine's success comes from consistency.

- [Joy] Taste of Cheerwine really has stood the test of time.

We've been true to our formula over the past 100 years.

We've also stayed very true to our values of being authentic and independent.

Cheerwine is very much a part of North Carolina culture, as well as southern culture.

And we've continued to stay true to our Carolina roots.

When you first move to this area, they may say, "Oh you have to try Cheerwine."

So it's a great way to introduce someone to this area.

And it's really cool to be a part of that experience of welcoming people into the Carolinas.

(upbeat guitar music) - [Host] Welcome to eastern North Carolina and the town with a name found on grocery store shelves nationwide.

- [Ken] I was born and raised here in Mt Olive.

It's a great town to grow up in.

Anywhere you go, you can find somebody that has a connection with the pickle plant.

- [Host] The Mt.

Olive Pickle Company.

In business nearly a full century, right here.

- [Lynn] Well, today we are standing at the corner of Cucumber and Vine.

We relish the opportunity to talk about pickles in Mt Olive.

Mt Olive, at the turn of the last century, in the early 1900s, was a really small commercial center that served a really broad agricultural area.

So farmers would bring their crops into town and sell it to some of the produce brokers, and it was shipped up to markets up north by train.

- [Host] They say necessity is the mother of invention.

Lynn Williams, the company's public relations manager, says in the 1920s, the town found itself in well, a pickle.

- [Lynn] There were cucumbers.

Bumper crops of cucumbers.

They grew well here, but there wasn't much of a market.

So the local business people reasoned that if they could create a new market for farmers, that the whole town would benefit.

So in 1926, this group of business people came together and they established the Mt Olive Pickle Company for the purpose of packing and selling pickles.

In the very beginning it was a small operation.

By the 1930s, we had maybe 15 employees.

And for many years we operated as a good regional brand, but all of our lids said Mt Olive.

And there was a newspaper survey about different products in South Carolina, and the number one brand in pickles was Mt Olive, but there wasn't a Mt Olive brand.

So then the folks here realized we might be on to something.

So we began to consolidate all of those different brands into one Mt Olive brand.

But today, we're the number one brand of pickles, peppers, and relishes in the country.

- [Host] She says paying attention to consumer demands paid off.

- [Lynn] We've not been around for 95 years because we didn't pay attention.

We've added a lot of items over the years to appeal to different consumer interest and needs.

- [Host] The company packages everything in Mt Olive and employs around 12 hundred people year round.

- [Lynn] We're actually procuring about 240 million pounds of fresh cucumbers and peppers in a year's time.

Our year starts in May and we're in the Georgia crop.

In North Carolina we're in June.

We're gonna buy a third of everything we buy in a year's time, pretty much in the month of June, out of North Carolina.

Then we're in the Eastern shore of Maryland and Delaware.

We're in the Midwest by July and August.

We go up into Canada.

And then in the winter months, we're getting out of Florida and Texas and Mexico and India.

We get some pepper and cini from Greece.

We get a roasted red pepper product that's actually grown and packed for us out of Peru.

It's pretty much a global thing to keep us going year round.

- [Host] Most of those fresh cucumbers get washed and sorted.

Some get packed whole while others get sliced and cut.

- [Lynn] It goes to the packing room and the product is actually placed in the jars, the fresh product.

We add pickle juice.

That's the good stuff.

It gives it the flavor.

We seal the jars.

It goes through our pasteurizer.

On the other side, we're adding the label, the production code information.

We're putting it in the trays, wrapping the trays, building the pallets.

And from there, it goes to one of our warehouses here in Mt.

Olive.

- [Host] But not every cucumber makes it into a jar right away.

- [Lynn] The fresh product actually are our kosher deals, the bread and butters, all those peppers that we love that are so good.

Probably 70% of our product line is fresh packed.

But the other time we pack is processed.

Remember I told you we get 50 million pounds of fresh cucumbers of the month of June?

Well, we can't possibly pack all that.

So we put our excess in our brine tanks.

We have about 1200 of those brine tanks on our tank yard.

And when they're full, that's 40 million pounds of cucumbers that's floating around in that salt brine solution outside, but we make relishes and salad cubes out of that.

Our sours and our sweets.

- [Host] From the brine tanks, the pickles make the same journey through the packaging as the fresh packed products.

Williams grew up right here in Mount Olive and says her hometown company keeps the community in mind.

- [Lynn] Our goal has always been, number one, to have a quality product, cause we gotta make money to do what we do, but we also have a commitment to our community, and to our region, and to make sure that the original vision for the company continues.

That we continue to help make this a better place.

And so that's been a part of our traditions and our values and our brand since the beginning.

- [Host] One of those traditions makes Mount Olive look like the Big Apple, with the annual pickle drop to ring in the new year.

Then each spring, the North Carolina Pickle Festival takes over the town, celebrating all things pickle.

The event is complete with fried pickles, a pickle eating contest, and a chance to meet the official Mt Olive pickles spokes-pickle, Ollie Cucumber.

Mayor Ken Talton says the festival pays dividends for this small eastern North Carolina town.

- [Ken] Helps to showcase the people, helps showcase the pickle company, showcase businesses, civic organizations.

It's just a great opportunity for, for Mount Olive to share with the world how special our community is and why it is so special.

- [Host] The company's impact on the town goes beyond fun traditions.

- [Lynn] I think over the years, Mt.

Olive Pickle Company has provided a level stability.

You know, we've helped generations of folks come to work, buy their houses, send their kids to college, and retire comfortably.

I mean, and that's, that's a huge thing in the small eastern North Carolina town.

We don't make rockets for NASA.

(laughs) You know, we make your burger better.

And I think we've also helped generate a lot of a sense of community pride.

I mean, you could go anywhere in the country and, and go walk in a grocery store and find a jar of Mt.

Olive pickles on the shelf.

- [Ken] Mount Olive would not be Mount Olive without Mt.

Olive pickles.

And we value what they have done for our town and its people.

(guitar music) - [Host] There's lots to do in the North Carolina mountains.

You can take a hike, ride a horse, find a waterfall, or head to West Jefferson and visit Ashe County Cheese.

- [Josh] The factory was built 1930 by Kraft Corporation.

At that time, there was a lot of dairy farms in the area that they needed a place for all the milk to go and they built a cheese factory here.

- [Host] Kraft operated the facility until the mid 1970s.

- [Josh] And then they sold it to the then plant manager.

He owned it for a few years and then sold it to an investment group.

They owned it for, you know, a couple years and then sold it to the family that currently owns it now.

So it's been, it's been in the same family since 1994.

- [Host] Co-owner Josh Williams serves as general manager at Ashe County Cheese.

- [Josh] I'm a Ashe County native.

I grew up here, came to the cheese plant, cheese store as a kid, never thought I'd be working here or, you know, owning it and running it.

But it's, it's really neat.

- [Host] The cheese making process starts with one basic ingredient, milk.

Lots, and lots of milk.

- [Josh] Most of our milk comes to us from local dairy farms within about a 50 mile radius of the plant.

We run about 400,000 pounds of milk through the plant a week and make about 40,000 pounds of cheese.

It's about a 10 to one ratio.

It takes about 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese.

- [Host] Brandon Hardin, also a co-owner, oversees cheese production.

- [Brandon] We start the plant up around midnight and we're gonna prep the plant for the, the day coming in.

Then we will take the, the raw milk and we will run it through pasteurization into the vat.

Once the milk's in the vat, we will add lactic acid creating bacteria to it.

And then we will let milk ripen with that in it.

Then we can add color if it's a, a Colby or a cheddar, or not add color if it's a Jack, and we will, we will agitate the lactic acid creating bacteria that we add to it and we add rennet to it.

The, the milk will coagulate, and then we cut it in cubes and that separates the solids from the liquids.

So the solids is cheese then, and the, the liquid is way.

- [Host] Workers drain off the way, leaving behind the cheese curds, but they aren't done yet.

- [Brandon] Well after the way is drained off, then we will salt the cheese and we have an agitator that goes up and down and mixes the salt in with the cheese.

- [Host] The final step, packing the cheese curds into round forms, and then pressing the cheese several times to form that familiar wheel shape.

The work is labor intensive and the conditions inside the cheese making room resemble a sauna.

- [Brandon] Inside the facility, we try to keep it around 80 degrees and it's got a very high humidity, but the reason for that is when we put that cheese in those forms and we press it, that cheese has to be kind of warm, and you know, if it's cold, it wouldn't press and it wouldn't knit together properly.

That's a hot, humid environment to work in, but I don't really hear that much complaining from the guys.

So that's a good thing.

- [Host] In the back of the factory, workers prepare cheese for shipping and for sale in the retail store across the street.

(light guitar music) Inside, you'll find a wide selection of cheeses for just about any occasion.

You can even get everything you need to create a charcuterie board, and find a North Carolina wine to pair along with it.

- [Josh] There's a lot of different varieties.

You can go from a very mild cheese that don't have hardly any flavor to a pungent cheese.

And cheese is so broad in the different flavors, you can't put it all under one category.

Most everybody likes at least one kind of cheese or if not multiple.

- [Host] But Williams says there's more to Ashe County Cheese than just making a sale.

- [Josh] It's very important to the area.

You know, it brings a lot of people in the area and we can kind of piggyback off of each other.

Cause like I said, West Jefferson's done a lot in the last few years to bring tourists in.

They use Ashe County Cheese as a draw.

And then we, and now we can use West Jefferson and Ashe County as a draw to bring people to us.

- [Host] And outside of Ashe County, its cheese can be found in stores and specialty shops across the southeast, taking a bit of North Carolina history with it.

- [Josh] It does have a lot of name recognition and you know, you can be traveling and go to a grocery store or to a deli or somewhere and see your product in there.

It's pretty awesome.

(bright guitar music) - [Host] Welcome to Old Salem, a unique historic district in Winston-Salem originally established by a group of European settlers known as Moravians.

Today, the historic district operates as a museum, where visitors exploring centuries old buildings get a chance to witness traditional crafts, such as pottery, woodworking, and blacksmithing.

At Old Salem, there's another Moravian tradition on display.

Moravian cookies, thin cookies often made around Christmas time.

It's a tradition passed down from one generation to the next.

Evva Hanes learned to make the cookies from her mother and turned it into a business.

Welcome to Mrs. Hanes' Moravian Cookies.

- [Evva] We had a small dairy farm.

Mother made cookies to supplement the farm income.

She asked me to help, and so I helped.

And so, that's how I got in the business.

- [Host] She paid close attention and learned from her mother.

- [Evva] I really loved to bake the cookies.

I really did.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I learned quickly how to handle the dough.

I'm a time and motion expert.

(laughs) - [Host] Once in business, Mrs. Hanes got very efficient.

- [Evva] Whenever I was making nothing but sugar cookies, I could make a hundred pounds a day.

- [Host] Her husband Travis says her business plan was pretty simple.

- [Travis] She said, "You make the dough, I'll make the cookies" and said, "You sell the cookies."

Now I always add this last part.

She says that's not true.

She always said, "Give me the dough."

(laughs) - [Host] Mrs. Hanes' started as a home based business, selling cookies simply by word of mouth.

But that all started to change in the 1960s.

- [Evva] We were invited to the Christmas Show in Charlotte and to the state fair in Raleigh in the Village of Yesteryear.

I'd show how the cookies were made there, and we'd give out samples.

And that's how the mail order business got started.

Then we'd hire-- about every other year, we'd have to hire somebody extra because we needed more cookies.

- [Host] The couple's efforts paid off over the decades.

And today, another generation is carrying on the family tradition.

Meet Jedadiah Templin.

- [Jedidiah] Mrs. Hanes is my grandmother, so that would make me the third, but my great-grandmother developed a sugar cookie recipe, so that would make me fourth.

I'm also a ninth generation Moravian in the area.

- [Host] But one thing hasn't changed.

- [Evva] It's still done by hand.

You can just determine how much flour you need to add to make it roll good and cut cookies out good.

That's the secret of it.

- [Jedidiah] We do it all.

Everything, you know, arrives here is flour, sugar, and molasses.

And then we do the production and all the customer service and then taking the orders.

And it's, it's very much a hands on business.

It's not just made by hand.

- [Host] Jedidiah says the company employs about 40 people year round, but demand for their cookies is high around Christmas.

- [Jedidiah] Come Christmas season, I have to bring in another 20 people.

Our ginger cookies we're able to make year round.

We have to make cookies year round in order to have enough to sell at Christmas.

And so the ginger cookies, there are no eggs, no milk in the recipe and they have a very long shelf life.

(guitar music) - [Host] The staff at Mrs. Hanes produces a staggering amount of cookies.

- [Jedidiah] Every year, we're able to make over a 100,000 pounds of cookies all by hand.

It takes a lot of work, a lot of people, about 20 people currently, rolling and cutting cookies year round.

About half of it gets turned into ginger cookies.

That's our biggest seller, most popular.

That's the flavor that you think of when you think of a Christmas cookie.

We'll do about 30,000 pounds of sugar cookies and about an even split for the rest of the flavors.

- [Host] The process all starts in the mixing room.

- [Jedidiah] The dough here is made in fairly large batches, 500 pounds or 700 pounds at a time, about three times a week.

It's then chilled and brought into our production area where it's taken about 20 pounds at a time to a table to then hand roll and hand cut.

Goes through the oven in the same room into our bakers to then take it off the pans by hand, pack it into bags by hand, or to be stored for packing later into our red tins.

Our gift tins also by hand.

- [Host] The most physical job at Mrs. Hanes' goes to their team of skilled rollers.

- [Jedidiah] The rolling process itself, yes, is a type of physical training.

We actually just had somebody start this week, who, their second day here, they mentioned, "I'm a little sore."

(laughs) Each of the rollers has their own unique cookie cutter that we call a miniature, and that's their signature for each pan of cookies that they make.

And so they'll make a pan of hearts and then one signature cookie of a crown or teddy bear, something like that.

So that way the pan goes through the oven and to the bakers, and the bakers are taking them off the pans.

And if they notice there's something wrong with these cookies, too thick, too thin, too much flour, too little flour, I know who made this pan of cookies because it's this miniature on the pan.

It's an art, but it can be, can be learned.

- [Host] At one time, they explored bringing in cookie cutting machines.

- [Evva] I frankly did not want to go through the process of having to adjust how much four to use and how to do this.

I was getting rather up in age, and so we just kept on making them by hand and hiring a few more people.

(guitar music) - [Host] Locally, you can stop by the factory to buy your cookies, but most people order online.

- [Jedidiah] We ship them in seven ounce tubes or 14 ounce or 28 ounce tins.

The tins themselves are hand packed, little stacks of cookies wrapped in either wax paper or a napkin.

We ship all over, to all 50 states, and every year I'll have about 50 to 100 packages go internationally.

One of our favorite customers is actually Quincy Jones, who sends cookies Valentine's day to lots of folks.

And after the difficulty of 2008, one of the things that really got us back working was Oprah Winfrey mentioned us in her O Magazine saying, you know, "Would it be Christmas if my pal Quincy Jones didn't send me Mrs. Hanes' cookies?"

They were like, oh, well, that's very nice.

Thank you.

(laughs) (guitar music) - [Host] We asked Mrs. Hanes if she ever imagined that a simple family cookie recipe would bring such success.

- [Evva] Not in my wildest dreams, no.

No, never ever imagine.

My husband and I, we worked hard, and I can just imagine what my mother would say.

The Lord has blessed me all these years.

I mean, He has.

- [Travis] We could never imagine this would turn into what it has turned into, but we've just been blessed all over life, even with the business here, we've had so much good help and good support.

The only thing we've had here better than the cookies is those people in there making the cookies.

- [Host] In the end for the Hanes', it all comes back to family.

- [Evva] Well, it makes me feel good that there's, it's still going on and still handled well.

So, handing it down to my next generation, then the next generation and doing a fantastic job.

- [Jedidiah] Being able to work with my wife as a partner, the same way my grandparents were partners, rebuilding together and adding on to a legacy of a family business.

You know, this business now going into the third and hopefully the fourth generation, it just means that I'm a caretaker of it.

You know, it's humbling, but it's also inspiring to, to have that kind of responsibility, to be a caretaker of that kind of history and that kind of tradition.

- [Host] In North Carolina, these brands, products and the people behind them, are ingrained into the state's culture and their flavors and traditions fuel pride in their communities.

Thank you for watching this edition of Trail of History.

(guitar music outro) - [Announcer] A production of PBS, Charlotte.