WHEN BERTA LOU SCOTT WAS A LITTLE GIRL IN THE 1930s, SHE LOVED ALL THE THINGS her mother baked for Christmas-except fruitcake. Too dry, too filled with candied things, not enough nuts. Today, Berta Lou is North Carolina's queen of fruitcake.
Yes, we know-a lot of you think you don't like this dessert, but that means you haven't had Southern Supreme fruitcake. It's not made like any other version, and it doesn't taste like the others either. The cake part is moist with a caramelized flavor, and it has a lot more nuts than fruit.
Berta Lou's family (including two of her four children and three of their spouses, plus a good number of her eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren) has turned fruitcakes into a booming business. The Scotts ship them all over the country and across the globe, even to France. People come by the thousands to the Southern Supreme factory and retail shop in Bear Creek, North Carolina, which isn't an easy journey. It's down a long country road, 10 miles southeast of Siler City and 49 miles from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. If you can't make the trip, the cakes are carried at The Fresh Market during the holiday season, at some specialty stores, and by mail order. Her son Randy Scott says, "When we started, we sold them out of Mama's living room. You can't plan this. It just evolves." Berta Lou was 17 when she married her late husband, Hoyt Scott, who spent all his life in three houses within a mile or so of their factory on the stretch of pavement named for him, Hoyt Scott Road, in Bear Creek. She was "a foreigner," her family jokes: She grew up 3 or 4 miles away. They raised their kids (Randy, Ricky, Belinda, and Sandy) on Hoyt Scott Road. Hoyt worked for a company making iron stoves, while Berta Lou set up a beauty salon in their garage, where she cut and styled women's hair for 30 years.
Denne historien er fra December 2022-utgaven av Southern Living.
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Denne historien er fra December 2022-utgaven av Southern Living.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Forging a Legacy - A Fredericksburg, Texas, couple is creating a new class of heirloom cast-iron cookware
When Jay Mallinckrodt pitched the idea of crafting cast-iron cookware to his wife and business partner, Heather, in 2020, she was hesitant. I immediately said no, she recalls with a laugh. But I finally agreed as long as we made something that we would actually want to use ourselves. Like many others during the initial throes of the pandemic, their multigenerational family operation, Heartland Enterprises (which specializes in machining parts for jet engines and gas and oil equipment), was seeing a lull. “No one was flying; no one was drilling, says Jay. So we had time to try something different.
A Butterfly Haven - In the Texas Hill Country, a conservationist is helping monarchs adjust to the changing world
Twenty-four years ago, Monika Maeckle bought a small property on the Llano River in Central Texas as an escape from fast-paced San Antonio. A journalist and marketing professional by trade, she didn't at first realize the value of the location on which she and her husband would later build their ranch. She also had no idea how this decision would eventually transform her life.One October evening a few years later, a friend invited Maeckle to their nearby house, which sat on a watershed with several large cypresses. All these butterflies dropped from the sky and started to gravitate toward the trees, she recalls. Stronger people who could swing a big 12-foot-long pole began trying to capture them, and we waited. By the end of the evening, we'd tagged a couple hundred butterflies, and I left there enchanted.
Oktober Feast!
While I respect your right to serve spooky food in October, you won't find any gory grub at my house this month. Instead, I'm hosting a gathering that's inspired by biergartens across the pond. The focus of the menu is a fondue made with Gruyère cheese and crisp Riesling-like beer-cheese dip but more elevated. It's served with a smorgasbord of dippers such as smoked sausage, grapes, apples, and a few amped-up store-bought snacks, like Mustard-Glazed Pretzel Bites and Smoked Paprika Potato Chips. (Just one taste, and you'll want to add this spice to every bag you open.) Pour yourself a Cider Shandy, and get ready for a good time. Prost, y'all!
The Roast With the Most
Embrace the changing seasons with a cozy pork supper
Roll With It
Company's coming? Bake a batch of these apple-stuffed delights
VIRGINIA PASTORAL
IN MIDDLEBURG, THE COMMONWEALTH'S MOST STORIED SMALL TOWN, OCTOBER WELCOMES A HOST OF TREASURED TRADITIONS
TAKING ROOT
Turn the season's freshest veggies-beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, carrots-into colorful fall sides
THE FAMILY PLACE
When it came time for a young Georgia couple to make an 1800s farmhouse their own, they took it apart piece by piece-then rebuilt it into a home ready to welcome the next generation
Loving Life in Fayetteville
This Northwest Arkansas college town is easy to love and hard to leave
The Road That Raised Me
This lesser-known drive offers the most breathtaking views in the Smoky Mountains
