savor — guide to food & dining on the azalea coast
is credited with bringing
them to the New World
where he raised cucumbers
on Haiti for the purpose
of pickling, and Amerigo
Vespucci was a pickle peddler
before he set out to
make landfall in North
Carolina and carried barrels
of pickled vegetables
on board his ships.
Even though the Mason
jar was not invented until
1858 and the Mount
Olive Pickle Company
was not founded in North
Carolina until 1926, one
of the fathers of our country,
Thomas Jefferson,
perhaps summed it up
best when he wrote: “On
a hot day in Virginia, I
know of nothing more
comforting than a fine
spiced pickle, brought up
trout-like from the sparkling
depths of the aromatic
jar below the stairs
of Aunt Sally’s cellar.”
Sweet gherkin, where’s my crunchy
bread and butter pickle?
Carolyn Hall, of the Ministering Circle,
has spent her life in Wilmington, pickling
ever since she was a young girl.
“Momma always pickled, and I enjoyed doing
it,” Hall says.
She is one of the many contributors to the
Ministering Circle’s “Favorite Recipes of the
Lower Cape Fear,” which contains the group’s
favorite recipes from local folks, friends and families.
The Ministering Circle’s first cookbook was
printed in 1962, and the recipes have been shared
within the group for
decades.
Carolyn knows every
pot, utensil and tool
needed for the pickling
process: scales, meat
grinder, mandolin, large
porcelain or stainless
steel pot for soaking and
cooking, several colanders,
ladles and funnels
for finishing, lids and
jars for canning and
racks to cool.
The techniques seem labor intensive too
— wash, core, seed and chop, change water once
every three hours, ice, salt, refrigerate, drain on
paper towels.
“Pickling is a lot of trouble, but I have a lot of
fun doing it,” Hall says.
This month as the ladies of the Ministering
Circle start planning their annual fall sale, one
among them will be missed. Carolyn Hall’s sister
in-law, Jean Hall Wessell, passed away last
winter at age 98. She served the nonprofit organization
that supports health care projects in the
local community for more than 50 years, and she
passed along her handwritten recipe book that
dates back to the 1960s to her daughter-in-law,
Jan Wessell of Harbor Island.
“Most of the recipes have notes that only Jean
could have understood,”
Jan says,
including the ingredients
she bought and
how much she paid for
them, as noted in this
phrase: “1984-1 bushel
of green tomatoes-$7
makes so many pots,
etc., etc.”
“The cookbook also
includes her own cooking
terms like ‘sort of
hot,’ ‘heaping half teaspoon’
and ‘add a little extra sugar,’” Jan says.
Origins of the recipes — like Mrs. Hardesty’s
Pickle — are unknown, but there is no doubt
that Jean Hall Wessell was a pioneer of pickling.
—Amanda Wager
t
84
WBM june 2012
Allison potter
Jean Hall Wessell’s handwritten recipe book.
Below: Carolyn Hall’s pickling kitchen.
The Ministering
Circle’s Annual Fall
Sale is planned for
October 13 at the Elk’s
Club on Oleander
Drive.