Aunt Biddie’s Messy Pie B Y E D C RA B T RE E
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Day.) That day was reserved for visits from family D IS THE NAME I GO BY. People often ask if it is short and friends, after services at Ellis Chapel. for Edward, Edwin, Edgar or something else; but my given Always clad in a simple gingham dress and an name is Eddie – not nearly as regal sounding, is it? apron, the main thing I remember is that Aunt The truth is my name is meant as an honor. I was named Biddie could cook! I remember watching, mouth after my father’s favorite aunt. Yes. Aunt. Her name was watering, as she made simple dishes like fresh leaf Eddie Jackson Crabtree. How she got her name, I wish I lettuce and spring onions dressed only in pork knew, but we always called her Aunt Biddie. drippings with maybe just a spritz of vinegar. It’s hard to reminisce about her without warm memories of my Sometimes, she’d mix tiny wild strawberries she picked on her grandmother’s house, a mid-century cottage she shared with her sisterexcursions along the nearby railroad tracks with in-law; you guessed it! Aunt Biddie. sugar, spread them on biscuit dough, roll the The modest home they shared still stands at ED CRABTRE E GRE W UP IN BAHAMA, ATTE N DE D N ORTHE RN HIGH dough and filling like a jellyroll, and slice it into the corner of Stagville and Orange Factory S CHOOL AN D GRADUATE D FROM rounds; she would place the rounds side by side roads, a few miles north of Durham and a couple AP PALACHIAN STATE UN IVE RS ITY. in a well-seasoned enamel dishpan, dot the tops south of Bahama. It is actually closer to the longAFTE R DABBLIN G IN THE TRIAN GLE with butter, and bake. Fragrant, bubbly and forgotten Willardville Station on the defunct, RADIO S CE N E AN D AFTE R NUME ROUS YE ARS OF WORK IN G IN buttery, the fruit of her labor seldom lasted long, overgrown Lynchburg and Durham railroad line. TE CHN ICAL S UP P ORT, HE RE TURN E D but the memories linger in my mind. A huge wood cook-stove dominated the TO HIS PAS S ION FOR WRITIN G AN D One of my fondest memories of Aunt Biddie eat-in kitchen, and the best homemade biscuits EDITIN G AS A TE CHN ICAL WRITE R. HE goes back to a dish she made that became known were always waiting in a simple old West Bend A N D HIS CAN ADIAN HUS BAN D LIVE throughout our family as Messy Pie. Messy Pie bun warmer sitting atop the stove’s hot water I N S OUTHWE ST DURHAM AN D LOVE S AVORIN G THE LOCAL FLAVORS . and the story of how it got its name are eternally compartment. The biscuits begged me to open linked to me, her great nephew. the door beneath to see what treasures might lie Sweet potatoes were a staple of life back then: baked sweet potatoes, waiting on the shelf inside: bacon, homemade sausage or more often sweet potato pie, sweet potato pudding and candied yams – not those salted pork fatback or Streak o’ Lean – true savory treats for a boy mashed yams with marshmallows, not a casserole, but tender slices of growing up in what was once rural North Carolina. sweet potato glazed in a succulent, buttery syrup that caramelized and Now, Grandma was an amazing cook all her own, but that’s another truly candied each slice. story. Back to Aunt Biddie. She never learned to read and write, and In this abundance of the orange root, my family used the term sweet she would argue the flatness of the Earth with confidence and zeal. She potato pie interchangeably to refer to any dessert incarnation of the yam. was a stout, hard-working old maid who loved keeping busy – except At the age of 5 or 6, this generic and all-encompassing use of the word on Sunday. (I remember sewing something one Sunday, and her telling pie genuinely confused me. All of the other incarnations were fine. Yes, me I’d have to pick out with my nose every stitch I sewed on The Lord’s
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