From Our Readers

THIS MONTH: Carolina Country Adventures

As we’ve traditionally done each April, this month we’re exploring travel destinations around the state. For those of you feeling the call of the open road, our roundups of local farms, mountain cheesemakers and filming locations across NC should provide a worthy destination. (Just plan ahead so you don’t end up like our list of reader vacation fails on page 24). Also, electric co-ops and farmers in North Carolina are teaming up for success — read more on page 4.

—Scott Gates, editor

From Our Readers

More Sonker, Please Carolina Adventures I’m sending this in regards to the wonderful article I read on the Sonker dessert that is around the Western North Carolina areas (“Save Room for Sonker,” December 2021, page 34). I would like to add one that was missed in your article that is also on that trail: Lorene’s Bakery in Dobson (facebook.com/LorenesBakeryCatering). [Owner/operator] Kristin Johnson makes it at her bakery and lots of other goodies. Call the bakery ahead of time to have one made.

Peggy Cox, Tobaccoville A member of Tideland EMC

Save Room for SonkerAnd don’t forget the milk dip By Matt Lardie

Look, there on the table! Is it a pie? Is it a cobbler? No, no it’s...sonker!

Rockford General Store

If your first reaction is, “Well, what the heck is a sonker?” don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Sonker is a dessert that hails from western North Carolina, with a provenance centered around Surry County (home of Mount Airy, the setting for The Andy Griffith Show’s fictional town of Mayberry). The closest thing to a sonker would be a cobbler, but that’s where the agreement ends, and even then there are some who would chafe at that description. One family’s sonker might be made with peaches and have a pie-like crust floating atop the filling, while just down the road another household might make their sonker from sweet potatoes or apples with a batter-like topping that bakes into the filling. Many sonkers are

served with a “milk dip,” a creamy, sweet sauce meant to be poured over the top of the dessert. Sonker varies from hill to holler, from family to family, and the easiest way to learn more about sonker is to try some for yourself: Enter the Surry Sonker Trail, a journey to eight different locations across Surry County, all serving their own takes on this iconic dessert. You can try the sweet potato sonker at The Tilted Ladder in Pilot Mountain, served piping hot in a martini glass with milk dip alongside. Or venture up to Mount Airy for a stop at Miss Angel’s Heavenly Pies, where her ‘zonka (bring your own Long Island accent to match wits with Miss Angel) is made from fresh fruit grown on her own farm.

Anchored Bakery 34 | December 2021 Shelton Vineyards serves an upscale version of sonker at their vineyard restaurant, a perfect way to end a meal, especially when washed down with a glass of dessert wine. Rockford General Store offers their sonkers to travelers exploring this tiny, historic corner of Dobson; a recent version was a spiced peach sonker with fresh vanilla ice cream.

Sam Dean

CC12-es.indd 34

11/9/21 2:10 PM Sara Brennan

Herbal Observations I am writing you, as many likely will, about comments on page 24 in your March 2022 Carolina Gardens column: “Native Americans and early herbalists medicinally tinkered with the roots, but don’t follow in their amateur pharmaceutical footsteps: all parts of this plant can be toxic.”

Please consider that the “amateurs” mentioned (Native Americans and early herbalists) spent centuries observing, experimenting with their tools at hand and knowingly risking death to develop the medicinals for their cultures. They passed on and shared their knowledge generously through oral and written methods. I think recognition and an apology is due. Our pharmacology, to this day, still includes many valuable contributions from these early efforts. A statement on the plant’s toxicity could have been simply stated. Thank you for your time and attention.

Lynne Ross of Vale

Editor’s note: Thank you for pointing that out, Lynne, and we apologize for the unintended tone of that wording. From our Carolina Gardens columnist, L.A. Jackson: “I’m sorry the term ‘amateur’ came out the way it did [interpreted as meaning ‘unskilled’]. Early herbal research was done mainly through observation as well as trial and error, particularly when it came to ingesting a strange plant or even rubbing it on the skin, compared to how modern pharmaceutical labs can now break down a plant into its simplest chemical compounds before even rudimentary clinical trials begin.”

But as Lynne and L.A. put it, Indian pink is for show only: all parts of the plant can be toxic.

(ISSN 0008-6746) (USPS 832800) Volume 54, No. 4

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Warren Kessler Publications Director Scott Gates, CCC Editor Renee C. Gannon, CCC Senior Associate Editor Karen Olson House Contributing Editor Tara Verna Creative Director Jessica Armstrong Graphic Designer Keith Alexander Advertising Keith@carolinacountry.com

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